Israel sixty
1048 - 200$
The War of
Independence
Remembered
Above: Ann Newman in
uniform, circa 1948
Left: Ann Newman
Ann Newman was an
eyewitness to Israeli history.
Harry Kirsbaum
Special to the Jewish News
A
nn Newman danced in the
streets in Tel Aviv on Nov.
29,1947, the day of the
U.N. Partition. And when Israel offi-
cially became a state on May 15,1948,
she was blown off her feet during an
Egyptian air force bombing run in front
of her father's deli on Ben Yehuda
Street. She woke up in a hospital a week
later.
As a child, Newman was known as
Hannah Rosen, an immigrant from
Poland who, in 1936 at age 8, boarded
a ship in steerage with her mother and
two older brothers to join her ardently
Zionist father in the future State of
Israel.
In 1942, she became a member of
the Irgun, led by Menachem Begin.
Later, she became a member of Lehi.
Both were considered groups from the
extreme underground.
On the 60th anniversary of Israel's
Independence, Newman looked back
with wonder at the birth of the Jewish
State.
"1948 was a miracle," she said. "We
knew there would be a war when the
partition came — but that night in
November [1947], we danced the hora
all night long. All the cafes and all the
restaurants showered us with free food
and cognac. People brought out their
harmonicas and accordions and rejoiced.
That was a very vivid night."
Between that night and May 15, when
the British left and Israel officially
became a state, Jews prepared for
battle.
Small fights and sniper fire came from
the Arabs, she said. At the same time,
the underground still did their thing by
answering the snipers; but there was no
unity between the Irgun and Lehi, and
the Haganah and Palmach.
"The Jewish Agency did a great job
bringing arms and recruiting the dias-
remembers her days
before and during Israel's
early statehood.
pora pilots, navigators, radio operators,
flight engineers, anti-aircraft gunners
and infantry between Nov. 29 and May
15," she said.
There was no celebration when Israel
declared statehood on May 15,1948,
she said.
"We knew that they were planning
something, but we didn't realize that all
five countries — Egypt, Syria, Lebanon,
Iraq and Jordan — would attack. They
had 150 million Arabs around us, and
there were less than 600,000 Jews in
Israel at the time.
"Early in the morning on May 15,
the Egyptians came in and bombed Tel
Aviv," she continued. "They came back
every day for a week. There was despair
because we didn't have an answer. The
skies didn't belong to us."
They fought with what they had:
Sten guns, Molotov cocktails and a few
U.S. pilot Rudy Newman, who became
Ann's husband, in a Czech-made plane
he flew to Israel, circa 1948.
The Altalena skirmish ended up uniting
factions into one military — the Israel
Defense Forces.
Tommy guns, she said. "If you saw the
movie Cast a Giant Shadow, it's not
exaggerated at all."
But the Israelis would never give
up, she said. "Personally, we had such
resolve. We had no choice. Our slogan
was: We must defeat them; we must
win."
Jewish Military Consolidation
The formation of the Israel Defense
Forces from the four separate groups
wouldn't come until June 20 — and with
a heavy cost.
A confrontation took place between
the newly formed IDF and the Irgun over
the Altalena, a ship bearing arms and
930 fighters meant for the Irgun.
"There was a dispute between Begin
and David Ben-Gurion as to where the
arms were going, and nobody was in
charge because the government wasn't
formed yet," she said. Once the boat
was unloaded about 400 yards from the
Park Hotel in Tel Aviv, the IDF shelled
the boat and 16 fighters were killed.
"At that point, Begin made a speech
that I'll never forget. He begged his
people not to retaliate. He said, 'We've
come so far. We're one nation, one peo-
ple. We'll lay down the arms and unite.'
And then we became united, and joined
the IDF."
Newman went through six weeks of
basic training. "I didn't need it," she
said. "I had enough training in the
underground." She worked in the IDF at
headquarters for a colonel from South
Africa. Her active duty was over.
Volunteer pilots started to arrive from
the United States, England, Norway,
Sweden, Holland and South Africa. One
of the many volunteer pilots who came
from Detroit to fight in the war was U.S.
Navy pilot Rudy Newman of Detroit, who
became her husband of blessed memo-
ry. He helped fly planes to Israel during
wartime and became one of El Al's first
pilots after the war.
"When the air force could finally start
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fighting back, when we got the B-17s up
in the air and the Messerschmidts, the
P-46s and the Dakotas, we bombed the
hell out of them and they ran," she said.
"And when they reached the border of
Egypt, they were killed by their own
people because Arab pride wouldn't
allow retreat."
During the War of Independence, more
than 6,000 Jews were killed, about 1
percent of the Jewish population in
Israel.
At the war's end, with Arab armies
defeated and new borders for Israel,
there was little celebration.
"There was no food and tremendous
rationing, but people were relieved," she
said. We had amnesty, but there were
still [Arab] factions who attacked us, like
the fedayeen. It was never peaceful."
After the war, she married Rudy and,
in 1952, they settled in Detroit to raise
a family. She met philanthropist Bill
Davidson, who gave her a job in the
stockroom of a pharmaceutical com-
pany; by 1974, she became president
of that company — Frank W. Kerr Co. in
Novi. She has three sons, 17 grandchil-
dren and eight great-granddaughters.
"I feel privileged that I lived in three
worlds: to witness anti-Semitism in
Europe, then witness the birth of Israel,
then come here and meet wonderful
people like the Davidson family — and
have a family," she said.
Newman, who lives in Bloomfield Hills,
said she looks forward to celebrating
Israel's Independence at IsraelSixty
events in Detroit this year.
"I'm very much in love with Israel, and
I'm very much in love with the Jewish
people because, in spite of everything,
we're brave people," she said. "We're
people with a stiff neck and we don't
give up."
Harry Kirsbaum is assistant director/edito-
rial at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit.