Page Twenty

THE JEWISH

•

FROM DETROIT HALUTZIM:

Letters Recount Experiences
On Ships, in Cyprus Camps

Personal reportt on conditions in Palestine have been received
by two Detroit families, in letters from two local young people who
left last fall for Eretz Yisroel, via boats that have been diverted to
Cyprus.
(For security reasons, the names of the letter-writers may not
be revealed.)
They recount their experiences enough to squirt me with a fire
pn tiny, over-crowded ships bear-
ing thousands of refugees to the hose and revive me. However,
Homeland, the brutality en- by that time, it was all over so
countered at the hands of the I went to work in the hospital.
British, and describe life in the I was the last to leave the ship.
Cyprus internee camps. One of We broke the ship's engines be-•
the letters includes requests for
some „food and Clothing, but fore We were boarded. I wish I
mainly for books with which to1 could write all. It's like a fairy
continue the education of the tale."
refugees, both adults and chil-
The other letter explains con-
dren.
ditions in the Cyprus camps.
Excerpts from the letter de-
"The Cyprus winter is on us
scribing the approach to Pales- . . . It rains all day long, and the
tine follow:
next day the surf shines bright.
"The things we have gone One time it rained only 15 mM-
through have given us all a bit utes, but it also hailed terribly,
of grey_hair ... Here all we have and we were almost flooded. The
to do is wait. •
British gave the boys boots and
"No one died on our ship as the girls sandals—I guess we are
the newspaper reports said. We supposed to remain in bed when
had food and water for 15 days it rains and let the boys do
and it only took us 12. Until the everything for us.
10th day we went safely, but the
"Don't think the British are
morning of the 11th day a Lan- so generous. When our knap-
do- caster Bomber found us and nine sacks and persons were searched
hours later a destroyer was along when we first came here, they
side. We sent el/06one below took our watches, pens, some
and said we were a passenger shoes and many other things. I
ship bound for Port Said and had a pair of boots—I don't have
stopping in Begrat for repairs. them now.
We had a leak and the boat had
Received 800 Immigrants
a slight list at this time. Later it
"You might have heard of the
became worse but it wasn't more
than 15 degrees until we came capture of another ship, called
to Haifa. That was because the Kresset Yisrael. It carried more
crew we had pumping water was passengers than the Queen Eliz-
stopped by the British. They abeth! In our camp we received
rammed us when they tried to 800 of the new illegal immigrants.
board us and it made the situa- The British unloaded them on a
stormy day and those poor people
tion considerably worse.
walked around finding empty
Reach Haifa Harbor
tents carrying cots and knap-
"The boarding was quite a sacks in the heavy rain.
thing to see. We had intended to
`The Joint Distribution Com-
land at night but once we were mittee supplied our camp with
discovered it didn't pay to try to two sewing machines (we are
come in at night so we arrived 2000 people) but NO material to
at Haifa at about 6 p. m., Oct. 31. sew. So we are taking super-
We raised the Jewish Flags, fluous parts of our tent walls
changed the name of the ship and making shorts and slacks.
to Latrun and-started full speed Actually there is so little to do
for shore.
here, we like to busy ourselves
"We were followed by three sewing, etc. Almost all of us
destroyers and two corvettes. It's made nice sandals from tent
difficult to describe the scene. ropes.
People could hardly , sing. When
"We also spend a great deal of
we got close to territorial waters time studying Hebrew and read-
the first corvette suddenly pulled ing. We have organized a school
alongside, with their fire hoses for youths under 18—they learn
going full blast at us. They blew to read and write, mathematics,
tear gas at us, but in spite of geography, history, and Hebrew.
this we managed to throw off Some children have never been
their boarding hooks and they in school—others only until they
passed by. However, about six were 10 or so. Those who were
of their men had managed to in Russia were the only ones
board us and held their position able to continue school during
with machine guns.
the war."
"Most of our people ran from
the tear gas and there were only
about 10 of us left on my deck.
We managed to throw off the
grappling hooks twice more, but
each time more of their people
got on board and gradually they
got control. The fourth time they
hooked on to us and towed us
The Institute of Jewish Studies,
into Haifa.
organized by the Council of Far-
`Tears of Frustration'
band Jewish Folk Schools, in
"It's hard to realiie now that cooperation with the Detroit Cen-
I was actually in Palestine and tral Committee of the Labor
on the Land. When the British Zionist Organization of America-
took over people stood dazed— Poale Zion, offers courses in the
everyone was crying and some- following subjects:
one started singing "Am Yisroel
Hebrew (elementary, advanced
Chai" and we all sang with tears and conversational); Jewish (ele-
of frustration, hate, and tear gas mentary, advanced and conver-
mixed.
sational); Bible and Biblical lit-
"It's quite an experience to see erature; history of the Jewish
an English officer with an Eden language and literature; modern
accent hit a 17-year-old girl over Hebrew literature; history of the
01.4
the head because she couldn't Jews in the United States; his-
move backwards for there were tory of the Jews (17th century
so many people behind her. On to present); Zionism and the la-
the whole the whole thing would bor movement in Palestine. '
have been comical if not for
These courses will be conduct-
what it meant to us—the differ- ed by M. Atzmoni, T. Frisch, M.
ence between freedom and an- Goldoftas, J. Haggai, I. Raizman,
other six months in a legen.
W. Snyder and A. Twersky.
"The English soldiers were
All courses will be given in the
young kids 16 and 18 years old, evening. Parallel courses will
They were afraid of us and pitied also be offered in the early
us. One kid stood and cried afternoon.
through the whole thing. We on
The term will continue until
our part had nothing against May 22.
these children and many people
Registration is still in grogress.
were pro-British until the inci-
Classes will be held at 1912
Taylor and Central High School.
dent.
For information, c all TY.
`Like a Fairy Tale'
"I was knocked out, but my 5-3365, daily, '2 to 7 p. m., except
head is hard and they were good Saturday and Sunday.

