17 January—Now there is Trump, notorious draft dodging militarist, con man, deranged dictator, omnivorous glutton. Over a century ago there was Trumpeldor, anti-militarist volunteer, army noncom and officer, war hero, pioneer, vegetarian.

Joseph Trumpeldor isn’t well-known by the world at large, but he’s an Israeli and Jewish national hero (whom most Jews don’t know about). Joseph Vladimirovich Trumpeldor was born in Russia in 1880.

Although Trumpeldor easily passed the exam and qualified for admission to the local gymnasium (high school), because of the Jewish quota, he wasn’t accepted. Surprised? That he was an active Zionist didn’t help. So instead he studied dentistry and qualified in 1902. Evidently dental schools were less antisemitic than high schools. (Even now, gentile dentists speak Yiddish.)

Trumpeldor put it this way, though in Russian: “Along with other Jews, I drank from the cup of suffering and humiliation since childhood because with contempt or hatred, they called me ‘Zhid’ [translation not necessary] or deprived me of rights given to other Russian citizens.”

Before he could open his practice and despite being an anti-militarist (but not a pacifist, mind you), lest he be accused of being a Jewish coward—and to beat the draft, which needed more Jewish cannon fodder like a hole in the head—Trumpeldor enlisted in the infantry.

During the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 as a volunteer in the Tsar’s Special Forces, long story short, Trumpeldor lost his left arm, got promoted to senior sergeant (SFC), and was awarded the Saint George Cross. Although he could have returned to civilian life (but probably not dentistry), he requested to return to the front: “I have one hand left, but it is my right hand, and therefore I wish to share the life of my comrades as before. I ask His Excellency to grant me a sword and a pistol.” He’s lucky he wasn’t disabled by a little bone spur in his foot.

Not long afterward, Sgt. Trumpeldor was captured by the Japanese and spent over a year as a POW. It was a short war and in all events the Japanese back then treated their POWs considerably better than the Japs treated POWs during World War II, so Trumpeldor easily organized the prison camp’s 1,700 Jewish POWs (out of 70,000 Russian POWs. In one camp.). In spite of all that Jewish stuff, when he got back to Russia, he was commissioned a second lieutenant, perhaps the first Jew ever to be a commissioned officer.

Being an active Zionist in deeds as well as words, Trumpador moved to Palestine, which was then part of the Ottoman empire. But he was expelled by the Turks at the outbreak of the Great War because he refused to take Ottoman citizenship. So he took a captain’s commission in the British army, co-founded the Jewish Legion, and was wounded in the Gallipoli fiasco.

After the war Trumpador returned to Russia, which was in the throes of revolution. Still being devoted to a Jewish homeland, he went back to Palestine, where he was unsuccessful in organizing Zionist socialists (nobody’s perfect) but succeeded in other worthy endeavors.

Joseph Trumpeldor was fatally wounded in the defense of Tel Hai (Hill of Life) against the—one guess—Arabs in 1920, along with seven other Jewish defenders under his command. His last words (in Hebrew) are said to have been, “No matter, it’s good to die for our country.”

Kiyat Shmona (Town of the Eight), near the Lebanese border and not far from Tel Hai, a town of about 22,000, is named in honor of the eight Heroes of Tel Hai . . .