David Tidhar (; 1897 – 1970) was a Jewish-Israeli police officer, private detective and author.

Early life

Tidhar was originally named Todrosovitz. He was involved in community affairs from an early age.

Career

Prior to the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Tidhar founded a sanitary corps that offered advice on how to prevent

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

during the 1916 epidemic and a clothing and shoe distribution program for the impoverished Jewish community. Tidhar volunteered for the

Jewish Legion The Jewish Legion was a series of battalions of Jewish soldiers who served in the British Army during the First World War. Some participated in the British conquest of Palestine from the Ottomans. The formation of the battalions had several ...

in 1918 and helped protect Jews during the

Jaffa riots The Jaffa riots (commonly known in ) were a series of violent riots in Mandatory Palestine on May 1–7, 1921, which began as a confrontation between two Jewish groups but developed into an attack by Arabs on Jews and then reprisal attacks by ...

of 1921. He was among the first people to join the

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

self-defense group. Post-war he served in the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

-run

Palestine Police Force The Palestine Police Force (, ) was a British colonial police service established in Mandatory Palestine on 1 July 1920,Sinclair, 2006. when High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel's civil administration took over responsibility for security from ...

in Jerusalem. In 1926 he left the force and established his own private investigation office. Shlomo Ben-Yisrael, who founded ''The Detective Library'' in 1930, wrote a series of weekly

chapbook A chapbook is a type of small printed booklet that was a popular medium for street literature throughout early modern Europe. Chapbooks were usually produced cheaply, illustrated with crude woodcuts and printed on a single sheet folded into 8, 1 ...

s with Tidhar as the protagonist. Tidhar went on to edit the 19-volume '' Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel''; a non-fiction study of

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

in Palestine; and an autobiography.

References

1897 births 1970 deaths Israeli police officers Private investigators Israeli writers Jewish encyclopedists Jewish Legion personnel Burials at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery People from Jaffa {{Israel-bio-stub Israeli male writers Israeli editors Palestine Police Force officers Haganah members