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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
April 16, 1976 53
Yigal Allon's 1 My Father's House' Depicts Father-Son Israel Pioneers
Jewish pioneering in Is-
rael is an erasable chapter
in Jewish history. Fathers
and sons labored together,
they had built and de-
fended, and many of the
sons had risen to notable
diplomatic roles.
Yigal Allon, now among
the youngest of Israel's
leaders, emerged- from the
kibutz to parliament, to di-
plomacy, to his current im-
portant position as Israel's
foreign minister.
Already having written a
number of important books
on Israel, her defensive
" -- her armed forces, Al-
, whose name is the He-
brew for oak, now relates
the father-son story in "My
Father's House," (W. W.
Norton & Co.), a volume
that merits a place on the
bookshelf about Israel's hal-
utzim and builders.
Allon was one of the or-
ganizers and creators of
Kibutz Ginosar which is
still his home. His father
was among the early her-
oes of his life, which began
in the village at the foot of
Mount Tavor. That's
where pioneering was a
struggle, a battle for subs-
istence and for safety from
Arab marauders.
It was not an easy life. It
was a struggle that equated
with the nation-building
processes. These are the
processes that Allon depicts
YIGAL ALLON
in describing the closeness
with his father and the
training ground for leader-
ship.
His father was the guide
and inspirer and the entire
book is a deeply moving
story of a family relation-
ship that is glorified by re-
markable reminiscences.
The author of this me-
moir was a general during
Israel's 1948 War of Inde-
pendence (with Yitzhak Ra-
bin under his command)
and is now Israeli foreign
minister. The bulk of this
narrative is a tribute to his
father and reminiscences of
growing up in the 1920s and
30s in the farming village
Kfar Tavor when the land
was still called Palestine
and Jewish settlers led a
precarious life surrounded
by wandering Bedouin
tribes who might overrun
their farms at any time.
He brings alive his fath-
er's intense love of the
land and his mixed feel-
ings as he sees individual
farms being replaced by
kibutzim. The old man
lived to be 91 and was al-
ways a source of inspira-
tion to his son, and his life
story is a kind of reflection
of the history of Israel
going back to its earliest
beginnings.
"In a little farming vil-
lage, Kfar Tavor, I was
ushered into the world in
October 1918 . . . The entire
village was enclosed by a
stone wall, fitted with loo-
pholes which could be used
for shooting from both
standing and kneeling posi-
tions," recalled Allon.
His
autobiographical
book, "My Father's House,"
will be published May 5 —
the anniversary of Israel's
independence.
Allon was six years old
when his mother died and
was raised by his father, a
man of renowned courage.
"When the village was at-
tacked, Papa took the rifle
and ran out to his position,"
said Allon.
"Before leaving the
house, he carried me up by
a ladder to the attic, fitted
me out with a sharp axe
U.S. Joins Israel in Park Project
From the illustrations in Yigal Allon's "My Father's
House" by Shirley Hirsch
for self defense and a sup-
ply of food and water. In
order not to give away my
hiding place, her removed
the ladder to the yard.
That scene was repeated
many times. I would stay
in the dark attic, trying to
guess how the battle was
going by the shots. Some-
times I fell asleep, but
usually I struggle with
fear until he returned."
"The defense of one's life,
property and honor was not
an abstract issue but a daily
reality," observed Allon.
"Anyone who undertook a
day of work in a remote
field did so at the risk of
one's life. My father's 379
dunams were divided up and
scattered as far as five kilo-
meters from the village. The
wagon ride to work at dawn,
the lonely spell in the dis-
tant fields, the return home
in the evening dusk, the
night watch over the grain
— such were the matters
which concerned me from
earliest childhood."
On his 13th birthday, Al-
lon's father gave him his
first gun and first major
assignment — to stand
night guard in a sorghum
field. There, Allon took his
position under an oak tree.
During the night, he found
himself outnumbered by
three armed Arab horse-
men, who had entered the
field and were filling their
sacks with sorghum. Things
were taking a bad turn for
Allon, when his father's
sudden appearance turned
the tide.
"He wanted to test my
courage, but he loved me too
much to let me go it alone
. . . He'd gone after me
without my noticing, taken
a position in a suitable spot
and let me fend for myself.
Only when he was sure I
was in real danger did he in-
tervene," Allon remem-
bered.
Sixteen years later,
when he was being sworn
in as a general and had to
choose a Hebrew name, he
choose "Allon" — the He-
brew word for oak, in rec-
ollection of his first battle.
Allon's conviction grew
that the kibutz was the
right way of life — a view-
point opposed to that of his
father, a fierce individual-
ist. When he joined Kibutz
Ginosar, the father refused
to come. At age 70, after a
tough struggle to go it alone,
he relented. From that day
on, he could not bear to see
his old village. Until his
death at 91, he never again
set foot there.
Local. Professor's Goal: Aliya
REHOVOT — For Prof.
