The Jewish Legion (1917-1918)

[@SamAronow]

*CORRECTIONS/NOTES* - Me to my script editor: "come to think of it, this story is remarkably similar to _The Hobbit."_ - The music list neglects to mention "The Darkness of the Light" by My My Snake Eyes, which I've included in videos before. - Credit where credit is due to the Jewish Legion Museum in Avihayil, where I did a great deal of hands-on research for this video. They didn't allow me to film in there, but they did have handwritten recollections from the 1960s by veterans of the ZMC and the 38th-40th as well as otherwise unavailable photos and artifacts. Mind you, it is technically a military facility and the buses from Netanya are weirdly infrequent.

[@מ.מ-ה9ד]

22:47 I assume it should be "העברי"

[@SamAronow]

You are correct. TBF the actual banner had even _more_ misspellings.

[@ronmaximilian6953]

JRR Tolkien absolutely borrowed elements of Jewish history when creating the Hobbit and his dwarfs. His Dwarvish language is basically a semitic language in terms of grammar, but completely made up.

[@SamAronow]

@ronmaximilian6953 I was thinking more about a tiny man coming all that way before getting knocked out and missing the battle.

[@מ.מ-ה9ד]

@@SamAronow That's OK, the Old Man, would come to lead way more important and larger battles for him.

[@AncientAmericas]

Nothing makes me smile on a Friday morning like seeing a Sam Aronow video in my feed.

[@mjungwir]

Yours aren't too bad either. You guys are great! Shabbat Shalom!

[@SionTJobbins]

This is true. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[@joaovitormatos8147]

I love/hate when you introduce us characters without showing their more famous name. First, Asher Zvi, then David Gruen and now "the young leader of Poalei Zion Milwaukee" Golda Mabovich

[@Solon1581]

It gives off the impression that the people in question are unimportant or come from humble beginnings. I remember writing a paper on Atatürk during my freshman year at college, so watching this video bring back memories as I start noticing names like Lloyd George and Mustafa Kemal Pasha showing up on screen, and be like "hey, I know these people!" was quite the fun experience.

[@Cheese-zt3ns]

actually had to do a doubletake when Golda appeared

[@Svartasvanen18]

I think she was mentioned in passing in an earlier video

[@ag7898]

​@@Svartasvanen18 in fairness, he likes to do this a lot. Where he will mention someone briefly in a video. Then two videos down the line will says basically "we mentioned this person earlier... well here is they become famous."

[@royxeph_arcanex]

Should we tell him about Pasha?

[@Artur_M.]

The line "Never imagined there _were_ fourteen languages under the sun." at 13:49, made me chuckle, and reminded me of an anecdote about Montgomery allegedly asking general Stanisław Maczek "what language do they speak in Poland, German or Russian?". 😅 It seems that some among the British ellites had a rather poor understanding of the linguistic diversity in the world. Also, I am always happy to see your videos and I'm glad that we still can comment uder some of them at least.

[@chronikhiles]

It might be more about lingua francas than commonly spoken languages if I had to guess. If you contextualise it that way it's not an entirely stupid question.

[@matthewbrotman2907]

1:27 if you’re wondering how she got “Meir” from “Mabovitch” … she didn’t. “Meir” comes from her married name, “Myerson”.

[@ekmalsukarno2302]

Sam Aronow, can you please make videos on these following topics: - History of Iraqi Jews (that way you can talk about the Kadoorie and Saatchi families) - History of Jewish communities in Southeast Asia (in places such as Penang and Manado) - History of Yemeni Jews - History of Sephardic Jews in Suriname and the Caribbean - History of Jewish communities in Latin America (that way you can talk about Jewish gauchos) - History of South Africa's Jewish community (that way you can talk about Helen Suzman and Harry Schwarz) Thank you very much and please accept my requests.

[@thedemongodvlogs7671]

I had no idea about a Jewish community in Penang. I presume it had a similar history to the Jews of Singapore?

[@CrazyPortal11]

Definitely should do Latin America. Significant enough to justify a video

[@ekmalsukarno2302]

@@thedemongodvlogs7671 Although there may no longer be a surviving Jewish community in Penang, the city still has a Jewish cemetery. And yes, Penang and Manado's Jewish communities do have similar histories to Singapore's Jewish community.

[@TheZerech]

Yemeni Jews would be a great topic! Hopefully with more Himyar information even if it was partly covered in the Ethiopia video. Latin American Jewish history will surely appear at some point. Once we get to the 1930s and the Evian Conference, I'd hope to see Dominican Jews and their kinda crazy story in the Sosua colony. The long and short of it is the town became a sex-tourism hotspot because the government favored young single men because they wanted Jewish refugees to build up and modernize Dominican agriculture so the gender balance was pretty horrendous and that ended up encouraging a lot of prostitution. DR in the news recently because they had their election on Sunday.

