The End of Evolutionary Zionism—Jabotinsky and the Ukrainian Pogroms

The final years of the First World War and the new world order that followed became a transitional period in the life of Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky (1880–1940). During those years he came to transcend the boundaries of Russian Zionism and rose from being a key Zionist activist in Imperial Russia to becoming an acknowledged Zionist leader. This period also confronted him with the bloodbath that swept Jewish communities in Eastern Europe—his home ground; under the shadow of these events, he had to reformulate his position vis-à-vis the role of Zionism and its modus operandi. Nevertheless, during those years Jabotinsky was neither a party leader nor the head of the political opposition to the official Zionist leadership. The partisan-political influences that he would derive from standing at the top of the leadership of the Revisionist Party had not yet occurred. Moreover, his rivalry with Chaim Weizmann had not yet surfaced. Their collaboration in London brought Jabotinsky (and his wife)1 and the rising leader of the Zionist movement (and his wife) closer together. Another feature that characterized Jabotinsky’s years of activism as the First World War was drawing to a close was their Eretz Yisrael-oriented nature.2 He lived in the country and its surroundings from his arrival in the spring of 1918, as part of the Jewish Legion he had co-founded in London, until the summer of 1920, when he was released from Acre Prison where he had been incarcerated for his involvement with the organization of Jerusalem’s self-defense (April 1920). This seems to be the longest uninterrupted period that Jabotinsky stayed in the country and the influence of the Eretz Yisrael perspective on his outlook was relatively large. A deeper understanding of this unique interim period in Jabotinsky’s life may help us understand the mature Jabotinsky more fully. This period was also a time of violence towards the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. The terrible pogroms that occurred caused him to rethink his position regarding the nature of Zionism, the character of its operation, and its goals

Ancient history · Archaeology · Economic history · Judaism · Opposition (politics · Political science · Politics · Rivalry · Sociology · Ukrainian · Wife · Zionism · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Soviet and Russian History · History · Law · Philosophy

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