Ehud Olmert
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30 March 1998. (1998-03-30) (aged 90) Mordechai Olmert ( Hebrew: מרדכי אולמרט; 16 January 1908 – 30 March 1998) was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Herut between 1955 and 1961. He was also the father of Ehud Olmert, who served as Prime Minister between 2006 and 2009. [1]
- 30 March 1998 (aged 90)
- Introduction
- Foundation: Betar Harbin
- Expansion: Betar Shanghai
- A Jewish Military Unit Formed in Shanghai
- Consolidation: Culture, Sport and Finances
- Accomplishments: Personalities
- Epilogue: Homecoming
- Bold Plans Against The British in The Far East
- Conclusion
Scattered over several provinces and cities1and gathered from many countries, China’s modern Jewish communities had very little in common. Unlike Europe’s Jewish communities, which had lived there for centuries, sharing histories, languages, and cultures, Jews arrived in China between the 1850s (mostly Baghdadi Jews who came by choice) and the late...
Harbin’s Zionist-Revisionist Alliance and BETAR were organized with the support of Alexander Yakovlevich Gurvitch (1899-1980), who had arrived from Haifa in 1928. China’s BETAR branch was officially established in Harbin on May 18, 1929.7 Gurvitch was elected the first president of the Revisionist movement in China and became BETAR’s Netziv (commis...
Unlike Harbin, whose foreign population – including the Jewish community (about 10,000 from 1932 to 1938 and some 4,000 in 1940)23 – was culturally homogenous, mostly Russian, Shanghai was bigger, more heterogeneous and cosmopolitan, and was hardly infected by anti-Semitism. Still a young girl (born in 1917), Judith Hasser, who became acquainted wi...
These were provided by the Shanghai Volunteer Corps (SVC), formed in 1853 to protect Shanghai’s foreigners following the Opium War. At first, BETAR allowed its members over the age of 18 to join the Corps’ British and American battalions as individuals. However, in the summer of 1932, BETAR proposed to the SVC to create a separate Jewish platoon. A...
BETAR China (and the Revisionist Party) published at least five journals since the 1930s. First, Hadegel (the Flag, Gadegel in Russian) was published in Harbin, from January 15, 1932, to September 1, 1941, as a bi-weekly. It was the first Jewish youth movement journal in the Far East. In addition, a weekly “wall newspaper” was published at the BETA...
There is little doubt that, compared to other Jewish organizations in China and later in Israel, BETAR’s impact was unique. In China, and especially in Harbin and the northeast, its primary contribution was security and defense against Russian anti-Semites and hooligans. BETAR, with its elaborate uniforms, colorful parades, marching bands, sports c...
Following Japan’s defeat in 1945, BETAR China expired in stages. Harbin was the first to feel the change. As soon as the Soviets entered Harbin, just three days before Japan’s surrender, some two dozen Jewish community leaders of different persuasions, headed by Dr. A. Kaufman, were summoned to Hotel Moderne (Jewish owned). Transported to the Sovie...
These plans were meant to urge the British to leave Palestine on the day assigned by the UN, and preparations had begun among BETAR members in Shanghai for actions to hurt the British in places they did not expect. BETAR prepared to attack military airfields in Singapore and Hong Kong as well as facilities of the British consulates in Beijing, Shan...
From the very beginning, BETAR activities and nature in China were not deterred by the distance from the movement’s headquarters in Europe. Remoteness had advantages (more flexibility and freedom in decision-making and relations with other Jewish organizations in China), as well as disadvantages. For example, China’s Revisionists could not attend t...
Apr 10, 1998 · JERUSALEM — Mordechai Olmert, 87, one of the most distinguished pioneers of Israel's land settlement and former member of the Second and Third Knessets, died at Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba on Monday of last week and was buried at the Binyamina cemetery.
Aug 1, 2008 · In the 1950s Olmert’s father, Mordechai, had been a Knesset member for Herut, Likud’s predecessor, during the party’s lonely decades as a struggling opposition party. Ehud Olmert won...
Jan 9, 2007 · The Israeli prime minister knows this firsthand: His parents, Mordechai and Bella, were among thousands of Jews who fled persecution in Russia in the early 20th century, settling in the northern...
Jan 5, 2006 · Prime Minister. Ehud Olmert was born in Nahalat Jabotinsky, near Binyamina, on 30th September, 1945. His father, Mordechai Olmert, was a member of the Revisionist movement and Herut. In the Israel Defense Forces, Ehud Olmert became a Unit Officer in the Golani Brigade and was also military correspondent for the "Bamahane" journal.
Aug 11, 2008 · The fall of Ehud Olmert is a tragedy for Israel and the world–squandering a genuine opportunity for a breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab...
