100 Zionists 17: Baba Sali (September 1890- January 8, 1984) Rabbi Yisrael was the scion of a distinguished family of Sephardic Torah scholars and tzadikkim who were also known as baalei mofet (miracle workers). He is the grandson of Rabbi Yaakov Abu Hasira. The patriarch of this family was Rabbi Shmuel Abuhatzeira. Born in the land of Israel, Rabbi Shmuel lived in Damascus for a while, where he studied Torah together with Rabbi Chaim Vital. In Shem Hagedolim, the Chida described Rabbi Shmuel as “an ish Elokim kadosh (a holy man of God). Wise people speak of his might and wonders in saving the Jewish community from many difficulties.” Rabbi Shmuel and his family eventually moved to the city of Tafilalt, Morocco, where Rabbi Shmuel’s son Mas’ud (Moshe in Hebrew) became the rav of the city. Rabbi Mas’ud’s son, Yaakov, known as the Avir Yaakov, succeeded his father as rabbi of Tafilalt. Rabbi Yaakov’s eldest son, Mas’ud, became an av beit din in the same city, and it was here that his son, Yisrael, the Baba Sali, was born. Yisrael was born on Rosh Hashanah 5650 (1890) and grew up in a home permeated with Torah study and holy behavior. His family lived on a large estate which included a yeshiva where young scholars studied night and day. The beit din (rabbinical court) of his father, Rabbi Mas’ud, was also located on the premises. His older brother, Rabbi David, studied by himself in an attic. On the rare times that Rabbi Mas’ud traveled, he would cover his eyes with his cape to avoid seeing inappropriate sights. As a child, Yisrael was a diligent Torah scholar, studying day and night. At the age of 12, he began to fast during the six weeks of Shovavim. Knowing his parents would not let him continue, he hid his fasting from them, but his brother, David, noticed how weak and pale he was. Though David urged him to stop, Yisrael continued his fasting. After his bar mitzvah, he entered his family’s yeshiva, where the students rose at midnight for Tikkun Chatzot and then studied Kabbalistic works until dawn, when they would go to the mikveh, pray the morning service, and eat breakfast. This was followed by in-depth Gemara study, the afternoon prayers, and a shiur in Shulchan Aruch. At the age of 16, he married Freha Amsalem. Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira, known as the Baba Sali,  was a leading Moroccan Sephardic rabbi and kabbalist who was renowned for his alleged ability to work miracles through his prayers. He was one of the leaders of the Aliyah of Moroccan Jewry to Israel, which saw the transfer of nearly the entire population of that community to the Holy Land. His burial place in Netivot, Israel has become a shrine for prayers and petitioners (via: wikipedia)
View Separately

100 Zionists

17:

Baba Sali (September 1890- January 8, 1984)

Rabbi Yisrael was the scion of a distinguished family of Sephardic Torah scholars and tzadikkim who were also known as baalei mofet (miracle workers). He is the grandson of Rabbi Yaakov Abu Hasira. The patriarch of this family was Rabbi Shmuel Abuhatzeira. Born in the land of Israel, Rabbi Shmuel lived in Damascus for a while, where he studied Torah together with Rabbi Chaim Vital. In Shem Hagedolim, the Chida described Rabbi Shmuel as “an ish Elokim kadosh (a holy man of God). Wise people speak of his might and wonders in saving the Jewish community from many difficulties.”

Rabbi Shmuel and his family eventually moved to the city of Tafilalt, Morocco, where Rabbi Shmuel’s son Mas’ud (Moshe in Hebrew) became the rav of the city. Rabbi Mas’ud’s son, Yaakov, known as the Avir Yaakov, succeeded his father as rabbi of Tafilalt. Rabbi Yaakov’s eldest son, Mas’ud, became an av beit din in the same city, and it was here that his son, Yisrael, the Baba Sali, was born.

Yisrael was born on Rosh Hashanah 5650 (1890) and grew up in a home permeated with Torah study and holy behavior. His family lived on a large estate which included a yeshiva where young scholars studied night and day. The beit din (rabbinical court) of his father, Rabbi Mas’ud, was also located on the premises. His older brother, Rabbi David, studied by himself in an attic. On the rare times that Rabbi Mas’ud traveled, he would cover his eyes with his cape to avoid seeing inappropriate sights.

