Jerry Rosenberg grew up in a typical immigrant Jewish family in Hamilton, his parents having immigrated to Canada from Russia in 1905. His father was religious and his mother was what he describes as ‘a traditional Yiddish housewife.’ It took many years and experiences before the centrality of continuity and connectedness became his watchwords.
In 1940, under-age at only 17, Jerry volunteered to join the Canadian Navy and spent six years there, seeing action throughout World War ll as a signalman. Conscripted servicemen were not sent overseas, only volunteers. Therefore, when he decided to come to fight for the Jewish state, it was not for the first time in his military career that he became a volunteer.
“I was not conscripted, I volunteered… We had some idea of what was happening to the Jewish people in Europe at that time, although we did not know all the details. We knew about the atrocities and that the Nazis were not going to treat the Jews with any favors, and it was a war that we simply had to fight. Most of the Royal Canadian Navy crews at the Nova Scotia base were brought up on anti-Semitism. When I got talking to them, I changed the minds of a few of them.”
Jerry was still sweeping mines for a year after the war was over, which meant that when he was finally released, there were not many jobs available. Eventually, a job did come his way, but by this time things were beginning to heat up in the Middle East. Jerry kept abreast of the whole situation and was acutely aware of the U.N. decision of November 1947. At that point, seemingly without any questions, Jerry went straight to the Canadian Zionist Organization and offered his services as a volunteer. By the end of February, he was on a train to Montreal for vaccinations, in anticipation of his imminent departure. From there it was straight on to New York for the Haganah route to Palestine. “I was more Zionist than my parents. I did not belong to an official organization, but I felt that we needed a homeland and I had read a lot of history. During World War 11 people didn’t know the truth about the Holocaust. It looked like the Arabs were trying to finish the job that the Nazis had started, so I decided to go to Palestine.”
Having already served for six years in the armed forces, the move to rejoin a military campaign was not the obvious choice, even for someone with an awareness of what was happening in Palestine. Yet, in retrospect, Jerry rationalizes his decision quite simply. “If I could fight in World War ll, this fight was more important to me personally… I had no qualms whatsoever about volunteering… I knew we would be fighting against the British, but that did not bother me because I did not like the way the British were handling the situation, there was a lot of brutality and their pro-Arab bias was also well-known.”
Jerry did not tell his parents where he was going when he left for New York. He waited until he was en route for Palestine before writing to them to explain his course of action. Knowing the dangers the Arabs posed, he knew they would be against what he had chosen to do. Having survived during World War ll for six years, it did not make sense to risk his life once more.
The route to Palestine took him via New York to France to a camp for displaced persons. With 2,000 passengers on board, mainly Holocaust survivors, they set sail on the “Kedmah,” arriving in Haifa on 17th April 1948. The encounter with the survivors made an important impression on Rosenberg. “It was a disturbing experience meeting these people. You could see they had gone through a terrible ordeal for many years, and even though a year had gone by since the liberation, many of them still looked terrible. The helplessness and hopelessness of life in those camps was devastating. They had no knowledge of where they were going or whether they would be allowed to land, because even then the British were not allowing people in. It really was disturbing to watch them.”
Docking was much easier than if it had been an illegal immigrant ship. Long tables were set out at the dock and the passengers were processed. From there the volunteers were taken to an army induction center in the Hadar area of Haifa. Jerry Rosenberg found himself in the 52nd Battalion of the Givati Brigade. Very quickly Jerry saw that the nature of the Israeli military stood in marked contrast to what he had experienced in the Canadian armed forces. “The informality was there from Day One. People did not wear insignia, people did not salute anybody and an officer was only an officer in the field. He wasn’t an officer, he was one of the guys. It was just the opposite in the Canadian and the British forces, where there was a very class-conscious system.”
Jerry’s battalion was located at an ex-British army base at Kfar Bilu, south of Rehovot. Kitted-out with a few ill-fitting army garments and an old 1930s Enfield rifle, Jerry would soon go out on his first action, the capture of the village of Bash-shit. After sleeping over in the synagogue in Yavne where the Israelis had stored weapons, the men walked the four kilometers to the village. The attack began at dawn and continued for eight hours, with heavy firing on both sides. Some 100 well-armed villagers were holding Bash-shit when the Israelis finally succeeded in reaching the center of the village.
