Esther Cailingold
Encyclopedia
Esther Cailingold was a British
-born schoolteacher of Polish
extraction, who fought with the Jewish
forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
and died of wounds received in the battle for the Old City of Jerusalem. She is commemorated, in Israel
, by the Esther Cailingold memorial forest at Kibbutz
Lavi in the Lower Galilee, by a scholarship fund at Yeshivat HaKotel
in Jerusalem, and on various war memorials including that of the Israeli Armored Corps at Latrun
. Several libraries and other rooms in children's homes in Israel are named after her. In England
she is remembered through the Esther Cailingold society in North London
, part of Emunah UK
, London
, on 28 June 1925, eldest child of Moshe Cailingold and Anne, née Fenechel. Moshe had immigrated from Warsaw
in 1920, and had opened up a London branch of his family's bookselling and publishing business. After the family moved to Stamford Hill
, North London, in 1936, Esther attended the North London Collegiate School
for girls, eventually winning a scholarship to Goldsmiths College, University of London (temporarily based in Nottingham
), to study English. She graduated with first-class honours in 1946.
movement, maintained a fervent Zionism in the family home, such that "Esther was a Zionist...before she knew of any formal movement or heard her first Zionist speech". Her youthful convictions were strengthened by awareness of international events such as the rise of Hitler, the growth of European (and British) anti-semitism
and later, during and immediately after the war, the emerging details of the Holocaust. Until then her Zionism had expressed itself mainly in religious and youth-related activities, such as her involvement with Bachad, which ran training farms in Britain and Europe to prepare young people for future life on a kibbutz
. Thereafter her belief strengthened that her future lay with the Jewish community in Palestine, and in the autumn of 1946 she successfully applied for a post as an English teacher at the Evelina de Rothschild
school in Jerusalem.
activist Dov Gruner
, and the drawn out saga of the refugee ships such as the Exodus
. As a result, her perspective changed; her letters home reflect a harder attitude and an increasingly sharp anti-British sentiment. By October 1947 she had joined Haganah
, and while continuing with her teaching job for the time being, she began attending training camps to prepare for possible combat duty. In January 1948 she left Evelina de Rothschild and became a full-time Haganah soldier. In addition to military duties and continuing training she acted as a continuity announcer for Haganah's English-language broadcasting service, whilst seeking a posting to the garrison defending the Jewish Quarter in the Old City, the most vulnerable of all the Jewish sectors within Jerusalem.
In 1948 the Jewish Quarter covered a smaller area than it had once and does now. It then housed around 1700 civilians, mainly women, children and elderly, and was defended by a small garrison of mixed Haganah, Irgun and Lehi
troops under a Haganah commander. The Quarter was entirely cut off from the rest of Jewish Jerusalem, surrounded by hostile Arab districts and effectively indefensible in the face of attack. It had no strategic military value but was of great symbolic importance. However, its garrison was severely undermanned and undersupplied, dependent for food and other necessities on a weekly convoy escorted by British troops, through which arms and additional combat troops had to be smuggled.
Esther entered the Old City, ostensibly as a teacher, in the last of such convoys, on 7 May 1948 and reported to the Haganah commander. Her assigned task was a mobile role - supplying the needs (arms, ammunition, food, drink, etc.) of the various outposts throughout the quarter. When she arrived, a tenuous truce was operating and things were relatively quiet, but a full-scale onslaught on the Quarter was anticipated, after the anticipated British troops withdrawal on 14 May. This duly occurred. Sections of the civilian population wanted to negotiate a cease fire. They had to be forcibly restrained. On 16 May, during the first sustained attack on the Quarter, Esther was wounded, though not disabled - she quickly returned to her duties after a field-dressing, often using the exposed rooftops as her means of access between posts.
On 19 May a small Palmach
unit broke through the Zion Gate and reached the beleaguered garrison. Esther was there to receive them and for a moment it seemed that fortunes might have turned, but the force swiftly withdrew. On that same day, King Abdullah
's Arab Legion
arrived at the Mount of Olives
and began shelling the Jewish Quarter, which was contracting daily as Arab ground troops advanced. It became a house-to-house battle, and Esther's mobile role became impossible, so she joined one of the defending groups as a Sten gunner. On 26 May she was seriously injured when a building she had just entered exploded, shattering her spine. She was carried to the Quarter's hospital, but lack of supplies meant that little medical treatment was available. When the hospital came under shell-fire the next day Esther and the other wounded were moved to a safer area. Here, she remained conscious and able to talk, read her bible and say her prayers. Meanwhile, with the destruction of the Hurva synagogue, resistance in the Jewish Quarter effectively ended, with less than forty defenders still holding out. Surrender followed shortly afterwards.
of June 1967 Jewish forces captured the entire Old City, and thereafter the Jewish Quarter was rebuilt.
