The “Roaring Lion” is much more than the name of an operation; it reflects a profound Zionist ethos of Jewish courage, strength, and national revival. It represents a Jewish shift in strategy—“holding the sword” to protect our people, our land, and our state.
The “Roaring Lion” is much more than the name of an operation; it reflects a profound Zionist ethos of Jewish courage, strength, and national revival. It represents a Jewish shift in strategy—“holding the sword” to protect our people, our land, and our state.
After World War I, the Land of Israel, then known as Palestine, was under the British Mandate and shared a northern border with the French Mandate, in what is today the country of Lebanon. This northern border region, the Upper Galilee (today often called the “Finger of the Galilee”), was populated by Bedouin tribes and four Jewish Zionist communities established in the late Ottoman period: Metula (founded in 1896), Tel Hai (established in 1918), Kfar Giladi (founded in 1916), and Hamara (established in 1905).
Armed Arab groups loyal to the emerging Arab Kingdom in Damascus tried to resist French control, and local militias feared that the Jewish settlements were assisting the French or the British. This suspicion led to hostility toward the isolated Jewish communities, which were defended by only a few members of Hashomer.
Joseph Trumpeldor, a pioneering Zionist activist and soldier, was born in Russia. He served as an officer in the Russian army and lost his left arm during the Russo-Japanese War, yet continued to serve with distinction. When World War I broke out, he refused to accept Ottoman citizenship and was expelled from the Land of Israel to Damascus, later moving to Alexandria in Egypt. There he developed the idea of forming a Jewish military unit to fight alongside the British in the conquest of the Land of Israel. In 1915 this idea became reality with the creation of the Zion Mule Corps, in which Trumpeldor served as deputy commander with the rank of captain. The unit fought in the difficult Gallipoli Campaign, where it received praise for its courage and service.
After the corps was disbanded in 1916, Trumpeldor went to London and joined Ze’ev Jabotinsky in efforts to establish larger Jewish military units. When the Russian Revolution began, he traveled to Russia hoping to organize a Jewish army that would march to the Land of Israel through the Caucasus and Armenia, but the Bolshevik takeover ended that plan. He then devoted himself to building the HeHalutz movement, helping prepare young Jewish pioneers for agricultural training and immigration. In late 1919 he returned to the Land of Israel and called for stronger organization among Jewish workers and defenders.
At the same time, the northern settlements faced growing danger due to fighting between French forces and Arab rebels in the border region. Because the isolated communities of Tel Hai, Kfar Giladi, and Metula were vulnerable, the defense committee of the Yishuv sent Trumpeldor to the Upper Galilee to organize their protection. In late 1919 he traveled north and began strengthening the defenses of these settlements.
On the 11th of Adar, 5680 (March 1, 1920), Trumpeldor was in Kfar Giladi when he was urgently called to Tel Hai after reports arrived of an Arab force gathering near the settlement. During the exchange of gunfire that followed, known as the Battle of Tel Hai, Trumpeldor was mortally wounded. Before dying, he handed over command to his successor and said: “These are my last moments. Tell them to stand until the very last moment for the honor of the nation.”
When he was carried, severely wounded, to Kfar Giladi, the doctor accompanying him asked about his condition. Trumpeldor replied: “It is nothing; it is good to die for our country,” and shortly afterward he passed away. He was buried, together with the other defenders of Tel Hai, in the courtyard of Kfar Giladi. Later their remains were transferred to the cemetery near Tel Hai.
The Roaring Lion Monument, created by the sculptor Avraham Melnikov, was inaugurated in 1934 over the remains of the eight defenders who were killed in the battle. It became one of the most famous symbols of Zionist heroism and sacrifice.
Trumpeldor’s life and death became a powerful inspiration for Zionist youth across the political spectrum. The roaring lion faces east and symbolizes Jewish courage, strength, and national revival. By lifting its head and roaring, the lion evokes the biblical image of the “Lion of Judah” (Genesis 49:9), representing resilience, the return of the Jewish people to their land, and the enduring legacy of sacrifice associated with the defenders of Tel Hai. The events at Tel Hai also prompted a change in strategy, leading to the development of a national defense organization, the Haganah, to protect Jewish settlements.
The date of the 11th of Adar became an important symbol in Zionist history. Because of this symbolism, the Haganah deliberately chose the night of the 11th of Adar in 1946 for the establishment of the settlement of Birya near Safed. During the British Mandate, when the authorities tried to prevent new Jewish settlements, thousands of youth secretly went up to Birya and built a settlement overnight in an act of defiance and determination. The choice of date linked this new act of pioneering settlement with the legacy of Tel Hai, expressing the idea that the spirit represented by Trumpeldor continued to guide the Zionist movement.
In March 1949, after almost a year and four months of war, and while ceasefire talks were taking place in Rhodes, the newly established State of Israel launched its final campaign of the 1948 War of Independence, Operation Uvda. The operation, carried out by the Palmach Negev Brigade and the Golani Brigade, aimed to capture the small village of Umm Rashrash and establish Israel’s southern border on the shores of the Red Sea. The operation succeeded on March 10, 1949 (9 Adar 5709), when soldiers raised a makeshift Israeli flag that later became known as the Ink Flag, whose image became a symbol of the War of Independence.
