WORLD WAR I

Until 1914, American aliyah continued at a slow pace in spite of obstacles imposed by Turk and Arab alike. Such activity, however, was halted during World War I when the Turkish rulers in Palestine caused the Jews to suffer from oppression and starvation. Many were expelled from the country. During much of the war, the US officially declared its neutrality allowing American Jews to form emergency committees to aid the Jewish communities in the war-torn lands of Palestine and Europe. In 1915, due to the influence of Henry Morgenthau Sr., a Jew and ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, the situation eased, somewhat, and he arranged for a convoy of American warships to bring food supplies and medical equipment to Palestine. By 1916, some Americans volunteered to fight in the Zion Mule Corps which distinguished itself in the Dardanelles Campaign. Many of the Zionist leaders such as David Ben Gurion, Yitzkhak Ben Zvi, and Pinhas Rutenberg, found refuge in the US, particularly New York, where they continued their Zionist activities. (It was there that Ben Gurion met a young Zionist activist, Paula Munweis. She, later, became Mrs. David Ben Gurion.) The primary goals of these Zionist leaders were twofold: One, to prepare young Jews for settlement in Palestine. And two, to form a Jewish Legion of American, as well as Palestinian and other western Jews, to help the British fight the Turks for the liberation of Palestine. Chapters of Jewish Legion Committees were formed from New York to Los Angeles and four thousand volunteered to fight. They, eventually, arrived in Britain and formed into the 39th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. Some of the more prominent American Legionnaires who either made aliyah or contributed to other fields elsewhere were:

Gershon Agron who founded the Palestine Post in 1932, later becoming the Jerusalem Post in 1950.

Nathan Ausubel who fought in the Jordan Valley in 1918, author of “A Pictorial History of the Jewish People”.

Louis Fischer, journalist and author, one-time communist turned ex-communist.

Elias Ginsberg who later co-founded the Haganah.

Abraham Goldberg, prominent Zionist activist.

Bert Levy, who became an arms smuggler in Central America, and later, instructor for the British Home Guard.

Arieh Lubin, became a prominent Palestinian artist.

Nehemiah Rabin, father of Yitzkhak Rabin, socialist activist during the Mandatory period.

Alex Rose, union organizer and later, co-founder of the Liberal Party of New York.

Zvi Wachsman, author and journalist.

Samuel Zirlin, Zionist activist and delegate to the American Jewish Congress.

By December 1917, Palestine was under full British control. The next year, a Zionist Commission was formed under Chaim Weizmann to advise the new British governing authorities on Jewish matters in Palestine, and Americans were well-represented:

Dr. Eliahu Lewin Epstein, head of the American Zionist Medical Unit of Hadassah during the War, was successor to Weizmann as chairman. He, in turn, was succeeded by:

Dr. Harry Friedenwald, eye specialist and the Unit’s medical advisor, who later, bought the land near Hadera that became the Yaar Shalom neighborhood. After him came:

Robert Szold who was active in the Palestinian economy.

Robert Kesselman, the Commission’s chief auditor who was also Executive Director of the Federation of American Zionists.

Rabbi David de Sola Pool, Rabbi of Shearith Yisrael in New York, was active in the Commission’s affairs.

Alexander Dushkin was its Education Secretary. He, later, became inspector of Jewish schools for the Mandatory Government.