Betarim In North America

Remembering Eli and Chuck, Being Together

2011-12-15T16:17:00.000+02:00

It's hard to believe that 38 years have passed since Eli and Chuck were killed in the Yom Kippur War. As every year, we met at the Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery, went to both graves and then spent time together at the Miller's. And, as usual, the soldiers commented on how rare it is to see so many people at Yom Kippur War graves. That to me is the most surprising thing. Being together every year gives us so much. Of course we've all gone on with our lives, but our connections remain strong.

Camp Picture 1964

2011-11-29T00:34:00.003+02:00

Here's a picture from camp 1964.
Top Row: Tom Koevary, Wally Chayes, Joey Grunberg, Michael Chayes, Benny Rosen (our fearless leader) Chuck Hornstein ztl, Chuck Marsden, Steve Shiffman, Steve Pickel
Middle Row : ?, ?, ?, ?, Malka Mezahav, ?, Linda Fuld, ?
Seated: Rafi ?, Ehud Sperling, ?, Uriel Messa (the now famous photographer in Israel) Mel Laytner, Me
Can anyone fill in the ?s.

Shachna Waxman

Betar Youth Deliver PS

2011-11-21T21:47:00.003+02:00

Back on 2/18/08 I posted an article about the above demo. I was asked to include the newspaper article, but not having a scanner I was unable to. Now I have a new digital camera so I hope this picture of the article will provide the information I could not provide then

Tel Hai
Shachna

Shir Betar at Shmuel Ben-Artzi Funeral

2011-11-15T06:19:00.000+02:00

Technically, this may be "off topic," but I found it interesting that Shir Betar was sung at Ben-Artzi's funeral, and Arutz Sheva included it as part of its video report.

Two Reminisces from Steve Esrati

2011-10-16T11:24:00.001+02:00

From Betari Stephen G. Esrati, Ken Boston and at present, Cleveland:

1)

In 1946, when I was discharged from the United States Army, I joined Betar in Boston, eventually becoming its leader. One of the members was Hans Pechner, about 13 in 1946. Hans and his father and mother all attributed their survival to the Pope and to Benito Mussolini. Hans said he and his parents survived because they were hidden in church properties, which he believed would not have been possible without the approval of the pope and the regime.

Hans cited the conversion to Catholicism by the former chief rabbi of Rome as proof of the pope's benevolence toward Jews because the rabbi did so in supposed gratitude for the pope's help.

I was reminded of all this in 1974 when Mussolini's widow, Rachelle Mussolini, published her autobiography, "Mussolini sans masque" (New York, Morrow). Mrs. Mussolini, whose entire book is a defense of her husband, said Mussolini was not anti-Jewish. To prove it, she cited the establishment of the Betar naval academy at Civitavecchia.

Of course, Mussolini may have approved of the naval school, set up in 1934 with 162 uniformed Betar cadets proudly showing insignia that identified them as Jews, as a way of fighting British hegemony over what he called "Mare Nostrum," but the school did turn out the bare bones of a Jewish navy to run the British blockade of Palestine (at a time when official Jewish bodies disapproved of "illegal" immigration).

The school was shut down by the Italian government in 1938. By then, it had trained some 300 men who, in addition to having worked in "illegal" immigration ended up in the navies of the Allied powers. When the "Tel Aviv" started commercial service between Palestine and Europe in 1935 under the command of a non-Jewish captain, some of its crew had also been at Civitavecchia.

2)

Thanks to the generosity of friends, I am reading Shmuel Katz's two-volume biography of Rosh Betar, but I take exception. According to Katz, Jabo was universally admired in Eretz Yisrael for his eloquence as an orator and as a writer. Not so! The first Hebrew song I learned in Tel Aviv in 1933 (sung to the melody of "David Melech Yisrael") was "Jabotinsky Rosh Betar," which portrayed him as a second Mussolini. When I attended Gymnasia Herzliyah a few years later, the kids organized themselves as playground gangs. The good guys were Maccabi. You had to be invited to this gang. Then there was Hapoel, which took everybody else. But if you got kicked out of Hapoel, you were sent to Betar. I asked to be in Betar, because my father was in it and was a friend of Dr. Reuben Hecht and, through him knew Jabotinsky.

I wonder about Katz's "universal acclaim" when even 8-year-old boys
insulted him.

