Tel Hai

This resource was created in partnership with Jewish National Fund-USA.

The story of Tel Hai shows how a small and chaotic battle in 1920 became a powerful symbol of Jewish self-defense, sacrifice, and the struggle to build a future homeland in the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire’s collapse.

Essential Questions

1. What happens when multiple groups believe the same land belongs to them?
2. Why is sacrifice a powerful tool in shaping identity?
3. How do societies decide which tragedies become national symbols or myths?

Big Ideas

1. When empires collapse, ordinary people are often forced to make impossible choices between survival, sacrifice, and hope for the future.
2. Communities caught between competing national movements can become symbols of struggles far larger than themselves.
3. Nations build identity not only through victories, but through stories of courage, loss, and people who refused to leave.