{{primary|date=January 2021}} {{short description|Jewish author and activist (1888-1948)}} {{Infobox person | name = Alexander Aaronsohn | image = Alexander Aaronsohn.gif | birth_date = September 28, 1888 | birth_place = Zikhron Ya'akov, Ottoman Empire | death_date = {{death date and age|1948|05|28| 1888|09|28 |df=yes}} | death_place = Nice, France | occupation = Author, Zionist activist }} '''Alexander Aaronsohn''' ({{langx|he|אלכסנדר אהרנסון}}; September 28, 1888 – May 28, 1948) was an author and activist who wrote about the plight of people living in Palestine in his book, ''With the Turks in Palestine''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bokus.com/cgi-bin/product_search.cgi?authors=Aaronsohn%20Alexander|title=Aaronsohn Alexander - Böcker {{!}} Bokus bokhandel|website=Bokus.com|language=sv|access-date=2019-05-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/work/best_book/2251330-with-the-turks-in-palestine|title=With the Turks in Palestine|website=www.goodreads.com|access-date=2019-05-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|isbn = 978-1602062634|title = With the Turks in Palestine|last1 = Aaronsohn|first1 = Alexander|date = April 2007| publisher=Cosimo }}</ref>
Aaronsohn was part of the influential Aaronsohn family who were major figures in the Zionist movement;<ref>{{cite news|last=Malley|first=JP O’|title=Before the Holocaust, Ottoman Jews supported the Armenian genocide's 'architect'|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/before-the-holocaust-ottoman-jews-supported-the-armenian-genocides-architect/|access-date=2021-03-03|website=The Times of Israel|language=en-US |issn=0040-7909}}</ref> his brother was Aaron Aaronsohn and his sister was Sarah Aaronsohn, the three of whom were founder members of the Jewish spy network NILI. Sarah Aaronsohn was caught by the Turks and brutally tortured for four days; she committed suicide during her captivity in 1917, aged 26.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sarah Aaronsohn {{!}} Encyclopedia.com|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/educational-magazines/sarah-aaronsohn|access-date=2020-12-12|website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref>
==Early life== Aaronsohn's parents emigrated from Romania to Palestine with other Jewish families and founded the community of Zikhron Ya'akov in the fertile region south of Mount Carmel.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aaronsohn |first=Alexander |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000442043 |title=With the Turks in Palestine |date=1916 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |location=Boston, New York |pages=1}}</ref> Aaronsohn was born in this small village and grew up amongst a blossoming agricultural community.<ref name="Gutenberg">{{cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10338/10338-h/10338-h.htm|title=With The Turks in Palestine|accessdate=2007-05-23|year=2007|publisher=Project Gutenberg| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20070517130122/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10338/10338-h/10338-h.htm| archivedate= 17 May 2007 <!--DASHBot-->| url-status=live}}</ref>
In 1910 Aaronsohn left for America on the advice of his brother who headed the Jewish Experiment Station at Atlit. He received his naturalization papers a few days after arrival and obtained work with the Department of Agriculture.<ref name="Gutenberg"/>
Aaronsohn returned to Palestine with the goal of taking motion pictures and stereopticon views that he would use to spread knowledge about Jewish life in the Land of Israel. He then planned to share this media in the United States.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aaronsohn |first=Alexander |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000442043 |title=With the Turks in Palestine |date=1916 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |location=Boston, New York |pages=4}}</ref> Two months after his return Aaronsohn learned of an attack on a well-respected Jewish doctor by four Arabs and the abduction of a sixteen-year-old girl.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aaronsohn |first=Alexander |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000442043 |title=With the Turks in Palestine |date=1916 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |location=Boston, New York |pages=4-6}}</ref> This event shocked Aaronsohn and he vowed to form a strong society that would protect the life and honor of villagers.<ref name="Gutenberg"/>
==Turkish Army== Despite Aaronsohn's ties to the United States, he was pushed into serving in the Turkish Army with the start of the First World War, as the Ottoman Empire controlled Palestine. Aaronsohn and twenty of his acquaintances presented themselves at the recruiting station in Acre. They were then marched off to Han and made to wait with hundreds of impoverished Arabs. Aaronsohn was subsequently ordered to travel to Safed, where his garrison was located.<ref name="Gutenberg"/>{{page needed|date=January 2021}}{{primary inline|date=January 2021}}
Aaronsohn and his troupe's four-day march to Safed was an arduous journey in the heat of the September sun. They were required to obtain their own food, and the poor Arabs caused conflict by stealing from villages that they passed by. On arrival in Safed, they were informed that a dirty deserted mosque would serve as their barracks.<ref name="Gutenberg"/>
==Later life and death== Aaronsohn died of a heart attack in 1948 in Nice, France.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://jpress.org.il/olive/apa/nli_heb/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=MAR/1949/11/18&id=Ar00302|title=מודעה מטעם ועד המושבה זכרון יעקב|last=|first=|date=|website=jpress.org.il|language=Hebrew|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331231752/http://jpress.org.il/olive/apa/nli_heb/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=MAR/1949/11/18&id=Ar00302 |archive-date=2019-03-31 |access-date=2019-11-19}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{gutenberg author|id=3474|name=Alexander Aaronsohn}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Alexander Aaronsohn}} * {{Librivox author |id=3595}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aaronsohn, Alexander}} Category:1888 births Category:1948 deaths Category:Ashkenazi Jews from Ottoman Palestine Category:Writers from Ottoman Palestine Category:Ashkenazi Jews in Mandatory Palestine Category:20th-century Israeli male writers Category:Israeli people of Romanian-Jewish descent Category:People from Zikhron Ya'akov Category:Zionist activists Category:Ottoman military personnel of World War I Category:World War I spies for the United Kingdom