Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Rabbi Irving J. Block Program Features Role of American Volunteers in Israel
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
The late Rabbi Irving J. Block of the Brotherhood Synagogue (1955 to 1994), a WWII veteran, in 1947,while studying during the day at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem joined Haganah, the Jewish defense organization, to help guard the city at night. Tthe Fifth Annual Irving J. Block Program at The Brotherhood Synagogue, held in his memory on Sunday, November 4, 2007, commemorated the role of American volunteers in Israel’s War of Independence.
Speakers offered personal accounts of wartime in Israel, starting with Mrs. Ziva ben-Reuven, who grew up in the 1930s-40s, near the coast town of Netanya, and as a youngster would wake up at night and find the kitchen filled with strangers, who would be gone by the morning. It turned out that the men in her family were wading into the sea at night to carry ashore the boat people, illegal immigrants, on their shoulders. By the time the British soldiers came searching for hidden illegals, even the wet clothes were dried. Everyone in the family belonged to Haganah, organized in 1920 by the Jewish Agency, to protect Jews against their attacking Arab neighbors. There was a massive massacre of Jews in Yaffo in 1921 that intensified the Haganah activity. Its 1930s outgrowth was the more aggressive Irgun Zwai Leumi, who attacked the British, although in 1943 over 5,000 Palestinian Jews joined their Jewish Brigade Group to fight the common Fascist enemy.
The story was continued, in words and film, by Simon Spiegelman and Prof. Samuel Klausner, past Presidents of AVI, the American Veterans of Israel organization, representing approximately 1,500 US and Canadian men and women who volunteered during the 1946 through 1949 period, either as crew on ships bringing illegal Jewish WWII survivors to Israel (Aliyah Bet), or by joining the military to fight for Israel during its War of Independence (Machal). Between 1939 and 1944 some 16,000 immigrants were clandestinely landed , in 25 sailings, After WWII Haganah and Irgun ships in 65 trips brought in thousands more, although many ships were captured at sea and the immigrants put in detention camps on Cyprus.
The AVI, from its museum in Gainesville, FL, also contributed a collection of collages of historic photographs and clippings on eight boards that tell the story of the American efforts, in which 40 men and women died. One had the tale of Exodus, carrying survivors of German death camps, also told in a book by Leon Uris (1956). The ship was seized, and 4,515 refugees were taken back to Marseilles, where the journey originated, but the passengers refused to disembark, Since the French would not use force, they eventually were taken off shipboard in a German port, within the British Occupation Zone. The story received world-wide sympathy, and in 1948 the Exodus people were finally able to get to Israel. Exhibits of the Israeli military told of assembling an air force with Czech-built German Messerschmitt ME-109 fighters and American war surplus planes, such as the Curtis-Wright C-46 freighters, purchased through a dummy Panamanian airline and Czech fronts. Three B-17 bombers made it out of Miami, though another was stopped in the Azores and confiscated and the pilot was arrested, under the US Neutrality Act. The planes were flown by veteran WWII fliers of all nationalities, so that the official air language had to be English. The intensive and detailed AVI exhibit boards elicited much interest, and should be available in a more widely accessible New York public environment. Presently they are going on a nation-wide tour.
An additional exhibit by Dr. Stanley B. Burns, a physician with an extensive archival collection of historic photographs, told of the earliest Aliyah Bet ship, the Ben Hecht, named for the noted playwright who contributed the earnings of his play, A Flag is Born, for the purchase. Interned in Cyprus, the ship was eventually refitted and served honorably in the Israeli Navy. Prof. Klausner was a Hebrew University classmate and Haganah partner of Rabbi Block, and told stories of Haganah adventures on mined roads, travel under Arab fire and encounters with King Abdullah’s Jordan Legion.
More of these warlike events were recited by Herbert Block, the Rabbis son, now a lawyer and executive of the American Joint Distribution Committee. As for Rabbi Block stature as a man of peace, the builder of consensus, tolerance and moderation, it was not neglected.
Another young lawyer, Arthur Dobelis, told of his growing up as a Brotherhood Hebrew School student and getting through the turbulent 1980s, and the role that his Rabbi Block played in helping him pass the challenges and instilling in him a sense of social responsibility.
Between stories the audience sang a capella with Avram Pengas, noted Israeli musician, and heard narrative introductions and linkages by Robert Wolf, President and Phillip Rothman, Executive Director of the Synagogue, and Jerome Salomon, meber of the Block Lecture Committee. Many AVI veterans attended, some in wheelchairs, and were honored during the proceedings.
