38 Facts About Haim Arlosoroff

Haim Arlosoroff was a Socialist Zionist leader of the Yishuv during the British Mandate for Palestine, prior to the establishment of Israel, and head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency.

In 1933, Arlosoroff was assassinated while walking on the beach with his wife in Tel Aviv.

Haim Arlosoroff was born on February 23,1899, into a Jewish family in Romny, Ukraine.

At the age of six, Haim Arlosoroff encountered antisemitism for the first time, as the family's home in Romny was attacked in 1905 during a violent pogrom.

Haim Arlosoroff's family fled across the German border to East Prussia.

Haim Arlosoroff thus became fluent in German, in addition to studying Hebrew with a tutor.

Haim Arlosoroff studied economics at the University of Berlin and earned himself a doctorate.

In 1919, Haim Arlosoroff published the treatise "Jewish People's Socialism", his first major written contribution relating to a nationalistic hope for the Jewish people in Eretz Israel.

Haim Arlosoroff's contention was that the Jewish people would only be able to preserve and revive their unique cultural identities within a Jewish national homeland.

Haim Arlosoroff further professed, that through the establishment of "Jewish People's Socialism", Jews would be guaranteed public land ownership upon their return to Eretz Israel.

Haim Arlosoroff first visited Mandatory Palestine in the spring of 1921.

However, Haim Arlosoroff's plea was not widely accepted, and he received criticism from within the ranks of his own party, Hapoel Hatzair.

Haim Arlosoroff was chosen in 1926 to represent the Yishuv at the League of Nations in Geneva.

In 1930, Haim Arlosoroff helped unify the two major Zionist socialist political parties, the Poale Zion and the Hapoel Hatzair, to form the Mapai Labour Party.

Haim Arlosoroff's correspondence, written in a clearly anguished tone, alerted Weizmann to the possibility that the ability to expand Jewish settlements under the ruling British Administration could, in Arlosoroff's observation, completely collapse in a short time under certain circumstances.

Haim Arlosoroff predicted the authority of the British Mandate to govern could quickly come to an end in a few years.

In view of this possibility, Haim Arlosoroff's letter provided a list of several options he saw as available to the Zionist movement for the potential challenges ahead.

At no other time in his political career did Haim Arlosoroff ever suggest a proposal this extreme for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people.

At a Mapai Labour Party Council meeting occurring in January 1933, Haim Arlosoroff strongly clashed with powerful Mapai leaders David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Tabenkin regarding whether or not the Zionists should work within the British government's infrastructure to help bring about Jewish statehood.

Haim Arlosoroff warned his colleagues that if the Zionist movement maintained an isolationist policy with the British ruling authorities, Arab political influence would increase within the British Administration and cause the rights of Jewish people living in the Yishuv to suffer.

Haim Arlosoroff was hopeful, that in building an accord with the Arab sheikhs of Transjordan, unpopulated Arab land would be made available for purchase in order to establish new Jewish settlements east of the Jordan River.

Haim Arlosoroff hoped that political relations with Arab leaders of Mandatory Palestine might be enhanced through Zionist interactions with the Transjordanian Arab dignitaries.

Jewish opposition to the King David Hotel meeting became apparent as the major party of religious Zionism, Mizrachi, demanded that Haim Arlosoroff should resign from his position at the Jewish Agency.

The Germany Haim Arlosoroff loved growing up changed quickly and drastically upon Hitler coming to power.

Immediately following an organized Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses in Germany on April 1,1933, Haim Arlosoroff contacted High Commissioner Sir Arthur Wauchope requesting Britain's intervention in the crisis.

Haim Arlosoroff asked Wauchope to consider that supplementary immigration visas for Mandatory Palestine be granted to Jewish people seeking refuge from Hitler's Reich.

Haim Arlosoroff came to feel that the British could not be trusted and that the Jews must risk angering them in order to further the goal of building a Jewish state and save the Jews of Europe from the nationalist and authoritarian regimes under which they lived, especially in Nazi Germany.

At that time, Haim Arlosoroff contacted Consul-General Wolff's office in Jerusalem on the Jewish Agency's behalf to obtain a "letter of introduction" to initiate discussions with Nazi authorities in Berlin.

Haim Arlosoroff was killed by gunshot while walking with his wife, Sima, on the beach in Tel Aviv.

Haim Arlosoroff's funeral was the largest in the history of Mandatory Palestine, with an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 mourners.

The death of Haim Arlosoroff greatly aggravated political relations within the Zionist movement.

Ahimeir was a leader of the nationalist Zionist Revisionist faction whose publication, "Hazit HaAm", continuously attacked the Labor movement and Zionist leaders, including Haim Arlosoroff, often using inflammatory language.

Haim Arlosoroff was killed in the attack on the ship by the newly established Israel Defense Forces on the beach of Tel Aviv.

Dothan maintained that the Russians took action against Haim Arlosoroff to prevent what they perceived to be a global military plot against them.

Haim Arlosoroff is buried at the Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv.

An 8-foot tall bronze monument dedicated to the legacy of Dr Haim Arlosoroff stands at the Tel Aviv shoreline promenade where he was fatally wounded.

The name of Haim Arlosoroff was used for a ship carrying Jewish refugees to Mandatory Palestine, the former USCGC Unalga.

On 27 February 1947, the Haim Arlosoroff was intercepted by British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Chieftain, and the passengers put up fierce resistance.