230
Israel Beer – Ben Gurion's Friend
ISRAEL BEER, or “Pipke” as1 he was called, was very upset when he heard Isser
Harel's request that he come to Harel's office.
Beer was a famous, popular man. He was an expert on the military3 and a close
friend of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.
Beer moved to Palestine in 1938 from Austria. He joined the underground4
Haganah army and served in it for many years. With his high intelligence and academic
military training, he rose quickly in rank,5 finally becoming a colonel.6 At the end of the
War of Independence7 he was chosen to be head of the Planning and Operations Department
at army headquarters.8 He was often seen sitting next to Prime Minister Ben-Gurion at
official State events.9
Beer left the army in l950 for a career in politics, but he kept up his connection with
the military. He went to secret army meetings, and he had access10 to any information he
requested. He was able to read secret army plans and documents.11 In l955, he was asked to
write the official State12 history of the War of Independence. He received a special room in
the Ministry of Defense13 where he could do his research.14
Beer was famous as15 a military expert even outside of Israel. He lectured16 on
military subjects17 in several European countries, especially West Germany. In West
Germany, he impressed famous politicians such as Franz Joseph Strauss and General
Reinhardt Gehlen, head of the intelligence18 service. On lecture tours in Germany, he warned
his audiences about the danger of Russian communism, and spoke about the need to make
Germany a strong democratic country. Generals at Europe`s NATO19 headquarters loved
Beer`s brilliant analyses20 of the strategy that would be needed to defend NATO countries
against a Russian attack.
So, when Isser Harel21 ordered him to come to his office immediately one day in the
fall of 1960, Israel Beer became upset. Harel wasn't giving him the respect due to22 such an
important man.
Beer walked into Isser’s office with a cigar in his mouth and sat down in a chair
across the desk from the head of the Mossad. Beer leaned forward23 in his chair and said
simply:
“Get to the point. I am busy. I don't have time for your nonsense.”
2
‫ "פיפקה" כפי ש‬1
2
3
Isser Harel was head of the Mossad in the 1950s.
he knew a lot about the army
‫ מחתרתי‬4
‫ דרגה‬5
‫ אל"מ‬6
‫ העצמאות‬7
)‫ ראש אגף המבצעים (אגף במטכ"ל‬8
‫ אירועים רשמיים של המדינה‬9
‫ גישה‬10
‫ מסמכים‬11
‫ רשמית של המדינה‬12
‫ משרד הבטחון‬13
‫ מחקר‬14
‫ בתור‬,‫ כ‬15
‫ הרצה‬16
‫ נושאים הקשורים לצבא‬17
‫ מודיעין‬18
19
North Atlantic Treaty Organization – ‫ להגנה‬,‫" ברית של מדינות דמוקרטיות מערביות‬,‫בעידן ה"מלחמה הקרה‬
‫ קומוניסטי‬- ‫משותפת כנגד האיום הרוסי – סובייטי‬
‫ ניתוחיו המבריקים‬20
‫ ראש המוסד דאז‬21
‫ שמגיע ל‬22
‫ נשען קדימה‬23
231
Isser looked straight into the eyes of the bald24 Professor Beer. All over the face of
his visitor - with its yellow moustache - Isser could sense antagonism.25 But Isser was not
afraid of anybody. He continued to stare back into Beer’s face, while asking him two brief
questions.
“Why have you continued to make visits to East Berlin?"26 “Why did you travel to
Poland?”
Then, Isser raised his voice. “Have I not already warned you about becoming friends
with communists?" Banging his hands on the desk in front of him, Isser yelled,
“I warn you, Beer. You must not ever go to Europe again!”
Professor Beer stood angrily on his feet. Nobody – not even Ben-Gurion - ever
dared27 to talk to him like that.
"Mind your own business,” he yelled back. "I will complain28 to the Prime Minister!
I will report29 you to the party!"30
Then he stormed out31 of Isser’s office.
For several minutes the Mossad chief sat, thinking. He had had suspicions32 about
Israel Beer for years. He had read several anti-American articles that Beer wrote in the early
1950s, at the time of the Korean War.33 In the 1940s and early 1950s, Beer was a member
of the radically left-wing34 Mapam Party. He had taken a pro-Communist position35 at the
time, and argued so vehemently36 with the moderates37 in Mapam that he finally left
Mapam. Then, suddenly, in 1954, Beer surprised everyone by joining Ben-Gurion’s Mapai
party.38 He explained that he had re-analyzed the situation39 and he became convinced that
Ben-Gurion's ideas were right.
Isser didn't argue with Beer’s politics, but he wondered how a man could change his
mind so drastically – and so quickly. The head of the Mossad didn't belong to any political
party, but he knew what he believed in. Beer`s opportunism40 made him suspicious.41
Now, sitting at his desk after Beer’s sudden exit, Isser was again worried by
something Beer had said. The warning that Beer had made as42 he was leaving - “I will
report you to the party"- what did he mean? Beer knew that Isser did not belong to any
political party; and even if Isser had belonged to Ben-Gurion's Mapai, Israel was a
democratic state: People were free to join whatever party they chose; the party did not
control their lives.
Isser was worried about Israel Beer, and he felt he had to tell Ben-Gurion about it. He
had told the Prime Minister about his suspicions before, but Ben-Gurion now trusted Beer
24
hairless
‫ עוינות‬25
at that time, Germany was divided into two separate countries: free, democratic West Germany, and
communist East Germany. Beer visited East Berlin, a city in East Germany.
‫ העז‬27
‫ אתלונן‬28
‫ אתלונן‬,‫ אדווח‬29
‫ מפלגת מפא"י‬30
‫ יצא בסערה‬31
‫ חשדות‬32
33
1950-1953. Beer wrote in favor of communist North Korea, which was fighting against USsupported South Korea.
‫ שהיו אז מבין שורותיה כאלה שנטו לשיתוף פעולה עם הגוש הקומוניסטי (ברית המועצות‬,‫ מפלגת שמאל קיצונית‬34
)‫וגרורותיה‬
‫ הוא נקט בעמדה‬35
‫ בכזאת תקיפות‬36
‫ המתונים‬37
)‫גוריון‬-‫ חבר במפלגת מפא"י (מפלגתו של רה"מ דוד בן‬38
‫ עשה ניתוח מחודש של המצב‬39
40
.‫ פוליטיקאי) חסר עקרונות שקופץ על הזדמנות לקידום עצמי‬,‫ התכונה של אדם (כגון‬- ‫אֹוּפֹורטּונִ יזְם‬
ְ
)‫ עורר אצלו חשדות (כלפי ישראל בר‬41
‫ כש‬42
26
232
more than ever. The Prime Minister seemed to43 think that Isser was jealous of Beer`s fame
and success. But Isser couldn’t let that stop him. Isser went immediately to see the Prime
Minister and explained all the reasons for his suspicions.
"Beer is collecting44 military information that is not connected to his job as a
historian and writer. He visits communist countries on his trips to Europe. He has become
too friendly with the Russian diplomats serving in Israel. He meets them often.
"Beer's social life also has changed recently.45 He spends a lot of money in Tel Aviv
nightclubs – more money than he earns.46 When he was in Munich47 recently he paid a
$200 bar bill as if it was nothing.48 He has been buying himself and his lady friends - some
of them pretty dubious characters49 - a lot of expensive clothes. His relationship with his
wife Rivkah is in a crisis,50 and he spends his evenings drinking in bars."
“It is clear to me,” Isser said, "that Beer is a man under pressure- the kind of stress
that a double agent leading a double life suffers from. 51
"It is your job," the Prime Minister calmly answered, “to be suspicious of everybody.
As for me,52 I trust Beer completely."
That ended the meeting - but not the problem from Isser's perspective. Isser was
never a "yes" man with Ben-Gurion. A weaker man would have avoided criticizing53 a man
so close to the Prime Minister. Isser did the opposite: he ordered his agents to watch Beer
even more closely. Mossad agents began researching54 Beer’s past in order to find out
whether55 there were gray areas of half-truth56 in the story of his life as57 he told it to friends
and colleagues58.
Isser Harel was following another of his famous “hunches."59
It was the night of March 28, l96l, eight months after Isser Harel and Israel Beer had
their dramatic confrontation60 in the Mossad chief's office. It was also Passover, one of the
holiest Jewish holidays - the celebration61 of being saved from slavery in Egypt. At Jewish
homes all over the world, families sat at the table for their Seder, the traditional Passover
meal at which the story of leaving Egypt is told.
At eight o'clock that evening, a man left his apartment on 67 Brandeiss Street in Tel
Aviv. The night was warm, but a cool Mediterranean62 breeze forced him to close the jacket
he was wearing. He carried a briefcase63.
Walking quickly down the empty street, the man looked around him in order to
make sure he was not being followed. He turned into a small side street and stopped in the
shadow of a telephone booth.64 Although he had walked only 200 meters from his
‫ נדמה היה‬,‫ כנראה‬43
‫ אוסף‬44
‫ לאחרונה‬45
46
47
makes
a city in West Germany
‫ כאילו שזה היה כלום‬48
‫ דמויות די מפוקפקות‬49
‫ משבר‬50
‫ סוג הלחץ הנפשי שסוכן כפול שחי חיים כפולים סובל ממנו‬51
‫ מבחינתי‬/ ‫ כשלעצמי‬52
‫ היה נמנע מלמתוח ביקורת‬53
‫ לחקור‬54
‫ האם‬55
‫אמת‬-‫ אזורים אפורים של חצאי‬56
‫ כפי ש‬57
‫ עמית‬,‫ קולגה‬58
‫ הַ ְרגָּשַ ת בֶּ טֶּ ן‬59
‫ עימות‬60
‫ חגיגת‬61
‫ ים תיכוני‬62
‫ תיק מסמכים‬63
‫ תא‬64
233
apartment, he was breathing heavily.65 Pausing for a few moments to catch his breath,66 he
looked around again. Seeing no one, he ran down the street to a small café located at the
nearest street corner.
The owner of the café was sitting behind the bar, and he was happy to see a
customer67 - his first of the evening.68 The man ordered a cognac and took it to a seat at a
table in the corner, far away from the bright lights of the street. He kept his briefcase on a
seat next to him. When the café owner tried to start a friendly conversation, the customer
answered briefly,69 indicating that he didn't want to talk. In silence he sat drinking his
cognac.
Lighting a cigarette, he looked nervously at his watch. About five minutes later,
another man walked into the cafe. He was dressed in a dark suit and wore a hat. Waving70 to
the only other client in the place, he sat down opposite him71 at his table.
The two men said nothing to each other. A few seconds after he had sat down, the
newcomer72 got up and walked out. In his hand was the other man's briefcase.
Seconds later, the original customer got up and paid for his drink. Without saying a
word, he walked out into the night.
Outside, the man looked around again before returning home. He took exactly the
same route73 he had used before. This time, however, he carried nothing.
At the door of his building, the man entered without looking around again. He was
sure that he had not been followed. Going up the stairs to his apartment, he walked in and
went straight to his library. The walls of his library were full of books, written in many
different languages. In the library he sat down and waited.
At midnight, the silence of Brandeiss Street was broken by the sound of a car
driving fast down the street. It stopped in front of number 67, and out of the car appeared
the man with the hat who also had visited the nearby café several hours before. In his hand
was the briefcase he had picked up from the other man.
Now he walked up to the door of apartment number 67 and entered without
knocking. Obviously, he did not expect to stay for a long time, since he left his car engine
turned on. . . .
At the home of Isser Harel, the telephone rang. Isser picked up the phone
immediately; he had been expecting the call. He recognized the voice74 of one of his top
agents.75
"Our man has just seen the Russian agent for the second time this evening. They met
in the small café you know about. Our man had a briefcase with him, which he handed over
to the Russian, and they parted.76
"I followed our man home. I am outside his building now. The Russian has just
walked in with the same briefcase he took in the café. He is inside the apartment with our
man now."
Isser was worried, but not surprised. 67 Brandeiss Street was the address of Israel
Beer.
‫ התנשף‬65
‫ להתאושש‬,‫ לנשום‬66
67
68
client
because almost everybody was at home with their families celebrating the Seder
‫ בקצרה‬69
‫ תוך שהוא נפנף‬70
‫ מולו‬71
‫ זה שהגיע שני לבית הקפה‬72
‫ מסלול‬,‫ דרך‬73
‫ זיהה את הקול‬74
‫ סוכניו הבחירים‬75
‫ נפרדו‬76
234
Isser decided that now was the time to act. But everything had to be done right. To
arrest77 the professor now, caught red-handed78 while conveying documents79 to a Soviet80
diplomat who was known as Russia’s top spy in Israel, would have international
consequences81 and might even bring down Ben-Gurion's government.82
Isser decided to wait until the diplomat had left before making his move. He told his
agent to get a search and arrest warrant83 for Israel Beer.
After putting down the phone, Isser immediately picked it up again and called BenGurion. Their conversation was brief.84 Isser said simply, "I am acting against Israel Beer
tonight."
Ben-Gurion paused for a second. Then he said, “Do your job."
The conversation was over.
At 2:30 a.m. Israel Beer sat reading in his library. The briefcase was lying on the table
nearby, exactly where he had left it after his visitor’s exit, its contents untouched.85
Suddenly there was a knock at the door.
Before Beer had a chance to hide the briefcase, or even get up out of his chair, the
door came crashing in. A single, expert kick had knocked it half off its hinges.86
Seven men came storming87 into the apartment and stood around the
man now sitting stiffly upright88 in his chair. One of the men said quietly, "You are under
arrest. We have a search warrant.”
Beer saw the Mossad agent look at his briefcase. He calmly responded89 with
exactly the same words used by David Ben-Gurion a few hours before on the telephone
with Isser Harel, “Do your job."
*First Quiz from the beginning of the story to here*
Beer knew well the identity of the Mossad agent who had spoken to him. He had
been friendly with the man for years. All Beer said was, “Do you mind if I smoke?"
The Mossad agent90 in charge of91 the arrest knew that he was dealing with one of
the country’s most famous and popular men. Beer was a lecturer92 at the Officers'93
Training School of the army, a full colonel in the reserve,94 a counselor and advisor to the
Ministry of Defense95 and to the Prime Minister. This was a traumatic moment96 for all
‫ לשים במעצר‬,‫ לעצור‬77
"‫ "על חם‬78
‫ תוך מסירת מסמכים‬79
80
Soviet = from the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), i.e. communist Russia
‫ השלכות בינלאומיות‬81
‫גוריון‬-‫ אולי יפיל את ממשלתו של בן‬82
)‫ צו חיפוש ומעצר (מבית משפט‬83
84
short
‫ לא נגעו בתכולה שלו‬85
‫ צִ ירים‬86
‫ הסתערו‬87
‫ זקוף‬88
‫ הגיב באופן רגוע‬89
‫ סוכן‬90
‫ שפקד על‬91
‫ מרצה‬92
‫ קצינים‬93
‫ אל"מ במילואים‬94
‫ משרד הביטחון‬95
‫ רגע טראומאטי‬96
235
present.97 It was hard for the agents to believe that the man they had come to arrest was
really a Soviet spy. What if they were wrong? They almost hoped they were…
Whatever doubts the agents may have had98 were quickly dispelled99 when they
opened the briefcase that was lying on the table near Beer. Inside the briefcase they saw
several top-secret documents, including a detailed list of Israel's major weapons factories100.
And, to top it all off,101 they saw Ben-Gurion‘s private diary.
The Prime Minister had lent the diary102 to Beer when the professor said he wanted
to write a series of articles about Ben-Gurion's philosophy of government and leadership.
In addition to Ben-Gurion's most private thoughts, the diary also contained a number of
State secrets.
When Isser Harel handed Ben-Gurion his diary, the Prime Minister said, “I have
been surrounded103 by lies.” The news broke him. Isser didn't mention the fact that he had
expressed suspicions104 about Beer already in 1953. In fact, both Isser and Moshe Dayan
had opposed105 Beer’s request to return to the army.
Now Isser was sure that Beer had been working for Moscow106 for years. But during
the first few days of his interrogation,107 Beer admitted nothing.108 He simply repeated the
same version109 of his life story that he had been telling his friends and colleagues for years.
According to that version, Beer was born in Vienna in 19l2. His parents had moved to
the United States, but returned shortly after to Europe. Beer had studied humanities and
German literature110 at the University of Vienna, where he was a student of Max Reinhardt,
the famous actor.
At the university, he joined the students who were revolting against the
dictatorship111 of Englebert Dollfuss and took part in street fighting against the Nazis in
1934. Then he studied at the famous Wiener-Neustadt military academy,112 he said, and
became an officer in the Austrian Army.
ln 1936, said Beer, he had gone to Spain to fight with the International Brigade113
against the fascists in the Civil War. Because of his military training, he was made an
instructor114 and became friends with leaders of the Communist military in Spain. With them
he took part in the famous battles of Madrid and Guadalajara, and in the bitter fighting at
Teruel. In early 1938, when it became clear that the fascists would win the war, he escaped
from Spain.
97
all of the people who were there
‫ כל ספק שאולי היה לסוכנים‬98
‫ פגו‬,‫ התפזרו‬,‫ התאדו‬99
‫ מפעלים לייצור נשק‬100
‫ הדובדבן בקצפת‬101
‫ השאיל את היומן‬102
‫ הייתי מוקף ב‬103
‫ הביע חשדות‬104
‫ התנגדו ל‬105
106
107
the capital of the USSR (Russia)
questioning, interviewing
‫ לא הודה בכלום‬108
‫ חזר על אותה גרסה‬109
‫ מדעי הרוח וספרות גרמנית‬110
‫ שמרדו נגד הדיקטאטור‬111
‫ בית ספר צבאי גבוה‬112
113
In the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the fascist military, with the support of Nazi Germany,
rebelled against the legitimate elected government of Spain, which was supported by the Soviet Union
and volunteers from many other countries. Ultimately, the fascists, led by Francisco Franco, won the
war.
114
teacher
236
Although the communists wanted him to come to Moscow, Beer decided to go back
to Vienna instead. In Vienna he became a Zionist, and shortly after, he decided to move to
Palestine. Defiantly115 Beer told the Mossad agents, “That is my story, as116 you all know.”
On the fourth day after the interrogation began, Isser Harel came to visit Beer. Isser
knew that the prisoner was not cooperating,117 and he planned to do something about it.
He looked Beer in the face, just as118 he had done at their first meeting so many
months before. Isser said, “I know you are a Soviet agent. Tell me the truth. If you
cooperate, you will make it easier on everyone, including yourself. Tell me your story.”
Again Beer repeated the same story. When he was finished, Isser calmly told him,
“You are a liar. We can find no trace119 of your parents in Austria. If they were typical120
Jewish parents, as121 you say, then why aren’t you circumcised?122 We have checked all the
records123 in Austria. You never fought in the streets there. You never received a
doctorate, nor did you even study at the university. You did not go to the military academy,
because Jews were not allowed124 to learnt there at that time. They checked their lists for us
and your name is not there. The Austrian army has no record of your name either.
“We have read the records of the International Brigade125 and your name is not
there. You never fought in Spain - in fact, you have never taken part in any military
campaign126 anywhere. Now tell me: who are you? We want the truth."
Beer realized that the Mossad had discovered his lies. He was broken. For the next
three days he gave a full description of his spying activities.
Isser suspected that Beer had been “activated”127 by Moscow a short time after the
Suez Campaign128 in 1956. Ever since then, he collected secret military information. When
the French were selling weapons to Israel, Beer passed on to Moscow129 details of the
weapons that Israel was buying. He did the same thing about the weapons bought from
Germany. He collected any information he could about West Germany’s role130 in
NATO131 during his trips to that country. Another subject about which Beer passed secret
information to his bosses in Moscow was Israel’s nuclear program.132
Even while Beer was making his confession,133 he continued mixing truth with lies.
Everything he said was checked, when possible, by Mossad agents in Europe. Several of
his lies were discovered by the patient efforts134 of these agents.
Beer's trial135 began in June l96l. Because of the nature136 of so much of the proof,
the trial took place behind closed doors. So, to this day, the question of exactly what
information Beer passed on to Moscow is still a secret. It is known, however, that he gave
‫ בהתרסה‬115
‫ כפי ש‬116
‫ לא שיתף פעולה‬117
‫ כפי ש‬118
‫ ִסימָּ ן‬,‫ רֹ שֶּ ם‬,‫ עקבות‬119
‫ טיפוסיים‬120
‫ כפי ש‬121
‫ נימול‬,‫ מהול‬122
‫ רשומות‬,‫ תיקים‬123
‫ לא הורשו‬124
125
the army of democrats and communists that fought against the fascists in Spain.
‫ מערכה צבאית‬126
)‫ אע"פ שהוא נשלח לארץ על ידם למטרה זו כעשרים שנה קודם לכן‬, ‫ הופעל (התחיל בפועל לרגל לטובת הסובייטים‬127
‫ מבצע קדש‬128
129
The capital of Russia, the capital of the USSR, the Soviet capital
‫ תפקיד‬130
131
North Atlantic Treaty Organization – ‫ להגנה‬,‫" ברית של מדינות דמוקרטיות מערביות‬,‫בעידן ה"מלחמה הקרה‬
‫ קומוניסטי‬- ‫משותפת כנגד האיום הרוסי – סובייטי‬
‫ תכנית הגרעין‬132
‫ הודאה‬133
‫ מאמצים סבלניים‬134
‫ משפט‬135
)‫ הרגיש והמסווג‬,‫ האופי (הצבאי הסודי‬136
237
the Russians secret army plans about battle tactics and lists of secret military installations,137
in addition to information about Israel's foreign arms suppliers.138
At his trial, Beer explained that he had acted out of love of his country. “I felt I had
to save Israel from falling into the hands of the western powers,”139 he said. “My belief is
that Israel should be allied to140 the communist countries. I never betrayed Israel. I was
trying to save my country."
In the end, Israel Beer was sentenced to ten years in prison. On appeal141 his
sentence was raised to fifteen years.
While serving his term at Shatta Prison in the Jordan Valley,142 Beer wrote a book
justifying his spying. Again he claimed143 that he had tried to help and save Israel. His
bosses in Soviet intelligence144 didn't try to help him or try to get him out of prison. He
remained there until May 1968, when he died of a heart attack.
Israel Beer never revealed145 his true identity.146 He never even admitted147 that he
had worked for the KGB.148 But the way he was carefully planted in Israeli society was
typical of the activities of the Soviet Union's intelligence services. Starting in 1917, the
Soviets decided to make Palestine, then under British mandate, a main center for spying.
Many of the Polish and Russian Jews who were moving at the time to Palestine were
idealists who were both Zionists and socialists. It was easy to convince some of these real
emigrants149 to spy for Russia, or to hide regular spies in this mass emigration150.
Later, in the l93Os, when Jews escaped from Germany and Austria to Palestine, the
Soviets took the opportunity151 to infiltrate152 German-speaking KGB agents into Palestine.
It seems that Israel Beer came in this "second wave”153 of Soviet agents.
The Soviets made a big effort154 to build Beer's cover155 for him. This shows that
they saw him as one of their most important agents in the Middle East.
After Beer was sent to prison, Mossad agents in Austria learned that there had, in
fact, been a real person in Austria named Israel Beer. He was a poor Jewish student who
looked a little like the Russian spy who became Ben-Gurion’s close friend. But the real
Israel Beer disappeared in l938 - the year that the agent moved to Palestine - and was never
heard of again.
The Russians waited for almost twenty years, a very long time, until they
activated156 their man. They expected a lot from him - and they got what they expected.
Beer passed a huge amount157 of secret information from Tel Aviv to Moscow.
But to this day, no one in Israel knows Beer’s identity.158 Where did he come from?
Was he Jewish? What was his real name?
‫ מתקנים צבאיים סודיים‬137
‫ ספקי נשק מחו"ל‬138
139
140
NATO countries such as US, UK, France, West Germany etc.
friends with
‫ כתוצאה מערעור של המדינה על העונש הקל‬141
.‫ נמצא בעמק חרוד סמוך לקיבוץ בית השיטה‬,‫ כיום נקרא כלא שיטה‬.‫ בעבר נקרא כלא שאטה והיה בבקעת הירדן‬142
‫ טען‬143
‫ מודיעין‬144
‫ חשף‬,‫ גילה‬145
‫ זהות‬146
‫ הודה‬147
‫ מוסד הביון והמשטרה הסודית של רוסיה הסובייטית‬148
‫ מהגרים אמיתיים‬149
‫ היה קל להסתיר מרגלים רגילים בתוך גל העלייה ההמוני‬150
‫ ניצלו את ההזדמנות‬151
‫ להחדיר‬152
‫ נמנה בגל השני הזה‬153
‫ מאמץ‬154
‫ זהות בדויה‬155
‫ הורו לו להתחיל לעסוק בריגול‬,‫ הפעילו‬156
‫ כמות עצומה‬157
238
The answers to these questions lie buried159 in the files160 of the KGB, and in the
grave of the Soviet agent who called himself Israel Beer.
161
Wolfgang Lotz
WHEN THE LEADERS of the Mossad were deliberating162 on where to
send their prize agent163 Eli Cohen, they knew that he would be most useful in one of
the two strongest Arab states, Syria or Egypt. They could not send him to Egypt,
where Eli was born, because of the danger that he would be recognized164 there; so
Syria was the logical choice.
Eli did not know it, but there was another reason his bosses in the Mossad
chose not to send him to Egypt. They already had a man there, a high-living Germanborn Jew named Wolfgang Lotz.
Lotz was born in Mannheim, Germany in l92l. His parents were both actors in
the theater, his father Hans was a director and his mother Helene an actress. Although
Helene was Jewish, neither she nor Hans had any religious belief. They raised
Wolfgang as a German, not a Jew, not bothering165 to have him circumcised.
Wolfgang's parents drifted apart,166 and in 1931 they were divorced. Two
years later Helene, frightened by the growing anti-Semitism of her native land, took
Wolfgang and emigrated to Palestine. Helene found work there with the country’s
leading theater group, Habimah. Life was hard in those days, especially for new
immigrants who knew no one and arrived speaking no Hebrew at all.
Wolfgang attended the Ben-Shemen agricultural school, where he became an
expert horse rider and trainer. After a few years in Palestine, he joined the
underground167 army of the Haganah. His responsibilities included guarding the
armored bus that provided the only way of getting to168 Ben-Shemen, which was
surrounded by enemy Arab villages and towns. He also patrolled the Ben Shemen
school on horse-back.
At the beginning of the Second World War, Wolfgang, who looked older than
he really was, lied about his age and joined the British Army. Being fluent169 in
‫ זהותו המדויקת‬158
‫ קבורים‬159
‫ רשומות‬,‫ תיקים‬160
‫ קברו של‬161
‫ התלבטו‬162
‫ סוכן מוביל‬163
164
identified
‫ לא טרחו‬165
‫ התרחקו אחד מהשני‬166
‫ מחתרת‬167
168
reaching, travelling to
)‫ בעל שליטה (בשפות‬169
239
German, Arabic, Hebrew and English, he was very useful for interrogation170 of
German prisoners, and was stationed171 in Egypt. He remained there throughout the
war.
After the war, Wolfgang returned to Palestine and found an administrative job
in the Haifa oil refinery complex.172 But he wanted more interesting action than that,
and soon became involved in smuggling173 weapons for the Haganah. When the State
of Israel was declared and the Arab invasion174 began, Wolfgang took part in some of
the hardest fighting in the Latrun area. He stayed in the army after the war, and as a
Major175 in the 1956 Suez War commanded an infantry brigade.176
It was not long after the Suez War that the Mossad offered Wolfgang to join.
One of the Mossad’s greatest strengths is that it can draw on the ethnic and cultural
diversity177 of Israel to collect agents of almost every background. The agency never
needs to force an agent to take a cover178 that he or she doesn’t know well since
childhood.
Wolfgang Lotz was offered to join the Mossad because he was blond and blueeyed, and spoke German. He was also known to be brave, and ready to risk his life in
action. He had a friendly, outgoing personality and a fantastic acting ability that he
got from his mother. And because he was not circumcised, it would be easy for him
to pass as a non-Jew.
As for Wolfgang, he saw himself approaching a dead end.179 His thirty-fifth
birthday had passed, and he did not want to spend the rest of his life training young
Israeli soldiers. Though fully aware of the difficulties of life as a Mossad agent, he
happily accepted the offer.
Like Eli Cohen, Wolfgang Lotz found that his previous180 experience counted
for181 nothing among the Mossad instructors182 who trained him. He went through the
same tough, concentrated program that all recruits183 must pass before they are ready
for field work. For several months he worked many hours a day at mastering184
the various aspects of the art of espionage185.
After basic training, Wolfgang received an intensive course in Egyptian
history, politics and culture. In l957 the decision was made to send him to Egypt so
that he could collect information on the Soviet arms186 being supplied to Nasser's187
government.
There was another important reason that the Mossad wanted a top agent in
Egypt. An increasing number of reports was coming in about the growing influence of
German advisors who had been invited to the country by Nasser. Many of them were
former Nazis. Scientists, engineers, doctors, police experts - they had come to
170
interviewing, asking questions
‫ הוצב‬171
‫ בבתי זיקוק בחיפה‬172
173
secretly bringing
‫ פלישה‬174
‫ סגן אלוף‬175
‫ גדוד חי"ר‬176
‫ גוון‬177
‫ מילה זו חוזרת המון פעמים בסיפור‬- )‫ זהות בדויה (של מרגל‬,‫ כיסוי‬178
‫ מתקרב למבוי סתום‬179
‫ קודם‬180
‫ היה שווה‬181
182
teachers
‫ מתגייסים‬183
184
becoming an expert in
spying. This word is repeated many times throughout the story.
186
weapons. This word is repeated many times throughout the story.
187
the leader of Egypt at that time.
185
240
running188 the country. The Mossad was especially worried about
the aircraft and aerospace engineers. What were they doing in Egypt?
This was what the Israelis wanted Wolfgang Lotz to find out. As a German, it
would be easy for him to make friends with the Germans who were serving Nasser so
faithfully.
But before Lotz could start his mission he had to have a foolproof189 cover. It
was decided from the start that he would keep his real name instead of adopting a
completely new identity. Even though much of the cover would have to be
invented,190 some of it, at least, would be completely true. The divergence191 from
truth would come in the explanation of what Lotz had done from the age of thirteen
onward. Instead of emigrating to Israel, he would claim that he had stayed in
Germany and, when the war192 preparations began, had joined Rommel's193 Afrika
Corps.194 (Wolfgang already knew a lot about the Afrika Corps from his
interrogation195 of German prisoners, and with extra study could learn enough to
convince anyone he was telling the truth.)
After the war, according to his cover, he had moved to Australia and lived
there for eleven years breeding196 and running race horses. He had returned home to
Germany and from there traveled to Egypt. His occupation197 in Egypt? Breeding
horses, of course. It turned out that Wolfgang`s training at the Ben-Shemen
agricultural school had created an unexpected benefit.
In November l959, Lotz went to Germany to prepare his cover. He explained
to the West German authorities198 there that he had had enough of Israel and wanted
to return to the country of his birth. They provided him with the necessary papers. He
lived first in Berlin and then in Munich, moving from one address to another in
order to make his trail more difficult to trace. He knew that if anyone in Egypt
checked far enough they would be able to uncover199 the truth about his identity.
After a year in Germany, Wolfgang and his Mossad bosses decided the time
was right for him to make his move to Egypt. He drove by himself to Genoa, Italy,
and from there boarded a boat that took him to Egypt, where he arrived in January
1961.
The rich German tourist immediately started making contacts200 among201 the
sort of people who could be useful to him. He hoped to meet this sort of person at
local riding clubs.202 The first club he went to was the fashionable203 Cavalry204 Club
on the island of Gezira. Many Egyptian army officers enjoyed spending time at the
Cavalry Club. The first man Lotz met there was Youssef Ali Gahourab, Chief of the
Egyptian police. Lotz introduced205 himself as a horse-breeder, and the two quickly
became friends.
play a central role in
‫ ניהול‬188
‫ חסין תקלות‬189
‫ להיות מומצא‬190
‫ ְס ִטיָּה‬191
192
World War II
Rommel, "the desert fox," was a famous Nazi general who fought against the allies in northern
Africa.
193
‫ חַ יִ ל‬194
195
questioning
‫ גידול‬,‫ הַ ְרבָּ עָּה‬196
197
employment
‫ פקידים‬198
199
200
find out, learn, discover
connections, relationships
‫ בקרב‬201
‫ מועדוני רכיבה מקומיים‬202
‫ אופנתי‬203
"‫ "חיל הפרשים‬204
‫ הציג‬205
241
News of the latest arrival206 did not take long to spread among the Egyptian
elite. Within days Lotz was being deluged208 with invitations to dinner parties,
cocktail parties, swimming parties. Wealthy horse-fanciers209 were asking his advice.
Police chief Gahourab made arrangements with him to go riding daily.
Lotz was also generous to his new "friends." He hosted guests often and
lavishly.210 Lotz was a charming and handsome man, and he showered the women he
met with gifts and discreet compliments. Guided by Gahourab, he bought several
horses of his own and stabled them211 at the Cavalry Club.
After six months in Cairo, Lotz returned to Europe for a debriefing session212
with Mossad agents. They were happy with his achievements. Clearly he was going
to fulfill the expectations of the Mossad instructor who had named him “The Eye of
Tel Aviv in Cairo."
Armed with a large sum of money213 and a radio transmitter, which he was to
smuggle through customs214 in the hollowed-out heel of one of the pairs of riding
boots he bought in Germany, Lotz prepared to go back to Egypt. But before he
returned, an unexpected complication arose.215 On a train journey he met a beautiful
blonde named Waltraud Neumann, an East German refugee who lived in America and
was visiting her parents in Germany. The two quickly fell in love, and after spending
a few weeks together they married.
Lotz’s superiors216 in the Mossad knew nothing of this until the agent told
them he was already married. To their amazement, he informed them that he would
not return to Egypt without his wife. This was very unusual- and worrying. On a
dangerous mission like Lotz's, a wife would be a handicap. Even worse, Lotz told her
from the beginning that he was a spy for Israel. If he would be caught in Egypt, her
involvement would weaken his ability to resist the brutal torture217 that he would
certainly undergo.
On the other hand, the Mossad could not afford to lose his services. Already he
had proved himself to be a very valuable spy. His reports on military and political
events in Egypt were exact and detailed. He had created his cover with confidence and
talent, and the Mossad hoped he would continue to make good use of it in the future.
Isser Harel, the Mossad chief, had no choice but to give Lotz permission to
return to Egypt with Waltraud.
207
Lotz returned to Egypt in the summer of l96l on board the Italian ship
Ausonia. Waltraud would follow a few weeks later. In his suitcases, in addition to his
spy equipment, were dozens of presents that he had bought in Europe.
When the boat arrived at Alexandria harbor, Lotz received a royal welcome.
Police chief Gahourab was there to meet him personally and drive with him to Cairo,
where a lavish218 party was held in his honor.219 But even a party couldn’t prevent
him from making his first broadcast to Tel Aviv.
206
the new person in society (Wolfgang)
‫ להתפשט בקרב האליטה המצרית‬207
‫ הוצף‬208
‫ חובבי‬209
‫ בפזרנות‬210
‫ שיכן אותם באורווה‬211
‫ תדריך‬212
‫ "חמוש" בסכום כסף גדול‬213
‫ העביר את המכס‬,‫ הבריח‬214
‫ סיבוך התהווה‬215
216
bosses
‫ עינויים‬217
‫ פזרני‬,‫ בזבזני‬218
‫ לכבודו‬219
242
Lotz received a salary220 of only $850 a month from the Mossad, but his
expense account221 was virtually limitless: as a wealthy, free-spending tourist, he had to
have large financial resources at his disposal.222 One of the first things he did in Cairo
was to buy – with Mossad blessings and money - a string223 of Arab thoroughbred224
horses. Lotz was going to start a riding school.
He entered the spirit of his new role with joyful abandon.225 Before Waltraud
arrived he rented a luxurious apartment on l6 Sharia Ismail Mohammad Street in the
wealthy suburb of Zamalek. Conveniently located only a few minutes away was the
island of Gezira and the fashionable Cavalry Club. In Giza, almost within the shadow
of the pyramids, he rented stables and other buildings for his school.
By the time Waltraud arrived everything was ready. His friends were so
happy about the news of his marriage that they covered the apartment with flowers for
her arrival.
The care-free226 couple proceeded to lead a gay227 and active social life. They
rode with friends during the day and partied with them at night. Their ever-widening
circle of military and political friends included Brigadier General Fouad Osman and
Colonel Mohsen Said, both key men in military intelligence.228
Osman was especially worth cultivating.229 As head of security for rocket
bases and military factories, he had the responsibility for protecting exactly those
installations230 that Lotz wanted to find out about. Hussein El Shafei, vice-president
of the Council of Ministers and one of Nasser’s closest advisors, was also a frequent
guest at Lotz's dinner parties. He often told Wolfgang about important government
decisions before most government officials knew about them.
In addition to his Egyptian friends, Lotz became very friendly with the many
Germans who lived in Cairo. Particularly — and genuinely231 — close were a couple
named Franz and Nadia Kiesow, who were working in Cairo for an industrial firm.
Another friend was Gerhard Bauch, who claimed, like Wolfgang, to be a former
Nazi officer. Some of Lotz’s friends, however, had their doubts about Gerhard
Bauch. One day General Fouad Osman drew Lotz aside and confided:232 “Listen,
Wolfgang. That man Bauch is always hanging around listening to every word you
say. Be careful. Officially he is here as an industrialist, but we know he is a spy for
the Bonn government.233 We allow him to operate freely, as President Nasser wants
good relations with the West Germans.
“We also know that the information Bauch gets here is conveyed to the
CIA.234 As you are a German, he may try to exploit235 your position here. Forgive me
for saying so, but you are a little naive about the dirty business of espionage. I thought
I should warn you."
‫ משכורת‬220
‫ חשבון ההוצאות שלו‬221
222
for his cover as a rich tourist, the Mossad had no choice but to let him spent much money.
223
several
‫ גִ זְעִ י‬224
‫ חוסר דאגה‬,‫ הפקרות‬225
‫דאגה‬-‫ חסרי‬,‫ עליזים‬226
227
happy, lighthearted
‫ במודיעין הצבאי‬228
‫ היה שווה לטפח את הקשרים איתו‬229
‫ אותם מתקנים‬230
231
really, authentically, truly
232
told him a secret
233
The government of West Germany. West Germany was the ally of the United States. Egypt was the
ally of the USSR (communist Russia). Even so, Egypt wanted good relations with West Germany.
234
The Central Intelligence Agency - the American spy agency
‫ לנצל‬235
243
Lotz thanked his friend for the advice and promised that he would be careful
of Bauch.
But most of Lotz’s Gerrnan friends were the ex236-Nazis whose activities he
had been sent to investigate.237 He was a regular guest at the home of one of the most
“distinguished”238 of them all, a man named Johan Von Leers who had been a top aide
to Goebbels.239 It was at Von Leers' house that Lotz met the notorious240 Dr. Eisele,
who had conducted hideous241 pseudo-medical experiments242 on thousands of men,
women and children in Nazi concentration camps. Eisele was believed to be in Egypt
for research in biochemical warfare.
Lotz found having to make friends with men like Eisele one of the most
difficult tasks243 in his mission in Egypt. In order to establish his cover and to be
trusted by people like Eisele, Lotz created the image of a rabid244 anti-Semite. The
Kiesows, whom he genuinely245 did like, often tried to convince him to avoid the
company of ex-Nazis. Smoothly Lotz would explain: “I am not interested in politics.
Anyway, as a true son of Germany I am not going to betray these men now just
because it is fashionable to criticize246 Hitler.“
Lotz’s pro-Nazi reputation247 had its funny side also. Another Mossad agent
had been sent to Egypt as a tourist in preparation for going there on a full-scale
mission. When he returned to Tel Aviv he discussed with his superiors the cover he
should use. He said:
“Why not let me open a horse farm like that fascist pig248 Wolfgang Lotz? I
visited his horse farm, and it’s crawling249 with Egyptian army men who have nothing
better to do than ride that Nazi’s horses. They like him because he was in the SS.250
“Listen, when I go there I’ll set up another riding school. When
I get friendly with Lotz I'll bump him off!251 What do you think”?
It was not easy for the Mossad men to keep a straight face.252 One of them told
the new agent: “We really could not afford such a luxury as a horse-breeding farm.
We will have to find something simpler for you".
*First Quiz from the beginning of the story to here*
‫ לשעבר‬236
237
238
research
respectable, famous, prominent
‫ ראש התעמולה הנאצית‬239
‫ יָּדּו ַע לְ ִש ְמצָּ ה‬240
241
horrible, terrible
‫ ניסויים‬242
‫ משימות‬243
‫ קַ נַאי‬244
245
truly, really, authentically
‫ אופנתי לבקר את‬246
247
name, image
)‫ חזיר הפשיסטי (נאצי‬248
‫ שורץ‬249
250
Schutzstaffel – an elite military unit of the Nazi party that served as Hitler's special police force
251
kill him
252
controlled themselves and didn't laugh
244
There was a certain amount253 of truth in the Mossad man's statement about
their limited funds.254 The Mossad is not so rich like the CIA255 or KGB,256 and
Wolfgang Lotz was costing a lot of money. The accountant257 who checked
Wolfgang's lists of expenses nicknamed him258 “The Champagne Spy“ because of the
large amounts of champagne that he and his friends drank —-at the Mossad's
expense.259 Eli Cohen also had a large budget, but he made every effort to save
money; While Lotz was never accused of abusing260 his expense account, neither can
he be charged with penny-pinching261.
His superiors in Tel Aviv became used to262 receipts for the cameras, watches,
and tape recorders he bought in Europe for his Egyptian friends. They had a harder
time understanding a huge bill263 from a leading plastic surgeon in Germany. It turned
out that Lotz had employed a surgeon to straighten the hooked264 nose of Hannah
Gahourab, the teenage daughter of his valuable friend Youssef Gahourab. He gave
Hannah her new nose as a birthday present on her eighteenth birthday.
In return for their generosity, the Mossad got a wealth of265 information. Lotz's
riding partner General Abdel Salaam provided a complete picture of how the army was
being re-organized by Soviet advisors. General Fouad Osman consulted with Lotz
about the training maneuvers266 his soldiers took part in, and invited him several times
to watch them personally. Lotz had cleverly hidden his fluency267 in Arabic, and
overheard important conversations that no one believed he could understand.
His intimacy with military men enabled Lotz to visit even the closely
guarded, top-secret bases near the Suez Canal. He and Waltraud were allowed access
to airports where the Egyptians kept their new Migs,268 and took photographs of the
planes at close range with their pilots standing proudly by. Weapons storage
buildings and hangars269 were all open to him. The Egyptians even boasted about the
clever way they kept real planes on airfields mixed with dummy270 planes, thinking
that if the Israeli Air Force bombed the place they would waste bombs on the woodand-aluminum fakes.271 Lotz admiringly complimented his hosts on their ingenuity272
while making notes on the location of the dummy planes.
One time Lotz received an urgent273 message from Tel Aviv asking him to
confirm a report274 that a Russian SAM missile base was being built near Ismailia.
‫ מידה מסוימת‬253
254
finances, monetary assets
255
the Central Intelligence Agency - the American spy agency
256
the Soviet spy agency
‫ רואה החשבון‬257
‫ כינה אותו‬258
‫ על חשבון המוסד‬259
‫ ניצול‬260
‫ קמצנות‬261
262
used to
‫ חשבון‬263
‫ עקום‬264
265
a lot of
‫ תַ ְרגִ ילים‬266
)‫ שליטה (בשפה‬267
268
a kind of Russian fighter-bomber airplane
‫ סככה לאחסון מטוסים‬269
‫ מזויפים‬270
‫ מזויף‬,‫ חיקוי‬271
‫ ּפִ קְ חּות‬272
‫ דחוף‬273
‫ לאשר דו"ח‬274
245
Lotz knew that this base was absolutely off-limits to any civilian.275 But he and
Waltraud risked their lives anyway by driving straight past the armed guards along
roads that were clearly marked: “No Entry. Closed Military Zone."
When finally stopped by Egyptian soldiers, who could barely believe the intruders’
audacity,276 they were taken directly to the base commander. Lotz claimed loudly and
vigorously277 that he and his wife had no idea that they were doing anything wrong. If
the commander had any doubts about his integrity,278 he should telephone Lotz’s
friends like Youssef Gahourab and Fouad Osman. In the end, Lotz’s high-ranking
friends got him off the hook279 - with the base commander apologizing280 humbly and
inviting Wolfgang and Waltraud for lunch. Of course, being arrested enabled Lotz to
get a close-up look at the missile launching pads281 that Tel Aviv had asked him
about.
Through his numerous contacts Lotz was able to keep a constant flow282 of
information to his Mossad bosses. At times he had so many details that he made
special trips to Europe, usually Paris, for full debriefing283 sessions with Mossad
agents.
In August of l962 Lotz received another urgent message ordering him to Paris
for one of these meetings. To ensure that he wasn't being followed, he flew first to
Vienna and then to Munich before finally making his way to France. There several
Mossad agents were waiting for him, and their welcome was not particularly
warm.
Unknown to Lotz, Isser Harel was trying to convince Ben-Gurion about the
danger of the German scientists working in Egypt. Isser was sure that they were
building an arsenal284 of surface-to-surface missiles285 that could be used to attack
Israeli cities. The danger, he believed, threatened the survival of Israel.
Lotz was rebuked286 for not being aware that the Egyptians had made a
successful test firing of a surface-to-surface missile, the flight of which had been
monitored287 by the CIA.288 The Israelis had heard about the test firing from the
Americans, and they were angry at Wolfgang. With such an expensive agent in Cairo,
they should not have to learn of such a development289 from second-hand sources.
The Mossad agents in Paris told Lotz:
“We appreciate that it is necessary to pour limitless quantities of alcohol down
the throats of Egyptians and ex-Nazis, and you need the delicacies290 you always
order in Cairo to satisfy their appetites.291 We are not complaining about the
expense.292 But we want more information from you, particularly about the German
rockets. We must have more details - and soon. You have established yourself, now
give us more complete and more detailed information."
‫ מחוץ לתחום עבור כל אזרח‬275
‫ הֶּ ָּעזָּה‬276
‫ נמרצות‬277
‫ יֹ שֶּ ר‬278
‫ חילצו אותו מהצרות‬279
280
said he was sorry and asked for forgiveness
‫ כני שיגור הטילים‬281
‫ זרימה מתמדת‬282
‫ ִת ְשאּול‬,‫ ִתחְ קּור‬283
‫ אַ ְרסֶּ נָּל‬284
‫קרקע‬-‫ טילי קרקע‬285
286
yelled at
288
The Central Intelligence Agency - the American spy agency
‫ הושגח‬,‫ נצפה‬287
‫ כזאת התפתחות‬289
‫ מעדנים‬290
‫ להשביע את התיאבון שלהם‬291
292
cost
246
Lotz returned to Cairo a chastened293 and worried man.
Not only did he want to fulfill the trust and confidence placed in him, but he
was deeply dedicated294 to his country. He had taken on the dangerous job of being a
spy for more idealistic reasons than his enjoyment of the life of a rich horseman.
And this time he came up with the goods.295 Within six weeks he was back in Paris
with a full list of every single German scientist living in Cairo. He had their Cairo
addresses and the locations of their families in Gerrnany and Austria. Through highplaced sources he had learned details of the exact role that each man played in the
Egyptian armaments factories.296
Lotz also gave his Mossad colleagues a microfilm of the blueprints297 of the
top-secret 333 project, which was the program for designing the electronic control
systems for Egypt's missiles. The Israelis learned just how much trouble the Egyptians
were having in finding a reliable298 guidance system. When he left Paris this time,
Lotz received hearty congratulations299 and thanks.
For some time, Lotz had been stabling his horses at a new location in
Heliopolis. The new site300 was next to the Egyptian Army’s main training ground301
and storage base for armored vehicles.302 If there was any kind of military buildup303
going on, this base would buzz with activity for days before.
Lotz spent day after day here, watching his horses train from a ten-foot-high
wooden tower. No one noticed the way he combined his horse-watching with
observation304 of the activity at the base next door. But Tel Aviv appreciated the
advance news he gave them of any large-scale305 tank movement.
Early in 1964, Lotz bought more horses. Feeling that his stable306 was too
small to house and train them properly, he began looking around for a new location.
His problems were solved by the generosity of his good friend Colonel Omar El Hadari,
who suggested that Lotz stable his new horses inside the giant Abassia military base.
El Hadari gave Lotz and Waltraud passes307 that let them travel in and out of the base
freely.
But even this wasn’t good enough for Lotz. He moved his horses to a site on
the Nile delta, about ten miles south of Cairo. There he set up308 a full-scale riding
establishment of his own, complete with a small race track, stables, yard and a
training ring. All of Lotz’s friends admired309 his enterprising spirit, and many of them
came to ride and watch races there. This was just as310 Lotz had planned: he knew
that his new establishment would attract more officers, whom liberal doses311 of
champagne would turn into excellent sources of information.
‫ נזוף‬293
‫ מסור‬294
‫ סחורה‬295
‫ מפעלים צבאית‬/ ‫ תעשיה‬296
‫ תָּ כְ נִ יות‬297
‫ אמין‬298
‫ ברכות לבביות‬299
300
301
location
base, location, installation
‫ ר"מ‬302
‫ הצטברות לקראת שיא‬303
304
watching
‫ בקנה מידה גדול‬305
‫ אורווה‬306
307
308
documents that gave them access, that gave them permission to enter
founded, established
‫ העריצו‬309
‫ כפי ש‬310
‫ מנות נדיבות‬311
247
There was another reason for choosing this location. It was close to the missile
range312 where the German scientists were now testing the rockets they had designed
for Nasser.313 Army officers loved telling their German friend how these rockets
would destroy Israel in the next war. From his stables Lotz could watch the
experiments himself.
Lotz knew details of every important movement of soldiers and tanks that went
on in Egypt. He was given written permission by General Salaam to visit the most
secret zones314 next to the Suez Canal – zones where, Wolfgang explained, there was
the best fishing. Lotz was so well-known and trusted that no one ever dared315
question him or even stop him from taking photographs.
In addition to fulfilling his nickname316 of “The Eye of Tel Aviv in Cairo,”
Lotz also ran his business well. His reputation317 as a breeder318 was so good that he
even exported319 some of the animals he raised to Italy. This brought Italian money in
to Egypt.
Another of his imports320 would have been welcomed with less enthusiasm321
by Egyptian officials.322 This was a packet of high explosives that he smuggled past
customs323 in a hollowed-out bottom of a case of French cheese, bought on one of his
many trips to Europe.
The explosives were planned to be used in a ruthless324 campaign of
dissuasion.325 Isser Harel had decided that the only way of stopping the German
scientists was through violence and threats. Wolfgang Lotz would participate in the
campaign along with other Mossad agents working in Egypt. He conveyed some of his
explosives to a Mossad agent whom he met in a Cairo restaurant. The agent used the
explosives in letter bombs that were sent to German scientists.
Lotz's role in the campaign was limited to sending warning letters to some of
those scientists. Their names had been supplied by Lotz himself but the letters were all
typed out for him by Mossad agents in Europe.
One of them, addressed to a man named Heinrich Braun, read:
We are writing to tell you that your name now appears on our black list
of German scientists employed in Egypt. We think that you care about the safety
of your wife, Elizabeth, and your two children Niels and Trudi. It would be in
your interest to stop working for the Egyptian military.
The letter was signed “The Gideonites.” Gideon was the Biblical hero who
repulsed the invasion of Israel by the Midianites.
In the autumn326 of 1964, changes took place in Egypt’s foreign policy that
would lead, by accident,327 to the downfall328 of Wolfgang Lotz.
‫ מטווח‬312
‫ שליט מצרים‬313
314
areas
‫ העז‬315
‫ כינוי‬316
317
name
‫ מרביע‬318
‫ ייצא‬319
‫ ייבוא‬320
321
joy
‫ פקידים‬322
‫ העביר את המכס‬,‫ הבריח‬323
‫ אכזרי‬324
‫ שכנוע של המדענים הגרמנים לחדול מעבודתם‬,‫ ְמנִ יעָּה‬,‫ ֲהנָּאָּ ה‬325
326
327
fall
by chance, not on purpose
248
For some time, Egypt received a lot of Russian military and economic aid.329
Exploiting330 its power over Nasser, the Soviet Union331 insisted332 that he invite East
German President Walter Ulbricht to visit Cairo.333 The West-German government
threatening to break off its relations334 with Nasser if he welcomed Ulbricht to Egypt.
But Nasser had no choice. He ordered Ulbricht`s visit to continue as planned for
February 24, l965.
West Germany now threatened to stop all economic aid to Egypt.
Nasser needed to show such threats - even from the powerful West German
government - could not push him around. He also needed to smooth over relations335
with the Soviet Union on one particular complaint of theirs. The Russians working in
Cairo complained that the Gehlen, the West German intelligence336 organization, was
working closely with the CIA337 to spy on them. Soviet counter-intelligence
demanded338 that Nasser do something to stop their spying.
Nasser came up with a plan that would deal with the Moscow and Bonn339
governments in one move.340 He ordered the arrest of thirty West Germans living in
Cairo. This would satisfy the Russians and prove to the Bonn341 government that they
couldn`t threaten Nasser with economic bullying.342
Any West German who had any connections with the Gehlen was arrested.
The Russians claimed that West German tourists were also a potential threat.
Bonn might be organizing an assassination plot343 against Walter Ulbricht when he
made his visit, and might make use of West German citizens who were living in
Egypt.
As a prominent344 member of the German community in Cairo, Wolfgang Lotz
was a perfect target for arrest. He was often seen in the company of Gerhard Bauch,
who was known as chief of West German espionage operations in Egypt. By chance,
Waltraud’s parents arrived for a visit in mid-February. Hoping to please345 their
Russian advisers, the Egyptian secret police ordered the arrest of Wolfgang, Waltraud,
and Waltraud's parents.
So, on February 22, just two days before President Ulbricht arrived in Cairo,
four carloads of police drove to the Lotzes’ residence. The four Germans were not at
home, having gone to visit General Gahourab. When they returned they were arrested.
The arrest of Wolfgang and his family was one of about thirty such arrests.
When the West German Ambassador346 complained about it, the Egyptians told him
that the people who had been arrested had been taken in for “preventive custody”347
during Ulbricht’s visit.
‫ נפילה‬328
329
help
‫ תוך ניצול של‬330
331
communist Russia
requested
333
at the end of World War II, Germany was divided into two enemy countries: democratic, Americansupported West Germany, and communist, Soviet-controlled East Germany.
‫ לנתק את היחסים‬334
‫ ליישר את ההדורים‬335
336
spying, espionage
337
the Central Intelligence Agency - the American spy agency
338
insisted, requested
339
the capital of West Germany
‫ בצעד אחד‬340
341
the capital of West Germany
‫ בריונות‬,‫ הפחדה‬342
‫ קשר התנקשות‬343
‫ מוביל‬,‫ בולט‬344
‫ לרצות‬,‫ לפייס‬345
‫ שגריר‬346
‫ מעצר מניעתי – כלומר למנוע ניסיון התנקשות בנשיא מזרח גרמניה כנ"ל‬347
332
249
The Minister of the Interior348 promised the ambassador that “everybody will
be let free immediately after the departure of our honored guest." He had no reason to
think differently: the arrests had been purely a matter of form.349
But Wolfgang Lotz had no way of knowing that his arrest was a
coincidence,350 timed with the visit of President Ulbricht. Nor351 was he aware that
dozens352 of his friends, including the completely innocent Franz and Nadia Kiesow,
had also been arrested. By a stroke of bad luck,353 Lotz had been away at his friend
Gahourab's house during the days before his arrest. If he had been in Cairo he
probably would have been warned about the planned arrests.
As it was, however, Lotz thought that the Egyptians had found out about his
spying activities. He had to think fast.
As it turned out, he completely justified the worry at Mossad headquarters354
about allowing him to operate355 while living with his wife. Lotz placed the highest
importance on saving Waltraud and her parents. The best way to do this, he decided,
was to cooperate356 fully with the Egyptians.
When they began to interrogate him, he confessed to everything.
"What do you want to know? My wife and in-laws are completely innocent in all this."
The security officer in charge of the routine questioning was surprised: he had no idea
of what Lotz was talking about. But he was a well-trained, professional officer. Unfortunately
for Lotz and the Mossad, he kept his head.
