The son of Joseph and Rivka, Jack Rothman was born in Brooklyn, in the USA on 29th January 1911. When still a young boy his parents moved to New York, where he started elementary school. He was a clever and sensitive child, and after completing high school he was accepted at UFSLA College in New Jersey, where for the first time he experienced anti-Semitism when he discovered that Jews were not accepted as members in the students’ clubs. He established a Jewish club and became its president.
During World War II he served in the US Merchant Marines as senior radio officer on a ship transporting explosives. His discharge letter praised his loyal service.
On his release from the US Marines, he worked as the chief draughtsman in an automobile factory, and also lectured at Columbia University in mechanics.
The struggle of the Jewish people for independence affected and frightened him. “When I read,” he said, “that 40 million Arabs were at war with 400,000 Jews, I decided to be the 400,001st.”
He made contact with Haganah agents who were involved in acquiring weapons in the USA for Israel, and he joined them. In June 1948 he sailed on the “Kefalos,” serving as one of those responsible for the transfer of military equipment. The ship was detained by the Mexican authorities and its officers placed under arrest, including Rothman. After many appeals, the “Kefalos” and its officers and crew were released and allowed to sail, with a change in its registry, name and flag. They arrived in Israel in September 1948 after a difficult voyage, experiencing shortages of fuel, water and provisions, but managing to remain in good spirits. During the long voyage many heard about Israel, especially through the friends of the late Arye Kesselman who had fallen in the War of Independence, the “native” Israelis on the vessel, and from the radio reports about the “reality” of Israel that angered him.
In one of his letters home, Jack Rothman wrote how he felt when he stepped onto the Land of his Fathers: “Those who have never been in this small country feel as if they have arrived at the axis of the world, the roots of morality, the pillars of ethics and religion.” He wrote of his admiration for the Israeli youth: “If you spit in his face, he doesn’t say that it is raining, but woe to him who spits.”
He decided to settle in Israel and volunteered for the air force. In his IAF service he was sent to Italy, and near to Rome the aircraft crashed on 31st December 1948. His body was brought to Israel and he was laid to rest at the Nachlat Yitzhak military cemetery on 6th March 1949.
He left a wife and young daughter in the United States.
Source: Translated from the Yizkor website by Joe Woolf