Judea Rising
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I changed the parts already posted - not by much, mostly just pushed the second half of Chapter 3 to 1899, so Herzl arrives in France shortly after Dreyfus is pardoned.
Chapter 4: Dreyfus' Choice
From "My Redemption" by General Alfred Dreyfus (ret.), Judean Military Academy Press, 1928 (translated from the Hebrew)
"The morning of November 10, I received a most unexpected visitor. I heard a knock at the door, and when I glanced outside, I saw a carriage drawn up bearing a Turkish flag, complete with two soldiers in Turkish uniform. I opened the door and beheld a slim, well-dressed man standing at the door, holding a briefcase. He looked European, but with the tan of a man who had spent time in a sunny climate. I did not think I had met the man before, but his face looked familiar.
"Shalom, Captain Dreyfus," the man greeted me in an Austrian accent. "A pleasure to meet you at last."
I was about to ask the man's name, when the pieces fell into place. The face. The tan. The Austrian accent. The Ottoman guards. The Hebrew greeting. "Governor Herzl, I presume," I replied, pleased to note the man's surprise at being recognized so quickly, and invited the Governor in.
For a few minutes, we exchanged pleasantries. I asked him how the voyage from Jerusalem had been, and he inquired after my wife and son. My sister brought us refreshments. I then asked him how his own work was proceeding. I had, in fact, been following the Zionist project through the newspapers. I had been originally informed of it by my brother shortly after returning to France, and after being pardoned, I had found it a most unexpected development. That the injustice inflicted upon me had provoked outrage and sympathy across the world had not come as a great surprise. In my brighter moments on Devil's Island, I had allowed myself to hope that I was not suffering in obscurity. But I had been surprised to see a Jewish political movement emerge in response to my misfortunes, and to learn that the Sultan had lent his support.
Herzl began with generalities. He spoke of the difficulties in establishing a new administration, especially when he had no political experience himself. He spoke of the waves of Jewish immigrants, many poor Russian peasants, arriving daily in Yaffa and Haifa. He spoke of the generosity of the Sultan and the Rothschilds. He then informed me that it was his work that brought him here. Curious, I asked him what role I might play. He then described his meeting with the Sultan earlier this year, including their plans for the creation of the Jerusalem Guard. I had not read any of this, and he provided some details as to the nature of this force. With the skill of a reporter, he led me to inquire as to who might command the first Jewish army in centuries.
He grinned. "Well, as it happens, I thought you would make the ideal candidate."
And so the choice was laid out before me. If I accepted, it would mean abandoning any thought of returning to French service. I would have to leave this country, where I had lived almost my entire life, and travel to a distant land. Quite possibly, I would never see France again. My son would grow up in exile - or, rather, would grow up as something other than French. My enemies would see my actions as an admission of guilt. Most likely, my name would never be cleared.
But at that point, my hopes for a revision had grown dim. The President might have pardoned me, but he had chosen to resolve the affair based on the interests of the state, not the path of justice. I might have loved France, as I do to this day, but it was increasingly clear that France did not love me, that she no longer desired my services, that I could not be both Frenchman and Jew. But if I could not be a Frenchman, I could still be a Jew.[1]
Besides, there were other reasons. Accepting the offer would mean a return to work, enabling me to support my family as a man should, rather than being dependent on the charity of family and strangers. And it would not be a simple return to my previous duties, but an advancement to the rank of general - surely the dream of every officer! More than that, I would be creating a new force. Every officer has his own ideas of how an army should be run, but precious few can make those ideas a reality, even those who advance to high command. I would not merely command the Jerusalem Guard. I would be its creator.
I was also motivated by a feeling of helplessness. For years, I had languished in prison, barely aware of my own case. Others had fought for me, while others used my supposed crimes to attack others. Only at the very end had I been able to affect my fate in any way, and even now I was still a victim. This was an opportunity to take back control of my life, to once again command my own destiny. If I declined, history would remember me only as Captain Dreyfus, who was falsely accused of treason. But if I accepted, perhaps General Dreyfus would be known not only for what was done to him, but what he did...
