Wellesley Aron
Encyclopedia
Major Wellesey Aron, MBE,(1901–1988), was born in England
but lived most of his life in British Mandated Palestine and then Israel
.
His obituary by Phiip Gillon in the Jerusalem Post
sums it up "Wellesley Aron, who died a week ago, a few days before his 87th birthday, could have been typecast for one of those BBC
films about idealistic English upper class officers and
gentlemen who espouse what appears to be hopeless causes and convert them into practical successes, in defiance of prejudices and huge obstacles.
Physically, he looked the part, with his ramrod-straight back and his major's moustache; educated at Cambridge
, he also talked Nancy Mitford
's U-language. Wellesley could be summed up in one word - integrity." ,
Aron founded Habonim
, which became the largest Zionist Youth movement world-wide; commanded a unit in the British Army in WWII
; rescued refugees fleeing The Holocaust
; organized Machal(volunteers for Israel) in the USA; he was a successful internationally known businessman; creator and teacher of courses on peace for school children; a pioneer in establishing Rotary International
in Israel and finally in his late years, a founder of the Arab/Jewish community of Neve Shalom – Wāħat as-Salām where he died in 1988.
Wellesley Aron's first wife died in 1978. They had two children, Sharona and Ylona, In 1981 he married Coral Benjamin.
June 18, 1901. He was the only child of a German Jewish mother but the fifth child of a German Jewish father. His half-siblings were all raised in their mother’s Christian faith. Jewish religious observance was almost non-existent in his mother’s home according to Aron.
During the First World War
the family lived for a time in Germany before moving to Switzerland. His half-brother and a cousin died during the war which he believed led to his father's death shortly after. At the end of the war Aron and his mother returned to London.
In 1919, Aron enrolled at Jesus College, Cambridge
studying ancient and modern French history. However, at his mother's insistence he returned to London and became involved in the business world.
It was at this time, in 1921, at the instigation of Basil Henriques
, Aron became involved with disadvantaged youth from the East End of London. Having been an active Boy Scout
during his school years, he saw scouting as the solution to giving the young people a sense of purpose. He founded the 36th Stepney Jewish Scout Troop which would become known in London for its scouting prowess. This first encounter with poor Jews was to have a profound influence for the rest of his life - "the two years I spent with these responsive young scouts left a real and lasting satisfaction such as I have never experienced".
He returned to Cambridge over his mother's objections. Forced to support himself he took the post of assistant housemaster at Hillel House.
At this period Aron had his first personal encounter with anti-Semitism. He spent vacation time with his Christian half-sister in Devon. There he met and fell in love with a young woman. They wanted to marry her but her father refused to allow it because Aron was Jewish.
Always a person of action he actively prepared for his emigration to Palestine. Already speaking three languages he now studied Hebrew. At the same time he became active in the student Zionist club. It was here that he first met Dr.Chaim Weizman. the physicist and Zionist leader who later became Israel’s first President.
At the same time he faced another inconsistency - the ambivalence displayed by English Jews to the Zionist aim of reestablishing a sovereign Jewish community in Palestine. Basil Henriques, who had often charged him with being "un-Jewish" for not including Jewish content into his Scouting activiites, now saw it a "tragedy" that Aron had decided to go to Palestine.
Aron says that it was this period that forced him to reject the conventional religious approach of Orthodox Judaism
and look instead "to the renaissance of the Jewish People as a political entity in its own homeland".
After graduating Cambridge in 1926, he moved to what was then Palestine. He spent the next years in Haifa
and Tel Aviv
teaching sports and English - first at Reali
and then at the famous Herzliya Gymnasia. During this time he began to get some knowledge of what Zionism was. He met and married his wife Rose and they had their first child, a girl.
.
