ROIT CELEBRAT

In his albums is a picture of him in the
first El-Al Airlines uniform, and the itiner-
ary for one of the airline's first flights.
If Newman went to Israel for the adven-
ture, his wife was fighting for Zionism.
Ann, whom he met in June 1948 and
married a year later, came to Palestine with
her family in 1934 from Poland.
All members of the Irgun, one of New-
man's brothers was a political detainee for
five years, and the other spent four years in
a Jerusalem prison.
"When my wife was 12," Newman said,
"her parents put bars over her windows so
she would not sneak out and put up anti-
British posters."
When the couple were married, much of
the Israeli Air Force was at the wedding.
"If the Arabs had known what was going
on, they'd have bombed us," he said.
The Newmans are owners of a Novi
pharmaceutical company, of which Ann is
the president. Rudy is "semi-retired," having
ended his job as a mortgage banker, and
now works in building and development.

Rud y Newman in
1 19 next to a
British-made Rapide.

REUVEN BAR-LEVAV

Local

Heroes

A trio of Detroiters
were among
Israel's defenders.

LONNY GOLDSMITH
StaffWriter

0

f the thousands of soldiers who
have fought to keep Israel inde-
pendent, many came from the
Detroit area, or have since relocat-

ed here.
These are the stories of three men who
ended up involved in wars for different rea-
sons, but fought valiantly for the Jewish
state.

RUDY NEWMAN
To appease his adventurous side, Rudy
Newman went to Israel as a pilot two years
removed from battle.
As a law school student at Wayne State in
1948, he was approached by Rabbi Irwin
Gordon at the WSU Hillel House.

Reuven Bar-Levav was 7 years old when
he and his family left Germany. His father,
already feeling the winds of political change,
uprooted his family and moved to Palestine
in 1934.
Bar-Levav, by age 15, dropped out of
high school to become a journalist, eventu-
ally winding up as night editor of the daily
newspaper Davar.
His accomplishments as a journalist led
to his work as a pamphleteer for the
Haganah.
"I became the chief political orientation
officer for the Gadna (youth Haganah),"
Bar-Levav said. "I was picked based on my
writings, but they didn't realize they had a
20-year-old kid on their hands. I was just
better than a messenger."
While waiting to deliver a message to
David Ben-Gurion, he saw the first swear-
ing-in of Israeli soldiers, among them
Moshe Dayan.
"Even then, I could appreciate Ben-

"I was on the third floor, studying,"
recalled Newman 50 years later in his
Bloomfield Hills home. "He asked if I
would fly supplies to Palestine. I didn't go
for pay or Zionism, but for adventure."
But while Newman's first instinct told
him to go, he sought a second opinion from
Norma Goldman, a professor of his.
"She told me that the Jewish people
needed me now and I could finish law
school when I got back," he said. "But I
never did finish law school." _
Newman's foray into the fight for Israeli
independence also turned him into a pack-
rat. He heaved a small suitcase on his desk
and pulled out two photo albums of his
years in Israel as a machalnik, or overseas
volunteer.
"I started saving everything then," he said
of his collection, which will soon be donat-
ed to an Air Force museum in Israel. He
pulled out stationery from a hotel
in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where he
was stationed while planes were
bought for him to fly to the Mid-
dle East. He also kept bills from
hotels in New York and Czechoslo-
vakia.
Newman, while in Israel, devel-
oped an air base in Ruchama, in
the Negev. He was in charge of the
air forces while a young major
named Moshe Dayan commanded
the ground forces.
Newman also helped to form
the Israeli Air Force in May 1948,
which was organized months
before the Israeli army formed.
Uri Segal on Mt. Herman.

5/1
1998

9