[@nocomment5705]

How about Serbian & Yugoslav Jews?

[@TheOracleofClocks]

Mr. Aronow, I want to thank you for citating your sources. I always appreciate it when historically bent channels do so, as it's most appropriate for any historical effort to do so.

[@RobertLevin-yb8fu]

This video fills in a number of details that I did not get from my grandfather. He was probably the youngest member of the Jewish Legion, having enlisted in Montreal in May, 1918, two months prior to his 16th birthday.

[@GreenCanvasInteriorscape]

Both of my grandfather's volunteered, but my dad's father was caught for being underage but I don't know the details. There's a museum in Israel specifically dedicated to the mule corps

[@jonathanbowers8964]

It is like assembling the Avengers that you have built up for the past year.

[@ticketthedog3781]

was thinking the same thing

[@omegarealmsbans1914]

The Avengers of Zion The Avengers 2: Age of Hebron The Avengers 3: Lehi War The Avengers 4: Independence Game

[@SamAronow]

I'm so tempted to respond to this with the actual titles but I'd rather not give up the game.

[@omegarealmsbans1914]

@@SamAronow As in the actual titles of future episodes? Would definitely be better if you didn't. Also I was also thinking the Avengers 2 could be Age of Ben-Gurion and Avengers 3 could be Jabotinsky War.

[@zacharytrosch3406]

Marvel: Avengers: Endgame is the most ambitious crossover of all time. Sam Aronow:

[@מ.מ-ה9ד]

30:31 Vistas Media from in India annouced it will release a movie about that Haifa offensive. Which wasn't that big, but a major story for Indians in WW1.

[@janMelantu]

Hmmmm this Mustafa Kemal Pasha guy seems interesting, I wonder if he’s gonna do anything else important

[@CaptainHarlock-kv4zt]

A certain Austrian painter was very fond of him and tried to imitate his tactics.

[@siggiAg86]

Sam deserves many more subscribers. Not 65k but at least 650 with regards to the quality of content here.

[@Alon_Jak]

Amazing video!!

[@charlieburton4242]

Thank you for this amazing video, just one small correction and an interesting fact. The Speaker of the House of Commons is shown as a Conservative here. This is correct but the speaker in the UK is politically neutral and is often represented by a dark green colour. Also the chemical production of acetone by Weizmann helped British shell production rise by over 3300% from 1914 to 1915

[@SamAronow]

AFAIK the speaker being nonpartisan is a more recent development; at least that’s the impression I got from reading about it.

[@charlieburton4242]

@@SamAronow As far as I remember, this is kind of true but impartiality has been a convention since around the 1770s- the speakers were more partisan than the modern day but if you look at the Hansard entries for the speaker at the time (James Lowther) 99% of his contributions were pretty much neutral as a speaker

[@Amithalevi44]

thank you sam!

[@DonG-1949]

Amazingly well researched videos

[@iddomargalit-friedman3897]

You're amazing, thank you for this!

[@Panda-ss3zh]

Amazing video as always!

[@Rickyrab]

One can perhaps make the case that this was the actual fall of the Roman Empire (if you count the Ottomans as having taken over the Eastern Roman Empire a few centuries earlier).

[@Danielhake]

The Turkish republic is sucessor to the Ottoman empire. They even have the same flag.

[@TheLastTocharian]

Yeah, they wish...

[@Gulitize]

Fun fact I have an ancestor who had a plantation in Palestine, before WW1. After WW1 he got the choice of immigrating to Australia, or returning to germany by the british, he chose returning to germany.

[@andrewlechner6343]

Did he survive to regret that decision?

[@Gulitize]

@@andrewlechner6343 don't know if he ever regretted the decision. But on another note I have another ancestor who got stuck in Shanghai when he wanted to return to germany to fight in WW2.

[@RashidG1985]

Thank you, again! ✊️🤲

[@edwardwalter3100]

The sound design on this video was excellent, wonderfully supporting the spoken text. Great work as always.

[@jonyprepperisrael60]

are you going to mention the Faisal-Wietzmann agreement in the next episode?

[@SamAronow]

Next _Yishuv_ episode.

[@Catarigue]

new subscriber

[@HarvestStore]

Great video.

[@erel751]

This video is one of your best, most well reaserched and written works, incredible incredible stuff!

[@J-Bahn]

When rafah is mentioned.... 12:40

[@ravi_bats]

This is useful how?

[@rapasvi]

Woooo new video 🎉

[@Trexmaster12]

Is it known what happened to the torturer of Sarah Aaronsohn & her father, and the other NILI members that were captured & subjected to "interrogations"?

