Avshalom Feinberg
Avshalom Feinberg ( Hebrew אבשלום פיינברג; * October 23, 1889 in Gedera (today Israel); † January 20, 1917 in Sinai ) was one of the leading members of the NILI , a Jewish-Zionist spy ring at the time of the First World War , which supported the British in the Ottoman Empire . NILI was founded by Aaron Aaronsohn and his sister Sarah Aaronsohn .
Life
Avshalom Feinberg was born as the son of Israel Feinberg and his wife Fanny (née Belkind) in Gedera, which they co-founded five years earlier. From his maternal grandfather Meir Belkind, he learned Arabic and the study of the Koran as a child. The family lived temporarily in Jaffa and Jerusalem . At the age of 14 Avshalom was sent to relatives in Paris to attend school and study. He studied for two and a half years in Paris and made friends with French intellectuals such as Jacques Maritain and the Catholic philosopher Charles Peggy . After completing his studies, he returned to Palestine, but until 1909 he also spent some time in Switzerland, mainly for agricultural studies. Back in Palestine in 1910, he met the Aaronsohn family, who ran a research station for agricultural technology in Atlit . Since the Turks, allied with the Germans, were very hostile towards the Jews in the country during the First World War, they sided with the British and founded NILI at Feinberg's suggestion. The NILI network provided the British secret services with a range of strategic information that was important for the war effort.
On the evening of January 20, 1917, Avshalom Feinberg was discovered by Beduins near Rafah , who notified a Turkish border guard who shot him after a violent exchange of fire when he was about to return home from Egypt. However, his fate remained unclear until the Six Day War . It was only when Israeli soldiers occupied the Sinai Peninsula that they learned of the legend of the “Date Jew”, from whose grave a now stately date palm had grown. As it turned out, Feinberg was carrying a bag of dates in his pocket, which Sarah Aaronsohn gave him as food for the journey. His body was exhumed and solemnly buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem in November 1967 as part of a state act . The date palm was also recovered and replanted at its grave site.
In 1979 the settlement Dekla ("Palme") was founded in his memory, but after the Camp David Agreement in 1982 it had to be cleared again. In 1990 a settlement near the Gaza Strip in Israel was named Avshalom in his honor .
Web links
- Avshalom Feinberg Zionism-Israel
- http://thundercatt99.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/a-thousand-kisses-avshalom-feinberg/
- Letters written by Avshalom Feinberg Ben-Yehuda Project (Hebrew)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Feinberg, Avshalom |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Feinberg, Awshalom |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Leader of the Jewish-Zionist spy ring NILI |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 23, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gedera |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 20, 1917 |
| Place of death | Sinai Peninsula |