HaHitnavdut. Committee for the Celebration of… A Decade since the Appearance of the (Jewish) Brigade at the Front.

(ISRAEL, STATE OF)

Yavneh

Tel-Aviv

1955

Inscribed by Moshe Sharett: “A testament to our friendship, from the front at Aleppo to the days of our independence in Israel’s capital.” Also inscribed by the book’s editor, Isaiah Kalinov.

The Jewish Brigade was a volunteer fighting force consisting of Jews from Mandatory Palestine, serving under the command of British officers. Formed in 1944, the Brigade saw action in Italy. After the war, some of its members roamed Europe carrying out reprisals against Nazis, while others helped Jewish survivors immigrate to Eretz Israel. The training provided to the 5,500 strong force would prove instrumental during Israel’s War of Independence, as these soldiers fulfilled crucial roles within the nascent IDF’s chain of command. Moshe Sharett (1894-1965) was the second Prime Minister of Israel, serving a two-year stint between David Ben-Gurion’s terms. A staunch supporter of dDemocratic Socialism, he formed a government that consciously excluded the right wing Herut party, as well as the communist Maki party. Isaiah Kalinov (1890-1963) was a Russian Zionist journalist who immersed himself in the self-enclosed world of Russian intellectuals in 1920’s Berlin. Immigrating to Eretz Israel upon the rise of the Nazis to power, he served as the director of Tel-Aviv’s Reporter’s Union, and eventually headed the Jewish Agency’s Hasbarah department.