20 THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JUNE 12, 2003 METRO Atlas: Notebooks given to museums Continued from Page 1. Wingate, the general consid- ered a pioneer of guerilla warfare. Wingate organized Jewish volunteers in Palestine into special nighl patrols to de- feat Arab terrorists and had used my fa- ther's skills as a translator during one such engagement in 1938 involving the northern settlement of Hanita. My father's friends were generals and poets and painters; they played a role in the creation of the State of . They . visited our home. They wrote him letters. They met him in Israel. Here in this room in February, I began leafing through the documents that told me all of that and wondering what to do with them all. I can- not read Hebrew. So, I called for help. Isaac Shina and Zelik Ratchkauskas an- swered the first call. Both knew Hebrew. Shina, 78, an Iraqi-born Jew, left that country in 1949 and ne^er returned. He and my father met at the same Pittsburgh engineering firm. Shina picked through the books, reminiscing in his own way about his own history. I handed him a tiny book that fit into the palm of his hand. His eyes brightened. The commemorative Atlas family photo Haggadah triggered a long-ago childhood David Ben Gurion (center), then-head of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, visits Hanita, the frontier settlement established by the Passover in Baghdad. Hagana near the Lebanese border in April 1938. Pictured here are Atlas (left), Paula Ben-Gurion, Eliahu Golomb, David Hacohen, "I'm going to sing to you the way I sang Ben-Gurion and Josef Fein. from the Haggadah when I was a boy," he said, and he began to sing and to chant aged," Melnick later told me. She said the to his son during World War I. the family would, of course, always (be) | He went on like that for several minutes. file would be an "unusual one" for the "These are the kind of things we have, welcome to call there and see it." Zelik and I were transfixed. Then Shina Rauh. "This Jewish journey is so well in the museum," he told us. The museum "In the database of the I closed the book, looked up and cried. I documented from the photograph of the — housed in what was once the Bethlem Archives there (are) 62 references to gave him the book to keep. Atlas family in Russia before they emi- Royal Hospital, known as Bedlam — is to- records that have the name Atlas, Rafael Also that day we found a book with He- grated to a copy of his eulogy." day the national repository for collections (Rafa) in them including oral histories, | brew military terms credited to my father I closed up the apartment, readied for of private papers, letters, diaries and and photographs," wrote Illan Shtayer, < and a thick manila folder wrapped with the sale and returned home with a mini- memories of men and women who have sistant director of the Haganah Archives I string. Across the front in my father's van crammed with family history: china, served the British Commonwealth since in Tel Aviv in response to an e-mail. He script was written: "British Army 1941- silver flatware, crystal glasses, a mink 1914. knew my parents started a foundation to 43." Stuffed inside were British army hat, army uniforms and a tin of brass but- Robbins directed us into a private read- support research there in 1993. In April,! identity cards, letters from commanders tons that belonged on the uniforms. In the ing room and began to leaf through our sent the four-inch notebook. "What I see," and military orders and honors. Other following days and weeks I scanned pho- notebook. He zipped past army form, "0. Mr. Shtayer later wrote, "is an exciting boxes on the floor overflowed with pho- tographs , photocopied documents and or- 1646: Claim for Issue of Allowances at story" and "an honor" to add to the col-1 tographs and negatives, newspaper clip- ganized them chronologically into five gi- Married Rates (officers only)," "Invento- lection. pings, transcripts of oral history done in gantic four-inch black binders. ry of Military Stores of Lend Lease Origin The notebooks are now distributed to | the 1980s and letters documenting his "We would be glad to have a sight of Held on 2nd September 1945 (marked the Western Pennsylvania Historical Soci- emigration to Palestine, his exploits in the these papers with view of their retention confidential)," and smiled at the copy of a ety, the Imperial War Museum and to the I Haganah, the death of his first wife, his in the museum," wrote Simon Robbins, program for "Royal Engineers 2nd