His solution was to found a new "Jewish cultural youth movement" (which itself was non-Zionist), combining the principles of Baden Powell’s scouting with a love of Jewish heritage that taught Jewish history, Modern Hebrew, songs and dances as well as camping craft and other outdoor activities, like the Scouting Movement. Aron produced a handbook containing instructions for running groups of young teen-agers according to some brief Jewish history, combined with symbolism, tests and ceremonies similar to scouting.
In order to build the content around Jewish civilization, Wellesley authored a history of the Jewish People in " a thousand words ...that a child could read". His prior attempts to get this written by various authoritative Jewish sources produced unsuitable results, so he wrote it himself.
Aron's efforts to get funding to move forward the establishment of Habonim also saw him become one of the founders of the Bar-Kochba Jewish sports organization in England. "It was easier to get moneys for sports than Jewish culture" according to Aron. Bar-Kochba led to the founding of the English Maccabi
sports movement
In 1931 his position with Weitzman ended and Aron returned to Palestine. Habonim, which began as "a Jewish Cultural Youth Movement" subsequently developed into a Zionist Youth Movement that has had enormous impact in both Israel and Jewish communities worldwide. Habonim flourished and has become worldwide in its activities. It has now become joined to Dror, a semi-political Jewish Zionist Movement whose roots go back to 1917 Polish and European sources.
Failing in these efforts, when the war broke out in 1939, he joined the British Army as a Palestinian volunteer. Aron rose to become the senior Jewish officer enlisted from Palestine and the first to command a unit. His unit, 178 coy, R.A.S.C
, was primarily made up of Jewish Palestinian volunteers. Together with four other Jewish RASC units they served with the Eight Army
in North Africa. At Tobruk they were under siege for several months until rescued by sea to Egypt.
Later, in Italy in 1944, risking courtmartial, he led his unit in helping rescue many Jewish refugees who had escaped the concentration camps of the Holocaust. Aron's unit, together with the other Jewish Palestinian R.A.S.C units, became the vanguard of the Jewish Brigade
founded in 1944. Aron authored his account of that military experience (see reference).
In 1945 Aron was one of four Jewish Palestinian officers to receive awards from the British Government. According to the citation "Aron was an officer of the first Palestinian R.A.S.C Company to see active service in the desert and is the senior Palestinian R.A.S.C Company Commander....... Major Aron proved himself to be an officer of outstanding merit who devotes himself wholehartedly to the interests of his own unit and of the formation he serves"
and Chaim Wietzman in testifying before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry
in Jerusalem. As was often the case his testimony showed his independence. Despite being a British Military officer he spoke against the prevailing British viewpoint.
In 1947, he was asked to organize the Machal office in New York. This was his last official mission for the new State. However,later back in Israel and having returned to private business, he engaged in covert meetings for the State to reduce tensions with Jordan
.
Always the organizer, Aron was heavily involved in developing Rotary in Israel. Joining in 1934, he became its first District Governor after working hard to have Israel recognized as of District in Rotary International. Rotary brought him back once again to involvement with neglected youth in low-income areas. This earlier experience had led him to the founding of Habonim. Now the result was the building of a youth sports centre in Jaffa.
At the other end of the social scale he volunteered his organizing skills to the planning committee for Israel’s first golf course in Caesarea.
In 1967 his quest for peace led him to several years of research seeking to find an institution that had peace as the foundation of its curriculum. He prepared a symposium outline for the Harry S Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
, which was rejected on the grounds that it had too much emphasis on youth and not enough on the scholarly approach
At age 70, Aron joined Father Hussar, a Catholic priest, in pioneering the establishment of Neve Shalom – Wāħat as-Salām, an Arab-Jewish village near Jerusalem. He moved there with his second wife, Coral, in 1980.