As a child, Yisrael was a diligent Torah scholar, studying day and night. At the age of 12, he began to fast during the six weeks of Shovavim. Knowing his parents would not let him continue, he hid his fasting from them, but his brother, David, noticed how weak and pale he was. Though David urged him to stop, Yisrael continued his fasting.

After his bar mitzvah, he entered his family’s yeshiva, where the students rose at midnight for Tikkun Chatzot and then studied Kabbalistic works until dawn, when they would go to the mikveh, pray the morning service, and eat breakfast. This was followed by in-depth Gemara study, the afternoon prayers, and a shiur in Shulchan Aruch.

At the age of 16, he married Freha Amsalem.

Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira, known as the Baba Sali,  was a leading Moroccan Sephardic rabbi and kabbalist who was renowned for his alleged ability to work miracles through his prayers. He was one of the leaders of the Aliyah of Moroccan Jewry to Israel, which saw the transfer of nearly the entire population of that community to the Holy Land. His burial place in Netivot, Israel has become a shrine for prayers and petitioners

(via: wikipedia)

100 Zionists 16: Giulio Meotti, an Italian journalist, is the author of the haunting book A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel’s Victims of Terrorism, dedicated to making sure that no Jewish and/or Israeli victim of terrorism goes forgotten. His columns have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Jerusalem Post, Frontpagemag, Jewish Press, Jüditsche Allgemeine, Chicago Jewish Star and Arutz7, and Commentary. He graduated  from the University of Florence with a degree in philosophy. And he currently lives in Italy with his family. Many of his articles are frequently seen in Yedioth Ahronot, an Israeli newspaper from which I frequently post articles on this blog. I also subscribed to him on facebook so I can always read his articles. Frequent topics he covers are: anti-semitism in Europe, the acceptance of anti-semitism in society, and anti-Semitism in the middle east.
View Separately

100 Zionists

16:

Giulio Meotti, an Italian journalist, is the author of the haunting book A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel’s Victims of Terrorism, dedicated to making sure that no Jewish and/or Israeli victim of terrorism goes forgotten.

His columns have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Jerusalem Post, Frontpagemag, Jewish Press, Jüditsche Allgemeine, Chicago Jewish Star and Arutz7, and Commentary. He graduated  from the University of Florence with a degree in philosophy. And he currently lives in Italy with his family.

Many of his articles are frequently seen in Yedioth Ahronot, an Israeli newspaper from which I frequently post articles on this blog.

I also subscribed to him on facebook so I can always read his articles.

Frequent topics he covers are: anti-semitism in Europe, the acceptance of anti-semitism in society, and anti-Semitism in the middle east.


100 Zionists 15: The painting above is an 1806 French print depicting Napoleon Bonaparte emancipating the Jews. French general Napoleon Bonaparte was the first “Zionist” who tried to reinstate Jews in Jerusalem. The ascendancy of Napoleon Bonaparte proved to be an important event in European Jewish emancipation from old laws restricting them to ghettos, as well as the many laws that limited Jews’ rights to property, worship, and careers. “Napoleon was the first to see the Jews as a political force in the international arena,” Prof Mordechai Gichon, a military historian and archaeologist from Tel Aviv University’s Classical Studies department, says in his book, Napoleon in the Holy Land. I recently found out that Napolean Bonaparte, a gentile, was in fact one of the first Zionists, before Herzl. It makes sense, of course- since Napolean was the one who spread nationalism all across Europe. “What couldn’t be fulfilled under the rule of Napoleon can be fulfilled by Wilhelm II,” Theodor Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organisation, wrote in a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany’s last emperor, in March 1899. Napolean conquered Egypt in the summer of 1798, and in the same year, led 30,000 soldiers through the Sinai Peninsula and into Israel. On March 7, 1799, Napoleon took control of Jaffa, and then headed north to besiege Acre. Napoleon intended “to restore to the Jews their Jerusalem,” read a French report from the time. However, another report claimed that “Bonaparte published a proclamation that called all the Jews of Africa and Asia to rally around his flag in order to re-establish ancient Jerusalem.” While the proclamation itself was never found, a copy translated to German was uncovered in 1939, addressed to “the Jewish nation from France’s top general, Bonaparte, and Rabbi Aharon in Jerusalem”, saying, “Israelites, France offers you at this very time… Israel’s patrimony; take over what has been conquered and with that nation’s warranty and support, maintain it against all comers.”
Pop-upView Separately

