Meir Feinstein ( he, מאיר פיינשטיין; October 5, 1927 – April 21, 1947) was an
Irgun
Irgun • Etzel
, image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px
, caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...
member in pre-state
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...
, during the
Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine
A successful paramilitary campaign was carried out by Zionist underground groups against British rule in Mandatory Palestine from 1944 to 1948. The tensions between the Zionist underground and the British mandatory authorities rose from 1938 a ...
. Feinstein, who was sentenced to death by the British authorities, is remembered for his suicide together with
Moshe Barazani
Moshe Barazani, also Barzani ( he, משה ברזני; June 14, 1926 – April 21, 1947), was an Iraqi-born Kurdish Jew and a member of Lehi ("Freedom Fighters of Israel," aka the "Stern Gang") underground movement in pre-state Mandate Palestine ...
, another Jewish underground fighter under sentence of death; the two killed themselves embracing each other with a live grenade lodged between them hours before their scheduled hangings. He is memorialized in Israel today as one of 12
Olei Hagardom
Olei Hagardom ( he, עולי הגרדום, lit. "those who ascended to the gallows") refers to members of the two Jewish Revisionist pre-state underground organisations Irgun and Lehi, who were tried in British Mandate courts and sentenced to ...
.
Early life
Meir Feinstein was born in the
Old City of Jerusalem
The Old City of Jerusalem ( he, הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה, translit=ha-ir ha-atiqah; ar, البلدة القديمة, translit=al-Balda al-Qadimah; ) is a walled area in East Jerusalem.
The Old City is traditionally divided into ...
. His parents, Bela and Eliezer, immigrated from
Brisk. As a boy, he received a religious education; he studied at the
Etz Chaim Yeshiva for ten years, and was a disciple of
Aryeh Levin
Aryeh Levin ( he, אריה לוין; March 22, 1885 - March 28, 1969) was an Orthodox rabbi dubbed the "Father of Prisoners" for his visits to members of the Jewish underground imprisoned in the Central Prison of Jerusalem in the Russian Compo ...
. During his childhood, his father died, and he had to work to help support the family. He worked in a series jobs in Jerusalem, in
Ramatayim
Hod HaSharon ( he, הוֹד הַשָּׁרוֹן, lit. "Splendor of the Sharon, Israel, Sharon plain") is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel. The city is located approximately east of the Mediterranean coastline, s ...
, and in the kibbutzim of
Negba
Negba ( he, נֶגְבָּה) is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located in the northern Negev desert near the cities of Kiryat Malakhi and Ashkelon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Yoav Regional Council. In it had a population of .
The name of ...
and
Givat HaShlosha
Givat HaShlosha ( he, גִּבְעַת הַשְּׁלֹשָׁה, ''lit.'' Hill of the three) is a kibbutz in central Israel. Located about 4 km east of Petah Tikva, near the Yarkon river, it falls under the jurisdiction of Drom Hasharon R ...
.
Haganah and British Army service
While at Givat HaShlosha, Feinstein joined the
Haganah
Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the ...
. During his military training, Feinstein, an aspiring writer, educated himself in secular subjects with books sent to him by his brother from Jerusalem.
In 1944, during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, after rumors of the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
began spreading, Feinstein enlisted in the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
. Although only 16 at the time, he enlisted using a forged birth certificate claiming he was 20. Feinstein was accepted and served for two and a half years in the
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...
, during which he was stationed in Palestine,
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, and
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
. He was discharged from the British Army in August 1946.
Irgun activities
While still in the British Army, Feinstein had met other Palestinian Jews who were
Irgun
Irgun • Etzel
, image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px
, caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...
members, and he began helping them smuggle weapons stolen from British military camps to Palestine for Irgun use.
Following his discharge, he joined the Irgun's Jerusalem branch. He initially worked in the Irgun's propaganda section, but was eventually promoted to join the Combat Corps.
On October 30, 1946, Feinstein participated in a raid on the Jerusalem railway station. The attack was one of a series of sabotage operations the Irgun carried out against the railways that day, as part of the Irgun's overall efforts to paralyze the British Mandatory government. The British had advance intelligence of the plan, and the operation was further compromised when the Irgun, not wanting to harm civilians in the station, published an advance warning. On the day of the raid, the British were waiting in ambush at the station. The Irgun raiders arrived in two taxis, and Feinstein drove the one carrying the bombs which were to be used - three suitcases filled with explosives. The team then rushed into the station, laid the three suitcase bombs, and put up a sign warning of mines. However, they came under British fire, and four of the attackers were hit, including Feinstein, whose left arm was shattered. Feinstein and some teammates rushed back to his taxi, and managed to escape. Despite his injury, Feinstein managed to drive the taxi, under a hail of British gunfire, away from the station using only one arm. After their escape, the British attempted to remove the suitcase bombs they had abandoned. When a police sapper tried to lift one of the bombs, it exploded, killing him and devastating the interior of the station.
Capture and trial
After escaping, Feinstein drove the taxi to Jerusalem's
Yemin Moshe
, settlement_type = Neighborhood of Jerusalem
, image_skyline = משכנות שאננים בירושלים ביחד עם כנסיית דורמיציון ברקע.JPG
, imagesize = 300px
, image_caption = Ha-Brekha street
, su ...
quarter, where the team then scattered, hoping to slip away. Feinstein's arm, however, continued bleeding heavily, and he left a trail of blood behind him. Shortly afterward, the police discovered the abandoned taxi, riddled by bullets and with blood-soaked seats, in the Yemin Moshe quarter. Feinstein was arrested when they followed the trail of blood from the taxi to Feinstein. He was taken to hospital, where his shattered left arm was amputated.
