All About Jewish Theatre - Samson and Delilah (1926 / 1949 )

Samson (1926) by Ze'ev Jabotinsky (The Novel in Russion , Hebrew and English )

About the Novel

In his novel Samson Jabotinsky offers an analysis of Samson's character, depicting him as a hero involved with his enemies the Philistines, learning their lifestyle and customs, and cunningly using this knowledge in order to strike them continuously.

The novel was originally written in Russian (1926), and was later translated into Hebrew and other languages. The 1949 Hollywood film Samson and Delilah directed by Cecil B. DeMille is based on this novel.

About the Author

Born: October 16, 1880
Odessa, Ukraine

Died: August 4, 1940
New York, USA

Biography:

Ze'ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky was a Zionist leader, author, orator, soldier, and founder of the Jewish Legion in World War I. He was raised in a Jewish middle-class home and educated in Russian schools, with little formal Jewish education. Jabotinsky's talents as a journalist became apparent even before he finished high school. His first writings were published in Odessa newspapers when he was 16. Upon graduation he was sent to Bern, Switzerland and later to Italy as a reporter for the Russian press. He wrote under the pseudonym "Altalena". While abroad, he also studied law at University of Rome.

After the Kishinev pogrom of 1903, Jabotinsky joined the Zionist movement, where he quickly earned a reputation as a talented speaker and leader of the intellectually oriented youth. During the ensuing pogroms, he organized self-defense units in the various Jewish communities throughout Russia and struggled for the civil rights of the Jewish population as a whole. Jabotinsky was elected as a delegate to the Sixth Zionist Congress.

During World War I, he conceived of the idea of establishing a Jewish Legion to fight alongside the British against the Ottomans who then controlled Palestine. Together with Joseph Trumpeldor, he created the Zion Mule Corps. Only in 1917, however, did the government agree to establish three Jewish units. Jabotinsky himself fought against the Turks in the Jordan Valley in 1918 and was decorated for bravery.
After the 1920 Palestine riots, and at the demand of the Arab leadership, the British searched the offices and apartments of the Zionist leadership. At Jabotinsky's house they found 3 rifles, 2 pistols, and 250 rounds of ammunition. A committee of inquiry placed responsibility for the riots on the Zionist Commission, for provoking the Arabs. Jabotinsky was given a 15-year prison term for possessing weapons.

After the war, Jabotinsky was elected to the first legislative assembly in Palestine, and in 1921, he was elected to the executive council of the World Zionist Organization. He quit the latter group in 1923, however, due to differences of opinion between him and its chairman, Chaim Weizmann, and established the new revisionist party called Alliance of Revisionists-Zionists and its youth movement, Betar (a Hebrew acronym for the "League of Joseph Trumpeldor"). His new party demanded that the Zionist movement recognize as its objective the establishment of a Jewish state along both banks of the Jordan River.
In 1929, Jabotinsky left Palestine to attend the Sixteenth Zionist Congress. The British authorities did not allow him to return.

In 1933 Jabotinsky was trying to refute the allegations that members of his movement murdered Arlozorov, and in 1934 he signed three agreements with David Ben-Gurion in London in an attempt to stop the growing hatred between right and left wings. However, these agreements were rejected in a poll. In 1935 Jabotinsky retired from the World Zionist Organization when his demand to declare Zionism's final goal as the establishment of a Jewish State, and he set up the New Zionist Organization.

In 1937 Jabotinsky took command of the Irgun (shorthand for Ha'Irgun Ha'Tsvai Ha'Leumi B'Eretz Yisrael, "National Military Organization in the Land of Israel") and supported its acts against the terror and murder of Jews by Arab groups. He objected to the Peel Commission's Partition Plan, which the official Zionist leadership agreed to discuss. As head of the New Zionist Organization he made connections with governments and political sources, as head of Betar he educated Jewish youth for fighting to free the land of Israel. The Irgun, the New Zionist Organization and Betar acted together to bring thousands of illegal immigrants.

He died from a heart attack in New York, on August 4, 1940, while visiting an armed Jewish self-defense camp run by Betar facilities. A request by B'nai Brith that he be buried in Israel was refused by Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. In 1964, Levi Eshkol permitted the reburial of Jabotinsky and his wife in Jerusalem at Mount Herzl Cemetery.

Ze'ev Jabotinsky left an extensive literary-philosophical legacy behind him. His writings were published in 18 volumes, and dozens of street and institutions are named after him across Israel.

His literary works are kept by the Jabotinsky Institute in Israel, Tel Aviv.

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