My story begins in 1947. My mother had a friend (they were childhood friends in Poland) whose son lived in Palestine. He came to live with us while he was attending UCLA. He was also the nephew of Isaac Remba, a colleague of Jabotinsky and the editor of the Revisionist newspaper in Palestine. This young boy regaled me with stories of the Haganah, Palmach, and Etzel. I had never been interested in Zionism, as most of the Zionist groups I had met did not share my interests, which were mainly sports and girls.
Following the UN Resolution on 29th November 1947, my interest in Israel became stronger and I decided in early 1948 to interrupt my studies at UCLA and volunteer.
I made contact with the Land and Labor (L & L) office in Los Angeles and had all the necessary vaccinations, and was ready to leave by April 1948. By June I had still not heard from the L & L, so I decided to go to Cleveland (my home town) and then to New York. When I arrived in Cleveland I made contact with the office and volunteered my services. The representative there gave me a list of Jewish Air Force veterans for me to contact to see if they would also be interested in volunteering. Cleveland had, and still has, a very strong Jewish community and I was very disappointed that after calling some 20-25 names, I could not find one person who was even remotely interested in volunteering.
After about six weeks in Cleveland, still with no word from L & L, I returned to Los Angeles and shortly thereafter I received a call from L & L to report to their office in New York. When I got there, I was informed that I would be joining a group of seven other volunteers and six religious men and we would be sailing on the Dutch liner “New Amsterdam” to Le Havre in France.
By this time it was late summer and the crossing was very rough. It was strange being in a huge dining room with less than 20 people eating in it. Once I went to the swimming pool, but the ship was pitching so much that the water was swept out of the pool, making swimming impossible.
We finally reached Le Havre and were met by an Israeli representative and put on a train to Paris. I was anticipating a great time in Paris, but we went from one train station to another and directly on to Marseilles. It was amusing to see the six religious men trying to get some Frenchmen to form a Minyan¹. The volunteers had been told in New York to be as inconspicuous as possible, so we did not participate in the Minyan.
When we arrived in Marseilles, the eight of us were immediately taken to St. Jerome, a displaced persons camp just outside of Marseilles. The camp consisted of a chateau with tents on both sides of a steep driveway leading up to it. There we spent the next six weeks awaiting transportation to Israel. After five weeks several of us went into the city to speak to the Israeli consul about getting to our destination. He told us there was a plane leaving that weekend that we could travel on, and we would be collected and taken to the airport.
The weekend came and went and no one came for us so we went back to see the consul. He told us that the reason we weren’t collected was because President Truman had issued an embargo against any U.S. passport holders flying on U.S. planes to Israel; our flight had been a TWA flight. However, he said there was a ship leaving and we could join the displaced persons on the ship going to Israel. We readily agreed as we were eager to get there. Little did we know what we were in for.
A couple of days later a transport came to pick up the eight of us and we went to another very large displaced persons camp (Grande Arénas), picked up about 400 displaced persons, and then proceeded along the coast past Toulon to an isolated beach. We disembarked from the trucks and were told to walk along the beach until we saw a man; we were to give him a slip of paper with a name on it of some unknown displaced person. By this time it was late at night, and after walking and carrying our luggage we were getting very tired. Lo and behold, I finally came upon a man sitting on the beach behind a small table with a little candle on it. We gave him the slip of paper and he said to board the ship. By this point we were almost exhausted and happy to finally end our trek. We went aboard and were told that the youngest were to go down below so that the older people could go into the upper bunks.
The hold of the ship had been hollowed-out and wooden shelves put in for the passengers. These shelves were less than 2 feet apart and after a short while seemed even closer. After an hour or two out at sea, the bouncing and pitching of the ship caused a great many of the older passengers at the higher levels to become sea-sick and the resultant vomit was finding its way to the bottom levels which made the conditions pretty grim. After that first night I slept on the deck for the remainder of the trip.
The eight of us (I can recall a few of them – Phil Balkin, Richard Cohen, Herby
Demchick, Joe Becker, a photographer named Jack Erringer, and Rudy whose last name I can’t remember), plus two more volunteers (a girl, and a guy from Canada), were put in charge of taking care of the passengers, cleaning, cooking, and stopping the knife fights. Of the 400 passengers there were about 35 displaced persons from various Eastern European countries, and the rest were from North Africa, mainly Morocco.
The trip was originally planned to last for seven-eight days and provisions were stocked accordingly. After about three days we were hit by a very strong storm and the ship began filling-up with water. The pumps became inoperative and we started sending out SOS distress calls. I remember standing at the fantail and looking straight up into the waves. When there was no response to our SOS calls, we decided that we might have to abandon ship. There was only one lifeboat, and when we went to examine it we found that the Eastern European displaced persons had occupied it. I remember the North Africans screaming “save the children.” Upon closer examination we found that the lifeboat was not even seaworthy.
With the ship about half-filled with water, the storm miraculously went by us and we spent the next two days pumping the water out and repairing the damage.
