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Dreamers, Builders, and Defenders 1900–1948

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C OMMUNITY P ROFILE Personal Reflections Tirat Tzvi Zipporah Borowsky Porath came to Palestine in 1947, on a one-year scholarship to Hebrew After Arab riots in University. When she arrived, she could never 1929, the British have imagined that she would join the authorities in , live through the siege of Jerusalem, Palestine stopped and witness the birth of the State of Israel. Jews from founding She wrote this letter to her parents and sister new settlements. on May 15, 1948, while serving as a Haganah Instead of giving nurse at Deir Yassin, an Arab village seized by up, the Zionists, Jews during an intense battle to break the who yearned for a Arab siege of Jerusalem. Jewish national home, found a  loophole in the ISRAEL GPO/KLUGER ZOLTAN British law limiting new settlements. The settlers’ plan, called “I’m sitting on the Mukhtar’s bed in Haganah the “tower and stockade” campaign, involved building a guard headquarters in Deir Yassin and, along with our tower with a fence around it in one day. By law, structures built soldiers, listening all hearts and ears to the like this could stay. proceedings at the UN Security Council over a broken down battery radio—trying to find out As part of this campaign, Tirat Tzvi was founded in who will recognize our new State. The room is lit 1937. Just eight months after its founding, an Arab mob only by a small kerosene lamp which throws attacked the kibbutz. The Jewish settlers resisted the attack, eerie shadows on the wall and plays havoc with which was seen by other Jewish communities in Palestine as a the imagination. The voices fade in and out, the great victory and a boost for morale. static is maddening and it is hard to hear who is speaking.” Today, Kibbutz Tirat Tzvi has 700 residents, and is well known for its meat processing factory, fisheries, and dates. From Letters From Jerusalem: 1947–1948, by Zipporah Porath, reprinted with permission.

S IGNIFICANT E VENTS IN I SRAEL’ S H ISTORY 1900–1948

1903 1906 1909 1915 1917 1919 1920 1921 1923 1925 1928 Last year of the Boris Schatz Tel Aviv, the first Ze’ev Jabotinsky The Balfour World Zionist The Haganah, Rabbis Abraham Pinhas The Hebrew Members of J First , arrives in modern Jewish and Joseph Declaration Organization Israel’s first Isaac Kook and Rutenberg University opens Kibbutz Bet during which Jerusalem and city is founded. Trumpledor expresses presents a military defense Ya’akov Meir establishes the in Jerusalem. Alpha in the a nearly 35,000 establishes the form the Jewish British support memorandum organization, is chosen as chief Palestine Jezreel Valley Jews immigrate Bezalel Institute Legion to fight for “a Jewish at the Paris founded. rabbis of Electric discover an “ to Israel. of Art to revive with the British national home Peace Palestine. Company, which ancient the visual arts to liberate in Palestine.” Conference supplies synagogue from t in the Jewish Palestine from asserting that electricity to all the sixth J tradition. the Turks during Jews have a of Palestine. century. World War I. historic right to Ben-Gurion Eretz Yisrael. makes aliyah.

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YOU DON’T SAY ? Mediterranean Sea Syria (French Mandate) Give the bear and goat something Palestine funny to say and think. The Jewish National Home TransJordan

(British Mandate)

Sinai

Saudi Arabia

Egypt Red Sea

Jewish Life in Palestine, 1946

JEWISH POPULATION: 625,000 ISRAEL GPO/AMERICAN COLONY WORLD JEWISH POPULATION: 11,266,600 NUMBER OF JEWISH CITIES: 6 Submit your entries online at babaganewz.com/youdontsay. NUMBER OF RURAL SETTLEMENTS: 290 Be sure to include your first name, PREDOMINANT JEWISH GROUP: last initial, and state. Ashkenazim, comprising more than three-fourths PERCENTAGE OF JEWS IN CITIES: 74

