2025-07-27 18:16 <br/> Tags: #people #AmericanJewry #Network #EarlyZionism #Israel ![[image-60.png|299x399]] # Hillel Kook (1915-2001) - Hillel Kook, known also as his assumed name 'Peter Bergson,' was the primary [[Irgun and Lehi Zionist Paramilitary Organizations|Irgun]] operator in the United States from the late 1930's until 1948. - Hillel Kook was a member of the rabbinical Kook family. - Hillel was the nephew of [[Abraham Isaac Kook]] and cousin to Abraham's son [[Zvi Yehuda Kook]]. - Both Abraham and Zvi Kook were among the most influential religious Jewish nationalist figures. Abraham was the first [[Chief Rabbinate|chief rabbi]] of British Mandatory Palestine. - Kook was a member of the official [[Jewish Agency]] paramilitary the [[Haganah]] before leaving in 1931 to help form the underground far right Jewish terror paramilitary the [[Irgun and Lehi Zionist Paramilitary Organizations|Irgun]]. - In 1937 Kook began working in Europe on behalf of the Irgun organizing Irgun cells and raising money. - It's at this time that Kook connected with the godfather of the Jewish far right [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]]. - In 1940 Kook traveled to the United States with [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]] and [[Yitzhak Ben-Ami]] for purposes of fundraising and garnering support for the revisionist cause. - During this trip Jabotinsky died and Kook assumed the role of chief Irgun representative in the US although he publicly denied connection to the Irgun. - Kook took the name "Peter Bergson" while in the US to appear less alien. - Kook's inner circle of Irgun activists in the US was referred to as the [[Bergson Group]]. - Notable members of the Bergson Group include: [[Yitzhak Ben-Ami]], [[Aryeh Ben-Eliezer]], [[Shmuel Merlin]], and Eri Jabotinsky (son of Ze'ev). - Kook was a [[Revisionist Zionism|Revisionist]] hardliner, yet still not extreme enough for Irgun leader [[Menachem Begin]] who admonished Kook for using the word Palestine and for not focusing enough on illegal arms shipments to the Irgun. - Begin later served as the Israeli Prime Minister from 1977-83. - Irgun leader, revisionist leader, PM, founder of the [[Likud]], Begin is among the most influential Israelis in the country's history. #RedPill *Israel has shifted significantly to the revisionist right since the 70s. Hardliners like Begin initially were either shunned or excommunicated from public activity. Now those hardliners enjoy mass public support and institutional power within the Israeli government and security system. - The Bergson Group operated and worked with a number of Irgun front organizations within the US. All these groups served similar functions; supporting the Irgun, spreading propaganda, lobbying the US government, advocating for immigration of Jews out of Europe during WWII. *Here I've linked the front groups Kook was involved with. Considerable brevity was used in their descriptions as they all lived within Kook's revolving door of front groups.* - [[American Friends of a Jewish Palestine (AFJP)]] - [[Committee for a Jewish Army of Stateless and Palestinian Jews]] - [[Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe]] - [[American League for a Free Palestine (ALFP)]] - [[Hebrew Committee for National Liberation (HCNL)]] ---- - While in the US Kook met a young [[Meir Kahane]] and made a lasting impression on him.[^1] - Kook was instrumental in leading [[Betar|Betar USA]] in the United States in the 1940s. - Betar is the militant [[Revisionist Zionism|Revisionist]] youth organization - Kook's [[Bergson Group]] purchased the ship *Altalena* in 1947. - The name Altalena is a nod to the pen name of [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]]. - The Altalena was bought for the purpose of illegal immigration, however [[Menachem Begin]] chose to also use it for illegal arms shipments to Palestine. - The ship was eventually the center of the [[Altalena Affair]] in June 1948. - After the affair, Kook was held in prison for ~2 months. - Kook returned to Israel to serve in the first Israeli Knesset. - Kook served under the [[Herut]] party, until his disillusionment with the leadership of [[Menachem Begin]] and the Israeli political process as a whole. - Kook returned to the United States and worked as a stock broker on Wall St. - Kook moved back to Israel in 1968, where he lived until his death in 2001. ## Recommended Reading Against Our Better Judgement - Alison Weir #### References - Weir, Alison. _Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel_. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. - “Hillel Kook.” _Wikipedia_. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillel_Kook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillel_Kook). - “Peter Bergson,” _Holocaust Encyclopedia_, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, [https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/peter-bergson](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/peter-bergson). - “Hillel Kook (aka Peter Bergson) (1915–2001),” _Jewish Virtual Library_, [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/hillel-kook-aka-peter-bergson](https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/hillel-kook-aka-peter-bergson). - Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Hillel Kook, 86, Revisionist Zionist, Dies.” _JTA_, August 19, 2001. - Medoff, Rafael, and David S. Wyman. _A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust._ New York: The New Press, 2002. [^1]: Jonathan Mark, “Days of Rage: Kahane in New York,” _The Jewish Week_, March 6, 2019, [https://www.jta.org/2019/03/06/ny/days-of-rage-kahane-in-new-york](https://www.jta.org/2019/03/06/ny/days-of-rage-kahane-in-new-york).