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S I N C E 19 3 4 o A -LABOR ZIONIST JOURNAL JEWISH CONTENTSVol. LXV, No. 3 (632) MAY/JUNE 1998

Frontier 3 SINCE 1934 ISRAEL'S 50TH Susan Hattis Rolef e A LABOR ZIONIST JOURNAL 6 FORWARD FROM THE JUBILEE Misha Louvish Founders Hayim Greenberg THE SIGNING OF ISRAEL'S Marie Syrkin DECLARATION OF 9 INDEPENDENCE Elli Wohlgelernter

Editorial Board BEFORE AND AFTER 13 Henry Feingold, Chairman MAY 14, 1948 Yosef Criden Saul B . Cohen Hyman Fame Jonathan J. Goldberg Memoir 15 Emanuel S . Goldsmith A LONG-DELAYED ANSWER Haim Chertok Jerry Goodman Rabbi Mark W. Kiel 17 Chava Lapin Jeffry V. Mallow ARE THE HAREDIM JEWS? Saadia Gelb Daniel Mann Mordecai Newman 18 Samuel Norich BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE Gustave Pearlman Michael S . Perry Mark Raider Eduardo Rauch In Memoriam 20 MEzra Spicehandler MORDECHAI STRIGLER Forward Staff Phyllis Sutker David Twersky Notebook 23 IN TUNE WITH SINATRA Nahum Guttman Nahum Guttman 25 Editor Poem ISRAEL AT FIFTY John Oliver Mason

Biography 26 NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS CHAIM ARLOSOROFF David Rosenthal If you plan to move, please notify us six weeks in advance . Contributors 30

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2 .JEWISH FRONTIER ISRAEL Israel's 50th By Susan Hattis Rolef

ccording to the American historian Ed- greater, and seems to be threatening to turn Award Lienentaal of the University of Wiscon- into a full scale kulturkampf. sin the general atmosphere of depression and Nothing emphasized the latter reality more disharmony prevalent in Israel as it starts cel- than what happened at the official celebration ebrating its 50th anniversary, is nothing un- of the 50th anniversary: "Bells of the Jubilee" . usual in the experience of nations, due to the Why it was specifically this event that brought different perspectives from which different about the opening shots in this kulturkampf, generations view such events. probably had more to do with the shortsight- This observation might well have a certain edness of the organizers than with the occa- amount of truth in it, but it does not fully ex- sion being celebrated . But the genie now seems plain the mood in Israel today . Part of the to be out of the bottle, and it will be extremely mood has nothing to do with the celebrations difficult to get it back in again . What happened per se, but rather with a harsh economic real- was that the Bathsheva dance group was in- ity, in which the number of unemployed is vited to participate with a dance piece per- rapidly approaching 200,000, while the Gov- formed to the song "ehad mi yode a" - one of ernment is busy liberating foreign exchange the songs sung at the end of the Passover deals, to the benefit of the wealthy. Another Seder. Every verse in this song ends with the contributing factor is the rising level of vio- words "ehad elohenu" - (one is our God) . In lence, which manifests itself most markedly in the course of this dance, in which the move- an increase in various forms of violence against ments are sharp and provocative, as those in women: rape, beatings and murder, totally un- all the dance pieces choreographed by Bath- controlled gang wars, in which many innocent sheva's director and house choreographer Ohad people have been hurt, but worst of all, grow- Naharin, the dancers take off most, though not ing violence in schools - though the problem all of their clothes . in Israel has not yet reached the dimensions Someone reported this fact to Haim Miller that it has reached in the . of Agudat Yisrael, one of the deputy mayors in The stalemate in the peace process is , following the final dress rehearsal another cause for dismay among the more several days before the performance, and he left-wing and liberal parts of the population, insisted that the piece be removed from the while right-wingers are worried about the program, even though it was unlikely that any small concessions the Government appears haredim would be present at the celebrations, willing to make to the in response and there was no chance that anyone in the to American pressure concessions which haredi community would see it on television, they oppose altogether. In addition, despite for the simple reason that the harediin do not deliberate efforts by part of the leadership of watch television. A last minute effort to get the the National Religious Party and some of the dancers to agree to wear long underwear be- haredi politicians, to demonstrate a more tol- neath their costumes, was finally rejected by erant attitude towards the non-religious parts the Bathsheva dancers at the very last mo- of the population (some of the NRP leaders ment, and the show took place without them . actually went to the trouble of spending a Many other performers, who were not com- highly publicized weekend at the Shomer pletely aware of what was going on, were furi- Hatza'ir kibbutz of Shomrat towards the end ous when they found out what had happened, of April), the rift between the religious and sec- while large sections of the secular population ular parts of the population has never been - though more Left-wingers than Right-wing-

MAY/JUNE 1998 3 ers - declared that the whole event signified a those who would like it to shed its Jewish- brutal interference by the religious parties in Zionist mantle and turn into "a state of all its artistic freedom and freedom of expression . inhabitants", it is nevertheless a major success This was undoubtedly true, but the fact re- story by any objective standard . Despite some mains that the organizers should have under- temporary economic difficulties, it is a prosper- stood that this particular dance - most suit- ous country with a viable economy and excel- able for high quality international festivals lent future prospects . Despite the extreme het- and enlightened, sophisticated audiences - is erogeneity of its population, it has a democra- not suitable for a popular show, watched by tic system that functions efficiently, within the "the masses" . Bathsheva itself should also framework of the law, even though the system have understood, that a priori it was beneath could be improved and strengthened, by means its dignity and artistic qualities to participate of added checks and balances . in such an event . The extreme reactions on Ben-Gurion, in whose day all the civilian both sides indicate that while the majority and military elites of the state were Ashkenazi might be inclined to compromise, some of the and in whose government there was only one artists on the one hand and some of the haredi token Sephardi, dreamt of the day in which political figures on the other, are not, and are Israel would have a Yemenite Chief of Staff . pulling other sectors of the population behind Well, it will soon have a Persian one, operating them. under a Minister of Defense who is of Kurdish origin. The commander of the air-force is also of o many secular Left-wingers this event Persian origin, and several additional senior strengthened the feeling that 50 years af- commanders are of Moroccan origin . Also, five terT the establishment of the state, "their state" of the current 16 government ministers are is slipping out of their hands and into those of of Sephardi origin . (On the other hand both "the forces of darkness" . It is a genuine feeling, the women and the Arab citizens of Israel are but one that is extremely dangerous, because seriously under-represented in the centers of it can only lead to greater alienation, rather power.) In a regional environment which is still than accommodation with the fact that their more hostile than friendly, and despite major vision was only partially realized, that reality differences of opinion over issues of war and is much stronger than any vision, and that peace, Israel is strong and steadfast . In terms they, like everyone else, must fight for their of its scientific, technological and even cultural place under the sun or start sinking . The main achievements - it is one of the world leaders . difference between the vision and the reality is that the notion of Israel being a melting pot in he fact is that Israel today does not resem- which the dominant stream will be the secular, ble the old Labor vision or that of the "post- enlightened universal culture is still predomi- Zionists"T . The Labor vision was, without doubt, nant and still receives much support from the a grand vision, and it dominated the policies of state, but large parts of the population neither Israel's government for the first 29 years of its identify with it nor consider it superior in any existence, while leaving a deep impression on way to other forms of culture . To some, at least most aspects of the state's life to the present parts of that culture are offensive . day. However, in certain respects - especially This does not mean that the secular, enlight- its economic and social aspects - it was not a ened, universal-minded parts of the population realistic vision for the long term, and in other should fold up their flags - merely that they respects it simply lost many of its attractions, should realize that certain aspects of their cul- even within the Labor movement itself. ture should remain in theaters, museums and In the Labor vision, Israel was to be an egal- selective events, which every citizen can decide itarian socialist state, even though private en- to attend or not to attend. There will be cause terprise and bourgeois culture were tolerated for real concern only if theaters and museums and allowed to flourish . In the early years of start being closed down or their budgets cut, the state it was the unique creations of Labor and that is currently not the case . - especially the , the kib- Though Israel today is far from resembling butzim and other forms of collective settle- the model envisioned by A.D. Gordon, Berl ment - that were the pillars of the Israeli Katznelson or David Ben-Gurion, or that of society and economy, willing to mobilize and

3 JEWISH FRONTIE

sacrifice in order to serve the general public's certain population group under a particular welfare. But alas, one by one all these glorious set of ideological principles . institutions started going both financially and None of this means that there was nothing ideologically bankrupt . Histadrut, under Amir right or good in the Labor vision, or that cer- Peretz, is now struggling to remain a trade tain parts of it have not been realized in full . union federation, no different from those that For example, in the Labor vision "conquest of exist in other countries . Histadrut's former the land" was always important, but never industrial conglomerate, "Koor", is now com- more important than certain other goals such pletely privately owned and run on the basis as receiving international acceptance and of laissez faire principles, and its last CEO peace. Thus, in 1947 the Labor movement was from former days - Benny Ga'on - has been willing to foresake large parts of Eretz Yisrael eased out with a golden parachute . The kib- for the sake of obtaining a Jewish state, which butzim are rapidly turning into community was internationally recognized . In 1957 it was rather than communal settlements, within willing to withdraw from the Sinai penin- which capitalist rather than socialist princi- sula in order not to fall out with the super- ples are becoming increasingly predominant, powers. After 1973 it was willing to start hand- and there is little left of the cooperative spirit ing back part of the territories conquered in of the moshavim. 1967 in order to attain peace with Egypt and Nobody has a definitive answer to the ques- Jordan, and since 1993 in order to attain tion whether the old Labor-inspired and cre- peace with Syria and the Palestinians . Though ated social and economic institutions have the peace making process is certainly not pro- fallen because they simply could not survive in gressing at the moment as Labor would have a competitive world (in other words, because liked it to, all moves in the process have fol- there was something inherently faulty about lowed the Labor vision . This was true in 1977- them), or because as taught by the Greek phi- 1979, when Menachem Begin made peace with losopher Aristotle, by the nature of things the Egypt, and in 1996-98, when Binyamin Netan- fate of every system and institution is to be- yahu is willy nilly being dragged to make at come corrupted and fall under misrule (or mis- least some progress in the negotiations with management) that finally weakens and de- the Palestinians. stroys it. The fact that the Labor Party lost power back in 1977, to be replaced by a politi- he conclusion is that the 50th anniversary cal movement with little sympathy for Labor should not be spent by Labor remembering inspired system and institutions, started the theT lost paradise (which to many was never a actual process of disintegration and acceler- paradise) but looking back with satisfaction at ated it, though this process would probably its long term achievements, while adapting the have taken place in any event . vision to reality and doing the utmost to win the next general elections - or at least to abor was not ousted from power back in avoid losing them . What this means is that 1977 as a result of a putch . Labor lost Labor must stop all the internal squabbles, powerL because it was defeated in the polls by rally behind its democratically elected leader perfectly democratic means . In 1992 it was (unless the majority feels that he should be re- brought back again to power by a very narrow placed) and decide on what fronts it should margin, even though more voters voted for wage its external battles . Ehud Barak's deci- Right-wing and religious parties than for Left- sion to open the summer session of the wing and Arab ones, and in 1996 it lost again by tabling a bill which calls for the enlistment by a narrow margin, largely because it failed to military service of most of the religious to give more people the feeling that the peace youngsters who currently shirk service on making process was "good for the Jews" - not grounds (frequently the bogus grounds) of just for the Arabs . Laborites who feel that being Yishiva students, is a step in this direc- "their state" has been stolen from them, simply tion. Labor should also decide what its mes- do not understand the essence of democracy sages are and what vision it has to offer, as and pluralism, and there is something more Israel embarks on the second 50 year stretch of than a little Bolshevik in the notion that one its existence, and together with the rest of the can only identify with the state if it is run by a world enters the 21st century. 11

