My Life's Story

My Life’s Story By Eliyahu Yekutiel Shwartz 1915-2000 Biography of Lieutenant Colonel Eliyahu Yekutiel Shwartz Z”L , the son of Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Shwartz Z”L , and Rivka Shwartz, née Klein Z”L Gilad Jacob Joseph Gevaryahu Editor and Footnote Author David H. Wiener Editor, English Edition 2005 Merion Station, Pennsylvania This book was published by the Eliyahu Yekutiel Shwartz Memorial Committee. Copyright © 2005 Yona Shwartz & Gilad J. Gevaryahu Printed in Jerusalem Alon Printing 02-5388938 Editor’s Introduction Every Shabbat morning, upon entering Lower Merion Synagogue, an Orthodox congregation on the outskirts of the city of Philadelphia, I began by exchanging greetings with the late Lt. Colonel Eliyahu Yekutiel Shwartz. He used to give me news clippings and booklets which, in his opinion, would enhance my knowledge. I, in turn, would express my personal views on current events, especially related to our shared birthplace, Jerusalem. Throughout the years we had an unwritten agreement; Eliyahu would have someone at the Israeli Consulate of Philadelphia fax the latest news in Hebrew to my office (Eliyahu had no fax machine at the time), and I would deliver the weekly accumulation of faxes to his house on Friday afternoons before Shabbat. This arrangement lasted for years. Eliyahu read the news, and distributed the material he thought was important to other Israelis and especially to our mutual friend Dr. Michael Toaff. We all had an inherent need to know exactly what was happening in Israel. Often, during my frequent visits to Israel, I found that I was more current on happenings in Israel than the local Israelis. This is the price of the Gallut . When I had a question about a particular event or detail that happened in Israel, or about a word in Yiddish or in Arabic, I often would call Eliyahu, and he usually knew the answer. Once I investigated the history of the eucalyptus trees in Israel. Did the British bring them to Israel from their colony in Australia? Perhaps they were brought even earlier? I don’t remember if it was Eliyahu or I who found the correct answer, which was that the tree was brought to Israel at the end of the eighteenth century 1 during the Turkish period. But Eliyahu liked the question, and he worked on it until we found the answer. On another occasion I investigated the source of the expression, “Parat Moshe Rabeinu,” which in English is translated “ladybug,” I asked him, “What 1There is more than one claim for being the first to bring eucalyptus trees to Israel. The British Consul to Jerusalem, James Finn, claimed to have brought them in the 1850s, whereas Carl Neter, the founder of the Mikveh Israel school, claimed to have brought the seeds in 1883. The tree was very useful in draining swamps, as it grows very fast. It can grow 60 feet in six years. 3 did they call these bugs in Jerusalem?” He immediately replied, “ Mashiach Ferdle 2;” in English, “the donkey of the Messiah.” But more than anything else, I loved to hear him tell his stories, stories of Jerusalem from the last generation. These were stories which reminded me of the Jerusalem of my own childhood, even though Eliyahu was the same age as my father. Eliyahu was a sixth generation sabra on both his mother’s and father’s sides. 3 Generally, it is hard to assess a man in the abstract, or in theory, whereas it is much easier to assess him according to his deeds. Eliyahu was a man of action all his life, and for me he was also a living testimony to the history of Jerusalem and Israel in the early part of the twentieth century. It should be pointed out that Eliyahu was a very organized person; everything was filed in the right place. He had a natural gift for languages, and could get along in Hebrew, Yiddish, French, Arabic and even German. In his later years I suggested several times that Eliyahu write his memoirs, and I volunteered to transcribe and edit the text for him. Indeed, I transcribed and edited the material on his army service and, on a subsequent visit to Israel, Eliyahu personally gave it to the IDF archives. The non-army related text was transcribed by his cousin in Israel, Benjamin B. Rothkowitz. 