None of the men or women who fought for the Jewish Quarter in 1948 received citations for bravery, although Moshe Roussak singled Esther out as deserving. Along with the 38 other Old City fighters who died, Esther was posthumously enlisted in the IDF Israeli Defence Forces and, after temporary burial in a west Jerusalem quarry, her body was re-interred in Mount Hertzl military cemetery in September 1950.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-born schoolteacher of Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
extraction, who fought with the Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
and died of wounds received in the battle for the Old City of Jerusalem. She is commemorated, in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, by the Esther Cailingold memorial forest at Kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
Lavi in the Lower Galilee, by a scholarship fund at Yeshivat HaKotel
Yeshivat Hakotel
Yeshivat Hakotel is a modern-Orthodox religious Zionist hesder yeshiva situated in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was built in 1857. The yeshiva overlooks the Kotel ; hence its name. The Yeshiva is famous among tourists and tour guides for its entrance to the prayer plaza at the Kotel on Sabbath...
in Jerusalem, and on various war memorials including that of the Israeli Armored Corps at Latrun
Latrun
Latrun is a strategic hilltop in the Ayalon Valley in Israel overlooking the road to Jerusalem. It is located 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem and 14 kilometers southeast of Ramla.-Etymology:...
. Several libraries and other rooms in children's homes in Israel are named after her. In England
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...
she is remembered through the Esther Cailingold society in North London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
, part of Emunah UK
Birth, family and education
Esther Cailingold was born in WhitechapelWhitechapel
Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...
, London
London
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...
, on 28 June 1925, eldest child of Moshe Cailingold and Anne, née Fenechel. Moshe had immigrated from Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
in 1920, and had opened up a London branch of his family's bookselling and publishing business. After the family moved to Stamford Hill
Stamford Hill
Stamford Hill is a place in the north of the London Borough of Hackney, England, near the border with Haringey. It is home to Europe's largest Hasidic Jewish and Adeni Jewish community.Stamford Hill is NNE of Charing Cross.-History:...
, North London, in 1936, Esther attended the North London Collegiate School
North London Collegiate School
North London Collegiate School is an independent day school for girls founded in 1850 in Camden Town, and now in the London Borough of Harrow.The Good Schools Guide called the school an "Academically stunning outer London school in a glorious setting which, in 2003, demonstrated its refusal to rest...
for girls, eventually winning a scholarship to Goldsmiths College, University of London (temporarily based in Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
), to study English. She graduated with first-class honours in 1946.
Zionism
Esther's Zionism derived principally from her strict Orthodox Jewish background. Her father, one of the founders of Poland's Young MizrachiMizrachi (Religious Zionism)
The Mizrachi is the name of the religious Zionist organization founded in 1902 in Vilnius at a world conference of religious Zionists called by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines. Bnei Akiva, which was founded in 1929, is the youth movement associated with Mizrachi...
movement, maintained a fervent Zionism in the family home, such that "Esther was a Zionist...before she knew of any formal movement or heard her first Zionist speech". Her youthful convictions were strengthened by awareness of international events such as the rise of Hitler, the growth of European (and British) anti-semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
and later, during and immediately after the war, the emerging details of the Holocaust. Until then her Zionism had expressed itself mainly in religious and youth-related activities, such as her involvement with Bachad, which ran training farms in Britain and Europe to prepare young people for future life on a kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
. Thereafter her belief strengthened that her future lay with the Jewish community in Palestine, and in the autumn of 1946 she successfully applied for a post as an English teacher at the Evelina de Rothschild
Evelina de Rothschild
Evelina Gertrude de Rothschild was an English socialite and a member of the Rothschild banking family of England.-Biography:...
school in Jerusalem.
Haganah Soldier
Esther arrived in Jerusalem on 1 December 1946 to take up her teaching post. In the ensuing months, whilst immersing herself in the local culture, she witnessed the growing street violence, the imposition of curfews and other restrictions on movement, attacks on Jewish property and personnel, and specific events such as the trial, conviction and execution of IrgunIrgun
The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...
activist Dov Gruner
Dov Gruner
Dov Gruner was a Jewish Zionist leader born in Kisvárda, Hungary on December 6, 1912. On April 19, 1947, he was executed by the British Mandatory authorities in Palestine on the charge of "firing on policemen, and setting explosive charges with the intent of killing personnel on His Majesty's...
, and the drawn out saga of the refugee ships such as the Exodus
Exodus (ship)
Exodus 1947 was a ship that carried Jewish emigrants, that left France on July 11, 1947, with the intent of taking its passengers to the British mandate for Palestine. Most of the emigrants were Holocaust survivor refugees, who had no legal immigration certificates to Palestine...
. As a result, her perspective changed; her letters home reflect a harder attitude and an increasingly sharp anti-British sentiment. By October 1947 she had joined Haganah
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
, and while continuing with her teaching job for the time being, she began attending training camps to prepare for possible combat duty. In January 1948 she left Evelina de Rothschild and became a full-time Haganah soldier. In addition to military duties and continuing training she acted as a continuity announcer for Haganah's English-language broadcasting service, whilst seeking a posting to the garrison defending the Jewish Quarter in the Old City, the most vulnerable of all the Jewish sectors within Jerusalem.
