40 Friday, April 4, 1980
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
There is an art of reading,
To do nothing and get
as well as an art of thinking something, formed a boy's
and of writing.
idea of a manly career.
Under Supervision of
The Council of Orthodox Rabbis
By DR. JAKOB
ROSENTHAL
STRICTLY KOSHER MEAT MARKET
13831 W. 9 Mile Rd., Oak Park 543-7092
CHUCK STEAK
$ 1.59 lb.
CHUCK ROAST
$ .591b.
GROUND BEEF'
$1.69 lb.
(Editor's note: Dr.
Jakob Rosenthal, a
widely-traveled histo-
rian, journalist and
author, worked as a re-
porter on the staff of
The Palestine Post,
Jerusalem, during the
last years of British Man-
datory rule over Pales-
tine. He was one of a few
invited guests to attend
the Seder of the hunger
strikers that included a
future state president
and prime minister.)
One of the great human
dramas of modern times to
unfold in the early years
after World War II, was
linked to ships of Jewish
war refugees, survivors of
Hitler's gas chambers, who,
a year after the defeat of
Nazi Germany, made one
desperate attempt after an-
other to reach what they
envisioned as their Prom-
ised Land — the shores of
British-ruled Palestine.
These attempts to run the
tight sea blockade of Pales-
tine by Britain's might navy
reached their tragic climax
in the now famoud odyssey
of the "Exodus 1947," the
ship that made history. It
stirred the world and
aroused waves fo sympathy
not only with the plight of
the refugees, surviving
remnants of Nazi atrocities
in Auschwitz-Birkenau and
Bergen-Belsen, but also
with the Jews of Palestine
who, since the end of the
war, were engaged in a bit-
ter struggle for indepen-
dence and statehood.
But the Exodus 1947 that
was destined to play a prom-
inent part in the modern
saga of Israel's rebirth, was
not the first of the so-called
"illegal" ships to criss-cross
the Mediterranean in their
daring attempt to break
"%56r
ti
,C,X•Ma, %.. ■ 5;Zoks.,C,V
6}.
.
4,..NZMmz1,5C
&X"
SAVE 30%
GRABER WOVEN WOODS
FLEXALUM HORIZONTAL BLINDS
LOUVER DRAPE VERTICAL BLINDS
Now Thru April 15
INCOMING FREIGHT
ADDED
INSTALLATION
AVAILABLE
glICIIIIIIIC
PAINT
542-3315
dic WALLPAPER
Hungry Passover When Fasting Got
Freedom for Refugees from Nazism
23061 COOLIDGE HWY., OAK PARK, AT 9 MI. •
SHABOT
SHALOM
FROM GREAT SCOTT
FRESH
ASSORTED FLAVORS
EMPIRE KOSHER
CHICKEN LEGS
SERVE-A-GRAVY
(PARVE)
99
-LB.
SAVE
30c
PER LB.
2
3-OZ.
BOXES
ROKEACH
REGULAR OR UNSALTED
MANISCHEWITZ
PRETZELS
TAM-TAMS
7 1/2-0Z.
BOX
394
SAVE
20c
8-OZ.
BOX
SAVE
29c
ON 2
SAVE
20c
KOSHER FOODS AVAILABLE AT:
•
•
•
•
•
TELEGRAPH/LONG LAKE IN BLOOMFIELD
SOUTHFIELD/ 13 MILE IN BEVERLY HILLS TWP.
MOST STORES OPEN
ORCHARD LAKE/13 MILE RD. IN FARMINGTON HILLS
8 A.M. TO 10 P.M.
TELEGRAPH/15 MILE RD. IN BIRMINGHAM
SUNDAY 9 A.M. TO 6 P.M.
12 MILE/EVERGREEN IN SOUTHFIELD
. -
PRICES AND ITEMS EFFECTIVE THRU APR. 10, 1980. NO SALES TO DEALERS.
through the British block-
ade so sternly enforced since
the end of the war in
Europe.
These so-called "illegal
journeys" with all their
great hardships had be-
come the only answer of
the Jews to offset the
stop-immigration policy
the British Labor gov-
ernment had adopted
under Ernest Bevin's
foreign policy since the
end of the war.
France and Italy, the two
Mediterranean countries,
were the main scene of all
the secret embarkations for
the increasingly growing
"Jewish fleet." Both coun-
tries, whose people had seen
and experienced the horrors
of Nazi occupation, were
sympathetic to the Jews'
cause.
