Yehoshua Heschel Yeivin

Yehoshua Heschel Yeivin (Hebrew: ; 10 May 1891 — 13 April 1970; also spelled Yehoshua Yevin) was an Israeli doctor, writer, translator, journalist, and leader within the Revisionist Zionist movement.

Early life Yehoshua Heschel Yeivin was born on 10 May 1891 in Vinnytsia, in the south-west of the Russian Empire (today Ukraine), to parents Yisrael (son of Isaac) and Rachel (née Marshalkovich) Yeivin. Yisrael Yeivin was from a middle-class, traditional Hasidic family, while Rachel was descended from a well known non-Hasidic religious family; Yisrael was a descendant of the Rabbi Jacob Yosef of Ostroh, revered head of a Hasidic dynasty. Rachel was descended from the administrative leader (Marszał) of Polish Jewry, Rabbi David Halevy Parness. At the age of four, Yehoshua was orphaned, and from then on was raised by his maternal grandmother Tzina Golda Marshalkovich in Mezhirichi.

Yeivin received a traditional Jewish education, initially studying Torah and Mishnah privately, before continuing his education at the Hebrew Gymnasium in Vilna. He was said to have excelled in his religious education and that, by eight years old, he had already memorized the entire Book of Isaiah.

From a young age, he was interested in Zionist ideas, serving as a member of the "Yavna" Zionist Association and as a member of the local "Foreign Language Enthusiasts" club, where he gave lectures in Hebrew.

Yeivin later studied medicine at the University of Moscow. After completing his studies, he was drafted into the Russian Army and served as a doctor during the First World War. Following the war, he began a literary career in both Yiddish and Hebrew, publishing poems, short stories, and reflections in local Jewish publications. Many of his early works reflect on his experiences in the war. In 1919, his story "Amongst the Evening Shadows" ("בין צללי ערב") was published in the Odessa-based magazine Mashuat ("משואות"), edited by Moshe Glikson (later the editor of Ha'aretz newspaper).

Yeivin, increasingly dissatisfied with what he regarded as the privileging of socialism over Zionist goals, split with the Labour Zionist movement in 1928. He then moved towards the right-wing Revisionist movement.

In February 1928, he participated in a summit of Revisionist Zionist workers, and founded the "Revisionist Labour Group" ("גוש העבודה הרוויזיוניסטי") alongside Abba Ahimeir and Uri Zvi Greenberg. From then on, Yeivin became one of the main thinkers of Revisionist Maximalist ideology, a far-right variant of Zionism which took inspiration from the militant practices of Italian fascism. He was hired by Ze'ev Jabotinsky to contribute to Doar Ha'Yom (דאר היום), a daily founded by Itamar Ben-Avi.

Following the 1929 Palestine riots, in 1930, Ahimeir, Greenberg, and Yeivin founded Brit HaBirionim (ברית הבריונים), a clandestine, militant, and self-declared fascist group. Brit HaBirionim sought to overthrow British rule in Palestine and establish a Jewish state based on nationalist, integralist principles. The group participated in several actions, mostly anti-British in nature, including organizing protests against the British-led census and against visits from British officials. Members of Brit HaBirionim defied British orders by blowing the shofar at the Western Wall in 1930. In 1933, the group firebombed the German consulate in Jerusalem and tore down the swastika flag from German consulates in Jerusalem and Jaffa. thumb

Later life After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Yeivin's political publishing became less frequent. He also began to suffer from health problems and was going blind. The couple's first son, Yisrael, was a lecturer in Hebrew language and literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was awarded the Israel Prize in 1989 for his contributions to the study of the Hebrew language. His second son, Ze'ev, served as a member of Lehi until 1948, at which point he joined the Israel Defence Forces, with whom he would serve until 1951. Later, Ze'ev studied geography, geology, and history at Hebrew University. He earned a PhD in 1971 and worked in Israel's Antiquities Authority until 1991.