THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
64 Friday, November 24, 1978
Eri Jabotinsky's J'Accuse! . . . A Memoir to a Pioneer
By 'YITZHAK BEN-AMI
(Editor's note: Yitzhak
`Ben Ami was active in the
leadership of the Irgun.
He worked on "illegal
immigration" in 1937-39
and founded the Ameri-
can Friends for a Jewish
Palestine in 1939. His ar-
ticle on the "Altalena in-
cident" appeared in the
J
Aug. 18, 1978 Jewish
News.)
In June, 1937, Eri, Zeev
Jabotinsky's son, came to
visit me in the youth labor
camp which I was managing
in Zichron Yaakov. A few
weeks earlier, a small,
two-masted, 50-ton sail boat
out of Piraeus, Greece,
landed 14 "illegal" olim
(immigrants) — mostly Be-
tarim — and some youths
from various general
Zionist groups. The moving
spirit of this venture was a
dashing, eccentric young
man, Moshe Galili (Krivos-
hein).
It appeared possible that
by using small motorized
sail boats, one could pene-
trate the British blockade of
the Palestine coast. We
could then prepare and
train for the urgent goals of
the nationalist movement,
the eventual repatriation of
hundreds of thousands from
Eastern Europe to Eretz
Yisrael.,
The British were tight-
ening immigration
quotas and the Jewish
Agency, in turn, practi-
' cally eliminated the im-
migration of non-
Socialist youth, except
tor those belonging to
parties in Labor's coali-
tion, controlling the
Zionist Organization and
the Jewish Agency.
Eri stressed that we had
thousands of trained im-
migrants in the ranks of the
Jabotinsky movement who
would take any risk to come
to Eretz Yisrael; that the
2 northern border, (Lebanon
and Syria), was practically
closed, that we had used to
the utmost the "tourist" and
"student channels." We
agreed that time was run-
ning out for the final show-
down with the British colo-
nial policies and with the
growing menace of Nazism.
It took a couple of meet-
ings with David Raziel, the
then commander of the
Jerusalem district of the Ir-
gun, to whom I reported, to
reach an agreement on fu-
ture development of the "il-
legal" aliya. I was relieved
of all local duties, quit my
studies at the university
and was on my way to Vie-
nna in July.
From then until early
1939, I represented the
Irgun in Europe for im-
migration. I commuted
between the Continent
-
Committee of the American
Jewish Conference: 'The
American Friends of a
Jewish Palestine, though
ostensibly organized for the
implementation of Jewish
rights to Palestine, seemed
to have only one aim in
view, namely to establish a
front against the authority
of the Jewish Agency." "
At the time — 1938-40 —
I (Eri Jabotinsky) was in
Eastern Europe, trying to
channelize and organize
that stream of Jewish
refugees who were mov-
ing from Europe to Pales-
tine and who were known
to the Palestine govern-
ment as the "illegal im-
migrants." My connec-
tion with the American
Friends was a very sim-
ple one. We had decided
that this mass movement
of refugees, which was
rapidly growing into a
full-scale exodus, could
not be carried out with-
out the financial and
political help of America,
and so a small delegation
of Palestinians pro-
ceeded to this country to
create here a group of
friends who would help
them.
This exodus I am talking
about merits far more at-
tention than it has even got-
ten from the public. During
the years preceding the war,
the British Administration
of Palestine embarked upon
a policy of closing the doors
of Palestine to Jewish im-
migration. That happened
at a time when the pressure
upon the Jews of Europe be-
came greater and greater.
The few meager visas issued
by the Palestine govern-
ment were doled out
through the medium of the
Jewish Agency.
By a judicious distribu-
tion of these few hundred
life-saving visas, the Jewish
Agency rapidly succeeded
in creating a political
monoply amounting almost
to a dictatorship throughout
the ghettos of Eastern
Europe. It was then that the
Jewish masses revolted.
They revolted against the il-
legal restriction of immi-
gration by the Palestinian
• .
Despite the fact that the government and against the
World Zionist Executive Jewish Agency, and decided
and the Jewish Agency to go to Palestine without
knew that by that date we asking anyone's permis-
had successfully landed sion.
thousands of immigrants in
One day the Jewish
Eretz Yisrael, the campaign people of Europe awoke to
against us never ab;ted the realization that they
during nine years of mortal were no longer the subjects
of any country; that no
danger for Jewry.