Samuel W. Lewis
, former USA Ambassador to Israel and close friend described their home as a "...conrete box on a windswept, barren, rocky hill". They lived there until his death in 1988
He is quoted as saying that his quest for a program where peace is taught started with a question from his grandson. The grandson wanted to know why there are only war colleges and not peace colleges? That grandson, David Broza
, one of Israel's singing superstars, continues in his grandfather's quest to support PEACE
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
but lived most of his life in British Mandated Palestine and then Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
His obituary by Phiip Gillon in the Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
sums it up "Wellesley Aron, who died a week ago, a few days before his 87th birthday, could have been typecast for one of those BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
films about idealistic English upper class officers and
gentlemen who espouse what appears to be hopeless causes and convert them into practical successes, in defiance of prejudices and huge obstacles.
Physically, he looked the part, with his ramrod-straight back and his major's moustache; educated at Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, he also talked Nancy Mitford
Nancy Mitford
Nancy Freeman-Mitford, CBE , styled The Hon. Nancy Mitford before her marriage and The Hon. Mrs Peter Rodd thereafter, was an English novelist and biographer, one of the Bright Young People on the London social scene in the inter-war years...
's U-language. Wellesley could be summed up in one word - integrity." ,
Aron founded Habonim
HaBonim
HaBonim or Habonim may refer to:*A Socialist-Zionist youth movement Habonim Dror.*HaBonim, Israel, a moshav in Israel....
, which became the largest Zionist Youth movement world-wide; commanded a unit in the British Army in WWII
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
; rescued refugees fleeing The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
; organized Machal(volunteers for Israel) in the USA; he was a successful internationally known businessman; creator and teacher of courses on peace for school children; a pioneer in establishing Rotary International
Rotary International
Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
in Israel and finally in his late years, a founder of the Arab/Jewish community of Neve Shalom – Wāħat as-Salām where he died in 1988.
Wellesley Aron's first wife died in 1978. They had two children, Sharona and Ylona, In 1981 he married Coral Benjamin.
Early Years
Born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
June 18, 1901. He was the only child of a German Jewish mother but the fifth child of a German Jewish father. His half-siblings were all raised in their mother’s Christian faith. Jewish religious observance was almost non-existent in his mother’s home according to Aron.
During the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
the family lived for a time in Germany before moving to Switzerland. His half-brother and a cousin died during the war which he believed led to his father's death shortly after. At the end of the war Aron and his mother returned to London.
In 1919, Aron enrolled at Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
studying ancient and modern French history. However, at his mother's insistence he returned to London and became involved in the business world.
It was at this time, in 1921, at the instigation of Basil Henriques
Basil Henriques
Sir Basil Lucas Quixano Henriques was a Jewish philanthropist of Portuguese origins, concentrating his work in the East End of London during the first half of the 20th century....
, Aron became involved with disadvantaged youth from the East End of London. Having been an active Boy Scout
Boy Scout
A Scout is a boy or a girl, usually 11 to 18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split this age group into a junior and a senior section...
during his school years, he saw scouting as the solution to giving the young people a sense of purpose. He founded the 36th Stepney Jewish Scout Troop which would become known in London for its scouting prowess. This first encounter with poor Jews was to have a profound influence for the rest of his life - "the two years I spent with these responsive young scouts left a real and lasting satisfaction such as I have never experienced".
He returned to Cambridge over his mother's objections. Forced to support himself he took the post of assistant housemaster at Hillel House.
At this period Aron had his first personal encounter with anti-Semitism. He spent vacation time with his Christian half-sister in Devon. There he met and fell in love with a young woman. They wanted to marry her but her father refused to allow it because Aron was Jewish.
Zionism
Returning to Cambridge he was in total shock over this rejection because he was a Jew. It led to much soul searching. For the first time he was forced to ask himself, what, if anything, it meant to be a Jew. Eventually he came to the conclusion that he had to go to Palestine.Always a person of action he actively prepared for his emigration to Palestine. Already speaking three languages he now studied Hebrew. At the same time he became active in the student Zionist club. It was here that he first met Dr.Chaim Weizman. the physicist and Zionist leader who later became Israel’s first President.