The attack on Bash-Shit was Jerry Rosenberg’s first taste of action. It was a sobering experience, seeing his commander hit three times before he was taken from the field. The commander, nicknamed ‘El Dube,’ survived, but others did not. He saw a young man next to him hit by a bullet in the head. It also brought him face-to-face with the Arabs, who did not impress Jerry Rosenberg, and he became convinced that the enemy was anything but trustworthy. Having familiarized himself with the situation in the Middle East and the history of the area, he understood the Arab cause, and why they did not want the Jews there under any circumstances.
Soon Jerry was to find himself fighting in what was probably one of the better-known and difficult campaigns of the War of Independence, the battles around the police station and monastery at Latrun. It was here that Jerry Rosenberg (and also Ben Ocopnik) witnessed some of the most tragic scenes they were to witness in their time in Israel. The hilltop of Latrun was, and still is, the critical high point overlooking the road to Jerusalem. Whoever held Latrun could control the traffic to the capital since it was possible to fire down on any vehicles traveling below. This effectively meant control of the capital itself.
The Israelis made three attempts to take Latrun in the course of the war, during which many hundreds of men were killed. As Ben Ocopnik recounted in his testimony, this included the first attack on 25th May, an action which involved many insufficiently trained, young new immigrants who had survived the Holocaust and had literally just got off the boats from Europe and were sent into battle. The attack did not succeed in gaining the Latrun hilltop, although it did mean that the Arab Legion was forced to divert troops from their planned position waiting to take control of Jerusalem. A second attack was launched soon after, this time commanded by the American colonel, volunteer David ‘Mickey’ Marcus. Marcus had been on Eisenhower’s staff during World War ll and he was to be a key asset in Israel’s struggle for independence. However, Marcus’ planned assault also failed because even when the Israelis advanced into the area, they were let down by the lack of reinforcements from the rear. The third and final assault was equally unsuccessful. The Latrun campaigns left a deep mark on the Canadian volunteer effort, and at this stage the Canadian platoon was disbanded and its men transferred to other units, where their World War ll experience would be utilized.
Jerry Rosenberg’s next move in the war sent him back to the type of work he knew far better, in the navy. Having spent World War ll on board ship, this was more familiar ground than infantry, and furthermore, the boat he found himself on was an ex-Canadian corvette he had once served on, the ‘”Beauharnois.'” He was the only person on board to know both the layout of the ship and the way the Canadians had operated.
Israel’s navy was tiny, consisting of very few ships, none of which were fully fitted-out for naval warfare. Clearly, none were really in a fit state to face up to the Egyptian naval forces which included minesweepers, armed transporters and landing craft. Equally problematic was the scarcity of trained naval personnel on the Israeli side, thereby highlighting the significance of Machal’s contribution to this aspect of the Israeli war effort.
Jerry Rosenberg’s ship, renamed the ‘”Josiah Wedgwood,” was sent on the night of 17th July to shell the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre. The purpose of the attack was to disrupt land communications to the Arab forces in the Western Galilee, and at the same time, to warn the Lebanese against becoming more closely involved in the war. Unfortunately, their ship experienced all manner of problems in the lead-up to the attack, such as faulty steering and engine trouble. However, just before daybreak, the objective was fulfilled: the bombardment of this ancient Phoenician city. Its mission accomplished, the ship quickly returned to waters close to Tel Aviv. Similar operations were carried out against Arab positions along the coast further south, including an attack on Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip.
As the war continued, Jerry’s ship was involved in one of the most dramatic events in Israel’s naval history, the sinking of the pride of the Egyptian fleet, the “Emir Farouk,” which was carrying 500 Egyptian soldiers who were sent to land in Gaza as part of the Egyptian counterattack against Israel’s plan to capture the Negev and the roads to Eilat. By that stage, Israel was beginning to sense that it had the military advantage and was not willing to take risks in losing that advantage.