1929 1930 1933 1936 1937 1939 1939 1943 1946 1947 1948 Jewish Agency The National Henrietta Szold, Jewish Peel Commission, World War II The White Paper, Palmach sends , a radical United Nations David is established and University founder of population in a British royal erupts. issued by the 12 paratroopers Zionist group, General Ben-Gurion and soon Library of Israel Hadassah, Palestine soars committee, Haganah British behind enemy bombs the King Assembly declares the becomes the is founded. initiates Youth to more than proposes establishes government, lines in Europe David Hotel, approves the establishment “government- Aliyah, which 475,000, as dividing “Organization ends Britain’s to save headquarters of end of the of the State of in-waiting” of rescues 5,000 Jews flee Palestine into for illegal unlimited threatened the British British Mandate Israel. the emerging Jewish youth German Jewish and Arab immigration” to support for the Jewish ruling authority and . from Nazi persecution. states; the Jews bring imperiled Jewish communities. in Palestine. recommends the Germany. accept, though European Jews homeland and establishment of the plan is less to Palestine in restricts Jewish two states, favorable than violation of immigration to Jewish and Arab. Balfour; the British quotas. Palestine. Jews accept but Arabs reject. Arabs reject.

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Avraham Menachem Mendel Ussishkin (1863-1941) Builder of Israel B Y YAFFA K LUGERMAN • IILLUSTRATED BY M ARIO RUIZ

April 1891:1891: AvrahamAvraham MenachemMenachem MendelMendel Ussishkin andand hishis friendsfriends visitvisit PalestinePalestine forfor thethe firstfirst timetime andand findfind milesmiles ofof swampland. WhileWhile walkingwalking inin thethe GermanGerman quarter onon Mt.Mt. CarmelCarmel inin Haifa,Haifa, Ussishkin meetsmeets aa GermanGerman farmer.farmer.

I hear you’re with a group that visited the swamp area, and you intend to buy it.

That’s right.

Are you crazy? That’s a Jews aren’t pioneers; preposterous lie! you’re city dwellers. We can pioneer and You don’t know the build as well as first thing about anyone else! working the land. So help me, I vow to prove this farmer wrong!

When Theodor Herzl suggests to the 1903 sixth zionist congress that it consider Uganda a potential Jewish homeland, Ussishkin becomes his primary opponent and eventually succeeds inin overturning the proposal.

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“I don’t accept the decision of the Congress to send an expedition to Africa. I object to it with every fiber of my being and will do everything within my power to prevent its execution!”

In 1919, following World War I, Ussishkin is invited to speak at the Paris Peace Conference, where leaders gathered to negotiate peace treaties and the status of lands, including Palestine. Ussishkin insists on addressing the committee in Hebrew.

“In the name of the largest Jewish group, Russian Jewry, I stand before you, leaders of the world, to express the historic demands of the Jewish nation to restore it to its borders and to give back to the Children of Israel the land God promised them 4,000 years ago.”

Ussishkin heads the from 1923 until his death. Under his leadership, JNF acquires enormous tracts of land throughout the country.

“It’s possible to build a house without a roof, walls, or windows, but no house has ever been built without a foundation. And the foundation is neither sea nor air, but soil.”

In 1933, Ussishkin celebrates his 70th birthday.

Where are you, German farmer? If you’re still alive, come with me to the Haifa Bay Area and see what we Jews have accomplished as pioneers with the sweat of our brow and the heavy sacrifices of health and life.

“This is my complete answer which I could not give you in April 1891, in the conversation I could never forget.”