MAY/JUNE !9S)K 5 Forward from the Jubilee By Misha Louvish

s on every Independence Day, the cele- particular, which promised to solve the prob- Abration of Israel's Jubilee was preceded by two lems of the Jews as part of the redemption of significant anniversaries : the Passover festi- humanity, has collapsed in ruins . val, which celebrates the nation's emergence into freedom, and the memory of the most ago- he jubilee celebrations have not, to put it nizing tragedy in its history . (On the eve of bluntly, been an unalloyed success . They Independence Day, too, we pay tribute to those haveT been accompanied by a TV documentary who paid with their lives for the rise of Israel .) series called Tekumah ("Rebirth"), which Before the culmination of the Jewish peo- started several weeks before Independence ple's millennial effort for liberty, it had to en- Day and still continues . The editors have not dure the most agonizing trial any people had been content with a litany of achievements: to face: the Holocaust of European Jewry and they have emphasized the problems that still the systematic effort of the German Nazis to remain to be solved, and almost every episode exterminate the Jews . It is not correct, how- has been accompanied by controversy . ever, to say that the rise of independent Israel The debate was particularly heated after was the end-result of the Holocaust . This is not the episode entitled "Biladi, biladi!" which gave so: throughout the centuries Jews longed to the Palestinian Arab point of view. At the same return to their ancestral homeland, and the time the Arabs themselves, including Arab cit- organized Zionist movement was already forty izens of Israel, have marked the occasion as years old at the beginning of the Holocaust . "Nakbe" ("the Disaster") . This is not unreason- The Proclamation of Independence on May able: we can call on the Arabs to accept the 15, 1948 meant that, for the first time in some situation, but not to rejoice in the historical de- two thousand years, a sovereign Jewish com- velopments that have resulted in the exclu- monwealth had been established in the coun- sion of Palestine from the areas that achieved try where Jewish kings had reigned and Jew- Arab independence after the break-up of the ish prophets had proclaimed the fundamental Ottoman Empire and the creation of the Arab principles of righteousness . refugee problem . The Holocaust, however, has its special It is true that this suffering might have place in the . history of the Jewish national re- been avoided if a wise Arab leadership had ac- vival: it was an almost mathematical proof of cepted the recommendation the Zionist analysis of Jewish destiny . Here that an Arab state be set up in alliance with was the most direct and deadly imaginable Jordan, but today's Arabs cannot be blamed for assault against a people's existence : the per- their leaders' errors fifty years ago, and in any petrators of the atrocities proudly proclaimed case, the lamentable facts remain. their purpose, and the victims were utterly There was also the heated debate over a defenseless because there was no place on dance, regarded as offensive by the ulra-ortho- earth that they could call their own . dox, which was scheduled to be performed at The Jubilee of Israel's proclamation of inde- the program of songs and sketches that was pendence is of world significance. Many vi- staged to celebrate the jubilee. This was one of sionary utopias have been conceived in the last the silliest controversies, on both sides, that I two centuries ; many blue-prints have been can remember, and I will not burden Frontier drawn for man's progress towards perfection . readers with it . None of them has succeeded ; communism, in As the Jewish people celebrates the Jubilee

3 6 JEWISH FRONTS it can afford to forget such ephemeral argu- Socialist Soviet Republics and settled in the ments : they can look back on many trials and national homeland, Israel . tribulations, and look forward to many prob- lems; but as they look forward to the next stages he millions of Jews in the Soviet Union in their country's progress they can be confident were once described as "the silent Jewry ." that its success in tackling the difficulties of NotT only were they forbidden to express their the past is a good omen for the future . Jewish identity, but they had been brain- washed by seventy years of Soviet education mmediately on the proclamation of indepen- from the kindergarten to the university . And dence the infant state was confronted by yet, when the Soviet system collapsed, it was threeI major challenges. as if their eyes were suddenly opened, and they First, on the departure of the British armed flocked to the ancestral homeland to take part forces the small Jewish community - number- in the jubilee celebrations of the Jewish Na- ing about 600,000 - had to fight for its life tional Home . At the same time tens of thou- against the attacks of the Palestinian Arabs sands have come from Ethiopia . and the neighboring Arab countries . The Jewish Agency was mainly responsible At the same time it had to organize the for contact with the potential immigrants and machinery of government and the economy to their transport to Israel, and the Government replace those built up by the British in the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, headed by thirty years of the League of Nations Mandate . a recent arrival, is responsible for housing, As if those challenges were not enough, new- education and employment . born Israel had to take in hundreds of thou- On the whole, this enormous influx has sands of the survivors of the Holocaust, who proved an asset rather than a burden . Among were left free but destitute by the victory of the the newcomers are nearly 80,000 engineers, over Allies over Nazi Germany. 36,000 teachers, 16,000 physicians and 17,500 These were continuing challenges, and it nurses and other medical auxiliaries. There are cannot be said that any of them has been com- also problems, it is true . Israel's Law of Return pletely overcome, but great progress has been gives immigrant privileges to relatives of Jews made with the development of Israel as a making their homes here, even if they are non- dynamic, self-supporting society. Jews, and questions of conversion to Judaism There has been much talk recently of a have arisen. These cannot, however, overshadow "post-Zionist era" in Israel . Everywhere, it is this immense Zionist achievement . argued, ideologies are bankrupt, and , The most crucial task that faces Israel today like people in other countries, are on the look- is the achievement of peace with the Arab out for Number One, and not for any alleged world. We still have to send our soldiers to pro- national interest . tect part of our frontier with Lebanon against Israel's victory in the Eurovision might the Hizbullah movement, which is openly ded- be taken as a case in point . Dana International icated to the elimination of the "Zionist entity," is not exactly a characteristic representative i.e., the independent State of Israel, and al- of a country in which every fit male does a though there are no open hostilities on our month's army reserves duty every year and frontier with Syria, that country, which will, has been described as "a soldier on eleven undoubtedly demand withdrawal from the Go- months' leave." "Diva," the song that brought lan Heights, is the major obstacle to a peaceful her victory, does not express any kind of patri- settlement with Lebanon . otism or national pride. Moreover, we are still engaged in the effort There is one simple fact, however, which to get peace and understanding with the Pales- shows that Zionism is still a crucial factor in tinian Arabs, and until that is achieved there is the national experience . Natan Sharansky, no hope of arriving at a comprehensive peace . who spent years in a Soviet gaol, is now a senior minister in the Government of Israel . e should not underestimate the difficulty And this, of course, is only an outstanding fact of that task. In 1964, three years before in one of the most extraordinary developments IsraelW occupied the "West Bank" and the Gaza of the past decade : about 730,000 have left the Strip in self-defense, the Palestine National countries that once belonged to the Union of Council elected Yasser Arafat as its leader and

MAY/,TUNE 1998 7

adopted the genocidal National Covenant, srael has now been asked to withdraw from which called for the annihilation of Israel. Af- a further 13 per cent of the area. Netanyahu ter their defeat in 1967, the Arabs met at Khar- arguesI that such a withdrawal would endan- toum and resolved unanimously : no negotia- ger Israel's security, while the Hamas organi- tions with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no zation, which still calls for the destruction of peace with Israel . Israel, continues to operate undisturbed . Even Every Israeli government called for uncon- if Israel complied with the Palestinian de- ditional peace negotiations, but it was only mand, which is backed by the United States, after the failure of more than twenty years of however, only forty per cent of the area would terrorist warfare that Arafat declared that the be under Palestinian control and Israel would Covenant was obsolete and recognized Israel's be left with sixty per cent. right to exist. Israel responded, and a Declara- Challenged with the question of how Netan- tion of Principles, which provided for peace ne- yahu expects to get agreement on such a basis, gotiations to be completed by May 1999, was a senior Government spokesman retorted : adopted at Oslo in 1993 . In the meantime Is- How do you expect to get agreement on the rael would carry out three further redeploy- question of Jerusalem, where the Palestinians ments (FRDs) of its forces and an elected Pal- want to establish their capital? Extremist gov- estinian Authority would do all in its power to ernment supporters, especially those in the combat terrorism . Jewish settlements in the "West Bank," object The anti-Labor Government of Prime Min- in principle to any withdrawal from even a ister Binyamin Netanyahu has ostensibly small part of the area. How, then, can Netan- undertaken to carry out the commitments yahu expect to reach any permanent agree- adopted at Oslo, and Israeli forces have been ment with the Palestinians - let alone with withdrawn from the Gaza Strip and the Arab- the Syrians. inhabited cities of the "West Bank," so that The situation is serious . We can only hope over 70% of the Palestinians now live under that an explosion will be averted until a new their own elected authority. It is difficult, how- government, prepared to take risks for peace, ever, to see how Netanyahu can make any fur- takes office. 0 ther progress.

L'a The of the Labour Zionist Alliance of Canada Celebrate Israel's Jubilee

May Peace become a reality in the coming year.

Harry Froimovitch, Kieva Zalik, Lou Kirshenbaum, Josef Krystal, Treasurer Vice-chairmen National Chairman

X 8 JEWISH FRONTIEF The Signing of Israel's Declaration of Independence

By Elli Wohlgelernter

rowing up in the United States, every that he signed with "a sense of excitement to- Gpupil from an early age is taught stories gether with a clear premonition of danger such about the founding fathers - the 56 men who as a man might feel while standing on a cliff, attached their names, and thereby their des- ready to leap into a yawning chasm . We felt as tinies, to the Declaration of Independence . though we stood on a very high crest, where It is not surprising, then, that when Golda roaring winds were brewing about us, and that Meyerson - later Meir - waited to step up to we had to stand fast ." the podium to add her name to Israel's Decla- Others were biblically inspired . Haim Sha- ration of Independence, her thoughts went pira, a leader of Hapoel Hamizrahi, a forerun- back to the legends she learned as a child in ner of the National Religious Party, said later Milwaukee : that he felt he was reliving the words of the "From my childhood in America, I learned Psalmists : "When the Lord caused us to return about the Declaration of Independence and the to Zion, we were as dreamers ." [Psalms 126:1] geniuses who signed it. I couldn't imagine It was, said Shapira, "a dream, a dream these were real people doing something real . which we had never believed would come true And here I am signing it, actually signing a in our lifetime . A miracle had happened." Declaration if Independence . I didn't think it Like the milestone of July 4, this too was a was due me, that I, Goldie Mabovich Meyer- hard-fought miracle . Three historical dates led son, deserved it, that I had lived to see the day. up to it: August 30, 1897, when the First Zion- My hands shook . We had done it . We had brought ist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, adopted the Jewish state into existence . the Basel Program resolutions, which pro- "Whatever price any of us would have to pay claimed Zionism's aim "to establish a home for for it, we had recreated the Jewish national the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael to be guar- home. The long exile was over. Now we were a anteed by international law ;" November 2, nation like other nations, masters - for the 1917, when the Balfour Declaration gave voice first time in 20 centuries - of our own des- to British support for a Jewish homeland in tiny," she continued . Palestine; and November 29, 1947 - 30 years `All I can recall about my actual signing of after Balfour and 50 years after Basel - when the proclamation is that I was crying openly, the United Nations voted to partition Pales- not able even to wipe the tears from my face . . . tine into a Jewish and an Arab state . David Pinkas asked me why I was crying and I While the UN vote granted the right, it was said, `one, because of the honor, and two, be- Britain's decision to leave on May 15, 1948 cause there are people missing here . . . who that gave the founding fathers their impetus to had more of a right to be here and sign' . . . proclaim independence . I wept almost beyond control ." Others may not Not that the decision was taken automati- have wept, yet they felt their date with destiny . cally. There was strong opposition from Zionist leaders in the U.S., who lobbied for postpone- oshe Shertok (later Sharett), soon to be ment, partially due to pressure from the State Mthe first foreign minister, later recalled Department .