2In most European languages this bug is named after Maria, the mother of Jesus, and the Jews of Palestine translated it to Yiddish as “ Mashiach ferdle ”, in connection with the mother of the Christian savior [ mashiach ]. To my understanding this bug is called in Hebrew, “ Parat Moshe Rabeinu ,” [meaning in English, “the cow of Moshe our Rabbi”], as the word Mashiach was transformed to the word Moshe. This is one of the few bugs which destroys other pests and helps agriculture, and therefore messianic qualities were attributed to it. Thus Eliyahu helped me resolve indirectly the etymology of the word. The accepted explanation of the source of the name “ Parat Moshe Rabbeinu ” is that the name is a direct translation from the Yiddish, “ Moyshe Rabeinu’s Kiyeleh ,” an expression which derives from the Russian “the Lord’s Cow.” This leaves unexplained how the word “Lord” was transformed to “ Moshe Rabeinu .,” but explains the derivation of the “cow” portion. On the other hand, the transformation from Mashiach to Moshe is more logical, as both in written and spoken Hebrew the letter chet is sometimes written and pronounced as hey . 3 This is according to the eulogy I gave in his memory on the 30 th day of his passing, in the Lower Merion Synagogue, 24 th of July, 2000. 4 Eliyahu wrote and prepared the material in an associative way, meaning that any story which came to his mind, assuming that it was unique and interesting, he included in his writing. The stories are not necessarily connected to one another, except in that they all happened to Eliyahu. In this book I have attempted to group together the paragraphs dealing with similar subject matter, or similar time periods, so as to make his stories more readable and more cohesive. However, I have made no more than the minimal changes necessary to this end, retaining Eliyahu’s own words and flavor. Generally, when I have found parallel sources that verify or enlighten Eliyahu’s original material, or sources which either give it historical context, or are a source for his own writing, I have added them in my footnotes Eliyahu wrote the general material (excluding the military material mentioned above) in his own hand, and sent it to his nephew Benjamin B. Rothkowitz, the son of his sister Malka, who resides in Jerusalem. Eliyahu received Benjamin’s first draft, made his own corrections and notes, and then I had my hand at the correction of the second draft before it was sent it back to Benjamin. After Eliyahu’s passing, Yona, his widow, and Avshalom, his son, asked Benjamin to further edit the material, and he did so, sending back the corrected second draft on May 9, 2000. The family wishes to thank him very much for his help in this endeavor. Benjamin B. Rothkowitz, in his introduction, wrote: “As the task of transcribing [Eliyahu’s] life story was given to me with great trust and respect, I cannot merely return the material of my dear uncle Eliyahu, and I therefore allow myself to say some words in his loving memory. As it is said in Midrash “ rafduni batapuchim, ” these are legends whose smell and taste is like apples; the stories of vivacious life. While I have been sitting here, working on his fascinating material, I have seen his shadow, his image, his voice, and I have felt as if he stood next to me, telling me what to put here and there, and where to place the emphasis. I can hear the melodies of the song ” Yochai li, amali li, ya chawadja mussa,” 4 which he taught us when we were four or five 4 This song was one of the most prevalent songs of the Lag Ba-omer celebration, the festivities celebrating Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron. How did “ Chawadja Mussa ,” meaning “Mr. Moses” in Arabic, come to be associated with the celebration of Lag Ba- omer? This I do not know. Since in Arabic “ chawadja ” is an honorific title for a non- Muslim, it is reasonable to assume that “Moses” refers to the biblical Moses. In my view, 5 years old in my mind’s ear. Eliyahu, in his memoirs, brought back memories of my own past. Many of the family stories are well known to me. Let his memory be blessed.” My thanks to Zvi H. Muscal, who took upon himself to raise funds for the publication of this book, and to Harriet and Charles Tabas, Joseph Zuritsky, Esq., Daniel Tabas, Dr. Walter Cohen, Eugene Feiner, Leonard & Barbara Sylk, the Borowsky Family Foundation, and Ms. Terry Katz, who gave generously to this project. Thanks to Mrs. Yona Shwartz (Eliyahu’s widow), Ettie Lassman, Dina Zilberman, Dr. Michael E. Toaff, and Dr. Harvey Sicherman, who went over the earlier versions of the book, and improved it a great deal. Thanks to my son Michael Benjamin Gevaryahu, to Gerald Gornish, Esq., and Dr. Irvin Hirsch, who translated portions of the book to English; and to Dr. David Wiener, who also translated part of the book and edited the translation in its entirety. Gilad J. Gevaryahu -Editor therefore, it is reasonable to suggest that there is a connection between this poem and the purported tomb of Moses on the way to Jericho (discussed in Eliyahu’s text later in the book).

Load more