From "Rise of the Scorpion: The Epic Founding of the Judean Legion" by David Scott, Thomas Dunne Books, 2002
...Dreyfus' health had been badly affected by his imprisonment on Devil's Island, so he elected to delay his departure for the Holy Land by a year. But he was not idle during that time.
In January, he returned to Paris, and threw himself into preparations. He studied military history and the geography of the Holy Land. He learned Turkish enough that he could read the regulations of the Ottoman military in the original. He also met with other Jewish officers, seeking to recruit additional personnel. His former classmate, Captain Picard [2], volunteered to serve as his chief of staff...
...On September 22, 1900, Dreyfus and his family set out for Jerusalem. They sailed from Marseilles, arriving in Constantinople on October 2. On October 5, Dreyfus was summoned to the Sultan's Palace, where he would be formally sworn into the Sultan's service.
The ceremony was deliberately orchestrated as a reversal of Dreyfus' own degradation. To the sound of bugles, he was first presented with his uniform jacket. The newly-designed insignia of the Jerusalem Guard was sewn on. The Sultan himself pinned the stars on Dreyfus' shoulder. Finally, he was given his dress sword, which had been heated to a glow as if it had only just been forged. Dreyfus plunged it into a barrel filled with water, and was briefly engulfed in steam. When the steam cleared, standing at attention before the Sultan was General Alfred Dreyfus...
[1] IOTL, Dreyfus seems to have thought of himself exclusively as a Frenchman. His own memoirs contain no mention of his faith. ITTL, he did come to identify as a Jew, and he is writing this account with an eye towards its reception.
[2] Captain Picard (whose first name I have been unable to find), was a classmate of Dreyfus. He had sought to serve on the General Staff, but was denied due to poor grades from an anti-Semitic instructor. Obviously, I could hardly not make use of someone by his name...
"The morning of November 10, I received a most unexpected visitor. I heard a knock at the door, and when I glanced outside, I saw a carriage drawn up bearing a Turkish flag, complete with two soldiers in Turkish uniform. I opened the door and beheld a slim, well-dressed man standing at the door, holding a briefcase. He looked European, but with the tan of a man who had spent time in a sunny climate. I did not think I had met the man before, but his face looked familiar.
"Shalom, Captain Dreyfus," the man greeted me in an Austrian accent. "A pleasure to meet you at last."
I was about to ask the man's name, when the pieces fell into place. The face. The tan. The Austrian accent. The Ottoman guards. The Hebrew greeting. "Governor Herzl, I presume," I replied, pleased to note the man's surprise at being recognized so quickly, and invited the Governor in.
For a few minutes, we exchanged pleasantries. I asked him how the voyage from Jerusalem had been, and he inquired after my wife and son. My sister brought us refreshments. I then asked him how his own work was proceeding. I had, in fact, been following the Zionist project through the newspapers. I had been originally informed of it by my brother shortly after returning to France, and after being pardoned, I had found it a most unexpected development. That the injustice inflicted upon me had provoked outrage and sympathy across the world had not come as a great surprise. In my brighter moments on Devil's Island, I had allowed myself to hope that I was not suffering in obscurity. But I had been surprised to see a Jewish political movement emerge in response to my misfortunes, and to learn that the Sultan had lent his support.
Herzl began with generalities. He spoke of the difficulties in establishing a new administration, especially when he had no political experience himself. He spoke of the waves of Jewish immigrants, many poor Russian peasants, arriving daily in Yaffa and Haifa. He spoke of the generosity of the Sultan and the Rothschilds. He then informed me that it was his work that brought him here. Curious, I asked him what role I might play. He then described his meeting with the Sultan earlier this year, including their plans for the creation of the Jerusalem Guard. I had not read any of this, and he provided some details as to the nature of this force. With the skill of a reporter, he led me to inquire as to who might command the first Jewish army in centuries.
He grinned. "Well, as it happens, I thought you would make the ideal candidate."
And so the choice was laid out before me. If I accepted, it would mean abandoning any thought of returning to French service. I would have to leave this country, where I had lived almost my entire life, and travel to a distant land. Quite possibly, I would never see France again. My son would grow up in exile - or, rather, would grow up as something other than French. My enemies would see my actions as an admission of guilt. Most likely, my name would never be cleared.