MAYIJUNE 1998 9 n May 12, the National Administration evening at 6 p .m . Criticized as too long, and (Minhelet Ha'am), the quasi-cabinet with details still being debated, the document knownO also as "the 13," met in Tel Aviv to dis- was handed to Rabbi Yehuda Fishman of Ha- cuss a draft of the declaration, which had been mizrahi, Zisling, Shertok and Ben-Gurion to crafted mostly by Sharett with help from other finalize. Ben-Gurion worked overnight prepar- appointed members of the drafting committee : ing a final draft, cutting out a quarter of the , Felix Rosenbleuth, Aharon Zis- prose and adding a new opening paragraph: ling and Shapira . "The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the It is not surprising that with such dispa- Jewish people . Here their spiritual, religious rate backgrounds among "the 13," there and national identity was formed . Here they was much wrangling over many specifics . The achieved independence and created a culture first argument was over what exactly should of national and universal significance . Here be declared . they wrote and gave the Bible to the world ." Shertok, following discussions in the United The next morning, Ben-Gurion submitted his States with high-ranking officials of the Tru- text to the subcommittee, which approved it . man administration, proposed the formation of a government rather than a state. Rosenbleuth hertok, meanwhile, had decided the night proposed the declaration of a state within the before that there should be an English framework of the UN partition resolution . translationS of the text for distribution world- Ben-Gurion decided on declaring a state "on wide. Beginning at 10 p.m., after the National the basis" of the UN vote. Administration meeting had ended, and work- Rosenbleuth and Behor Shitrit wanted the ing until 4 a.m., Shertok and his aides, using borders to be defined, but Zisling and Ben- the Bible, the American Declaration of Inde- Gurion were opposed . Ben-Gurion pointed out pendence and 's speeches as how the United States had not defined any models, drafted the English text. borders when it declared independence, and At 1:50 p.m. the next day, 25 members of the besides, who knew where the borders would be National Council (Moetzet Ha'am) - 11 mem- at the end of the then-upcoming war? bers were stuck in besieged Jerusalem and "We accepted the UN resolution, but the one was overseas - met at the Keren Kayemet Arabs did not," Ben-Gurion said . "They are building to approve it . There were only two preparing to make war on us . If we defeat them hours left before the signing ceremony was to and capture western Galilee or territory on begin. both sides of the road to Jerusalem, these Meir Wilner, representing the Communist areas will become part of the state . Why should Party, proposed adding denunciations of the we obligate ourselves to accept boundaries British Mandate and British military bases . that in any case the Arabs don't accept?" Shertok argued that it would be out of place . Wilner also protested that the council's proce- en-Gurion's motion for non-designated dures weren't democratic. Ben-Gurion replied borders passed by a vote of 5-4 . (There that "there isn't time for meetings in the emer- wereB four members who couldn't make the gency crisis ." meeting.) Meir Grabovsky wanted to include mention Then an even bigger question came up : of Displaced Persons Camps in Europe, and What was the state to be called? to add the word "language" to the paragraph Proposals included "Zion," the "Jewish guaranteeing freedom of religion, conscience, State," "Judea," the "Land of Israel," "Yehuda" education and culture to ensure that Arabic and "Ever," from the Hebrew "Ivri ." Ben- would share equal status with Hebrew . Ben- Gurion put forth "Israel," and the name passed Gurion agreed in principle, while stressing 6-3 . that Hebrew should be the main language . It was also agreed that independence would Perhaps the biggest argument, which had be declared at the Tel Aviv Museum on Friday come up at each preceding meeting, was over at 4 p.m. - so as not to conflict with Shabbat . including "God" in the declaration . David Pin- Shertok worked with the committee on revi- kas, a representative of Mizrahi, wanted the sions the next day, presenting a final version document to begin, "The Land of Israel was when the National Administration met that promised to the Jewish people in the Torah

1 0 JEWISH FRUMPIER and by the prophets." Others wanted no men- Ben-Gurion wore a suit, tie and tie clasp . tion - or even a hint - of a deity. Three delegates, sticking to Palestinian tradi- tion, wore jackets sans ties. compromise was reached to use the phrase "Tzur Yisrael," now translated as "Rock 1J espite the secrecy, hundreds of people be- ofA Israel ." (Shertok had translated it as `Al- gan gathering outside the hall as soon as mighty God," and those words were used until military guards started to cordon off the street an official version in 1962 changed it to "Rock in early afternoon . Thousands more tuned in to of Israel .") But objections were raised even to the Voice of Israel to hear the station's first the "Tzur Yisrael" idea. direct broadcast. "The strongest opponent of the use of God's The guests - estimated at 250 - including name was Zisling," recalls Zerah Warhaftig, representatives of the Jewish Agency, the then of Hapoel Hamizrahi, and one of two sur- World Zionist Organization, leaders of politi- viving signers. cal parties, cultural personalities, the chief "Even when we decided already, and came to rabbis, the Haganah chief of staff, Yigael Yadin a compromise on 'Tzur Yisrael,' he was trying and others - were all tightly packed inside up to the last minute to make a change, to take the small hall . Newspaper editors and corre- it out," Warhaftig recalled . spondents made up the largest group of those But Ben-Gurion stepped in : "Each of us, in present. his own way, believes in the `Rock of Israel' as Ze'ev Sharef, secretary of the National Ad- he conceives it . I should like to make one re- ministration, had stayed at the Keren Kayemet quest: Don't make me put this phrase to a building, waiting for the final draft to be typed . vote." While speeding to get to the Tel Aviv Museum He then asked the council for a vote on the on time, his driver was stopped by a policeman, document by two ballots, and added that coun- who tried to give them a ticket . The officer re- cil members stuck in besieged Jerusalem had neged after it was explained to him how there approved it that morning. was no authority behind the ticket, and that he "Now I ask all those in favor of the present was delaying the proclamation of statehood . text as a whole to raise their hands," Ben-Gu- rion said. t exactly 4 p.m., Ben-Gurion banged his Everyone did . walnut wood gavel to open the session . The The council also voted to repeal the White crowdA rose spontaneously to sing Hatikva. "I Paper of 1939, and the Mandatory ordinances shall now read to you the Scroll of the Estab- of 1939, 1940, 1941 and 1945 that limited im- lishment of the State, which has passed its migration, land transfer and the Haganah . All first reading by the National Council," Ben- other laws were to remain in effect pending Gurion announced . future legislation. He proceeded to read the first 10 paragraphs, The meeting adjourned at 3 p.m., leaving in essence the preamble, which explained the council members about an hour to change background for declaring independence : the clothes, freshen up and get to 16 Rothschild history of the Jewish people, its struggle to Boulevard. renew a national life in its own land and inter- The declaration of statehood was not a pub- national recognition of its right to do so . licly declared event, as there were fears that Ben-Gurion's voice then rose as he read the the British - who still held nominal authority decisive 11 paragraph : `Accordingly, we the until midnight - might try to stop it, and that members of the National Council, representing Arab armies would move up plans to attack. the Jewish People in Palestine and the World The one-page invitation to the ceremony, Zionist Movement, are met together in solemn sent out by messenger earlier in the day, in- assembly today, the day of termination of the cluded a paragraph saying : British Mandate for Palestine; and by virtue of "We urge you to keep secret the contents of the natural and historic right of the Jewish this invitation and time of the council meeting ." people and the resolution of the General As- It urged guests to arrive at 3 :30 p.m. and in- sembly of the United Nations, we hereby pro- structed them on the bottom: "Dress : dark fes- claim the establishment of the Jewish state in tive attire ." Palestine, to be called medinat Yisrael [the

MAY/JUNE 1998 11 state of Israel] .' "Kaplan refused [to change it], but he had a Members of the audience rose in unison, good idea . He said, `Call me KapLAN . Now I cheering and applauding. Some burst out in have a Hebrew name,"' Wilner adds . tears. Warhaftig recalls Ben-Gurion trying to Ben-Gurion then read on, outlining the prin- pressure him as well. ciples of freedom, justice, peace and equal so- `At the beginning he was calling me `Amitai,' cial and political rights that were to guide the but I never agreed to change my name, because new state ; and the last section, which called my parents [who emigrated before him] didn't upon the Arabs to preserve peace while ex- change their name . My father was a great tending an offer of peace and good neighbor- Torah scholar, and he published books with his liness to all neighboring states and their peo- name . These books were already my legacy, ples - and appealed to the Jewish people in and I also published under my name . the diaspora to rally round the Jews of the "I said, `I am an oleh to Eretz Yisrael, with land of Israel. my name, as I am - I don't have to change my "With trust in the Rock of Israel, we set our name.' I was against it, I didn't agree . He tried hand to this declaration, at this session of the to fight - he tried to convince me once, twice, Provisional State Council, on the soil of the three times. I said no . He knew I was going to homeland, in the city of Tel Aviv, on this Sab- sign `Warhaftig ."' bath eve, the fifth of Iyar, 5708, the 14th of May, 1948." pace was left by the 25 signers for the 12 It had taken him 16 minutes to read the 979 council members not present. When Wilner words of the declaration. signed,S he left a line blank for Warhaftig, who "Let us accept the Foundation Scroll of the should have preceded him alphabetically. Jewish state by rising," Ben-Gurion told the But when Warhaftig came to Tel Aviv three assembled dignitaries; and he then called on weeks later, he put his John Hancock not in Fishman to recite the Sheheheyanu (prayer of the reserved spot, but next to Ben-Gurion's thanksgiving). name. The blank space that remains has been the subject of rumor and fable ever since . en-Gurion also read out the resolution an- "There were all kinds of explanations," says nulling the White Paper, which was adop- Wilner. "They wanted to isolate me, to stress tedB unanimously . Then he signed a blank that even a communist agreed - I heard all parchment attached to Sharef's typed version kinds of opposite commentary. of the declaration. Sharef read out the council "But the truth is simple," he says, laughing . members' names alphabetically in Hebrew . "They asked to leave room for Warhaftig - his Each one rose and approached the podium to `vav' came before mine . I signed where they sign. asked me to sign ." As an act of defiance against the exclusion So why was the space left blank? of God's name in the text, Fishman added the "According to the alphabet I should have initials for "with God's help" before signing his been there," Warhaftig says shaking his head, name. still puzzled by this asterisk of history 50 When Herzl Vardi (Rosenblum) went up to years later. "There was a place in the first col- sign, Ben-Gurion barked, "Sign `Vardi,' not `Ro- umn, I don't know why he [Ben-Gurion] didn't senblum,"' referring to the journalist's writing let me sign there . But he had me sign next to pseudonym. him - he was the first in the first column, I Ben-Gurion explained later that he had was the first in the second column . Why he did wanted more Hebrew names on the document . it I don't know, he didn't say." Rosenblum subsequently had his name le- gally changed to Vardi, but he never really en Shertok, the last of the 25 signers used it, and lamented about how Vardi was to that day, penned his name, the crowd remain his name in history . rose and began singing Hatikva again, accom- "Oh, he was cursing himself," recalls Wilner, panied by the 70-member Palestine Philhar- the other surviving signer. "He really regretted monic Orchestra . doing it -'I made such a mistake . How could I do it?' (continued on page 30)