100 Zionists

15:

The painting above is an 1806 French print depicting Napoleon Bonaparte emancipating the Jews.

French general Napoleon Bonaparte was the first “Zionist” who tried to reinstate Jews in Jerusalem.

The ascendancy of Napoleon Bonaparte proved to be an important event in European Jewish emancipation from old laws restricting them to ghettos, as well as the many laws that limited Jews’ rights to property, worship, and careers.

“Napoleon was the first to see the Jews as a political force in the international arena,” Prof Mordechai Gichon, a military historian and archaeologist from Tel Aviv University’s Classical Studies department, says in his book, Napoleon in the Holy Land.

I recently found out that Napolean Bonaparte, a gentile, was in fact one of the first Zionists, before Herzl. It makes sense, of course- since Napolean was the one who spread nationalism all across Europe.

“What couldn’t be fulfilled under the rule of Napoleon can be fulfilled by Wilhelm II,” Theodor Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organisation, wrote in a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany’s last emperor, in March 1899.

Napolean conquered Egypt in the summer of 1798, and in the same year, led 30,000 soldiers through the Sinai Peninsula and into Israel. On March 7, 1799, Napoleon took control of Jaffa, and then headed north to besiege Acre.

Napoleon intended “to restore to the Jews their Jerusalem,” read a French report from the time. However, another report claimed that “Bonaparte published a proclamation that called all the Jews of Africa and Asia to rally around his flag in order to re-establish ancient Jerusalem.”

While the proclamation itself was never found, a copy translated to German was uncovered in 1939, addressed to “the Jewish nation from France’s top general, Bonaparte, and Rabbi Aharon in Jerusalem”, saying, “Israelites, France offers you at this very time… Israel’s patrimony; take over what has been conquered and with that nation’s warranty and support, maintain it against all comers.”

