Rose Feldman

There were five Jewish battalions that served in the British Army during World War One. They were made up of over 5,000 volunteers, mainly from Palestine, Britain and the United States and were called the ?Jewish Legion?. The Jewish Legion was made up of the following battalions: The Zion Mule Corps, The First Judeans, 38th Battalion of Royal Fusiliers, 39th Battalion - the "American" Battalion, and 40th Royal Fusiliers' Battalion. This lecture will be based upon material found in the museum Beit Hagedudim [Home of the Battalions] in Moshav Avihayil in Israel, and other archives throughout Israel and the UK. The name of the settlement Avihayil means ? ?my father is a soldier?. At the time of the founding of the museum, it initiated collecting material about each soldier by asking them to fill out a questionnaire. But there are other stories that also connect to World War One in Eretz Israel such as the clandestine organization called NILI that spied for the British, the Jewish males that were inducted into the Turkish Army and the Jewish population of Eretz Israel as Eretz Israel became one of the fronts for the war in the Middle East.