12 JEWISH FRONTIEF Before and After May 14, 1948 By Yosef Criden

was home at last - after almost 6 years in "No problem," I said, just before I passed His/HerI Majesty's Forces - in "The Jewish out. Brigade" after more than a year and a half in Canada - on behalf of the Hagana - engaged o you want to hear what happened? Well, in work which not even now can be discussed that is a different story altogether . And openly, and finally - Home - Kibbutz Kfar sinceD this is about the 14th of May - what I Blum in Upper Galilee - Home - a tent, but have written is only to explain what I, an Up- with family and friends . This time, I stated per Galilee Kibbutznik, was doing in Tel Aviv firmly, I was home to stay. I was a pacifist by on that momentous day. (If you are really in- conviction, and had even once signed "The Ox- terested, you can see some of the results of my ford Pledge" remember? Home - but for 4 labors, rusting quietly along the side of the days only. road to Jerusalem.) The call came to come to Tel Aviv for a short meeting. The address - the offices of Aviron Day. The 14th . We all knew the British (airplane) . What did I have to do with air- were leaving. Tel Aviv was silent . I cannot planes? Nuttin . Zilch. It must be all a mistake . rememberD how the word got around but crowds The meeting was with Yosef Rochel (later Gen- began to gather around the "old" Opera House, eral Avidar, Head of Logistics in the Israeli De- temporary headquarters of the Jewish Agency. fense Forces, and Ambassador to Russia) . Avi- In silence the people watched as Ben-Gurion, ron - a cover for the nefarious activities of the Moshe Shertok, Golda and other well-known Hagana. "Joe," said Yosef, "listen carefully." So leaders appeared and entered the building . Re- I listened carefully. He told me that I was lucky member - there were no TV sets then, nor, as in having been an engineering officer in the a matter of fact, were there many radios . The . Therefore I knew all about cars small portable transistorized set was as yet (true), trucks (true), tanks and armored vehi- unknown. cles (untrue) . "Therefore," he continued, "since The crowds waited impatiently, and then a there will be a war soon, OUR WAR - you loudspeaker began to function . One could hear, have to design and build armored vehicles - outside - the proverbial pin drop - and then this time, for us!" BG's voice was heard - steady, unwavering, To such a request, one can not say "no" . So I clear, as he read the Declaration, ending with said - "Yes". the naming of the new state - ISRAEL. "There are one or two minor problems," he The masses (at least several thousand) were added, "but I am sure you will overcome them quiet. Here and there a flag was waved. Strange- with no difficulty." ly enough, there were very few children and "Problems?" I asked, "such as?" those who were present were silent as though "Well" - he answered, "We have no armor the solemnity of the occasion was felt by them, plate, and as a matter of fact, we have no vehi- too. Somehow - voices were lifted with the cles either, the cars have to be able to carry at words of Hatikva . Everybody sang - or at least a three ton load, a squad of soldiers, and least mumbled the words as if they were pray- be able to travel cross country, and fire heavy ing. People smiled, but there was not the heat- machine guns or mortars and the British de- ed discussion of groups excited and animated . mand that the trucks be painted grey - and to Slowly the audience dispersed. I looked around make them more easily identified to have a 12 and found familiar faces - other women and inch wide white band painted all around ." men who were serving in the Defense Units -

MAY/JUNE 1998 13

we were not yet an army. We had no uniforms. swarm in the air? Did we have camouflage bal- We nodded in recognition, and each went his loons, rockets, Ack-Ack, light or heavy? We way. heard the enemy bombs dropping, saw mush- There was a strange, even weird feeling - rooms of smoke rising not too far from us . We one of exultation, one of trepidation . After all, waited for the response . And waited . And after 2000 years we had a State . But tomorrow waited. From far away we heard the snapping the British were leaving, and the Arabs were of rifle fire - no more. An hour passed, a sec- massing on the borders . My mind was in a ond flight of enemy bombers swooped over us . state of confusion . Could it be that we had a Only then did we realize - that was it. We had State - a Homeland of our own? And, would no adequate defense. All we had was hope, and the armored cars I had built stand up to the optimism, and the determination that some- attacks of well-equipped, organized armies? how - someday - we would have what we needed. ay the 15th . I had been staying with May 14 passed - and brought into being friends who had a lovely home on Roth- The State ofIsrael. schildM Boulevard . They had a penthouse and May 15 passed - the British left, and we we all went out on the roof to see whatever were attacked by the combined forces of the there was to see. From the distance came the Arab Nations about us. roar of aircraft - and as they flew over us it May 16 - I awoke, brushed my teeth, and was easy to see that they were not ours . They went back to building armored cars and trucks were real war planes. All of us, everybody, - with ancient chassis on which to build - no knew the enemy was going to drop bombs - on armor plate, but plenty of hope and the help the port, on army camps, on other strategic of many who had "A Yiddishe Kopf" . Our se- objectives . What we didn't know was what our cret weapon? Ain Breirah, and an old Jewish answers would be . Did we have anti-aircraft morsel of wisdom - Az Gott vill - shiest a cannon? Would our hidden fighter planes bezem . . . 0

National Committee for Labor Israel salutes Israel on its 50th anniversary, and the role of the U .S. Labor Movement in building the Jewish State . Peace, Progress, Prosperity 50 PAV 57~~~ President Executive Director 275 Seventh Avenue • New York, New York 10001

14 JEWISH FRONT: MEMOIR

A Long-Delayed Answer By Haim Chertok

hat we forget our block out is of equal The autumn of the year I was ten, rumor Wsignificance to what we can recall . I know that spread in the schoolyard, repeated authori- on May 15, 1948, I was a reasonably alert ten- tatively for weeks : if Dewey with the dumb, year-old, living in the predominantly Jewish skinny mustache won, he would institute a six- West Bronx. Looking back, I sometimes won- day school week . None of us wanted Dewey to der how broad of a grasp of worldly affairs I win . That November I was elated by confir- could have had . In later years I came to realize mation that the American democratic system that my earliest knowledge and opinions about worked unerringly to elect the best man . Four "current events" originated with James Wesch- years later, Eisenhower burst that soap bub- ler, editor of the New York Post, as filtered ble. This time it was I who would cry bitterly. through my father's approving commentary at The windowsill at my grandparents' apart- the dinner table. But they had little to do with ment always displayed several metal pushkas, my real concerns . Judging from my oldest one of them for the Jewish National Fund . grandson Itamar, a sharp little ten-year-old, There were never any pushkas in our apart- not much has changed . ment. Nor in my Aunt Claire's . Nor in the My earliest memory of the greater world apartments of any of my friends . My parents, was the VJ-Day hoopla out the window on these others were not Zionists . Nor were they Morris Avenue, and some time earlier of my "anti-Zionists ." Save for a single unusual, some- mother crying bitterly when FDR died . "What what mysterious connection, they were simply will become of the country?" she repeated for "" for whom events Over There what seemed endlessly. "I've never voted for did not register personally. If my parents were any other man for President ." notably pleased or moved by the founding of As for the founding of the State of Israel, she the State of Israel, it had so little to do with must have been joyful and perhaps tried to their real lives that they communicated none communicate her feelings to her son, but I of their passing excitement to their ten-year- have not the slightest trace of recollection. old son. I do remember that during that school year I did not shy away from pursuing an argument n the fall of the year I was ten I started He- with my fifth-grade teacher at P.S. 86. During brew classes for three afternoons a week at our unit on Latin America, Mrs . Godfrey insis- theI neighborhood synagogue . Although I recall ted that not sugar but something else (I forget there they hung on the wall a map of the State what) was the main crop of Cuba . I was certain of Israel, I don't recall studying anything about she was mistaken, but even when I pointed to it. Nevertheless, I remember one incident with a paragraph in the textbook, rather than ad- awesome clarity. Rabbi Barras, the principal, mit her error she blustered . To the best of my entered our classroom, observing from the recollection, Mrs . Godfrey told us nothing at all back of the room for a while as we read Hebrew about the founding of the State of Israel. It was aloud for Blossom Kramer, our young, pretty not part of our unit on Latin America. teacher. Suddenly, to my immense discomfort,

MAY/JUNE 1998 15

he approached me and patted my head. United Nations . But who was he, I persisted, "Very good, Harvey. When you grow up are at last settling for him being the son of my you going to be a great man like your Uncle grandfather's brother. Therefore, I painfully Moshe and go to live in Israel?" ascertained, like Kenny and me, he and my Unlike my earlier encounter with adult au- father were first cousins . Therefore he was thority, I was doubly stunned into silence . I really not my uncle but my . . . uh . . . second had no intention to go to live in Israel, an idea cousin. Such was the formulation that fully less rejected than wholly inconceivable . What satisfied the curiosity of that ten-year-old . As bewildered me more was that I couldn't imag- for the State of Israel, it simply did not signify, ine to whom he was referring . I had no "Uncle not yet. Moshe." I repeated the incident to my parents, Many, many years have passed . Of those in but it didn't seem to make any impact . Yet for the photo, only my sister and I remain alive . me, during my three years of studying after I have, of course, not achieved anything on the school at Beth Schraga Institute, no memory scale of Moshe Sharett. On the other hand, is nearly as intense as that puzzling encoun- given the upbringing of that Bronx ten-year- ter with Rabbi Hyman Barras . old, is it not just short of miraculous that I As I write, to my left I am staring at an arti- have now lived in Israel for twenty-two years, fact. It is a frayed photo, one of the very few I that two of my four children were born here as have in which Joseph Chertok, my father's have all five of my grandchildren? With all of father, appears . In the back row stand my Un- Israel's shortcomings, we do not feel short- cle Leo, my Aunt Bess, my father and mother, changed. and my grandfather. In front of them sit my cousin Kenny (about 15), my mother's mother, airly impulsively, our Zionism still half- and a man who wore what looks to be almost a baked, my wife and I departed from mustache more substantial than the despised AmericaF in the midst of its bicentennial fes- Dewey. More like Charlie Chaplin's . Seated in tivities. Always a reluctant patriot, on this fif- the very front are my seven-year-old sister tieth anniversary of the birth of the Jewish Stephanie and myself, about ten . We had all State I nevertheless expect to fly the flag and come for a rare visit to the house of Grand- make a helluva lot of noise. In spite of the fact father Joseph, where he lived with his third that most of my children and grandchildren wife on Foster Avenue in Brooklyn, for a family attend school or kindergarten six days a week, gathering with his nephew Moshe, who to all will be cheering as well for their land and me mysteriously spelled his name oddly as their people. "Shertok." Rabbi Barass, it has taken me a long time, but I hope you'll accept this late answer, home- remember nothing more about that day ex- work from my home in the Negev . And after cept making myself obnoxious on the ride fifty years of statehood, in spite of enormous homeI with endless inquiries about Moshe achievements, the chief crop of Israel remains Shertok, a public figure : as Foreign Minister of hope - tikva . El the State of Israel, he had come to address the

"It is not easy to forget the past . But let us try to overcome the bad memories and the obstacles in order to light a new, unique, historic horizon - an opportunity which may never come again - for a different life, a life without fear, a life without hatred, a life without the frightened eyes of children, a life without pain, a life in which we shall build a house, plant a vineyard and live to a ripe old age, side by side as neighbors . We all hope that we shall wake up tomorrow morning to a new day, a new future and new opportunity for our children . "For them, we had to fight . For them, we have to achieve peace ." - The Late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin

3! 1 6 JEWISH FRONTIE .

That achievement came about by the strange Are the Haredim Israeli political structure created by the even division of the voters . The Haredim were able Jews? by extremely clever manipulation to achieve a status as the holder of the balance of power By Saadia Gelb in the Knesset, and thus squeeze vast sums of money from the national treasury. They were able to intimidate the Orthodox, who in turn dominated the official government Rabbinate, population is defined by the bell-shaped to impose restrictive religious practices . That Acurve . The bulge which can contain from domino effect escalated with the years . 65% to 90% - an arbitrary decision- is the delineating factor . In any case, the extremes ut are the Haredim Jews? on both sides are not considered within the B designation. They are anti-Zionists although their lead- A Jew is considered to be one who is of Jew- ers were saved from Nazi Europe by the Zion- ish descent and identifies herself (himself) with ists. They don't identify with the vast majority the Jews as an entity, as well as with the aspi- of Jews in their life style, in their strivings . rations of a Jewish future . They are a closed sect with all the attributes of Jews are divided into Conservative, Ortho- a cult. Aren't they closer to the Karaites than dox, Reform, and Reconstructionist in prac- to mainstream Jews? tice, as well as those who are religiously That is the difficult question for Israel to de- unaffiliated. cide. The problem surfaced as the aggressive Historically, there have been sects who minority declared its intention to dominate the opted out of the consensus prevalent at the majority. time. The Karaites and the Samaritans are Were it not such a sad phenomenon, it would well-known examples of fringe groups . Toler- be most interesting to observe. ant Jewry maintained good relations with the 0 fringes albeit there was no doubt about who is who.

