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 ADVERTORIAL A40 April 24 • 2008 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.