The Jewish Quarter
There are two distinct narratives relating to the 1948 battle for the Jewish Quarter. The Arab narrative tells of a well-planned and executed military victory against a fanatical and determined foe. The Jewish narrative recounts a struggle against hopeless odds by a tiny force that by its bravery and determination held out for two weeks before being overwhelmed. There is truth in each version.In 1948 the Jewish Quarter covered a smaller area than it had once and does now. It then housed around 1700 civilians, mainly women, children and elderly, and was defended by a small garrison of mixed Haganah, Irgun and Lehi
Lehi (group)
Lehi , commonly referred to in English as the Stern Group or Stern Gang, was a militant Zionist group founded by Avraham Stern in the British Mandate of Palestine...
troops under a Haganah commander. The Quarter was entirely cut off from the rest of Jewish Jerusalem, surrounded by hostile Arab districts and effectively indefensible in the face of attack. It had no strategic military value but was of great symbolic importance. However, its garrison was severely undermanned and undersupplied, dependent for food and other necessities on a weekly convoy escorted by British troops, through which arms and additional combat troops had to be smuggled.
Esther entered the Old City, ostensibly as a teacher, in the last of such convoys, on 7 May 1948 and reported to the Haganah commander. Her assigned task was a mobile role - supplying the needs (arms, ammunition, food, drink, etc.) of the various outposts throughout the quarter. When she arrived, a tenuous truce was operating and things were relatively quiet, but a full-scale onslaught on the Quarter was anticipated, after the anticipated British troops withdrawal on 14 May. This duly occurred. Sections of the civilian population wanted to negotiate a cease fire. They had to be forcibly restrained. On 16 May, during the first sustained attack on the Quarter, Esther was wounded, though not disabled - she quickly returned to her duties after a field-dressing, often using the exposed rooftops as her means of access between posts.
On 19 May a small Palmach
Palmach
The Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Palmach was established on May 15, 1941...
unit broke through the Zion Gate and reached the beleaguered garrison. Esther was there to receive them and for a moment it seemed that fortunes might have turned, but the force swiftly withdrew. On that same day, King Abdullah
Abdullah I of Jordan
Abdullah I bin al-Hussein, King of Jordan [‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Husayn] عبد الله الأول بن الحسين born in Mecca, Second Saudi State, was the second of three sons of Sherif Hussein bin Ali, Sharif and Emir of Mecca and his first wife Abdiyya bint Abdullah...
's Arab Legion
Arab Legion
The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century.-Creation:...
arrived at the Mount of Olives
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters . It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes...
and began shelling the Jewish Quarter, which was contracting daily as Arab ground troops advanced. It became a house-to-house battle, and Esther's mobile role became impossible, so she joined one of the defending groups as a Sten gunner. On 26 May she was seriously injured when a building she had just entered exploded, shattering her spine. She was carried to the Quarter's hospital, but lack of supplies meant that little medical treatment was available. When the hospital came under shell-fire the next day Esther and the other wounded were moved to a safer area. Here, she remained conscious and able to talk, read her bible and say her prayers. Meanwhile, with the destruction of the Hurva synagogue, resistance in the Jewish Quarter effectively ended, with less than forty defenders still holding out. Surrender followed shortly afterwards.
Death
After the surrender on 28 May, Esther and the other wounded were moved once again, this time to the nearby Armenian School, just outside the Jewish Quarter. Early on the following morning Esther, after refusing a cigarette (it was Shabbat), fell into a coma and did not regain consciousness. She died some time around 5.00am on Saturday 29 May. Her last letter to her parents had been written six days earlier and handed to fellow-soldier Chaveh Leurer, who passed it to Harry Levin after the surrender. Levin in turn gave it to Moshe Cailingold when the latter came to Jerusalem in July.Aftermath
After the surrender of the Jewish Quarter garrison to the Arab Legion under Abdullah al Tel, the remaining buildings in the quarter were systematically destroyed, including 58 of the 59 Synagogues in the Old City. The quarter's Jewish residents were removed to Israeli lines, and lost all their property. The Arab victory in the Old City was one of their few successes in the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, which they termed their al Nakba or "catastrophe". In the Six-Day WarSix-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
of June 1967 Jewish forces captured the entire Old City, and thereafter the Jewish Quarter was rebuilt.
None of the men or women who fought for the Jewish Quarter in 1948 received citations for bravery, although Moshe Roussak singled Esther out as deserving. Along with the 38 other Old City fighters who died, Esther was posthumously enlisted in the IDF Israeli Defence Forces and, after temporary burial in a west Jerusalem quarry, her body was re-interred in Mount Hertzl military cemetery in September 1950.
External links
- Esther Cailingold - Biography at www.zionism-israel.com
Sources
- Martin Gilbert: Jerusalem in the 20th Century. Chatto & Windus, 1996.
- Collins & Lapierre: O Jerusalem. History Book Club, 1972.
- Dan Kurtzman: Genesis 1948. De Capo Press edition, 1992.
- Asher Cailingold: An Unlikely Heroine .Valentine Mitchell, 2000.
- Harry Levin: Jerusalem Embattled. Cassell edition, 1997.