P~'pAAT C,S at about the Haredim? 2 9 WAre they Jews? At best they are between 5% to 6% of world Jewry. Their distinctive dress stems from an imitation of 16th and 17th century Slavic (Pol- ish) nobility. Their skullcaps are copies of those worn by the Roman Catholic clergy. They live The Women's Labor in segregated residences and follow authori- Zionist Organization tarian clerical dynasties . Their educational methods and their ways of imposing discipline of America include excommunication from the community. SALUTES ISRAEL ON Their very name - Haredim - means fearful and denotes huddling. The life style is a combi- ITS 50TH BIRTHDAY!! nation of extreme stricture of Talmudic com- mandments accompanied by superstitions, curses, evil eyes, belief in the heaven and hell after death . The largest concentration of May this 50th Anniversary herald the haredim is in Israel where they have achieved beginning of an age of peace for Israel . substantial political clout . Their greatest achievement is the fable that they are the DINA SPECTOR, National President "real" Jews and all the rest of us are innocents NA'AMAT USA who have not seen the light . 200 Madison Avenue • New York, NY 10016

MAY/JUNE 1998 17 Before It Is Too Late . . . By Dr. Gustave Pearlman

though much has been written about the osnowitz was a bustling town in South Po- Holocaust,Al it is only a miniscule fraction of the land. The family of our dear friend Yakov - personal stories which are still untold . Many olavS hashalom - lived prosperous and fulfill- survivors of the Shoah have passed away with- ing lives. Parents and children were observant; out revealing what happened to them . Some Shabbat offered opportunities for social as well have a strong sense of unworthiness expressed as religious interaction . Yakov was a young Ye- as "why did I survive when so many good peo- shiva student. His father and uncles reviewed ple perished?" Others wished to blend into so- with him the passages of Talmud he had stud- ciety, not to call attention to themselves they ied during the preceding week. never even told their children about their past . On Sept . 9, 1939 the German Blitzkrieg army But some have told their relatives and friends entered Sosnowitz, burned the Great Synagogue and set up a ghetto . In 1942 and 1943 the Jews were of experiences never before documented . It is deported to Auschwitz . There, the entire family ex- urgent that we commit to writing as many of cept for Yakov were murdered . these as possible before it is too late . Yakov was overwhelmed with great sorrow, s a young child in the 1920s, I remember embarassment and guilt feelings as he told me accompanying my father to the Post Office, how he had escaped . When the Jewish prison- whereA he mailed a large burlap bag full of old ers were lined up for the selection process, the and not so old clothing to cousins named "Perla" German commander had shouted "Any brick- in Lodz Province . Sometimes, instead of the layers here?" Yakov's friend, standing next to package a money order was sent to the same him had shouted him out and they both raised address. Two months later a letter would ar- their hands. They were sent to the right . "We'll watch rive on thin .onion skin paper in a strange how the others do it" they thought . The work brown envelope with exotic stamps . Then there would be another trip to the Post Office, fol- was grueling but they survived . lowed by the answering letter two months later. Just before Rosh Hashana 1939 a money fter the war, Yakov was married in a dis- order was sent, but no acknowledgement was Aplaced persons camp . Relatives of his wife received . Early in 1940, my father sent another sponsored them to Syracuse NY where he letter to the Perlas of Payoinitze, as their small worked in their scrap metal business . But he village near Lodz was known, but no answer had always dreamed of making to Israel and they did . Yakov worked there as a was received . 4n Umglick hat zay getrufen" my father said. A misfortune happened to them . foreman for Koor Industries where his knowl- edge of scrap metal technology was invaluable . German forces entered the city of Payanice Sept. 8, 1939, and immediately introduced a series of re- He was a life member of ZOA and Friends of pressive acts against the Jewish population . On Na'amat. Rosh Hashana the synagogue was destroyed and Many sagas like that of Madeline Albright and the building converted into a stable . On Yom Kippur that of the French Cardinal have been reported, intensive kidnapping was carried out in the streets i.e. children of Jewish origin in order to avoid the and in the clandestine places of worship . In Novem- Holocaust committing to their adopted religion- ber many Jews were evicted from their homes to Christianity. But not all did so. make room for German and Polish Nazis. In Feb . 1940, 8000 Jews were crowded into a ghetto in the old district of town . They could still work at their Sophia (she did not want me to use her real trades and attempt to earn a living. But in 1942 name) always thought she was Catholic . Her they were sent to the Lodz ghetto . Those Jews in the parents, with their two children, regularly at- "B" category, probably including my vanished cousins, were sent to the Chelmno Concentration tended Mass. Their name sounded Slavic, but Camp, where they all perished . Sophia noticed something peculiar. They al-

3 18 JEWISH FROD

ways left church before Communion. When she kept these pictures with me always . After became an adult, inquiries led to her receiving a while I became suspicious that sooner or a Yiddish letter from Czechoslovakia . She later someone would betray me to the Nazis . asked me to translate it . I left the town and wandered north with my The writer was an uncle who revealed that son. The roads were choked with refugees from her parents had been Jewish. They had suc- bombed-out areas and it was not unusual for cessfully posed as Catholic to protect them- people like me and my small son to mingle selves from Nazi roundups. This masquerade with these crowds. Peasants from the areas was very difficult to maintain and there were we traversed spared us bits of food so we could some close calls . After the war, when they survive. I had returned the Moslem clothes to came to America, the fear of being captured my friend - it would arouse too much suspi- and being forced to reveal that they were Jew- cion to dress that way. ish, strongly persisted. "If it happened there, it I heard that there was a border up north be- can happen here too" Sophia's father felt . They tween Yugoslavia and Italy. That was where continued to deny that they were Jewish . most of the wanderers were headed . At the bor- When confronted with the letter the father der we were questioned by guards. rejected it. But her mother, in a private conver- I showed them the pictures and said we were sation with Sophia confirmed its contents. She Moslems going to our family in Libya . Sud- prevailed upon Sophia not to discuss it with denly he turned to my son and yelled "What them anymore . is your name?" The little boy was frightened but knew that he dare not say "Moshe Yossel." ophia consulted our Rabbi, who told her I recovered and shouted angrily at the guard . S since her parents were Jewish when she "Why are you screaming at my boy? You've was born, halachically she was still Jewish and scared him . Tell the man your name, Moham- did not need to convert . med." And Moshe Yossel said "Mohammed ." "But, until now, I did not live my life as a We were passed through and by a stroke Jewish person," Sophia replied. She insisted on of luck were among the 982 chosen to sail to conversion and after two years study with the America, where we were interned in former Rabbi, she pronounced the prescribed Bless- Army barracks in Oswego, NY.* The winters ings at the Mikva, and now considers herself were very cold. My poor husband caught pneu- fully Jewish . Her parents and sister are still monia. They didn't have penicillin, so he died . Catholic. C.G. never told us how she met up with her The following story was told to us by C.G., as husband in Italy before they embarked. we were driving her from Syracuse to Oswego Some survivors of the Holocaust found their NY to visit the grave of her husband . He had husbands and wives in the displaced persons died 43 years previously. camps which were set up in Europe after the They and their 5-year-old son, were part of war. Others started life anew with new part- the 982 refugees rescued from Yugoslavia by ners, burying the hidden secrets of their past the U.S. government, via Italy and shipped to a in their subconsciousness . Some children who "temporary haven" on the shores of Lake On- had been left in convents were discovered tario in the U.S.A." She volunteered to tell us and returned to their parents and to Judaism . how she got to Italy from Yugoslavia . Others remained committed to the cultures of I lived in a small town composed of Bosnians, those who had hidden them . Every single story Moslems and some Jews . From childhood I was of the Holocaust deserves to be revealed so friendly with a Moslem girl. We grew up together and remained friends . When the Nazis began to that humankind will never again plunge to round-up and deport Jewish men, I resolved to such depths. El escape. I asked my friend to loan me and my son, some Moslem clothes. I asked her to take a few pho- "' For the full story of Oswego see Ruth Gruber's "HAVEN" tos of me and my son dressed in these clothes in Coward-McCann Inc. 1983 . front of the Mosque. Someone also photographed myself and my friend, together .

MAY/JUNE 1998 19 IN MEMORIAM

Mordechai Strigler Editor of Yiddisher Kemfer and Yiddish Forward, Dies at 76

he editor of the Yiddish Forward and for- his religious upbringing to disillusion with merT editor of the Yiddisher Kemfer, Mordechai God to a renewed interest in spiritual matters . Strigler, whose burgeoning career as a writer "He was a small and quiet man," the general was ruptured by the Second World War and manager of Association Inc., Sam- who began writing furiously when he emerged uel Norich, said at his funeral Tuesday. "But from Hitler's death camps and didn't stop for when he spoke, whether face to face or before more than 50 years, died May 10th at the age an audience, you saw immediately the sources of 76, leaving a monumental oeuvre of journal- of his literary and polemic power, hiss knowl- ism and belles-lettres in Yiddish and Hebrew. edge and his memory. He knew what an iluy Strigler succumbed at the intensive-care [talmudic genius] knows, and could summon unit of Roosevelt Hospital in New York, three sources and quotations as if he had studied weeks after a fall at his home from which he re- them an hour before." gained consciousness only fleetingly. His death came 11 days before he was to be awarded an trigler was born in 1921 at Zamosc, , honorary doctorate by the Jewish Theological and, according to a biographical sketch pre- Seminary in New York, which decided to make paredS by his daughter, Leah, was sent at age the award posthumously at graduation cere- 11 to a mitnagid . He was graduated in monies scheduled for Thursday afternoon . 1937 and began to work as a rabbi and teacher at Warsaw. When the Germans occupied Po- he death of Strigler marks not only a sad land in 1939, Strigler tried to escape to Russia, Ttransition for his colleagues on the Yid- only to be caught at the border. He was for a dish, Russian and English editions of the For- few months in the Zamosc ghetto with his par- ward but also a milestone in the arc of Yiddish- ents. He spent five years at several concentra- language journalism and the literature of the tion camps, including Maidanek and Skarzhis- Holocaust . Strigler had spent the 53 years ko . In Buchenwald, he was a member of the since his liberation from the Nazi death camps resistance and served as a covert teacher for as a man obsessed, turning out tens of thou- the children incarcerated there . He was liber- sands of newspaper dispatches in Yiddish and ated on April 11, 1945 . Meyer Levin met Strig- Hebrew. He produced an oeuvre of biblical com- ler during the liberation of Buchenwald and mentary, analysis of rabbinic responsa, fiction wrote about him in "In Search ." and poetry so voluminous that it is measured It is said that the young survivor, having not in volumes but in "cycles," to use the word lost all his pre-war literary output during the with which it is described by the Encyclopedia war, set about writing with a fury that never Judaica. He accomplished much of this while abated until the accident that left him uncon- editing not only the Yiddish Forward but also scious three weeks ago . The Encyclopedia Ju- the Labor-Zionist journal known as the Yid- daica called him "one of the most articulate disher Kemfer . His frenzy of writing took place and prolific young Yiddish writers to survive in the context of his own inner journey from the Holocaust," of which he chronicled the