But at that point, my hopes for a revision had grown dim. The President might have pardoned me, but he had chosen to resolve the affair based on the interests of the state, not the path of justice. I might have loved France, as I do to this day, but it was increasingly clear that France did not love me, that she no longer desired my services, that I could not be both Frenchman and Jew. But if I could not be a Frenchman, I could still be a Jew.[1]
Besides, there were other reasons. Accepting the offer would mean a return to work, enabling me to support my family as a man should, rather than being dependent on the charity of family and strangers. And it would not be a simple return to my previous duties, but an advancement to the rank of general - surely the dream of every officer! More than that, I would be creating a new force. Every officer has his own ideas of how an army should be run, but precious few can make those ideas a reality, even those who advance to high command. I would not merely command the Jerusalem Guard. I would be its creator.
I was also motivated by a feeling of helplessness. For years, I had languished in prison, barely aware of my own case. Others had fought for me, while others used my supposed crimes to attack others. Only at the very end had I been able to affect my fate in any way, and even now I was still a victim. This was an opportunity to take back control of my life, to once again command my own destiny. If I declined, history would remember me only as Captain Dreyfus, who was falsely accused of treason. But if I accepted, perhaps General Dreyfus would be known not only for what was done to him, but what he did...
From "Rise of the Scorpion: The Epic Founding of the Judean Legion" by David Scott, Thomas Dunne Books, 2002
...Dreyfus' health had been badly affected by his imprisonment on Devil's Island, so he elected to delay his departure for the Holy Land by a year. But he was not idle during that time.
In January, he returned to Paris, and threw himself into preparations. He studied military history and the geography of the Holy Land. He learned Turkish enough that he could read the regulations of the Ottoman military in the original. He also met with other Jewish officers, seeking to recruit additional personnel. His former classmate, Captain Picard [2], volunteered to serve as his chief of staff...
...On September 22, 1900, Dreyfus and his family set out for Jerusalem. They sailed from Marseilles, arriving in Constantinople on October 2. On October 5, Dreyfus was summoned to the Sultan's Palace, where he would be formally sworn into the Sultan's service.
The ceremony was deliberately orchestrated as a reversal of Dreyfus' own degradation. To the sound of bugles, he was first presented with his uniform jacket. The newly-designed insignia of the Jerusalem Guard was sewn on. The Sultan himself pinned the stars on Dreyfus' shoulder. Finally, he was given his dress sword, which had been heated to a glow as if it had only just been forged. Dreyfus plunged it into a barrel filled with water, and was briefly engulfed in steam. When the steam cleared, standing at attention before the Sultan was General Alfred Dreyfus...
[1] IOTL, Dreyfus seems to have thought of himself exclusively as a Frenchman. His own memoirs contain no mention of his faith. ITTL, he did come to identify as a Jew, and he is writing this account with an eye towards its reception.
[2] Captain Picard (whose first name I have been unable to find), was a classmate of Dreyfus. He had sought to serve on the General Staff, but was denied due to poor grades from an anti-Semitic instructor. Obviously, I could hardly not make use of someone by his name...
Here's the link: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...nt-a-different-french-strategy-in-ww1.413092/. (It's also a good TL, BTW.)
Waiting for more...
Waiting for more...
The title is a bit misleading. But in the world of Judea Rising, a TL that produced the OTL State of Israel called "Israel Rising" would likely lead people to assume an ancient setting as wellReading the title I thought this was going to be an ancient Kingdom of Judah/Israel timeline. This looks fascinating--it would be nice to see a more successful and less controversial modern Israel--but just want to put out there that I'd love to read an ancient Israel TL too
.Here, the reason the Jewish state becomes known as Judea is because "Jewish" is used as an informal adjective for the Jewish institutions in Jerusalem Province. As the Hebrew word for Jew is "yihud", this led to people calling the whole place "yihudia", or Judea. Also, not calling it Israel mollified some of the more religious types, who thought that Israel could only be restored by the hand of the divine.