* * *
country was ready to protect
On Dec.- 31, 1943, Eri them. They awoke to the
Jabotinsky made public the realization that their fate
following statement, an his- lay in their own hands, and
toric protocol of accusation: they decided to proceed to
"The following is a quota- Palestine.
This decision was not
tion out of the memoran-
dum issued by the Interim reached at any confer-
and Eretz Yisrael. In
February, 1939, I ob-
tained Raziel's agree-
ment to be relieved of all
responsibilities in
Europe and proceed to
the United States to raise
funds for the immigra-
tion work.
In January, 1939, Raziel
approved the sending of a
delegation to the United
States composed of Col. J.H.
Patterson, Robert Briscoe of
Dublin and Haim Lubinsky
of the Irgun Command.
Eventually, I was to join
them.
Early in February, 1939, I
participated in a number of
meetings in Paris with Zeev
Jabotinsky, Eri Jabotinsky,
Raziel and others. The final
meeting resolved and laid
out the future plan of our
aliya organization.
My request for re-
assignment to the U.S.
was founded on our con-
clusion that we had no
serious source of funds
for the purchase or char-
tering of vessels on a
large scale. I felt, too, that
the zero hour was ap-
proaching in Europe and
that we were probably
too late for long-term
planning.
In the U.S., I took up
where the Patterson-
Briscoe-Lubinsky delega-
tion left off. With a handful
of friends we formed the
"American Friends of a
Jewish Palestine" in the
spring of 1939.
No sooner did we make
known our existence than a
campaign of vilification was
launched against us by the
Jewish and Zionist estab-
lishment.
The first broadside was
fired by the "Emergency
Committee on Zionist Af-
fairs'? (May 1, 1939). It
stated among other things:
"The American
Friends of a Jewish
Palestine are appealing
to the public for funds for
purposes of immigrant
transportation ... There
is no public record by
which the claims ad-
vanced by this organiza-
tion can be established
•
this wild crusade. Some of
the adventures of these
modern invaders of Canaan
are more thrilling than the
most dashing tales of
America's far West. Let me
tell here just one of them,
directly connected with the
"American Friends."
It is the' story of several
thousand Jews marooned in
ice-trapped barges at the
mouth of the Danube. They
had come there because
they had heard that they
would find ships to take
them to Palestine. They had
come down the river from
Vienna and Bratislava,
Budapest, Belgrade, and
from Bulgarian and Roma-
nian ports.
Lying out in the Black
Sea, just beyond the limit of
the Romanian territorial
waters, there was the SS
Sakarya, a 40-year old
freighter displacing 2,800
tons and flying the Turkish
flag. The ship was ready to
take the refugees, and, run-
ning the gauntlet of the
British Navy which was
guarding the coasts of
Palestine, to land them on a
dark night on some deserted
Palestinian coast.
The only problem was
money. When, several
YITZHAK BEN AMI
months later, the ship fi-
governmental nally sailed, its owners had
official
gotten 14,500 pounds for the
statistics.
This human flood reacted trip. But that was much la-
disastrously upon the ter; meanwhile all the refu-
Jewish Agency. One day the gees put together did not
various Jewish groups in have the money.
Sometime before the
Bucharest and Warsaw
were squabbling with each Sakarya incident, I had a
other in the office of the conversation with an im-
Jewish Agency over the dis- portant official of the Joint
tribution of one or two extra Distribution Committee —
visas. And then, the next Rabbi Jonah Wise — asking
day, these offices were des- him for the systematic aid of
erted and the representa- the JDC in this traffic.
tives of these Jewish groups Rabbi Wise refused
tried to charter ships to point blank -- because it
proceed to Palestine with- was illegal, illegal for
people to go home to their
out visas.
The American Friends National Home.
