Born on in Odessa, Russia, Jabotinsky served as a correspondent for several Russian newspapers. He continued to write throughout his life , and translated into Hebrew some of the best-known classics of world literature.

Following the Kishinev Pogrom (1903), he organized self­defense units and fighting for Jewish minority rights in Russia. In 1914 he worked as a war correspondent and helped establish the Jewish Legion. He led the Haganah in Jerusalem against Arab riots in 1920 and was sentenced by the British Mandatory Government to 15 years hard labor, but received amnesty. He was a member of the Zionist Executive, and a founders of "Keren Hayesod." In 1925,he established the Union of Zionists-Revisionists (Hatzohar) which called for the establishment of a Jewish State. In 1923, he headed the Betar youth movement.

In 1929, he left Palestine on a lecture tour after which the British denied him re­entry. From then onwards he lived in the Diaspora until his death. He founded the New Zionist Organization (N.Z.O) to conduct independent political activity for free immigration and the establishment of a Jewish State. During 1939­1940, he was active in Britain and the United States in the hope of establishing a Jewish army to fight side by side with the Allies against Nazi Germany.