A quick overview of where I'm planning to go with this story (things may change!):
The next chapter will deal with Dreyfus' arrival in Jerusalem, the founding of the Jerusalem Guard, and the language issue (right now, Herzl's administration is rather polyglottal). IOTL, Herzl died in 1904, and I don't really see a way that this timeline will do more than mess up the timing a bit. The next several years have some interesting times in store for the Ottoman Empire - some things will change, some will not. Then we'll dive into World War I (that's not getting butterflied). All I will say about that is that the French are going to be seriously regretting the Dreyfus Affair. The aftermath of World War I and the creation of what is currently titled the Jewish Free State will conclude Part I of Judea Rising.
I'm not entirely sure what will happen afterwards. One idea is to do a travelogue of Judea set in the 1930s, similar to "The Road to Yakutia". That will cover developments of the 1920s, such as the Third Aliyah and the rise of Judean Socialism. I'll return to the standard format for World War II, which is also not getting butterflied. The working title of the World War II section is currently "The Sword of Fire". Finally, I'll do something about the rest of the 20th century, although that might be more of an epilogue.
Chapter 5: The Jerusalem Guard
From "Rise of the Scorpion: The Epic Founding of the Judean Legion" by David Scott, Thomas Dunne Books, 2002
...After a week spent consulting with Ottoman officers in Constantinople, Dreyfus departed for Jerusalem on October 11. He and his family disembarked at Jaffa on October 18 and made the journey to Jerusalem on October 19. That evening, Dreyfus attended Shabbat services at the Western Wall in full dress uniform...
...General Dreyfus' first order of business upon arrival was to establish a headquarters. Herzl had provided him and Captain Picard with temporary quarters and office space at the Sultan, but Dreyfus insisted on a permanent site. He identified the small Arab village of Al-Qastal [1] as ideal, located atop the ruins of an ancient Roman fort overlooking the main road to Jerusalem. A grant from the Rothschilds was sufficient to induce the handful of residents to relocate, and on November 3, the Jewish flag was raised over Hakastel, the first military base of the Jerusalem Guard...
...Dreyfus had little trouble finding recruits. A significant number of Russian Jews had been conscripted into the Russian military, and Dreyfus was eager to make use of them as NCOs (although, he would note, many of those Russian veterans were vague on how they had come to leave Russian service, and quite a few openly admitted to having deserted). His officers were mostly from Western nations, Jews who believed (correctly or not) that they had been denied advancement due to their faith, or simply believed that promotion would be more forthcoming in a brand-new military force.
Most of his recruits were the usual sort - young men with few opportunities, attracted by the prospect of steady pay, rations, and housing. The requirements of the latter factor resulted in the first duties of most recruits being the construction of their own barracks, often under the direction of Russian-born NCOs (creating the enduring stereotype of the angry Russian drill sergeant). By January 1, 1901, no trace remained of the village of Al-Qastal...
...part of the reason for the intensity of military construction in the first years of the Jerusalem Guard was a lack of arms with which to train. The Sultan might have authorized the Guard's creation, but he was also wary of creating a force that might rebel under the wrong circumstances. Arms were largely provided from Ottoman surpluses, and Dreyfus found the rate of delivery maddeniningly slow. Furthermore, the arms themselves were often poorly maintained. To solve the problem, Dreyfus established an arms depot north of Yaffa to repair damaged guns. His reasoning for placing it away from Jerusalem was to give it room to grow, although it is doubtful even he realized that the "gun shop" at Tel Barzel [2] would one day become a world-renowned arms industry...
From "Old-New Tongue: The Revival of the Hebrew Language" by Dr. Avraham Cohen, Hebrew University Press, 1990 (translated from Hebrew)
...The establishment of the Jerusalem Guard brought to the fore one of the most divisive issues in early Zionism: what should the language of the Jewish nation be?
There were essentially four schools of thought on the issue. The first school favored Yiddish. Yiddish had the simple advantage of being widely spoken, particularly by the Ashkenazic Jews who dominated the Zionist movement and made up a majority of Jews worldwide. It was also a recognizably Jewish language. However, Yiddish was also derided by most leading Zionists as the language of the ghetto, a part of the past which they hoped to leave behind.
The second school, which initially included Theodore Herzl and Edmond Rotshayil [3], favored adopting a European language. For obvious reasons, Herzl preferred German, while Rotshayil advocated for French. Initially, both languages were used by Herzl's administration, making multilingualism a virtual necessity. The advocates of the European school believed that if the Jews wanted to build a modern state, they needed a modern (ie, European) language. However, relatively few Jews actually spoke French or German, although Yiddish-speakers could generally make themselves understood by German-speakers if they made an effort to do so.
