| Chaim Arlosoroff |
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Arlosoroff was born in Russia , but Anti-Semitism forced his family to leave his birthplace and to settle in Germany following a Pogrom in 1905 . This is where Chaim grew up and went to school; later, being very interested in Economics , he studied at the University Of Berlin where he received a doctorate in that subject. While he was attending the university, Arlosoroff wrote articles on Zionist matters, such as getting money to the settlers in Palestine, and planning a program of cooperation between Jews and Arab s. While still in Germany, in 1918 , he co-founded ''Ha-Po'el ha-Tza'ir'', a party which attracted many intellectuals of the time. In Berlin, his sister, Lisa, was one of the closest friends of Magda Goebbels with whom he had a long affair. After finishing his studies he left Germany for the British Mandate Of Palestine in 1924 . In 1926 he was chosen to represent the Yishuv at the League Of Nations in Geneva . Arlosoroff became a leader of Mapai , the most important Jewish political party of the time, and was a close friend of the Jewish scientist and statesman, Chaim Weizmann . His talents were recognized early, and Arlosoroff was soon appointed head of the political department of the Jewish Agency . At first he believed that the British would help settling Jews in Palestine, so he worked with the British Government which was in charge of running that territory. Soon Arlosoroff came to feel that the British could not be trusted and that the Jews must risk angering them in order to rebuild their own homeland and save the Jews of Europe who faced destruction with the oncoming Holocaust . As the terrible deeds of the Nazis against the Jews became known to him, Arlosoroff threw himself into the work of rescuing Jews. He was willing to fight the British and the Arabs in order to do that. In 1933 , in the middle of his work as a Zionist political leader and as a writer with great influence, Chaim Arlosoroff was murdered. He was killed while walking with his wife Sima on a beach in Tel Aviv .The death of Arlosorff greatly aggravated political relations within the Zionist movement. One Abba Ahimeir, the head of a covert activist group, the Berit ha-Biryonim, was charged by the Palestine police with plotting the assassination. Ahimeir was also a leader of an extremist Revisionist faction whose publication, “Hazit Ha-Am” continuoulsy attacked the Labor movement and Zionist leaders, including Arlosoroff. Two rank-and-file Revisionists, Abraham Stavsky and Zevi Rosenblatt, were arrested as the actual murderers and were identified by Arlosoroff’s widow. All three vehemently denied the accusation. The district court acquitted Ahimeir and Rosenblatt but convicted Stavsky, who, however, was eventually acquitted by the Supreme Court for lack of corroborating evidence. The defense accused the police of manipulating the widow’s testimony and other evidence for political reasons, and expounded the theory that the murder was connected to an intended sexual attack on Mrs. Arlosoroff by two young Arabs. Stavsky later rose within Irgun ranks and was responsible for the procurement of the Irgun arms vessel known as the “Altalena.” (q.v.) He was killed during the fighting to land this ship in the 1948 War for Independence. Arlosorff's memory is honored today by the many streets named after him throughout the towns of Israel and in the names of the settlements Kefar Hayyim , Kiryat Hayyim , and Kibbutz Giv'at Hayyim . OTHER CONTROVERSIAL ASSASSINATIONS OF JEWISH LEADERS IN ISRAEL'S HISTORY Chaim Arlosoroff's assassination was not the first or the last time that a Jew ish leader would be shot in the midst of political controversies and upheavels during the history before and after the establishment of the State of Israel:
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