Link to story of Sinking of “Emir Farouk”
With that in mind, the navy involved itself in a daring plan to sink the “Emir Farouk,” thereby halting the Egyptian counterattack. Since the Israeli navy did not possess submarines, minesweepers or even heavily armed gun-ships, it could do little to attack frontally. Instead, four launches, armed with explosives, were to be launched from a larger craft, to literally sail into the side of the “Emir Farouk,” acting as a kind of rudimentary torpedo. The men would steer in the direction of the target and then jump ship at the last moment, to be picked up by the supporting vessels. The mission was successful, and it took two torpedoes to break the ship in half. The other boats were used to destroy the minesweeper that was protecting the Emir Farouk.”
One of the unfortunate and fascinating parts of Jerry Rosenberg’s naval service in Israel was being a member of the crew of the frigate “Josiah Wedgwood,” commanded by American Paul Shulman, which forced the “Altalena” to beach on the Tel Aviv shore.
There are few issues in Israel that inflame passions as much as this episode, since it represented a turning point in Israel’s maturation process. No longer an uncoordinated group of enthusiastic fighters, divided on political lines, the state now became a modern democratic country, with all people, individuals and groups, controlled by the rule of law. Tragic though the episode was, it also seemed necessary to show dissident groups that the days of the underground were over. Nevertheless, this did not make it easier for the people involved.
With the benefit of hindsight, it is fascinating to realize that as these dramatic events were unfolding, events which would transform the nature of Israeli political history, two Canadian volunteers playing pivotal roles – Jerry Rosenberg at the signals post, conducting communications, and Ben Ocopnik firing the guns. What they did not know was that another Canadian volunteer, Abe Levine, was on the shore, watching everything after an early morning swim. Abe Levine believes today that the affair was stupid and a waste of weapons.
Like many Machal volunteers, Jerry contemplated staying in Israel. However, there seemed to be a feeling of professional jealousy on the part of the Israelis and he felt that they wished to build their navy on their own. In September 1949, with the war over and the job done, Jerry prepared to go home to Canada. “We had a sense of accomplishment … not only that we had helped establish a home for the survivors of the European tragedy… However, I feel that we did something. We participated in the establishment of the first Jewish state in 2,000 years.” Interestingly, three weeks after he got back to Canada, Jerry was offered a job in the navy. However, the officer had a full dossier containing details of his service record in World War ll, and in Israel. Where he got the Israeli details, Rosenberg had no idea.
Looking back, Jerry recalls that one of the great moments of his service was the day the state was declared. “After one of the actions, it was on 15th May, the day of the establishment of the state, we had just returned to camp. To hear about the establishment of the state was a moment of wonder. We had been waiting for some time to achieve this, and when it finally came there was a sense of accomplishment that we had been able to do that, to help them… We took out a bottle of wine and celebrated this special moment.” Today, many years later, the greatest and most obvious symbol of Jerry’s idea of continuity is the fact his son lives in Israel, an officer in the Israel Navy, and his grandchildren have all served in the armed forces. This idea of passing the ideal through the generations is not lost on him. “Young people have to feel that they are part of the ongoing story,” he declares, “if we can do that, it will give them a sense of belonging. The desire to learn, to go back and read what happened in the ancient history of our Jewish people as they progressed through the centuries … then they would simply be carrying on a continuing story.” All Jews, he believes have a stake in Israel. “The country needs the diversity of backgrounds and people from different countries to enrich it both socially and intellectually – all these elements count in the development of a state. After all, Israel is only 50 years old…”
In 1973, many years after the War of Independence, Jerry Rosenberg, visited Israel with his wife; they visited an archaeological dig at a tel [archaeological term for an ancient hill], where a young guide was explaining the significance of the site. Jerry told the guide that he had fought there in 1948, and the guide exclaimed, “Oh yes, the first thing we found here was what you guys left behind in 1948!” Over twenty years later, Jerry recalls that moment because it represents the significance of his experience. “For the first time, that really gave me the feeling of continuity, when you become part of a tel, you become part of archaeology, part of history.” Jerry Rosenberg’s view of what he experienced in the War of Independence is precisely that, the importance of maintaining ties of continuity of Jewish history through all the generations
In his Toronto home, Rosenberg holds out an old newspaper article about the Machal Memorial to those who fought, and fell, in 1948. He smiles proudly as he reads the headline, quoting Yitzhak Rabin: “They came to us when we needed them most.”
Adapted and abridged from two sources “The Canadian Machal Story” – Canada Israel Experience, and “The Canadian Jewish News” article by Rita Poliakov, 21st August, 2008