By Canadian Press

N.S. to mark little-known connection to David Ben-Gurion and the Jewish Legion

Sep 21, 2018 | 7:45 AM

WINDSOR, N.S. — Before he became Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion earned 50 cents a day as a soldier and slept on the ground in bell tents in the small town of Windsor, N.S.

His remarkable and little-known connection to Nova Scotia will be commemorated Sunday on the 100th anniversary of the training of the Jewish Legion.

Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the second president of the State of Israel, both joined a Jewish battalion of the British Army in 1918 for the fight for Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire.

“30 years later, these soldiers who trained in Windsor became leaders of the State of Israel. They were key to the success of the state, the war of independence,” said Jon Goldberg, an event organizer and former executive director of the Atlantic Jewish Council.

“Not only that, it even was a big influence on (Ben-Gurion’s) life. This man became the father of modern Israel… He was one of the legends of the creation of the Jewish state.”

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The prominent Zionists both trained at Windsor’s Fort Edward, which served as a point of departure for all North American recruits of the Jewish Legion.

As young members of the training squad of the 39th battalion, they were paid 50 cents a day and slept alongside five other men in floorless, cotless bell tents on the large open compound, known locally as Fort Edward Hill, according to a 2014 report by Sara Beanlands of Boreas Heritage Consulting Inc.

Her report offers Ben-Gurion’s own recollections of the camp after he arrived on June 1, 1918.

“My first day in camp has been so rich in experiences and fresh impressions that I hardly know where to begin,” he wrote in a letter to his wife, Paula.

“I feel drunk with my new life. Everything here is better, more pleasant and more interesting than I thought it would be or expected.”

But his rosy outlook shifted after three weeks at Fort Edward, writing: “I am not a free man: I’m a soldier… can’t always do what he would like.”

Nevertheless, Ben-Gurion would eventually pen a letter to Windsor’s mayor, Robert Dimock, expressing how the town impacted the trajectory of his life.

“In Windsor, one of the great dreams of my life, to serve as a soldier in a Jewish unit to fight for the liberation of Israel, became a reality,” the 1966 letter said.

“I will never forget Windsor where I received my first training as a soldier and where I became a corporal.”

Goldberg said he was not aware of Ben-Gurion and Ben-Zvi’s connection to Windsor until about four years ago, when a photo was uncovered from the basement of the Army Museum Halifax Citadel that showed the two political leaders with the 39th battalion.

The ceremony at 1 p.m. AT Sunday at Fort Edward will include a reading of several letters between Ben-Gurion and his wife and a performance by Mermaid Theatre.

An official with the town said the son and grandson of legion members are expected to attend the event, as well as a retired military rabbi.

A committee has been working to establish a memorial in Windsor that would include a “wall of honour” with names of the men who served in the Jewish Legion at Fort Edward.

There is already a design for the pavilion, but funding still needs to be secured.

— By Aly Thomson in Halifax.

The Canadian Press