“I want to know where you hide your espionage equipment“, he replied. He still had
no expectation of finding anything, but he continued with the standard interrogation line: “We
know everything. In order to avoid wasting time - mine and yours - it would be best if you
confessed357 fully right here and now.”
To the security officer’s amazement, Lotz replied coolly:
“You will find the radio transmitter in the bathroom scales."358 Indeed, this was where
Lotz kept it hidden. The officer sent a man to dismantle the scales and was soon holding in
his hands one of the most advanced pieces of radio equipment in the world.
Lotz went on359 to tell the Egyptian where the rest of his equipment was. In bars of
soap they found explosives and microfilm. Hidden away in other places was over $75,000 in
small bills.
Still barely able to believe what he was seeing, the security man ordered Lotz and his
family to be taken immediately to an interrogation360 center. When his intensive interrogation
began, Lotz had to walk a fine line361 between truth and deception.362 He had two goals: to
save the lives of Waltraud and her parents, and to reveal as little information as possible.
With his superb acting ability he was able to find just the right balance - and to achieve both
his goals.
From the beginning he stuck to363 the cover story he and his Mossad bosses had
invented for him in Tel Aviv. He was a German, born in Mannheim and educated in
‫ שר הפנים‬348
‫ ולא כדי ללכוד פושעים‬,‫ כדי לעשות הצגה ולשלוח מסר‬349
‫ צירוף מקרים‬350
‫ אף לא‬351
)‫ תריסרים (עשרות‬352
‫ כתוצאה ממכת מזל רע‬353
‫ מַ טֶּ ה‬,‫ ִמפְ קָּ דָּ ה‬354
‫ לפעול‬355
‫ לשתף פעולה‬356
‫ תודה‬357
‫ במשקל בחדר האמבטיה‬358
359
continued
‫ חקירה‬360
‫ ללכת על קו דק‬361
362
misleading
‫ דבק ב‬363
250
Germany. When the war broke out he had joined the army and served in Rommel's Afrika
Corps. It was in Africa, he said, that he had learned to ride and train horses. After the war he
had moved to Australia and spent eleven years there. When he moved back to Germany his
experience with horses got him a job as an instructor at a riding club in Berlin. Here he
worked for several months.
It was at the riding club that Lotz received an attractive offer. A wealthy club member
named Elias Gordon asked whether he would like to have his own establishment for breeding
Arab thoroughbreds.364 This had been his dream, Wolfgang told his interrogators, since his
days in Africa when he had ridden some of these magnificent animals.365 He accepted the
offer.
Gordon then took him to meet another horse-loving businessman, a friend named
Ruby Bernstein. Together Bernstein and Gordon explained that the location they had in mind
for the riding establishment was Egypt. They told Lotz that they would pay his way there for
a visit to check the possibilities. Lotz, who had a weakness for the easy life, enjoyed his visit
a lot. He enjoyed spending lots of money and the life of luxury. Also, the chances for
establishing a successful horse-breeding farm seemed excellent.
“I did not know then that I was being led into a trap,"366 he complained to the
Egyptians. He explained how, not long after his return to Germany, his two ‘partners” had
introduced him367 to a third friend named Joseph. “This Joseph was tall and thin and spoke
atrocious368 German," said Lotz. “He told me bluntly369 that he was head of the Israeli
intelligence370 network in Europe. Elias and Ruby were his agents. They hadn’t given me their
real names. I was shocked - I thought they were my friends.
“I was in a dilemma. Here I was - an officer of the German army being asked to
work for Jews in Egypt. They were going to set me up to breed horses on my own farm - I
had always dreamt of this. But there was a price to pay. I had to transmit information for
them to Israel.
“I am a weak man. I agreed immediately. I feared that if I backed out371 my life
would be in danger. The Israelis were ruthless372 and arrogant373 like all Jews. I thought it
safest to follow their orders."
Only later, Lotz told them, he found out what hard bosses the Israelis could be. All
the time they wanted more and more information. They trained him to photograph army
installations, he said, and ordered him to send letter bombs to German scientists. And all of
this in addition to his regular radio reports to Tel Aviv.
"They were like Shylock in the Shakespeare play374 we had to read in
our English class at school,” he complained. “They demanded their pound375 of flesh376 a
hundred times over. Never have anything to do with them,” he earnestly warned.
Lotz was so convincing in his role of a naïve, stupid ex-soldier that his interrogators377
were inclined to believe him.378 They additional reasons for believing him. First of all, it
was in Egypt's interests to believe him. They were trying to improve their relations with
364
365
horses
horses
‫ מלכודת‬366
‫ הכירו לו‬367
368
didn't know how to speak
‫ באופן בוטה‬369
‫ מודיעין‬370
‫ שאילו נסוגתי‬371
‫ אכזריים‬372
‫ יהירים‬373
374
"The Merchant of Venice" – a play that contains an anti-Semitic portrayal of Shylock – the Jewish
moneylender.
‫קילו‬-‫ בערך חצי‬375
)‫ בשר (אדם‬376
377
the Egyptian policemen who were asking him questions
‫ נטו להאמין לו‬378
251
West Germany, and knew that lenient379 treatment of this German spy would help them
achieve this goal.
In addition, at exactly that time, the Arab newspapers were full of the story of how
Eli Cohen, the Israeli spy, had infiltrated380 the highest levels of Syrian government.
Mocking voices throughout the Arab world were still talking loudly about “The Mossad agent
who almost became the Syrian Minister of Defense".
Relations between Syria and Egypt had been shaky381 since they ended their United
Arab Republic in 1961382, and there was competition and jealousy between the two countries.
The last thing Nasser wanted was to be told by the Syrians, “You are no better than us!
You have your own Israeli spy!” If Lotz was just a German who had been used by the
Mossad, then the damage383 to Egypt would be minimal. So the Egyptians bent over
backwards384 to believe his story.
*Second Quiz to here*
But Lotz's interrogators insisted on one crude and humiliating385 test of Lotz’s
story. If he was a German and not a Jew, then they would examine him to see whether
he was circumcised.
A doctor was brought in for the examination, and had Lotz stripped stark
naked. Standing the prisoner before a large polished-metal table, he bent down and
examined his genitals.
The examination lasted several minutes. During those minutes Lotz thanked
his parents for their irreligious ways. If he had been circumcised he would now be
destined for the gallows,386 and he knew it. He tried to keep his head upright and his
eyes wide open, in spite of the two powerful lights that seemed to be burning their
way into the back of his skull.
At last the doctor was satisfied. With a gentle tap on Lotz’s shoulder - as if to
say, “You don't have to worry, you are not a fake" he walked over to the officers who
were seated at the table. Bending over he whispered something to one of them, a
balding middle-aged officer. Lotz recognized the man immediately as Salah Nasr,
head of Egyptian intelligence and security. Nasr had decided to take part in the spy’s
interrogation himself. He addressed Lotz directly in fluent English spoken with a soft,
easy-going tone of voice. “You may get dressed now, Mr. Lotz."
The projectors were turned off, and when he was fully dressed again the
prisoner was invited to sit down. “Have a cigarette, Mr. Lotz. Perhaps a cup of
coffee? Now, let us not waste time.
"You will forgive us for putting you through the indignity387 of the medical
examination. But it was important for us to determine whether or not you are in fact a
Jew. We could not take it on trust, you understand, when you said you were
uncircumcised and a pure Aryan German."
A faint smile crossed Salah Nasr’s face as he glanced at the glowering388
Abdul Hakim, one of his senior intelligence officers. Hakim did not like this soft
‫ סלחני‬,‫ מקל‬379
‫ חדר‬380
‫ מעורערים‬381
382
from 1958 to 1961, Syria and Egypt were united into a single government (even though they are far
away from each other)
‫ נזק‬383
'‫ 'עשו שמיניות באויר‬384
‫ גס ומשפיל‬385
‫ ג ְַרּדֹום‬386
‫ בִ זָּיֹון‬387
‫ מבט קודר או כועס‬388
252
approach toward389 the spy. Bluntly he told his boss in Arabic, “German or Jew I
don’t care! Give me two hours with him and he will sing like a bird!390”
Salah Nasr retorted harshly,391 "You have the brains of a donkey. You
understand nothing about political considerations."392 Turning to the prisoner, who
pretended not to understand what had just been said, he continued smoothly,
"Mr, Lotz, we don't really want to hang you. This will not serve any purpose. Your
career as a spy has ended, anyway. I am going to ask you to trust me. You have my
personal word for it that you will not be hurt if you cooperate.393
“I want the truth about your contacts here in Egypt. I want the names of all
your fellow394 spies. I want to know how you were trained, and who trained you. I
want details about the men who sent you on your espionage mission395 to our country.
Details that Mr. Hakim here will carefully analyze396 and check. And remember Mr.
Lotz, it is not only your life at risk if you lie to us . . . "
The Egyptian had no need to explain how he held an invisible397 knife at the
prisoner’s throat.398 Earlier that day Lotz had heard the screams of a woman being
tortured399 in a neighboring cell. The agonized400 cries still rang401 in his ears.
Wolfgang understood the alternatives to full cooperation: torture and death for
himself, Waltraud, and his wife’s parents.
Lotz knew that he had to keep walking his tightrope.402 After days of
interrogation403 he succeeded in convincing his interrogators that Waltraud’s parents
were completely innocent.404 They were freed.
He wasn’t so successful with Waltraud herself. The Egyptians would
not believe that a woman could watch her husband conveying messages on a miniature
radio and have no idea of what he was doing. Both Wolfgang and Waltraud, together
with their friend Franz Kiesow, were tried405 on ten charges406 of "crimes against the
Egyptian nation."
These were black days indeed407 for the Mossad. Two of their top agents408
had been imprisoned in enemy countries. Both faced409 harsh treatment410 and death.
At that very moment Eli Cohen was being tortured in a Damascus prison. The
Mossad had no idea of how Wolfgang Lotz had been captured.411
Lotz managed to cooperate412 with the Egyptians in a way that served both his
interests and Israel's. By pretending to cooperate fully,413 he was able to control the
‫ גישה כלפי‬389
390
I will torture him until he talks
‫ ענה בקשיחות‬391
‫ שיקולים‬392
‫ תשתף פעולה‬393
‫ עמיתיך המרגלים‬394
395
operation
‫ ינתח בקפדנות‬396
‫נראה‬-‫ בלתי‬,‫ שקוף‬397
‫ גרונו של האסיר‬398
‫ מעונה‬399
‫ ְמ ֻע ֶּנה‬,‫ ְמיֻסָּ ר‬400
‫ צלצלו‬401
)‫ חבל דק (שעליו הולכים לולייני קרקס‬402
403
404
interviewing, questioning
not guilty
‫ הועמדו לדין‬405
‫ אישומים‬406
407
408
really, in fact
the other one was Eli Cohen (in Syria).
‫ ציפו ל‬,‫ עמדו בפני‬409
‫ טיפול קשה‬410
411
caught
succeeded in cooperating
413
by creating the impression that he was not hiding anything
412
253
amount of information he gave out. If he had remained silent and submitted to torture,
there was no telling what he would say.414 In the end, by cleverly415 using the truth,
he managed to hide everything important - and he didn’t incriminate416 anyone else.
Even before the trial417 began, Lotz agreed to make a television broadcast to
his fellow Germans. With Waltraud sitting nearby, he spoke earnestly418 into the
camera:
“I have been spying in Egypt for the Israelis since 1961. I sent them details of
Soviet missiles which are based near the Suez Canal, and I did other espionage
tasks.”419 As420 he spoke, the cameras panned over to421 Waltraud, who was crying
pathetically.422
Lotz continued, “I regret423 my actions very much. Only now do I realize the
harm424 I have done out of greed425 for money. I am being treated very well by the
Egyptians in prison.” This last sentence was perfectly true.
“If the Israelis must send spies to Egypt, in future they should use their own
people and not recruit426 honest Germans for the job. I advise anyone in Germany who
is offered such a job – don't take it!"
The Egyptians were pleased427 by the way their prisoner acted as a
propagandist428 for them. They didn’t realize that his television message was being
received with equal joy at Mossad headquarters.429 The television broadcast430 proved
that the Egyptians still believed his cover - and that Lotz was still safe.
The trial began in July 1965, and was broadcast during prime time on
Egyptian TV. This was an intentional insult431 to the Syrians, who had conducted their
trial of Eli Cohen in secret. Lotz and Waltraud were also provided with defense
lawyers, and an observer432 from Germany was allowed to be present at the trial.433 In
comparison with the Syrians’ treatment of Eli Cohen, the trial was conducted fairly.
Throughout the trial, it was clear that the Egyptians were still determined to
show the world how civilized they were, and to believe Lotz’s story about his German
background.434 And Lotz continued playing along perfectly with his clever
combination of truth and lies. For example, he wasted a lot of time by giving all the
details about how he had thrown away his first radio transmitter, which was too
difficult for him to fix.
He described how he had broken the radio transmitter into small pieces and
then gone for a picnic on the Nile. Renting a boat, he had rowed435 out into the river
‫ אין לדעת כמה מידע הוא היה מגלה‬,‫ אילו מסר את עצמו לעינויים‬414
‫ ערמומי‬/ ‫ באופן פיקח‬415
‫ הפליל‬416
‫ המשפט‬417
)‫ בכנות (לכאורה‬418
419
spying activities
while
421
turned to, focused on
420
‫ באופן מעורר רחמים‬422
423
am sorry, feel bad about
424
damage
‫ מתוך חמדנות‬425
‫ לגייס‬426
‫ שבעי רצון‬427
‫ תעמולן‬428
‫ מפקדה‬,‫ מטה‬429
‫שידור‬430
431
put-down
‫ משקיף‬432
433
was permitted to be at the trial
‫ רקע‬434
‫ חתר‬,‫ שט‬435
254
and dumped436 the smashed-up radio into the water. He was ready to take the
authorities437 to the exact spot, he claimed. "It is opposite a clump438 of five palm trees
just down river from .... ” and then he went into another detailed description. His
television audience - and the audience in the court - believed every word of it.
Again and again the prisoner claimed that his wife had played no part in his
espionage work.
“I met her purely by chance on a train,” explained Lotz. “She knew I was
sending messages from the radio transmitter in our bedroom. She watched me at
work. But she believed that I was doing it for NATO."439
In court, looking440 elegant in a simple white dress, Waltraud won the
sympathy of the judge, as well as Egyptian television viewers,441 as she told them, “I
was shocked442 when I heard about the true nature of my husband’s activities. But it is
my duty443 to stand by him in difficult times. As strange as it may seem to you,444 I
love my husband more than ever now. His fate445 is in your hands and I request that
you have mercy on him."
Pleading Waltraud”s cause,446 her lawyer said, “It is clearly the love of a wife
for a husband that has brought Mrs. Lotz before us.447 She knew that he was spying,
but thought it was for NATO. He could never tell her the true nature of his work,
since she is anti-Semitic and hates Israel."
As the trial continued, it became clear that the Lotzes were convincing everyone
they were telling the truth. Of course Lotz had been a spy, the Egyptians were saying.
But at least he and his charming wife were Germans and not Jews. They would be
punished, but not unfairly.
The Egyptian public hung on to448 every word spoken in the courtroom, and
the agents listening at Mossad headquarters were even more attentive.449 Every bit of
testimony450 was studied again and again. Just how much did the Egyptians really
know about "The Eye of Tel Aviv in Cairo?‘"
The Lotzes’ only frightening moment came late in the trial when a letter
arrived from Germany. It was sent by a Munich lawyer named Alfred Seidl, who was
representing the families of some of the scientists who were targeted in the letterbomb campaign. Seidl, thirsty for revenge on behalf of451 his clients, informed the
court that Lotz was in fact an Israeli citizen. He accurately452 reported453 the year in
which Lotz had emigrated from Germany to Israel, and pointed out that his mother
was Jewish.
The letter also truthfully revealed that Lotz had served in the Israeli army as an
officer, and that the Mossad had sent agents to Germany following his arrest to
436
437
thrown
the police
‫ סבך‬438
North Atlantic Treaty Organization – during the Cold War, an alliance of western democratic
countries (led by the United States) against Soviet expansion and influence.
440
she appeared
441
watchers (at home)
442
amazed
443
responsibility
‫ עד כמה שאולי נראה לכם מוזר‬444
445
destiny (remember from "The Monkey's Paw?)
446
talking in her defense
‫ שהביא אותה למצב הזה‬447
448
paid attention to
‫ קשובים‬449
‫ עדות‬450
451
for
452
truthfully
453
told, informed
439
255
prevent this news from being published there. When the incriminating454 letter was
shown to Lotz in court, he quickly explained, “It is an effort on the part of the men
representing the German scientists making rockets for the Egyptians to get me killed."
In closed sessions with the judges, Lotz said that the information was false,
and that his mother was a Protestant who had died in the Allied455 bombing of Berlin
in I944.
“It is true that I visited Israel once. It was in 1964, and I was there only for six
days. My superiors in Europe who hired456 me insisted457 that I go there for a meeting
with Israeli intelligence officers. I met a man called Meyer or something like that.
The only truth in that letter is that they have my birthplace, Mannheim, correct."
Seidl's report was not believed by the court.
On August 21, l965, the court in Cairo passed its judgment on Wolfgang and
Waltraud Lotz.
Wolfgang was sentenced to life imprisonment with forced labor, and a fine of
32 thousand Egyptian pounds. Waltraud received three years in prison, and was fined
one thousand Egyptian pounds. Franz Kiesow was freed. The only Egyptian who
suffered458 as a result of Lotz’s spying activities was General Gahourab, who was
stripped of his rank and jailed.
The “forced labor” was never applied459 to the model prisoner Wolfgang
Lotz. Not only was he allowed unusual privileges, but he was able to see his wife
occasionally. He ordered meals from a Cairo restaurant. Another prisoner cleaned out
his cell.
At the infamous460 Tura prison Lotz met several other Jewish prisoners. They
included Victor Levi, the friend of Eli Cohen who had been sentenced to life in prison
for planting bombs in Egypt. Although still a young man, Levi's hair was turning gray.
He had already spent eleven miserable461 years in the Egyptian prison.
With him were others caught at the same time: Phillip Nathanson and Robert
Dassa. Their female companion Marcelle Ninio was sitting out her fifteen-year
sentence in a women's jail, the same one where Waltraud had been sent.
At first, Lotz's fellow “agents” thought he wasn't Jewish. Finally Wolfgang
revealed his identity, and to the astonishment462 of Victor, spoke to him in Hebrew.
After that the group became closer.
The men were kept with other prisoners considered “political,” on the top floor
of the Tura jail. They were a well-organized group. Using cigarettes to bribe463 their
jailers, they were able to prepare their own meals in their cells, and even had
electricity from an outside cable so that they could read at night.
For more than two years Lotz remained in Tura while his wife served her
sentence in another jail. Then came the Six-Day War of 1967. During the war, they
were moved to top-security cells, and feared for a time that they would be killed either
by their own airplanes or by angry Egyptians.
But nothing happened. The war ended and they were moved back to their
regular cells.
‫ מפליל‬454
455
456
the side that won World War II – the US, USSR, UK, etc.
employed
‫ תבעו‬,‫ דרשו‬457
)‫ סבל (נענש‬458
‫ לא יצא לפועל‬,‫ לא ייושם‬459
‫ יָּדּו ַע לְ ִש ְמצָּ ה‬460
461
462
sad, depressed
amazement
‫ לשחד‬463
256
Christmas, 1967. Eight months after the war‘s end.
The years stretched ahead from Wolfgang's perspective: a life sentence meant
twenty-five years in Egypt--and he still had twenty-three years left.
He kept up hope by the knowledge that the Mossad tried to bring about the
464
release of all captured agents. But he also knew that the Mossad had only limited
powers. They had failed to save Eli Cohen from being hanged. And right there in the
Tura prison was Victor Levi and his friends. It was not so easy for the Mossad to save
its men.
Unknown to Lotz, however, negotiations465 were going on at the time between
Israel and Egypt through the United Nations Secretary General U Thant and his
Middle East representative466 Gunnar Jaring. The first deal had already been agreed
on: In exchange for the 5,000 Egyptian soldiers captured during the War, Israel
would get a group of naval frogmen467 and some pilots who were held in Egypt.
The Israelis had an additional offer. They held nine Egyptian generals and
scores468 of senior officers in their POW camps.469 They would only release them if
Cairo agreed to send home the ten Israeli spies they held.
At the top of the list appeared the name of Wolfgang and Waltruad Lotz. Israel
for the first time admitted that the “German” in Tura prison was really an Israeli.
It took eight months of negotiations with an irritable470 President Nasser. On
no account471 were the Egyptians to appear to lose face.472 Everything had to be done
in secrecy. No news of the release of the Israeli spies would appear in the
newspapers. Finally, the Israelis had to write a letter to Nasser praising his
humanitarian motives,473 and declaring that the Israelis were prepared to accept his
word of honor that he would keep474 his side of the bargain.475 As a sign of good
faith,476 the Israelis released several Egyptian generals before a single Israeli spy was
freed.
Nasser kept his word. The spies were all found to be suffering from “incurable
disease, cancer or heart disease."477 Quietly they were released and simply turned up
in Israel. The Lotz family were taken to Cairo airport on February 4, 1968. Here they
were put on Lufthansa flight 674 heading for Munich via Athens. But they never
reached Germany. They got off the plane in Greece, and got on a flight to London, in
the company of “friends” (Mossad agents). Forty-eight hours later they arrived in Tel
Aviv, wearing new clothes they bought in London at Marks and Spencers.478
For a while Wolfgang and Waltraud lived in a modest home outside Tel Aviv.
They were visited from time to time by Otto and Klara Neumann, Waltraud’s parents,
who flew from their German home town of Heilbron.
Wolfgang, nicknamed “Sus” (Hebrew for horse) by his neighbors, started a
small riding school. Waltraud learned Hebrew and became fanatically pro-Israeli in
outlook.479
‫ להביא לשחרור‬464
‫ מו"מ‬465
‫ נציגו למזרח התיכון‬466
‫ קומנדו ימי‬/ ‫ לוחמי שייטת‬467
‫ כפולות של עשרים‬468
‫ קצינים בחירים במחנות השבויים‬469
‫ עצבני‬,‫ ַז ֲעפָּנִ י‬470
‫ בשום אופן‬471
‫ שכבודם ייפגע‬472
‫ המשבח את המניעים ההומניטאריים שלו‬473
474
475
honor
deal, agreement
‫ צעד בונה אמון‬476
The Egyptians said this in order to increase the impression that they agreed to the deal out of
humanitarian compassion, and not out of their desire to free their generals and officers.
478
a famous English store
477
257
A few years later, Waltraud suddenly became ill480 and died. Fellow exconvicts481 from their days in the Egyptian prison like Marcello Ninio, Victor Levi,
and Philip Nathanson visited often to try to console the broken-hearted Wolfgang. To
this day, Wolfgang wonders whether his wife’s health was broken by her two years in
an Egyptian prison.
Since Waltraud’s death, Lotz has been restless. His riding school in Israel
failed and in 1974 he went the United States "to make some money," as he put it.
“There were not as many rich customers in Israel as I used to find among482 rich
Germans and Egyptians,” he said.
Lotz settled first in Los Angeles and then in Seattle, where he lived in a nineroom apartment with his new wife, an Israeli woman named Naomi. With a partner,
Wolfgang Lotz opened a private detective agency. As he said, “I know a thing or two
about security."
The business failed when the wife of his partner ran away with the all of the
company’s money.
In January, 1978, with just a thousand dollars in his pocket, Lotz went to
Germany. He found a job in a Munich department store selling fishing equipment.
Money problems worry him. He says, “I used all my compensation483 paid to me by
the Mossad to set up my riding school in Israel, but I lost it all. Now all I get is a
pension of $200 a month from them. I don’t think it’s very generous."
After the visit of President Sadat to Jerusalem when peace between Israel and
Egypt seemed a real possibility, Lotz was considering an “inspiration,”484 as he calls
it: "Maybe they will allow me back into Egypt,” he says. “I would love to set up a
horse-riding school near the Nile." Then he reconsiders, “Maybe not. . . . I made such
fools485 of them, I doubt486 if they will ever forgive me."
‫ בהשקפותיה‬479
480
sick
‫ אסירים לשעבר‬,‫ חבריו‬481
‫ בקרב‬482
‫ פיצויים‬483
‫ הברקה‬,‫ השראה‬484
‫ שמתי אותם ללעג‬485
‫ אני מסופק אם‬486
258
The Monkey's Paw
by W. W. Jacobs
The night was cold and wet, but in the small living-room of Lakesnam
Villa the blinds were closed and the fire burned brightly. Father and son
were playing a game of chess and Mrs. White was knitting by the fire.
‫תריסים בבהירות‬
‫דמקה סרגה‬
"Listen to the wind," said Mr. White.
"I'm listening," said Herbert, his son.
"I don't think he'll come tonight," said the father. "That's the worst of
living so far out. The pathway is all mud and the road is flooded."
‫רחוק מהעיר‬
‫השביל נהיה בוץ‬
‫נטרק בקול‬
Suddenly the gate banged loudly and heavy footsteps came towards the
door. "There he is," said Herbert White. A tall man with a red face entered.
"Sergeant-Major Morris," said Mr. White, introducing him to his wife
and son.
‫דרגה צבאית הציג‬
The guest shook hands all around while his host got the whisky and
glasses. After the third glass, his eyes brighter, the stranger began to talk of
strange places, strange peoples and wars.
‫בהירים יותר‬
"What was that you started telling me about the other day, Morris?" said
Mr. White. "A monkey's paw or something?"
‫כף יד‬
‫שווה‬
"Nothing," said the soldier quickly. "Nothing really worth hearing
about."
"Monkey's paw?" said Mrs. White curiously.
‫בסקרנות‬
"Well, it's just what you might call a little magic," said the sergeant
major. "It's just an ordinary little paw."
regular
‫הראה‬
He took something out of his pocket and showed it to them. Mrs. White
moved back, but her son, taking it, looked at it curiously.
"And what's special about it?" asked Mr. White.
"It had a spell put on it by a holy man," said the sergeant major. "He
wanted to show that fate ruled our lives, that those who tried to change their
fate would be sorry. He put a spell on it so that three men could each have
three wishes from it."
"Well, why don't you have three, sir?" said Herbert White jokingly.
The soldier looked at him, his red face grew pale, and he said quietly, "I
have."
"And did you get your three wishes?" asked Mrs. White.
‫קדוש‬
‫כישוף‬/‫לחש‬
‫הגורל שולט‬
‫משאלות‬
‫בצחוק‬
‫נהיה חיוור‬
259
"I did," said the sergeant major, and emptied his glass.
‫רוקן‬
"Has anyone else wished?" she said.
"The first man had his three wishes," he answered. "I don't know what
his first two were, but his third wish was for death. That's how I got the
paw. I am the second man."
His voice was so low that a silence fell over the group. "If you've had
your wishes it's no good to you now, Morris," said Mr.White. "What are
you keeping it for?"
The soldier shook his head. "I thought of selling it but I
don't think I will. It has caused enough trouble already. Besides, people
won't buy it. Some think the wishes are nonsense."
‫קול‬
‫לא שווה‬
‫גרם למספיק‬
‫צרות‬
‫שטויות‬
He took the paw and threw it into the fire. With a cry, White bent down
and pulled it out.
"Better let it burn," said the soldier.
"If you don't want it, Morris," said Mr. White, "Why not give it to me?"
"I won't," said his friend. "I threw it on the fire. If you decide to keep
it, don't blame me for what happens to you. Throw it back into the fire
again."
The other shook his head and, looking closely at the paw, said, "How
does it work?"
Hold it in your right hand and wish aloud," said the sergeant major.
But I warn you - there will be consequences."
‫אל תאשים‬
‫בחן מקרוב‬
‫בקול‬
‫השלכות‬
Mr. White dropped the paw into his pocket. Over supper the three sat
listening to the soldier's stories about his adventures in India and the paw was
almost forgotten. Later, their guest left just in time to catch the last train.
"If the story about the monkey's paw is as true as the others he told us
we won't get much out of it," said Herbert.
Mr. White took the paw from his pocket and said slowly, "I don't know
what to wish for, and that's a fact. It seems to me I have all I want."
‫לא יצא לנו‬
260
"Don't you want to pay off the house?" said Herbert. "Well, wish for
two hundred pounds, then. That will be just enough."