Mind you, the JDC
of ' a Jewish Palestine
were busy collecting spent a lot of money on
funds in America in order these illegal immigrants.
to facilitate the charter- Each time that a refugee
ing of these ships. The ship would run aground
Interim Committee is on some Aegian rock, or
therefore probably jus- would get caught in the
tified in saying that the Danubian ice, or would
"American Friends of a simply be held up for
Jewish Palestine," ransom by a Levantine
though ostensibly or- pirate in one of the smug-
ganized for the im- gler's hideholes of the
plementation of Jewish Orient, the JDC would
rights to Palestine, pitch in generously with
seemed to have only one considerable amounts, to
aim in view, namely, to alleviate the hunger and
establish a front against general suffering of those
the authority of the who were suffering, be-
Jewish Agency." That is, cause the JDC would not
if you forget for a minute give them money to pro-
that through our activity, need on the road home. ,
Thus it was that our dele-
sacrifice and help, tens of
thousands of people are gation in America had to
today building a new life start an independent cam-
in Palestine instead of paign to collect money.
lying dead in the slaugh- There we ran up against an-
other Rabbi Wise —
ter houses of Poland.
I mention our sacrifice. Stephen S. Wise — of the
Indeed, I think it is proper to Zionist setup. I could under-
ence or congress. It was
the mute, almost instinc-
five decision of a terror-
stricken multitude.
At one time I believed
that we, several Palesti-
nians, were instrumental in
unleashing that flood.
Since, I have often won-
dered. It seems to me now
that we were the servants of
this human stampede,
rather than its leaders and
captains.
The number of people who
broke their way into Pales-
tine is unknown. There
were about 150,000 more
ration cards issued to Jews
in Palestine in 1942 than
the total number of Jews in
that country, according to
-
mention here the names of stand the scruples of the
Solomon Jacoby and Joseph JDC, and I also admit that
indirectly,
Katznelson, who died in the however
first months of the war, in stupidly and unprod-
the midst of their activities uctively, they still had
in this cause. helped the refugees. But
The day will come when Rabbi Wise of the Zionists
people will write countless launched a crusade against
stories of daring and adven- the "American Friends,"
ture based on the tales of preventing the thousands
on the ice-bound Danube
from reaching Palestine;
preventing millions from
following the same route.
Rabbi Wise was only
partly successful. In
January, 1940, the "Ameri-
can Friends" sent a sum of
money to me in Romania,
and on Feb. 1 the Sakarya
left Romania with 2,350
passengers who were safely
landed in Palestine two
weeks later. Four had die?
on the way; four babies b
been born; 37 couples hau
been married by the Tur-
kish ship captain.
The whole trip for some of
the refugees, from the mo-
ment they had left their
home towns in Austria,
Czechoslovakia and Poland,
until the time they finally
reached their homeland,
lasted more than 12
months.
Curiously enough, while
Rabbi Wise was crusading
against illegal immigra-
tion, the Zionist Organiza-
tion in Palestine and in
Eastern Europe was forced
by its membership to follow
our footsteps and embark
upon_ a large-scale program
of smuggling Jews into
Palestine.
Having much greater
funds at its disposal, the
Zionist Organization suc-
ceeded in getting through
quite a considerable
number of shiploads of refu-
gees.
Unfortunately, they
started this large-scale traf-
fic in the early part of 1940.
The entry of Italy into the
war in June, and the sub-
sequent breaking out of hos-
tilities in the Aegian, put an
effective stop to it by the end
of 1940.
If, instead of fighting u$
only to copy us a little later,
the Zionists had then coop-
erated with us, many tens of
thousands more would have
'today been in Palestine. If,
instead of spending all their
energies on fighting us
today the Zionists would di-
vert .a part of them to
cooperating with our ef-
forts, they still might save
thousands. But will they?"
— Eri Jabotinsky
* *
It is a long way from that
warm, star-studded night in
Zichron Yaakov when
Eri Jabotinsky talked about
acquiring the experience
and material to prepare for
mass movements of Jews
our of the European hell
holes to Eretz Yisrael.
We repatriated tens
thousands. Eri, personaL),
sailed with the Sakarya, re-
patriating 2,350 olim, the
largest group we moved, in
Jaruary, 1941, to Palestine.
But we lost the millions.
Later, we brought in arms
and soldiers — on the M.V.
Ben Hecht and the Al-
talena. We did, our utmost.
But we all lost. Eventually
— late — Hagana accepted
the concept of free immigra-
tion.
And even in 1943, as Eri
wrote: ". . . . the leadership
and the establishment had
not yet faced up to the mor-
tal danger."