Bernard Zeigler and his
family, coming to Israel to
live was not a spur of the
moment decision but the
culmination of many years
of planning.
A professor of computer
science at the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, be-
fore immigrating to Israel
to take up a position in the
Weizmann Institute of
Science's Department of
Included within the Jewish National Fund's Bicentennial Park will be the Stoll- Applied Mathematics, Prof.
man Family Park and Recreation Area; established through the generosity of the Zeigler explains that his
Stollman family of Detroit. Shown above are, from left, Phillip, and Frieda and Max
leaving America had noth-
Stollman.
ing
to do with discrimina-
* * *
tion or dissatisfaction.
By SHIMON
carried out by the Keren points offering a unique , "I have never experienced
BENSHEMESH
Kayemeth Leisrael, Israel's panoramic view encompass- anti-Semitism in the U.S.
Director-General, Keren
Kayemeth Leisrael
national land-development ing hundreds of miles down nor Montreal, where I was
(A Seven Arts Feature)
born. But on my previous
institution, whose head- to the Mediterranean cost.
Between hills and valleys quarters are in Jerusalem
Work has already visit to Israel I found a spe-
9tching from the West- and which for 75 years has started on the first build- cial kind of bond with my
colleagues, stronger than
outskirts of Jerusalem been responsible for the re- ing, the Forester's House,
and the modern develop- demption and the physical where maps, pictures and the relationship I had expe-
ment town built on the site renaissance of the soil in the diagrams will explain to rienced elsewhere among
scientists working to-
he ancient Israelite City Jewish homeland.
visitors the work involved
Jeit-Shemesh, the barren
The president of Israel, in what amounts to one of gether," Zeigler says.
landscape of the Judean Prof. Ephraim Katzir, has the most impressive land-
In Israel, Prof. Zeigler
hills is slowly undergoing a accepted the honorary pa- scaping projects so far is involved in research at
profound change. On an tronage of the park which realized in Israel.
the institute using the
area of 1,000 acres, still an- was officially recognized by
Other buildings — all of computer to simulate com-
other symbol comes to life the Bicentennial Adminis- them built in stone, so as to plex systems in nature in
expressing the friendship tration in Washington as blend with the rocky land- order to gain a better un-
between the people of Israel one of the few undertakings scape — will house exhibits derstanding of how they
and the United States of being realized outside the depicting the history of work. A book he has writ-
America: a park in honor of United States in honor of American independence and ten on this subject,
the Bicentennial of the America's 200th birthday. bearing witness to its spirit- ..!--`Theory of Modeling and
American Revolution.
The aim of the park is to ual roots in Biblical tradi- Simulation," is abc Ut to be
Conceived by the Jewish convert the thinly populated tion, thus underlining the published by John Wiley
National Fund of America rocky terrain into an area of common cultural and ideo- and Sons, and will intro-
and made possible through groves and forests, camping logical heritage of the duce scientists in other
contributions of American sites for youth, shady walk- United States and the state disciplines to this use of
Jewry, the project is being ing paths and observation of Israel.
computers, as well as
serve the needs of com-
puter scientists.
About life in Israel Prof.
Zeigler says, "For me, the
adjustment to life in Israel
has been very smooth. An
academic setting in Israel is
not very different from one
anywhere else in the world."
For his wife, Rebecca, a
child-care worker, and two
daughters Bianca, 9, and
Noami, 7, the
changes have
been much
more drastic.
The girls
plunged into
the Israeli
schools with-
out knowing
much 'Hebrew.
.WEIZMANN
"It was
INSTITUTE tough for them
OF SCIENCE. to sit uncom-
prehendingly at first, feel-
ing left out," their mother
recalled. "But now they
have found friends; their
Hebrew\ is getting quite
good and they even correct
us all the time."
Mrs. Zeigler attends an
intensive Hebrew course
held at the institute for visi-
tors and newcomers.
The Zeiglers explain that
Israel has played a major
role in their lives for years.
As a college student Mrs.
Zeigler spent some time on
kibutzim and established
strong emotional ties with
the country which were
reinforced by their year's
sabbatical.
BERNARD ZEIGLER
Now that they have taken
the big step and made their
home in Israel, the Zeiglers
are getting to know differ-
ent kinds of people.
Zeigler spends free time
helping a young Yemenite
boy with his English les-
sons; Mrs. Zeigler tries out --
her newly-acquired Hebrew
at every possible chance;
and the whole family parti-
cipates in the hiking activi-
ties of the Israel Nature
Protection Society, where
they have made many new
friends.
JNF Prunings
Produce Wood
1
JERUSALEM — Wide-
spread prunings were car-
ried out recently in Israel's
forests by the Afforestation
Department of the Jewish
National Fund as part of the
seasonal treatments which
maintain the good condition
of the forests and insure
continued healthy develop-
ment.
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a Ai
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