His father, ashamed of his faith in the paw, held it up and said clearly,
"I wish for two hundred pounds." Mr. White cried out loud as he looked at
the monkey's paw, which lay on the floor.
‫לשלם המשכנתא‬
‫שם המטבע באנגלית‬
‫מתבייש באמונתו‬
‫שכב‬
‫נחש‬
"It moved! It moved in my hands like a snake!"
"Well, I don't see the money," said his son as he picked it up and put
it on the table. "And I probably never will."
They sat down by the fire again while the father finished his pipe.
Outside, the wind was stronger than ever and Mr. White jumped nervously
when a door banged upstairs. An unusual silence came over all three: It
lasted until the couple got up to go to sleep.
‫מקטרת‬
‫בעצבנות‬
‫נטרק שתיקה‬
‫נמשך עד שהזוג‬
‫ייתכן‬
"You'll probably find the money tied up in a bag in the middle of your
bed," said Herbert with a half-smile as he said good night.
Part Two
In the brightness of the wintry sun, over the breakfast table the next
morning, everything seemed natural. The paw was thrown carelessly on the
side table as if it had no special importance.
"I suppose all soldiers are the same," said Mrs. White. "Imagine us
listening to such nonsense! How can wishes be granted these days? Even if
they could, how can two hundred pounds hurt you, Father?"
‫בהירות השמש החורפית‬
‫נזרק ללא תשומת לב‬
‫נראה‬
‫כאילו‬
‫תאר‬
‫להתקיים‬
‫מניחה‬
‫שטויות‬
‫להזיק‬
"Might drop on your head from the sky," said Herbert gaily. "Well,
don't spend the money before I come back."
His mother laughed, and followed him to the door. She watched him
walk down the road and, returning to the breakfast table, smiled at her
husband's naive belief in the power of the paw. "Herbert will make some
more of his jokes, I expect, when he comes home."
"I suppose so," said Mr. White. "But the thing moved in my hand. I'll swear
to that."
The morning passed quietly and nothing unusual happened. At about
noon, Mrs. White saw a well-dressed stranger outside. He walked up to
the gate, opened it slowly and came to the door. Mrs. White opened the door
to the stranger, who seemed uncomfortable. "I was asked to call," he said at
last. "I've come from Maw and Meggins."
‫אמונה נאיבית‬
‫צופה‬
‫אשבע‬
‫מניח שכן‬
‫לבוש היטב‬
‫נראה לא שקט התבקשתי לבקר‬
)‫שם של חברה (מפעל‬
261
Is anything the matter?" Mrs. White said. "Has anything happened to
Herbert? What is it? What is it?"
?‫יש בעיה‬
"I'm sorry -" began the visitor.
"Is he hurt?" asked the mother.
"Badly hurt," the visitor said quietly. "But he is no longer in pain."
‫כבר לא כואב‬
"Oh, thank the Lord!" she said. "Thank Heavens for that! Thank-"
She stopped suddenly as she understood the real meaning behind the
stranger's words. She laid a trembling hand on her husband. There was a
long silence.
‫הניחה יד רועדת‬
‫שתיקה‬
‫מכונה‬
"He was caught in the machinery," said the visitor in a low voice.
"Caught in the machinery?" repeated Mr. White, taking his wife's hands
between his own. "He was all we had," he said, turning gently to the visitor.
"It is hard."
"Maw and Meggins do not take any responsibility for the accident.
However, because of your son's services to the company, they want to give
you a certain sum of money as compensation."
Mr. White looked with horror at the visitor as his dry lips said the
words, "How much?"
‫חזר‬
‫פונה בעדינות‬
‫אחריות לתאונה‬
‫שירותיו לחברה‬
‫סכום מסוים כפיצוי‬
‫זועה שפתיו היבשות‬/‫אימה‬
Two hundred pounds," was the answer.
Mr. White dropped to the floor, not hearing his wife's scream.
‫צווחה‬
‫נפל‬
Part Three
They buried their son in the cemetery and came back to a house full of
shadows and silence. Now they had nothing to talk about, and the time
passed slowly.
About a week after Herbert died, Mr. White was woken up by the sound
of crying in the room. It came from the window where his wife was sitting.
The monkey's paw!" she cried wildly. "The monkey's paw! I want it.
Give it to me."
‫קברו בבית הקברות‬
‫צללים‬
‫עבר‬
‫הוער משנתו‬
‫בפראות‬
It's in the living-room on the side table," he replied. "Why?"
She laughed and cried and, bending over, kissed his cheek. "I only
thought of it now," she said hysterically. "Why didn't I think of it before?
Why didn't you think of it?"
‫מתכופפת נשקה לו על הלחי‬
262
"Think of what?" he asked.
"The other two wishes," she answered quickly. "We only had one. Go
down and get it quickly and wish our boy alive again."
Mr. White threw the blankets from his trembling body and cried, "Good
Heavens, are you mad?"
‫הסיר את השמיכות מגופו הרועד‬
crazy !‫ריבונו של עולם‬
"Get it!" she cried. "Get it quickly and wish! Oh my boy, my boy!"
Her husband struck a match and lit the candle. "Get back to bed," he
said. "You don't know what you are saying."
‫הדליק גפרור‬
"Our first wish was granted," she said. "Why not the second? Go and
get the paw and wish." She pulled him towards the door.
‫התגשם‬/‫ניתן‬
He went down in the darkness, felt his way to the living-room and then
found the side table. The monkey's paw was in its place. He returned, feeling
his way in the dark, with the horrible thing in his hand.
‫הדבר הזוועתי‬
‫פניה נראו שונות‬
His wife's face seemed changed as he entered the room. It was white
and looked unnatural. He was afraid of her.
‫טבעי‬-‫בלתי‬
"Wish!" she cried, in a strong voice.
‫טיפשי ורשעי רעד‬
"It is foolish and wicked," his voice trembled.
‫חזרה‬
"Wish!" repeated his wife.
He raised his hand. "I wish my son alive again."
The paw fell to the floor as he sank into a chair. He sat at the window.
All was quiet. Mr. White got back into bed, and a minute or two later his
wife climbed in next to him.
Neither of them spoke, but lay silently listening to the ticking of the
clock. The man finally got up and took the box of matches, struck one, and
went downstairs to get a candle.
At the foot of the stairs the match went out, and he stopped to strike
another. At that moment there was a knock on the front door.
The matches fell from his hand. He stood without moving until the
knock came again. Then he turned and ran up the stairs, back to his room,
and closed the door behind him. A third knock sounded through the house.
‫נכנסה למיטה‬
‫תקתוק‬
‫אף אחד מהם‬
‫קופסת גפרורים‬
‫נכבה‬
‫דפיקה‬
‫נשמע ברחבי‬
‫באותו רגע‬
‫מאחוריו‬
"What's that?" cried Mrs. White.
"A rat," said her husband, his voice shaking. "A rat. It passed me on the
stairs."
‫עבר ליד‬
‫רועד‬
‫חולדה‬
263
‫הדהד ברחבי‬
Mrs. White sat up in bed, listening. Another knock echoed through the
house.
"It‘s Herbert!" she screamed. "It's Herbert!"
‫החזיק בה בחוזקה‬
She ran to the door, but her husband caught her arm and held her tightly.
‫לחש‬
"What are you going to do?" he whispered.
"It's my boy. It's Herbert!" she cried. "What are you holding me for?
Let go. I must open the door."
!‫ריבונו של עולם‬
"For Heaven's sake, don't let it in!"
"You're afraid of your own son. Let me go. I'm coming, Herbert. I'm
coming!" she screamed.
There was another knock, and then another. She broke free and ran
from the room. Her husband followed, calling after her to come back. He
heard the chain rattle and the bottom lock open slowly. She called to him.
‫השתחררה‬
‫ תוך שהוא קורא לה‬,‫עקב‬
‫מנעול‬
‫רשרוש השרשרת‬
‫מגיעה‬
"The top lock," she cried. "Come down. I can't reach it."
But her husband was on his hands and knees searching wildly for the
paw. If he could only find it before the thing outside could get in. The
knocking became stronger and now he heard his wife putting a chair against
the door. He heard the creaking of the top lock as it opened slowly. At the
same moment, he found the monkey's paw and breathed his third and last
wish.
‫בפראות‬
‫חריקת המנעול העליון‬
)‫נשם (השמיע‬
The knocking stopped suddenly.
He heard the chair move and the door opened. A cold wind blew on
the staircase. A long, loud cry of disappointment from his wife gave him the
courage to run to her side. The street lamp outside shone on an empty, quiet
road.
‫רוח נשבה‬
‫זעקת אכזבה‬
‫פנס רחוב האיר ריק‬
‫אומץ‬
264
LOTS
company
consequence consequences
cozy
curious – curiosity
on The Monkey's Paw
fate
mock mocks mocking
skeptical
spell spells spelling
spooky
superstition – superstitious
wish wishes wishing
Fill in blanks with words from the list above.
The Monkey’s Paw is a horror487 story about a magical monkey’s paw on which a
“holy man” cast488 a (1) ____________________________. The monkey’s paw has
the power to give a person three (2) __________________________. The paw really
works, and the wishes will come true,489 but be careful! Because together with the
wish coming true, the person who makes the wish will also suffer490 terrible
(3) _________________________.
In the first scene of the story, the author creates a (4) ________________________
atmosphere:491 There is a storm raging492 outside, it is raining, lightning493 flashes in
the black night, the gate makes a loud creaking noise494 when the soldier opens it. But
inside the White family’s house the atmosphere seems (5) _____________________:
The White family and the soldier are all sitting around a fire, warming their toes by
the fire, playing cards by the light of the fire, enjoying each other’s –
(6) ______________, and drinking whisky.
Each of the three people in the White family has a different attitude towards495 the
paw. Mrs. White is (7) ______________________ – she thinks the paw is very
interesting and wants to know more about it. She is a (8)
______________________________ woman who believes in things like palm
reading, (9) _________________, and black magic. Mr. White believes in the power
of the paw, but he is ashamed to admit it.496 Mr. White says that he doesn't want to
make any wishes, because he is very happy with his (10)
___________________________ in life – he has everything that he needs. Herbert is
(11) _______________________ -- he does not believe in the power of the paw. He
(12) ________________________ his father’s naive497 belief in the paw, making
jokes about how stupid it is to believe in spells and making wishes.
‫ זוועה‬,‫ אימה‬487
‫ הטיל‬488
‫ יתגשמו‬489
‫ יסבול‬490
‫ אוירה‬491
‫ מתחוללת סערה‬492
‫ ברק‬493
‫ פתיחת השער משמיעה חריקה‬494
‫ גישה כלפי‬495
‫ מתבייש להודות בכך‬496
‫ תמים‬,‫ נאיבי‬497
265
Analysis
1.
and
Interpretation
of
The Monkey’s
Paw
Make a list of ten words or phrases that make a spooky atmosphere.
1.______________________
2.________________________
3.____________________
4._________________
6.______________________
7.________________________
8.____________________
9._________________
2.
5.__________________
10.__________________
Copy three examples of Herbert’s skepticism about the paw.
a. ________________________________________________________________
b. ________________________________________________________________
c. ________________________________________________________________
3.
If, before making his wish for 200 pounds, Mr. White met the "holy man,"
what advice would "the holy man" give Mr. White?
_________________________________________________________________
4.
Fill in the chart about strange things that happen in the story, and how they
can be explained.
Strange thing that happens in the
Natural explanation
story
5.
In your opinion, which strange event in the story is the hardest to explain
naturally?
_________________________________________________________________
6.
HOTS – uncovering motives
‫כישור חשיבה – חשיפת מניעים‬
At first, Mr. White says "I don't know what to wish for, it seems to me I have
everything I want." Why did he decide to make a wish?
_________________________________________________________________
7.
What is Mr. White’s main personality trait? ______________________
Give an example from each part of the story:
part one ___________________________________________________________
part two ___________________________________________________________
part three ___________________________________________________________
266
Essay options
Write an essay on one of the following topics:
a) Describe how you think your life will look in 15 years from now. You may write a
general description, or write “a day in my life in 15 years from now.” Aspects of life
you may want to discuss: Family status and size; Profession; Your daily schedule;
Location; Life goals; Contribution to society
b) Predict a description of the State of Israel 15 years from now. Aspects you
may want to discuss: Society; Culture; Makeup of population (Demography);
Religion; Law; Economy; Security; Borders; Settlement; Education.
Don't forget: write in short sentences; indent at the beginning of each paragraph;
skip lines between paragraphs; capital letter at beginning of each sentence; use
commas and periods; don't use numbers or asterisks.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
267
Golda Meir's twenty-five 'Stephans'
Adapted from chapter 11 of 'O, Jerusalem!'
The truck parked at the edge of the lawn.498 Five men carrying pieces of wood
and rope, jumped out of the truck and walked carefully in the darkness. One of them
turned on a flashlight. Its light lit up two massive metal silhouettes.499 Over the door,
there was a sign that said "Jerusalem Menorah Club." This was the meeting place of
the men who had served with the Jewish Legion during the First World War. For
thirty years, there on the clubhouse lawn, two huge pieces of metal on the lawn had
symbolized Britain's victory500 over the Ottoman Empire, and the Jewish Legion's part
in that victory. Now, Eliahu Sochaczever, a Polish engineer serving in the Haganah,
had come to take these souvenirs501 for a new war. Sawn into pieces,502 the two
captured Turkish cannons503 of the Menorah Club would serve as barrels504 for the first
pieces of artillery505 of Jerusalem's Haganah. The fact that the Haganah had to steal
them from their place of honor in the middle of the night — shows how poor the
Haganah was in heavy weapons.506 The need for these cannons was so urgent507, that
Jerusalem's Chief Rabbi gave the workers in Sochaczever's secret workshops508
permission to work on the Sabbath while they converted these Turkish cannons into
homemade mortars.509 Called the "Davidka" after their inventor, David Lovitch, an
agronomist from Siberia, those mortars were the only piece of heavy artillery in the
Haganah's arsenal510 during the winter of 1947-1948. They shot a shell511 made from
water pipes and packed with explosives, nails and bits of scrap metal. Their range and
accuracy,512 in the words of one Haganah man, were "about the same as David's
slingshot."513 The Davidkas had only one advantage:514 they made an incredible
amount515 of noise, enough to terrify516 anybody within hearing range.517
In garages, locked into attics,518 in apartments converted into makeshift
laboratories,519 other residents of Jerusalem worked during the winter of 1947-1948 to
create improvised arms520 for the defense of their city. Serving the Hagana in this job
were some world-famous scientists. Joel Racah and Aaron Kachalski, for example,
stopped working on discovering the secrets of nuclear physics and molecular
chemistry521 in order to devote themselves to simpler tasks.522 In an apartment in
‫מדשאה‬498
‫צְ לָ ִליות‬499
500
winning
"‫ הכוונה לתותחים המיושנים ששכבו על הדשא של מועדון בוגרי "הלגיון היהודי‬,‫מזכרות‬501
)‫חתוכים לחתיכות (באמצעות ַמּסֹור‬502
‫תותחים טורקיים‬503
‫קנה של תותח‬504
505
cannon
‫נשק כבד‬506
‫כ"כ דחוף‬507
‫בתי מלאכה‬508
‫מרגמות מתוצרת בית‬509
‫מחסן הנשק‬510
‫טיל‬511
)‫הטווח והדיוק (של הדווידקה‬512
‫קלע של דוד‬513
514
benefit
‫כמות מדהימה‬515
516
scare
‫טווח שמיעה‬517
‫גג‬-‫נעולים (מבוצרים) בעליות‬518
)‫בדירות שנהפכו למעבדות ארעיות (לייצור נשק‬519
‫נשק מאולתר‬520
‫ פיסיקה גרעינית וכימיה מֹולֶ קּולָ ִרית‬521
‫ משימות‬522
268
Rehavia the two great scientists worked day and night on developing a better
gunpowder523 for the Davidka. Nearby, two students in the chemistry and physics
department at Hebrew University, Jonathan Adler and Avner Treinin, made
homemade hand grenades and a variety of booby-trap devices524 for use in the Arab
neighborhoods of the city. To develop a detonator525 for his grenades, Adler used as a
textbook the manual526 of another secret militia, the Irish Republican Army.527 In a
room lined with rubber sheets528 in the Orthodox quarter of Mea Shearim, a deaf and
dumb529 student named Emmanuel produced fulminite of mercury530 for Adler's
detonators.
It was easier for the Haganah to develop weapons in the coastal plain,531 where
security was better. Joseph Avidar, who had immigrated to Palestine from the Ukraine
at the age of nineteen, supervised this activity. Using machinery that Haim Slavine had
bought in the United States, and getting technical advice from experts at Sonneborn
Institute of Technology, Avidar directed an arms factory532 covering almost one
thousand square feet of floor space. It was hidden under the ground of kibbutz of
Maagan Michael, north of Tel Aviv. This kibbutz was founded for the purpose of
hiding the activities of the underground factory. The entrance to the factory was
hidden in a laundry in which the kibbutz laundered uniforms for the British Army! The
kibbutz bakery's smokestack533 was the underground factory's air vent.534
Avidar's biggest problem was finding cartridge cases535 for the nine-millimeter
bullets he planned to make. Avidar solved this problem by a unique strategy —
importing536 millions of lipstick tubes537 from an English cosmetics company. By
July 1948, his little secret factory produced three million cartridge cases. Near
Hadera, another workshop under Avidar's supervision made shells for a small mortar.
The crating room538 of a Haifa orange grove539 served as cover for making hand
grenades. One of the most important tasks supervised by Avidar was making the
'sandwich' armored cars540 that the Haganah used to keep the road Jerusalem open.
The 'armor' that protected those cars was made of two four-millimeter-thick steel
sheets 'sandwiched' around fifty millimeters of wood.
In Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem, the Hagana added to its arsenal by buying
arms541 from its enemies. Hidden under truckloads of carrots, a few rifles and much
ammunition in this way reached the Haganah's hands, sold to them by Arabs. The
British in Jerusalem also turned out to be a good source of arms.542 At the end of
January, two British soldiers delivered to the Haganah a truckload of explosives and
ammunition for nothing more than a glass of cognac and a grateful handshake.543
‫ חומר נפץ‬,‫ אבקת שריפה‬523
‫ למלכוד‬/ ‫ מכשירים למטען‬524
‫ ַמ ְרעֹום (המנגנון שמפעיל‬525
)‫ מדריך (ספר הדרכה‬526
‫ ארגון טרור אירי שנלחם נגד בריטניה‬527
‫ מרופד בסדיני גומי‬528
‫ חרף ואילם‬529
‫סוג של חומר נפץ‬530
‫במישור החוף‬531
‫ מפעל לייצור נשק‬532
‫ ארובה‬533
‫ פתח אויר‬534
‫ מחסניות‬535
‫ ייבוא‬536
‫ אודם‬537
‫מחסן‬538
‫פרדס‬539
‫משוריינים‬540
541
weapons
‫מקור לנשק‬542
‫לחיצת יד מלאה רגשות תודה‬543
269
Another British soldier sold the Haganah his armored car, its turret544 full of shells,
gasoline and small arms,545 for one thousand Palestine pounds. A few well-planned
attacks on the British Army's arsenals supplemented those acquisitions.546 Excited by
the purchase547 of their first armored car, the Jerusalem Haganah sent a group of men
dressed-up as British soldiers into the Bevingrad security zone.548 They drove out
with a brand-new armored car. The car began to mysteriously appear and re-appear,
until Jerusalem's Arabs became convinced that the Haganah had a whole fleet549 of
armored cars.
A major problem that the Jewish Agency550 had that winter was money. One
January evening, Eliezer Kaplan, the Jewish Agency treasurer,551 gave a report to the
Zionist leaders. Kaplan had just returned from a fund-raising trip552 to the United
States with his pockets almost empty. Kaplan reported553 that the American Jewish
community, which had given so much support to the Zionist movement, was getting
tired of the requests for money from their Palestine brothers. The time had come,
Kaplan said, to face a bitter554 reality: they could not count on more than five million
dollars555 from America in the critical months ahead.556 That number – only five
million dollars! - hit the group gathered around Kaplan like a thunderbolt.557 One by
one, their faces turned towards Ben Gurion, who had followed Kaplan's report with
impatience. Ben-Gurion understood the consequences of what Kaplan had just said.
The rifles and machine-guns that Ehud Avriel bought in Prague could hold back558 the
Palestinian Arabs; but against the tanks, artillery and airplanes of the regular Arab
armies559 that would join the coming war, they would be useless. Ben-Gurion had
prepared a plan to equip560 a modern army. To carry his plan out561, he needed, at a
minimum, six times the sum562 mentioned by Kaplan. Jumping from his seat, he
growled563 to the men around him, 'Kaplan and I must travel to the United States
immediately in order to make the Americans realize how serious the situation is.'
At that moment, a quiet woman's voice was heard. It belonged to the woman
who had started her Zionist activity collecting funds564 in Denver, Colorado. 'What
you are doing here I cannot do,' Golda Meir told Ben-Gurion. 'However, what you
propose565 to do in the United States I can do. You stay here and let me go to the
States to raise the money.'566 Ben-Gurion reddened.567 He said that the matter568 was
‫צריח‬544
weapons
‫הוסיפו על הרכישות האלה‬546
547
buying
‫ מרכז העצבים של השלטון הבריטי‬,‫מגרש הרוסים בזמן המנדט היה איזור צבאי סגור‬548
‫ "צִ י" שלם‬549
‫הסוכנות היהודית‬550
‫ שר האוצר‬,‫גזבר‬551
‫נסיעה לגיוס כספים‬552
‫דיווח‬553
‫ קשה‬,‫מר‬554
555
one dollar in 1947 was worth about 15 of today's dollars
‫בחודשים הגורליים לפניהם‬556
)‫ברק (הם היו בהלם‬557
‫ לעצור את פלישת‬,‫לחסום‬558
‫צבא סדיר‬559
‫לצייד‬560
‫להוציא את תכניתו לפועל‬561
‫פי שישה מהסכום‬562
‫ ָר ַטן‬,‫ נָהַ ם‬563
‫ אסיפת תרומות‬/ ‫בגיוס כספים‬564
‫מציע‬565
566
collect the funds
567
became red (with anger)
‫העניין‬568
545
270
so important, he insisted569 he and Kaplan should go. The other members570 of the
Jewish Agency leadership,571 however, supported Golda. Two days later, with no more
baggage572 than the thin573 spring dress she wore and the handbag she held in her
hand, she arrived in New York on a freezing winter night. Her departure574 been so
sudden that she had not had the time to pack575 a change of clothes. The woman who
had come to New York in search of millions of dollars had in her purse576 that
evening exactly one ten-dollar bill.577 When a customs agent578 asked her how she
planned to support herself in the United States, she answered simply, 'I have family
here.'
Two days later, trembling on a stage579 in Chicago, Golda Meir found herself
580
facing a distinguished gathering of the members of that family.581 They were the
leaders of the Council of Jewish Federations.582 By luck, her arrival in the United
States came at the time of their yearly meeting. Facing her in one room in Chicago
were most of the financial583 leaders of the American Jewish community, the very
men584 whose help she had been sent to request. For the carpenter's daughter from the
Ukraine585 her task her was an intimidating challenge.586 She had not visited the
United States since 1938. On her earlier trips, she had met dedicated587 Zionists and
Socialists like herself. Now she faced the whole spectrum588 of American Jewish
thought, much of it apathetic or even hostile589 to her Zionist ideals.
Her friends in New York had tried to convince her to avoid this
confrontation.590 The Council of Jewish Federation's leadership was not Zionist. Its
members were already under great pressures for funds591 for their own American
institutions, for hospitals, synagogues, cultural centers. They were tired, as Kaplan
had discovered, of requests from abroad592 for money. But Golda Meir had
insisted.593 Even though the order of speakers at the meeting had been decided on long
in advance,594 Golda had telephoned Henry Montor, director of the United Jewish
Appeal595 in Chicago and announced596 that she was on her way. Then, stopping only
to buy a coat with which to face597 the American winter, she flew to Chicago. Now
‫התעקש‬569
"friends"
‫הנהגה‬571
‫ מזוודות‬,‫כבודה‬572
‫דק‬573
‫עזיבתה‬574
‫לארוז‬575
‫בארנקה‬576
‫שטר‬577
‫פקיד המכס‬578
‫רועדת על במה‬579
‫מול‬580
)‫אסיפה של נכבדי אותה "משפחה" (הכוונה לקהילה היהודית בארה"ב‬581
)‫מועצת הפדרציות היהודיות (ארגון גג שמגייס תרומות ומזרים אותם לכל מיני מוסדות יהודיים‬582
583
economic
‫ממש אותם אנשים‬584
)‫בתו של הנגר מאוקראינה (הכוונה לגולדה מאיר‬585
‫המשימה בפניה היתה אתגר מרתיע‬586
‫מסורים‬587
‫ המגוון‬,‫הקשת‬588
‫עוין‬589
‫להימנע מן העימות‬590
591
money
‫מחו"ל‬592
‫התעקשה‬593
‫זמן רב מראש‬594
‫קרן היסוד‬595
‫הודיעה‬596
)‫ במקרה הזה – הקור‬,‫לעמוד בפני (מציאות קשה‬597
570
271
Golda Meir heard the master of ceremonies598 announce her name. At the sight of599
her simple, austere figure600 moving to the stage, someone in the audience said, 'She
looks like the women of the Bible.' Then, without a text, the messenger from
Jerusalem began to speak.
'You must believe me,' she said, 'when I tell you that I have not come to the
United States only to prevent601 seven hundred thousand Jews from being wiped off
the face of the earth.602 During these last years, the Jewish people have lost six
million; Do we need to remind the Jews of the world that seven hundred thousand
Jews are in danger? But, really, the fate603 of these seven hundred thousand Jews is
not the question. If they survive,604 then the Jews of the world will survive with them,
and their freedom will be sure forever. But if they do not, then there will be no
Jewish people, there will be no Jewish nation, and all our hopes will be smashed.605
In a few months,' she told her audience, 'A Jewish state will be born in Palestine. We
will fight for its birth. That is natural. We will pay for it with our blood. That is
normal. The best among us will fall, that is certain. But what is just as certain is that
our morale will not waver no matter how numerous our invaders may be.606 But,' she
warned, 'those invaders will come with artillery and tanks. Against those weapons,
sooner or later, our courage607 will have no meaning, because we will be destroyed,'
she said. She had come, she announced,608 to ask the Jews of America for twenty-five
to thirty million dollars to buy the heavy arms they would need to face the invasion.609
'My friends,' she said, 'Our time is short. When I tell you that we need this money
immediately, it does not mean next month, or in two months. It means right now ...
'You,' she concluded,610 'will not decide whether we will continue our
struggle611 or not. We will fight. The Jewish community of Palestine will never hang
out612 the white flag before the Mufti of Jerusalem ... but you can decide one thing —
whether the victory613 will be ours or the Mufti's.'
A silence fell on her audience, and for a moment614 Golda thought she had
615
failed.
Then the whole audience of men and women rose in a deafening wave of
616
applause. While its echoes617 still rang through618 the dining-room, the first
volunteers rushed619 to the stage with their pledges.620 Before coffee was served,
Golda had been promised over a million dollars. They were made available
immediately in cash.621 Men began to telephone their bankers asking for personal
‫המנחה‬598
‫למראה‬599
‫דמותה הפשוטה והחמורה‬600
‫למנוע‬601
602
wiped off the face of the earth = killed
603
destiny
‫ישרדו‬604
‫ יתרסקו‬,‫יתנפצו‬605
‫רוחנו לא תתנדנד לא משנה כמה פולשים יהיו‬606
607
bravery, heroism
608
said
609
to fight back against the Arab armies that would attack Israel
‫היא סיימה‬610
611
fight, battle
‫לעולם לא נניף‬612
613
winning
614
a second
615
didn't succeed
‫מחיאות כפיים מחרישות אוזניים‬616
‫הדים‬617
‫צלצלו ברחבי החדר‬618
619
moved quickly
620
promises of money
‫הכספים נהיו זמינים במזומנים‬621
272
loans for the sums they estimated they would be able to raise622 later in their
communities. By the time that623 amazing afternoon was over,624 Golda was able to
telegraph Ben-Gurion her hope that she would be able to raise the twenty-five
`Stephans' — twenty-five million dollars, in the code they had chosen (using the name
of American Zionist leader Rabbi Stephen S. Wise).