The third school favored Arabic. This school was dominated by Mizrahi Jews, including both those native to the Holy Land and immigrants from elsewhere in the Empire, many arriving as part of the population exchanges. The Arabic school argued that it was only natural for a nation in the Middle East to speak a Middle Eastern language, and they had the advantage that not only did the Mizrahi Jews speak Arabic, but so did the Arabs who were still a majority in the province.
The fourth school, led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and a number of leading Zionists, favored resurrecting Hebrew. The obstacles were clear - Hebrew had not been a first language in millenia, and few spoke it fluently. However, Hebrew had two great advantages. First, it was a distinctly Jewish language. Second, it was the only language common to all Jews, and if few Jews spoke it fluently, far more spoke at least a little of it.
The Zionist Congress had debated the issue at length for years, with no clear resolution. It had become something of a hot-button topic, occasionally leading to outright violence (particularly directed at Yiddish-speakers). Into this debate entered General Dreyfus...
From "My Redemption" by General Alfred Dreyfus (ret.), Judean Military Academy Press, 1928 (translated from the Hebrew)
Even more maddening than the lack of quality arms was the lack of a common language. I had some experience with troops who spoke other tongues, having met the occasional Breton, Basque, or Catalan in French service. But my new army at Hakastel was a veritable Tower of Babel. Most of my sergeants were Russian, but my officers included Frenchmen, Germans, Austrians, Italians, Britons, and one very loud American. My recruits seemed about equally divided between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim. To top it all off, Herzl seemed determined to stamp out the use of Yiddish, a language I personally did not speak, but seemed to be the most common among my troops.
The solution soon presented itself, although I must admit it took me some time to realize it. I recall multiple incidents where I found two soldiers, obviously from different backgrounds, conversing in broken Hebrew. Giving complex orders was difficult, but simple commands were well-understood, particularly a bellowed "SHEKET!" [4]. Finally, I made my decision, and I immediately sent for Monsieur Ben-Yehuda. Together, we devised a plan to make Hebrew the official language of the Guard, and I helped expand the military terminology of his Hebrew dictionary [5]. By April, daily orders were being posted in Hebrew. In August, I took great pleasure in reading a report on expanding production at Tel Barzel written in the language of King David. After briefly imagining King David reading a report on the production of weapons for his own armies, I forwarded it to Governor Herzl, along with a proposal to support his Hebrew Language Committee, which I envisioned as becoming our own Academie Française [6] [7]...
[1] Historically, Al-Qastal remained an Arab village until 1948, when the site became a key battleground during the Israeli War of Independence. Today it is the suburb of Mevaseret Zion.
[2] "Iron Hill", located more or less on the original site of OTL's Tel Aviv.
[3] "Rotshayil" (רוטשייל) is an ITTL Hebraization of "Rothschild", which was favored by the Rothschilds who settled in Palestine. Its use here is a deliberate anachronism.
[4] "Sheket" is Hebrew for "silence" or "quiet", but can also be used as "shut up". Modern Jews may recall the more polite variant "sheket b'vakashah" ("please be quiet") from Hebrew school or Jewish summer camps.
[5] One result of this is that ITTL, much of Modern Hebrew's military terminology is borrowed from French.
[6] IOTL, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was a prominent figure in the resurrection of the Hebrew language, but his importance has been exaggerated. The Hebrew Language Committee became the Academy of the Hebrew Language in 1953. ITTL, Ben-Yehuda gets formal endorsement from Herzl and Dreyfus, the Academy is created in 1901, and his actual influence mostly matches his renown in popular history.
[7] The same forces - disdain for Yiddish, the need for a language shared by all Jews - resulted in Hebrew being enshrined as the primary language of Israel IOTL, although the process took a bit longer.
...After a week spent consulting with Ottoman officers in Constantinople, Dreyfus departed for Jerusalem on October 11. He and his family disembarked at Jaffa on October 18 and made the journey to Jerusalem on October 19. That evening, Dreyfus attended Shabbat services at the Western Wall in full dress uniform...
