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Hanoch Kalai (; March 13, 1910 – April 15, 1979) was a senior leader of
Irgun The Irgun (), officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, often abbreviated as Etzel or IZL (), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of th ...
and a co-founder of Lehi, and an expert on the
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
language. He was ''Deputy Commander in Chief'' of Irgun under David Raziel and spent three months as ''Commander in Chief'' after Raziel was imprisoned by the British authorities, until his own arrest. He was Avraham Stern's deputy until he left the organisation.


Early life

Born Hanoch Strelitz, Kalai was born in
Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
, the son of Joseph Strelitz and Pessia Rabinovich. In 1924, the family moved to
Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...
, where family lived on Herzl Street in
Kfar Saba Kfar Saba ( ), officially Kfar Sava , is a List of Israeli cities, city in the Sharon plain, Sharon region, of the Central District (Israel), Central District of State of Israel, Israel. In 2019 it had a population of 110,456, making it the 16th-l ...
and his father became a bank manager in the town and owned many orange groves. Following the 1929 Palestine riots, Kalai joined 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 ...
. He was also a member of the
Betar The Betar Movement (), also spelled Beitar (), is a Revisionist Zionism, Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 in Riga, Latvia, by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky. It was one of several right-wing youth movements tha ...
movement. In 1934 he was a defence witness in the trial of Ze'ev Rosenblatt for the Assassination of Haim Arlosoroff.


Membership of Irgun

On the final night of
Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, Egypt. According to the Book of Exodus, God in ...
in 1933, Betar members were attacked while parading in
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
. In retaliation, Kalai resigned from Haganah and joined the Irgun. Soon afterward, he was appointed Irgun commander for Kfar Saba and
Herzliya Herzliya ( ; , / ) is an affluent List of Israeli cities, city in the Israeli coastal plain, central coast of Israel, at the northern part of the Tel Aviv District, known for its robust start-up and entrepreneurial culture. In it had a populatio ...
. During the
1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine A popular uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine against the British administration, later known as the Great Revolt, the Great Palestinian Revolt, or the Palestinian Revolution, lasted from 1936 until 1939. The movement sought i ...
, Kalai demanded an end to the policy of restraint and the beginning of reprisals against the Arabs. On 26 August 1939, Kalai ordered the killings of British colonial police officers Ralph Cairns and Ronald Barker via a remotely-detonated Irgun landmine containing fifteen kilograms of blasting gelatin and five kilograms of metal pieces in Rehavia, Jerusalem. The killings were carried out by Haim Corfu. Following Avraham Tehomi's split with Irgun and return to Hagana in 1937, Kalai was appointed commander of the newly formed
Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...
district Irgun under Moshe Rosenberg. He was later appointed deputy commander of the Jerusalem district under David Raziel. During this period, Kalai also served as a broadcaster on the Irgun's underground radio station, Kol Tsion HaLokhemet. Kalai's three brothers were also members of Irgun and Betar. Mordechai Strelitz was an Irgun commander in Israel and abroad, and served as liaison between Irgun and Betar. Menachem Strelitz was a member of the Irgun in Kfar Saba, where he conducted experiments with weapons and explosives. He was killed at age 22 on July 17, 1936, when a grenade exploded in his hands in the family home. Mykhael Strelitz was arrested by the British and tortured. He never recovered from the experience.


Leadership of Irgun

Following Raziel's arrest on May 19, 1939, Kalai was appointed as ''Commander in Chief'' of the Irgun. At the first meeting he chaired, Kalai decided to act on two fronts: to continue retaliatory actions against the Arabs, and the commencement of operations against the British government following Parliament's approval of the
White Paper of 1939 The White Paper of 1939Occasionally also known as the MacDonald White Paper (e.g. Caplan, 2015, p.117) after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary, who presided over its creation. was a policy paper issued by the British governmen ...
. In following this policy, Irgun committed acts of sabotage against the infrastructure, including the post office and the government radio station in
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
. Under Kalai's leadership, the group also assassinated the Palestine Police CID chief Ralph Cairns, to end his harassment of Irgun and in revenge for his torture of Irgun prisoners.


First Arrest

On August 31, 1939, the British arrested him with other key members of Irgun, including Avraham Stern, during a command meeting in Tel Aviv. He was replaced as head of Irgun by Benjamin Zeroni. The detainees were transferred to the
Jaffa Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...
police station, and then to the Tzrifin detention camp. Kalai and the other prisoners were released on June 18, 1940.


Membership of Lehi

Following his release, Kalai and Zeroni joined with Avraham Stern to co-found the Lehi, and Kalai served as second-in-command and wrote the new organization's manifesto. Kalai and Zeroni resigned from Lehi in late 1941 following Stern's attempts to form an alliance with
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
against the British.


Second Arrest

On February 3, 1942, the British police posted a £200 reward for his arrest, and on February 4, 1942, Kalai and Zeroni surrendered. According to
Yehuda Lapidot Yehuda Lapidot (; born August 13, 1928) is an Israeli historian, former professor of biochemistry, and veteran of the Zionist militia Irgun. Irgun years Yehuda Lapidot was born in Eretz Israel (Mandatory Palestine) in 1928. At age 15, he joine ...
, one of the reasons they surrendered is that no organization would help them, and they increasingly felt like hunted animals. By agreement with the British police, they were never tried, but instead were transferred directly to a detention camp. On October 19, 1944, Kalai was exiled to a Kenyan detention camp along with 250 other detainees, and returned to Israel only on July 12, 1948.


Later life

After Israel gained independence, Kalai became a language lecturer at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...
. He was also an editor and translator to Hebrew from English, German and Yiddish, an editor at the Bialik Institute, a member of the
Academy of the Hebrew Language The Academy of the Hebrew Language (, ''ha-akademyah la-lashon ha-ivrit'') was established by the Israeli government in 1953 as the "supreme institution for scholarship on the Hebrew language in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem of Givat Ram cam ...
, and the
Israel Broadcasting Authority The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA; ) was Israel's public broadcaster from 1948 to 2017, succeeded by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation. History The Israel Broadcasting Authority was an outgrowth of the radio station '' Kol Yi ...
plenum member responsible for Hebrew-language broadcasts. He translated Zorba the Greek into Hebrew, the first title in
Am Oved Am Oved ("A Working People") is an Israeli publishing house. History Am Oved was founded in 1942 by Berl Katznelson, who was its first editor in chief. It was created as an organ of the Histadrut, Israel's federation of Labor, with a goal of publ ...
's People's Library imprint. He also translated
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...
's Flush: A Biography. Kalai was married to painter and sculptor Carmela Kalai. His son is noted academic Gil Kalai. Kalai died in 1979, and was buried on the
Mount of Olives The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet (; ; both lit. 'Mount of Olives'; in Arabic also , , 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem, east of and adjacent to Old City of Jerusalem, Jerusalem's Old City. It is named for the olive, olive ...
in Jerusalem. In 1999, the
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
Municipality named a street after him in the Malha district of the city.Hanoch Kalai Street
/ref>


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalai, Hanoch 1910 births 1979 deaths Lithuanian Jews Lithuanian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Jews from Mandatory Palestine Haganah members Betar members Irgun members Lehi members Israeli assassins 20th-century Israeli translators Israeli editors Israeli people imprisoned abroad Israeli people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Burials at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives Prisoners and detainees of the British military Immigrants of the Fourth Aliyah Zionist assassins