Amazed by Golda's success in Chicago, the American Zionist leadership
encouraged her to go on a cross-country tour.625 Accompanied by626 Henry
Morgenthau, Jr., Franklin D. Roosevelt's former Secretary of the Treasury,627 she set a
fast pace,628 speaking sometimes three and four times a day. From city to city she
moved on her trip, for each audience renewing her dramatic request, eliciting629 from
each audience the same spontaneous, overwhelmingly generous reaction she had
produced630 in Chicago. And from each stop a telegram went back to Tel Aviv
counting the 'Stephans' raised631 during the day. From time to time along the way,
other telegrams went out from her hotel room. To Ehud Avriel in Prague, Xiel
Federmann in Antwerp, and other Zionist agents who had been sent to Europe in order
to buy equipment for a Jewish army, they brought good news: the details of the bank
transfer632 that would finance633 their purchases.634
Golda faltered635 only once during her extraordinary636 trip. It was in Palm
Beach, Florida. Looking at the elegance of the dinner crowd before her, their jewels,
their furs,637 the moon light on the sea beyond the banquet hall's638 windows, she
suddenly thought about the Hanagah soldiers trembling639 in the cold of the Judean
hills640 that night. Drinking black coffee on the stage, thinking of the contrast
between that scene and the scene before her, tears641 came to her eyes. 'These people
don't want to hear about fighting and death in Palestine,' she thought. But, in fact,
they wanted to hear; and they were so moved642 by Golda's speech that before the
evening was over, the gathering643 at Palm Beach had promised her a million and a
half dollars - enough to buy a winter coat for every soldier in the Haganah.
The woman who had arrived in the United States one freezing January night
with ten dollars in her wallet644 would leave with fifty million, ten times the sum645
Eliezer Kaplan had mentioned, twice646 the figure set647 by David Ben-Gurion, three
‫הלוואות אישיות (ביקשו הלוואה מהבנק להם באופן אישי) לסכומים שלהערכתם יוכלו לגייס‬622
‫אותו‬623
624
ended
‫מסע ברחבי ארה"ב‬625
626
joined by
‫ מורגנטאו היה יהודי‬.)‫ בזמן כהונתו של הנשיא רוזוולט (מי שהיה נשיא בזמן מלחמת העולם השנייה‬,‫ שר האוצר לשעבר‬627
‫קצב‬628
‫תוך שהיא מעוררת‬629
‫תגובה עוצמתית של נדיבות שהיא עוררה‬630
‫שגויסו‬631
‫העברה בנקאית‬632
633
pay for
634
shopping, buying
‫ התנדנדה‬,‫היססה‬635
636
amazing
‫פרוות‬637
638
fancy dining room
‫רועדים‬639
‫הרי יהודה‬640
‫דמעות‬641
‫כ"כ נגע לליבם‬642
‫הנאספים‬643
644
purse
645
amount
646
two times
‫הנתון (היעד) שנקבע‬647
273
times the entire oil revenues648 of Saudi Arabia for 1947. Waiting for her airplane at
Lydda Airport was David Ben-Gurion, the man who had wanted to go instead of her.
No one appreciated649 the importance of Golda's achievement in the United States
more than Ben-Gurion. 'The day when history is written,' he solemnly650 told her, 'it
will be recorded651 that it was thanks to a Jewish woman that the Jewish state was
born.'
As each minute passed in the early morning, more and more people went in to
and out of the train station. The noise of the traffic rose as motorbikes and bicycles
moved along with buses, cars, and taxis. Su-Yen stood quietly in a doorway opposite
the station. She stood alone without moving, watching all the people hurrying along.
She looked at the large clock above the entrance to the train station -- 6:35. Soon, she
thought, the station would be at its busiest.
The fog and the rain had made the city wet. Su-Yen had been waiting in the
doorway since before sunrise. She knew what she had to do, and feelings and thoughts
filled her mind.
A cry, light as a whisper, rose from the small package she was holding close
to her chest. A wave of pain and sadness came over her. How tired and alone she felt.
The cry became louder. Su-Yen looked down. The baby's face was damp and bright
from her mother's tears.
Professor Allan Schwartzbaum always left his house at 5:45 A.M. on
Thursdays. He was a visiting American professor on a Fulbright Scholarship to the
Republic of China. Schwartzbaum taught sociology and industrial relations in three
universities throughout the country. Today he had to travel from Tamsui, a small
fishing village where he lived, to Taichung in central Taiwan where he taught once a
week. As he left the house and walked down the narrow mountain path, he saw
farmers already working in their rice fields. It was a beautiful May morning.
Su-Yen knew she had to act then. If things had only been different.., if the
baby had been a boy, if their backgrounds had not been so different. There was no
choice. She reached into a small bag and found a pen and a piece of paper on which
to write a few words. Then, holding her baby tightly, she walked quietly toward the
station.
There were several ways one could travel from Tamsui. The fastest way was
by taxi, but the taxi drivers drove very fast and dangerously. They were known as
“wild chickens." Buses were much safer. Another way of traveling was by train.
Schwartzbaum decided he would take the train this morning. He always enjoyed
traveling with the many schoolchildren who took the train to the city. He smiled to
himself, but then his smile faded when he remembered that he and his wife, Barbara,
had been married for seven years. They led busy, interesting lives, traveling, working,
‫סך ההכנסות ממכירת נפט‬648
‫ הכיר ב‬,‫העריך‬649
‫בכובד ראש‬650
‫יירשם‬651
274
and studying. But in their quiet moments they could feel the emptiness and the
sadness of not having any children.
As she entered the station, Su-Yen found herself in the middle of the noise and
movement of the crowds all around her. She looked for an empty space or corner
where she could put down her small package, a place where no one would see her
leaving her baby, but where someone would find it. She took off her jacket and
wrapped it around the baby, making sure the note was in the pocket. Just then, a voice
came over the loudspeaker system calling people to go to their trains.
A number of travelers left their seats. For a moment there was an empty seat
to Su-Yen's right. She quickly placed the package wrapped in her red jacket on the
seat, and moved along with the crowd. Her arms and her heart were empty. She had
left her baby, never to see it again.
Schwartzbaum joined the crowd climbing the stairs. He bought his ticket and
began to walk to his train. Suddenly, he noticed a bright red package on an empty
bench. He thought he saw it move! He decided to investigate.
Little dark eyes looked up at him. He picked her up gently and held her close.
A note fell to the ground.
A short distance away, a woman stood watching the foreigner at the bench.
After a moment Su-Yen moved silently away.
1
The office of the railroad police was small but orderly. Lieutenant Lee looked up
from the report writing. He took off his glasses before he spoke. "We are sorry this
happened to you,” he began. “It is not proper for an important visitor to be troubled by
such things. We have taken the baby to where she will be looked after. Let us not
trouble you any longer.”
“Is the baby all right?” I asked.
“She seemed healthy. A doctor will examine her.”
“She was so little -- she can't be more than a few days old?
“She was just born,” the lieutenant said, “but she looks strong.”
“Does this happen often? I mean, are babies often left like this?”
“Not as often as in the past. In China, sons were more valuable than
daughters. A husband could send his wife away if she didn't give him sons.
Sometimes, when people were very poor and there was nothing to eat, parents would
try to sell their children, especially girls. But now life is much better.”
“Then why would someone leave her baby?”
275
“Perhaps because of the mother's shame. She would not want to bring shame
to her family. If the baby were a boy, who could carry the family name, the family
might accept it, but with a girl...”
“Before I go,” I said, “please let me know where the baby was taken.” Lt. Lee
wrote down the address and passed it across the desk. “One more question, please.
There was a note with the baby. What did it say?”
Lee stopped for a second before he answered. “It said:
Whoever finds this baby -- watch over her with love and kindness, and fortune
will share your way.”
That evening Barbara and I sat in our living room. We loved our little house
with its red door, wooden floor, and straw mats. From the window we could see the
fishing boats on the water, coming home for the night. We spoke about what had
happened during the day.
“I felt so strange when I realized it was a baby,” I said. “I was frightened, but
somehow happy.”
Barbara turned to me. Tears were in her eyes. “Do you know where she is
now?”
“Yes, the police officer gave me the address of the place - it's on Chung Hwa
Road.”
“We'll go there first thing tomorrow morning,” she said, reading my thoughts.
I nodded in agreement. “Yes, first thing.”
2
When we arrived at the address on Chung Hwa Road at half past eight the next
morning, we were to discover that it was a church. We walked around for several
minutes until we found an open back door leading to a wooden staircase. On the
second floor Barbara slowly opened the heavy door. Suddenly we heard the noise of
countless crying babies, and the smell of dirty diapers was strong. In this very large
room with a high ceiling, there were rows and rows of baby cribs filled with crying
babies. There were no caretakers around.
After a few minutes, a tired-looking woman came through the narrow
doorway. I immediately went over to her. "Good morning,” I said over the noise.
“We would like to see the baby who was found at the train station yesterday."
“Oh! I think she is in the fourth row, near the wall, somewhere in the middle.”
She pointed her finger in that direction and then continued with her work.
Barbara and I looked among the cribs until we found one with a newborn baby
in it. We saw a little head of very black hair. She was a very beautiful little baby.
The woman joined us at the crib. “Yes, this is the one.”
“Are you the only person taking care of all these children?" Barbara asked.
276
“Yes. Sometimes I find someone to help me, but usually I am alone.”
“How do you manage?”
“Well, I get to each child when I can. They all get taken care of sooner or
later.”
Barbara turned to me and whispered, “We must get this baby out of here right
now!”
“I found this baby yesterday,” I said to the woman, again shouting above the
noise. “We wish to take her home with us.”
“You must speak to Reverend Won. He is downstairs in his office.”
We found his office and knocked on the door. “Can I help you?” he asked.
“Yes, I hope so. I am Professor Allan Schwartzbaum and this is my wife,
Barbara. Yesterday I found a newborn baby at the train station. They told us that she
was brought here and we have just seen her upstairs. We want to take her home with
us.”
Reverend Wen looked us over very carefully for a few moments and finally
said, “That might be possible, but it is customary for people to first give some money
to our church. I am sure you understand how expensive it is to care for so many
children.”
“I see. Please allow me to discuss this with my wife?
I turned to Barbara and spoke quietly. “I am sure that this guy gets babies who
nobody wants and sells them to people for money. What should we do?”
“Make him an offer!”
“How much should I say?”
“I don't know, but we must get the baby out of this place immediately.”
I turned back to the desk. “Reverend Wen, I have twenty-five American dollars with
me and I will pay you another two hundred by next week.”
“Very good,” said Reverend Wen. “Please sign this paper saying how much
you want to give to the church and the baby is yours. Since the baby has no name I
will give the baby the family name Wen, like mine, and the personal name of Yu-Bing
-- “Jade )‫ ירקן (סוג של אבן טובה‬Ice.” Her full name is Wen Yu Bing.”
We all went upstairs and he told the caretaker to give us the baby. She
wrapped the baby in a thin blanket and gave her to Barbara. I nodded to him and led
Barbara down the stairs and out the door, the tiny package held tightly in her arms.
Barbara looked down at the baby, and said in a soft voice, almost to herself, “YuBing, Jade Ice – what a terrible name! It is so cold. I will never use that name
again.”
277
As we walked out of the church courtyard, I said, "I don't believe what just
happened! Can you imagine in America going in to such a place and coming out a few
minutes later with a baby?'
Barbara looked down again at the baby who was sleeping in her arms. “What
are we going to do now?”
“Let's get her home quickly, before someone changes his mind!”
3
Mei-Mei, our housekeeper, was busy in the kitchen - as usual -- when we returned.
“Is that a baby I hear?" she asked.
“It is a baby," Barbara said excitedly. “You remember the baby that Allan
found in the train station yesterday? We went to see if we could take her, and here
she is!”
Mei-Mei lifted a corner of the little blanket.”' said, “it is a baby. A Chinese
baby. What are you going to do with her?'
All at once we realized what we had done. Most husbands and wives have nine
months to prepare for a new our baby. In our case, we awoke that very morning,
without a child, and three hours later, with no preparation, we had a baby.
“What are we going to do?' Barbara cried worriedly. We have no bed for the
baby, no baby clothes, and we don't even have any baby food!'
“Do not worry,” said Mei-Mei, her face filled with pleasure. “I know what to
do and soon you will too. There is an old Chinese saying: The hungry child does not
need to be taught how to eat!”
Mei-Mei soon had everything arranged. She spoke to all the neighbors and
then almost by magic, things began to appear: a little dress, a package of diapers, an
old bamboo cradle, warm blankets, baby bottles. Mei-Mei sent her oldest daughter to
the market to look for baby milk. When she returned we were all set.
In no time at all, the news had spread. Little children came to look at the new
baby. Neighbors came to see the baby and to give advice on everything. After a while,
Barbara asked Mei-Mei not to let any more people come.
The baby seemed healthy. She drank from her bottle. She also cried a lot. Not
soft cries, but loud cries that filled the whole house. Barbara was worried. The more
she tried to calm the baby, the louder the baby cried. “Mei-Mei! What's wrong? Why
is she crying? Is she hungry? Maybe she's sick!"
Mei-Mei answered, “Do not worry. It is normal. There is an old Chinese
saying: A quiet stream has no water!”
Much later, after the sun had gone down behind the green mountains and the
baby had stopped crying, Barbara said to me. “We have to have a name for this baby.
We can't keep calling her 'the baby' and I refuse to call her 'Jade Ice.'”
278
“Yes,” I said, “I have been thinking about it. Here we have a Chinese baby and
we have no idea what her future will be or how her life will turn out -- but we do know
one thing. It all began here in China. I'd like to call her 'HsinMei,' Hsin for heart and
Mei for China. Hsin-Mei -- 'My heart is in China.'”
“I like that name,” said Barbara. “It suits her.”
4
On the eighth of May, two days after finding the baby, I visited the American
Embassy to learn what we had to do, to bring Hsin-Mei home with us when we
returned to the U.S. We had originally planned on leaving China at the end of June, so
time was short and I was anxious to complete the necessary paperwork. An embassy
clerk explained that first we had to prove that we had really adopted the baby.
I then went to a lawyer friend to find out what I had to do. He told me to get a
birth certificate, proof that the child's relatives were not against the adoption, and a
letter from the orphanage, and to bring them to the Taipei Central Court. If all the
papers were in order, they would give me a letter of adoption.
That afternoon I returned to the church on Chung Hwa Road and found
Reverend Wen in his office. He asked, “Have you returned to pay the rest of the
money?”
“I will take care of the matter in a day or two,” I answered. “Today I am trying
to take care of everything I need for the adoption papers.”
Wen took out a pen and wrote a short letter. He stamped it and handed it to
me. He said, “This says that we have given the baby to you. Since the baby was found
in the train station you must also get a letter from the railway police. You will have to
take this letter to the government office which will prepare the birth certificate. Will
you be able to bring the rest of the money to the church tomorrow morning?”
“As soon as I get the adoption papers from the court," I told him, “I will be
happy to bring the rest of the money." Putting the letter in my pocket, I hurried out of
his office into the fresh spring air.
Exactly at eight the following morning I returned to the train station and once
again went to the office of Lt. Lee. He was interested to learn all that had happened
since our last meeting. He smiled when he heard the name Hsin Mei, and he offered to
help me get the necessary papers for the court.
How can I find out if the baby has relatives who might want to take care of
her?” I asked.
Lee reached for the newspaper behind his desk and pointed to the column on
page two. “Yesterday's paper reported that a baby was found in the central train
station," he said. “It says that anyone who has any information about the baby or any
of its relatives must call this office immediately. That is always done in cases like
this."
279
I was suddenly very frightened. Maybe someone stole her from her real
mother, or maybe the mother would change her mind after reading the newspaper.
In the three days since I had found her, Hsin Mei had become a very important
part of our lives. I tried to sound calm and asked quietly, "Has anyone called you?”
Lt. Lee answered softly, "No one has called at all." He put some papers in an
envelope and got up from his chair. "Let us now try to get a birth certificate.”
We left his office and drove to the government office that gives out birth
certificates. They gave us a glass of tea while Let. Lee spoke with the secretary
explaining exactly what we needed. She sent us to another office where they gave us
another glass of tea. From that office we were sent to another office until we finally
found ourselves in the office of the head of the government office. As I sipped another
glass of strong green tea, Lee spoke with him explaining to him everything that had
happened. At last he picked up the phone and told the secretary to prepare the birth
certificate. Lee and I rose from our seats and thanked the man for his help and
kindness.
On our way out we stopped at the desk where a woman clerk handed us the
birth certificate. Lee examined the paper carefully and explained. “This says that Wen
YaBing was born on May 6, 1972 in Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. Because that
was her name on the letter from the orphanage, that is the name that is on the birth
certificate.”
“I don't think it really matters at this point,” I said. “I'll tell my wife that she
can always change the name -- if she is prepared to drink twenty glasses of tea!”
5
Several days later, while Mei-Mei watched the baby, Barbara and I went to
Taipei, to the Central Court. We took along all the papers we had gotten. “After
today,” I told Barbara, “all that we need to do is to go to the American Embassy and
get a visa. We will be able to leave as we had planned, at the end of June.”
We went to the court and waited for the judge. Soon the judge came in and began
reading our papers. We sat very calmly because we knew that we had gotten all
the necessary papers. Suddenly, he stood up and said, “I will not let you adopt this
baby!” He left the room very quickly along with his clerk. We couldn't believe what
was happening. Everything had seemed so easy and smooth.
After a few minutes the clerk returned. “What went wrong? What is the
problem?” Barbara asked anxiously.
“The judge will not have anything to do with Reverend Wen,” the clerk
explained. “Wen is a dishonest man. He has a bad name. The judge knows him from
other cases. He became very angry when he saw that man's signature on the papers.”
“What can we do now?”
“You must bring the baby to another orphanage, one that is on the government
list, and bring a letter of adoption from them. Mr. Wen's orphanage is not on the list.”
“But we already have the baby at home with us!” Barbara said.
280
“You must talk about this with the new orphanage,” answered the clerk. “You may
have to leave the baby there until the matter is finished. I have nothing more to tell you.”
We left the room and walked slowly down the long hall and out of the court
building, full of sadness.
I decided to go back to Lt. Lee to talk to him. “How could this happen?” I
wanted to know. “Why did you bring the baby to Reverend Wen if he is not on the
list? The judge doesn't want to take care of our case.”
Lt. Lee explained, “Reverend Wen leaves cards all around the city. The cards
say: If you have children who need care, bring them to my church. I will take care of
them and pay you for your help. This is how he finds children. People bring children
to him and he gives them a little money. He then sells the children at a high price to
people who want children. We have already punished the policeman who brought the
baby to Reverend Wen. Did you offer Reverend Wen any money for the baby?”
“Yes,” I said. “He suggested that I give him some money for his church. I offered
him two hundred and twenty-five dollars. I have already paid him twenty-five so far.”
“Do not pay him a penny more,” Lee ordered. 'The government is now looking
into Reverend Wen and his orphanage because of your case and we do not allow
selling children in China.”
“Where does that leave my wife and me? What can we do now?”
“I will try to help you as much as I can. If you and your wife will meet me at
three o'clock tomorrow with the baby, I will drive you to the main government
orphanage. We will see if they will give you the necessary papers.”
“And if they won't? What will we do?” I didn't get an answer to my question.
We went to the orphanage. The head lady was a very unpleasant person. She
was angry that we had gone to Reverend Wen. I tried to explain to her that I had
found the baby and that a policeman had brought the baby to Wen. Then she told me
that if we leave the baby with her, she would put our name on the list of people who
want to adopt a baby, and when they have a baby they would call us -- but it might not
be this baby.
Barbara ran out of the office and into the street, holding Hsin-Mei tightly.
When Lee and I came out, she was crying. “What a terrible woman!” she said. “I will
never give up this baby!”
As soon as we entered the house, Mei-Mei knew that something was wrong.
Barbara told her the whole story, crying.
Mei-Mei was not worried. “You don't know how things are done in China.
The Chinese way is to have someone act for you.” To go yourself is like trying to
scratch your toe with a shoe still on your foot. Your students have important fathers.
They know other important people. There is an old Chinese saying: When the water
rises, the boat rises also!”
The next day I began to visit important people. We spoke about my work and
about Chinese-American relations. At the end of each meeting I told them about my
281
“small problem.” By the end of the day I was very tired but I felt that I had done
something to help us keep our wonderful baby.
Weeks went by and we were becoming very worried that we would not be able
to keep our baby. We were very sad and didn't know what to do. Late one night, I
went outside and looked at the dark mountain and the sea in the moonlight. From deep
within me, I prayed.
Weeks passed. Then one morning we got a call from Lt. Lee. He told us to
come to the police station immediately and to bring the baby with us.
“What's happening?” I asked him.
“I will explain later. Good-bye.”
In twenty minutes we were in a “wild chicken” taxi. As soon as we walked
into his office, Lt. Lee jumped out of his chair and led us to his car. “We are going to
another orphanage,” he called over his shoulder.
We soon arrived at a small building full of little children. A woman came out
to meet us. She introduced herself as Mrs. Chou and invited us to come into her
office. We sipped tea while she wrote out a letter.
“This is your letter of adoption,” she said.
“Do we have to leave Hsin-Mei with you?” Barbara asked quietly.
"That will not be necessary,” Mrs. Chou answered.
"Thank you very, very much!” Barbara said, unable to control her excitement. “This
is so wonderful! You are so kind!” We all rose and thanked Mrs. Chou for all her help.
Lee drove us to the bus station. We thanked him for all his help and for
everything he had done for us.
“There is one more thing,” he said, giving me an envelope.
"What is this," I asked.
"You may open it."
In the envelope was twenty-five dollars.
6
When I went to the American Embassy I brought along the adoption papers.
The officer read the papers and said that everything was in order. “Now, all we need
to do is to wait for the special officer who checks the case.”
“What special officer?” I asked.
282
“Oh, I thought I had told you about that earlier “ he said. “Whenever someone
adopts a baby and wants to take it into the U.S., we must check the case to make sure
that the people are honest and will not be bad for the baby.”
“How long does all this take?"
“Generally six months, sometimes longer."
“Six months! My scholarship finishes at the end of this month. I am starting a
new job in a new city in the United States in a month and a half!”
“Well, it may be possible to do it more quickly, but it must be done.”
“Fine. I accept this. When can we meet with him?”
“I am sorry to tell you that there is only one officer like this in the Far East,
and he was here three weeks ago. He will be back only in August. Let me call him
and ask him what can be done in your case.”
The Fulbright scholarship people agreed to extend my work for another
month. The Embassy called to tell us to send all our papers to Japan, where the special
officer would be. We sent him all of the adoption papers and also letters from
important people saying that we were good and honest people. Then we waited.
Finally, in the middle of August, the special officer arrived in Taiwan.
Everything went very smoothly. The next day we got the visa, just like that! Six days
later, the three of us were at the airport, getting on a China Airlines flight to New
York.
Years later, while we were looking through our papers, Barbara discovered
that on the Sunday morning we left China, it was still Shabbat in Israel. The Haftarah
that was read on that Shabbat was from Isaiah 54:1: "Sing, you woman who has no
child! Break into song and cry aloud... "
7
After the months of difficulties with the government agencies, we were very tired.
The plane ride back to the United States was very long and hard for us. We had to
change planes in Japan, with stops in Guam and Alaska. At last the plane landed at
Kennedy International Airport in New York.
Barbara's parents and my mother were waiting to greet us. While we were
waiting to clear passport control and customs we began to worry about our parents'
reaction to their new Chinese granddaughter. From the beginning, all our decisions
about Hsin-Mei had been made from our hearts, not our heads. Now we were about to
give our parents a little granddaughter who did not look like any other member of our
family and whose beginnings were a mystery.
Being with our warm family, our fears went away. We saw that we had
nothing to worry about. The new grandmothers took turns holding and kissing our
baby. They loved her immediately. All through the ride from the airport to Barbara's
283
parents' home in Coney Island in Brooklyn, we told them all our stories about what
had happened to us and our baby in China.
We retold these stories many times over the next ten days to all our friends and
relatives who came to visit us and see for themselves what we had brought home from
China. Some of the visiting relatives were religious. Both of our mothers had been
raised in religious homes but they had married Jewish men who came from
completely nonreligious backgrounds. The results were homes in which some of the
general traditions were followed but which didn't have the spirit and the depth of
religious homes. Barbara and I had received very little Jewish education -- mine, to
prepare for my bar-mitzvah, and Barbara's, a little Hebrew and Jewish history. Two of
Barbara's aunts and uncles were religious and Barbara had visited them often during
the Jewish holidays.
Our visit ended too quickly. We packed all our belongings into our car and
began the five-hour drive to our new home in a far-away city where I would be
starting a new job as associate professor of sociology and anthropology.
*First Quiz from the beginning of the story to here*
8
Our new city was very different from New York. Our friends had rented a
beautiful house for us in a quiet neighborhood of tree-lined streets, parks, and
gardens. We were very busy buying furniture and other things that we needed for
our new home. I was also preparing for my classes at the university. One morning
while sitting in my kitchen drinking a cup of coffee, I looked at the calendar and
realized that Rosh Hashanah was exactly one week away.
Although we weren’t religious, we had always gone to synagogue on Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur — even in Taiwan where we had joined the American
soldiers at the U.S. Army base. "What do you think we should do this year about
Rash Hashanah?” I asked Barbara.. “We don’t belong to any synagogue here.”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “Don’t we need to buy tickets before the holiday in
order to go to the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah?”
“Wait a minute,” I said. “I remember reading something in yesterday’s
newspaper about prayers being held at the Jewish Community Center. Let me see if
I can find the notice.” I looked around until I found what I was looking for. “Here it
is. The Progressive Synagogue — Ohr Emmet invites the community to pray with
us on Thursday at ten-thirty. No tickets needed. What do you say?”
“Why not?” Barbara agreed. ‘We don’t seem to have any alternative.”
When the first day of Roth Hashanah arrived, we left Hsin-Mei with a babysitter
and went to the Community Center, about eight kilometers from our home. The
Center parking lot was filling up with cars as we pulled in. “Look at this crowd!” I
said. “This must either be a very popular synagogue, a very religious city, or a
community with a great many Jews who don’t belong to any synagogue at all."
"From the looks of those people, I would say that your last suggestion is
correct," Barbara answered.
284
We went into the auditorium which was filled with plastic chairs arranged in
rows. The people were mostly young couples with a few older people and
teenagers. I had put on a kippah before entering the hall, but now I saw that few of
the other men had done so.
On each of the seats there were some printed pages stuck together. We looked
through these pages which we understood would be our prayer books. There were
some poems by famous poets, some Tehillim translated into English, quotations
from famous people, and some songs.
At ten-thirty, a man in his early thirties addressed the audience. He introduced
himself as president of Congregation Ohr Emmet, which was one year old. A group
of young families had joined together to build a modern, progressive congregation
which could relate Judaism to the modern world. They wished to help people be
more Jewish without forcing anyone. “If some members wish to wear a kippah or a
tallit,” he said, “that would be fine for them. If others want to wear one or the other
— or none — that would also be fine.”
At this point I leaned over and whispered to Barbara, “And if some wish to wear
bells on their shoes, that would also be fine.” She hit me lightly with her hand.
The president then introduced the rabbi. A tall man stood up. Like the president,
he wasn’t wearing a kippah. He led the congregation in the prayers. Some of the
poems were read together, some separately, and some were read out loud by
individual members of the congregation. Between the readings, a girl with a guitar
and a pleasant voice led everyone in singing familiar American folk songs as well
as Jewish songs.
“I wonder if I can ask for a song?” I whispered to Barbara and received another
light hit in return.
After forty-five minutes of this program, the rabbi spoke very nicely for about
thirty minutes, after which we sang songs for another fifteen minutes. At exactly
twelve o’clock the president returned and thanked everyone for coming and invited
us all to return for Yom Kippur.
On our way home, I asked Barbara what she thought about it. “It was a bit
strange,” she said. “There was hardly any Hebrew, and the poems and readings
didn’t really fit together to make me feel anything special. What about you?”
“I felt like I was in a college lecture,” I said, “but it was nice that everyone tried
to make us feel welcome.”
Later that evening after finishing supper and putting Hsin-Mei to sleep,
Barbara said to me. “I thought about something this morning. I realized that you
and I are Jewish because our parents are Jewish and our parents' parents were
Jewish. But what about Hsin-Mei? I remember learning that in order to be Jewish
one has to be born to a Jewish mother.”