Race Haganah Museum and Archives. We must citizenship in the United States and his archivist at the Imperial War Museum in Meeting," a charity horse race for the now decide how to distribute the original lifelong passion For Israel. , in response to an e-mail I sent Royal Engineer P.O.W. Fund put on by the documents. The process has forced me to Before I left Pittsburgh I gave away him, explaining that my 13-year-old son British Service Club. A picture on the CD witness history in a way I never appreciat- dozens of boxes of books to the Carnegie and I would be in London in late March. we brought captures the event. On the ed while I was growing up. I wish my step- Library, to Robert Morris College and to Robbins met us at the museum and ush- back my father praises, "The dark horse father were here to talk about the picture; Rodef Shalom Congregation, where my ered us behind the scenes. We walked of the race, the fastest filly of the Middle and the documents. For now I have packed | parents were lifetime members. I met through a room lined with archived mate- East (is) owned by 2nd Lt. Ralph Atlas, up enough memories to last a lifetime. with Susan Melnick, curator of the Rauh rials in boxes and in cabinet drawers. He R.E." Jewish Archives. stopped and pulled out a drawer to show "The papers would be placed in the (Rosanne Skirble is a reporter for tlis' "I was impressed that all had been so us a folder of letters with elaborately museum's archive under your father's1 Voice of America. May 8 was the fifth an-1 well kept and was not moldy or dam- drawn cartoons that a father had written name," Robbins told us. "Any member of riiversary of her stepfather's death.)

Disabled IDF vets learn about Pittsburgh on trip BY LEE CHOTTINER gav Region in Israel, said the trip was an Started approximately 25 years ago, Not all the veterans wanted to talk Executive Editor eye-opener for Israelis who don't think American Friends of the Israeli Disabled about the road map to peace, but Haim American Jews are overly concerned Veterans is an effort to thank Israeli sol- Yanko, 50, of Petach Tikvah, said he sup- Some said they were surprised by the with the Jewish state. diers for their service to the country and ported whatever Prime Minister Ariel | search for identity in Jewish Pittsburgh. "I don't think people in Israel know the to Diaspora Jews, said Susan Mazer, who, Sharon decided to do. Others said they provided a sense of Is- meaning of Israel to the Jewish world," together with husband Ira, chaired this "If Sharon says it's good for us, I go ^ I rael to the people. And all of them said Dagan, 49, said. "We met here amazing year's visit. ter it," said Yanko, a police officer in Tel they will miss this place when they're open hearts and love. It's almost embar- "When we can't be there, they were Aviv. "To me, Sharon is very smart. All gone. rassing." there," Mazer said. my life, Sharon never did anything emo-1 They were the team of eight disabled What interested him, he said, was how To the man, each veteran said their tionally, it was all logic." Israeli veterans who visited Pittsburgh in American Jews appear to be struggling hosts made them feel like one of the fam- And while the Israelis learned about I May as part of the local American Friends for a sense of identity. It's a luxury Israel ily — something they appreciated. American Jews on their trip, the experi- of the Israeli Disabled Veterans program. can't afford, he noted, since the country Nadav Hovav, 29, a clinical social work- ence was a two-way street as well, [ The veterans, who ranged in age from has been locked in war almost continu- er from Elishema, said he would stay up Assaf Perlman, 23, of Efrat. 23 to 50, spent two weeks in the United ously since independence. most nights until 1 a.m. talking with his "In two weeks, it was a chance for p* I States, touring Pittsburgh and visiting "That's not a problem in Israel since hosts, Alan and Lois Ftorman, whom he re- pie in Pittsburgh to understand Isi* | sites in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Wash- the country is concerned with its struggle ferred to as "mom and dad." through us," he said. ington, D.C. While here, they lived in the for survival," he said. "We didn't stop — "It was a chance to find what they think homes of Jewish Pittsburgh families. because we couldn't — to say 'what kind of Judaism," Hovav said, "and I learned a (Lee Chottiner can be reached ojdi# j Group leader Shaul Dagan, of the Mis- of Jewish state do we want?'" lot." at [email protected].)