Haim Arlosoroff (23 February 1899 – 16 June 1933; also known as Chaim Arlozorov; ) was a Socialist Zionist leader of the Yishuv during the British Mandate for Palestine before 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.
Biography Haim Arlosoroff was born on February 23, 1899, into a Jewish family in Romny in the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine). In Russia, he was known as Vitaly, the Russian equivalent of Haim. When living in Germany, he was known as Viktor. Arlosoroff's paternal grandfather was Rabbi Eliezer Arlosoroff of Romny, an author of religious commentaries on the Talmud.
At age six, Arlosoroff encountered antisemitism for the first time, as the family's home in Romny was attacked in 1905 during a violent pogrom. Arlosoroff's family fled across the German border to East Prussia. Seven years later, the family settled in Königsberg, Germany (now the Russian city of Kaliningrad). Arlosoroff thus became fluent in German, in addition to studying Hebrew with a tutor.
When World War I broke out in 1914, Arlosoroff's family did not possess German citizenship and thus faced threats of deportation as enemy aliens. The family eventually obtained permission to remain in Germany and moved to Berlin. When Arlosoroff's father, Saul, traveled back to Russia on business, he was barred from returning to Germany and died there of cholera.
Arlosoroff earned a doctorate in economics at the University of Berlin. During his studies, he wrote articles on Zionist affairs. In Germany, he became a key leader of Hapoel Hatzair (also Ha-Po'el ha-Tza'ir, Hebrew for "The Young Worker"), a socialist political party that attracted many of the intellectuals of the time. As a result of his party affiliation, Arlosoroff was appointed editor of Die Arbeit (German for "The Labour"), a journal in which his writings were first published.
Arlosoroff was not religiously observant. His precocity and strong national feelings as a Jew can be seen in a letter he wrote at age 17 to his German literature teacher: "I am a Jew, and I feel strong and proud of my Jewishness. I feel it in my bones that I am different from a German, and it would never occur to me to deny this... My soul yearns for the unique, ancient Hebrew culture. But I also like German culture, and perhaps I am also afraid to admit how great my love for it is... Yet, Goethe and Schiller never really touched my heart closely." During his teenage years, Arlosoroff expressed his identity by composing poetry in German that emphasized Jewish cultural themes.
In 1919, 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. In it, Arlosoroff distanced himself from traditional Marxist beliefs by advocating a new brand of socialism that embraced a national consciousness. He contention was that the Jewish people could preserve and revive their unique cultural identities only within a Jewish national homeland. Arlosoroff further professed that by establishing "Jewish People's Socialism", Jews would be guaranteed public land ownership upon their return to Eretz Israel. In accord with the visions of other socialist Zionists of his time, Arlosoroff believed that ancient Biblical agricultural traditions, such as the "Sabbath Year" and "Year of Jubilee", could be restored alongside institutional parameters established for the new Jewish nation. His treatise accurately foresaw a modern revival of the Hebrew language accompanying the return of Jewish people to Eretz Israel, which linguistically linked many diverse segments of Jewish society.
Arlosoroff first visited Mandatory Palestine in 1921. Shortly after his arrival, the Jaffa Riots broke out. In the midst of Arab rioting, Arlosoroff stood in defence of Neve Shalom, a Jewish settlement adjacent to Tel Aviv and Jaffa. These events shifted his focus to the need for better relations between Jews and Arabs. After the riots, Arlosoroff called upon the Zionist establishment to no longer deny the reality of an Arab national movement in Mandatory Palestine. His plea was not widely accepted, and he received criticism from within the ranks of his own party, Hapoel Hatzair. Arlosoroff ultimately came to the position that strength-based compromise with neighboring Arabs would not weaken or undermine efforts to establish a Jewish national homeland.
Political career At the 1923 Zionist Congress, Arlosoroff was elected to the Zionist Action Committee. He was 24 years old at the time. Turning down a university position, he left Germany for British Mandatory Palestine in 1924. Arlosoroff was chosen in 1926 to represent the Yishuv at the League of Nations in Geneva.
Arlosoroff's hope for peaceful cooperation and compromise with Arabs was severely tested. In 1929, the consciously aggressive Betar Youth Movement, organized under Ze'ev Jabotinsky's Union of Revisionist Zionists, took part in a coalition to assertively enforce and enlarge a Jewish presence in the proximity of the Western Wall. The activities of Betar and its associates provoked an explosive reaction from the Arab community, in whose perception these activities had dishonored the Muslim holy site on the adjacent Temple Mount. The violent Western Wall Uprisings of 1929 ensued, which resulted in the loss of many lives, including civilians. Instead of inciting further Arab tensions, Arlosoroff strongly criticized the Revisionists for insensitively provoking the animosity.