“So what you're saying is that you and I are Jewish, but our daughter isn't?”
285
“Exactly: And because she is Chinese, everyone will always question her
Jewishness.”
“Well, I think that the simplest thing to do is to convert Hsin-Mei to Judaism. I
don't know what must be done but it shouldn't be too difficult because she is just a
baby.”
“I think we should go to an Orthodox rabbi.” Barbara said. “That way, later no
one will be able to question whether or not Hsin-Mei is Jewish. Orthodoxy is the
strictest branch of Judaism and if she is accepted by them, then everyone else will
accept her.”
“There has to be at least one Orthodox synagogue in this city,” I said reaching
for the Yellow Pages. “Here it is, Congregation Shaarei Emmet. Hmm, that's funny.
It seems that most of the congregations in this city are called Emmet. Ohr Emmet,
Shaarei Emmet. Here's another one -- a Conservative congregation called Bnei
Emmet. Everyone is looking for emmet -- the truth. I wonder where the truth really
lies.”
9
After Yom Kippur, we met with Rabbi Berger, the Orthodox rabbi. We sat in
his study, a small room in which every inch of wall space was filled with books. I
explained that the purpose of our visit was to discuss the conversion of our daughter,
and we told him the story of how we had gotten Hsin-Mei. Since both of us were
Jewish, I said it was only natural that we wanted our daughter to be Jewish also.
Rabbi Berger listened carefully. When I had finished speaking, he questioned
us about our own Jewish backgrounds. Barbara told him about our Jewish education.
She told him that we were not Orthodox but that we both had strong, positive feelings
about being Jewish.
The rabbi leaned back in his chair and said, “You both seem to understand that
a child born to a non-Jewish mother is not Jewish in Jewish law. The fact that you
have legally adopted your daughter, and that both of you are Jewish, does not change
anything. The adopted child is not Jewish. The Talmud talks about a situation in
which no one knows who a child's parents are. In such a case, we would say that
since most of the people of Taiwan are not Jewish, then the child is not Jewish. There
is very little chance that either parent is Jewish. If you had found the baby in TelAviv, the story would have been much different. It is probably much easier this way.
In Tel-Aviv we would have to worry about the child being a mamzer, which is a child
born to parents who are forbidden by Jewish law to marry each other. Now, you
understand that for your daughter to become Jewish she must go through a formal
conversion.”
“What does that mean?” asked Barbara.
“First the conversion must be done before a Beit Din of three men who know
the laws of conversion. Male children must have a brit milah done by a mohel and
then go to a mikveh, which is a special pool. For female children, all that is needed is
the mikveh. A Hebrew name is given to the child and a special blessing is said.”
“How do we begin?”
286
The rabbi was quiet for almost a full minute before he answered. “The
conversion of a child is a difficult thing in Jewish law. For anyone to convert, the
person must agree to keep all the mitzvot. But a child before bar or bat mitzvah age
cannot agree to such a thing. Therefore, the Beit Din has to do this for the child. This
is based on the idea that to be Jewish is good for the child. However, once the child is
Jewish, he must keep all the mitzvot. It would be wrong to convert a child in a family
where the mitzvot were not followed, where Shabbat or kashrut were not kept. The
child would then be doing sins instead of mitzvot. If the child were not Jewish, these
things would not be sins. As a result, becoming Jewish would be bad for the child and
the Beit Din is not allowed to convert the child. This has nothing to do with race. The
only thing that matters is what kind of home the child would be living in. In your case,
your home does not yet meet the standards of a religious Jewish home.”
“In other words what you are saying is that you are not willing to do the
conversion,” I said, not understanding the rabbi. I would have thought that Jews
would be happy to welcome a new member.
“That is my position,” said Rabbi Berger. “But if you and your wife wish to
study and make your home one that is based on Torah, then we can take up the
question of conversion again.”
“What has to be done?” asked Barbara.
“We already talked about Shabbat and keeping kosher. There are also laws of
prayers, holidays, and many other things. This takes effort and study, but what you
will get from it is immeasurable.”
“I see,” said Barbara in a low voice. “Well, thank you very much for your
time.” I shook the rabbi's hand and we left.
When we were outside, Barbara said, “What he said makes a lot of sense but
what he is asking us to do seems too difficult for us. I wouldn't know how to start! I
have no idea where we go from here.”
“That's simple,” I said, hoping to make her happy. “We go to the Conservative
rabbi, the leader of Bnei Emmet, the 'Children of Truth'.”
10
I made an appointment with the Conservative rabbi for two o'clock that
afternoon. Temple Bnei Emmet was a beautiful stone building surrounded by grass
and trees.
This rabbi's office, unlike that of the Orthodox rabbi, was big and very
beautiful. Rabbi Hirsch was a tall, elegant man in his mid-fifties. We sat in
comfortable armchairs while Hsin-Mei played on the carpeted floor.
Once again, I told the story of how I had found HsinMei and of our interest in
converting her to Judaism. “This is really very interesting,” he said with excitement.
"I've always been interested in Chinese history. I suppose you know that there was
once a community of Chinese Jews in Kaifeng, China.”
287
“Yes, Rabbi,” I said. “I've read a little about it. The subject is most interesting.
Unfortunately, there's little left of that community. But let's get back to the problem of
our daughter's conversion.”
“Oh, yes, the conversion. Well, that is no problem at all. I can easily prepare
the necessary papers showing your daughter's Jewishness.”
Barbara didn't understand the rabbi. “Isn't it necessary to take the baby to the
mikveh?” she asked.
“Yes, well, if you want, we can make arrangements to use the swimming pool
at the Jewish Community Center.”
“Is that acceptable?” Barbara asked, not believing what she had just heard.
“There are several opinions that say it is okay,” said the rabbi. “When you are
ready, just call my secretary. She has the standard form to fill out. If you give her all
the information, she will fill it out. There is a small cost for this, you understand.” We
did.
The rabbi went on. “Since you have just arrived in our community I am sure
that you haven't joined any synagogue yet. We would be happy to have you as
members of Bnei Emmet. There are many other professional couples like yourselves
who are members. In fact, we are the largest congregation in the city. My secretary
can give you some membership information.”
“Thank you, Rabbi,” I said. “Am I to understand that the conversion of our
daughter is simply a matter of your filling out certain forms?”
“Yes,” he replied. “Excuse me, but I have another appointment now. But
please come back, because I am very interested in hearing more about your visit to
China. Good luck and welcome to our community.”
I waited until the drive home to share my feelings with Barbara. “A number of
things were strange about the meeting. You know, the rabbi made conversion so
simple, almost like walking through a door! Becoming an American citizen is more
difficult! Last week I called the government office to find out how to make Hsin-Mei
an American citizen. First of all, you must wait for three years. Then you have to
bring proof that we are American citizens. Then there is a special ceremony where
you become a citizen.”
“According to this rabbi,” I went on, “to become a Jew, no such steps are
necessary. If becoming a Jew is really so simple, perhaps we should stop worrying
about conversion altogether.”
“The same things bothered me,” Barbara agreed. Also that business of using
the swimming pool as a mikveh doesn't seem right. What other choices do we have?
Perhaps we should go to see the Rosh Hashanah rabbi.”
“Right,” I said. “When we get home I'll call him and see if it's still shining.”
“What?”
288
“You remember -- 'The Light of Truth!'”
Rabbi Klein, the rabbi of the Progressive Congregation Ohr Emmet, was very
nice on the telephone. “Of course, I would be happy to discuss the conversion of your
daughter, he said. “We don't have our own building yet, and we are using the Quaker
Church on Forest Avenue. Could you and your wife come by on Thursday afternoon
at three?”
I told him that was fine.
During our meeting, the rabbi listened with interest to my story and then said,
“I have only converted adults in the past. Your daughter's story will offer the whole
congregation a chance to share your experience! For the conversion ceremony I will
ask you to prepare a presentation in your own words, perhaps along with some slides
and pictures of China and some musical tapes. We could try to find a Hebrew name
for your daughter which combines her Chinese background with being Jewish.”
Barbara then asked a question. “Rabbi Klein, isn't a mikveh necessary?
"Converts don't usually have to do that, Mrs. Schwartzbaum," answered the
rabbi.
“Rabbi, would your conversion be accepted by everyone?”
He was quiet for a moment and then said, “You know that many Jews do not
accept a conversion of this kind. But you must ask yourselves what will give you the
most personally meaningful experience -- what will mean the most to you. We try to
integrate the old ways with the modern world.”
We thanked the rabbi and left. Outside the church I said to Barbara, “The last
time I did 'Show and Tell' was in the third grade! I found a bird's nest and brought it to
school. I wanted to tell everyone about it, but as I remember, the teacher was very
interested but the class wasn't. Anyway, I am no longer in the third grade and HsinMei is not a bird's nest.”
11
The next morning Barbara and I discussed our recent meetings with the
rabbis. “I was able to accept the Orthodox rabbi,” I told her. “His position was clear.
There are certain things that must be done, and until these are done, one is not
accepted as a Jew."
"Yes, but there was one problem," Barbara added. "He didn't tell us what we
have to do or how to do it."
"I agree. You simply don't push a button and become an Orthodox Jew. I can't
see myself becoming kosher tomorrow or doing any of the other things either. As for
the other rabbis," I continued, "I couldn't understand how their conversions would
have any meaning or purpose at all."
"So where does that leave us?"
289
"Where we were before – two Jewish parents with a non - Jewish Chinese
daughter.”
“Well I can't see anything more we can do at this point either,” Barbara
agreed. “However, I did realize something from all of these meetings.”
“What's that?”
“That I know hardly anything about Judaism! We've been running around
trying to make our daughter Jewish, when we ourselves don't know what it means to
be a Jew.”
The weeks passed into months, and the months passed into years. We were
busy with work, holiday trips and vacations, and visits to and from our family. We
found time in our busy schedule to read books on Jewish topics and ideas. There was
no order in our reading -- we read fiction, history, philosophy, social science, and
Jewish thought. While we didn't belong to any synagogue, we went to the Jewish
Community Center and local synagogues for holidays and special times. We had
many friends, including people from the university and Chinese people living in our
community. Our home became an open house for Chinese students studying at nearby
universities and colleges.
The more we studied, the more we realized how little we knew about our own
religion. Once I spoke with the principal of the city's Hebrew Day School, where they
offered a full-day educational program from kindergarten to the eighth grade. It
seemed like a good idea for our daughter to go to that school so she could get a basic
Jewish education.
I told the principal about my family and said that we wanted our daughter to
go to his school. He answered that only Jewish children could be admitted to the
school. I asked him what he meant by Jewish, and he said that being Jewish meant
either being born Jewish or converted by Jewish law.
“What kind of conversion would she have to have?’ I asked, and received
the answer that I had expected: conversion by an Orthodox rabbi.
I really couldn’t understand why this should be. The Hebrew Day School
got money from the Jewish Community Federation, which was made up of people
who were mostly Conservative and Reform. And yet the school would accept
only children who were converted by an Orthodox rabbi!
I went to speak to the director of the local Jewish Federation. He explained
to me that each community agency was allowed to have their own standard and the
Hebrew Day School belonged to the Orthodox branch of Judaism.
That evening, when I told Barbara about this, she said, “I don’t understand
why you went there in the first place. This man couldn’t do anything that would
change our personal situation. What did you hope to do?”
“You’re right, I've been asking myself the same question. I guess I’m trying
to better understand how the system works. It has become clear to me that the
community doesn’t operate in a religious framework, but in a political and
economic framework that is very difficult to understand.”
290
“You know, I really think that’s your problem,” Barbara noted. “You see
everything as based on power and money. But every time I look at Hsin-Mei and
think about how she came into our lives, I realize that we, in fact, control very
little.”
“I’m not sure what you are trying to say.”
“Let me put it this way. From the time you found Hsin-Mei, through all of
the problems of bringing her to America and all the business with conversion, even
in our discussion, you have never used one very important word."
“Which word is that?”
“God.”
12
Before we had gone to China, while we were there, and for more
than two years after our return, Barbara went to many doctors to find out why she
wasn’t able to have babies. Examinations of both of us did not show any medical
reason for our problem. One day, after visiting yet another specialist, Barbara said,
‘I'm tired of all these appointments and medicines. I'm going to leave things alone
now.”
“There doesn’t seem to be anything else we can do,” I answered.
“There is one thing we haven’t seriously tried yet,” Barbara said as she cleared
the supper table.
“What’s that?” I asked.
She looked into my eyes for a moment before she answered simply: “Prayer.”
Some time after Hsin-Mei’s second birthday, we decided to look into the
possibility of adopting a second child. We made an appointment with the head of
Jewish Family Services. She explained to us that there were very few Jewish babies to
be adopted. She told us that we should go to other agencies such as Catholic Charities
who might have a baby. I asked her if these agencies would agree for us to convert the
child to Judaism.
“But you are both Jewish,” she said. “Why is conversion necessary?’
“Are you telling me that you didn’t know that if a Jewish couple adopts a nonJewish child, the child has to be converted in order to become Jewish?’
“I didn’t know this, but I don’t think there will be any problems in converting
your child,” she said.
“It’s not so simple,” I said. “Do you know that unless your child has an
Orthodox conversion, he or she is not able to attend the Hebrew Day School?”
291
“Are you sure of this? I find it hard to believe,” she said. She called the Day
School from another office and when she returned she said, "You are right. I find the
whole matter unbelievable."
On the way out of the office Barbara said to me, “I’m not sure why we even
came today. How cart we think of adopting another child when Hsin-Mei is almost
two-and-a-half years old and she still isn’t Jewish?”
13
Shortly before Hsin-Mei’s third birthday, she received a letter saying
that she had been accepted as a citizen of the United States of America. She had to go
to the Federal Courthouse for the special ceremony.
The courthouse was crowded with new citizens and their families and the
ceremony was very serious and very important. The judge read out the names of the
new citizens and the countries which they came from — Ita1y, Vietnam, Ireland,
Mexico, the Philippines, and China — forty-five people from twenty-one different
countries. Hsin-Mei was the youngest and — need I say? — sweetest, of course. The
judge made a short speech and everyone had to promise to be good citizens. She alsoreceived a letter from the President. The letter said,
Dear citizen,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you warmly
to citizenship of the United States of America.
Gerald R. Ford, President
Barbara and I decided to give Hsin-Mei a more American name, now that she
was an American citizen. We decided to give her the name Kim Davra. Kim was a
popular American name, and it also sounded Chinese. Davra was for my late father,
whose name was David.
14
Once a week I used to go to the Hillel House at the university. This
was a place where Jewish students could come and meet other Jewish students to
discuss things or just to be together. I often brought a sandwich and read some Jewish
magazines there.
One afternoon, I looked up from the magazine I was reading and noticed a
man that I hadn’t seen before at the university. He had a beard and wore a dark suit
and a hat. He came over to me and shook my hand. He said, “How do you do? I’m
Rabbi Joseph Goldstein. I’m the new principal of the Hebrew Day School.’
I shook his hand and introduced myself.
“I was in this part of the city,’ he said, “and I thought I’d stop in and see what
the Hillel House was like. No one seems to be here except you.’
292
“Yes, it’s usually quiet like this. A few students live upstairs, but there isn’t a
great deal of student interest in this place.’
“How long have you lived in the community?” the rabbi asked. “You don’t
sound as if you are from this area.’
I laughed and told him that I was from New York and that I had a wife and a
three-year-old daughter. We spoke for a while, and enjoyed talking to each other. But
all too soon, it was time for both of us to leave.
“It would be my pleasure,’ said the rabbi, “if you and your family would join
us for Shabbat.”
“That would be nice, but we live too far away from you to join you for
Shabbat,” I said, very pleased by his friendly offer. “We’re on the north side and you
probably live on the west side of the city near the synagogues and the Day School.”
“That’s right,” Rabbi Goldstein said, “but that’s not a problem — you can
sleep at our house on Friday night.”
“Thank you very much,” I said. “Let me speak to my wife and I’ll call you by
tomorrow morning.”
Barbara was very excited by the invitation. I phoned the rabbi that evening and
accepted his generous offer.
We arrived at the Goldstein home about forty-five minutes before Shabbat.
The house was very busy. Mrs. Goldstein was taking care of the last-minute
preparations, so the rabbi showed us to our room. He said that he and his oldest son
would be leaving for the synagogue for Friday night prayers in a few minutes. I got
my family settled and joined the Goldsteins for the ten-minute walk to the synagogue.
On the way, I told Rabbi Goldstein that this would be my second visit to
Shaarei Emmet and I told him about my meeting with Rabbi Berger a few years
before. Rabbi Goldstein listened with interest. “The synagogue has a new rabbi now. I
think you’ll enjoy meeting him,” he said.
A group of fifteen men were in the synagogue when we entered and they
immediately started Minchah. Rabbi Goldstein helped me find the place in the prayer
book. I was pleased to discover that I could still read Hebrew, but it was not easy.
During the break between the Minchah and Kabbalat Shabbat prayers, the
new rabbi, a young man of twenty-eight, introduced himself. Rabbi Israel Kaufman
seemed very warm and friendly.
With the help of Rabbi Goldstein, I was able to follow most of the prayers. I
was surprised how comfortable I felt at Shaarei Emmet, perhaps because the
congregation was small and friendly. It could have been the singing and the prayers
which gave me such a warm and peaceful feeling. But I felt that it was something else
— something distant and very deep inside me.
293
After the prayers, everyone wished each other "Shabbat Shalom.” The rabbi
and I walked back quietly. As Rabbi Goldstein opened the front door, I saw the living
room filled with the light of the beautiful Shabbat candles.
*Second Quiz to here*
15
From that time on, we spent one Shabbat every month as guests of one
of the Orthodox families in the community. With each visit, we learned some new
practice, idea, or beautiful thought which we then put into our own celebration of the
Shabbat. Slowly, our keeping of the mitzvot grew and grew. Barbara now lit candles
regularly and I started to say the Kiddush over wine. On nice days I used to walk the
five-and-a-half kilometers each way to the synagogue on Shabbat. Barbara even
baked her own challot and our Shabbat meals became very happy and special times.
We started to take long walks on Shabbat afternoon instead of long drives in the car.
The Shabbat became the high point of the week, a time which we waited for and
looked forward to.
One day, I heard that a new rabbi had joined the community, a rabbi who had
studied at Yeshiva University. The fact that he had accepted a job in our community,
where most of the Jews were not fully observant, was of special interest to me. “They
say that this rabbi is quite open in his outlook,” I told Barbara.
“What does that mean?’ she asked. “Don’t forget those other rabbis we talked
to — they were so open that everything important was gone!”
“What I mean is that while he is an Orthodox rabbi, he’s had more experience
dealing with non-religious people. And he’s college-educated. I’d like to discuss
Hsin-Mei with him.”
“Okay,” she said, without excitement, “if you feel it will be useful.” She also
agreed to come with me to see him.
Rabbi Fried was a very relaxed person. After we had talked a little about
conversion and about our present level of observance of the mitzvot, he got right to
the point. “In my opinion,” he said, “there are four main things that you must do: You
must keep the Shabbat, you must follow the laws of kashrut, you must follow the laws
of family purity — taharat ha-mishpachah, and you must agree to give your daughter
the best Jewish education she can get.”
“What about the other six-hundred-plus mitzvot in the Torah?” I asked.
“In religious observance, each of us is on a ladder,” the rabbi answered. “What
matters is the way we are climbing. If you agree to do these four basic things, you will
see that the rest will soon follow. These are like powerful magnets. Once you keep
them, they will pull the other mitzvot into your life.”
“Does that mean that we have to keep kosher both in and out of our home?”
Barbara asked.
294
The rabbi answered, “Judaism is a serious thing. There are no easy ways to
escape! Kosher is kosher and non-kosher is non-kosher. Whether it is in your home or
out of your home, it goes into your body.”
“Well, Rabbi Fried,” Barbara said, “I am ready to take on these mitzvot. For
the past year, we have been keeping more and more of the Shabbat. Both Allan and I
are vegetarians, so making our home completely kosher shouldn’t be too difficult. We
have been interested in having Hsin-Mei attend the Day School since our arrival. As
for family purity, I really don’t know too much about these laws, but I am ready to
study and learn about them.”
“What about you?” Rabbi Fried asked me.
“My answer is more or less the same as Barbara’s,” I said. “Well, we’re in
business!” said the rabbi. He handed us several books on family purity. “Please read
these carefully and write down any questions you have so we can discuss them later.
Next, I would like to set a time when I can visit your home so that we can see exactly
what has to be done to make your kitchen completely kosher. Finally, if you’re free
tomorrow evening, I would like you to meet me at the local supermarket. We can
walk through the store together and I can point out to you the different kinds of kosher
food and the different signs showing which are kosher and which are not.”
Barbara was very excited on the way home from the meeting. So was I. “For
the first time we have an exact set of things that we have to do. I like this way better
than just philosophical ideas.”
Little by little, our home became completely kosher. We bought all new dishes
and began getting used to our new way of living.
Barbara and I looked at these laws from different points of view. As a
sociologist, I saw the laws of kashrut as a way of limiting the kinds of friends a person
has. If you are friends with someone, you will invite him to your home. Your friend
will invite you in return. If you cannot eat together, this keeps people together with
their own kind. Barbara saw kashrut as something which made the regular food you
ate into something special. Eating became no longer something only physical but
spiritual as well.
We saw the mikveh for the first time when we brought all our new dishes and
pots and pans to be put into the water. It looked like an indoor swimming pool that
had been made smaller, or a large bath but much deeper than usual, with steps going
down into it.
We also began studying the laws of family purity, but this step was much more
difficult than the others we had taken. We began to learn that the rabbis of more than
2000 years ago understood the biology of the human body in a way that modern
doctors were just beginning to understand. Here were a set of laws which at first
seemed strange to us but which actually seemed to make our relationship stronger and
deeper.
Several evenings a week, Barbara studied with Rabbi Fried’s wife and soon
she was ready to accept all the laws of modesty, about how a Jewish woman should
dress and cover her hair.
When we looked back at the past few weeks, we couldn't stop being surprised
at how far we had come. We didn’t start out to become Orthodox Jews but, in fact, we
295
had, and it felt wonderful. We believed in everything we were doing and our faith in
G-d became stronger with every new mitzvah we kept.
Four months later, Rabbi Fried agreed to organize a religious court for HsinMei’s conversion. The members of the beit din were to be: Rabbi Goldstein, the
principal of the Day School; Rabbi Kaufman of the Orthodox synagogue; and Rabbi
Fried. The rabbis agreed that I should go into the mikveh with Hsin-Mei to make sure
that she went the water and to make sure that she was safe, since the water was over
her head.
As we walked down the steps into the mikveh, I held my daughter’s hand. I
picked her up and said to her, “Listen, honey, you are going to go under the water
three times. There is nothing to be afraid of. I’ll be with you.”
I let go of her and she slipped into the water. I picked her up and let her go two
more times.
Later, as Barbara, Hsin-Mei and I were leaving mikveh building, Rabbi Fried
wished us "Mazal Tov” and gave me an official letter which said:
Today Devorah Schwartzbaum, daughter of our father Abraham, has gone into
the mikveh and we now welcome her as a member of the Jewish people. Wednesday,
the 12th day of the month of lyar 5736.
Ten days later, on the 22nd of lyar, Devorah was four years old.
Eleven months later, on the 26th of Nisan 5737, Barbara gave birth to Dov
Chaim.
16
There is no doubt in my mind that the miracle of Dov’s
birth, after twelve years of childlessness, was a result of my
discovery of Devorah. Had I not found her, it is probable that
Barbara and I would have continued as we were until the end of
our days, because we were not dissatisfied with our lives at all.
And had we adopted a Jewish baby instead of a Chinese one, it is
doubtful that we would have started on the long road to find our
Jewish way of life.
Just like Rabbi Fried had said, keeping those three basic
mitzvot led to the keeping of others as well. Thus, eight says after
the birth of Dov, we had the mitzvah of brit milah.
The brit was held at Shaarei Emmet.
That moment was wonderful for me. The mohel said the
traditional words: “Just as he has entered into the Covenant, the
brit with God, so may he enter into Torah, into marriage, and into
good actions.”
296
In my speech that followed, I spoke about the blessings we
say in our morning prayers and how they have a deeper meaning
for me now that I have a firstborn son. I prayed that Dov Chaim
would grow up to be a fine person and a strong Jew, close to his
people and his religion.
The weeks that followed were full of those things that
parents need to do to take care of a newborn baby. There were the
diapers, the middle-of-the-night feedings, and everything else that
we had “enjoyed” with Devorah four years earlier. But the high
point was the special Pidyon ha-Ben ceremony at the end of the
first month.
The ceremony took place in the synagogue, The Torah says
that a firstborn belongs to the kohen and the father must pay five
silver shekels to get his son back. Barbara brought Dovie on a
beautiful silver plate and handed him to me. I put the plate in front
of the kohen and he asked me, “Which do you prefer — to give me
your firstborn or to pay me the five silver shekels?” I answered as
the rabbis said, “I prefer to pay the money as the Torah law says."
For Barbara and I this was a very special moment. “Every
mitzvah that we do,” I told the guests during the meal following
the ceremony, “takes place only because we are first given a gift
by God. To say a blessing over bread we first need some bread.
Very often we forget the gifts that God gives us. Today that is
impossible. The gift of our child
is so wonderful that we can certainly see God’s blessing to us."
“Four years ago, God brought into this world a little
Chinese baby. We could never have known where this Chinese
baby would lead us. Now this same child is Jewish, and less than a
year after she became part of the Jewish People, our firstborn son,
born twelve years after we were married, reached the age of one
month. Barbara and I have returned to the ways of our Torah and
our lives have changed completely. God works in wonderful,
amazing ways.”
17
In May of 1977, I received a telegram telling me that I had
been given a second Fulbright Fellowship to China. Both Barbara
and I were very excited at the idea of returning to Taiwan. Barbara
could continue her Chinese studies and I could work on my study
of what was happening in China. But we realized that we had less
than two months to take care of all the necessary arrangements.
One evening, while we were packing, Barbara asked a very
important question. “Do you think we’ll have any problems with
being religious in Taiwan?”
I thought for a moment, “I don’t think so,” I said. "Kashrut
won't be a problem since we’re vegetarians. We can get kosher fish
297
fresh from the market and clean them ourselves. And Shabbat is
really up to us — and I don’t see any problems there.”
"But Allan, what will we do about a mikveh?
"Now that may be a problem!” For a few seconds I actually
thought about changing our plans. Then I remembered something
that I had read.
"In one of the books Rabbi Fried gave us on family purity,”
I told Barbara, “it said that any body of water, like a river or a lake,
can be used as a mikveh.”
"You’re right!” said Barbara. “But what body of water are
you thinking of’?”
“The China Sea!”
Everything was ready. The shipping company had taken the
two heavy boxes which we were sending by boat. We had our
airplane tickets and our house was rented. Late one evening
Barbara spoke to me seriously. “There is something I have wanted
to tell you but I didn’t know exactly how to do it.”
“Well, just say it.”
“Okay. You’ve been wearing tzitzit now for about half a
year. I really think you should start wearing a kippah all the time
now, not just at home but also outside the house.”
In a way I was glad that Barbara had said this, since I had
been thinking about it also. I really wasn’t against wearing a
kippah outside the house but I thought that I would feel a bit
strange.
“For the past four years,” I said to Barbara, “the people
working with me, my students and my neighbors have seen me
coming and going without anything on my head, and now to
suddenly start wearing a funny cap will make me feel very strange.
And there is another thing. Someone may see me wearing a
kippah and think that I am a rabbi! They will start asking me
questions that I may not be able to answer. I’m still unsure about
myself”
“I understand,” said Barbara. "Wait — I have an idea. In
two days we’re going to get on an airplane and travel halfway
around the world. Why don’t you start wearing a kippah the day
we leave? In that way you’ll have a whole year to get used to it and
no one here will see you during that time.”
It was a good idea. On the morning of our flight. I walked
out the front door to the waiting taxi, carrying Dov Chaim in one
hand and a suitcase in the other, wearing a knitted blue and white
298
kippah. Later on, at the airport, as we waited for our plane to
China, a man came over to me. “Excuse me,” he said, “are you a
rabbi?"
18
At the National Airport in Taiwan, Mei-Mei and her
family (she now had two more children, and a total of six) were
waiting there to meet us. We stayed overnight and then traveled
once again to the small fishing village of Tamsui.