...General Dreyfus' first order of business upon arrival was to establish a headquarters. Herzl had provided him and Captain Picard with temporary quarters and office space at the Sultan, but Dreyfus insisted on a permanent site. He identified the small Arab village of Al-Qastal [1] as ideal, located atop the ruins of an ancient Roman fort overlooking the main road to Jerusalem. A grant from the Rothschilds was sufficient to induce the handful of residents to relocate, and on November 3, the Jewish flag was raised over Hakastel, the first military base of the Jerusalem Guard...
...Dreyfus had little trouble finding recruits. A significant number of Russian Jews had been conscripted into the Russian military, and Dreyfus was eager to make use of them as NCOs (although, he would note, many of those Russian veterans were vague on how they had come to leave Russian service, and quite a few openly admitted to having deserted). His officers were mostly from Western nations, Jews who believed (correctly or not) that they had been denied advancement due to their faith, or simply believed that promotion would be more forthcoming in a brand-new military force.
Most of his recruits were the usual sort - young men with few opportunities, attracted by the prospect of steady pay, rations, and housing. The requirements of the latter factor resulted in the first duties of most recruits being the construction of their own barracks, often under the direction of Russian-born NCOs (creating the enduring stereotype of the angry Russian drill sergeant). By January 1, 1901, no trace remained of the village of Al-Qastal...
...part of the reason for the intensity of military construction in the first years of the Jerusalem Guard was a lack of arms with which to train. The Sultan might have authorized the Guard's creation, but he was also wary of creating a force that might rebel under the wrong circumstances. Arms were largely provided from Ottoman surpluses, and Dreyfus found the rate of delivery maddeniningly slow. Furthermore, the arms themselves were often poorly maintained. To solve the problem, Dreyfus established an arms depot north of Yaffa to repair damaged guns. His reasoning for placing it away from Jerusalem was to give it room to grow, although it is doubtful even he realized that the "gun shop" at Tel Barzel [2] would one day become a world-renowned arms industry...
From "Old-New Tongue: The Revival of the Hebrew Language" by Dr. Avraham Cohen, Hebrew University Press, 1990 (translated from Hebrew)
...The establishment of the Jerusalem Guard brought to the fore one of the most divisive issues in early Zionism: what should the language of the Jewish nation be?
There were essentially four schools of thought on the issue. The first school favored Yiddish. Yiddish had the simple advantage of being widely spoken, particularly by the Ashkenazic Jews who dominated the Zionist movement and made up a majority of Jews worldwide. It was also a recognizably Jewish language. However, Yiddish was also derided by most leading Zionists as the language of the ghetto, a part of the past which they hoped to leave behind.
The second school, which initially included Theodore Herzl and Edmond Rotshayil [3], favored adopting a European language. For obvious reasons, Herzl preferred German, while Rotshayil advocated for French. Initially, both languages were used by Herzl's administration, making multilingualism a virtual necessity. The advocates of the European school believed that if the Jews wanted to build a modern state, they needed a modern (ie, European) language. However, relatively few Jews actually spoke French or German, although Yiddish-speakers could generally make themselves understood by German-speakers if they made an effort to do so.
The third school favored Arabic. This school was dominated by Mizrahi Jews, including both those native to the Holy Land and immigrants from elsewhere in the Empire, many arriving as part of the population exchanges. The Arabic school argued that it was only natural for a nation in the Middle East to speak a Middle Eastern language, and they had the advantage that not only did the Mizrahi Jews speak Arabic, but so did the Arabs who were still a majority in the province.
The fourth school, led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and a number of leading Zionists, favored resurrecting Hebrew. The obstacles were clear - Hebrew had not been a first language in millenia, and few spoke it fluently. However, Hebrew had two great advantages. First, it was a distinctly Jewish language. Second, it was the only language common to all Jews, and if few Jews spoke it fluently, far more spoke at least a little of it.
The Zionist Congress had debated the issue at length for years, with no clear resolution. It had become something of a hot-button topic, occasionally leading to outright violence (particularly directed at Yiddish-speakers). Into this debate entered General Dreyfus...
