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Guardians Of A Dream

Detroit's Zionists may not share politics,
but they are still deeply devoted to the Jewish homeland.

JULIE EDGAR

News Editor

T

he year was 1936. Ezekiel
Leikin, then 23, found
himself in the position of
assistant to the chief of fruit
inspection for the British Civil Service
in Palestine.
"I knew nothing about horticul-
ture," he laughed. But there he was,
examining lemons, dates and pome-
granates and having a ball. Leikin
had been living in New York, on
whose shores he landed in 1932 after
leaving his native Lithuania. Bored
with his studies at City College and
filled with the fervor ignited in him
by the militant Zionist Vladimir
Jabotinsky, he orated on street cor-
ners about a Jewish homeland.
"My father said, 'If you're such a
big Zionist, why don't you go to
Palestine?"' Leikin recalled. So he
did.
In 1943, after he had married
Bella, a fellow Lithuanian who had
settled in Palestine with her family,
he was recruited by the U.S. Army
and stationed at a base outside Tel
Aviv. Unable to drive, he became a
truck dispatcher in the Suez direct-
ing convoys of supplies all over
North Africa. He also routinely sent
gun shipments to Haganah, the Jew-
ish underground defense forces in
Palestine, by stowing arms under-
neath the trucks running into Pales-
tin e .
Leikin, who owned that he was
"more in tune" with the unofficial
Jewish underground, Irgun, ended
up working for U.S. military intelli-
gence in 1944, doing a stint in
Washington before being sent to
Europe as the war was winding
down. At that point, Bella wanted to
leave Palestine — Arab attacks on
Jewish settlements were intensifying
and the British were rounding up
Haganah and Irgun activists and
hanging them. The U.S. Army
brought Bella and their son, George,
to the United States.
In 1947, Leikin joined the ZOA as

Photo by Krista Husa

rigI

Top: Ezekiel Leikin has
devoted his lift. to the
Zionist cause.

Above: Dr. Jerome Kauf-
man is a significant voice
for a strong Israel

Left. Judy Loebl is a veter-
an of the Labor Zionist
cause.

