Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-06-17
Chief Actors Now Dead,

Shoh q AoA NhAShS dSO III Ill dlTpldHc
accident near Boulogne. His young
sister, Sarah. driven by Turkish bru-
taiity to suicide, lies on the slope
Of a Samaritan hilltop, under the
shadow Of her own home. Another
youthful martyr. Absalom Feinberg,
loved, and no one knows his grave.
Two other heroes slipped into eternity
from a hangman's moose in upper
Galilee.
learned 1t from its living characters:
In the beginning OF the war. grate-
ful to Turkey for its ancient hospi-
tality to the Spanish Jews despite
its recent destinations. the young
men OF the Jewish colony. zichron
to do their utmost for her cause.
Nearly 100, the entire youth Of the
settlement, as Turkish subjects, al
lowed themselves to be drafted into
the Ottoman army. when officials were
only too eager to sell them exemp-
ton for the customary considera-
tion-"baksheesh
Determined to Do Duty.
1t was a dirty, disorsaniz.d army
Its men were chemically hungry.
Most OF the Jewish boys from Zichron
were put to work after the first few
AlOhkh5 Dui1uluS Iu0u0 uuUSF ISSty
Intelligence" squad. when they made
their initial push, laying railway
tracks 125 miles through the Sinsi
desert from the Susz to Judd at the
rate OF more than q mile . day, they
,l kns ". every water source to the
Across the desert waste picked men
Of the Zichron Jacob League now
began. one by one, disguised as
Bedouins. to forge their way. The
Aak r1as
twenty-seven. Palestine born. edu-
Gated in France and promising poet.
Twice he crossed the sands to Brit
fsh headquarters. The third time he
ventured forth with a foreboding.
in Egypt later learned that the Turks
had sent "a 2band of Bedouins to lie
in wait for him. They found their
| way back. among them Joseph Da-
| yidesco, whom met in Zichron Jacob.
Brutal Turkish Threat.
The Turks in the meantime were
not idle. They wrecked the expert
ment. station at AthMt. They sur
rounded the whole colony of Zichron.
1T you do not tell me everything in
three days." the Turkish commandment
threatened the elders Of tho COM
munity. II shall turn you a1l over to
my two hundred soldiers here. with
4 Si0 oE00T I1aG SlxVy w u~yVV "uSI
l they wish. to man, woman and
child" -
The little .synagogue became 4 scene
Of wailing and prayer by day and, by
night Terror and panic foil upon the
| settlement, alone on its Samaritan hill.
the end Of the main lane Of the
colony . tragedy was eliminating.
Sarah Aaronsohn. warned In vain
| three days before ia, escape, was near.
ing her fate.
Aged Nan Was Tortured.
The Turkish oficfals. in tho absence
of her brothers. vented their wrath
upon her. For . week they tortured
proud and silent. Then they sought
to move her through her father. Be-
fore her eyes they beat this man,
moro than seventy years old, four
hundred strokes day upon the soles
Of his feet. They put hot irons under
his arms. But her only answer was
words of courage to him in Hebrew:
DO not weaken, father. can bear
all" And AZ the agony crept into the
aged mans veins he drew strength
prayer: Hear. o Israel. the Lord
The Turkish commandant next
vainly tried to force q confession from
Sarah Aaronsohn through nve days
solitary confinement On On tho ssn last aay
forth that she be deported to the
Ottoman center, Nazareth She real
lied tho time for the supreme eacrince
had come. She asked to be led to her
homo for a ANAL change Of clothing.
tied about her waist She reached the
low white cottage with its trim lawn.
She stepped into her room. The
guard felt q tug at the rope ana
almost at the same moment q shot
rang out. They found her in a heap
by her, bedside.
Jewess Brave to the Last.
For I'VE days she fingered. To the
last her thoughts were Of Paiestine's
liberation. to which she had given
her young. glowing life. You may
spill innocent blood" were her dying
words to the Turks. but you cannot
keep the British from Palestine
ish guns were booming toward Casa
and Beersheba. Two weeks later the
khakied columns poured into these
shattered towns.
From Jacob the bloody ts:,,
Rishon IL Zion. Cheder.h. Kinner-
eth. Mesha- Yemma. Rosh. Pin
nah. Nazareth and the northernmost
Jewish colony. Metullah. under
snowy Hermon. The Turks pursued
their relentless inquisition OF the
colonists. whose protests of inno-
cence we're true enough. For the
espionage" was necessarily q deep
secret and tho work OF but . hundred
or less young Jews all told" The
only connection those colonies had
with the system was the mere acci-
dent that two Of the workers, Joseph
Lashansky Of 0alilee and Nahum
Belkind Of Rishon. both later caught
and hanged. ran through their lanes
~ night In their attempts to escape
from pursuing Turks.