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for myself I have no regrets. We have had a bitter fight, I have tasted of
Gehenem - but it has been worthwhile because I am convinced that the end will see a Jewish State and the realisation of all our longings. I shall only be one of many who fell (in) sacrifice, and I was urged to write this letter because one in particular was killed today who meant a great deal to me. Because of the sorrow I felt, I want you to take it otherwise - to remember that we were soldiers and had the greatest and noblest cause to fight for. God is with us, I know, in his own Holy City, and I am proud and ready to pay the price it may cost to reprieve (?) it. Don't think that I have taken "unnecessary risks" - that does not pay when manpower is short, but I did find the excitement I always needed and have enjoyed it. I hope that you may have the chance of meeting any of my co-fighters who survive, if I do not, and that you will be pleased and not sad of how they talk of me. Please, please do not be sadder than you can help - I have lived my life fully if briefly, and I think that is the best way - "short and sweet", very sweet it has been here in our own land. I hope you will enjoy from Mimi and Asher the satisfaction you have missed in me - let it be without regrets, and then I too shall be happy. I am thinking of you all, every single one of you in the family, and am full of pleasure at the thought that you will one day, very soon I hope, come and enjoy the fruits of that for which we are fighting. Much, much love, and remember me only in happiness. Shalom and Lehitraot, Your loving Esther
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tenuous truce was operating and things were relatively quiet, but a full-scale onslaught on the
Quarter was anticipated, after the anticipated British troops withdrawal on 14 May. This duly occurred. Sections of the civilian population wanted to negotiate a cease fire. They had to be forcibly restrained. On 16 May, during the first sustained attack on the Quarter, Esther was wounded, though not disabled - she quickly returned to her duties after a field-dressing, often using the exposed rooftops as her means of access between posts. On 19 May a small
308:, and while continuing with her teaching job for the time being, she began attending training camps to prepare for possible combat duty. In January 1948 she left Evelina de Rothschild and became a full-time Haganah soldier. In addition to military duties and continuing training she acted as a continuity announcer for Haganah's English-language broadcasting service, whilst seeking a posting to the garrison defending the
357:
just entered exploded, shattering her spine. She was carried to the
Quarter's hospital, but lack of supplies meant that little medical treatment was available. When the hospital came under shell-fire the next day Esther and the other wounded were moved to a safer area. Here, she remained conscious and able to talk, read her bible and say her prayers. Meanwhile, with the destruction of the
622:
force, which arrived in buses fired their guns in the air and "also beat the demonstrators without mercy, using their rifle butts."' See also Dov Joseph p.58 January 4: demonstrations "the
Haganah has eaten our food". 'It was an ugly period.' Also p.159/60: Joseph threatens to shoot Rabbi Alter from Mea Shearim. Also p.179: Yeshiva students forced to dig graves at gun-point.
559:
Among the efforts to re-supply the Jewish
Quarter was an attempted airdrop of guns, ammunition and other essentials, but "so much of the Quarter had been overrun that these essential supplies fell into Arab hands" (Gilbert, p222). The general shortage of manpower available to the Old City was due to
335:
Esther entered the Old City, ostensibly as a teacher, in the last of such convoys, on 7 May 1948 and reported to the
Haganah commander. Her assigned task was a mobile role - supplying the needs (arms, ammunition, food, drink, etc.) of the various outposts throughout the quarter. When she arrived, a
331:
troops under a
Haganah commander. The Quarter was entirely cut off from the rest of Jewish Jerusalem, surrounded by hostile Arab districts and effectively indefensible in the face of attack. It had no strategic military value but was of great symbolic importance. However, its garrison was severely
609:
p.162 referring to 15 May: 'strong measures'... 'persuaded to return to their houses only by threatening them with weapons.' p.164 May 18: 'defenders forcibly restrained them.' p.167 May 20: Haham Chamo, a French citizen demands contact with French
Consulate. p.170 May 25: 'there had been a serious
369:
After the surrender on 28 May, Esther and the other wounded were moved, this time to the nearby
Armenian School, just outside the Jewish Quarter. Early on the following morning Esther, after refusing a cigarette (it was Shabbat), fell into a coma and did not regain consciousness. She died some time
673:
May 23rd 1948. Dear Mummy, Daddy and everyone, If you do get this at all, it will be, I suppose, typical of all my hurried, messy letters. I am writing it to beg of you that, whatever might have happened to me, you will make the effort to take it in the spirit that I want and to understand that
356:
and began shelling the Jewish
Quarter, which was contracting daily as Arab ground troops advanced. It became a house-to-house battle, and Esther's mobile role became impossible, so she joined one of the defending groups as a Sten gunner. On 26 May she was seriously injured when a building she had
