Ze'ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky (1880 - 1940) Related Links: "The
Iron Wall" | Revisionist Zionism | Jewish Legion Ze'ev
Jabotinsky was a Zionist activist, orator, and writer who
founded the Betar Movement. He was also a soldier who founded
the Jewish Legion during World War I. Jabotinsky (born October
18, 1880; died August 4, 1940) was born as Vladimir into a
middle-class Jewish family in the Russian city of Odessa. At the
age of 18, he left Odessa to study law in Italy and Switzerland,
where he also served as a foreign correspondent for several
wellknown Russian newspapers. His reports and articles were
widely read and soon became recognized as one of the brilliant
exponents of Russian journalism. All his reports and articles
were signed with his literary pseudonym Altalena. Ze'ev returned
to Odessa in 1901 where he worked on the editorial staff of
Odesskiya Novosti, but the pogrom against the Jews of Kishinev
in 1903 spurred Jabotinsky to undertake Zionist activity. Though
he admitted that he "no inner contact