Jewish Legion
Jewish volunteer force in World War I
The Jewish Legion was a series of battalions of Jewish soldiers who served in the British Army during the First World War. Some participated in the British conquest of Palestine from the Ottomans.
The formation of the battalions had several motives: the expulsion of the Ottomans, the gaining of military experience, and the hope that their contribution would favorably influence the support for a Jewish national home in the land when a new world order was established after the war. The idea for the battalions was proposed by Pinhas Rutenberg, Dov Ber Borochov and Ze'ev Jabotinsky and carried out by Jabotinsky and Joseph Trumpeldor, who aspired for the battalions to become the independent military force of the Yishuv in Palestine.
Their vision did not fully materialize, as the battalions were disbanded shortly after the war. However, their activities significantly contributed to the establishment of paramilitaries such as the Haganah (which later became the foundation for the Israel Defense Forces) and the Irgun.
Formation and objectives
During the First World War, a debate emerged within the Zionist leadership on whether to support either side, the Entente Powers or the Central Powers, or to maintain neutrality and on the policy that would best ensure the survival of the Jewish community in Palestine during the war and benefit its aspirations for a national home afterward. The debate created a rift between those who supported the Entente Powers and those who supported the Central Powers. The Jews of German origin were patriotic to their country of origin, and the battalions were a British initiative against the Ottoman Empire, which was allied to Germany. Therefore, the "German" Jews opposed the battalions vehemently, and Chaim Weizmann yielded to them by opposing the battalions mainly because the one protecting the Yishuv in Palestine was a German general.
The public source identifies “Jewish Legion” as jewish volunteer force in World War I. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Jewish, Legion and volunteer.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jewish Legion” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.