^

World Revisionist Conference in Paris 1948

2011-10-11T15:18:00.000+02:00

Was any American Betari present at this?

October 31, 1948

Revisionist Youth Group Decides to Settle Its Members in Strategic Points in Palestine

NEW YORK, Oct. 29 (JTA) – A resolution calling for a wide-scale program of colonization "in strategic points in Palestine" of members of Betar, a youth organization affiliated with the Zionist Revisionist movement, was adopted at the first post world convention of the organization which was held recently in Paris and was attended by 100 delegates from 18 countries, it was reported here today by A.Z. Propes, head of the world executive of Betar.

Another resolution urged the conclusion of an agreement between the Irgun sponsored Freedom Movement and the World Revisionist Organization. It was decided that until such unity is achieved, the Betar will continue to adhere to its "gentlemen's agreement" with the Revisionist organization. The gathering also decided to call a conference of all Betar groups in the Western Hemisphere this spring.

Outlining the Betar attitude toward various problems concerning Israel, Propes stated that the organization will never agree to any partition of Palestine, since it considers both sides of the Jordan as "the inviolate territory of the Jewish people." The Betar, he said, will also "adhere unswervingly to its claim that Jerusalem be the capital of the Jewish state" and will follow the teachings of the late Vladimir Jabotinsky, founder of the organization.

Anyone?

Pesach Redemption/Geula SSSJ March 1966

2011-10-03T11:07:00.000+02:00

In April 1966, SSSJ carried off a 15,000-person march in the neighborhood of the Soviet Mission off of Park Avenue.

The painted banner, done by Yossi Katz, I think, was carried by the Betarim as seen in this picture:

I have tried to identify persons seen in the picture and would appreciate assistance and corrections and additions:

1. Eli Solomon הי"ד
2. Arthur-Aharon Goldberg
3. Chaim Fischgrund
4. Nissan Teman
5. JJ Steinberg
6. Chuck-Shachna Waxman

^

When Betariot Were Betariot

2011-09-27T19:06:00.000+03:00

From a Ken in pre-War Poland:

Moshe Arens' New Book on the Warsaw Ghetto

2011-09-02T09:04:00.000+03:00

Published by Geffen.

^

Yitz Heimowitz on Gerry Kandel z"l

2011-08-28T01:00:00.000+03:00

Here.

Gerry Kandel: Victory of the Spirit

The 20th of Av (Aug. 20, 2011) is the 5th Yahrzeit of Gerry Kandel, an extraordinary person. Below is the Eulogy I wrote for him in 2006.

Gerry Kandel, z"l, (Yosef Aaron ben Leibel v’Rachel) faced up heroically to terrible adversity for most of his life. Gerry’s mother died shortly before his Bar Mitzva leaving him and his younger brother David with only their father. Their aunt Betty, who lived very close by, stepped in to care for them along with her own two children, Stuart and Linda, but not long after she also died.

Gerry became active in Betar and Camp Betar. From what I understand he was an excellent Madrich, Head Counselor of Camp Betar, and eventually Netziv. He was one of the 19 Betarim who took over the Syrian Mission to the UN on October 14, 1966. Thus, he was one of the clients I had to get released on bail and eventually, got suspended sentences. When our son Dani was born on May 14, 1968, Gerry sent him an honorary Teudat Betar.

Gerry married the love of his life, Evelyne, and they had two children, Elan and Mia. Evelyne died when Mia was almost 4 and Elan was 8. Gerry raised the children on his own, repeating the tragedy of the prior generation.

Gerry became the Assistant to the President of City University and when I used to visit New York for business or Shlichut, we would generally have lunch in the top floor dining room of the university building on 42nd Street. Gerry suffered from multiple sclerosis and by then his physical condition had deteriorated significantly. He told me that he insisted on coming to work by subway as long as he was able, rather than getting a special vehicle permit to which he was entitled. Eventually he could no longer climb the subway steps and was forced to accept the permit and park on 43rd Street just opposite the rear entrance of the University, but he continued to work as long as he was able.

Even close to the end of his life, Gerry taught a weekly university class; his helper wheeled him into the room on his wheelchair. Disability could limit his physical performance, but nothing could quench his spirit.