[@Rickyrab]

You said that the Turkish leaders were charged for genocide - but it's my understanding that the word "genocide" didn't come around until WWII. So what did they call the genocides, or the war crimes associated with them?

[@MetatronsRevenge613]

Operation Nemesis was the Armenian retaliation campaign against the genocidal Turks

[@Duiker36]

The word was around, but it is English, and not part of a formal system of international law. If you can read Turkish, the verdict is linked from Wikipedia. It's a 14-page PDF, a scan of the document.

[@uyavuz]

8:06 Trotsky jumpscare

[@odokokan]

This is a very good information. I can tell you as an Israeli I only knew the numbers of the legions and some of the people involved .

[@mother104]

An exceptional episode loved it keep up the good work 👍

[@erichluepke855]

Okay, I'm not Jewish and I know little about Jewish history. However I found it incredibly interesting/surprising how Golda Mabovitch was living in *Milwaukee* and later became Israeli Prime Minister. I don't think a more important person has ever come out of Milwaukee.

[@SamAronow]

Gene Wilder.

[@Airman1121]

Enver Pasa's post-WWI career is almost unbelievably insane.

[@SawdEndymon]

4:28 TIL something about the slayer of the Maneating Lions of Tsavo.

[@yrobtsvt]

I want to hear about the debates Ben-Gurion had with American anti-Zionists...

[@yrobtsvt]

Your source is on Kindle Unlimited so I was able to find it easily! 'Ben-Gurion went on to consolidate his reputation as a brilliant debater in Galveston, Texas, when an anti-Zionist took the floor and alleged that Palestine was a country full of graves, beggars, and idlers. Ben-Gurion exploded, and the audience almost came to blows. He managed, however, to gain control of the two hundred Jews present and win them over to his side. Ehrenreich was duly informed of his magnificent victory, and Ben-Gurion proudly noted in his report, "They will have this lesson to keep as a remembrance."'

[@iddomargalit-friedman3897]

Is there a record of what was said?

[@Mer1912]

@@yrobtsvtmy family entered Texas, through Galveston, sometime between 1918-1922. Never left. Houston has a strong, pro-Zionist Jewish community!

[@abhisheksah]

@@Mer1912💩

[@Brian-----]

All the channels I follow - you, Old Britannia, Ancient Americas, etc. are all collaborating 🙂

[@bennruda11]

That's why those voices sounded so familiar 😂

[@YitzharVered]

Shabbat shalom! Good gift for Friday night. On another note, god I hope the in Tel Aviv cleans up. I choke every day on the way to work. This country can suck sometimes.

[@SionTJobbins]

What's going on in Mexico during WW1 (on the map)?

[@SamAronow]

Mexico had a civil war from 1910-1920.

[@SionTJobbins]

@@SamAronow ah, of course, looooove this attention to detail. Toda!

[@SamAronow]

Well I learned about it in high school history- and from people I knew whose grandparents fought in it- but don't thank me, thank Omniatlas!

[@theobuniel9643]

The Mexican Revolution.

[@Blochr379]

For political reasons sadly the sad history for us begin to start. I very very liked your work, it allowed me to better understand your history from a sourced and historically scientifical way. I was kinda tired of the typical biblical narrative. I think for sure that we disagree a lot politically, noneless I really like your work because it allowed me to build connections to the jewish people and a better understanding of them. This a great quality of your work is to make jewish history accessible to everybody even your « ennemies ». I encourage you to keep up with your work of great quality. Hoping one day justice will be serve, peace will be and the exile of jews and Palestinians will end

[@GaryCat1933]

Did you ever do a Jewish Defense League video or one on the Kahane movement in general? I'd love to see what you could dig up, as it's hard to find information online and very vague stories from some family relatives.

[@Mark_Williams300]

What's a tea executive?

[@inferno0020]

Sam Aronow, have you considered an episode of the Resettlement of the Jews in England in the 1650s?

[@patrickrowan6001]

He mentioned it briefly in the “Return of the Conversos” video (mostly about 17th c Holland) but not in any detail

[@Mark_Williams300]

"Armageddon out of here!": Otto Liman Von Zanders

[@forthrightgambitia1032]

Interesting the RAF had only been founded as a separate branch of the British military months before the Battle of Megiddo.

[@weevilstevil9901]

Hey mister Aronow. I just found John Henry Patterson's grave in Avichayil. I assume you visited the museum there, did you find his grave?

[@helmortkuper2626]

Sephardic Jews in the southern states would be a cool subject.

[@GreenCanvasInteriorscape]

Are they interconnected with the melungeon/moor phenomenon? DNA studies showed a ton of Sephardic roots in the south and that's all I know

[@helmortkuper2626]

@@GreenCanvasInteriorscape nothing to do with these groups at all.