621:
Scotsman Thursday 15 April 1948: 'A procession of several thousand Orthodox Jews marched through the streets of the Jewish Quarter demanding peace and a "cease fire". The Orthodox Jews' statement said that the Haganah troops tore down the banners and beat the demonstrators. Later a larger Haganah
289:
Esther arrived in Jerusalem on 1 December 1946 to take up her teaching post. In the ensuing months, whilst immersing herself in the local culture, she witnessed the growing street violence, the imposition of curfews and other restrictions on movement, attacks on Jewish property and personnel, and
247:
movement, ("Mizrachi" here refers to the worldwide religious Zionist movement, the name has also been used by a now-defunct Israeli political party) maintained a fervent Zionism in the family home, such that "Esther was a Zionist...before she knew of any formal movement or heard her first Zionist
378:
After the surrender of the Jewish Quarter garrison to the Arab Legion under Abdullah al Tel, the remaining buildings in the quarter were systematically destroyed, including 58 of the 59 synagogues in the Old City. The quarter's Jewish residents were removed to Israeli lines, and lost all their
572:
Kurtzman, p241, describes Esther in this convoy with two other girls. There are numerous errors in his account: he dates the convoy 28 April, he refers to her as having just arrived from England when she had been in Jerusalem for 18 months, and he mis-spells her name as
370:
around 5.00 am on 29 May. Her last letter to her parents had been written six days earlier and handed to fellow-soldier Chaveh Leurer, who passed it to Harry Levin after the surrender. Levin in turn gave it to Moshe Cailingold when the latter came to Jerusalem in July.
390:
None of the men or women who fought for the Jewish Quarter in 1948 received citations for bravery, although Moshe Rusnak, her commander, singled Esther out as deserving. Along with the 38 other Old City fighters who died, Esther was posthumously enlisted in the
326:
In 1948 the Jewish Quarter covered a smaller area than it had once and does now. It then housed around 1700 civilians, mainly women, children and elderly, and was defended by a small garrison of mixed Haganah, Irgun and
808:
272:. Thereafter her belief strengthened that her future lay with the Jewish community in Palestine, and in the autumn of 1946 she successfully applied for a post as an English teacher at the
332:
undermanned and undersupplied, dependent for food and other necessities on a weekly convoy escorted by British troops, through which arms and additional combat troops had to be smuggled.
344:
and reached the beleaguered garrison. Esther was there to receive them and for a moment it seemed that fortunes might have turned, but the force swiftly withdrew. On that same day,
610:
rising of some of the inhabitants, demanding surrender.' p.172: Rabbi Hazam wounded, possibly by one of the defenders while trying to approach Arab Legion with a white flag
304:. As a result, her perspective changed; her letters home reflect a harder attitude and an increasingly sharp anti-British sentiment. By October 1947 she had joined
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German Jewish youth movement which came to England with refugees) which ran training farms in Britain and Europe to prepare young people for future life on a
763:
783:
788:
798:
548:
361:, resistance in the Jewish Quarter effectively ended, with less than forty defenders still holding out. Surrender followed shortly afterwards.
640:
As to why they withdrew, this a contentious matter. "Lack of communication between Palmach and Haganah" is often cited. See O Jerusalem, p445
379:
property. The Arab victory in the Old City was one of their few successes in the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, which they termed their
224:
260:. Until then her Zionism had expressed itself mainly in religious and youth-related activities, such as her involvement with
793:
215:
in 1920, and had opened up a London branch of his family's bookselling and publishing business. After the family moved to
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Established in 1949 on land belonging to Lubya - population 2,350 (1944/45). 'All That Remains', Walid Khalidi. IPS 1992.
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211:,in Milward Rd., on 28 June 1925, eldest child of Moshe Cailingold and Anne, née Fenechel. Moshe had immigrated from
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speech". Her youthful convictions were strengthened by awareness of international events such as the rise of
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of June 1967 Jewish forces captured the entire Old City, and thereafter the Jewish Quarter was rebuilt.
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182:. Several libraries and other rooms in children's homes in Israel are named after her. In
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in the Old City, the most vulnerable of all the Jewish sectors within Jerusalem.
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and later, during and immediately after the war, the emerging details of the
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190:, part of Emunah UK, a worldwide Jewish children's welfare charity.