NYTimes on the Bergson Group

2011-08-06T23:50:00.000+03:00

Belatedly Recognizing Heroes of the Holocaust

When 20 people gathered for a modest ceremony in the tranquil cemetery of this kibbutz in central Israel last month, the intimacy and quiet dignity of the event belied the tumultuous historical forces coursing beneath it.

The occasion was the reinterring of the remains of Samuel Merlin, a founder of a small but brazen band of militant Zionists and Holocaust rescue activists who shook America and challenged the Jewish establishment in the 1940s, but who until recently have been largely excluded from official Holocaust history.

The activists, known as the Bergson group, have been credited by modern historians with playing a pivotal role in rescuing hundreds of thousands of European Jews.

But the group was rejected by the Jewish establishment it challenged, both in the United States and in Israel, where its militant tactics and right-wing Zionism clashed with the more moderate mainstream. Mere mention of the group stirs up old passions and painful questions about what America did or did not do to save European Jewry, and the extent to which schisms within Jewish ranks hampered more effective action.

More recently, prominent historians have begun to recognize the group’s achievements. On July 17, Yad Vashem, the official Holocaust remembrance authority in Jerusalem, which had ignored the Bergson group in its exhibits, held a symposium on it for the first time.

For those attending the reburial of Mr. Merlin a few days earlier, including some widows and children of the group’s members, the event was a symbolic start of a process of reconciliation.

“This is a moment of healing for American Jews and Israeli Jews,” Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in Washington, said shortly after reciting Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, over Mr. Merlin’s fresh grave.

The institute, which has been instrumental in promoting the Bergson group’s legacy, co-sponsored the conference at Yad Vashem.

The Bergson group formed in 1940 when about 10 young Jews from Palestine and Europe came to the United States to open a fund-raising and propaganda operation for the Irgun, the right-wing Zionist militia. The group was organized by Hillel Kook, a charismatic Irgun leader who adopted the pseudonym Peter H. Bergson. Mr. Merlin was his right-hand man.

The group began by raising money for illegal Jewish immigration to what was then the British Mandate of Palestine and promoting the idea of an army composed of stateless and Palestinian Jews. But the mission abruptly changed in November 1942 after reports of the Nazi annihilation of two million European Jews emerged. Like earlier reports of the mass killing of Jews, the news barely made the inside pages of major American newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post.

The Bergsonites were appalled by what they saw as the indifference of the Roosevelt administration and the passivity of the Jewish establishment, which staunchly supported the administration and largely accepted its argument that the primary American military objective was to win the war, not to save European Jews. The group embarked on a provocative campaign to publicize the genocide and to lobby Congress to support the rescue of Jews, roaming the hallways of Capitol Hill and knocking on doors, displaying a degree of chutzpah that made the traditional, pro-Roosevelt Jewish establishment uncomfortable.

The group took out a series of fiery, full-page advertisements in The New York Times and other major dailies highlighting the mass murder, soliciting donations at the bottom of each one to pay for the next. With help from celebrity supporters like the director and writer Ben Hecht, the impresario Billy Rose and the composer Kurt Weill, they staged a flamboyant pageant called “We Will Never Die,” filling Madison Square Garden twice before sending the show on the road.

In October 1943, the Bergson group organized a march of 400 Orthodox rabbis on the White House, most of them in traditional black garb, a spectacle the likes of which had never been seen in Washington.

Finally, in January 1944, under heavy pressure from the Treasury secretary, Henry Morgenthau Jr., President Franklin D. Roosevelt set up the War Refugee Board by executive order, leading to the rescue of 200,000 Jews.

“Without Hillel Kook and the Bergson group,” said David S. Wyman, author of the book “The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945,” which first re-evaluated the role of Bergsonites, “there would have been no War Refugee Board.”

Yet the American Jewish leadership at the time actively fought the newcomers, saying their tactics would lead only to increased anti-Semitism. Rabbi Stephen Wise, the Jewish community’s chief representative, wrote to a colleague in 1944 that the Bergsonites “are a disaster to the Zionist cause and the Jewish people.”

Jewish American leaders were apparently afraid of making waves, and of losing their own prominence.

“This was an era in which militant civil action was just not done, certainly not by Jews,” said Charley Levine, an Israeli-based international communications and public relations expert who has studied the Bergson group. “This was before Vietnam.”