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ecrecy must be maintained at all A NEW RECRUIT costs. Atah meiveen? Do you s Murray left the meeting in New York City, he realized he had “ Abeen given the opportunity of a lifetime. Like many Jewish S understand?” Americans in 1946, Murray’s family lost loved ones during World “Yes,” said Murray Greenfield, a youthful- War II. The world stood by in silence, brooded Murray during the ride looking 20-year-old, who had served in the U.S. home. But the Haganah agent’s words echoed in his ears and filled Merchant Marines during World War II. He came him with pride: “Jews will never again sit and wait for help from others. Atah meiveen?” to this secret meeting because someone in his Murray understood. Thousands of Jewish survivors from synagogue whispered cryptically in his ear, Hitler’s death camps were living in squalor, packed into displaced “They need guys like you.” Murray wondered who persons camps throughout Europe. They wanted to leave behind “they” were and why “they” needed him. their old lives and start anew in Eretz Yisrael. Great Britain stood in “Can I at least tell my parents?” the their way. The British governed Palestine and had cruelly cut Jewish immigration to a dribble and blockaded the coast to prevent illegal American asked. immigration. It’s especially unfair now, Murray agonized, when those The Haganah operative from Eretz Yisrael innocents have nowhere else to go. clutched Murray’s arm. “Not a word; not even to Murray also understood his responsibility. Even your parents. Atah meiveen? This is a matter of though he would not be paid and might end up in jail, he felt compelled to join , the clandestine life and death.” naval operation to smuggle Jewish refugees into the , the Jewish community in Palestine.

RENDEZVOUS AT NIGHT ne year later, Second Officer Murray Greenfield Ostood on the deck of the Tradewinds, a “rust bucket” bought by Aliyah Bet undercover agents. Despite the volunteer crew’s doubts, the gray hulk successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean and docked in Lisbon, Portugal. Carpenters outfitted the ship with

Defying the on British the High S

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wooden racks, which they believed were storage bins for bananas. SEIZED AT SEA In reality, marveled Murray, these narrow shelves will sleep 1,500 our voyage is illegal; your ship is unseaworthy. In the name Jewish refugees. But when and where will we pick them up? “Yof humanity, surrender.” Murray and the others ignored the The answer came within days. After several stops at ports British commander’s announcement. They dressed a young boy along the Mediterranean Sea, the Tradewinds tied up alongside in a captain’s uniform and sent him to the bridge. “I am the the Exodus—another American ship in the secret fleet. Two captain,” he announced. The British weren’t amused; they fired Haganah agents slipped aboard the Tradewinds and issued final tear gas and boarded the ship, swinging clubs. The refugees fought orders: Pick up 750 refugees at a secluded cove near Bogliasco, back, hurling cans and swinging fists. The outcome, though, was Italy, and 750 more at a nearby location at the mouth of the never in doubt. As the British secured the ship and prepared to Magre River. Conduct the operation in the dead of night and transfer the refugees and crew to a prison camp in Cyprus, the maintain absolute silence. Jews raised the Star of David flag and sang “Hatikvah,” the sacred song that soon became the national anthem of Israel reborn. RESCUE AND RENEWED HOPE Sixty-six Aliyah Bet ships rom the belly of the brought 71,534 Jews to Fship, Murray heard Palestine from 1945 to agonized groans of May 15, 1948. The ten ships seasick passengers. A with American crews brought day earlier, they had 31,078 of the total. paddled rubber rafts in Murray Greenfield, complete silence and far right, poses with crew boarded the ship members of the Tradewinds. GREENFIELD according to plan. It’s like watching a movie without sound, thought Murray. But today, the soundtrack had returned with a vengeance. Wind

and high waves lashed the ship. Vomit covered the S. COURTESY MURRAY floor, children and babies cried, and the crew brewed strong tea for their passengers. Gradually the weather improved, and a festive atmosphere spread aboard ship. Joyous refugees and crew sang songs, danced, and prayed together. The party, though, was brief—a British warship soon appeared. The Jews’ first

response: They renamed their boat Hatikvah, the hope.

ASSOCIATION ALGERINE OF The Tradewinds (right) carries COURTESY desperate refugees to Palestine.

see the video ISRAEL GPO/PINN HANS The dramatic story of Americans who risked their lives to bring “illegal immigrants” to Israel. h Seas B Y M ARK H. LEVINE

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D WIN R N A E

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Zionism. modern of founder Herzl, Theodor dreams

with beggars and children only of head the at am I everyone. from hide I which secret the is This answer: The

Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L K J I H G F E D C B A

M Z F Y L X E W K V D U J T C S I R B Q H P A O G N

COVER PHOTO: ISRAEL GPO/KLUGER ZOLTAN code: The