A Living History Book

They said he was ninety-two-years-old. As I looked at him I found that hard to believe. All the history he’d lived through didn’t show on his face. I could have listened to him for hours but the tour I was on in Yaffo Port allotted us a mere fifteen minutes

A tenth-generation Jerusalemite, one of ten children, his English was excellent. That came from his grammar school days when he studied in a French school where the students learned not just French but also Arabic and English. Even on the playground during recess they were expected to speak the chosen language for the day. If not, they received a punishment.

He was fourteen-and-a half when the British Empire began requesting recruits to help fight the Third Reich.  Of course, he was too young to sign up so he scratched out his birthdate, doctored his birth certificate, and joined forces to keep Rommel from advancing into Palestine, as Israel was called then.

According to him their defense was weak without a good plan and the only reason they were able to repel the Germans was because the Almighty wanted them to. He was injured in the arm and the neck. While lying in his hospital bed he received a package from his mother. Inside were herbs that she’d picked off plants growing on the Kotel.

Either she’d had a mother’s special sense or a dream telling her that her son was injured and she wanted him to use the herbs. An obedient son, he stuffed them up his cast. They scratched his skin and bothered him constantly but, in the end, he healed completely. He credits his survival to his mother and, again, to the Almighty.  

At the end of World War Two, while he was still part of the British army, he joined the Irgun, an act of treason. Three of his siblings were in the Haganah and another three in the Palmach. Although their methods varied all shared the same goals: protect Jews from Arab terror, smuggle in as many Jewish refugees from Europe as possible, and rid the Holy Land of the British.

When several Jews were arrested and sentenced to hanging he was part of the Irgun operation that kidnapped five British soldiers. We’ll hang yours if you hang ours. The threat was not an empty one.

Three weeks later he was arrested and condemned to death by firing squad. However, the British took the Irgun’s threat seriously and commuted his sentence to fifteen years in prison.

First he was held captive in Jerusalem. Rabbi Aryeh Levin of A Tzaddik in Our Time came to visit every Shabbat. His face lit up as he recalled how all the prisoners would want to sit next to the holy rabbi. Week after week they took turns and the two who would sit on either side of the special man would hold his hand as he spoke lovingly to all of them.

After a number of months he was transferred to the Akko prison. At one point his friends came climbing over the prison walls. The prison break that we saw in the movie Exodus was a true story and he was part of it.

A year and ten days later the British left Palestine and the State of Israel was declared. That didn’t mean his fighting days were over, though. There was a war of survival to fight and we continue to fight until today.

This man is only one of the many living history books in Israel. It is because of him, and other heroes like him, that I was able to walk safely on my tour around the Yaffo Port. Of course, had I said that to him he would have reminded me, rightfully so, that they were only able to accomplish what they did because the Almighty wanted them to do so. I am grateful to all.

My novel, Growing With My Cousin, a good winter read, is available at Jewish bookstores and on line at  http://www.feldheim.com/growing-with-my-cousin.html or

https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Cousin-Ester-Katz-Silvers/dp/194635113X/