The Bergson group was no less ostracized by the leaders of Israel after its founding in May 1948. An early showdown came that June when the group dispatched a ship called the Altalena to Israel loaded with weapons for the Irgun in violation of an agreement with the new state to stop independent arms acquisitions.

David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, ordered his troops to fire on the ship. Sixteen Irgun members and three soldiers were killed in the confrontation. Mr. Merlin, who was on board, was shot in the foot.

Mr. Merlin and Mr. Kook went on to serve as members of Israel’s first Parliament, but the Bergsonites soon had an ideological falling out with their own political leader, Menachem Begin, the Irgun leader who later became Israel’s prime minister, and broke with the mainstream of his Herut, or Freedom, Party. They remained at odds with the left-wing Mapai and Labor leaders who dominated the state for its first 30 years.

The dissension led to the Bergson group’s being blanked out of the early histories of the Holocaust. “My father and his group went against the grain of those writing the narrative of the war,” said Mr. Kook’s daughter, Rebecca Kook, now a political scientist at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

But with the perspective of time and the opening of additional Holocaust era archives, including Mr. Merlin’s, the Bergson group has begun to be reinsinuated into Jewish history. After years of campaigning by Mr. Medoff and others, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington included a small exhibit on the group in 2008.

Bernard Weinraub, a former reporter for The New York Times, wrote a play about the group called “The Accomplices” in 2007. Two documentaries about the Bergsonites have recently been produced, and there are plans for a feature movie. Mr. Merlin’s detailed account of the rescue campaign was published posthumously last month. Mr. Merlin, who lived much of his life in the United States, died there in 1996.

In a foreword to the book, Seymour D. Reich, a veteran leader of major Jewish organizations, wrote, “The time has come to acknowledge, unequivocally, that Rabbi Wise and his colleagues were wrong.” Instead of attacking Mr. Bergson, they should have focused on the rescue mission, he wrote, adding, “That was their obligation, and they failed.”

In Israel, the process of recognition has been slower.

“There was always this simmering tension between the Bergson group and the Israeli government,” Mr. Weinraub said in a telephone interview. “I could never understand it,” he added. “It was so internecine.”

At The Jabotinsky Yahrtzeit Ceremony

2011-08-05T15:20:00.003+03:00

Batya Medad and Steve Adler

Chandi Medad

Shimon Peres (l.) and Bibi Netanyah (r.)

c) the crowd

d) Israel Betarim, Chandi and Mitch Haspel

Also there: Aaron Bashani, Misha Arens, Danny Rosing, Nisan Teman and Chaim Fischgrund.
^

Camp Betar in The Tablet

2011-07-02T08:33:00.003+03:00

These were the articles that David Kandel and I submitted but they never made it in:

Lost in the Woods

By Chuck Waxman

The summer of 1965 started out like any other summer as I headed up to Camp Betar in Neversink, NY to be one of the camp’s waiters. Now, Camp Betar was not just another Camp; it was affiliated with the Betar Zionist Youth movement and among the normal camp activities (baseball, swimming, arts & crafts), which we participated in when we were not serving our fellow campers, we also learned scouting, first aid, some survival skills, Zionism, Israeli songs and dances, many a time taught by visiting Israelis. We also heard stories about the struggle to create the State of Israel from veterans who participated actively in that fight.

We were a motley crew from various backgrounds, but among the things we had in common were a love for Israel, a commitment to the Jewish people, and a membership in an activist Zionist youth movement.

As waiters we were entitled to one day off a week. During the last week of July (possibly the first week in August) we were all rolling in from a wonderful day off and we noticed a lot of commotion on the camp grounds. It seemed that a 9 year old boy (Hershel Babad) had wandered off from his camp in Woodridge and was lost in the woods. We had offered help in locating the boy and we had 10 minutes before we had to leave. The scramble to get ready was on, since there was not much daylight left. The picture of us in our hiking boots, carrying all sorts of equipment (lengths of rope, axes, canteens, first aid kits, stc.) was a sight to behold. And off we went at a speed that I never knew the truck could make.

When we arrived we were assigned a specific area to search. We fanned out in perfect search formation walking deeper and deeper into the forest. As dusk began to settle there was still no sign of Hershel, so we had to turn around and retrace our steps out of the forest. As we headed back to camp we were all a little down knowing that Hershel was still be out there somewhere. We went back the next day and were assigned a new area to search. At some point the word went out that Hershel was found safe and sound after being lost for 4 days in the woods.

