There could be no national revival without moral and physical strength, and no lasting peace without respect—earned through resilience and integrity.
“So, today, I would like to reflect on these three sometimes-forgotten American virtues—honor, tradition and optimism.”
With those words, historian and pundit Victor Davis Hanson began the essence of his 2025 commencement address at Hillsdale College in Michigan. Although he was speaking of American ideals, these chosen virtues resonate powerfully in the life and legacy of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the towering Zionist leader whose death we commemorate this August—85 years since he passed away in Hunter, N.Y., in 1940.
For Jabotinsky, these three values were not abstractions. They were demands—practical, moral and political—that were woven into the consciousness of the then stateless Jewish people striving for rebirth in their ancient, indigenous homeland. He sought to build a generation of Jews defined not by exile and victimhood, but by self-respect, service and hope. These virtues formed the foundation of the Brit Trumpeldor youth movement, the Revisionist Zionist vision and Jabotinsky’s militant spirit that helped forge the Jewish state.
Honor, for Jabotinsky, was a matter of national dignity.
In an era when Jews were seen by others (and too often by themselves) as passive and powerless, he preached self-defense and self-respect—or what he called Hadar. Whether organizing Jewish self-defense units in Odessa, advocating for a Jewish Legion to fight alongside the Allies in World War I or forging Jewish youth in Jerusalem in the 1920s into a trained fighting force, Jabotinsky worked to instill a sense of pride and obligation. Jewish honor, he believed, meant not waiting for rescue but taking personal responsibility for Jewish destiny.
This commitment to honor explains why Jabotinsky broke from the mainstream Zionist movement when he felt it was compromising on fundamental principles. It’s why he insisted on clarity about Jewish rights in all of historic Eretz Yisrael. For him, there could be no national revival without moral and physical strength, and no lasting peace without respect—earned through resilience and integrity.
Tradition was the cultural and historical spine of his worldview.
Although Jabotinsky was a modernist in many respects—European, cosmopolitan—he had a profound reverence for the Jewish past. He understood that Zionism was not merely a political revolution but a national renaissance. The Hebrew language, Jewish customs and biblical memory were all essential tools in this process. A Jewish state had to be Jewish—not just demographically or geographically, but spiritually and historically, recalling biblical heroes such as David and Samson in his poetry and fiction.
He engendered this understanding in Brit Yosef Trumpeldor—the Betar movement, which he founded in 1923. The Zionist youth movement’s uniforms, rituals, songs and literary education were designed to revive Jewish identity in a way that was proud, disciplined and forward-looking, while always conscious of the sacrifices and glories of Jewish history. Tradition, to Jabotinsky, was not a museum. It was a foundation for growth and freedom.
Most strikingly, Jabotinsky was a prophet of optimism.
In a world darkened by antisemitism, statelessness and approaching catastrophe, he dared to believe in—and work for—a bright and profoundly Jewish future. His belief in a sovereign Jewish state with a Jewish army and a flourishing Hebrew culture was seen by many of his contemporaries as fanciful or extremist. Yet he charged forward.
His 1923 essay, “The Iron Wall,” argued that only by establishing an unbreakable Jewish presence in the Land of Israel could peace eventually be achieved with the hostile surrounding Arabs. Though criticized in its time, the core insight—that strength and security are prerequisites for peace—has since been vindicated. It was this realism infused with hope that made him such a powerful motivator of young Jews. He knew the road would be hard but believed victory was possible.
Jabotinsky’s optimism was not naïve. It was a moral obligation. To despair, he believed, was to betray future generations. He understood that the Jewish people had survived for millennia not by accident, but through determination, vision and faith.
Eighty-five years after his untimely death on Aug. 3, 1940 (at 60 years old), Jabotinsky’s legacy remains not only relevant but urgently needed. In Israel today, as in Jewish communities worldwide, the virtues he championed face erosion—from ideological confusion, historical amnesia and external threats. Honor, tradition and optimism are under pressure everywhere—in education, culture and civic life.
Yet these are precisely the virtues that can sustain Jewish identity and ensure the strength of the Jewish state. They are the building blocks not just of Zionism but of all healthy nations. That an American thinker like Victor Davis Hanson would select these same values in addressing young citizens shows just how universal and enduring they truly are.
Jabotinsky died before seeing the fulfillment of his vision. He did not live to witness the founding of the State of Israel or the heroic battles fought by the generation he helped train. But his influence was undeniable. From the underground Irgun and LEHI fighters to Israeli prime ministers like his spiritual heirs, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, Jabotinsky’s ideas shaped history.
For decades, his remains stayed in New York, per his will, which stipulated that they should not be moved to Israel unless requested by a Jewish state. Israeli founding father and first prime minister David Ben-Gurion, his longtime political rival, refused that request. Only in 1964 did Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol reverse that policy and formally approve the transfer.
Jabotinsky was finally reinterred on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem—his resting place now standing beside the very nation he helped bring into reality.
On this 85th anniversary, let us remember not only Ze’ev Jabotinsky as the leader, writer and soldier, but Jabotinsky the teacher of values. Let us re-embrace the virtues he taught: the honor of self-respect, the tradition of shared memory, and the optimism that fuels perseverance.
These are not just Zionist values; they are Jewish values. They are not just relics of some distant past but signposts for the future of the Jewish people. Jabotinsky knew it. Hanson reminds us. The challenge now is to live them.
Moshe Phillips is the national chairman of Americans For A Safe Israel (www.AFSI.org), a leading pro-Israel advocacy and education organization.
**This article was originally published on JNS.org but was shared with us by the author.
