Captain Jeremiah Halpern (Hebrew: ירמיהו הלפרן; also known as Yirmiyahu Halpern and Yirmiyahu Halperin) (b. Smolensk, Russia, 1901; d. Tel Aviv, Israel, 1962) was a Revisionist Zionist leader[1] in Palestine who first came to prominence when he served as aide de camp to Ze'ev Jabotinsky in the 1920s when the latter was head of the Haganah in Jerusalem.

[6] On taking up permanent residence in Palestine in 1933 Halpern was associated primarily with the Hebrew Committee of National Liberation.

[10] Under the leadership of Halpern (and later of Ahimeir) the 24 cadets took the lead in organising demonstrative activities outside Betar, which notably included taking the initiative in the march to the Western Wall in August 1929.

[15] The titular head was the Italian maritime scientist Nicola Fusco but Jeremiah Halpern ran the School and was its driving force.

The School trained cadets from all over Europe, Palestine and South Africa and produced some of the future commanders of the Israeli Navy.

[15] Although the Revisionists were keen to ensure that trainees avoided local Fascist politics the cadets did express public support for Benito Mussolini's regime, as Halpern later detailed in his book History of Hebrew Seamanship.

[5] In 1951 Halpern proposed to David Ben-Gurion to re-organise the Israeli commercial and military Marine Corps and to establish a research programme to explore the natural resources of the Red Sea.

[17] Halpern's contribution to Hebrew seamanship is commemorated by a research scholarship offered by the University of Haifa's Department of Maritime Civilizations.