100 Zionists 14: Born in 1914 at Yavne’el, Israel, Ruth Amiran’s father, Yehezkel Brandsteter, had immigrated to Palestine from Tarnow, Galicia in 1908. Initially he was employed as a construction worker for a few months in Haifa, in what would later become the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology). Thereafter he went on to the Mashavot in the Galilee. Settling in Yavne’el (south of Tiberias) in 1910, he completed establishing their household, and Amiran’s mother, Devora, joined him in 1913. Ruth Amiran’s interest in archaeology, which predated her move to Haifa, in 1928, was developed on walks from her home to the mound of Yenoam, located in the fields of Yavne’el. On her visits to the tel she collected pottery sherds, which she would spread out in the back yard. She would intensely scrutinize them looking for similarities and differences between them. Amiran moved to Haifa in 1928 and enrolled in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1933 and received a Master’s degree in 1939. Her thesis, “The Pottery of Grar,” supervised by Professor Eleazer Lipa Sukenik, was an analysis of the pottery of Tel Jemmeh (10 km south of Gaza). In 1934-1935 she participated in the excavation of Et-Tell/Ai, (20 km north of Jerusalem) directed by Judith Marquet-Krause. After graduation Amiran worked in the Department of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and at The Palestine Archaeology Museum, (PAM, also known as Rockefeller Museum (then a part of Palestine and the British Mandate Department of Antiquities). With the end of the British Mandate, Amiran was employed by the State of Israel’s Department of Antiquities. At this time she organized the infrastructure for Israel’s regional museums. These museums were a central depository for the artifacts of the many excavations held in the various regions, for here they would be displayed. These museum collections were augmented by substantial numbers of artifacts held in private collections, mainly in the Kibbutzim. Amiran organized these private collections together with the excavated artifacts and transformed them into organized regional museum displays and storage. Between the years 1955-1959 Amiran took part in the Hazor Expedition (directed by Yigael Yadin of the Hebrew University) as director of Area B, and she oversaw the processing of the ceramic finds from the excavation. During these years, she laid the foundations for the study for her 1969 pivotal magnum opus, the “Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land: From Its Beginnings in the Neolithic Period to the End of the Iron Age ” (Ramat Gan: Massada Press). In the early 60s Amiran began working as an excavator-researcher in the Israel Museum, where she spearheaded the foundation of an official, active Excavation Department. In 1962-1963 she directed several excavations, among them Tel Nagila, (28 km east of modern-day Gaza, on behalf of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies in Jerusalem, (now defunct), which she co-directed with Avi Eitan). She also excavated with Carmela Arnon from 1976 to 1983, at Tel Kishion (10 km north-east of Afula), sponsored by the Israel Museum and Israel’s Department of Antiquities. From 1962 until 1984, Amiran directed the excavations at the Canaanite city of Arad. During 18 seasons, the archaeologists exposed a sizeable Canaanite city of some 25 acres. These excavations indicated that Arad exhibited sophisticated urban planning; the city was divided into quarters, each with a specific function: the west was reserved for the temple complex and residential areas were located in the south. Arad also showed that the city was surrounded by a fortified wall, some 1200 m in length and 2.4 m in width, with two gates and two posterns. Along the inside of the wall was a main ring road, and the city was planned with a network of streets. From the gates, cross streets extended into a topographic depression in the city’s center. Here drained rainwater flowed into a large reservoir, thus guaranteeing a continued water supply during the long rainless summers. Ruth Amiran married a geographer, Professor David Amiran; they were childless. Amiran�s main field of study focus was the ancient pottery of the land of Israel. Her articles reflect a multi-disciplinary approach to ceramic analysis of pottery. Ceramics were artifacts created by humankind since the Neolithic period, and she became the authority on the historic development of the potter’s art, including methods of manufacture, pottery’s chronological and typological aspects and the distinctive ceramic horizon markers of each period, as well as interest in the potter’s status in ancient society. She was also concerned with functional analysis and the artistic and religious uses of pottery. In her view, the ceramic vessel was “a valuable artifact by itself, as a product expressing the technical and artistic achievements of its period.” Ruth Amiran died in December 2005. But her contribution is a reflection of the archaeology of Israel, from its very early days to the early 1980s. Her enormous contribution and legacy, the study of the ancient pottery in the land of Israel, was to prove invaluable for Israeli archaeological research. (via: http://www.brown.edu/Research/Breaking_Ground/results.php?d=1&first=Ruth&last=Amiran)
View Separately

100 Zionists

14:

Born in 1914 at Yavne’el, Israel, Ruth Amiran’s father, Yehezkel Brandsteter, had immigrated to Palestine from Tarnow, Galicia in 1908. Initially he was employed as a construction worker for a few months in Haifa, in what would later become the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology). Thereafter he went on to the Mashavot in the Galilee. Settling in Yavne’el (south of Tiberias) in 1910, he completed establishing their household, and Amiran’s mother, Devora, joined him in 1913.

Ruth Amiran’s interest in archaeology, which predated her move to Haifa, in 1928, was developed on walks from her home to the mound of Yenoam, located in the fields of Yavne’el. On her visits to the tel she collected pottery sherds, which she would spread out in the back yard. She would intensely scrutinize them looking for similarities and differences between them.

Amiran moved to Haifa in 1928 and enrolled in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1933 and received a Master’s degree in 1939. Her thesis, “The Pottery of Grar,” supervised by Professor Eleazer Lipa Sukenik, was an analysis of the pottery of Tel Jemmeh (10 km south of Gaza). In 1934-1935 she participated in the excavation of Et-Tell/Ai, (20 km north of Jerusalem) directed by Judith Marquet-Krause. After graduation Amiran worked in the Department of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and at The Palestine Archaeology Museum, (PAM, also known as Rockefeller Museum (then a part of Palestine and the British Mandate Department of Antiquities). With the end of the British Mandate, Amiran was employed by the State of Israel’s Department of Antiquities. At this time she organized the infrastructure for Israel’s regional museums. These museums were a central depository for the artifacts of the many excavations held in the various regions, for here they would be displayed. These museum collections were augmented by substantial numbers of artifacts held in private collections, mainly in the Kibbutzim. Amiran organized these private collections together with the excavated artifacts and transformed them into organized regional museum displays and storage.

