Golomb, Eliyahu

Eliyahu Golomb was born in 1893 in the Grodno province of the Russian Empire. His father Naftali owned a mill in Volkovysk and, as a well-to-do man, had the opportunity to give his son a good education. So, in 1909, after graduating from a header and studying at a Russian gymnasium, Eliyahu was sent to Palestine , where by then the world's first Hebrew -teaching gymnasium, Herzliya Gymnasium, had opened. In Palestine, Eliyahu was imbued with the ideas of Zionism and, after finishing the seventh grade, was about to drop out to study agriculture in Ben Shemen , but his parents, who had also immigrated to Palestine by this time, insisted on continuing their studies. In 1913, Eliyahu Golomb became one of the first graduates of Herzliya ^[1] . His release, which also included Moshe Shertok (Charet) and Dov Khoz (later brother-in-law and brother-in-law of Golomb, who married Ada Shertok ^[2] ), later played a prominent role in the formation of Jewish Yishuv in Palestine ^[3] .

After graduation, Golomb, together with other graduates of the gymnasium, went to the kibbutz Dgania and Kineret , where he began to cultivate the land ^[1] . Soon, however, one after the other two tragedies followed, which had a key influence on the future fate of Golomb: two days later, two of his classmates, Moshe Barsky and Joseph Zaltsman, were killed by local Arabs in the field. These events convinced Golomb of the need to organize self-defense of the Jewish population of Palestine ^[3] .

Shortly afterwards, Naftali Golomb died in Tel Aviv , and Eliyahu had to return from the kibbutz to the city, where he took control of the mill that remained after his father. Nevertheless, he maintained close ties with the Zionist socialists , and continued to work on the organization of Jewish self-defense units. After the outbreak of World War I, Golomb tried to dissuade Shertok and Khoz from mobilization in the Turkish army, and Joseph Trumpeldor , with whom he made friends in Dgania, from going abroad, fearing that their absence would undermine the strength of Yishuv. Elijah himself also refused to join the army, and for some time was forced to hide as a deserter. However, since the Golombov mill supplied flour to the Turkish army, he was exempted from military service and used the delivery of flour as a means of secretly transporting weapons to Jewish self-defense units. When it became known about the intention of the Turkish authorities to deport the Jewish population of Jaffa deep into the empire, Golomb was one of the supporters of the idea of ​​armed resistance to deportation ^[1] .

On the contrary, in 1918 , after the control of Palestine passed into the hands of the British , Golomb was one of the first to join the Jewish Legion of the British Army and launched agitation for the entry of Jewish youth into it. In the Jewish Legion, he met with the ideologist of working Zionism, Berl Katznelson , on the recommendation of which in 1919 he joined the Ahdut Ha-Avoda party ^[4] . Already in 1920, at the congress of this party, it was decided to organize a centralized military organization of Yishuv - the " Hagans ", one of whose ardent supporters was Golomb. He defended the idea of ​​self-defense detachments as a popular militia, as opposed to the views of Israel Shohat and other leaders of the HaShomer organization, who believed that the Jewish army should be professional ^[3] .

Since 1919, Golomb was a member of the central committee of Ahdut Ha-Avoda, and after joining the MAPAI party in 1930, he was a member of the central committee of the new party. Since 1920, he was a member of Vaad Leumi - the main executive authority of Yishuv, and since 1921 - a permanent delegate to the World Zionist Congresses . During the Arab attack on the Jewish settlement of Tel Hai in the Galilee, Golomb tried to help there from the center of the country, but was late: the settlement was captured by the Arabs, eight of his defenders, including Trumpeldor, were killed. A year later, when the began, Golomb arrived in the city from Dgania with a suitcase of weapons, and managed to organize the defense of the Jewish quarters ^[2] . In the 1920s, he traveled abroad several times for secret purchases of weapons, and since 1931 he became a member of the central command of the Haganah. During the Arab uprising of 1936-1939, Golomb was one of the initiators of the creation of "field detachments" to protect Jewish settlements, adhering to the doctrine of a tough armed rebuff to attacks from the Arabs, but rejecting the idea of ​​"retaliation." Seeing the strength of the Jewish armed forces in unity, he met several times with Vladimir Zhabotinsky , trying to achieve the reunification of the Hagan with the breakaway revisionist armed organizations ETSEL and LEKHI , but did not succeed (the leader of the MAPAY David personally opposed the union Ben-Gurion , who explained his position by “considerations of state discipline” ^[2] ). In the last years of his life, he stood at the origins of the creation of the main striking force of the "Hagana" - the " Palm " detachment ^[4] . During the Second World War, Golomb actively collaborated with the British armed forces, facilitated the inclusion of Palestinian Jews in the operations of the British intelligence services, the preparation of Jewish saboteurs for deployment to the occupied countries of Europe, and towards the end of the war - the creation of a Jewish brigade as part of the British army ^[2] .

Eliyahu Golomb died in 1945 at the age of 52. In his house in Tel Aviv, the Haganah Museum is currently operating, named in its honor “Beit Eliyahu” ^[4] . The kibbutz , founded in 1950 ^[5] , the Tel Aviv Yad Eliyahu district ^[6], and streets in several cities in Israel are also named after him. Eliyahu’s son Golomba was a member of the Knesset from the Maarah and Shinui parties.

• David Tidhar. Eliyahu Golomb // Encyclopedia of pioneers and builders of Yishuv = אנציקלופדיה לחלוצי הישוב ובוניו. - 1947. - T. 2. - S. 972–973.

• Golomb Eliyahu - article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia