Israel Eldad

Israel Scheib (later Eldad) was born in 1910 in Pidvolochysk, Galicia in a traditional Jewish home. The Scheibs wandered as refugees during the First World War. In 1918, in Lvov, young Scheib witnessed a funeral procession for Jews murdered in a pogrom. After high school, Scheib enrolled at the Rabbinical Seminary of Vienna for religious studies and the University of Vienna for secular studies. He completed his doctorate on "The Voluntarism of Eduard von Hartmann, Based on Schopenhauer," but never took his rabbinical exams at the seminary.[1]

Meanwhile, he attended, with his father, a protest demonstration in front of the local British Consulate following the 1929 Palestine riots in Palestine. The next year he read a poem by Uri Zvi Greenberg, "I'll Tell It to a Child," about a messiah who cannot redeem his people because they are not ready to accept redemption. Two or three years later, Scheib met Greenberg at a speech Greenberg was giving entitled "The Land of Israel Is in Flames."

Scheib's first job after graduation was high school teaching in Volkovisk. Scheib joined the staff of the Teachers Seminary in Vilna in 1937 while this city was part of Poland, where he stayed for two years.

Israel Eldad, circa 1948.

The Lehi veterans organized politically as the Fighters' List. The party won one seat in the election for the First Knesset and dissolved afterwards. At one party meeting, Eldad lectured on Sulam, Jacob's ladder (based on Genesis 28:10–19, where Jacob dreams of a ladder uniting heaven and earth).

Eldad taught Bible and Hebrew literature in an Israeli high school until Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion intervened and had him dismissed. Ben-Gurion was afraid Eldad would imbue the students with his Lehi ideology. Eldad went to court and won, but found few people willing to hire him after Ben-Gurion had labeled him a danger to the state.

In 1962, Eldad was made a lecturer at the Technion in Haifa. He taught there for twenty years. Starting from 1982 Eldad was a lecturer at the Ariel University Center of Samaria.

For 14 years he published a revolutionary journal, Sulam. Eldad spent half of 1949 writing his memoirs, entitled Maaser Rishon. He wrote histories of underground battles, a biography of the mayor of Ramat Gan, a newspaper-style review of Jewish history called Chronicles, a book of Bible commentary, Hegionot Mikra, weekly newspaper columns, and many more books, encyclopedia entries and other works. In 1988, Eldad was awarded Tel Aviv's Bialik Prize for his contributions to Israeli thought.

By the 1990s, Eldad was known as the doyen of Israeli nationalists. Much of his work has been translated into English, mostly by Zev Golan.[5] Among his works: Chronicles ISBN 965-7108-15-2. The Jewish Revolution appeared in 1971, and was reissued in 2007. Free Jerusalem includes a chapter by Eldad ("Meanwhile, A European Interlude") about Polish Jewry on the eve of war. Israel: The Road to Full Redemption, a translation of an article in Sulam, was published in 1961 and is today a virtually unobtainable brochure. A website is devoted to disseminating articles by Eldad and his underground colleagues.[6] His memoirs of the time he led the Lehi underground organisation, The First Tithe, were translated and first published in 2008. God, Man and Nietzsche includes a lengthy examination of Eldad's philosophy of history and excerpts from an article about Nietzsche written by Eldad in the underground.[7]

When he died on the first day of the Hebrew month of Shevat, in January 1996, his funeral was attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Lehi commander and prime minister Yitzhak Shamir and Knesset Speaker Dov Shilansky. Eldad was buried on the Mount of Olives,[8] at the foot of the grave of his mentor and friend, Uri Zvi Greenberg.

Israel Eldad in a political campaign in Jerusalem, 1969

The book Stern: The Man and His Gang by Zev Golan has a biography of Eldad and a detailed comparison of his political ideas and goals with those of other Lehi leaders.

• In 1977, Eldad was awarded the Tchernichovsky Prize for exemplary translation.
• In 1988, he was the co-recipient (jointly with Zvi Meir Rabinovitz) of the Bialik Prize for Jewish thought.[11]
• In 1990, he received the Yakir Yerushalayim (Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem) award from the city of Jerusalem.[12]

Many of Eldad's political and philosophical teachings continue to be espoused by the Magshimey Herut (achievers of liberty) organization, the Zionist Freedom Alliance, and by the Hatikva political party, the latter one led by Eldad's son Aryeh. The Israeli settlement Kfar Eldad was named after him.

• The Jewish Revolution: Jewish Statehood (Israel: Gefen Publishing House, 2007), ISBN 978-965-229-414-2
• Maaser Rishon. Originally published in 1950 in Hebrew. English translation: The First Tithe (Tel Aviv: Jabotinsky Institute, 2008), ISBN 978-965-416-015-5
• Israel: The Road to Full Redemption (New York: Futuro Press, 1961)

• List of Bialik Prize recipients

• Ada Amichal Yevin, Sambatyon (Israel: Bet El, 1995) (Hebrew)
• Zev Golan, Free Jerusalem: Heroes, Heroines and Rogues Who Created the State of Israel (Israel: Devora, 2003), ISBN 1-930143-54-0
• Zev Golan, God, Man and Nietzsche: A Startling Dialogue between Judaism and Modern Philosophers (New York: iUniverse, 2007), ISBN 0-595-42700-6