Between the years 1955-1959 Amiran took part in the Hazor Expedition (directed by Yigael Yadin of the Hebrew University) as director of Area B, and she oversaw the processing of the ceramic finds from the excavation. During these years, she laid the foundations for the study for her 1969 pivotal magnum opus, the “Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land: From Its Beginnings in the Neolithic Period to the End of the Iron Age ” (Ramat Gan: Massada Press).

In the early 60s Amiran began working as an excavator-researcher in the Israel Museum, where she spearheaded the foundation of an official, active Excavation Department. In 1962-1963 she directed several excavations, among them Tel Nagila, (28 km east of modern-day Gaza, on behalf of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies in Jerusalem, (now defunct), which she co-directed with Avi Eitan). She also excavated with Carmela Arnon from 1976 to 1983, at Tel Kishion (10 km north-east of Afula), sponsored by the Israel Museum and Israel’s Department of Antiquities.

From 1962 until 1984, Amiran directed the excavations at the Canaanite city of Arad. During 18 seasons, the archaeologists exposed a sizeable Canaanite city of some 25 acres. These excavations indicated that Arad exhibited sophisticated urban planning; the city was divided into quarters, each with a specific function: the west was reserved for the temple complex and residential areas were located in the south. Arad also showed that the city was surrounded by a fortified wall, some 1200 m in length and 2.4 m in width, with two gates and two posterns. Along the inside of the wall was a main ring road, and the city was planned with a network of streets. From the gates, cross streets extended into a topographic depression in the city’s center. Here drained rainwater flowed into a large reservoir, thus guaranteeing a continued water supply during the long rainless summers. Ruth Amiran married a geographer, Professor David Amiran; they were childless. Amiran�s main field of study focus was the ancient pottery of the land of Israel. Her articles reflect a multi-disciplinary approach to ceramic analysis of pottery. Ceramics were artifacts created by humankind since the Neolithic period, and she became the authority on the historic development of the potter’s art, including methods of manufacture, pottery’s chronological and typological aspects and the distinctive ceramic horizon markers of each period, as well as interest in the potter’s status in ancient society. She was also concerned with functional analysis and the artistic and religious uses of pottery. In her view, the ceramic vessel was “a valuable artifact by itself, as a product expressing the technical and artistic achievements of its period.”

Ruth Amiran died in December 2005. But her contribution is a reflection of the archaeology of Israel, from its very early days to the early 1980s. Her enormous contribution and legacy, the study of the ancient pottery in the land of Israel, was to prove invaluable for Israeli archaeological research.

(via: http://www.brown.edu/Research/Breaking_Ground/results.php?d=1&first=Ruth&last=Amiran)

Source: brown.edu

100 Zionists

13:

“When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews, you are talking anti-Semitism.”

 -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I think Dr. King is one of the most respectable men in American history. He not only directed the African American civil rights movement, but was honest. He preached what he believed, and people listened. People were inspired. He forced the government to do something. He did this not with violence, and surprisingly, not even with force. He did this with word. He took from the teachings of Gandhi and he made a difference. 

Rev. King and Rabbi Heschel leading Selma Civil Rights March 

What not everyone might know, is that Dr. King was a Zionist. He supported Israel, and he supported the Israeli government. 

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. understood the meaning of discrimination and oppression. He sought ways to achieve liberation and peace, and he thus understood that a special relationship exists between African Americans and American Jews.

He knew that both peoples were uprooted involuntarily from their homelands. He knew that both peoples were shaped by the tragic experience of slavery. He knew that both peoples were forced to live in ghettoes, victims of segregation.

