Revisionist Movement, Irgun Tzevai Leumi (Etzel) and Lochamei Herut Israel (Lehi) 1929-1948

Session 1: The witness was born in Odessa in 1898. Their home was secular. He studied in a Russian gymnasia. In 1915, he joined a group who studied Hebrew. During the outbreak of the revolution, he entered university, studied law and became a Zionist activist. In 1917 he became their chairman. At that time, there was debate over the establishment of Jewish battalions. In 1922, the witness was arrested after someone informed the authorities of his Zionist activities, he was tried and imprisoned for 2 years. On the day of Lenin's death, the Jewish prisoners were released and sent into exile to Riga and Berlin. From there, the group scattered and the witness immigrated to Eretz Yisrael through Hapoel Hatzair. As a result of the ideology of the Histadrut and Hapoel Hatzair and their treatment of Arab workers, the witness left the group and in 1926 established a new group. Session 2: The deserters merged with a group of local Revisionists and established municipal offices. When Jabotinsky visited Eretz Yisrael, they adopted his anti-Zionist and anti-British policies. In 1930, the mass immigration of Revisionists from Poland and Lithuania was indicated also in the struggles between the different Revisionist groups over its character and they broke away from the Zionist Federation. There were disagreements between the left and the Revisionists. In 1932 at the Vienna conference, the decision was taken to formally break away. Session 3 & 4: When the General Zionist movement grew ; (1931-1935), there were arguments between the many factions and its direction: The Winchell moderate faction and Winchell extreme faction, between the maximalists and the "fascist" faction led by Abba Ahimeir, the religious faction led by Farbstein, the American faction led by Brandeis. The arguments were over whether to stay in the Zionist Organization or not, relations with the left, solutions to the economic hardship. There was an attempt to establish a large right wing, anti-left body in cooperation with the General Zionists and the religious parties. On the economic sphere, they attempted to establish factories such as "Tozeret Ha'aretz", banks and offered financial counselling so that they could compete with the cooperative factories of the left. The projects failed as the General Zionist movement was primarily an ideological movement and most of its members were professionals and not industrialists. Session 5: The conversation dealt with the fundamental argument between those who wanted to remain in the Zionist Organization due to the distribution of certificates and Jabotinsky's followers who opposed staying for ideological reasons. The difficulty was that Jabotinsky was admired by many owing to his aristocratic and liberal personality, his great influence, his excellent oratory. Nevertheless, the separation was unavoidable.