[Bell, Bowyer J.: ''Terror out of Zion'' (1976), p. 182][
Feinstein's trial in a Jerusalem military court opened on March 25, 1947. He did not participate in the proceedings, refused legal counsel, and refused to recognize the authority of the British court to try him, other than to speak at the summation. Before the reading of the verdict Feinstein gave a defiant speech against British rule, saying:
]
Officers of the army of conquest!
A regime of hanging trees is the regime you wish to impose on this land, which was destined to be a lighthouse for all of
humanity, and in your foolish wickedness, you presumed that by this regime you will break our people's spirit, the people to whom
this whole country had been a gallows. You were wrong. You will learn that you have encountered steel, steel forged in the fire
of love and hatred - love for the homeland and freedom, hatred for enslavement and invader. Burning steel it is. You will not
break it. You will burn your hands.
How great is your blindness, British tyrants? Did you not notice who stands against you in this campaign, unexampled in the
history of mankind? Shall you scare us with death? We, who have listened for years to the rattling of the wheels of them Railroad
cars, who led our brothers, our parents, the best of our nation - to slaughter, which too had no precedent in human history? We,
who asked, and ask ourselves everyday: in what are we better than them? From the millions of our brothers? What have we won? For
we could have been among them and with them in the days of fear and in the moments of dying.
And to these recurring questions, there is in our conscience but one answer: we remained alive not to live and await in
conditions of slavery and oppression, a new Treblinka. We remained alive, to ensure life, freedom and dignity for us, for our
nation, for our children and their children for generations to come. We remained alive so that it wouldn't matter anymore that
which happened there and might happen under your rule, the rule of treason, the rule of blood.
Therefore we shall not be frightened, for we have learned and by countless of victims for nothing we have learned - that there is
life worse than death, and there is death greater than life…
On April 21, 1947, a few hours before their scheduled execution by hanging in the Jerusalem Central Prison in the Russian Compound
The Russian Compound ( he, מִגְרַשׁ הָרוּסִים, ''Migraš ha-Rusim'', ar, المسكوبية, ''al-Muskubīya'', russian: Русское подворье в Иерусалиме) is one of the oldest districts in central Jer ...
, now the Museum of the Underground Prisoners, could be carried out, he and his friend and fellow prisoner Moshe Barazani
Moshe Barazani, also Barzani ( he, משה ברזני; June 14, 1926 – April 21, 1947), was an Iraqi-born Kurdish Jew and a member of Lehi ("Freedom Fighters of Israel," aka the "Stern Gang") underground movement in pre-state Mandate Palestine ...
blew themselves up in their cells with an improvised grenade
A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...
which had been smuggled to them in a hollowed-out oranges
An orange is a fruit of various citrus species in the family Rutaceae (see list of plants known as orange); it primarily refers to ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'', which is also called sweet orange, to distinguish it from the related ''Citrus × ...
. They lit the grenade and then stood embracing each other, with the grenade lodged between them.
Legacy
The story of Feinstein and Barazani became one of the most famous tales in the history of Zionism
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a Nationalism, nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is ...
. Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin ( ''Menaḥem Begin'' (); pl, Menachem Begin (Polish documents, 1931–1937); ''Menakhem Volfovich Begin''; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. B ...
was so moved by the deeds of the two men that he requested in his will that he be buried next to them on the Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet ( he, הַר הַזֵּיתִים, Har ha-Zeitim; ar, جبل الزيتون, Jabal az-Zaytūn; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge east of and adjacent to Jeru ...
, which he was.
Just before his death, Feinstein gave to British prison guard Thomas Henry Goodwin, whom he and Barazani had nicknamed "the good jailer", a copy of the Bible, inscribed in Hebrew and English, "In the shadow of the gallows, 21.4.47. To the British soldier as you stand guard. Before we go to the gallows, accept this Bible as a memento and remember that we stood in dignity and marched in dignity. It is better to die with a weapon in your hands than to live with hands raised. Meir Feinstein". He then requested a moment of privacy for prayer, which prevented Goodwin from being able to stop the grenade being detonated (saving Goodwin from being injured by the grenade). In 2007, Goodwin's son Dennis donated the Bible to Feinstein's nephew Eliezer, who received it on behalf of the Museum of Underground Prisoners in Jerusalem at a commemorative state ceremony.[60 Years Later: Feinstein's Bible Returned to Family](_blank)
Begin Center Diary
Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin ( ''Menaḥem Begin'' (); pl, Menachem Begin (Polish documents, 1931–1937); ''Menakhem Volfovich Begin''; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. B ...
brought up the story during a speech in 1981:
"Our Mizrahim were courageous fighters – already in the underground. Feinstein was from European origins, What's it called? Ashkenazi. Moshe Barazani was a Sephardic Jew from Iraq. In the night, after they were sentenced to death, they were due to be taken to the gallows in the early morning, the Rabbi insisted that he would come to accompany them and they didn't want to harm the Rabbi. They held close to their hearts a hand grenade – they pulled the trigger... Ashkenazi? Iraqi? Jews! Brothers! Fighters!"
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feinstein, Meir
1927 births
1947 suicides
Ashkenazi Jews in Mandatory Palestine
Olei Hagardom
Irgun members
People who committed suicide in prison custody
Prisoners who died in British military detention
Suicides by explosive device
People from Jerusalem
Royal Engineers soldiers
Lithuanian Jews
Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives
Deaths by hand grenade
Palestinian people who died in prison custody
Prisoners sentenced to death by the British military
Haganah members