He knew that both peoples were subject to laws passed with the particular intent of oppressing them simply because they were Jewish or black. He knew that both peoples have been subjected to oppression and genocide on a level unprecedented in history.

Long before the plight of the Jews in the Soviet Union was on the front pages, he raised his voice. “I cannot stand idly by, even though I happen to live in the United States and even though I happen to be an American Negro and not be concerned about what happens to the Jews in Soviet Russia. For what happens to them happens to me and you, and we must be concerned.”

During his lifetime King witnessed the birth of Israel and the continuing struggle to build a nation. He consistently reiterated his stand on the Israeli-Arab conflict, stating “Israel’s right to exist as a state in security is uncontestable.” It was no accident that King emphasized “security” in his statements on the Middle East.

On March 25, 1968, less than two weeks before his tragic death, he spoke out with clarity and directness stating, “peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.”

Source: jewish-history.com

100 Zionists 12: Viscount Chinda Sutemi was Ambassador to the United States from 1912 to 1916 and one of Japan’s delegates to the Paris Peace Talks after the First World War. A Japanese Christian, Chinda attended Indiana DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana starting in 1877. He earned an BA in 1881 and an MA in 1884. Chinda was directed to DePauww, a Methodist school, along with several other Japanese students by a missionary. After graduating, Chinda returned to Japan and entered the foreign service. He served as Ambassador to Germany (1908-1911), to the United States (1911-1914) and to England (1914-1920). He also served as Japan’s representative to the Paris Peace Conference in 1918 and as Lord Chamberlain to the Emperor. Personally, however, I credit  Chinda with really getting the ball rolling for Japanese Zionism and support of Israel. Although Japanese approval came as early as December 1918, when the Shanghai Zionist Association received a message endorsing the Japanese government’s “pleasure of having learned of the advent desire of the Zionists to establish in Palestine a National Jewish Homeland”. It indicated that, “Japan will accord its sympathy to the realization of your [Zionist] aspirations.” The Zionist cause was not truly endorsed until January 1919 when Chinda wrote to Weizmann in the name of the Japanese Emperor stating that, “the Japanese government gladly takes note of the Zionist aspiration to extend in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people and they look forward with a sympathetic interest to the realization of such desire upon the basis proposed.”
View Separately

100 Zionists

12:

Viscount Chinda Sutemi was Ambassador to the United States from 1912 to 1916 and one of Japan’s delegates to the Paris Peace Talks after the First World War.

A Japanese Christian, Chinda attended Indiana DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana starting in 1877. He earned an BA in 1881 and an MA in 1884. Chinda was directed to DePauww, a Methodist school, along with several other Japanese students by a missionary.

After graduating, Chinda returned to Japan and entered the foreign service. He served as Ambassador to Germany (1908-1911), to the United States (1911-1914) and to England (1914-1920). He also served as Japan’s representative to the Paris Peace Conference in 1918 and as Lord Chamberlain to the Emperor.

Personally, however, I credit  Chinda with really getting the ball rolling for Japanese Zionism and support of Israel. Although Japanese approval came as early as December 1918, when the Shanghai Zionist Association received a message endorsing the Japanese government’s “pleasure of having learned of the advent desire of the Zionists to establish in Palestine a National Jewish Homeland”. It indicated that, “Japan will accord its sympathy to the realization of your [Zionist] aspirations.”

The Zionist cause was not truly endorsed until January 1919 when Chinda wrote to Weizmann in the name of the Japanese Emperor stating that, “the Japanese government gladly takes note of the Zionist aspiration to extend in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people and they look forward with a sympathetic interest to the realization of such desire upon the basis proposed.”