3

20 JEWISH FRON' slave-labor camps and death factories in a six- feats in American journalism . "It is as if one volume cycle in Yiddish called "Oysgebrente man," wrote David Remnick in The New Likht," which means "Extinguished Candles ." Yorker, "were running (and largely writing) The cycle comprises two books brought out in both the Times and the New York Review of 1948, "Maidanek" and "In the Factories of Books." And his interests were extremely broad, Death," two volumes called "Factory `Three"' ranging from Talmud to Israeli politics to New brought out in 1950, and two more called "Des- York City politics to philosophy to family. Mr. tinies," published in 1952 . All are autobio- Norich recalled at the funeral how he had once graphical works written in a poetic style . Strig- inquired of Strigler why the editor had insisted ler had also published in the postwar years a on running on the front page of the Yiddish volume called "In a Strange Generation: Songs paper an article about Indonesia . Strigler ex- and Poems" and a novella, "The First Love of plained that the fact that Indonesia was the Kopl Match ." largest Muslim country with a rapidly expand- ing high-tech trade with the Jewish state re- n 1955, Strigler brought out two volumes quired informed Jews to take notice . called `Arm in Arm with the Wind," a histor- Not long after publication of the Forward icalI novel about Jewish life in Poland in the began in English, suggestions began to surface 17th and 18th centuries. He went on to publish that the new paper carry as a special feature a volume of novellas called "Islands of the each week several columns in the Yiddish lan- Earth" and of essays called "Dialogues with the guage . The editor of the English-language Time." A bibliography compiled by his daugh- paper, Seth Lipsky, has often told what hap- ter includes a selective list of books published pened when the suggestion was put as a for- in serial form, including `A Yeshiva Comes to mal proposition to the board of the Forward the Shtetl," which was serialized in HaDoar ; Association . The board turned to Mr. Lipsky "On the Tanakh According to the Sages of the and asked him for his reaction. He recalls say- Talmud," which was serialized in Moznayim, ing he had no objection in principle and was the monthly journal of the Hebrew writers in concerned largely with the practical questions Israel; a novel called "Conspirators," and a of how the typesetting and production would novella called "Deep in Us Hides the Prophet," get done . When Strigler was asked for his opin- which was serialized in the Kemfer. ion, however, he said he would recommend Strigler's newspaper career, which began against it. He declined to offer an explanation . at Warsaw just before the war, flourished at So Mr. Lipsky told the board that perhaps Mr. Paris, to which he had accompanied a group Strigler didn't want Yiddish to be reduced to of child survivors after the war . He found an entertainment item in the English paper work there as the editor of Unser Vort ("Our like, say, a crossword puzzle . Everyone looked Word"), a Yiddish daily. He toured Europe, the across at Strigler, who said, "Exactly!" Americas and Israel, and became active, with the founding of the state of Israel, in the Labor arly in Strigler's stay in America, he be- Zionist movement . The editorship of the Kem- gan, at the suggestion of a friend, corre- fer was offered to him when he was in New spondingE with a young woman in Israel named York for a lecture tour, and he remained at the Esther Bonni. Their letters ranged from what publication until 1995 . While there, he pub- was happening in Israel to university affairs lished such great Yiddish writers as Abraham to organic chemistry, which Miss Bonni was Reizen, H. Leivik, Chaim Grade and Jacob studying. When they finally met in Jerusalem, Glatstein. He became editor of the Yiddish For- a romance began . Strigler visited Miss Bonni ward in 1987, following the retirement of Si- in , where she was working on her doc- mon Weber, and he remained at the helm until torate. They were married at New York in 1967 he was hospitalized last month . by the Bluzhiver Rebbe, who had lost his fam- The editor's journalistic output was immea- ily in the war but whose stepsons had been surable, including tens of thousands of dis- saved by Strigler at Buchenwald . Their daugh- patches, editorials, reviews, rabbinic responsa, ter, Leah, now assistant director of the edu- commentaries and feuilleton . The double edi- cation department of the United Synagogue of torship - of the Yiddish Forward and the Conservative Judaism, spoke of her father's Kemfer - was one of the more remarkable extraordinary abilities as a mentor and teach-

MAY/.JUNE 1998 21

er. He was, she said, "my walking concordance and Jewish encyclopedia ." Yet, she said, he would always insist, when presented by her Time for with a question on Bible or Talmud, of going back and checking his references, even though he knew them by heart . In 1978, Strigler was awarded the Itzik Manger Prize in Jewish Literature, one of the RENEWAL1998 will be a challenging year for the en- most distinguished prizes in the field . The tire world . Historic changes around the globe prize was presented to Strigler by President are almost daily occurrences . To keep pace Katzir. It was a source of great pride to the with these events - especially as they impact writer, whose most enduring attachment, Mrs . on Israel and the Jewish people - JEWISH Strigler said this week, was to Israel and to the FRONTIER will continue its policy of present- unity of the Jewish people . ing background and analysis of these mo- mentous developments . trigler's editorship at the Yiddish Forward coincided with some of the most trying 1998 is the right time to expand the ranks yearsS at the paper, and he had talked in recent of readers of JEWISH FRONTIER . years of wanting to retire . He wanted to write To begin with - let's all renew our sub- another book and settle in Israel, with which scriptions as the date of renewal comes he kept in touch by reading a raft of Israeli around . newspapers each day. As more and more of the work of putting out the paper fell to him, his And how about gift subscriptions to those retirement was put off while the Forward Asso- young adults in your circle who would find ciation searched for an editor who could even- much enlightenment and excitement in our tually replace him . pages. Strigler had been a writer for the Forward AFTER ALL - THIS IS YOUR in its last three decades and its editor in its JEWISH FRONTIER! 10th decade. He sustained its voice into the be- ginning of its second century . "He will not have Please use the form below for that new been the last editor of the Yiddish Forward, as subscriber . . . he had feared," Mr. Norich said. "But none that follow him will know the world he knew, none Subscription Form will evoke it as he could and did, helping us JEWISH FRONTIER understand our days as he did ." 11 275 Seventh Avenue•17th Floor (Reprinted, with permission, from the Forward.) NewYork.NY10001 PLEASE ENTER MY SUBSCRIPTION YES TOTHE JEWISH FRONTIER TODAY! CRAG SAMEACH from Name (Print) Lazy & Miriam Orenstein Address Milwaukee, Wis. City State Zip

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3: 22 JEWISH FRONT] NOTEBOOK

In Tune with 454f4pza by Nahum Guttman

udge Samuel S . Liebowitz welcomed me At that point in time I knew less about pop- intoJ this chamber at the Kings County Court ular music than the Labor Zionist guru, and I House in Brooklyn in his usual friendly man- couldn't help him much and gave little thought ner. We had met frequently at functions of the to the phenomenon that sent so many females Israel Histadrut Campaign, to which he ren- of all ages into a frenzy. But all that was to dered invaluable service as a speaker and as change in 1962 . head of the Lands mans chaften Division in New York. e got word that Sinatra was to embark on "What can I do for you, Nahum?" he asked a world tour, to raise funds for youth cen- as I sat in front of his magisterial desk . tersW in a number of countries . His appearances "Get me Sinatra ." in Israel were to be under the auspices of His- The judge picked up his phone and in a few tadrut, the labor federation, and proceeds of minutes had Frankie on the line. He told 01' his concerts were to help build an interna- Blue Eyes that he would like him to host a doc- tional youth center - for Jewish and Arab kids umentary film about Israel and that Nahum - in Nazareth. So it was that in May 1962 I Guttman would send him the script shortly. was dispatched to Israel to see to it that some Such was my first contact with the man who filmed account of the venture was made. was to become a legend in the pop world . My At the Sheraton Hotel in Tel Aviv, Sinatra responsibilities in those days - the early received me in his room and as we chatted he 1950s - included preparation of Histadrut poured me a Jack Daniels . The discourse led to documentaries for use in our fund-raising the subject of minorities; Frankie was known efforts on behalf of its institutions in Israel . to be totally free of racial discrimination . But Each film was to have a celebrity as host . We when he asserted that there was no such thing began with Eddie Cantor, and eventually the as an absolute majority, I challenged him . roster included such as Edward G . Robinson, When asked to give an example, I said : "There Melvyn Douglas, Shelley Winters, and finally, are more women than men in the United Eleanor Roosevelt . States." After a moment's reflection came his Needless to say, I rushed to Sinatra the response : "Touche!" script for his intro, and we got back his re- Then his concert tour started in earnest . corded message on film . He was dressed in Two appearances in Tel Aviv, one each in Jeru- cowboy regalia, as he was then making one of salem, Haifa, Ein Gev (the kibbutz on the his lesser films, Johnny Concho . shore of Lake Kinneret, home of Teddy Kollek), After an interlude overseas with the U .S. Beersheba and in an army camp . In Tel Aviv, army during World War II, in March 1946 I the curtain raiser was the renowned Zadikoff was back at the Labor Zionist HQ in Manhat- Choir, a chorus of a hundred boys and girls . tan. Somehow, in a chat with Hayim Green- When I asked Frankie about the quality of berg, then editor of the Jewish Frontier, he their singing, he gave them a high mark . asked me about the goings on in Times Square . The hordes of bobby-soxers at the Paramount esides singing, the honored guest took in Theatre. some sights and met with Israeli digni- "Who is this Sinatra?" tariesB . While at Ein Gev, he visited nearby De-

MAY/JUNE 1998 23 gania, Israel's first kibbutz, where a disabled ling in honor of his daughter, Tina . Syrian tank was on exhibition . The fearsome weapon (by standards of those days) had been he last stop was Beersheba . As everywhere blocked by the valiant kibbutz defenders . Since else, there was a full house . Yet, the pro- Degania is in close proximity to Afikim, where ceedsT were modest, as the citizens of the capi- my brother lived, I contacted the family there . tal of the Negev were mostly new immigrants Surprisingly, my -born sister-in-law, with modest means. and her sabra daughter, showed the same After the concert, Sinatra was to fly to the ecstasy about Sinatra as did the bobby-soxers Lod airport, to board his private plane . He had in Times Square . I promised to try to get an flown to Israel in his own plane, with his entire autograph from their idol . Frank obliged, and I entourage from Greece but was not allowed, hope that Nehama now in Maoz Hayim still for security reasons, to use it in the country . has that precious document. The Israel air force provided transportation in- In Jerusalem, the plan was to call on Israel's land, as Sinatra refused to go by car. president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. I went ahead and So, there were only two passengers in the was welcomed in by the First Lady, Rachel Ya- plane from Beersheba to Lod - Sinatra and nait Ben-Zvi, who knew me from years back myself. The seating was simple, a bench on (she was my mother's guest at our home in either side of the craft. He sat on one, I on the Minneapolis when touring on behalf of Pioneer other. After a few minuites aloft, he came over Women). President Ben-Zvi (with whom I had to me and asked what was the matter. It seems shared a hotel room in 1948) then asked me that I had a dour look on my face . about Sinatra - was he a serious person? I re- "We didn't raise enough money for the youth sponded that in the matter of helping youth, center," I revealed . He had promised $100,000, he was. and that sum was not yet in sight . The tall, scholarly head of state, whose main "If we have a fund-raiser in New York, interest was the Oriental Jewish communities, would you come?" then spent a half hour with the American pop- The answer was a firm yes . . . ular singer. Back in the States, there is unfinished busi- Aside from singing, Sinatra spent much ness - the film. Sinatra had brought his own time getting to know the country and its peo- cameramen and other technicians . Nelson Rid- ple. He met with the top labor leaders, includ- dle was in charge of music . Someone had to be ing Aharon Becker, secretary-general of His- in charge of editing the material and compos- tadrut, to whom he said, "I think I must be the ing the script . There goes Nahum. highest union dues payer in the world, as I be- In Hollywood, the Sinatra crew, ensconced long to eight unions." in MGM facilities, cuts the raw material down, from skillions of yards of negative they select azareth declared a "Sinatra Day" when about two reels worth . They include some of the guest was received by Mayor Seif-a- the songs, recorded live in Israel . However, dinN Zu'abi'at a formal luncheon . Then came the there was one missing, a tune that especially laying of the cornerstone for the Sinatra Youth caught my non-musical ear. For it had a phrase Center. Among the attendees was Abba Eban, about the River Jordan. A film with Sinatra in then Minister of Education . (Several years Israel and no musical reference to the site was later, as I visited the institution, it was no unthinkable. But I couldn't remember the title longer a youth center. For various reasons, it of that song. Fortunately, while strolling along was being used as a vocational center for Arab Hollywood Boulevard, the Voice came out of an women; there was a sewing class in session.) open door, from a music store. And there was Sinatra also visited an Amal vocational the river Jordan . I ascertained the title and school, was received by Prime Minister David hastened to my colleagues in the editing room, Ben-Gurion and saw the as-yet incomplete Yad to make sure it was included, and it was . Vashem Holocaust memorial, where he donned While traversing the courtyard in the vast a yarmulke as a memorial prayer was chanted . studio complex, I saw Loretta Young walking After a helicopter flight out of Jerusalem to the by, with a confused expression on her pretty Histadrut forest at Neve Ilan, he lost no time face. As we neared each other, she pointed to in scooping out a hole in which to plant a sap- her head and said something in Yiddish which

