The Secret Bar-Giora Organization

The secret Bar-Giora group was established on September 29, 1907, when Jewish immigrants who had arrived in Palestine during the Second Aliyah gathered at the home of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi in Jaffa. Ben-Zvi would later be elected the second president of the State of Israel in 1952.

They founded a secret paramilitary group called Bar-Giora, named after a Jewish leader who, according to the Hebrew narrative, participated in the revolt against the Romans in the first century.

The group adopted the following slogan: “Judea fell in fire and blood; through fire and blood Judea will rise.” Its members particularly advocated establishing outposts to guard Jewish settlements and responding forcefully to what they regarded as Arab encroachments.

The group continued to operate until 1909, when it was dissolved and its members were incorporated into the Hashomer organization.