[@perryawe2121]

What is that oval at 20:00?

[@SamAronow]

Reel change.

[@perryawe2121]

@@SamAronow Ah... Ok. Just curious. Great video by the way.

[@welcometonebalia]

Thank you.

[@1HuntingShark]

Excellent video, been waiting for this one for a long time. Just one question from the video: what do you make of a perception I've heard that the Balfour Declaration was intended to keep Russia by way of Russian Jews in the war? Many years ago KZbin history channel The Great War did a brief video of this whole topic: ZMC, NILI and Jewish Legion and stated that the Declaration's timing was to try and keep Russia active on the Eastern Front and Caucuses

[@CaptainHarlock-kv4zt]

"With the Judeans in the Palestine Campaign" by J.H.Patterson is a must read about the specific subject.

[@ethanpf449]

Based as hell

[@patrickkelmer6290]

Finally

[@t.wcharles2171]

Allenby was called 'the bull' for his perceived temper.

[@JF-rh5vq]

why is the emancipation of jews in russia and ukraine getting bad reception and the guy turning the comments off? havent watched the vid, just curious.

[@jack_corvinus]

"Labour was the most zionist" Oh, how times change

[@abhisheksah]

they are still zionist

[@kapasian9009]

No, they don't

[@Normalz-1765]

why does Zabotinski sound like a Khajiit from the Elder Scrolls?

[@jonathanbowers8964]

Where do you think the Elder Scrolls got the inspiration for the Khajiit? Granted the Khajiit or more closely based on Roma culture, but do have some parallels to Medieval stereotypes of Jews.

[@SamAronow]

AFAIK we don't have voice recordings from Jabotinsky, so I just imagined Vlad Vexler by way of Jeremy Irons.

[@SeeHere2]

Doesn't necessarily make the easiest watching at the moment

[@GnosticInformant]

Go Buffalo! (my city)

[@patria3023]

33:28 AHAHHAHA yessssss!!! (When I heard this part I started giggling uncontrollably. Operation nemisis was incredibly based, it helped me win a game in Scholastic Bowl, and is all around justified. I’m a half Fresno gal, so :) )

[@benjaminklass5118]

I wonder what your thoughts are about Uncivlized's Why Israel Exists video, considering its Pro-Palestinian perspective.

[@skp8748]

Yawn hasbara

[@kevaughnramsay9846]

It's Pallywood

[@Ulyssestnt]

"I dont trust the russians even when they..." or in much more classic prose: "I fear the Greeks,even as they bring gifts".

[@trevorauld1039]

As a kiwi I object to being called motley.

[@yehoshuadalven]

When you hear the factual history, all the nonsensical lies just loose their effect.

[@thibautnarme6402]

While I've loved the episode, I feel like something was not properly articulated. So far the series and especially this arc always went in depth to present the actors as well as the nuances in their ideas and respective worldviews motivating their actions. This was of course facilitated by the fact that said actors did write and likely got some time to hone those ideas and worldviews presented in speeches and writings. Here we still get to follow the actors, but the history of ideas and especially the turning point kinda takes a backseat. I hope some more details on The UK's motivation will be provided I in the wrap-up QnA

[@m.a.9571]

Man your videos on jewish history help me a lot in knowing jewish stuff in general ❤❤

[@JonasVilander]

Kudos Sam for using the NATO legend standard for military operations.

[@tedhubertcrusio372]

That's some Aussie humour right there hehehe, 1 Aussie and he's the commander.

[@ravendreaming3966]

Man, that ending is soooo painful. We could've had it all....

[@CrazyPortal11]

I’ve always wondered why the Irish hold so much animosity towards Israel. A basic review of our histories show a natural solidarity. Both struggles for the National reclamation of a people and state erased by others. Sad that it fared otherwise

[@zerop4110]

You'd be amazed at how powerful propaganda can be. It's easy for the Irish, Chinese and even Native Americans to be under the impression that the arabs are indigenous to Israel and that Jews aren't, given that these aforementioned groups are at least living on their soils without hostile neighbors to give the rest of the world that they aren't native to Ireland, China or the Americas.

[@forthrightgambitia1032]

The same could be said for the Labour party.

[@CrazyPortal11]

@dyrtyharry6789 The troubles afflicting all of europe are the products of secular, liberal elites who are majority ethnic European

[@sheev2829]

Antisemitism

[@jamestang1227]

Wonder if it may be related to the struggle of another people for national reclamation and a state erased by others.

[@ioanionica3240]

NAKBA

[@Robert-xx8jx]

Ya israel chai

[@orenfriedman9031]

Who's watching this in 2025?

[@brandonlefton1346]

I just finished Armada of Cats and 🤌🏽 what a fun read.