Hashomer

Hashomer ("The Watchman") was founded in April 1909 at Kfar Tavor. It grew out of Bar-Giora, a secret circle formed in 1907 in Yitzhak Ben-Zvi's room in Jaffa. Bar-Giora took its motto from a poem by Yaakov Cahan: "In blood and fire Judea fell; in blood and fire Judea shall rise." Led by Israel Shochat, Manya Shochat, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and Alexander Zaïd, its members replaced hired local guards in Jewish settlements, starting at Sejera and then in Merhavia, Rehovot, Hadera and elsewhere. They rode horses and dressed in Arab and Circassian style.

Hashomer never had more than about a hundred full members, but it created the image of the self-reliant Jewish fighter-farmer. Some of its members founded Kfar Giladi and Tel Adashim. The Ottoman authorities exiled several of its leaders during the First World War. In 1920 it dissolved itself into the new Haganah, passing on its experience to the defense forces that became the Israel Defense Forces.