3 24 JEWISH FRONTII

translates into buttocks . She then apologized Joseph Buloff, Sidor Belarsky. and others. for the vulgar Yiddishism and went on her Things seem to go smoothly, when a bomb- way, hopefully in the right direction . So it shell strikes . Golda refuses to come! Headlines seems that Yiddish is still alive and function- blare that Sinatra has links to the Mafia, and ing in Hollywood, even if on the level of such Israel's Foreign Minister could not share the terms as Chutzpah and Shlemiel. spotlight with an associate of the underworld . Back to the film: I did draft the narration After much haggling, reassuring Golda that which went off to Lake Tahoe, where Sinatra Frank was kosher, she relented and agreed to was whiling his time, and the finished two- drop in, say a few words and take off that night reeler did him and us proud . for an important meeting in Israel . In any event, she came, she spoke, and stayed the A year passes . It is 1963 . The 40th anniver- entire evening . L lsary of the National Committee for Labor On the afternoon of October 14th, Hi Brown Israel . The committee in New York discusses was stomping around the Garden, upset that plans for a major celebration . Sidor Belarsky Sinatra had not arrived for a rehearsal . I as- comes up with an idea - Madison Square Gar- sured him that Frank would be there at the den! But who is to do it? The ball is passed to appointed hour. Lo and behold, so it was : Frank Nahum Guttman . He accepts on two condi- showed up on time, and I ushered him into the tions: that Sinatra be on the program, and that room where Hi was waiting on pins and needles . attend, since she was in the coun- Soon, Brown emerged, with smiles : "He's try anyway. great!" Sinatra had studied his lines before- Sinatra gives the date: October 14, 1963 . hand and delivered them with aplomb . Golda accepts . We had a great time that night . The 16,000 Himan Brown, who had staged annual shows persons in the Garden were the largest crowd at the Garden for Israel Bonds, agrees to pro- ever to attend a Labor Zionist function in duce. We start to line up talent. Millard Lam- America, even if half of them were Italians pell, of Eternal Light fame, writes the script, from Hoboken . "Act of Faith" . Among those to appear are Pearl Thanks, Frankie, for being such a good sport Lang and her dance troupe, Leslie Uggams, and a great humanitarian . 0

Sinatra Scorns Arab League Boycott Upon hearing that the Arab League head- Israel quarters in Damascus had issued a procla- mation boycotting his films and records, Frank Sinatra stated : "If it is true, I am deep- at Fifty ly disappointed that statesmen anywhere would condemn anyone for aiding children of whatever faith or origin . In Israel, my recent .Lou were born of a prayer of centuries visit there was to raise money for an inter- you were the dream faith Youth Center in Nazareth - a primar- ily Arab center where the recipients will be and dreamers made you primarily Arab children. My world tour built you which included Israel was dedicated to bene- brought you into being fitting children of all faiths . I had hoped that when the realists said no adults everywhere had one thing in common Our eyes turn to you - a love of all children ." with hope The National Committee for Labor Israel, and worry which sponsored Sinatra's eight concerts in Israel, confirmed that his trip to the Holy Are you all you meant to be? Land was entirely devoted to the promotion No of a non-sectarian, humanitarian project in But you are here conjunction with Histadrut, the Israel labor you live federation, which counts thousands of Arab So does the prayer and dream workers among its members . - John Oliver Mason

MAY/JUNE 1998 25 BIOGRAPHY

Chaim Arlosoroff 65 Years After His Assassination By David Rosenthal

t was a sunny Sunday morning, the 18th of These poems testify to Arlosoroff's deepest June,I 1933, when the newspapers in Poland thoughts and to his creative vision, qualities brought us the news of the tragic death of which are very clearly reflected in his ballad Chaim Arlosoroff on a sand dune near the about the "Jew-hunts" that took place during beach at Tel Aviv. This report shocked the Jew- the Roman carnivals in the Coliseum : ish population, which was still under the im- "Twelve Jews, old and young, / pursued by pact of Arlosoroff's recent visit to several riders. . . . Now we see the clouds of dust / Now Polish cities. His meetings with Jewish youth we hear their groaning. Like beasts enraged, had raised such bright hopes and led to such with mocking laughter / the Roman gentlemen extensive plans . Now grief, bewilderment, and make sport . Suddenly - something's hap- suspicion were commingling in the public pened - see: One of them has fallen to his mind. knees! Listen : A frightened and bewildered In this murky atmosphere, the predominant shout / arises from the Romans . Before the opinion was that the shot which had put an Jews runs Jesus, persecuted and pursued like end to Arlosoroff's young life had also been them!" aimed at the finest Jewish and Zionist-chalutz Already in his early youth, Chaim Arlosoroff dreams. The storm of controversy which burst had a premonition of the tragedy that lay in out over the question of whether or not this wait for him. He wrote : "Suddenly on a sum- was an act of fratricide and whether this par- mer night - my heart - it beats no more. For- ticular Cain could be found in the ranks of his ever stilled. Mercilessly they put an end to me, own people - a controversy which has not cut short my dialogue with the world." been resolved to this day - overshadowed any This premonition, however, did not stifle his perception of Chaim Arlosoroff's personality in faith in the ultimate victory of his ideas, which all its moral and ideological magnitude. stood higher than the physical passing of the The bitter dispute also resulted in a situa- man. "You know, when flowers fade / there is a tion where, to this day, whenever the name of scent of non-existence . / Higher, though, than Chaim Arlosoroff comes up, it evokes an asso- Time's own mountains, / fly the products of the ciation primarily with the mystery shrouding human spirit ." his death. (The foregoing excerpts are from the book published by Am Oved on the 25th anniver- haim Victor Arlosoroff (1899-1933) was sary of Arlosoroff's death . "Spring Secrets" was blessed with many talents . He was the published when he was 18 .) typeC of leader who had the capacity of thinking in intellectual terms while at the same time rlosoroff spent his student years at the acting in practical ones . Fused within him University of Berlin, where he received his were the visionary imagination of the poet and doctorateA in economics . However, this was not the pragmatism of the political activist . It was a period in which he devoted himself com- therefore quite natural that at the time he pletely to his studies . Even then he was in- took his first steps in public life, a book of his volved heart and soul in Jewish communal life . should appear with the title of "Spring Secrets" He was one of the most skillful organizers and - a selection of his lyrical and subjective ideologists of the German Hechalutz and Ha- poems, as well as some of a national character. poel Hatzair. As editor of the party organ, Di

3 26 JEWISH FRO : Arbet, he had a marked ideological influence osef Sprinzak was the first Zionist labor on both movements. leader to be elected to the Executive of The class ideology of Marxian Socialism was Ythe World Zionist movement . This occurred at foreign to Arlosoroff. Influenced - as were the 12th Congress in Carlsbad in 1921 . Eight many leaders of Hechalutz and Tz'ire-Zion - years later, after an interim in which Execu- by Gustav Landauer, he brought to the Jewish tives were elected without the participation of scene the concepts of Folk (People's) Socialism, Labor, there were elected at the 16th Congress whose slogan was not the dictatorship of the in Zurich (1929) two members of the Labor proletariat but a social order which would har- wing, S. Kaplanski and Y. Sprinzak . One can monize with the interests of the broadest say definitely, however, that in this period masses of the people - workers, peasants, all Chaim Arlosoroff was already beginning to who are involved in both the physical and cul- surface as the central figure in . tural productive processes of society. At the 13th Congress in Carlsbad (1923), he In theory, socialism is not a class matter, but amazed the delegates with his thoroughgoing an idea with which anyone who has a social analysis of the problems of Eretz Israel's econ- conscience must associate himself. Folk Social- omy and with his well-conceived proposal to ism did not stress economic motivation as the create massive funds for the upbuilding of the most important factor in the development of Land. "Zionism," warned the 24-year-old Arlo- the social order. One could come to socialism soroff, "will vanish if we persist in our old from any ethical and religious starting point . methods." A few years later we see him leading Those who accept the idea are also influenced the struggle against the "Socher regime" which by reasons which have their root in the ethical was hostile to the popular character of Zionism nature of man . and to the strivings and activities of the Cha- As regards Eretz Israel, Hapoel Hatzair did lutz movement. not base its Zionism upon a scientific foun- Chaim Arlosoroff was elected, together with dation, as did upon the theories Berl Locker, to the Zionist Executive at the developed by Ber Borochov . Hapoel Hatzair 17th Congress in Basel (1931) . The great re- rejected that view according to which the in- spect he enjoyed can be seen in the comments dustrial proletariat would be the vanguard in made by Chaim Weizmann in his memoirs : the struggle of the Jewish people for its na- "Chaim Arlosoroff . . . was a man of brilliant mind, tional liberation . It questioned the teaching and was particularly fitted to present our philoso- phy of Zionism to the younger generation . He did it that Zionism would be realized as a result of with great zest and power and with indefatigable purely objective developments. energy. It was a privilege to watch him at work . He Eretz Israel - Hapoel Hatzair taught - became later the political officer of the Executive - this was in the time of the Wauchope administra- would be built by people ready to devote their tion - but already at the Congresses and Confer- total resolve and energy to the idea . Instead ences of 1922 and on, he was one of the leading spir- of operating with slogans about "the stychic its. He was merciless in his attacks on the extremist group, which later crystallized into the Revisionist processes" which would bring Jews to Eretz faction. Israel, or with the "laws" of proletarian class "Arlosoroff had received an excellent education, struggle, or with slogans about strengthening and his Jewish background was solid . He was one of the few who knew the East and the West equally "the aggressive capability and spirit of the well, and was therefore most suitable for the office labor movement," Hapoel Hatzair - under the which he filled . He was fundamentally good-na- influence of Chaim Arlosoroff and Eliezer Kap- tured, but did not suffer fools gladly, and was severe in his attacks on his opponents . But he took as well lan - put forward the idea of devoting greater as gave . . ." (Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error) attention and deeper understanding to the problems of constructive deeds, of morale and As Eliyahu Elat relates, Chaim Arlosoroff education, which would bring us closer to the took over the political department with "a fulfillment of Zionism and Socialism . With this meager inheritance of ideological content and Zionist-Socialist concept, Chaim Arlosoroff be- with very limited personnel ." His predeces- gan his campaign to win the hearts and minds sors were Dr. D . Eder, a British psychoanalyst, of the Jewish masses and particularly Jewish and Frederick Kisch . Both were lacking in youth . Jewish knowledge and in an understanding of Eastern European life . Dr. Eder was far removed from political Zionism and he often