At the same time he faced another inconsistency - the ambivalence displayed by English Jews to the Zionist aim of reestablishing a sovereign Jewish community in Palestine. Basil Henriques, who had often charged him with being "un-Jewish" for not including Jewish content into his Scouting activiites, now saw it a "tragedy" that Aron had decided to go to Palestine.
Aron says that it was this period that forced him to reject the conventional religious approach of Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
and look instead "to the renaissance of the Jewish People as a political entity in its own homeland".
After graduating Cambridge in 1926, he moved to what was then Palestine. He spent the next years in Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
and Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
teaching sports and English - first at Reali
Hebrew Reali School
The Hebrew Reali School of Haifa , located in Haifa, Israel, is one of the country's oldest private schools.-History:...
and then at the famous Herzliya Gymnasia. During this time he began to get some knowledge of what Zionism was. He met and married his wife Rose and they had their first child, a girl.
Habonim
Before returning to London, Weitzman asked Wellesley for a second time in 1927 to assist with the political wing of the Zionist Office in London. (Due to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 in which "His Magesty's Government viewed with favour the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine", the centre of political Zionism had moved to London.) Wellesley returned a year later with his young family and started to work at the Zionist Federation Offices at 77 Great Russel Street. But his boss, Leonard Stein was the kind of person who did not share his work easily and Wellesley had little to do. So he decided to see for himself the degree of Jewish history being taught in the Stepney Jewish youth clubs in London's poverty-struck East End, at that time being run by his past friend Basil Henriques. He found that the clubs were Jewish only because of their membership and nothing about Jewish history or about Palestine was being taught.His solution was to found a new "Jewish cultural youth movement" (which itself was non-Zionist), combining the principles of Baden Powell’s scouting with a love of Jewish heritage that taught Jewish history, Modern Hebrew, songs and dances as well as camping craft and other outdoor activities, like the Scouting Movement. Aron produced a handbook containing instructions for running groups of young teen-agers according to some brief Jewish history, combined with symbolism, tests and ceremonies similar to scouting.
In order to build the content around Jewish civilization, Wellesley authored a history of the Jewish People in " a thousand words ...that a child could read". His prior attempts to get this written by various authoritative Jewish sources produced unsuitable results, so he wrote it himself.
Aron's efforts to get funding to move forward the establishment of Habonim also saw him become one of the founders of the Bar-Kochba Jewish sports organization in England. "It was easier to get moneys for sports than Jewish culture" according to Aron. Bar-Kochba led to the founding of the English Maccabi
Maccabi
The word Maccabi used to refer to one of the Maccabees, whose story has become synonymous with courage, success and victory. Nowadays, several Israeli and Jewish organisations carry this name:*Maccabi , international sports association...
sports movement
In 1931 his position with Weitzman ended and Aron returned to Palestine. Habonim, which began as "a Jewish Cultural Youth Movement" subsequently developed into a Zionist Youth Movement that has had enormous impact in both Israel and Jewish communities worldwide. Habonim flourished and has become worldwide in its activities. It has now become joined to Dror, a semi-political Jewish Zionist Movement whose roots go back to 1917 Polish and European sources.
Palestine & WWll
Returning to Palestine he founded a successful advertising agency. In 1938, aware of the possibility of war with Germany, Aron made strenuous efforts to interest the British High Command in the idea of stockpiling reserve supplies of war materiel and food in Palestine. He foresaw the possibility of Germany being victorious in conquering North Africa.Failing in these efforts, when the war broke out in 1939, he joined the British Army as a Palestinian volunteer. Aron rose to become the senior Jewish officer enlisted from Palestine and the first to command a unit. His unit, 178 coy, R.A.S.C
, was primarily made up of Jewish Palestinian volunteers. Together with four other Jewish RASC units they served with the Eight Army
Eighth Army (United Kingdom)
The Eighth Army was one of the best-known formations of the British Army during World War II, fighting in the North African and Italian campaigns....
in North Africa. At Tobruk they were under siege for several months until rescued by sea to Egypt.
