Eldad, Israel (1910–1996)
ELDAD, ISRAEL (1910–1996)
Israeli activist. Born in Galicia, Eldad received a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna and graduated from the Vienna Rabbinical Seminary. In 1941 he immigrated to Palestine under the British Mandate and became a leader of the Stern Gang (Lohamei Herut Yisrael, LEHI), a militant Zionist group. He was arrested by the British in 1944. After the creation of Israel in 1948 and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion's dissolution of LEHI in September of that year, Eldad remained an advocate for a Greater Israel that would encompass the land between the Nile and Euphrates Rivers. He edited the journal Sulam and lectured at the Haifa Technion until Ben-Gurion, in response to Eldad's inflammatory remarks, ordered his dismissal from his teaching post. He became a columnist for Israel's daily newspaper Haaretz and was considered a champion of the extreme right. He continued to write for various publications until his death.
SEE ALSO Ben-Gurion, David;Lohamei Herut Yisrael.