John Henry Patterson

John Henry Patterson

A man who lived an exciting life, John Henry Patterson played many roles—author, hunter of man-eating beasts, soldier, Zionist, and godfather of the IDF.

Born in 1867 in Ireland, Patterson joined the British Army at the age of 17. While serving in Kenya, Patterson had his most famous adventures. In 1898, he oversaw the building of a railroad bridge over the Tsavo River, where over a period of nine months, the two male lions killed up to 140 people.

After months of unsuccessfully tracking the beasts, in December of 1898 Patterson was able to shoot them both. In 1907, Patterson published his first book, an account of the ordeal, “The Man-eaters of Tsavo,” which inspired three movies, the most recent of which was The Ghost and the Darkness, starring Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer. The two lions were stuffed and are still on display over a century later in Chicago’s Field Museum.

During WWI, Patterson—a Christian—became a major figure in Zionism. He did so as the commander of the Zion Mule Corps and the Jewish Legion. His men—all of them Jewish—faced harsh anti-Semitism, and Patterson sacrificed his own promotion in order to defend them. His men, in turn, supported and respected him.

Decades later, those he led would become the foundation of what is today’s IDF.

After retiring from the military, Patterson continued his Zionist support—advocating justice for the Jewish people. One of his closest friends was Benzion Netanyahu, father of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Benzion named his first son after Patterson—Yonatan Netanyahu, the Israeli hero who would lose his life during the 1976 raid on Entebbe.

But Patterson was not just the godfather of an Israeli hero—he was the godfather of the modern IDF. Before dying in 1947, his final wish was to be buried in Israel, the land he loved. And in December 2014, John Henry Patterson and his wife were re-interred in the Holy Land, a fitting resting place for such a friend of the Jewish people.

: wikicommons