Major Wellesley Aron, MBE, was an English born Jewish businessman, community leader, and soldier who served in World War II as a member of the Jewish Brigade.
24 Facts About Wellesley Aron
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Wellesley Aron founded the 36th Stepney Jewish Scout Troop and later founded a new non-Zionist "Jewish cultural youth movement" teaching Jewish history and outdoor craft.
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Wellesley Aron's half-siblings were all raised in their mother's Christian faith.
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In 1919 Wellesley Aron enrolled at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he studied ancient and modern French History.
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Wellesley Aron founded the 36th Stepney Jewish Scout Troop which would become known in London for its scouting prowess.
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Wellesley Aron spent vacation time with his Christian half-sister in Devon.
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Basil Henriques, who had often charged him with being "un-Jewish" for not including Jewish content into his Scouting activities, now saw it as a "tragedy" that Wellesley Aron had decided to go to Palestine.
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Wellesley Aron recalled that it was this period that forced him to reject the conventional religious approach of Orthodox Judaism and look instead "to the renaissance of the Jewish People as a political entity in its own homeland".
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Wellesley Aron met and married his wife Rose and they had their first child, a girl.
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Wellesley Aron therefore decided to see for himself the extent to which Jewish history was being taught in the Stepney Jewish youth clubs in London's poverty-struck East End, which, at that time, were being run by his friend Basil Henriques.
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Wellesley Aron found that the clubs were Jewish only because of their membership but that nothing about Jewish history or about Palestine was being taught.
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Wellesley Aron's solution was to found a new non-Zionist "Jewish cultural youth movement", which would combine the principles of Baden Powell's scouting with a love of Jewish heritage, and taught not only Jewish history but Modern Hebrew and songs and dances, in addition to camping craft and other outdoor activities, like the Scouting Movement.
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Wellesley Aron produced a handbook with instructions on how to run groups of teenagers, using elements of Jewish history and symbolism, tests and ceremonies not dissimilar to those customary in scouting.
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In 1931, on the termination of his position under Weizmann, Wellesley Aron returned to Palestine.
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On his return to Palestine, Wellesley Aron founded a successful advertising agency.
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In 1938, aware of the possibility of war with Germany, Wellesley Aron made strenuous efforts to interest the British High Command in the idea of stockpiling reserve supplies of war materiel and food in Palestine.
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Wellesley Aron foresaw the possibility of Germany being victorious in North Africa.
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Wellesley Aron authored his account of that military experience.
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In 1945 Wellesley Aron was one of four Jewish Palestinian officers to receive awards from the British Government.
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At war's end, Wellesley Aron continued his involvement in Zionist activities.
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Always the organiser, Wellesley Aron was heavily involved in developing Rotary in Israel.
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Wellesley Aron prepared a symposium outline for the Harry S Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which was rejected on the grounds that it had too much emphasis on youth and not enough on the scholarly approach.
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Wellesley Aron moved there with his second wife, Coral, in 1980.
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Wellesley Aron is quoted as saying that his quest for a program where peace is taught started with a question from his grandson.