It is important to note that we were the only non-professional group that was allowed to assist with the search – I guess our reputation preceded us. Additionally, Hershel was found not far from where we stopped searching the night before. While we did not find Hershel ourselves, participating in the effort meant a lot to us since part of the Betar ideology was one of serving the Jewish people in any capacity that might be needed.– and that day we were need to be searchers.

An interesting post script to this story is that 29 years later (1994) Suri Feldman got lost in the woods in New England. Suri had just heard the story about Hershel from her father at their Shabbat table one week before her own adventure. She followed her father’s advice to stay in one place and she was found after two days. Life does have a way of repeating itself

Plumbing the Heart for Love

By David Kandel

In the late 1960’s I worked as a unit head in Camp Betar, a small Zionist sleep away camp which was located in Neversink, New York on a magnificent hill overlooking a reservoir.

The buildings in the camp were efficiently designed and built by members of the Betar Youth movement. There was no problem with them.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said about the camp’s waste system, which was apparently built by ‘local’ labor that were alleged to have been under the influence of fluid intake similar in chemical composition to what Werner Von Braun used to fuel his rockets that blew up half of London during the Second World War!

Needless to say, there were problems with that malodorous, malfunctioning system that required constant maintenance. The summer in question that odious task fell squarely on the shoulders (or should we say, plunger) of a good natured, big hearted Betar member named Eli who was always cheerful, pleasant and very funny.

That summer there was an angry, unhappy, oppositional camper in my unit named “Eric”. The short list of what Eric disliked about camp included (but was not limited to), the campers, the counselors, the administration, the food, any sports activity, consorting with any campers his own age, frogs, grass – just name it!

So what was this not so ideal camper doing in our midst on a little hill over looking a reservoir far, far from home? Family problems, no options and ‘make the best of it’.

Well, he was determined not to make the best of it and we were all just going to happen to suffer with him. Kindness, counseling, praise, rewards…nothing seemed to work and the problem seemed intractable.

Then one day the answer came to us accidentally in a ‘flash’. Actually, it came to us more like a tsunami when one of the toilets decided it would drown out all life forms in the bunk and that it wasn’t going to take anymore ‘you know what’ from anyone.

One of the staff members happened to be in the bunk at that time attempting to coax little unhappy Eric into joining his bunkmates for an activity when in walked Eli.

Eli, being very friendly, immediately struck up a conversation with the clearly distressed little boy. Eric in turn, became very interested in Eli and struck up a rapport with him and at that moment, decided that this would be his crusade, his calling for the summer. Little Eric, who detested his bunkmates and camp, suddenly became Eli’s friend …and steady assistant.

So every day when the other campers were playing baseball or doing arts and crafts, Eric would don high rubber boots, rubber gloves and follow Eli around on his plumbing rounds. And there were no more problems with Eric the rest of the summer!

If Eli was busy, they would call for Eric and in he would walk in with his plumbing combat gear and his plunger.

When visiting day came and Eric’s father came up, he was happy to hear that his poor besieged son was actually happy and productive, which was something that never happened at home.

The summer ‘mercifully’ came to a close. Eric took the kindness, friendship and sense of importance that he had developed home with him.

I never saw Eric again. Eli fondly remembered Eric even after he moved to Israel.

Eli died a hero’s death at the Suez Canal at the close of the Yom Kippur War.

For one little unhappy boy, he was a hero long before that.

Camp Betar in The Tablet

2011-07-01T23:18:00.001+03:00

Here it is:

Homecoming

by Eileen Chupak Baranes, Camp Betar

I first went to Camp Betar in Neversink, N.Y., when I was about 14 years old. I went there with my best friend, Shushie, whose mother found the camp. I had no idea whatsoever about Zionism, but I knew it was a Jewish camp.

The first year we were in the Kanaim group, which was the oldest group. We were two teenage girls from the Bronx who were into boys and not much else. I loved it there. It was fun. The girls and guys were fun, and the counselors weren’t much older than we were.

Tisha B’Av came around. Whoever fasted was exempt from activities that day. So, of course Shushie and I fasted. We got bored sitting in the bunk, so we snuck out of camp and walked into Neversink, which was a small one-general-store town, to get supplies for after the fast. I remember buying a bottle of Mountain Dew and lots of munchies. Then we turned around and, to our surprise, saw all the head staff of camp in the store. Did we get in trouble! They confiscated what we bought and marched us back to the camp.