It was funny that in the United States, people often looked
curiously at Devorah, and here in China, people stared at Dov
Chaim, with his white skin and blond hair. The other passengers on
the train kept trying to get a better look at him.
As soon as we had arrived in Tamsui we found that instead
of the small Chinese house we had lived in before, the Tamkang
University people had given us a very large house. They wanted to
make us very happy!
Barbara immediately began to organize the kitchen. She
explained to Mei-Mei that, as yoh-tai ren (Jews) we had to obey
certain rules and follow certain practices. She and Mei-Mei went
shopping and bought new dishes, pots and and silverware. When
they returned, she told Mei-Mei that we had to take these things to
the sea. When Mei-Mei asked why, Barbara said simply that it was
something yoh-tai-ren had to do.
Mei-Mei made arrangements for a taxi to drive us to the
sea. The taxi driver parked on the beach and we unloaded all of
our things. We put them in the water one by one, while the taxi
driver looked on in disbelief. He turned to Mei-Mei and asked her
why we were doing this.
Mei-Mei by now thought of herself as an expert on
explaining Jewish customs to the Chinese. "Oh, they are yoh-tai
ren,” she said simply. “There is an old Jewish saying:
The pot that knows the ocean will cook the fish, and the dish that
tastes the sea will serve it.”
We were very pleased that Mei-Mei was getting used to our
new way of life but I was sure that her natural human curiosity
would soon overcome her acceptance. It didn't take too long. One
morning I noticed her standing off to one side and looking at me
strangely. "Are you all right, Mei-Mei?” I asked, giving her the
opening she had been waiting for.
“Nothing with me,” she said, “but you and Barbara are not
the same. Barbara always wears something on her head and you
always have a round blue and white hat with butterflies on it. Early
in the morning you stand by the window wrapped like a lonely
white cloud and you tie your arm with black straps.” She shook her
299
head as if she didn’t understand what was happening to us, “But
also there is more quiet in your hearts, your faces are like a soft
spring wind. The paper and the pen are the same but the writing
has changed.”
“You’re right, Mei-Mei, we are not the same.” I looked for
words she would understand. “We have moved closer to the ways
of our people, and closer to our God.”
Mei-Mei nodded knowingly. “I am that way too, I also
honor the spirits. There is an old Chinese saying. ‘Even if a tree is
ten thousand feet high, the leaves will fall to the roots.’ Yoh-tai ren
and Chinese are not so different.” She had no further questions
after that. Not once throughout the whole year, no matter what
strange things we did, did she question us about anything.
19
It didn’t take long for us to get used to our Chinese
surroundings again, and Devorah felt comfortable too. Every
morning, together with two small friends who lived in our area,
Devorah would walk two kilometers down a dirt road and over a
wooden bridge to go to the local kindergarten. All the
schoolchildren wore yellow hats with their names on them.
Devorah’s hat said Hsin-Mei.
At the start of each school day, Barbara and I would stand
in our doorway and watch the three small girls go down the
winding path until they became three yellow dots on the side of the
mountain. Four years earlier we had done the very same thing,
hoping that some day one of those children would be ours. Now
we smiled happily with the knowledge that under one of those
yellow hats was our very own daughter, Devorah.
Naturally, we wanted very much to continue our
developing interest in Jewish life and learning, and we were therefore very pleased to discover that while we were away, a Taipei
Jewish Center had been organized. When we learned that the High
Holiday services were being organized, we made arrangements to
stay at an inn close to the Center during the holidays.
The Center was in a house in the northern part of the city.
In one of the nearby houses was the Saudi Arabian Embassy. By
this time [1977], the Americans has taken most
of their soldiers out of Taiwan and had given the Center many
religious articles, including a sefer Torah. There was no rabbi or
cantor. The members of the congregation did it by themselves.
Most of this was done by a young Israeli named Nachum, who had
been a yeshiva student at one time.
About sixty-five Jews came on Rosh Hashanah. They came
from many different countries and were in China for many
different reasons. There were businessmen, teachers, students,
300
journalists, and travelers. The Jewish holidays and the Hebrew
prayers brought them together and made them one unit.
We met again on Yom Kippur and again Nachum was the
cantor. I got to know him a bit better then. He told us that he was
born on Yom Kippur, as was his youngest son. When he had
returned home from the hospital on the day of his son’s birth, he
found a message telling him that his brother had been killed in the
Yom Kippur War. His story touched us very deeply and made the
Yom Kippur prayers even more meaningful.
The following afternoon, a man who had been a rabbi in
Los Angeles and had studied in a yeshiva in Hungary when he was
young, gave a very beautiful speech. He said, in the name of Rabbi
Samson Raphael Hirsch, that the first step of teshuvah, of returning
to the ways of the Torah, is always the most difficult step for a
person to take. A person always feels that he hasn’t done anything
wrong and is ready to make excuses for his behavior.
His words made us feel the importance of being honest
with ourselves.
Later that evening, as the prayers came to an end, we all
heard the sound of the shofar together. We finished our prayers
and joined each other in breaking our fast. As we were walking
out, I looked back for a moment and saw the rabbi’s arm around
Nachum. There were tears in Nachum’s eyes.
20
The Sukkot holiday came quickly after Yom Kippur and
we had only a few days to build a sukkah. Of course, in China
there is plenty of bamboo and so there was no problem of getting
things we needed for the building.
Each day as I worked on the sukkah, Chinese passersby
would stop to watch, scratch their heads, and move on. As the
sukkah was being finished, the number of people watching grew
larger. I made the roof out of small bamboo branches and leaves,
making sure that there was enough open space to see the stars at
night. On the day before the holiday, I moved the kitchen table and
chairs outside and put them in our bamboo hut. Like Jewish
children the world over, Devorah helped make the sukkah beautiful
and she had a great time tying fruit to the branches on the roof.
About an hour before candle-lighting and the beginning of
the holiday, Mei-Mei told us that we had a visitor. A very serious
university official was waiting at the front door. The man said that
he had been sent by the head of the niversity who wished to know
why we were not pleased with the house the university had given
us. He told us that the university would do everything in its power
to make our house nicer, and make us happy.
301
We didn’t understand what he was talking about! Several
times we told the university people how happy we were and how
nice the house was. We couldn’t understand why they thought that
we weren’t happy.
Now the man looked confused. “If that is the case, he said,
“then why are you moving out of this house and building a new one
outside?”
Mei-Mei, as usual, was listening, not far away. Before we
could answer, she came and explained. “Tomorrow is the fifteenth
day of the eighth lunar moon month.” she said calmly. “The Chinese
celebrate a mid-autumn moon Festival. The Chinese eat mooncakes
and walk in the light of the moon. Mr. and Mrs. Schwartzbaum are
yoh-tai ren. They celebrate the festival by eating and living outside,
like the old Chinese saying: ‘To wear the moon on your head, and to
use the stars as your coat’.”
“Oh, now I understand” the official said with a smile. “I did
not realize that our customs are alike Happy holiday! Gung hsi!”
“Chag same'ach!” we answered.
One day a notice arrived in the mail telling us that a visiting
US Army rabbi would be leading the services on Friday night at the
Jewish Center. We arranged to sleep over at the inn again so that we
could be there and we were looking forward to a nice Shabbat.
About twenty people appeared at the Center on Friday
night, most of them the regulars who came every week. We
learned that the rabbi was a Reform rabbi whose base was in
Korea, and that he visited other places in the Far East. The
president of the center introduced Rabbi Abrams.
Rabbi Abrams told us how happy he was to be with the
Taipei Jewish community in celebrating the Shabbat. He then
went on to say that he had an admission to make.
"I have a terrible singing voice,” he said with a smile, “so I have
put all the parts of the prayers that we sing on a tape. We will say
all the prayers and whenever there is a song to sing, I will play the
tape and you will enjoy listening to the beautiful voice of a famous
cantor.”
We couldn’t believe that he was serious, but after watching
him use the tape recorder several times, we knew that he was. We
felt that his whole service was silly.
At the end of the service, I went over to him and said,
“Rabbi Abrams, may I make a suggestion? Next time you visit, I
will bring a tape recording with the parts that the congregation
must say. Your tape will do the cantor’s part and mine will do the
congregation’s part. We will place both of them in front of the
302
congregation and then we both can go out and have a drink
together!”
After that silly experience, we decided to spend the rest of
our Shabbatot at home in Tamsui. Each week Barbara would bake
challot and Mei-Mei would prepare some special fish.
We had learned that there was no kosher wine in Taiwan, and we decided to make our
own. We bought a very large jug and many kilograms of raisins. For each kilo of
raisins we put in a liter of boiling water and some spices. We allowed the mixture to
stand in a cool place for three days. Then we poured in half a kilo of sugar for each
kilo of water and raisins. We poured everything into the very big jug and placed it in a
cool, dark place to become wine. When it was finished, we poured everything into
bottles and we had enough wine to last for the whole year.
Another problem that we had was about Shabbat candles. There were many
white candles in the stores, but we didn't think about the fact that in China, white
candles are a sign that somebody has died. Mei-Mei became very worried the first
Friday night when we lit the white candles. She said. “What are you doing?” she said.
“Don’t you know that its bad luck to light white candles?”
From her behavior we understood that other people would also feel unhappy
seeing our white candles burning and this would spoil the happy Shabbat feeling that
we were trying to make. For the next Shabbat, we bought some red candles instead of
white ones. Red candles are a sign of happiness and good luck in China.
Every Erev Shabbat, before sunset, I would walk with Devorah to a field near our
home. There we watched the sun go down into the water and saw the changing color
of the sky and the sea as darkness came. Like the rabbis of Tzefat many, many years
ago, we welcomed the Shabbat Queen outside in God’s beautiful world. We returned
to our Shabbat table with Barbara’s two beautiful challot a bottle of our raisin wine,
and our burning red candles.
22
In March I received an invitation to give lectures in Korea, Hong Kong, and
Thailand. This was very important to me and I carefully made all the arrangements. I
called the airlines to make certain that I would be able to get kosher food on my
flights. Each airline told me that there would be no difficulty at all.
Shortly after I got on an afternoon China Airlines flight to Hong Kong, the
food service began. The stewardess who was serving the food brought me a packaged
kosher meal, with the name of the Chief Rabbi of Switzerland. I took off the
aluminum paper and was delighted to find that my meal was very good meat called
flanken, with farfel )‫ (פתיתים‬in a meat sauce.'
Until that moment, I didn't realize how much I missed the Jewish food I used
to eat in America. I am less of a vegetarian than Barbara is, and I had always enjoyed
chicken and meat at friends' houses. Here Mei-Mei did the cooking and she didn't
know how to cook Jewish food. We also couldn't get kosher meat in Taiwan, so we
didn't eat any meat at all. I ate this meat slowly and enjoyed every bit of it.
303
After my lecture in Hong Kong, I got on a Korean Airlines flight to Seoul,
Korea. At breakfast time the stewardess brought me a kosher meal. I was hungry and
happy at the thought of having another delicious meal. I was a little disappointed to
discover that in the package was…flanken and farfel. Although it was only breakfast
time, I still enjoyed the meat meal.
After my lecture series in Korea, I hurried to catch my Thai Airlines flight
back to Bangkok, Thailand. The stewardess, dressed in a traditional Thai dress,
brought me my kosher meal: flanken and farfel! Twice more during that long flight,
the stewardess brought me the same meal.
On my return Japanese Airlines flight to Taipei, I already knew what to
expect. Only because I was so hungry, did I manage to eat the flanken and farfel
again.
When I returned to Tamsui at last, I was excited and happy to be home again
with Barbara, Devorah, and Dov Chaim. Mei-Mei called from the kitchen: "Allan. I
have a welcome-home surprise for you. Barbara told me how to make you yoh-tai
food and I have prepared something special for you — farfel suey652!”
*Third Quiz to here*
23
There had been a Jewish community in Kaifeng, China for more than a
thousand years, and it only came to an end in this century. The Jews there did not
know how to continue in the ways of their fathers. From the seventeenth century,
there had been no rabbi or teachers there. They did not know much about their
religion. In the nineteenth century, a visitor to China wrote about the 200-300 Jews
still living there: “They have lost their religion, and they look and act exactly like
their Chinese neighbors. They don’t do a brit milah, and their religious practices are
like the Chinese. In appearance, dress, habit, and religion. they are really Chinese.”
In 1941, a report said that the Jewish population of Kaifeng numbered 180
people.
One of the last known Chinese Jews was discovered two years before our
arrival, by Rabbi Marvin Tokayer. While he was the rabbi of the Tokyo Jewish
community, he heard stories that there was still a Chinese Jew alive. He was very
interested in the subject and flew to Taiwan to find Mr. Shih-Hung-Mo. There were
many men who had this name and he didn’t know which one was the Jew.
The son of Chiang-Kai-Shek653, the president of China, was able to help Rabbi
Tokayer. He checked all of the army records in the computer, and only one Mr. Shih-
652
Suey is an American-Chinese dish consisting of meats cooked with vegetables
Chiang Kai-shek (1887 –1975), served as Chairman of the National Military
Council of the National Government of the Republic of China (= Taiwan) from 1928
to 1948. During the the civil war than began in 1945, he attempted to eradicate the
Chinese Communists but ultimately failed, forcing his government to retreat to
Taiwan (the island country visited by Allan Schwartzbaum – A.P.), where he
653
304
Hung-Mo listed Hebrew as his second language. Rabbi Tokayer met with him and
learned about his past and what he knew about the history of the Chinese Jews.
Like Rabbi Tokayer, we also wanted to meet Mr. Shih-Hung-Mo and we
began an investigation of our own. The president of the Jewish Community Center
gave us his address, but told us that although Mr. Shih openly says that he is Jewish,
he preferred to keep his Jewish life private and didn’t always like to meet with
visitors.
Barbara wrote to him in Chinese, saying that since it was only a few days
before Pesach, she and her family would be very happy to bring him some Pesach
food and matzot. Mr. Shih answered immediately and set a time for our visit.
As we walked down the narrow path to his home, we realized that this was not
far from where we had lived during our previous stay in Taiwan. Then we had found
a Chinese daughter, and now we were going to meet a Chinese Jew.
Mr. Shih was waiting outside to meet us. He looked like all Chinese except
that his eyes were rounder and his face seemed heavier. He took us into his home. He
lived in a simple one-room apartment filled with books and papers. We learned that he
was in his fifties and was not married. He had fled from Mainland China in 1949
along with many other Nationalist soldiers. He hadn’t seen his parents since then, but
he was sure that they were already dead. He had two brothers, one who was killed in
Mainland China by the Japanese, and one who was killed in Korea by UN soldiers.
His grandfather had been an herb doctor, and his father had been a merchant.
As a young man, Mr. Shih had traveled with his father through the Middle East and
had gone as far as Israel. Once, during a visit to Shanghai, he had shown his
grandfather’s papers about the family history to a rabbi from Minsk who was living
there. The rabbi examined the papers and said that Mr. Shih’s family had really been
Jews. The rabbi had encouraged him to study Hebrew, and Mr. Shih taught himself
how to read and write Hebrew. He was very proud of this and he showed us things he
had written in Hebrew.
While he was growing up, Mr. Shih’s family celebrated three Jewish holidays:
Rash Hashanah, Purim, and Pesach, along with three Chinese holidays: New Year,
Moon Festival, and Dragon Boat Festival. He never ate pig meat because he had been
told by his grandfather that "we do not eat pig.” Once, when he was visiting Kaifeng,
he found only three Jewish families. They were very poor. They knew that they were
from Jewish families, but they didn't know anything about Judaism.
Mr. Shih liked Devorah very much. He seemed really pleased that she had
converted to Judaism. He was the last Chinese Jew, and perhaps seeing little Devorah
made him feel that there would continue to be Chinese Jews.
After an hour or so, we gave Mr. Shih the Pesach food and matzot and wished
him good-bye. He walked with us a little way up the path and there we left him. After
we had gone a few steps, he called out in Hebrew, "Le-shanah haba’ah biYerushalayim — Next year in Jerusalem!"
continued the struggle against the communist regime. Serving as the autocratic leader
of the Republic of China, Chiang died in 1975.
305
24
From time to time I visited and lectured at various colleges and universities
in China. Sometimes I flew by plane, but other times I used to travel by train.
I liked to see the beautiful Chinese countryside on these train trips.
On one such trip, the train stopped at the village of Tainin to pick up some
passengers. A woman got on, carrying a very large clay jar. She sat down next to me
and tried to push the jar between our seat and the one in front of her. However, there
was not enough room so she had to keep it on her knees. I had never seen anyone
bring anything so big onto the train before. Usually, they put such things in a special
part of the train, for very large packages.
I asked her why she did not put her heavy jug with all the other packages on
the train.
“Oh, no!” she cried, “That is impossible.”
The train continued on its way. After fifteen minutes. I couldn’t hold back my
curiosity. "I’m sure that jug is very heavy and it must be uncomfortable for you to
hold it that way. Why do you say that it would be impossible to put it the special car
with all the big packages?"
“Oh, it would not be respectful!’ she said.
“I don’t understand,” I said to her. "How could putting it in a special place be
disrespectful? It wouldn’t disturb anyone there!”
“Oh, I could never put it where I couldn’t see it. It would not be proper toward
my family.”
“Your family? What do you have in that jug?”
“My father,” she said.
“Wow!” I thought to myself, suddenly remembering how far the Chinese go in
respecting their parents.654 “It’s a good thing I’m not a Cohen!”
25
Little Devorah was working hard, learning to write in Chinese. Written
Chinese is different from other languages in that it doesn’t have an alphabet. Each
Chinese sign is really a picture of something which has a meaning. There are
thousands of separate signs, made from lines and dots of all kinds. Learning what
these lines and dots mean is a very slow and difficult job.
Since it is so difficult to learn how to make these lines and dots, Chinese
children begin in kindergarten, and at least an hour a day is spent on practicing. They
654
Respecting parents is considered the first virtue in Chinese culture, and it is the
main concern of a large number of stories. One of the more famous stories depicts
how children exercised respect for their parents in the past. While China has always
had a diversity of religious beliefs, respect for parents has been common to almost all
of them.
306
write these signs over and over again. Writing, to the Chinese. is considered an art.
Even today, Barbara and I believe we can see the influence of Chinese writing in
Devorah’s written English and Hebrew.
From childhood, the Chinese are taught love of the written word.
Schoolchildren are taught never to tear up a piece of writing and never to treat with
disrespect any paper with writing on it, even if you don’t need it anymore.
On my first visit to China, I saw old men with baskets of bamboo on their
backs, picking up papers from the streets. I thought they were garbage collectors.
From time to time I saw them burning the collected paper in a special temple outside
the village. Later, I understood that the Chinese respect for the written letters was so
great that they could not allow these papers to be just thrown away or stepped on.
These special temples were called Pagodas of Love and Caring for Letters.
Speech and writing are both ways of letting people know what we feel. The
Chinese take great care of how they speak and what they say, in addition to their
special care for the written word. Spoken Chinese sounds like music, and written
Chinese looks like artwork. Jews also have a special way of thinking about Hebrew.
Hebrew is a very special and beautiful language because a person can use it to speak
about holiness and about God. While the ability to speak and write beautifully is a
sign of an educated Chinese person, the ability to use language as a way of talking to
God is one of the signs of a good Jew.
26
During our first visit to Taiwan, Barbara and I were very interested in the
many temples throughout the island. We were curious about the religion of the
Chinese people and their history. We found the buildings very beautiful. These
temples varied from tiny ones built by farmers in their fields to very large buildings
built on the tops of mountains. We found that the Chinese religion was a mixture of
different systems of belief, including Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Each
Chinese person chooses parts of each of these religions to form his own personal
religion. In any temple one might ten or twenty holy forms or things which formed the
religion of that person.
Often, a certain temple would be made for one god and once a year a special
day was made to honor this god. The figure of this god would be taken out of its
regular place and taken into the streets of the neighborhood. We usually went to see
these very colorful ceremonies.
The noise was always deafening. Strings of firecrackers, several meters long,
were always exploding. Drums and gongs and bells added to the noise. The air would
become filled with the smoke from the fireworks and the incense. In their excitement,
people would walk on hot coals and others would cut their bodies with knives.
On our present visit, Barbara and I found ourselves staying away from these
temples, because we felt that much of their religion was like idol worship. However,
we still liked to visit the personal temples which people built in memory of their
parents and other dead relatives.
One Shabbat, we were walking in the countryside and came across a temple in
a field. \Ve were surprised to see that instead of their usual idols and figures, the
307
building had an altar )‫ )מזבח‬with a number of wooden boards with writing on them.
While we were looking around, a young man came up to us and began speaking with
us. I asked him about the purpose of the wooden boards.
The young man explained to us that each wooden board was for one of his
dead relatives. The writing was about the person’s life and the good things he had
done. I began to understand that this temple was part of the way the Chinese showed
respect for their family. Confucius taught that parents must be respected after their
deaths as they were respected during their lives. But on a deeper level, the Chinese
believed that not only could the lives of the living be helped by the blessings of the
dead, but also that the dead could be helped by the good actions of their family who
were still living.
Some of these ideas are also found in Judaism, where the dead can petition
God on behalf of the living, and the living say Kaddish or study mishnayot to help the
dead.
As the day of our leaving Taiwan came closer, our feelings about the Chinese
religion were mixed and confused. The temples and statues were really av’odah zarah
— idol worship, which was not allowed in Judaism.
On our last night, Mei-Mei came to visit us. She carried a small package
wrapped in red cloth. “Barbara and Allan,” she said in a soft voice, “we are one
family. To the four seas, to the distant corners of the earth, we stand as brothers
and friends. Please accept this small gift from us. It's our household god, the god of
the earth and all that is good in it.”
Late that night, when all was quiet and dark. I got up quietly, got dressed, and
went into the next room. I took Mei-Mei’s gift, placed it in its red cloth bag, and
walked out to the seashore.
I placed the cloth bag on the ground. I looked around, and found a large stone.
The words of Hallel kept going through my mind: “Their idols are silver and gold. A
mouth they have but they cannot speak. They have eves but they cannot see.. . But
Israel has faith in Hashem who takes care of Israel.”
I hit the bag with the heavy stone, over and over again. until the idol was
broken into small pieces. Then I threw the bag into the sea.
The next morning, Barbara, Devorah, Dov Chaim, and I left China.
27
Barbara and I quickly got used to living in America again. Now we became
much more active in the organizational life of the Jewish community. We joined the
Orthodox synagogue and became members of the Jewish Community Center. I was on
the Board of Education of the local Jewish Day School where Devorah went to
school. I even wrote a regular column for the local Jewish newspaper.
For the first time in our lives, we began to think about Israel and its
importance in the world Jewish community.
It seemed very strange that we had traveled all around the world and had never
felt any interest or need to visit Israel. I think that it is because we were still very
308
unsure about what it meant to be Jewish and we were afraid that coming to Israel
would make us deal with questions which we were not ready to face. But now, as our
Jewish lives became stronger and richer, we knew that soon we would have to visit
Israel.
By this time, I had been wearing my kippah for over a year, ever since we had
left for Taiwan. I no longer felt strange wearing it. It felt as natural as wearing any
other piece of clothing. Many Jews would come up to me because I was wearing a
kippah, and begin talking to me. But there were some less pleasant moments, too,
such as when I found myself at the airport surrounded by a group of Libyan army
officers. Suddenly, I felt nervous about my kippah!
After a short time back in the United States. I realized that there was a big
difference between wearing a kippah in China and wearing one in the community
where I lived now. Since I was living and working in a city where very few Jews
covered their head, I had become a symbol of "the religious Jew.” I now had to be
much more careful about now I acted and where I went because people would think
that if I did it, then it was okay for them to do it too.
I did not have this feeling when I was in China, where few people had ever heard of a
Jew and even fewer had any idea of how a Jew should behave.
I found that people had different feelings about my kippah. Our non-Jewish
neighbors, for the most part, accepted us well. In our area even the non-Jews were
religious and religion played an important part in their lives. They could, therefore,
understand that our religion was very important to us also.
This was not always true for other Jews living in our community. Sometimes I
felt a very strong anger from other Jews. This was certainly true in the university
where I taught.
Before we left for Taiwan, my department at the university decided not to
rehire a certain assistant professor. These decisions were always difficult and people
are always hurt by them. While I was away, this person went to court to complain that
the woman who was hired instead of him was hired only because she was a woman
and the university needed more women. He felt that this was very unfair and he
wanted his job back.
Since I was now the chairman of the department, I had to appear in court along
with other university officials. The day before I had to appear in court, the defense
lawyers advised me not to wear my kippah in court. The judge said that if I wore my
kippah other people would come wearing all kinds of funny hats and they would make
a joke out of the court. The lawyers said that if I wore my kippah, they could put me
in jail for not listening to the judge.
Although I knew that I didn’t have to wear a kippah in court, I felt that since
the lawyers didn’t want me to wear it, I just had to wear it! So I told them I didn’t
plan to take it off even if they put me in jail.
Then I called the local director of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, an
organization that helps Jews if they are not treated fairly because of their religion. He
got organized and was ready to help immediately if anything happened. At the last
309
moment we reached an agreement and I was allowed to meet the judge in his office
and not in his court. I said what I had to say, while wearing my kippah.
After this was over, I thought that this would be the end to kippah stories. But
I was wrong. Several months later, a graduate student came to my office wearing a
kippah. I had met him a number of times at Jewish meetings, and I was happy to see
him. “It’s good to see you again,” I said. “What brings you to the sociology
department?”
“I have a problem,” he said, “and I hope that you will be able to help me with
it. I’m finishing my Master’s degree in clinical psychology, and as part of our
program I have to get some practical training. Another Jewish student and I both
chose to do our training at the Jewish Family Service Agency."
“That is a very good choice,” I said. “It’s good for everybody. You get used to
working with people from the Jewish community, and the agency gets two students
who know about Jewish life and the problems of the Jewish community.”
“That’s just the problem,” the student said. “You see, both the other student
and I wear kippot.
“I don’t understand,” I said to him.
“Well, the director of the Jewish Family Service says he won’t let us work
there if we wear our kippot, and now it is too late to get any other job.”
“Wait a minute,” I said, raising my voice a little. “You’re telling me that the
director of the local JFS told you not to wear a kippah while working at his agency?”
The student nodded his head.
“Did he explain why?” I asked.
“Well, he said that some people might get very angry they saw our kippot and
then we couldn’t be very helpful t them, I tried to explain that this wasn’t true, and
that the kippot wouldn’t hurt our clients at all.”
The student told me that he had come to me because I was the only professor
at the university who wore a kippah and because of that business with the judge.
“All right,” I said. “Thank you very much for letting me know about this. I’ll
see what I can do.”
After the student had left. I phoned the director of the Jewish Anti-Defamation
League, who had handled my case before. I told him about the story but did not tell
him the name of the agency.
“Well, Allan,” he said, “that certainly sounds like something we should deal
with. I’d like to start right away. What’s the name of the agency?”
“It’s a local agency, right here in the city," I replied.
“Yes, but I’d like to know which one.”
“Jewish Family Services,” I answered.
310
There was quiet on the other side of the line. Finally the director said, “Well,
thank you very much. I’ll look into it."
When I hadn’t heard from him for a few days, I called his office but he didn’t
return my calls. Finally, I decided to go there in person. The director greeted me and
told me what he had done.
“Well, the two students agreed to take off their kippot when they meet clients,
so there was no need for our office to do anything,” he said.
I was very angry. “You know, there’s something very wrong here. If this had
been a non-Jewish agency, you would have made a big fight. I have seen how fast you
can work. But because in this case it was a Jewish agency, you decided to do nothing.
When goyim act unfairly against Jews, it’s a big thing. But when Jews act unfairly,
it’s better to look the other way.”
“I think you’re being unfair, Allan,” he said to me.
“I don’t think so,” I answered.
When I got home I was still angry. I told Barbara what had happened. Barbara
tried to calm me.
“Don’t forget,” she said, “that not so long ago you didn't even wear a kippah.
Now all of a sudden, you’re a big shot! Look around you. Allan. Jews in this
community have been trying to become part of the general community. They don’t
want to be different. Most people have succeeded. The kippah is a sign that someone
is different, that he is a Jew. It’s hard for them. You, of all people, should show more
understanding.”
Barbara was right. The Jews didn’t want to be different and they felt strange
when someone walked around with a kippah telling the world that he was a Jew.
“I’ll just have to try not to let my kippah go to my head!" I said.
Years later, Norman Goldwasser, a graduate student in psychology at my
university, wrote me the following letter:
Dear Dr. Schwartzbaum,
I have to tell you a wonderful story. While I was working on my thesis, I had
to work on the computer. Since I didn’t know much about computers, I needed help
from people who worked in the computer center at the university. One young man
who worked there went out of his way many times to help me. This man is Chinese,
and he had come from Taiwan. I told him that I had a good friend who had lived in
Taiwan, Dr. Allan Schwartzbaum. “Oh," he said, “he was my professor in Taiwan and
he helped me come to this university. In fact, when I saw your kippah I knew you
must be a nice person like him, and that’s why I wanted to help you so much.”
You cannot imagine how great that made me feel. It just shows how much one
person on one side of the world can help a person on the other side. What people do
really matters. So thank you very much for helping me with my thesis.’
311
So jf I needed any further proof of the importance of wearing a kippah,
Norman’s letter gave me it. But at the same time, I knew that being right was not
always enough.
28
As a member of the Board of Education of the Hebrew Day School, we
talked a lot about money problems at our meetings. The school never had enough
money for its educational programs. It had grown very quickly over the past few years
because many parents didn’t want to send their children to the local public schools.
Many black students were now in those schools because of integration, and the level
of the studies there had gone down. Parents who wanted to keep their children out of
the public schools could send them to private schools which were either officially or
unofficially Christian. They were also very expensive.
Many parents chose to send their children to the Jewish Day School because
they couldn’t afford the private schools and they didn’t want their children acting like
Christians. As a result, many children at the Jewish school came from homes where
there was very little Jewish practice and very little understanding of Judaism.
The school built a new building and needed a lot of money to pay for it. The
Board decided to turn to the Jewish Federation for money. The Federation got money
from people in the Jewish community and gave money to many Jewish agencies
which gave services to the Jewish community.
A meeting was set up where people from the Federation met with people from
the Day School. The Federation people began asking questions about who can be
accepted to the school. We explained that the school was open to all Jews. When
asked who is a Jew, the school principal, Rabbi Goldstein, explained that a Jew is
someone who was born to a Jewish mother or who was converted by Jewish law,
The Federation people were not satisfied with that answer. They asked: “As you are
well aware, the Federation is an organization of the whole Jewish community:
Orthodox. Conservative, and Reform. What would you do if some parents wanted to
bring their child but the mother was converted by a Reform or Conservative rabbi?
Would you accept that child into your school?”
Rabbi Goldstein replied that he would tell those parents that the child needed
to be converted by an Orthodox rabbi.
“Do you realize that over 90 percent of the members of this Jewish community
are Reform and Conservative Jews? Most of the money given to the Federation for
Jewish agencies comes from these people. How can you not accept their children?”
They talked about this difficult problem and in the end decided to give some
money to the school. I realized that once the school took the money, which of course
was needed greatly, it would lose some of its independence.
The school board felt that the principal should decide which students should
be allowed to attend the Jewish Day School. Because many of these problems were
very personal, it was felt that the principal should take care of these problems with
those people themselves.
312
I never questioned this program until one day when I noticed a certain child
had joined the school. I knew that this child’s mother had been converted by a
Conservative rabbi and that the family neither kept kosher nor kept the Shabbat.
One afternoon, I went to see Rabbi Goldstein to talk about this matter. “Rabbi
Goldstein, something is troubling me. The new student who is in the third grade —
how were we able to admit him? He isn’t Jewish~”
“What do you mean?” Rabbi Goldstein asked, surprised.
“I know that his mother was converted by a Conservative
rabbi who did not do everything according to the Halachah. So he is not Jewish.”
“Yes, but before he came to our school, the boy was converted by an Orthodox
Beit Din.”
“That’s fine,” I said, “but his parents don’t keep the mitzvot and their home is
not a real Jewish home.”
“Yes, I realize this is a problem, but a very important Rosh Yeshivah said that
it was all right to do it this way.”
“You mean to say that whenever non-Jews want to come to our school you put
them in a mikveh and by magic they’re Jewish?” I asked him.
"Now wait a minute, you know that’s not what I meant. First of all, the very
fact that the parents want their children to have a good Jewish education says that the
family may become religious some day,” replied Rabbi Goldstein.
“I’m sorry, Rabbi, but I have to disagree with you. Many parents send their
children here because they don’t want to send them to public schools. Also if the
parents aren’t religious there isn’t a very good chance that the children will become
religious.”
“Look, Allan,” said Rabbi Goldstein, “this way of doing things lets the
Federation give us money and lets us keep our school open. We can then educate
these children and maybe they will begin to keep the mitzvot. If we don’t do that, we
will have to close our doors and then where will we be?”
“Now you’re telling me that what matters most is to keep the school open? To
make Jews who act like non-Jews? What you’re saying is that it doesn’t matter what
happens to the child as long as your school stays open — and you still have your job!”
I felt very bad as soon as I had said that. After all, Rabbi Goldstein was my
good friend. Also, I really knew how important it was for the school to stay open.
Later that evening, I went to speak to Rabbi Fried, who had helped us so much with
Devorah’s conversion. He told us that he also sat on a Beit Din that did such
conversions.
“I know how you feel,” Rabbi Fried told me. You feel that you worked so hard
for Devorah to be converted and these people have it so easy. But, Allan, you must try
to understand. Sometimes even in Halachah we have to do things which sometimes
can be questioned. You must go to a great rabbi and follow what he tells you to do.
Everything is not always black and white even in Jewish law.
313
“Let’s examine the problem. We have a very serious problem of Jews
marrying non-Jews. This is a growing problem. Each year we have more and more
children born to women who are not fully Jewish. What will happen to them? Are we
to send them away from the Jewish community or can we bring them into the
community in a way acceptable to Jewish law? Now, since these conversions take
place when a child is very young, it follows that when the child reaches the age of
twelve for a girl or thirteen for a boy we have to tell them about their conversion.
They stay Jewish as long as they don’t say that they don’t want to be Jewish.”
“Fine,” I said, “but what happens if these children reach the age of twelve and
thirteen and they’re still not religious? They think that they are Jewish because they
had an Orthodox conversion and went to an Orthodox Day School. But are they really
Jewish? What happens to their children?"
Rabbi Fried stood up from his chair. He walked to the bookshelves and back
again. “I don’t know,” he said, quietly. “I really don’t know.”
29
It was during this time that David Lev, our second son, was born. Our
happiness was very great. Devorah now had two little brothers. While our personal
lives became happier and happier, the more active I became in the Jewish community,
the more arguments I got into. The next fight I had was over Russian Jews who had
arrived in our city. Although we were sorry that these Jews had decided to come to the
US instead of going to Israel, we tried to help them as much as possible.
On their first Erev Shabbat in their new homes, Barbara organized several
women to visit each family and give them flowers, Shabbat candles and candlesticks,
and kosher wine. We also helped collect clothing and furniture for them.
Shortly after their arrival, I learned that these Russian Jewish children were
being sent to the local public schools. I couldn’t believe it. “They should be going to
the Hebrew Day School” I told Barbara.
When I questioned the community leaders about the matter, they told me that
the public schools would make it easier for them to become Americans. They also
added that the Russians were free to do as they wanted. After all, they were now
living in a free country.
I asked for permission to speak at the next meeting of the committee which
took care of the Russian Jews. There, I spoke about the problem. “In Russia, these
people were always reminded that they were Jews,” I said. “They didn’t know what
being Jewish meant and they couldn’t learn about Judaism. But they knew they were
Jewish because it was on their identity cards, it was on lists where they worked, and at
their schools. No matter how hard they tried to be good Russian citizens, they were
treated unfairly because they were Jews.
“In Russia they felt like Jews although they were Russians, while in America
they feel like they’re Russians although they are Jews. They don’t even know how far
they have gone away from Judaism because they know nothing about being Jewish. It
is important for us to make them feel comfortable being Americans, but it is also very
important that we make them comfortable being Jews. They will become Americans
even if we don’t help them. But they won’t become Jews unless we help them.”
314
In the end, two out of the sixteen Russian children came to study at the Day
School. At least we had done something.
Another fight I had was when the Board of Education of our city said that
because all the schools were closed for two days because of heavy snow, students
would attend schools on two Saturdays. The Board felt that this would be the easiest
way to make up for these two snowy days. Many Jewish organizations and local
rabbis complained to the Board, which decided instead to add two days at the end of
the school year.
I wrote an article in the local Jewish newspaper saying that what had been
done was not so great. The question was not if the students would go to school on
Shabbat, but what these Jewish students would be doing if they weren’t in school on
Shabbat! Would they be in the synagogues? Would they be sitting around the Shabbat
table honoring the Shabbat? Or would they be in the movies or shopping centers or
going to the beach?
*Fourth Quiz to here*
30
The year Devorah went into the fourth grade, the Day School organized a
student choir (mak’helah). The boys and girls sang beautifully and learned many
Jewish and Hebrew songs. They became very popular in the community and everyone
enjoyed listening to them sing.
I went to every performance because my Devorah was a member of the choir.
I tried to help as much as I could. I asked several rabbis about whether it was right for
boys and girls to sing together. The general feeling was that until bar/bat mitzvah it
was all right. Some people felt that since the children were singing only religious
songs, there was no problem.
As the school year continued, I saw that a number of performances would take
place during the time of sefirat ha-Omer, the seven weeks between Pesach and
Shavuot. This is considered a time of sadness. There are no weddings, and no live
music is heard.
I asked the musical director of the choir why there were performances during
this time. He explained that as long as the music the children sang was religious
music, it was okay. He said that he had spoken to his rabbi, whom he respected
greatly, and he always followed what he said. This rabbi had told him to do it that
way.
I began to realize that I had no personal rabbi to follow. There were many
local rabbis I talked to, but there was no one I respected so much that I would follow
everything he said. I began to understand that Jewish law was not always black and
white and that there were many areas where you needed to speak to a great rabbi and
hear what he has to say. I had no yeshiva background or education and I couldn’t
decide all of these things by myself.
315
I remembered that during one of our visits to Baltimore, I was very impressed
by Rabbi Moshe Heinemann,655 the rabbi of the Agudah synagogue there. I also knew
that he answered questions about Jewish law even from people outside of Baltimore
who telephoned him. Both Barbara and I agreed that I should call him and ask his
advice about the choir.
After I explained the story over the phone, Rabbi Heinemann asked me a few
questions. He wanted to know what would happen to Devorah if she did not sing with
the choir during this time. I told him that she would have to leave the choir, since the
others couldn’t sing without her and they would have to find someone else to take her
place. Rabbi Heinemann said that while he believed that it wasn’t right for the choir to
perform during this time, he felt it would be best if I didn’t do anything to make
Devorah feel different from everyone else. This could hurt her in school and maybe
make her feel bad about herself.
From time to time, I found myself turning to Rabbi Heinemann more and
more, since questions were always coming up. For example, when one of Devorah’s
classmates had a birthday party in an ice-cream store that wasn’t kosher, Rabbi
Heinemann told me to let Devorah go but to tell her not to eat anything there. We
should give her some candy to take along with her, he said.
Rabbi Heinemann was a great help to me and helped me get through many
different problems.
One day Barbara talked to me about how I was always getting into fights and
trying to change things in our Jewish community. “I think it’s time to make ourselves
better," she said. We decided that the time had come for us to forget about changing
others. We had to grow much more ourselves.
We began to make plans to visit Israel. In a few months I would get a half-year
sabbatical leave (‫ )שבתון‬from the university. After traveling around the world and
living in many parts of it, we decided it was time to really go “home,” home to the
one place where we felt we could live our lives as complete Jews. We were on our
way to Eretz Yisrael.
31
We rented an apartment in the Ma’alot Dafnah neighborhood of Jerusalem
near the Ohr Same’ach Yeshiva, where I planned to study during our six months
655
Rabbi Moshe Heinemann was uprooted from his birthplace in Germany after Kristallnacht, and
emigrated first to England and then to the United States. Upon settling in New York City with his
family in 1949, he enrolled in Yeshivas Torah Vodaath.
In 1954 Rabbi Heinemann was one of 58 students learning in the Lakewood Yeshiva. He had a close
relationship with his mentor HaRav Aaron Kotler, zt"l. Rabbi Heinemann received Rabbinic
ordination in 1964 from HaRav HaGaon Moshe Feinstein zt"l.
An invitation to join the Rabbinic staff at Yeshiva Ner Israel brought Rabbi Heinemann to Baltimore in
1967. Members of the Baltimore community came to recognize the greatness in their midst. Rabbi
Heinemann's encyclopedic knowledge of the practical application of Jewish law to contemporary issues
such as kashrus, medical ethics, and business law, earned him the reputation as a posek throughout the
entire country and abroad. Furthermore, Rabbi Heinemann's mastery of both the complex world of
modern technology and the intricacies of Jewish law made him an ideal candidate to serve as Rabbinic
Administrator of the newly revitalized STAR-K certification of kashrut.
316
there. The apartment was small, and very simple, with very little furniture. There was
one small bedroom for Devorah, Dov Chaim, and David Lev and another one for
Barbara and me. The kitchen had a small gas stove and a very old refrigerator.
Barbara and I were so excited about being in Israel that these things didn’t mean
anything to us.
The day after our arrival, I walked quickly along the street to Ohr Same’ach.
My mind was filled with thoughts about the great Rabbi Akiva. Like that great rabbi
who was also past forty years of age when he began to learn Torah, I too was on my
way to a yeshiva for the first time in my life.
We had many teachers and we studied from early morning until late at night. I
liked Gemara very much. Although I had spent many years at the university until I got
a doctorate, I had never had such a difficult subject to study. You had to know a lot in
order to understand anything really deeply. My Torah studies filled my days and my
nights.
The chavruta program was very interesting. Everyone studied with a partner in
a great big room. Despite the great amount of noise in the study hall, pairs of students
sat reviewing together the subject studied in the classes. The two partners argue with
each other trying to find what is wrong in the partner’s understanding until the two of
them come to an agreement as to the best explanation of the matter. In this way each
student is responsible for his partner’s learning and both of them grow in their
understanding. They are like two knives which are used to sharpen each other.
Since I was one of the few “older men” there, sometimes the students asked me for
advice. Many of the boys were having fights with their parents, who were very
worried that their sons were becoming too religious and were studying in a yeshiva.
Other boys were not religious at all before they came to the yeshiva, and they were
under pressure from their parents to come back to America, return to college, and be
like they were before.
I tried to explain to the boys how difficult it was for their parents to get used to
the changes in their children and that their parents were worried about them. This
worry came from their parents’ love for them — so they should understand these
feelings in the right way. I also told them that great changes taken too quickly were
not good for a person. To change overnight from a hippie-like university student to a
yeshiva student might be too much for some of them.
For the Israeli boys at the yeshiva, these changes came easily. They already
had a love of Eretz Yisrael, and they already knew Hebrew. It was as if these boys
were like dry wood just waiting for the match to set them on fire. They became very
excited about learning Torah and it made a great change in their lives. They were
finally learning about their religion, which they had never learned about before and
were learning about how beautiful their religion really was.
32
While I was learning at Ohr Same’ach, Dov Chaim went to a cheder. David
stayed with a woman who took care of children in her home while Barbara took
courses at Neve Yerushalayim and studied Hebrew. Devorah was in the fourth grade
in a Beit Yaakov elementary school.
317
Devorah had the most difficult time of all of us getting used to Israel. In
America there are many people from Asia, and so Devorah didn’t look so different
from everyone else. But in Israel this wasn’t so. Devorah was very different, and
people would look at her and make her feel bad. Children would often make fun of
her. Very often she would come home from school crying, and we had to explain to
her how some people weren’t nice and kind. Barbara and I cried together with
Devorah when people were unkind to her.
But Devorah’s troubles were really the only sour part of the sweetest thing we
had ever known. We loved Israel, and we loved Jerusalem. We enjoyed walking
around Jerusalem’s neighborhoods very much. We enjoyed the quiet of the Shabbat
there. We even trembled the first time we heard the siren bringing in the Shabbat on
Friday afternoon.
“You know,” I told Barbara, "in America a Jew is always different from
everyone else. Jewish life and non-Jewish life work to different clocks. We kept
Shabbat while everyone was doing something else and they went to church while we
were doing something else. When we kept the Shabbat, we made an island for
ourselves in the middle of a sea of people doing their everyday activities. Here
Shabbat is on Shabbat!”
We began to realize that we had both decided we should live in Israel. I
opened up a file at the Ministry of Absorption. They had a special department to help
academics planning to move to Israel. Over the next few months I looked for jobs
with four major Israeli universities, and also with a few other agencies, but nothing
came out of these meetings. If I didn’t have work, it looked as if we wouldn’t be able
to come on aliyah.
With only a few weeks left until we were supposed to leave Israel, a friend
suggested that we speak to Rebbetzin Esther Segal, a woman well-known for her
kindness and her help for others, At certain times during the day, people came to her
for advice and to receive her blessing. We had no idea how she might help us, but a
blessing from this religious woman couldn’t hurt.
Barbara and I walked from Ma’alot Dafnah to Meah Shearim and found
Rebbetzin Segal’s small house near the Mirrer Yeshiva. The Rebbetzin greeted us and
gave us a cool drink. We told her about our backgrounds, our becoming more and
more religious, and about how we didn’t want to go back to the US to live. We told
her about my problem — that I couldn’t find a job in Israel.
“For your children’s sake,” she said, “it is very important that you leave your
old community as soon as possible and return to Israel.” Then, looking straight at me,
she continued. “I believe that your problem is that you don’t have enough faith in
Hashem. He decides everything and makes everything happen. You have to put
yourselves in His hands and let things happen. Until you develop true faith, you will
not be able to progress. You have to try your best and do what you can but you must
understand that God makes everything happen. Look around — everyone seems to be
eating, no one is sleeping in the streets. People manage. If you want to stay here, you
must trust in Hashem.”
Thanking Rebbetzin Segal, we left and began slowly walking back to our
apartment. Each of us was deep in his own private thoughts. I turned to Barbara and
said, “Everything seemed so simple there. I felt something very special in that home. I
318
think that the Rebbetzin understands me completely. She certainly understood my
problem.”
33
All too quickly, my sabbatical leave came to an end. We packed all our
belongings, said our goodbyes, and returned to the United States. We had been so far
from the “goyish” world that we had forgotten all about Christmas and all the noise
and crowds that came along with it. This was the exact opposite of the quiet and
peaceful atmosphere of Jerusalem. Some of our Jewish neighbors had begun putting
up their “Chanukah bushes” as they did every year. This time it was simply too much
for us.
Within a few weeks of our arrival, we put our home up for sale. Although we
had no jobs lined up elsewhere, we agreed that we could no longer stay in our present
community. We had gotten used to living among religious Jews like ourselves and we
needed it more than ever. We decided to move to Baltimore, which had a large
religious community even though it was too far away to travel from there to my work
each day. I would stay in my present job and go home for weekends until I could find
a new job. It would be difficult for us to be apart for most of the week, but we felt that
we had to do it for ourselves and for the children.
A few weeks later, on Shabbat ha-Gadol, the Shabbat before Pesach, Barbara
gave birth to our third son. But this happy event presented us with a problem — since
the baby was born on Shabbat, the brit would also have to be on Shabbat. However,
this came after the first two days of Pesach, which are both holidays in America. In
other words, the mohel would have to come from Baltimore656 and stay away from his
family for the first three days of Pesach — including both Seders.
On Tuesday evening after I brought Barbara home from the hospital, I called
Rabbi Yehudah Naftali Mandelbaum, a teacher in Baltimore whom I had met the
previous Chanukah upon our return from Israel. I felt confident that he would give
me some good advice. I explained my problem to him and he listened to everything I
had to say. I was so surprised when he immediately invited all of us to spend Pesach
with his family. He told me not to worry about anything. We would be guests at his
Seders, and he would make all the arrangements for the brit on Shabbat.
The next day, Wednesday, we piled into our small car, and arrived at the
Mandelbaum's at around 2:00 PM. Mrs. Mandelbaum, who was expecting her
seventh child, made us feel at home immediately— as if it were the most natural thing
in the world to have two adults, three children, and a newborn baby as Pesach guests
with one day’s notice!
On Friday night, there was a double shalom zachar celebration — ours and
one of the Mandelbaums’ neighbors across the street.
Shmuel Naftali Schwartzbaum had his brit the following day, and Rabbi
Heinemann was the sandak.
On Sunday morning, after thanking the Mandelbaum's over and over for all
they had done, we left for home. The kindness and help shown us by the Orthodox
656
Apparently the child was born before they moved to Baltimore, and there was no mohel in the
community they were living in at the time.
319
community had made us even more convinced that we had to move to Baltimore
where we could give our children a better education and a better atmosphere of
religious Judaism.
When we got home I found a letter from the American Zionist Federation. The
letter said that the Jerusalem branch of the State University of New York needed
another professor there. However, this person would have to come on aliyah!
I read and reread this letter. The answer to our prayers had arrived suddenly.
Barbara agreed with me that this was the answer to all our problems. I immediately
wrote to them telling them that I was interested in the job.
“It’s really strange,” I told Barbara. “While we were in Israel no one said
anything about this job. Now, here we are, back in America, and almost ‘by
accident,’ I find a job in Israel.”
“First of all,” Barbara replied, “nothing happens by accident. And second, I
think we had to leave Israel in order for us to realize how important it was for us to
return.”
From that point on things moved very quickly. I was invited to New York for
a meeting and within a few months time I was offered the job beginning in February.
On January 15, 1983 we arrived at Ben Gurion airport, a little more than a year after
we had left Israel. This time, however, we were not just visitors but olim.
We filled out all the papers and changed our names to Avraham and Rochel.
We had given up a three-story, six bedroom house in the US for two small rooms in a
center for olim in Gilo, and our hearts sang.
34
It was only a year to Devorah’s bat mitzvah, and Rochel and I recognized
that this was going to be a very important milestone in her life, more so than for other
Jewish girls. She had been converted at the age of four. Now, upon becoming twelve
years old, Devorah would have a chance to make her decision on her own. She could,
if she wanted, decide to not be Jewish any longer.
We had no idea of what should be done on the day of her bat mitzvah and we
were anxious that everything be done properly. I went to see a rabbi who arranged a
meeting with the great Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach in the Shaarei Chesed
neighborhood of Jerusalem.
We went to his house and he invited us into his study. Rabbi Auerbach
listened to our story and then said, “If a child has been keeping all of the mitzvot since
conversion, there is no need to do anything special on her birthday. If the child is
aware that she is converted and knows that she can undo it, and yet she still continues
to keep the Torah, the conversion is complete and final. There is no need for any
special ceremony.
“If, however, the child chooses to stop being Jewish, she must say so and do
something which is against Jewish law, and then she is no longer Jewish.”
320
The rabbi gave us his blessing for an easy settlement in Israel, and that our
love and knowledge of Torah should grow stronger and deeper each year.
I thanked him for his blessing and advice and left his home.
The time for Devorah’s bat mitzvah was coming near and we decided to share
this special day with our parents. Since it was too difficult for them to travel to Israel,
we decided to travel to the US. We went to Florida, where my mother was living in a
home for old people. Rochel’s parents came to Florida from New York for the
celebration. A number of friends and relatives flew in also.
Everyone gathered in a large room in the old-age home. The room became
quiet as Devorah went to the microphone to speak:
Often when someone becomes bat mitzvah, she and her family travel
to Israel to celebrate the day. But my family and I have come from Israel to
Florida, so that I could be with my grandparents who, along with my parents,
have helped me and guided me through my first twelve years.
For every Jewish girl, turning twelve is something special; it’s
something every Jewish girl looks forward to. But because I was adopted and
converted as a small child, becoming twelve is extra special. In my case, I am
able to decide whether or not I want to stay Jewish. I can make my own
decision. My parents told me when I was young that when I turn twelve I
would have to make this decision on my own. I remember when I was small
and I wanted to get back at my parents for not letting me have my way. I
would shout, “I’m not going to stay Jewish when I’m twelve, just because of
you!”
Well, that time has finally come, and I don’t even have to think about
my decision. I want to stay Jewish. I can’t think of any other way of life. I
feel a special connection with the people of Israel. When holidays come, I feel
excited. On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I pray to Hashem and beg Him
to accept my prayers. I’m proud to be part of the Jewish People. Just like Ruth
said to Naomi, “Your people are my people, your God is my God.”
We live in confusing times. There are many things that make it hard to
stay a strong Jew with faith in Hashem. I want to thank my parents again for
being the strong and understanding people they are. I thank Hashem every day
for bringing me to such wonderful, special parents. They have always tried to
show me the right way, the Torah way. It’s impossible for any of us to know
what the future holds, but I would like to make a promise to my family: I will
never forget who I am — a Jew, a part of the Jewish people.
Rochel’s Final Word
“Mazal Tov. It’s a boy!” Dr. Rosenberg said excitedly. It was June 28, 1985 and I
had just given birth to our first “sabra” seven minutes after entering the Misgav
Ladach Hospital in Jerusalem. This fourth child had come so quickly that Avraham
was still outside parking the car when the baby decided to enter the world!
Later in the day, when things were quiet, I began to think of my life until now.
I remembered crying in the darkness of my bedroom because I did not have a baby. I
321
thought of the many years of doctors’ treatments I went through to try to help me have
a baby. And then, a baby was given to us in Taiwan! This certainly was a miracle but
it also began another miracle. It is not so uncommon for parents who adopt a child to
soon have children on their own — but our first son was born four years after
Devorah’s adoption. This happened just after she was converted and we had begun to
keep the laws of the Torah. This had to show the special care that Hashem had shown
us.
Eight days later, Avraham spoke at our son's brit:
When Leah gave birth to her fourth son, she gave thanks to Hashem because
he had given her more than her share of the twelve sons of Yaakov. She named her
son Yehudah [from the Hebrew root connoting thanks]. Rochel and I waited twelve
years before our first son was born, a gift from Hashem. Then we were blessed with a
second son, and then a third. Now, we have a fourth son, and we give special thanks
because Hashem has given us more than our share as well. Like Leah, we have named
him Yehudah.
Excerpts from Devorah’s Diary
Here are a few notes from Devorah’s personal diary.
September 13, 1983
Today we went to do the kaparot with chickens in Mean Shearim. This man
waved a live chicken around over my head because I wouldn’t touch the chicken. My
friend was laughing all the time. Just as the man was waving it for the last time, I
heard two small boys talking to each other. One said to his friend, “What, they do
kapparot in China too?”
July 1, 1984
Today, when I was walking back from the grocery store with my friend Sara,
some boys started teasing me. Sara shouted back at them: “Leave her alone — stop
calling her names! I was so surprised. There was Sara, shouting at them and
defending me. It made me feel really good.
November 4, 1984
I really got angry today. I was riding the No.21 bus from The Central Bus
Station to Bayit Vegan. There were these kids, about fourteen or fifteen years old, and
they were saying really stupid things about this Ethiopian girl who was about my age.
They were talking very loudly and calling her all sorts of bad names and laughing
about it.
Well, it got me really mad. I’m sort of used to it but I thought that this girl had
just arrived in Israel and this was no way to treat a newcomer! So I went up to these
kids — there were two boys and a girl. I started shouting at them in Hebrew, which
was funny in itself, and told them that we had as much right to be in Israel as they did.
True, I was from China and this girl from Africa, but Israel was just as much our
home as it was theirs! If they ever read the Torah, I said, they would see that it says,
“Do not hurt the feelings of a stranger because you were a stranger the land of Egypt.”
They were so surprised that a Chinese girl opened her mouth and Hebrew
words came out — or maybe the words themselves had some influence on them —
322
whatever the reason, they kept quiet for the rest of the bus trip. My friend, who was
with me, was really proud I did that.
November 18, 1987
Today a very close friend asked me why don’t have plastic surgery to look less
Chinese. I know the question wasn’t meant to hurt me, because we’re good friends
and talk about everything. It was just out of curiosity. So I answered that, please God,
when I get married and have kids, they’ll all come out looking Chinese! This friend
said it’s not true, and she’s right because I know a girl whose mother is Japanese and
you would never know it! Besides, would you like a doctor fooling around with your
eyes? But the most important reason is that Hashem made me the way I am — who
am I to decide about my personal appearance?! Thank God I’m healthy and I look
normal, so really, why should I change? This is the way He made me, so this is the
way I’ll stay!
*Final Quiz to here*