1. Israel Shochat was a founder of and a key figure in Bar-Giora and Hashomer, two of the precursors of the Israel Defense Forces.
21 Facts About Israel Shochat
1. 2.
Israel Shochat was born in 1886 in Lyskovo, in the Grodno Governorate of the Russian Empire.
3.
Israel Shochat was a founder member of Poale Zion in Grodno and set up a Jewish self-defence league in 1903 after the Kishinev pogrom.
4.
Israel Shochat went to Germany to study agronomy but left his studies after only three months and left for Palestine.
5.
Israel Shochat moved to Rishon LeZion to work in the winery.
6.
Israel Shochat was greatly influenced by Michael Halperin, a Jewish visionary who wanted to create a tribe of Jewish Bedouin and a Hebrew army.
7.
Israel Shochat moved to Jerusalem to persuade the yeshivot leaders to join the efforts to create a national workforce.
8.
Israel Shochat became interested in the Circassians living in Palestine, as an example of how a small minority could preserve its identity and pride in an often hostile environment.
9.
The key for Israel Shochat was that they cultivated their land and protected it with their own hands.
10.
Israel Shochat was a natural conspirator and by 1906 he had formed an underground group with about 25 followers mostly based in Lower Galilee.
11.
Israel Shochat used to inspect new arrivals coming off the boats at Jaffa looking for new recruits.
12.
Israel Shochat rigged the secret ballot so that both he and Ben Gurion were members of the 10 man committee who were delegated the responsibility of writing their manifesto.
13.
Israel Shochat's vision was to create Hebrew military force which could lead an armed uprising and create a Jewish state.
14.
Israel Shochat represented Poalei Zion in the Zionist Congress of 1907, which took place in The Hague in the Netherlands.
15.
Israel Shochat was unable to present his idea to the assembly and in a private conversation, Menachem Ussishkin told Israel that he was much too young to succeed in achieving the goal of a national defence.
16.
In 1907, Israel Shochat was one of the 10 people who, in Yitzhak Ben-Zvi's Jaffa apartment, founded Bar-Giora, a clandestine organisation which sought to create an armed Jewish force.
17.
Manya Wilbuszewicz, the leader and founding member of the collective at Sejera, convinced Israel Shochat to join the agricultural settlement there.
18.
Israel Shochat accepted, becoming the second leader of the community which he used as a base for training Jewish guards.
19.
The Israel Shochat family returned to Palestine around Passover, 1919, after attending the Poalei Tziyon convention in Stockholm.
20.
At first Israel Shochat worked the land in Kfar Giladi, but soon became involved in founding the famous Work Battalion and in organizing the defence of the Galilee.
21.
Israel Shochat died in 1962 and is buried in Kfar Giladi alongside his wife.