STORY They were glad for her; they The instruction in farming was made Maxi see how much better harder still; unaccustomed backs (Continued from Page 1) it was. But when two, three, 10 achol in the bending, stretching, Nothing seemed too fantast'e to- of them died, they buried them bending to the soil. But it had silently at sea. Talking then was been fascinating, perhaps because day. useless it was now; more because they Bl es sed memory, that forgets horror so soon! The nightmare When, finally, they felt the felt they were needed. They must seemed like some one else's story earth of Palestine beneath their learn quickly, thoroughly, so they now. The endless circling outside trembling feet, it was incredible. could go out to the new settle- of Palestine, was it weeks' months? They had actually landed! How ment. They had lost track of time by queer it had been just to walk She remembered the discussion then. When Maxi's grandmother on something solid again. She she and David had had the night died, she seemed so peaceful. and David had helped some of before they left for the Emek. the others; by helping they seemed She had hesitated about express- to grow stronger themselves. The ing her fear to David, but she warm baths in the hospital at should have known he would un- Haifa, the clean feel of the sheets derstand. Happy Neu' Year to All against their bodies—that cleans- "David," she had said, "I'm ing process must have been what afraid. I'm angry with myself ; brought their strength back so 1 keep telling myself nothing can qu'ckly. hold terror, danger for us any The Automobile Equipment Co. 62I-643 E. CONGRESS RAndolph 0011 The country was so strange to them. She hadn't heard Hebrew since her Bible lessons when she was a child in Prague. But how kind the people were; the hands stretched out to welcome them, help them; it wasn't weakness then to cry. The training school at Haifa had spurred their deadened brains to think again. It Was going to school once more; a challenge to them to learn Hebrew quickly, difficult though the language was. ROSH HASHONAH GREETINGS • Upon this momentous occasion in the lives of the Jewish people, we extend sincere wishes for a most joyous holiday. • Hotel Webster Hall CASS AT PUTNAM Le Shono Tovo'Tikosevu -- A Happy New Year to All MERCHANTS FUR COMPANY Manufacturing Furriers 206 E. GRAND RIVER AVE. 805-9 Merchants Bldg. LOU GENDLER HURD CLARK NEW YEAR GREETINGS TO OUR MANY JEWISH FRIENDS BELLE ISLE RIDING ACADEMY GEO. HIGGINS, President FITZROY 2624 ROSH HASHONAI I GREETINGS TO ALL Keystone Engineering Co., Inc. ALEX G. MARION, Pres. Phone VI. 1 - 8656 100 E. Cicotte a. 21 DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle Septj'inber I I. 1942 Ecorse, Mich. more. I keep saying this is Pal- estine, this is our land, but no matter how I reassure myself, there's something there I can't express; some fear of what the Emek, what living in a farm set- tlement will do to us." "I know, dear," David had re- plied. "I've felt that way myself. I've tried to reason it out. I don't think it's because of the hard work that's waiting for us. We've been taught enough here in Haifa not to fear that. We all know what to do if malaria or any sickness should come. I don't think it's that, at all; I think it's simply that we have all believed so long that Jews can't till the soil. We were snug back in Prague. We used to say we Jews are men of mind, we must work with our brains, we can't work with our hands. I suppose we still believe that, Rachel, even though we have been told of the success of so many different settlements. It's hard to change a way of living for years overnight, or in a few short months. But darling, we must go. We have accepted a trust. We've been taken in with such warm welcome, we've been trained so painstakingly; the 60 of us who were left have been kept to- gether so that we can build our own settlement out of the waste. We'll do it—we'll make homes for ourselves. Let's do it with as much joy as we can. Others have gone before us, they're happy. We will be too, Rachel. We'll go to- gether." And they were—even more than she had imagined. There was David's sweet head bent among the rows of green pea vines. They worked together; they built to- gether they lived and loved and learned together. The system that had been per- fected of putting up a settlement in one (lay had been explained to them before they went, but its actual working out was a revela tion to them all. The prefabri- cated barracks and watch tower; the minute instructions that were placed in each; their supplies labelled so exactly; they had been able in one day to put up shel- ters and build fences around the land with the help of experienced men and women franc Haifa. They set up guards against Arab raids for the night, and then they were on their own. How bleak the land seemed the next morning! They looked at one another with misgiving. This land that had been given them seemed to dare them to make it tillable. Well, they started. Each had been given a daily task. Her's was to work in the fields near David and some of the oth- ers. (Newlyweds don't usually know how to cook, she had re- minded them.) They had started out as buoyantly as they could. "Today we'll clear enough to plant a vegetable garden," they had said. Picking up stones, one by one; bend, pick up the stone, put it in the sack on your shoul- der; bend again, pick up more stones, throw them in the sack, until by nightfall they were bend- ing, lifting, without though, be- yond pain, knowing only those "vicious stones must be conuered. When the last light had gone from the fields, they all gathered in Mother Levenson's community kitchen for the meager evening meal. Their supper finished, the guards must take their turns all night, while the others slept. The work was hard; part of their land was swamp, some of A. sand, all of it wasted by cen- turies of neglect. The waste of it was what angered them the most. But each new small vic- tory over that barren land brought such excitement to their hearts. The nightly meetings in the com- munity hall became more than discussions of their daily prob- lems. Exhausted, still they argued, planned, discussed, visualized the modern farm they would make. Months and seasons of cruel labor seemed now to have _passed 1 so quickly. Rachel remembered with a smile the glorious cele- to llow from their hearts to give bration the night they finished their fingers magic. The light the stone building for the cows that shone from their eyes gave and chickens. And when the vege- prpof of the change in their feel- table garden yielded food for ing. They could not fail, for the; their table—never had peas an.I were no longer afraid. carrots tasted so delicious? Rachel picked up her hoe. She She looked about her. "Our looked about her at the growing fields are friendly, now," she fields, the saplings that would thought. "We've planted them, one day be their orchard; the and they're growing for us. community house where their That's what they meant when minds met in endless plans; the they used to say that Mother small family cabins, David's and had 'growing hands.' Somehow her's, too; the road leading back the actual preparing of the earth, to Haifa that their stones had watering it, watching it, has done built, and she thought: "This land is ,Jewish—it is something to all of us. I don't know why; maybe it's because Erotz Yisrael. We're not the first, you can't rush growing things; and we won't be the last. We you must wait until the plants shall live and see our children are ready to come out into the grow beside us, and' when we're sun. The watching and caring gone, there will be more of us to and waiting for the earth forces rise with the sun, and work in you to be patient. And when once the fields, and sing together at you've felt the thrall of seeing the close of day, We are here— something you've planted sprout, it is ours—we have come home! you grow tender toward all the brown earth you've cared for. Our hands are 'growing hands' now; the peace of it has made us whole again." Rosh Hashonah Greetings She held her hands out before her. They were brown and cal- loused from hard work. Her face was tan from so much working in the sun. There had been a time when the wrinkles about her eyes would +lave alarmed her van- ity. But now those things could not bother her. So gradual had been the change, she could not tell when they had all come to realize that this soil was their's because they were of the land. Their hands were in it, their bodies were bent to its shaping, they lived with it. 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