100 Zionists 11: Israel’s first “First Lady,” Vera Weizmann was born on November 27, 1881, in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to Isaiah and Feodosia Chatzman. She was a medical doctor who studied in Geneva, and a Zionist activist among the founding members of Women’s International Zionist Organization(WIZO). In 1916, Weizmann gave up her work as a pediatrician when she joined her husband upon his appointment as the scientific adviser in chemistry to the British Admiralty during World War I, four years before founding WIZO. Weizmann served as of WIZO president, alternating with Lady Sieff, for forty years. When WWII began, she devoted all of her efforts to Youth Aliyah (Aliyat Hanoar), an organization that she established in England and continued to head in Israel as honorary president. The organization rescued thousands of Jewish children from the Nazis during the Third Reich. The Weizmanns’ younger son, Michael, served as a pilot in the British Royal Air Force during WWII and was killed when his plane was shot down over the Bay of Biscay. During Israel’s War of Independence, Weizmann focused on the treatment of wounded soldiers. Right after the war, she established the Association of the War of Independence Handicapped Veterans and served as its president. She also established two centers for the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers.
Pop-upView Separately

100 Zionists

11:

Israel’s first “First Lady,” Vera Weizmann was born on November 27, 1881, in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to Isaiah and Feodosia Chatzman.

She was a medical doctor who studied in Geneva, and a Zionist activist among the founding members of Women’s International Zionist Organization(WIZO). In 1916, Weizmann gave up her work as a pediatrician when she joined her husband upon his appointment as the scientific adviser in chemistry to the British Admiralty during World War I, four years before founding WIZO. Weizmann served as of WIZO president, alternating with Lady Sieff, for forty years.

When WWII began, she devoted all of her efforts to Youth Aliyah (Aliyat Hanoar), an organization that she established in England and continued to head in Israel as honorary president. The organization rescued thousands of Jewish children from the Nazis during the Third Reich.

The Weizmanns’ younger son, Michael, served as a pilot in the British Royal Air Force during WWII and was killed when his plane was shot down over the Bay of Biscay.

During Israel’s War of Independence, Weizmann focused on the treatment of wounded soldiers. Right after the war, she established the Association of the War of Independence Handicapped Veterans and served as its president. She also established two centers for the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers.

100 Zionists 10: Ben-Dror Yemeni is the op-ed editor of one of Israel’s leading Newspapers, Ma’ariv. He is known for examining the charges of Israel’s harshest critics, then disproving them. Yemeni to a Yemenite Jewish family in Tel-Aviv. He studied Humanities and History at Tel Aviv University and then pursued a degree in law. After graduation, he worked as an advisor to the Israeli Minister of Immigration Absorption and then became spokesman of the Ministry. Yemeni argues that the same way Jews were demonized, Israel is being demonized; the same way the right of Jews to exist was denied, Israel is being denied the right to self-determination; and the same way Jews were presented as a menace to the world, Israel is presented as a menace to the world. Yemeni does not, however, view himself as a “right-winger.” He is a strong believer in a two-state solution in which Israel and the Palestinians have equal rights to self-determination. Yemeni also claims to have friends who are PLO officials and has even met with Yassir Arafat in Tunis.
Pop-upView Separately

100 Zionists

10:

Ben-Dror Yemeni is the op-ed editor of one of Israel’s leading Newspapers, Ma’ariv. He is known for examining the charges of Israel’s harshest critics, then disproving them.

Yemeni to a Yemenite Jewish family in Tel-Aviv. He studied Humanities and History at Tel Aviv University and then pursued a degree in law. After graduation, he worked as an advisor to the Israeli Minister of Immigration Absorption and then became spokesman of the Ministry.

Yemeni argues that the same way Jews were demonized, Israel is being demonized; the same way the right of Jews to exist was denied, Israel is being denied the right to self-determination; and the same way Jews were presented as a menace to the world, Israel is presented as a menace to the world.

Yemeni does not, however, view himself as a “right-winger.” He is a strong believer in a two-state solution in which Israel and the Palestinians have equal rights to self-determination. Yemeni also claims to have friends who are PLO officials and has even met with Yassir Arafat in Tunis.