The late Rabbi Irving J. Block of the Brotherhood Synagogue (1955 to 1994), a WWII veteran, in 1947,while studying during the day at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem joined Haganah, the Jewish defense organization, to help guard the city at night. Tthe Fifth Annual Irving J. Block Program at The Brotherhood Synagogue, held in his memory on Sunday, November 4, 2007, commemorated the role of American volunteers in Israel’s War of Independence.
Speakers offered personal accounts of wartime in Israel, starting with Mrs. Ziva ben-Reuven, who grew up in the 1930s-40s, near the coast town of Netanya, and as a youngster would wake up at night and find the kitchen filled with strangers, who would be gone by the morning. It turned out that the men in her family were wading into the sea at night to carry ashore the boat people, illegal immigrants, on their shoulders. By the time the British soldiers came searching for hidden illegals, even the wet clothes were dried. Everyone in the family belonged to Haganah, organized in 1920 by the Jewish Agency, to protect Jews against their attacking Arab neighbors. There was a massive massacre of Jews in Yaffo in 1921 that intensified the Haganah activity. Its 1930s outgrowth was the more aggressive Irgun Zwai Leumi, who attacked the British, although in 1943 over 5,000 Palestinian Jews joined their Jewish Brigade Group to fight the common Fascist enemy.
The story was continued, in words and film, by Simon Spiegelman and Prof. Samuel Klausner, past Presidents of AVI, the American Veterans of Israel organization, representing approximately 1,500 US and Canadian men and women who volunteered during the 1946 through 1949 period, either as crew on ships bringing illegal Jewish WWII survivors to Israel (Aliyah Bet), or by joining the military to fight for Israel during its War of Independence (Machal). Between 1939 and 1944 some 16,000 immigrants were clandestinely landed , in 25 sailings, After WWII Haganah and Irgun ships in 65 trips brought in thousands more, although many ships were captured at sea and the immigrants put in detention camps on Cyprus.
The AVI, from its museum in Gainesville, FL, also contributed a collection of collages of historic photographs and clippings on eight boards that tell the story of the American efforts, in which 40 men and women died. One had the tale of Exodus, carrying survivors of German death camps, also told in a book by Leon Uris (1956). The ship was seized, and 4,515 refugees were taken back to Marseilles, where the journey originated, but the passengers refused to disembark, Since the French would not use force, they eventually were taken off shipboard in a German port, within the British Occupation Zone. The story received world-wide sympathy, and in 1948 the Exodus people were finally able to get to Israel. Exhibits of the Israeli military told of assembling an air force with Czech-built German Messerschmitt ME-109 fighters and American war surplus planes, such as the Curtis-Wright C-46 freighters, purchased through a dummy Panamanian airline and Czech fronts. Three B-17 bombers made it out of Miami, though another was stopped in the Azores and confiscated and the pilot was arrested, under the US Neutrality Act. The planes were flown by veteran WWII fliers of all nationalities, so that the official air language had to be English. The intensive and detailed AVI exhibit boards elicited much interest, and should be available in a more widely accessible New York public environment. Presently they are going on a nation-wide tour.
An additional exhibit by Dr. Stanley B. Burns, a physician with an extensive archival collection of historic photographs, told of the earliest Aliyah Bet ship, the Ben Hecht, named for the noted playwright who contributed the earnings of his play, A Flag is Born, for the purchase. Interned in Cyprus, the ship was eventually refitted and served honorably in the Israeli Navy. Prof. Klausner was a Hebrew University classmate and Haganah partner of Rabbi Block, and told stories of Haganah adventures on mined roads, travel under Arab fire and encounters with King Abdullah’s Jordan Legion.
More of these warlike events were recited by Herbert Block, the Rabbis son, now a lawyer and executive of the American Joint Distribution Committee. As for Rabbi Block stature as a man of peace, the builder of consensus, tolerance and moderation, it was not neglected.
Another young lawyer, Arthur Dobelis, told of his growing up as a Brotherhood Hebrew School student and getting through the turbulent 1980s, and the role that his Rabbi Block played in helping him pass the challenges and instilling in him a sense of social responsibility.
Between stories the audience sang a capella with Avram Pengas, noted Israeli musician, and heard narrative introductions and linkages by Robert Wolf, President and Phillip Rothman, Executive Director of the Synagogue, and Jerome Salomon, meber of the Block Lecture Committee. Many AVI veterans attended, some in wheelchairs, and were honored during the proceedings.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 1:45 AM 