In 1930, Arlosoroff helped unify the two major Zionist socialist political parties, the Poale Zion and the Hapoel Hatzair, to form the Mapai Labour Party. Through Mapai's political muscle, Arlosoroff was elected as a member of the Zionist Executive at the 1931 Zionist Congress. In addition, he was named Political Director of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, a position he held until his 1933 assassination.
As the Jewish Agency's Political Director, Arlosoroff first believed that the British would support increased Jewish settlement in Mandatory Palestine, so he worked with the governing British Mandatory Administration. Before his tenure as Political Director, he had already familiarized himself with the British system of rule, having written an essay titled "The British Administration and the Jewish National Home". During his years in office, Arlosoroff developed close working relationships with Britain's High Commissioner Sir Arthur Wauchope and British Colonial Secretary Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister.
Arlosoroff was a close friend of the Jewish scientist and statesman Chaim Weizmann. Weizmann was considered to be among the most politically moderate of Arlosoroff's Mapai Zionist contemporaries.
In a private letter to Weizmann dated June 30, 1932, Arlosoroff wrote candidly of his serious concerns for the future success of the Zionist enterprise in Mandatory Palestine. His 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 completely collapse in a short time under certain circumstances. Arlosoroff predicted that the authority of the British Mandate to govern could quickly come to an end in a few years. In view of this possibility, his letter listed several options he saw as available to the Zionist movement for the potential challenges ahead. He suggested that a Jewish dictatorship be imposed upon the removal of the British Administration from authority, in which a Jewish minority governed over an Arab majority. At no other time in his political career did Arlosoroff ever suggest a proposal this extreme for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people. There is no record that Weizmann responsded to Arlosoroff’s letter.
In the months leading up to his assassination, Arlosoroff's fervor to help establish a Jewish national homeland intensified. At a January 1933 Mapai Labour Party Council meeting, Arlosoroff clashed with powerful Mapai leaders David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Tabenkin over whether Zionists should work within the British government's infrastructure to help bring about Jewish statehood. 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 diminish the rights of Jewish people living in the Yishuv.
On April 8, 1933, Arlosoroff organized a historic event at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on the Jewish Agency's behalf. The luncheon, attended by Weizmann and prominent Arab leaders of Transjordan, was the first time Jewish Zionists and key Arab leaders gathered together to help promote cooperative efforts between the two groups. 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. He also hoped that political relations with Arab leaders of Mandatory Palestine might be enhanced through Zionist interactions with the Transjordanian Arab dignitaries. Not everyone was pleased with Arlosoroff's vision for Jewish/Arab collaboration or the possibility of a bi-nationalistic future in the territories governed under British Mandates. After the luncheon, Arab radicals openly chastised the moderate Arabs who had attended the meeting. Certain Arab leaders in Mandatory Palestine distanced themselves completely from the Transjordanian Arab delegation. Particular anger was directed at Transjordan's Emir Abdullah, the ruler of large territories in Transjordan, who took a leading role in the conciliation efforts. Jewish opposition to the King David Hotel meeting also became apparent as the major party of religious Zionism, Mizrachi, demanded that Arlosoroff resign from his position at the Jewish Agency.Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "Mizrachi Asks Removal of Dr. Arlosoroff Over Transjordan Negotiations", Jewish Daily Bulletin, New York, N.Y., Vol. X. Thursday, April 27, 1933. No. 2532., P.1 Some radicals in the Revisionist movement questioned Arlosoroff's right to be alive.
As a result of Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Arlosoroff directed his focus to the plight of German Jews. Beginning in March 1933, Jewish groups responded worldwide to Hitler becoming chancellor through protests and boycotts of German products. The Germany Arlosoroff loved growing up changed quickly and drastically when Hitler came to power. In April 1933, the new regime implemented the first of many anti-Jewish laws by terminating all Jewish employees from German government positions. Also at that time, Nazi officials decreed Jewish people were not permitted to leave the country without a specially issued exit visa. Immediately after an organized Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses in Germany on April 1, 1933, Arlosoroff contacted High Commissioner Sir Arthur Wauchope requesting Britain's intervention in the crisis, asking him to consider granting supplementary immigration visas for Mandatory Palestine to Jewish people seeking refuge from Hitler's Reich.