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The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership
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Levin, p34. He refers to her here, and elsewhere, as "Esther C."
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specific events such as the trial, conviction and execution of
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background. Her father, one of the founders of Poland's Young
219:, (Heathlands Rd.), North London, in 1936, Esther attended the
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Israeli military personnel killed in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
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During Esther's attachment to the garrison the commander was
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priority being given to attempts to break the Arab siege at
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says the letter was found under her pillow, after her death
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she is remembered through the Esther Cailingold society in
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298:, and the drawn out saga of the refugee ships such as the
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Esther's Zionism derived principally from her strict
174:, and on various war memorials including that of the
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British schoolteacher and volunteer Haganah soldier
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143:and died of wounds received in the battle for the
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587:The faithful city: the siege of Jerusalem, 1948
494:were active in East London throughout the 1930s
223:for girls, eventually winning a scholarship to
529:See texts of letters in A Cailingold, chs 8-28
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155:, by the Esther Cailingold memorial forest at
764:British military personnel killed in action
110:Schoolteacher and volunteer Haganah soldier
784:Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London
658:This is according to A Cailingold, p226.
789:British emigrants to Mandatory Palestine
225:Goldsmiths College, University of London
799:English people of Polish-Jewish descent
671:The text of the letter is as follows:
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252:, the growth of European (and British)
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741:
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403:military cemetery in September 1950.
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127:) (28 June 1925 – 29 May 1948) was a
649:O Jerusalem p 501, A Cailingold p236
631:O Jerusalem, p444, A Cailingold p219
399:quarry, her body was re-interred in
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395:and, after temporary burial in a
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135:extraction, who fought with the
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714:. Da Capo Press edition, 1992.
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221:North London Collegiate School
203:Esther Cailingold was born in
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698:Jerusalem in the 20th Century
700:. Chatto & Windus, 1996.
383:("the Catastrophe"). In the
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794:English emigrants to Israel
721:. Valentine Mitchell, 2000.
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199:Birth, family and education
166:, by a scholarship fund at
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707:. History Book Club, 1972.
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151:. She is commemorated, in
824:Women in war in West Asia
492:British Union of Fascists
413:Siege of Jerusalem (1948)
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728:. Cassell edition, 1997.
703:Collins & Lapierre:
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814:People from Whitechapel
340:unit broke through the
131:-born schoolteacher of
819:Burials at Mount Herzl
804:Israeli schoolteachers
591:. Simon and Schuster.
393:Israeli Defence Forces
227:(temporarily based in
829:Members of Aliyah Bet
779:English Orthodox Jews
276:school in Jerusalem.
274:Evelina de Rothschild
176:Israeli Armored Corps
141:1948 Arab-Israeli War
583:Joseph, Dov (1960).
419:Notes and references
322:Battle for Jerusalem
194:Biographical details
735:. Toby Press, 2010.
726:Jerusalem Embattled
719:An Unlikely Heroine
75:Cause of death
717:Asher Cailingold:
684:A Cailingold, p243
316:The Jewish Quarter
139:forces during the
488:Sir Oswald Mosley
117:Esther Cailingold
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51:, London, England
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125:אסתר קיילינגולד
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62:(1948-05-29)
45:28 June 1925
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754:1948 deaths
749:1925 births
705:O Jerusalem
660:O Jerusalem
515:21 December
401:Mount Herzl
385:Six-Day War
350:Arab Legion
205:Whitechapel
99:Nationality
89:Mount Herzl
60:29 May 1948
49:Whitechapel
743:Categories
296:Dov Gruner
229:Nottingham
41:1925-06-28
374:Aftermath
342:Zion Gate
294:activist
258:Holocaust
172:Jerusalem
149:Jerusalem
93:Jerusalem
597:60-10976
505:"Bachad"
490:and the
407:See also
381:al-Nakba
245:Mizrachi
145:Old City
691:Sources
338:Palmach
306:Haganah
270:kibbutz
235:Zionism
184:England
162:in the
157:Kibbutz
129:British
102:British
605:266413
603:
595:
562:Latrun
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301:Exodus
262:Bachad
250:Hitler
213:Warsaw
209:London
180:Latrun
153:Israel
137:Jewish
133:Polish
121:Hebrew
365:Death
292:Irgun
601:OCLC
593:LCCN
517:2007
432:ISBN
329:Lehi
160:Lavi
57:Died
31:Born
348:'s
266:war
178:at
170:in
147:of
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