ABSTRACT
Young men and women were integrated into the security activities of the Yishuv almost from its beginning. The legendary Abraham Shapira, for example, began to be involved in the guarding of Petah Tikva at the age of 14; Mordecai Yigael and Tzvi Nadav joined the Ha-Shomer organization at the age of 17. At the turn of the twentieth century, dozens of lesser-known teenagers took up guard duty in the various moshavot throughout the country. At the time of the establishment of the Reali School in Haifa, its founder and first principal, Dr Arthur Biram, purchased a number of weapons and hid them under the coal heaped on the roof of the workers’ kitchen in Haifa. They were intended for use in time of need (and until such emergency he secretly trained his students with them). Among students of the first years of the Gymnasia Herzliya, founded in 1910 as the first Jewish high school in Palestine, the idea of being inducted into national service was widespread, and this included particiption in the activities of the HaShomer.