That night we had kitchen duty. We had to clean the kitchen and scrub down the stoves and ovens; it was terrible. We got so dirty and greasy; the showers in the bunks didn’t have hot water so we had to take a cold shower to get the shmutz off of us.

But don’t think that that was the end of our being bad. Our counselor, Barbara, didn’t know how to handle us. She just finished high school and was going away to college. We didn’t like her. One day we got a bucket of water, opened the door a little, and put it on the top of the door; we waited until she came in and she got the bucket of water on her head. For that she made a guy counselor take us on night maneuvers to scare us. But, please, we were from the Bronx (as a matter of fact so was he): Nothing scared us.

Until the end of camp I didn’t have a clue about Zionism. Then the guys from Machon L’Madrichim came back from Israel. They had light in their eyes. They were like magic. I can’t describe how I enjoyed listening to them talk of Israel and their experience and the Jewish destiny to live in Israel. After that I joined Betar and went to the meetings in the Bronx. Forty-six years after that I am still in Israel and do not have a moment’s regret.

___________________________
Another submission was by Winkie:

Camp Betar in Neversink, NY, was divided into four age groups: Shimshonim, Hashmonaim, Kanaim and Bnei Etzel and in the summer of 1966, I was selected to head the Shimshonim. That age group was 5-8 and as a result, since their bed time was relatively early, within the parameters of a sleep-away summer camp, I was one of the counselors selected to assist in drawing up the list of supervisors who needed to be on duty, in rotation, until after midnight to assure the safety of all as well as make sure no unsupervised activity by the campers was taking place.

As was suggested to me, I scouted out which male counselor was going with which female counselor so as to afford the staff a more enjoyable two hours while walking around on the parade ground, looking into the bunks and checking out those out-of-the-way hideouts, the locations of which seemed to be passed on from summer to summer while also being remarkably inaccessible at times.

I hid there and I hid there and quickly drew up a list of those who were to be coupled up, the process only taking about three days. Proud of my success, I presented the list to my superiors who then informed all involved who was to do guard duty with who. To my great surprise, the murmurings matched those of the Israelites in the desert. Since my own experience in interpersonal relations was a bit limited at that point, it had not occur to me that the first few days were actually 'try-out' time and by the time the list was drawn and issued, the "couples" had already broken up, some even twice. Now they were 'stuck' with someone they had already managed to reject.

Instead of providing joy and comfort for the task of arranging for the duty of the counselors that was on the one hand, something of great deal of responsibility but, on the other, a bit dreary, necessitating walking about, at times, aimlessly, I had become the object of frustration, anger and embarrassment when my fellow young adults found that they were mismatched.

Another few days of spying enabled another list to be composed. One that, as it turned out, was much appreciated.

_________________________

And this comment was left there:

Vivian says:

Jun 29, 2011 at 10:00 PM

I too went to a Camp Betar. It was in upstate NY but I don’t remember the name of the town as I was only 5 and 6 years old when I was there in 1943 and 1944. The camp was definitely run by the Revisionist (Herut) Zionists. A memorial tent for Jabotinsky was located at a central position in the camp and there were honor guards outside the tent on the eve and day of his yahrzeit.

We did a lot of marching to commands in Hebrew. The Hebrew was not a problem. The problem was that I still could not differentiate my left from my right.

As I was already well aquainted w/ the horrors of W.W.II and I grew up in an Irish Catholic neighborhood in the Bronx I considered myself fortunate to be at a Jewish camp.

So, how did I turn out? The happiest years of my life were spent in Israel from 1959-63. My son and grandson were born there. I’m not a Likudnik but proud and, in some cases, understandingly tolerant of the cultural and religious diversity.

