From the Tiberias massacre of 1938 to the events of October 7, the civilian defense units that have saved so many lives in Israel are far from a recent invention. What happened in that massacre nearly 90 years ago, and how did it shape the way the Jews of the Land of Israel learned to defend themselves?
Captain Wingate Learns Hebrew: How a British Officer Shaped Israel’s Defense Forces
Captain Orde Wingate was an elite soldier and a non-Jewish Zionist visionary who, in Mandatory Palestine, established one of the world’s first modern counterterrorism units. Fighting shoulder to shoulder with Jewish comrades, he successfully confronted the violent riots that had shaken the country and developed a doctrine of warfare that has been adopted across the globe. It was even used to counter the Hamas attack on October 7. Now, Wingate’s personal collection of documents from his time in the Land of Israel has arrived at the National Library of Israel.
