R. Segal:Brief Biography

Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Segal was born in in 1904 Poltava, Russia. He taught Torah in yeshivot that had to go "underground" following the Russian Revolution. He made aliya with his family in the 1920s and registered as the seventh member of Betar in Eretz Israel. Rabbi Segal� was a member of the Hagana in the mid-1920s but was ejected for agitating on behalf of a Jewish state.

In 1929, Rabbi Segal organized the march to the Kotel (the Western Wall) on Tisha B'Av. During the Arab riots and pogroms of that year he defended Tel Aviv as a member of the Nationalist Hagana, and later helped negotiate the formation of the Irgun Zvai Leumi (IZL). He also helped Abba Ahimeir, Uri Zvi Greenberg and Dr. Yehoshua Yevin found the first revolutionary Zionist movement in modern Eretz Israel: the Brit Habirionim.

In 1930, Rabbi Segal violated the British prohibition against blowing the shofar at the Kotel to mark the end of the Yom Kippur fast and was arrested. Every year following, someone followed in his footsteps and blew the shofar as an act of defiance against the British regime. Segal helped prepare many of these operations. Even today, Rabbi Segal is known in Israel as "the first of the shofar blowers."

Segal went on to become a member of the Irgun High Command (when Yaacov Meridor was Commander in Chief), and later he joined the Lehi (Stern Group). He was also the national commander of a religious semi-underground, the Brit Hashmonaim.

In 1967, Rabbi Segal left Kfar Chabad, where he was living, and became the first Jew to move back to the Old City of Jerusalem after its liberation. He rebuilt the Chabad synagogue there, and later helped organize the rebuilding of the Ramban synagogue.

Rabbi Segal was a leader of the campaigns to allow Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, to prevent the withdrawal from Sinai, and to strengthen Jewish settlement in all areas liberated by the Israeli army. He was one of the initiators of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, and founded the Shavei Zion Society there. He befriended a young Israeli soldier, David Ben Shimol, who was sentenced to life imprisonment after he fired on an Arab bus to protest the Israeli government's apathy towards the murder of Jews, including Ben Shimol's girlfriend, by terrorists.

Rabbi Segal died in 1984 on Yom Kippur and was buried on the Mount of Olives.


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	HOME Rabbi Moshe Tsvi Segal What is Judaism Without the Temple Mount? by R. Moshe Tsvi Segal Rebuilting the Temple & the Stages of Jewish History by R. Moshe Tsvi Segal The Land, the People & the Torah by R. Moshe Tsvi Segal The Shofar and the Wall� by R. Moshe Tsvi Segal Letter to David Ben Shimol by R. Moshe Tsvi Segal A Open Letter by R. Moshe Tsvi Segal E-mail: [email protected] Contact Information: Save Israel P.O. Box 1901 Bensalem, PA 19020	� � Rav Moshe Tzvi Segal: a biography Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Segal was born in in 1904 Poltava, Russia. He taught Torah in yeshivot that had to go "underground" following the Russian Revolution. He made aliya with his family in the 1920s and registered as the seventh member of Betar in Eretz Israel. Rabbi Segal� was a member of the Hagana in the mid-1920s but was ejected for agitating on behalf of a Jewish state. In 1929, Rabbi Segal organized the march to the Kotel (the Western Wall) on Tisha B'Av. During the Arab riots and pogroms of that year he defended Tel Aviv as a member of the Nationalist Hagana, and later helped negotiate the formation of the Irgun Zvai Leumi (IZL). He also helped Abba Ahimeir, Uri Zvi Greenberg and Dr. Yehoshua Yevin found the first revolutionary Zionist movement in modern Eretz Israel: the Brit Habirionim. In 1930, Rabbi Segal violated the British prohibition against blowing the shofar at the Kotel to mark the end of the Yom Kippur fast and was arrested. Every year following, someone followed in his footsteps and blew the shofar as an act of defiance against the British regime. Segal helped prepare many of these operations. Even today, Rabbi Segal is known in Israel as "the first of the shofar blowers." Segal went on to become a member of the Irgun High Command (when Yaacov Meridor was Commander in Chief), and later he joined the Lehi (Stern Group). He was also the national commander of a religious semi-underground, the Brit Hashmonaim. In 1967, Rabbi Segal left Kfar Chabad, where he was living, and became the first Jew to move back to the Old City of Jerusalem after its liberation. He rebuilt the Chabad synagogue there, and later helped organize the rebuilding of the Ramban synagogue. Rabbi Segal was a leader of the campaigns to allow Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, to prevent the withdrawal from Sinai, and to strengthen Jewish settlement in all areas liberated by the Israeli army. He was one of the initiators of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, and founded the Shavei Zion Society there. He befriended a young Israeli soldier, David Ben Shimol, who was sentenced to life imprisonment after he fired on an Arab bus to protest the Israeli government's apathy towards the murder of Jews, including Ben Shimol's girlfriend, by terrorists. Rabbi Segal died in 1984 on Yom Kippur and was buried on the Mount of Olives.