From "My Redemption" by General Alfred Dreyfus (ret.), Judean Military Academy Press, 1928 (translated from the Hebrew)
Even more maddening than the lack of quality arms was the lack of a common language. I had some experience with troops who spoke other tongues, having met the occasional Breton, Basque, or Catalan in French service. But my new army at Hakastel was a veritable Tower of Babel. Most of my sergeants were Russian, but my officers included Frenchmen, Germans, Austrians, Italians, Britons, and one very loud American. My recruits seemed about equally divided between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim. To top it all off, Herzl seemed determined to stamp out the use of Yiddish, a language I personally did not speak, but seemed to be the most common among my troops.
The solution soon presented itself, although I must admit it took me some time to realize it. I recall multiple incidents where I found two soldiers, obviously from different backgrounds, conversing in broken Hebrew. Giving complex orders was difficult, but simple commands were well-understood, particularly a bellowed "SHEKET!" [4]. Finally, I made my decision, and I immediately sent for Monsieur Ben-Yehuda. Together, we devised a plan to make Hebrew the official language of the Guard, and I helped expand the military terminology of his Hebrew dictionary [5]. By April, daily orders were being posted in Hebrew. In August, I took great pleasure in reading a report on expanding production at Tel Barzel written in the language of King David. After briefly imagining King David reading a report on the production of weapons for his own armies, I forwarded it to Governor Herzl, along with a proposal to support his Hebrew Language Committee, which I envisioned as becoming our own Academie Française [6] [7]...
[1] Historically, Al-Qastal remained an Arab village until 1948, when the site became a key battleground during the Israeli War of Independence. Today it is the suburb of Mevaseret Zion.
[2] "Iron Hill", located more or less on the original site of OTL's Tel Aviv.
[3] "Rotshayil" (רוטשייל) is an ITTL Hebraization of "Rothschild", which was favored by the Rothschilds who settled in Palestine. Its use here is a deliberate anachronism.
[4] "Sheket" is Hebrew for "silence" or "quiet", but can also be used as "shut up". Modern Jews may recall the more polite variant "sheket b'vakashah" ("please be quiet") from Hebrew school or Jewish summer camps.
[5] One result of this is that ITTL, much of Modern Hebrew's military terminology is borrowed from French.
[6] IOTL, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was a prominent figure in the resurrection of the Hebrew language, but his importance has been exaggerated. The Hebrew Language Committee became the Academy of the Hebrew Language in 1953. ITTL, Ben-Yehuda gets formal endorsement from Herzl and Dreyfus, the Academy is created in 1901, and his actual influence mostly matches his renown in popular history.
[7] The same forces - disdain for Yiddish, the need for a language shared by all Jews - resulted in Hebrew being enshrined as the primary language of Israel IOTL, although the process took a bit longer.
Good to see this return.
Are you planning on including the kibbutzes here? They were such a major part of Zionist history and the development of the Jewish state, I can't imagine they wouldn't develop in some way here.
First, it's not kibbutzes, it's kibbutzim. Second, yes. I haven't mentioned it yet, but a lot of those Jews who are arriving are establishing kibbutzim. The profile of your average Jewish immigrant ITTL is similar to IOTL, there are just more of them. They tend to be young (including plenty of straight-up teenagers), and a lot of them are socialists or even communists. And some of them are joining the Guard. David Ben-Gurion will be arriving in the next few years...
So the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" aren't leaving the Eastern European ghettos yet?
So the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" aren't leaving the Eastern European ghettos yet?
Oh, they are. But plenty are staying put. Mind you, there are many villages where everyone moved to Palestine... and others where virtually everyone under 25 left.
Also, a lot of those immigrants are people who IOTL came to America. Palestine is closer, and virtually every Jew in the world will be at least tempted to go to the Holy Land. I'll do a bit on the Zionist campaign to encourage immigration.
Worth noting that the largest Jewish population in the world was in Congressional Poland, currently under Russian rule. The Russians are already anti-Semitic and aren't gonna like the idea of their Jews being fifth columnists for the Turks. So I would expect a lot of pogroms in the near future to further drive Jewish immigration into the region, but given the Russian population was 5.2 million by 1897 that's gonna be a tall order for the Ottomans to swallow and/or allow, given their own population IRL was only around 30 or 40 million.
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