THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Long-Time Resident Speaks on Jerusalem
By ELIAHU ELIACHAR
World Zionist Press Service
(Editor's
note:
Eliachar, 81, is a 16th-
generation Jerusalemite,
a former Member of the
Knesset, former deputy
mayor of Jerusalem and
a founder of the World
Sephardi Federation.)
My ancestors were Mar-
ranos, Spanish Jews who
were forcibly converted to
Catholicism. They left
Spain before the expulsion,
reverted to Judaism in
Amsterdam and, in 1485,
came to Jerusalem.
They came here to live,
,ot to die. It is a terrible lie
that Jews came to Eretz
Yisrael only to die, to await
the Messiah or to live on
charity.
My family worked,
traded. Sometimes they
lived in Safad, sometimes in
Hebron; wherever life was
possible for Jews. But for
the must part, and certainly
since 1712, they lived in
Jerusalem, and all —
grandfather, great-
grandfather, who was the
chief rabbi of Palestine, and
on back — were important
rabbis and leaders of the
community.
I was born in 1899 in the
Old City. My home was
three meters from the wall.
When I woke in the morning
I could see nothing but the
Wall, Mount Zion, Mount
Moriah — all the great sites
of my people.
At- that time, the gates of
the city were shut at sunset
and opened at sunrise.
There was some Jewish life
outside the walls, but it was
just beginning and most
people, like my parents,
would not have dared to
move outside the walls.
We lived surrounded by
Arabs. We had a great deal
of contact with them, but
the part where we lived was
100 percent. Jewish. The
Jews lived in the strip from
Zion Gate to Dung Gate in
order to maintain access to
the Wall. They had done so
for generations, for cen-
turies, either by purchase or
possession. And it was un-
thinkable that a Jew who
owned a house there would
sell it to a non-Jew.
So this was my
Jerusalem. Like any child of
a cultured family, I was sent
to a babysitter from quite an
early age — there were
seven children in the fam-
ily, living in one room. And
ELIAHU ELIACHAR
from the age of four, I went
to a heder and then to
Talmud Torah.
We played, we enjoyed
ourselves. Not with football
because of a lack of space,
but with leapfrog, gym
classes, walks . . . It was a
good childhood.
My father was a rabbi but
he did not work as a rabbi.
He established a successful
company to import and ex-
port dry goods.
Both he and my mother
were enlightened people
who had the highest aspira-
tions for me. At 13, they
sent me to study with the
Jesuits in Beirut, and later I
was admitted to the French
faculty of medicine.
When World War I came,
I served as an officer in the
medical corps of the Tur-
kish Army and afterwards
studied law at the French
university in Cairo and
then in Jerusalem.
I have held many public
positions and throughout
the years I have been moti-
vated by two principles: to
do away with the dis-
graceful differences be-
tween Jews and create
equal rights for the Sephar-
dim; and to convince the
people of this country that if
we are to keep a Jewish cul-
ture, we must learn to co-
exist with our neighbors in
peace.
And if I now bitterly
criticize the Establishment
of Israel — the left, the
Labor Alignment as well as
the Likud — I do so not as an
outsider but as a Jew who is
a fevent Zionist: who has
proved his mettle as a
Zionist and who has 41/2 cen-
turies of Zionist background
behind him.
I am a realist. I want Is-
rael to survive, not to be an
adventure of 100 years or
less. I have seen the great
Turkish Empire vanish and
the British Empire crum-
ble.
I know that the military
solution is no solution and
that in the end, quantity —
the sheer force of Arab
numbers — will overcome
the quality of Israel's de-
fenses unless we learn to
co-exist.
The problem of Jerusalem
is the most difficult and
dangerous of all and the
solution can only be the
final stage of a process that
includes complete self-
determination for the
Palestinians.
Then we can create a con-
dominium over Jerusalem
— two boroughs, one munic-
ipality, two capitals, one
town. No barriers, no fron-
tiers. And the holy sites
under the control of those
who revere them.
This city, this Jerusalem,
is my heart and soul. Every
stone speaks to me. There is
not a place anywhere here
that I do not know.
I belong here. And my
son, who is a doctor and a
major in the army, and my
grandson, who is training to
become a pilot — they be-
long here.
Anything that endangers
this continuation is a chal-
lenge to me. I want to know
that my grandson's children
and his children will live
here, in Jerusalem, in
peace.
Friday, December 12, 1980 7
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