Take Registrations
For Farband Series
Of Jewish Lectures

Oar

Friday, February 14, 1947

NEWS

JWV Auxiliary Leaders
Attend Capital Parley

Jewish War Veterans' Women's
Department president, Louba
Loupiloff, Hilda Goldberg, presi-
dent pro-tern of Auxiliary 135,
and Rost Cantor of Auxiliary 230
recently returned from Washing-
ton, after attending the National
Ladies Auxiliary Constitutional
Convention of JWV.
Among the speakers at the
conference were national corn-
mander of the Veterans of For-
eign Wars, Louis Starr; Secretary
of War Robert P. Patterson; As-_
sistant Secretary of State, Wil-
liam Benton; Otis L. Wiese,
editor-in-chief of McCall's mag-
azine; Rear Admiral Everett
Ewen; 'George C. Kenney; Dr.
Henry Noble MacCracken, presi-
dent emeritus of 'Vassar College;
and Frances., Perkins.
Mrs. Dorothy Mann, of Detroit,
national president of the Veter-
ans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary,
concluded the addresses. -

iv
Special Program Honors
Late Hyman Altman;
Rabbi Adler to Speak

Tribute to the memory of Hy-
man Altman, founder of the Alt-
man Jewish Radio Hour and an
active leader in many Jewish
movements, will be paid this
Sunday noon, in a special broad-
cast over the Altman Hour, on
the occasion of the second an-
niversary of his death.
Cantor J. H. Sonenklar will
chant the El Molei Rachamim.
Rabbi Morris Adler will deliver
the memorial address. There
will be a musical program -by
Wyn Garden.
The late Mr. Altman organized
the Free Kitchen during the de-
pression and was among the
prime movers of the campaign
for the Home for Aged. He as-
sisted in all charity drives and
sold hundreds of thousands of
dollars worth of war bonds dur-
ing his radio broadcasts.

Ex-Mufti's Aide Gets
Prison Term in Prague

PRAGUE • (JTA) — Mohamed
Abdul Brixius, a friend and aide
of the ex-Mufti, has been sen-
tenced to eight years' imprison-
ment, confiscation of all his prop r
erty and loss of civil rights. A
Prague court found him guilty in
Czech fascist organizations:
Bruxius denied he eves at-
tacked Jews on racial grounds,
asserting this was forbidden by
the Koran, but only for "his-
torical and Palestinian reasons."

For Consultation
on personal or family
•
problems—Call

ANNA OXENHANDLER

I WANT A
PLACE TO
LIVE

I Want to Rent
A Small House
or Flat

0**

-sv tact
'`u"

HO. 4857

TRinity 1-0362

Re-flail . . . JUDGE

GEORGE T. MURPHY

TRAFFIC JUDGE

Judge George T. Murphy

has served on

the Traffic

Court Bench for over eleven

years. During this time De-

troit has become the safest

large city in the Nation.

Vote for JUDGE GEORGE

T. MURPHY and KEEP

Detroit the safest large

City in the nation.

ARTHUR W.

SEMPLINER

for

COMMON PLEAS JUDGE

• Elected Wayne County Circuit Court
Commissioner in 1941 with 100,000
votes.
• Volunteered in II. S. Army in 1942.

• Served 3 years overseas with 2nd
Engineer Amphibian Brigade, unit
noted for 80 beachhead landings,

• Retained on essential duty after V-J
Day to reestablish courts and judicial
system on Bataan Peninsula and later
in all of Luzon.

• Returned home in 1946 to greet his
3 year old son for the first time.
Resumed practice of law in Detroit.

• A native Detroiter who knows mu-
nicipal and county government as a
judge ... as a lawyer ... as a citizen.

• Believes that more young men should
take active interest in good govern-
ment, should enter politics and tram
themselves for responsible public
office.

Better Men For. Better Government

VOTE TWICE

LONG and SHORT TERM

Non-Partisan

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