087 – Haga (IDF) Whistles | The Whistle Gallery

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WHISTORY

A special class of whistles in the 20^th century is the Haga or what became the Israeli Defense Whistle from Israel. Martyn Gilchrist described the golden age of whistles dating from about 1860 to 1930 ( or thereabouts ). However as seen here in this study article, this is not always the case. These whistles started circa 1930 and their progression started from a very heavy well-made tube shaped whistle to manufacturing of lesser quality. For this time period these were high quality whistles and can be rare to very rare.

These whistles rank up there with the best. Especially with the heavier ‘early’ models, do we see unusually fine workmanship. They are handmade which is reminiscent of fine whistles circa 1880s from countries like Germany and the UK, when labor was not as much the determining factor. Each country that we examine has proven to have idiosyncratic whistles, so that the more and deeper we look, the wider our understanding of multinational craftsmanship, ingenuity, art and appreciation grows.

What prompted or was the purpose for the use of these whistles ?? Background is gathered from posted Israeli history, notes gathered from the internet and comments by collectors, all who are much better educated than us. Therefore we have put together an article describing these whistles as best we can from the states, but would beg correction, adjustments, further photographs or anything that would fill out this article for everyone to learn by. We would hope that nothing is lost in the translations.

Timeline:

1922 League of Nations mandate ( Great Britain to oversee ‘ temporary trust’ )
1930 white papers – riots occurring
1939 white paper – immigrations restricted – pre ww11
1947 mandate terminated

The Haganah was formed to protect Jewish farms and kibbutzim ( communities based on agriculture )

Haganah means literally the defense. It was a Jewish paramilitary organization during the time of the British mandate ( 1921 to 1948 ) This would become the core of the ( IDF ) Israeli Defense Force, post 1948.

In Hebrew, Tzva Hagana Le-Yisrael – Zahal

Following the 1929 riots the Haganah’s role changed as it grew. In so doing it became a much larger organization encompassing nearly all the youth and adults in the Jewish settlements ( as well as thousands of members of the cities. Arms were acquired from foreign sources and more importantly WORKSHOPS creating an underground army ( now with small arms workshops ).

This was the setting of the pre state Israel – or Eretz Israel.

WHISTLE ARCHEOLOGY

Now we can focus on whistles from this period. The earliest whistles were very heavy cast models. They were handmade and so this was reflected in the slight variations that naturally occurred.

Noticeable features include:

EARLY:
Cast separate pillar tops
disc openings
Top caps attached low on the tubes
Cast mouthpieces reminiscent of Coney’s from the UK
depth of chambers ( all whistles )
machined mouthpieces
pips
stamp differences

Here are four we have obtained with difficulty ( one was a generous gift ) to begin our study with:
2 unstamped early cast with different mouthpieces
2 later stamped with machined mouthpieces

Dating them is not clear. If the heavy cast ones are indeed early then they would date approximately between 1930 to 1948. The lesser quality would then post 1948 and be more of ‘production’ whistles.

There is quite a bit of difference in the mouthpieces although both are cast ( to the left )

The tops are two piece cast. The top cap comes down quite far.

The first mouthpiece is actually close looking to Coney from the UK pre 1900s except the flush perimeter.

Compare the tops to each other from later to earlier.

A single feature is that all whistles have two depths to the chambers — creating a very nice dual/dissonant sound.

A second feature is the depth sideways to the chambers, amplifying the difference in sound.

Finally a third feature is that they also incorporate a distance between the disc and the perimeter wall and it further accentuates the sound difference.

*********This is the only time we have seen three aspects used to combine so well.

Thereafter the ‘pip’ is introduced to the dsic– which had been seen used earlier on UK whistles by Hudson, USA by Johnson and perhaps German, French and others. This feature allows direct connection of the disc to the perimeter cutting costs and labor to production.

We would like to give special thanks for the following added research and pictures to Dan Shouse.
(The pictures are uncredited presently, but we invite accreditation.)

Comments as follows:

‘ I have placed letters on them to show to which organization they belong:

( A )

IDF- can be army, air force, or navy. The so called “Z” sign on the whistle is actually a letter of the Hebrew alphabet called Tasadi. Some identify this letter as the word Zahal (IDF). This word is actually missing its first letter which is a “T”, which would make the word “Tzahal”, which in turn is an acronym for words meaning Israel Defense Forces.

Note: The IDF has a 4500 member Military Police Corps charged with providing police activities for the entire organization (army, air force, and navy).

( B )

The Hebrew lettering on this whistle means The Civilian Defense. This is a non-military organization that has the huge responsibility of keeping the general population of Israel safe in times of national emergency, war, or natural disaster. Some use the word “Haga” to identify this organization.

( C )

Whistles with a single Hebrew letter that looks much like the small English letter “n”, stands for the Israeli Police. A 35,000 man/woman civil organization tasked with providing police services to all of Israel. There are no individual city police forces in Israel. This Police Force is backed-up with a Civil Guard composed of over 70,000 personnel. These are volunteers who provide their time to assist regular police officers in their own communities. ‘

STAMPS

( A )