Later, in Italy in 1944, risking courtmartial, he led his unit in helping rescue many Jewish refugees who had escaped the concentration camps of the Holocaust. Aron's unit, together with the other Jewish Palestinian R.A.S.C units, became the vanguard of the Jewish Brigade
Jewish Brigade
The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group was a military formation of the British Army that served in Europe during the Second World War. The brigade was formed in late 1944, and its personnel fought the Germans in Italy...
founded in 1944. Aron authored his account of that military experience (see reference).
In 1945 Aron was one of four Jewish Palestinian officers to receive awards from the British Government. According to the citation "Aron was an officer of the first Palestinian R.A.S.C Company to see active service in the desert and is the senior Palestinian R.A.S.C Company Commander....... Major Aron proved himself to be an officer of outstanding merit who devotes himself wholehartedly to the interests of his own unit and of the formation he serves"
Israel
After the war Aron continued to be involved in Zionist activities. In November 1945, because of his military experience, he was asked to join such luminaries as David Ben Gurion, Golda MeirGolda Meir
Golda Meir ; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel....
and Chaim Wietzman in testifying before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry
Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry
The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was a joint British and American attempt in 1946 to agree upon a policy as regards the admission of Jews to Palestine. The Committee was tasked to consult representative Arabs and Jews on the problems of Palestine, and to make other recommendations 'as may be...
in Jerusalem. As was often the case his testimony showed his independence. Despite being a British Military officer he spoke against the prevailing British viewpoint.
In 1947, he was asked to organize the Machal office in New York. This was his last official mission for the new State. However,later back in Israel and having returned to private business, he engaged in covert meetings for the State to reduce tensions with Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
.
Always the organizer, Aron was heavily involved in developing Rotary in Israel. Joining in 1934, he became its first District Governor after working hard to have Israel recognized as of District in Rotary International. Rotary brought him back once again to involvement with neglected youth in low-income areas. This earlier experience had led him to the founding of Habonim. Now the result was the building of a youth sports centre in Jaffa.
At the other end of the social scale he volunteered his organizing skills to the planning committee for Israel’s first golf course in Caesarea.
Peace
Aron had a total commitment to peace. In 1967, following the Six-Day War, he volunteered to “teach peace” to high school seniors in Tel Aviv. So enthusiastic was the response he was asked to repeat the course at an Arab school in Jaffa.In 1967 his quest for peace led him to several years of research seeking to find an institution that had peace as the foundation of its curriculum. He prepared a symposium outline for the Harry S Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
, which was rejected on the grounds that it had too much emphasis on youth and not enough on the scholarly approach
Neve Shalom – Wāħat as-Salām
His personal commitment to peace among peoples found its ultimate expression in the last years of his life.At age 70, Aron joined Father Hussar, a Catholic priest, in pioneering the establishment of Neve Shalom – Wāħat as-Salām, an Arab-Jewish village near Jerusalem. He moved there with his second wife, Coral, in 1980.
Samuel W. Lewis
Samuel W. Lewis
Samuel Winfield Lewis is a retired American diplomat. During his lengthy career with the United States Department of State he served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs , U.S. ambassador to Israel and Director of Policy Planning...
, former USA Ambassador to Israel and close friend described their home as a "...conrete box on a windswept, barren, rocky hill". They lived there until his death in 1988
He is quoted as saying that his quest for a program where peace is taught started with a question from his grandson. The grandson wanted to know why there are only war colleges and not peace colleges? That grandson, David Broza
David Broza
David Broza is a multi-platinum Israeli singer-songwriter and guitarist.-Personal life:The son of an Israeli–British businessman and a folk singer, Broza was born in Haifa, Israel. He was raised and educated in England and Spain, where he was schooled at Runnymede College, in Madrid...
, one of Israel's singing superstars, continues in his grandfather's quest to support PEACE