It was good to die in the twenties: Trumpeldor’s last words in their historical context

Abstract

ABSTRACT Trumpeldor’s last words, “it is good to die for our country,” have been celebrated since his death as a fulfillment of Zionist ideals, but were devaluated as decades went by. I contend that this change is not only a change of evaluation, which followed a change in Zionist pioneering ideology, but primarily a change in interpretation. In the historical context of the 1920s, the sentence had a different meaning: it was an authentic expression of experiences that dissipated in favor of ideological propaganda. Due to historical circumstances, in the 1920s the inevitability of death was taken for granted. Therefore, Trumpeldor’s sentence was not understood by his contemporaneous comrades as a preference of death over life but as a dedication of life, as well as its impending end, to a noble cause. Half a century later, as the situation changed and Jews became more optimistic about their future in the Land of Israel, the earlier experience faded and was forgotten, and the understanding of Trumpeldor’s last words changed.