THE RISE OF THE ZIONIST RIGHT: POLISH JEWS AND THE BETAR YOUTH MOVEMENT, 1922-1935 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND THE COMMITTEE ON GRADUATE STUDIES OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Daniel K. Heller August 2012 © 2012 by Daniel Kupfert Heller. All Rights Reserved. Re-distributed by Stanford University under license with the author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/ This dissertation is online at: http://purl.stanford.edu/bd752jg9919 ii I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Steven Zipperstein, Primary Adviser I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Norman Naimark I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Aron Rodrigue Approved for the Stanford University Committee on Graduate Studies. Patricia J. Gumport, Vice Provost Graduate Education This signature page was generated electronically upon submission of this dissertation in electronic format. An original signed hard copy of the signature page is on file in University Archives. iii ABSTRACT This dissertation charts the social, cultural and intellectual development of the Zionist Right through an examination of the Brit Yosef Trumpeldor youth movement, known eventually by its Hebrew acronym, Betar. Having garnered over forty thousand members by the mid-1930s, Betar emerged as one of the largest and most influential Jewish youth movements in Poland, and provided the strongest base of support for the world Revisionist movement, led by Vladimir Jabotinsky. Like its parent organization, Betar’s militaristic ethos, vehement opposition to socialism and support of some of the more prominent policies of the European Right made it one of the most controversial Jewish political organizations of its time. Opponents of the movement’s vision for creating a Jewish state in Mandate Palestine—and at times, its supporters—even went so far as to describe Betar’s members as “Jewish Fascists.” Drawing upon letters, newspapers, autobiographies, party journals, meeting protocols and police reports culled from archives in Poland, Israel and the United States, this dissertation explores the lives of Betar’s members and leaders, the formation of their worldviews and the geopolitical context in which they operated. In doing so, it investigates how the most important developments in interwar eastern European politics—the collapse of fledgling democratic governments, the rise of authoritarian regimes and the growth of radical ethno-nationalist movements—influenced the political attitudes and behaviors of Jews in Poland and, ultimately, Mandate Palestine. In contrast to most historical studies of authoritarian politics in interwar Europe, in which Jews figure solely as the victims of right-wing politics, this work argues that many Polish Jews found much worth emulating in the policies and practices of Europe’s Right, even as they condemned the antisemitic activity of right-wing movements across the continent. By exploring how Polish Jews within Betar used right-wing politics to navigate through the rapidly changing political landscape of both Europe and the Middle East between the two world wars, the dissertation illuminates crucial discussions that swept through Polish Jewish society. These included conversations about the role of “youth” and the “masses” in shaping the political destiny of Jews, the ability of democracy to defend Jewish iv interests, and the legitimacy of violence as a means to create a Jewish homeland in Mandate Palestine. In examining the encounter of Polish Jews with the European Right, the study pays particular attention to the influence of the authoritarian patriotic culture of the interwar Polish state on the ideology and practices of Betar. The dissertation outlines how the core features of the Zionist Right’s ideology emerged primarily as a result of Vladimir Jabotinsky’s interactions with young Polish Jews who were inspired by both Poland’s authoritarian regime and the culture of nationalist Polish youth movements. The study also investigates why it was that Betar’s leaders considered singing the Polish nationalist anthem, marching in Polish patriotic parades and training with Polish military officials to be explicitly Zionist acts. By illustrating Betar’s performances of a “Zionist Polishness,” as well as the reactions they provoked, this dissertation reveals how the complex and continually evolving web of social, political and economic allegiances in Poland led Jews across the country to constantly recast what it meant to be a Zionist, as well as what it meant to be a “Polish Jew.” Capturing the voices of Betar’s leaders, members, sympathizers and opponents as they searched for answers to these questions, this dissertation is, ultimately, about the quest of Poland’s Jews to determine not only what made modern Jewish politics in both the new Polish state and Mandate Palestine “Jewish,” but also what constituted “politics” in the first place. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My doctoral studies provided me with the chance to meet, work with and learn from an extraordinary range of people, both within and beyond academia. They have enriched my life in innumerable ways, and I am grateful for the opportunity to acknowledge them here. My arrival at Stanford would have never been possible were it not for my outstanding high school and undergraduate teachers. I owe my passion for writing and teaching history to my tenth-grade humanities teacher, Jordan Sable. It was in his classroom that I discovered the lessons the study of history could impart to students, whether it was to be wary of swift and simple answers to complex problems, to be aware of how our own beliefs and experiences shape the way we encounter the world, or to see value in seeking out a range of views when making decisions. His genuine interest in his students’ intellectual growth, and his remarkable ability to make every student in the room feel like their ideas mattered provide, to this day, a model for my teaching. If Jordan ignited my interest in history, Prof. Derek Penslar provided a model for what outstanding university teaching and scholarship could look like. As an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, I was privileged to take several of his classes on the history of Jews in Europe and the Middle East. His range as an historian has long served as an inspiration to me, and played no small role in leading me to choose a topic that spanned from Warsaw to Tel Aviv. I am deeply grateful for his encouragement throughout my undergraduate career and beyond. I am thankful to Anna Shternshis and Piotr Wróbel for also providing me with numerous opportunities at the University of Toronto to cultivate my interest in the history of Jews in Eastern Europe. My years of coursework at Stanford were immensely rewarding, thanks to the incredible faculty with whom I studied. Prof. Aron Rodrigue was an outstanding teacher and advisor throughout my graduate career. I am grateful for his superb teaching and his astute suggestions for my dissertation, as well as for his wisdom and candor regarding how to navigate the world of academia. Should I be so lucky to have graduate students of vi my own, I hope to greet them with the same enthusiasm, attention and kindness that I encountered every time I stepped into his office. I am equally thankful for the sage advice of Prof. Norman Naimark. In my early years of graduate school, he generously offered his time to discuss the history of the European Right and the history of Poland. Were it not for those meetings, I would have never thought to write about the Jewish Right. He also inspired me to work on a project that spoke as directly to scholars writing about the history of Eastern Europe as it did to historians of Jews in the modern world. As I began to write my dissertation, I often turned to his writing as a model for how to communicate complex ideas in clear and precise prose. I thank him for his wonderful suggestions for my work, and for his encouragement throughout my graduate career. In the same year I met with Prof. Naimark for weekly meetings, I also had the privilege of learning with Prof. Gabriella Safran. Her graduate seminar on Russian literary theory provided a fruitful forum to think about the relationship between literature and nationalism, and helped to inform my approach to deciphering Vladimir Jabotinsky’s elusive political prose. Despite her numerous duties as director of the Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages at Stanford, she enthusiastically offered to read chapters of my dissertation. I remain, as always, thankful for her encouragement. My greatest debt of gratitude to a faculty member at Stanford is to my primary advisor, Prof. Steven Zipperstein. His extraordinary level of commitment to training historians as thinkers, teachers and writers far surpassed anything I expected when I arrived to Stanford six years ago. Both by example and through his insightful comments on my written work, he encouraged me to strive to produce scholarship that was rigorously researched, compellingly written, and always sensitive to the complexities of human interaction. His impact on my development as a scholar extends far beyond my written work. As I began teaching in the classroom, presenting conference papers, and later, applying for jobs, he offered superb guidance every step of the way.