100 Zionists 9: Let no American imagine that Zionism is inconsistent with Patriotism. Multiple loyalties are objectionable only if they are inconsistent. A man is a better citizen of the United States for being also a loyal citizen of his state, and of his city; or for being loyal to his college…. Every American Jew who aids in advancing the Jewish settlement in Palestine, though he feels that neither he nor his descendants will ever live there, will likewise be a better man and a better American for doing so. There is no inconsistency between loyalty to America and loyalty to Jewry. -Louis Brandeis Louis Brandeis was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1916 to 1939. Returning to the US after he studied for two years in Dresden, Germany, Brandeis attended Harvard Law at the age of 19. It was his admiration for wide learning and debating skills of his uncle, Lewis Dembitz, that inspired him to study law. Despite the fact that he entered the school without any formal training or financial help from his family, he graduated as valedictorian. Relatively late in life the secular Brandeis also became a prominent Zionist leader. He became active in the Federation of American Zionists in 1912, as a result of a conversation with Jacob de Haas, according to some. His involvement provided the nascent American Zionist movement one of the most distinguished men in American life and a friend of the next president. Over the next several years he devoted a great deal of his time, energy, and money to spreading the Zionist word.  Brandeis became president of The Provisional Executive Committee for Zionist Affairs from 1914 to 1918 which established him as the leader of American Zionism. Unlike the majority of American Jews at the time, he felt that the re-creation of a Jewish national homeland was one of the key solutions to antisemitism and the “Jewish problem” in Europe and Russia, while at the same time a way to “revive the Jewish spirit.” Throughout his life, even after he left the Zionist Organization of America, Brandeis remained active in philanthropy directed at Jews in Palestine. In the late 1930s he endorsed immigration to Palestine in an effort to help European Jews escape genocide when Britain denied entry to more Jews.
Pop-upView Separately

100 Zionists

9:

Let no American imagine that Zionism is inconsistent with Patriotism. Multiple loyalties are objectionable only if they are inconsistent. A man is a better citizen of the United States for being also a loyal citizen of his state, and of his city; or for being loyal to his college…. Every American Jew who aids in advancing the Jewish settlement in Palestine, though he feels that neither he nor his descendants will ever live there, will likewise be a better man and a better American for doing so. There is no inconsistency between loyalty to America and loyalty to Jewry.

-Louis Brandeis

Louis Brandeis was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1916 to 1939.

Returning to the US after he studied for two years in Dresden, Germany, Brandeis attended Harvard Law at the age of 19. It was his admiration for wide learning and debating skills of his uncle, Lewis Dembitz, that inspired him to study law. Despite the fact that he entered the school without any formal training or financial help from his family, he graduated as valedictorian.

Relatively late in life the secular Brandeis also became a prominent Zionist leader. He became active in the Federation of American Zionists in 1912, as a result of a conversation with Jacob de Haas, according to some. His involvement provided the nascent American Zionist movement one of the most distinguished men in American life and a friend of the next president. Over the next several years he devoted a great deal of his time, energy, and money to spreading the Zionist word. 

Brandeis became president of The Provisional Executive Committee for Zionist Affairs from 1914 to 1918 which established him as the leader of American Zionism. Unlike the majority of American Jews at the time, he felt that the re-creation of a Jewish national homeland was one of the key solutions to antisemitism and the “Jewish problem” in Europe and Russia, while at the same time a way to “revive the Jewish spirit.”

Throughout his life, even after he left the Zionist Organization of America, Brandeis remained active in philanthropy directed at Jews in Palestine. In the late 1930s he endorsed immigration to Palestine in an effort to help European Jews escape genocide when Britain denied entry to more Jews.

100 Zionists

9:

The song above it “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav” performed by Ofra Haza.

Ofra Haza was a Yemenite-Israeli singer, an actress and international recording artist.

Her voice has been described as mezzo-soprano, of near-flawless tonal quality, able to lend itself to nearly all musical styles with ease.

Haza was the youngest of nine children, to a Yemenite-Jewish family in the neighborhood of Hatikva, in  Tel Aviv.

At 19 she was the first Israeli pop-star, and by the time she had completed her IDF service, she already had a singing career going.

Inspired by her Yemeni Jewish culture, the appeal of her musical art quickly spread to a wider Middle Eastern audience, bridging the divide between Israel and the Arab countries. As her career progressed, Haza began to switch between traditional and more commercial singing styles without jeopardizing her credibility. Her music fused both eastern and western elements. Her singing career earned her international success as well as many platinum and gold discs.