Menachem Begin

Menachem Wolfovitch Begin (August 16, 1913-March 9, 1992) ( name in Hebrew: {{Audio|He-Menachem_Begin.ogg|??????? ???????}} ) became the 6th Prime Minister of Israel in May 1977. With the mediation of US President Jimmy Carter, Begin negotiated the Camp David Accords with President Sadat of Egypt, agreeing on the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from the Sinai Peninsula and its return to Egypt. Begin and Sadat were awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for this implementation of "Land for peace".

Early life

Begin was born to Ashkenazi Jews in Brest-Litovsk ("Brisk"), a town famous for its Talmudical scholars such as Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik (1853-1918) who was the town's leading rabbi when Begin was born, (see also Brisk yeshivas.) Begin received a combined traditional Torah and secular primary education. He retained a life-long private commitment to Jewish observance and Torah study and always had the best relations with Haredi Judaism rabbis; adopting the guise of a religious Jew and using the alias "Rabbi Chaim Sussover", years later when hiding from the British in Palestine as leader of the Irgun. Brisk was then still in the Russian empire, (it was also connected to Lithuania at one time), which became part of Poland from 1919 to 1939 and is today a part of Belarus and known simply as Brest. His father was a community leader, an ardent Zionist, and an admirer of Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) the founder of modern political Zionism. Both of Begin's parents perished in the Holocaust. During the 1930s Menachem Begin trained as a lawyer in Warsaw and became a key disciple of Zeev Jabotinsky (1880-1940) founder of the anti-socialist Revisionist Zionism movement and its Betar youth wing. From 1939 Begin was the leader of Betar. He escaped the Nazis, but from 1940-1941 he was imprisoned by the Soviet Union, he was interrogated and sent to Siberia. Begin recorded his experiences in great detail in the autobiographical books that he later wrote and published. In 1941, following his release under the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement, he joined the Polish army of Anders, and left it along with many other Jewish soldiers while stationed in Palestine.

Related Topics:
Ashkenazi - Jew - Brest-Litovsk - Town - Talmud - Chaim Soloveitchik - Brisk yeshivas - Torah - Torah study - Haredi Judaism - Rabbi - Alias - Irgun - Russia - Lithuania - Poland - 1919 - 1939 - Belarus - Brest - Zionist - Theodor Herzl - The Holocaust - 1930s - Warsaw - Zeev Jabotinsky - Socialist - Revisionist Zionism - Betar - Nazi - 1940 - 1941 - Soviet Union - Siberia - Autobiographical - Sikorski-Mayski Agreement - Army of Anders

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