For someone born in Poland during the war, who survived the Shoah in Vilna – the ‘Jerusalem of Lithuania‘ – someone whose father z”l was the editor of “Bloy Weiss,” the Zionist revisionist paper in Warsaw, whose father headed “Brith Hatzohar” in a DP camp in Austria from ’46 –’48 and whose “Betar” commander in NYC was Misha Arens.
Someone who was also suspended from the yeshiva of Flatbush for three days and called a “Jewish fascist” by his principal, because he cut school to welcome Menachem Begin at La Guardia Airport in NYC.
A person who staged a protest in 1958 during a “machon hakaitz” [Summer camp] visit to Acre when the Jewish Agency forbade the group to visit the gallows room, for someone who was blackballed from becoming the CEO of the KKL-JNF in the USA because he once was a “Betari” – this evening is very, very special...
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1 comment:
Regarding the Yeshivah of Flatbush, I can attest that there must have been a change. There were two Betarim in my graduating class - 1965 -(Chaim Frydman and I) without difficulty. I had several conversations with Joel Braverman, founding of the Yeshivah (whose HS is named for him) about Jabotinsky. Braverman was in the Jewish Legion. The set of Kitvei Jabotinsky in my possession was given to me by the school librarian, Dr Birenbaum. A member of the faculty was Dr Ephraim Schach who everyone knew was in the Etzel. He spoke about it quite openly.
Chaim Fischgrund
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