The official announcement of the success came two days later when Nahum Sarig, commander of the Negev Brigade, and Nahum Golan, commander of the Golani Brigade, sent a telegram stating: “On Haganah Day, the 11th of Adar, the Palmach Negev Brigade and the Golani Brigade present the Gulf of Eilat to the State of Israel.” Thus, the legacy of Tel Hai, expressing the idea that the spirit represented by Trumpeldor continued to guide the Zionist movement.
The 11th of Adar (Yud-Alef b’Adar) is commemorated in Israel as Tel Hai Day and Yom HaHagana. It is dedicated to honoring Jewish resilience, heroism, and the importance of self-defense, with ceremonies held at the Roaring Lion monument in Tel Hai.
Tel Hai and the Roaring Lion carry deep symbolism for the people of Israel; a people who returned to their land and established a state, with soldiers and leaders prepared to stand, defend, and protect it.
The opening of Operation “Roaring Lion” (Mivtsa She’agat Ha’ari) on February 28, 2026, fell on Yud-Alef Adar, the 11th day of the Hebrew month of Adar, marking the 106th anniversary of the Battle of Tel Hai and 77 years since Operation Uvda. The chosen name and date evoke, for many Israelis, the ethos of a strong state that stands up and protects itself.
It was also Shabbat Zachor, the Sabbath before Purim, when the biblical commandment to remember the attack of Amalek against Israel after the Exodus (Deuteronomy 25:17–19) is read in synagogues and temples across the Jewish world. This reading reminds the community of the duty to remember past enemies and the importance of moral vigilance across generations.
In the Chief of the General Staff’s commander’s statement for Operation “Roaring Lion,” Eyal Zamir wrote:
“We opened the campaign on the 11th of Adar, the day commemorating the heroism of Tel Hai, between Shabbat Zachor and the days of Purim. The thread connecting these events expresses the essence of our mission: Remember! Act! Take your destiny into your own hands!”
His words evoke the deep ethos of zachor, remember, together with the enduring lesson of Tel Hai: to remember and to stand strong, like the roaring lion of Judah.
He concluded with the words of the song:
“Do not fear, Israel, do not be afraid,
For are you not a young lion?
And if a lion roars – who will not be afraid?
Who will not be afraid?”
This spirit is what is driving our country now. After two and a half years of war, the people of Israel are tired, tired, but strong. Once again, many families have been evacuated from homes hit by Iranian missiles. Many have been called up to the reserves, leaving their families to run to shelters. Schools are closed and businesses are struggling. Yet it is the spirit of the Roaring Lion that keeps our heads up.
Much has been said about whether the younger generation still knows these stories. Do they still teach Tel Hai in schools? Do they read the telegram from Umm Rashrash? What is their biblical knowledge of the Lion of Judah?
As an educator, I do worry about the stories being forgotten. But as a father and a member of the community, I can say that the younger generation is connected, more than we might imagine, to the mission of sustaining a prosperous Jewish and democratic state. They are connected to the spirit of our nation in deep ways, sensing that they are part of something much larger than themselves. My responsibility is simply to find the right vocabulary to have these conversations with them. I bring the stories and the ethos, and they add their own link to the chain.
I have a son in basic training, not an easy place to be right now. On the one hand, you are in the army but not yet in battle; on the other, you know you are preparing to take your place when needed.
My daughter was on a class trip in Poland when the war broke out. For security reasons they were asked not to leave the hotel, which meant missing their visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau. When their return to Israel was delayed, they eventually received permission to visit on the day of the Fast of Esther, and after they celebrated Purim in Kraków. Being there on that day, while war was unfolding back home, gave the experience an even deeper meaning.
She finally arrived home on a special flight to Taba in the Sinai Desert of Egypt, crossed the border into Eilat, and then drove to Jerusalem. It was an exhausting journey that they described as their own small exodus—just a month before Passover.
Today, for the first time, my son Noam put on tefillin in a minyan. It is one month before his bar mitzvah, and he is officially joining the adult Jewish world, another link in the chain we are building in Israel.
Hannah Senesh, the famous young Zionist pioneer, fighter, and poet, left us a legacy that can be read in dialogue with Trumpeldor’s last words, “It is good to die for our country.” Senesh, born in 1921 in Budapest, Hungary, made aliyah to the Land of Israel in 1939 and settled in Kibbutz Sdot Yam near Caesarea, where she became part of the kibbutz community and deepened her connection to the land. During World War II, she volunteered to parachute into Nazi-occupied Europe to rescue Hungarian Jews and join the resistance. Captured by the Germans, she endured torture but refused to betray her mission and was ultimately executed at the age of 23. Her poetry, bravery, and unwavering dedication to her people made her an enduring symbol of heroism, moral courage, and the spirit of Jewish resistance.
In her poem “To Die,” she seems to answer Trumpeldor: dying was not what she longed for, she wanted to live. To live in the Land of Israel and enjoy all that it can offer. Yet if necessary, she was willing to sacrifice herself so that others could live.
To Die/ Hannah Senesh
“To die… so young to die… no, no, not I.
I love the warm sunny skies,
Light, songs, shining eyes,
I want no war, no battle cry –
No, no…not I.
But if it must be that I live today
With blood and death on every hand,
Praised be He for the grace, I’ll say
To live, if I should die this day…
Upon your soil, my home, my land.”
This is the ethos of the “Roaring Lion”: the Jewish people have returned to the Land of Israel and built a state in which to live and prosper, yet remain willing to go above and beyond, within and beyond its borders, to defend and secure it.
May we merit this.
May we be worthy of all the sacrifice.