We proceeded on our way to Israel and I developed a painful sore throat, so I went to see the doctor we had on board. He examined me and said I had an infected throat and gave me hydrogen peroxide to gargle with. The problem was that the hydrogen peroxide was concentrated, and after the first gargle my entire throat, mouth, and lips were burned, resulting in huge ugly sores. After several other incidents, we had our doubts as to the credibility of this Russian doctor.
The next six or seven days passed without incident, except that we were almost out of food. During this time there was some excitement with the passengers. One of the Romanian young men was caught with one of the Moroccan young girls. To solve this crisis our captain decided we would have a wedding and this was the first time the two groups came together – the Eastern Europeans and the North Africans. I understand that the “marriage” lasted for almost two days after we reached Haifa.
When we were in sight of Cyprus, another storm hit us and the engine failed. The storm was pushing us towards the rocks that surrounded the island and I was told that the Italian captain of the crew had fainted from fright! We also had an Israeli captain, first mate and radio operator. As the ship was approaching the rocks, the storm went around us and this was our second “miracle.”
Since we had exhausted our food supply and were eating hard tack (dry biscuits) and canned salmon, the captain went ashore and returned with six mountain goats that we would have for food for the remainder of our trip to Haifa. Unfortunately, the galley caught fire when we started to cook the goats, and I have no recollection of ever eating them!
We finally arrived in Haifa after 18 very exciting days, and as we entered the harbor I disposed of the clothes I’d been wearing, into the sea, and walked off the ship in my birthday suit!
The next day we were told there would be a medical examination. One of our group had a glass eye, and we were worried that after all we’d been through, he would not pass the medical and would be sent back to the States. We were told to go into the examination room and undress. When the doctor came in he said for each of us to step up to a line on the floor and stand on our toes. This was the extent of the examination and we all passed. I am glad that none of us had a wooden leg!
The eight of us were then separated, and I went to Tel Litwinsky (Tel Hashomer) for assignment to an army unit. While awaiting an assignment the commander of the half track unit came looking for volunteers who could drive. I volunteered and he said he would return after the weekend to take me to his unit.
That weekend I met with a Canadian friend in Tel Aviv to visit friends of his from Calgary, Canada. They were staying at the Imperial Hotel which was across the street from the Hayarkon Hotel, which happened to be the Air Force headquarters.
After a couple of hours with my newfound friends, I decided to take a walk on Hayarkon Street. As I passed by the Hayarkon Hotel someone came running down the stairs and ran into me. He turned out to be a fraternity brother, Herb Frieden, from UCLA. We were surprised, as neither of us had known that the other was here.
He was assigned to the Intelligence unit of the Israel Air Force H.Q. and told me they needed people, so he took me into the H.Q. and I ended up working in Intelligence with Leon Agriss. After the 18-day voyage from France, my experience with the Air Force seemed very calm.
When the hostilities ended, I was a member of the Air Force basketball team which won the National Tournament. The U.S. Marine Detachment in Jerusalem had a team and they were invited to come and play our Air Force team. This was Israel’s first international sports competition and we beat them easily. I scored more points than the entire U.S. team. The two officials were from Maccabi Tel Aviv and they invited me to play for Maccabi. I was with them only a short time because my mother became very ill and I returned to Los Angeles in July 1949.
Shortly after my return to the U.S. I read in the newspaper that the U.S. Attorney General had indicted 10 Americans for shipping aircraft parts and engines from Hawaii to Israel in violation of the embargo. When I read the names I recognized several I’d met in Israel. (I remembered some of them – Willie Sosnow, Hal Paiss, Leo Gardner, Hank Greenspan, Al Schwimmer, and Lenny Dichek.) I went to the Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles to see them.
At this point I should mention that in November 1947 I was taking a class at UCLA in public speaking. By coincidence, after the 29th November Declaration, the Professor asked that we give extemporaneous speeches. One girl got up and gave a very virulent anti-Israel speech which was immediately followed by a man who gave a very strong pro-Israel speech. This man had two very distinctive features: sharp cheekbones and black hair with a strong “v” hairline.
It is now August 1949 and as I entered the courtroom, one of the fellows on trial, Leo Gardner, saw me and came to say hello. As we were talking, the trial was in the process of empanelling the jury. Both sides were playing the game of knocking-off jurors. As I looked up I saw that the next prospective juror was the man who gave the very pro-Israel speech in the class at UCLA. I told Leo to immediately call the attorney. I told him that I did not know the man but was positive he was pro-Israel. This man was subsequently selected on the jury and ended up hanging the jury. This resulted in guilty verdicts but fines instead of jail sentences for all ten defendants.
As an epilogue, I was President of California Machal for a number of years until my aliyah in September 1984. I was subsequently captivated by a Russian lady in 199: we will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary in April 2010.
I have been very active in Israeli tennis and the number one tennis player in my age group for the past ten years. I was the only tennis player out of 305 players to win two gold medals in the 2009 Maccabiah.
¹ Minyan – 10 Jewish men over the age of 13, the required quota for congregational services.
Author: Lee Silverman
Israel’s First International Sports Competition – Basketball