In the early days of April
1946, some 1,200 refugees,
including 100 pregnant
women, arrived in the Ita-
lian port of La Apezia,
where a ship was waiting
for them. Military lorries of
the Allied forces in Italy had
brought them in secret from
the various camps, under
the protection of darkness,
to the port. With tolerance
from the Italian authorities,
the refugees managed to
board the ship "Fedia,"
which soon was to be known
by its Hebrew name "Dov
Hos."
But, their hope for a quick
departure was marred by
the sudden appearance of
Italian police aboard the
ship to arrest the
passengers.
The refugees re-
sponded with a hunger
strike, proclaiming that
they would sink the ship
rather than face transfer
to another camp. After
three days, they ceased
their fast in response to
an appeal made to them
by Harold Laski, the
noted leader of British
Labor. He visited the ref-
ugees aboard the ship
and promised them that
he would take up their
plight with Foreign Sec-
retary Bevin immediately
upon his return to Lon-
don.
When word of the refu-
gees' hunger strike reached
Jerusalem, an emergency
meeting was called by the
Vaad Leumi (National
Council of Palestine Jews),
the official and representa-
tive body of the Jews of
Palestine under the British
Mandate.
How vividly I remember
that meeting which was de-
stined to write a new chap-
ter into Israel's early saga.
The moving spirit at that
gathering was Golda Meir,
who later was to become Is-
rael's prime minister.
It was Golda who had
come up with the idea that
the leaders of the Yishuv
(Hebrew designation for the
Jewish settlers of Pales-
tine), should go on a hunger
strike in sympathy with the
"suffering at La Spezia and
elsewhere."
It was a new venture in
the Jews' struggle for the
opening of the gates of
Palestine to the remnants
of the decimated Euro-
pean Jewry. The historic
meeting of the Vaad
Leumi in Jerusalem on
that Thursday afternoon
of April 11, 1946, closed
with the solemn procla-
mation that the Jewish
leaders would remain
fasting until the British
authorities had permit-
ted the refugees to enter
Palestine.
The next morning Friday,
April 12, 1946, four days be-
fore the joyous festival of
Passover, 15 leaders of
Palestine Jewry, including
three women, who had come
to Jerusalem from all parts
of the country to join the
fast, assembled in the left
wing of the Jewish Agency
headquarters' compound in
Rehavia.
Led by the late David
Remez, a most dynamic and
energetic president of the
Vaad Leumi, Zalman
Rubashov (later Zalman
Shazar, president of Israel)
who insisted on participat-
ing in the fast against his
doctors' advice, and Golda
Meir (who also presented a
physician's certificate to
"prove" her fitness to fast)
they opened, at the exact
hour of noon, the public fast
that was to last for 101
hours.
On Monday, afternoon, as
the people of Jerusalem
were making their' final
preparations for the tradi-
tional Seder ritual, the two
chief rabbis of the Holy
Land, the late Chief Rabbis
MAGICIAN
Available For All Occasions
25
years experience
MAGICAL MEL
547-2464
Dr. Isaac Helevy Herzog
and Ben Zion Uziel, visited
with the fasting group in a
last effort to persuade them
to cease, or, at least, to
interrupt, their fast for the
Seder night — but all in
vein. The fasting people
carried the day. They de-
cided, with the rabbis'
blessings, to continue the
fast.
And so it came to pass
that, perhaps for the firs,
time in the annals of
Jewish history, Jews
voluntarily celebrated a
Passover Seder ritual by
fasting and without any
food, except for a small
piece of matza, the size of
an olive (Kezayit) so that
they could be permitted
to recite the grace after
meal.
What had started in tears
ended in joy and triumph.
At sunset of the first day of
Passover a delegation
headed by Chief Rabbi Her-
zog, walked to the govern-
ment house of the British
High Commissioner south
of Jerusalem, to be officially
informed that the British
government had yielded to
the demands of the Yishuv
and had consented to allo-
cate the necessary certifi-
cates (entry-permits) for the
1,200 refugees stranded at
La Spezia, Italy.
w. c.
Trojan
"Son of C. Trojan"
CUSTOM FURNITURE
& CARPET CLEANING
ON LOCATION _
FREE ESTIMATES
Phone
576-1140
A.R.S. Service Co., Inc.
Heating and Air Conditioning Sales & Service
Alan R. Sukenic Contractor
356-3191
IRMA PASSICK (Vocalist)
and_ He r
\ fiece Orchestra-
-
Jewish, Standards, Rock
Disco Tapes (Available)
$99.00-3 Hours
358-3684
MOVING?
Priced Sale of Household Contents
Conducted In Your Home
Estates Liquidated
-
EDMUND FRANK & CO.
Liquidators and Appraisers
875-7650
368-4044e