MAY/JUNE 1998 27 expressed contradictory ideological opinions . which was in the leadership of HaVaad Ha- Thus, for instance, he insisted that Tel Aviv Leumi and the world Zionist organization, and should not become a symbol of Jewish ex- against Chaim Arlosoroff personally, the "archi- clusivity and that Jews in Eretz Israel should tect" of the agreement . give up their European cultural identity and The supporters of the Transfer Agreement integrate themselves in the cultural-political replied : Jewish tradition has created two prin- world of the Near East . ciples, highly moral commandments and stan- Colonel Kisch had the virtue of being able to dards for Jewish behavior in cases where Jew- establish contacts easily with the assimilated ish lives are being threatened: Pikuakh Nefesh Jews, because he did not bear the stamp of an and Pidyon Shevuyim . (Pikuakh nefesh : saving Eastern European Jew, and because they had a life. The preservation of life takes precedence great respect for his high office in the British over all commandments. Pidyon shevuyim : military hierarchy. ransom of captives, even if it means negotiat- ing with criminals .) rlosoroff was first to introduce Jewish and The transfer was being undertaken in that ionist content into the Political Depart- spirit. In modern Jewish history there is no ment, the most important section in the entire lack of examples of sending emissaries even structure of the world Zionist movement . With to our persecutors . Did not Herzl go to St . extremely limited financial resources - the Petersburg to negotiate with the Russian Min- Department in the time of Kisch operated with ister Plehve? Did not Jabotinsky negotiate an a budget of 13,000 Palestine pounds annually agreement with Petlura's chief lieutenant and under Arlosoroff the budget was reduced Slavinski in the hope of saving the Jewish to 3500 pounds - he not only drew into the communities in the Ukraine from slaughter? work highly talented individuals like Moshe Transfer was the practical meaning of Zion- Shertok, but also broadened the scope of all ism. Herzl himself defined Zionism as a "trans- spheres of activity under his aegis . port organization ." In such an atmosphere of sharp debate pro painful controversy divided the Jewish and con, of inflamed emotions against sober people during the time of Chaim Arloso- and practical calculations, the negotiations roff'sA term on the world Zionist Executive . It concerning transfer were begun with the Hein- related to the question whether Jewish repre- rich Bruning government as far back as the sentatives - more concretely, whether the summer of 1931 . Because of the financial panic world Zionist movement - should establish and the bank crisis in Germany, the gov- contacts with Nazi Germany for the purpose of ernment had set a limit of 200 marks on the getting Jews and Jewish property out of the amount of money that could be taken out of country. The official Zionist response was: Yes, the country. because there were no chances of a quick end to Chaim Arlosoroff, together with a number Hitlerism, and the very physical existence of a of leaders of the German Zionist organization, half million Jews was at stake. Chaim Arloso- attempted to have the regulation repealed . roff was one of the major proponents and imple- But it was not until September 1933 that the menters of this position, which found its prac- German government gave its consent to the tical expression in the Transfer Agreement . Transfer Agreement. From that moment until The opponents of the Transfer argued : Jew- the outbreak of World War II, the Haavara ish national and human honor could not toler- (transfer) carried out annually 50,000 trans- ate the slightest dealings with the Nazis . The actions. Most of the 50,000 German Jews who controversy was explosive . The Jews in Pales- emigrated to Palestine utilized the Transfer tine and the world Zionist organization were Agreement, taking out with them 140 million accused of breaking the anti-Nazi economic Reichsmarks. boycott, of "demoralizing" the struggle against 60% of the capital invested during that Germany. The very usefulness of the Transfer period in Eretz Israel came from these funds . Agreement was questioned - it could at best All of the colonization in Emek Hefer was due rescue only selected individuals along with to the transfer. All these accomplishments their meager possessions . Naturally, the oppo- strengthened the yishuv. They helped to create sition was directed primarily against Labor, on the internal front many of the advances

2 8 JEWISH FRONTIER necessary for a successful policy in the years of try. Such a broad Jewish colonization requires struggle for the establishment of the State . an effort which is not much different from the Thus history settled the argument and effort required to establish a Jewish state on showed that in the new economic and political both sides of the Jordan . . . . The discussion realities created by the Transfer, there was more about strivings and goals therefore has not the foresight than in all the opposition which had slightest basis in reality." created such a perfervid hostility toward Labor and particularly toward Chaim Arlosoroff. rlosoroff came to the conclusion that in the existing circumstances of the Mandate en Chaim Arlosoroff took over his polit- Agovernment there could be no talk of large al office, Jewish relations with England scale immigration and mass colonization . He Whad reached a critical point of distrust . The therefore called for a re-examination of the Passfield White Paper, the prohibition of im- evolutionary path of Zionist policy, to deter- migration, the Simpson Report, were all clear mine if it were still possible, with the methods evidence that England was reneging on her re- acceptable heretofore, to achieve the Zionist sponsibilities to the Jewish National Home . goal. Nor could this impression be overcome even by "If it is not possible, then we must conclude Ramsay MacDonald's letter to Chaim Weiz- that the whole effort is useless and that we mann in which he listed certain modifications then do not need to maintain the evolutionary favorable to Zionist aspirations . system of Zionist policy, and that we must not This situation, and his conviction that a new base on it the belief and the survival of the war would break out in five or ten years which Zionist movement. My own leaning is toward would put the yishuv in great peril, aroused the idea that it is no longer possible ." serious doubt in Arlosoroff's mind concerning He was especially disturbed by the thought the advisability of continuing the Weizmann of what might happen to the yishuv in case of doctrine . During all these years he had shared a world war, when the League of Nations and Weizmann's view that the Jewish struggle lay all its established government systems would not only in the mobility of the Executive, in its no longer be able to function and would be "resoluteness" and its "strong word," but that it doomed to extinction. In such a case he foresaw stemmed chiefly from the colonizing and eco- an open British-Arab alliance or an Arab up- nomic realities of the yishuv. rising which could put an end to all the ties of The first signs of a revision in his reasoning the yishuv with world Jewry . This analysis led appeared in 1931 . The idea began to mature in him to the following conclusions: him that for the realization of Zionism it would Zionism could not be realized without a be necessary to use "revolutionary means ." transition period in which "the Jewish minor- This opinion he expressed in several letters to ity would maintain an organized revolutionary Chaim Weizmann . rule. There is no possibility of achieving a Jew- "For the time being I see no other path ex- ish majority through aliyah and systematic cept the one upon which I have been following colonization, or even a balance between both you, but this path is nothing more than a pal- peoples, without an interim national minority liative. In my opinion, it will not lead to the government which would take over adminis- political solution of our problems ." (June 10, tration and military power, in order to prevent 1932) the danger of domination by the non-Jewish He drew this thread of thought further in a majority and an uprising against us. . . . Dur- letter dated July 30, 1932 . "I myself am ready ing the transition period there would be a sys- at any moment to accept, for my private use, tematic policy of land development, aliyah, and every maximalist formula, exactly as I am colonization ." ready to vote against such a formula at the Congress. . . . It is clear that if we don't wish to rlosoroff was aware that his views were set up anew in Eretz Israel the conditions close to a certain political philosophy of the galut, we must strive to settle the land Awhich Labor had for years categorically rejec- ever more quickly with hundreds of thousands ted, and that the whole plan might sound like of Jews, in order to secure at least a substan- a fantasy without the slightest chance of ever tial equality between both peoples in the coun- being realized . However, Zionism was faced

MAY/JUNK 1998 29

with the danger that it would not be in a posi- These theories, which could have created tion to achieve its final goal, at precisely the the impression - as Arlosoroff himself put it moment when the truth of his diagnosis would - that he was "out of his mind," represent an be confirmed. important stage on the way to changes in the In such circumstances, he said, an attempt forms of Zionist struggle . The subsequent de- must be made to save the hopes of the people, velopments which led to the Biltmore Pro- an attempt "which should in its zeal be equal gram, to accepting the theory of Maavak, and to the gravity of our struggle for the renewal of to the struggle for the establishment of the our national life and to the sacredness of the State, were nurtured by Arlosoroff's argu- pledge which the Jewish people has entrusted ments and predictions . to us. We dare not forget that every turn of In this lies the greatness of his life, the his- events in the world, or in the Middle East, torical merit of his activities, which were in every exceptional situation, can force a course such a brutal way brought to an end in the of action upon us which we would in no case bloom of his 34 years . Today it is clear that have chosen out of our own volition . We must even after Arlosoroff's tragic death the embers reckon with this in all our political prepara- of his spirit still continued to glow in the world tions, whether we like the idea or not ." of Zionist thought and deed. El

SIGN 'EM UP!!! There are thousands of Jews in every community who share the Labor Zionist vision and should share in implementing our program here and in Israel . SIGN 'EM UP as members of the Labor Zionist Alliance . . . . The Time is NOW

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (continued from page 12) When they had all finished, Ben-Gurion de- clared, "The state of Israel is established . This Susan Hattis Rolef, our regular Israel correspondent, meeting is adjourned ." was editor of the Political Dictionary of the State of Israel After 1,878 years in exile, it had taken 32 (1993). minutes for the Jewish nation to be declared Misha Louvish is a historian and journalist in reborn. Jerusalem. Seven and a half hours later, when the Elli Wohlgelernter is an Israeli writer. British mandate in Palestine expired at the Yosef Criden, a native of Buffalo, NY, is an early mem- stroke of midnight, Israel officially came into ber of Habonim. A longtime member of Kibbutz Kfar Blum, he is an authority on motor transportation and existence. It was 6 p .m. in Washington . Eleven speaks frequently on the subject on Israeli radio . minutes later, the White House released a Haim Chertok, a transplant from the Bronx to the statement signed by President Harry Truman : Negev, writes for the Jerusalem Post; his newest volume is "This government has been informed that a Israeli Preoccupations (Fordham University Press) . Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, David Rosenthal resides in Philadelphia; his articles and recognition has been requested by the pro- on Jewish personalities and Zionist topics have appeared visional government thereof. The United frequently in the Jewish Frontier. States recognizes the provisional government John Oliver Mason is a free-lance journalist in Phila- as the de facto authority of the state of Israel ." delphia . His poems have been published in numerous papers. A member of Philadelphia LZA, he also belongs to Guatemala was next to offer recognition, the National Writers Union . followed by the Soviet Union, which went Saadia-Gelb, a veteran member of Kfar Blum, has a one better than the U.S . by granting de jure master's degree in psychology from the University of Min- recognition. nesota; he is an ordained Reform rabbi . At 5:25 a.m. the next day, May 15, 1948, the Dr. Gustave Pearlman, a dentist in Syracuse, NY, first Egyptian bombs fell on Tel Aviv . Syria, writes on Judaic topics and lectures at Na'amat cultural Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq joined in the attack . events and to student bodies in the Syracuse area . The War of Independence had begun . 0 Nahum Guttman is editor of Jewish Frontier. (Courtesy JPNFS)

30 JEWISH FRONTIER MAZAL TOV! from Sid & Shula Troy Lakewood, New Jersey Let us rejoice in this - Labor Zionist Alliance of Philadelphia ISRAEL'S mourns the passing of our longtime, JUBILEE YEAR dedicated Chaver Joseph Yenish He Will be Missed May it be blessed with peace and good cheer! Martin & Ruby Vogelfanger

A We Honor our Chaverim in Israel . May Peace prevail! A WA V Dena & Irving Greenberg Southfield, Michigan Our Group of young The Labor Zionist Alliance alumnni veterans of of Chicago HABONIM salutes the sends greetings to our Builders and Defenders Chaverim everywhere . . . we are proud of past accomplish- of a social democratic ments and look forward to Israel . a time of Peace as we salute the State of Israel on its 50th Anniversary. LZA - AHA of New York

The Messianic idea, crowning glory of Biblical prophesy, envisioning the return of Israel to its Land and the redemption of mankind from oppression and war, is the challenging goal of this generation and of generations to come . - ZALMAN SHAZAR, 3rd President o f Israel

MAY/JUNE 1998 31

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