Old Betar Pics

2011-06-16T20:41:00.006+03:00

These pics are from the Camp Betar NY Facebook Page and were posted by Shlomo Frisch. The black and white pics appear to be from a meeting in the Bronx! Moadon in the early 60's. I am not sure where the color pictures are from. I will try to do my bets to identify those in each picture.
1st: Chaviva Gertner, Marty Erdfarb, Les Schneiderman, Gerry Kandel, David Sebag, Chuck Waxman. Sindy Bachner-Liben
2nd: Seated - Kenny Arfa, Sindy, David, Les, Marty; Standing - Gilad Freund, Mitch Chupak, Kenny Seit, Shlomo Frisch
3rd: Marty, Mitch Karp
4th: Stan Levine, Mike Robelo. Les, Margo Meissner, Debbie Orenstein, Mitch, Kenny Seit, Kenny Arfa, Matt Futterman. Tzvi Pearl
5th: Matt, Gilad
6th: Menachem Begin, Les,
7th: Stan, Mike Robelo, Kenny Seit, Matt, Lenny Getz, Mike Rosentraub, Evan Bachner, Steve Goldman, Gilad, Jonathan Freidman, Mitch
8th: Matt, Lenny, Steve
9th: Les, Mike Rosentraub, Mike Robelo
10th: Seated - Kenny Arfa, Sindy, Dave, Les, Marty, Kenny Seit, Tzvi. Standing - Evan Mike Rosentraub, Mitch, Stan
11th: Gerry, Bobby Brown, Sindy, Les, Dave, Stan
12th: See First
13th: Les, Dovid Skolnik. Gerry, Begin, Bobby, Mitch
14th: Mike Rosentraub, Steve, Lenny, Matt, Tzvi, Gilad

Enjoy

Tel Hai

Shachna

PS: So according to Mitch Chupak most of these pics are from a meeting at the Bronx Moadon in 1970-71.

Bogrei Betar

2011-06-13T16:50:00.002+03:00

So, it was a beautiful day for some "old" Bogrim to get together at my house for a BBQ.
Aaron Kinsberg, Chuck Waxman, David Kandel, Michael Chayes

Tel Hai

Shach

The JTA Account of Rosh Betar's Passing

2011-05-09T23:18:00.000+03:00

August 5, 1940

Vladimir Jabotinsky Dies of Heart Attack at 59; Was Visiting Youth Camp

NEW YORK - Vladimir Jabotinsky, prominent Zionist-Revisionist leader, writer and soldier, died of coronary thrombosis shortly before midnight last night at Camp Betar near Hunter, N.Y., it was announce here today by the New Zionist Organization, of which ge was the world leader since its organization in 1935. He was 59 years old.

Death occurred a few hours after Jabotinsky had reviewed a parade of the campers, members of the Zionist-Revisionist youth organization known as Brith Trumpeldor. The Zionist leader had come to the camp to spend the weekend.

Funeral services will be held Tuesday at noon from Schwartz's Funeral Parlor, 152 Second Avenue. Burial will take place the same day at the New Montefiore Cemetery, Long Island, in the section belonging to the New zionist Nordar circle."

Surviving the leader are his widow, Jeanne, who is in London, and a son, Eri, a civil engineer in Palestine. Eri is serving a term of one year at the Acre concentration camp, administratively imposed because of his role in aiding extra-legal Jewish immigrants to enter Palestine.

Moshe Brodetsky Visiting the Temple Mount

2011-05-09T11:14:00.000+03:00

Moshe Brodetsky sent us some recent photographs including his visit to the Temple Mount:

New Historical Research Tool - JTA Online Archives

2011-05-06T13:41:00.000+03:00

If you are searching for Betar information, the new is invaluable.

Here's an example from October 17, 1966 :-

Security Council Resumes Debate Today on Israel Case Against Syria

UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. -

The United Nations Security Council will resume tomorrow afternoon a session called to hear Israeli charges against murderous Syrian-based guerrilla raids. The session got under way Friday night only after a lengthy filibuster by the Soviet Union, Bulgaria and Jordan. The session lasted until early yesterday morning.

Israel's Foreign Minister Abba Eban cited 30 declarations from official Syrian sources expressing "an intention to destroy Israel." Spokesmen for the United States, Britain, France and New Zealand unequivocally challenged the official Syrian stand that Damascus had no responsibility for repeated El Fatah raids in Israel territory.

Much attention was paid at the session to a vigil staged in an office in the building of the Syrian mission to the U.N. by 19 members of Betar, the Brith Trumpeldor movement of Zionist extremists. The 15 male members wore skullcaps and prayer shawls. After rushing by a guard, the Betar members locked themselves in an office and chanted "End Syrian Aggression" and "We Shall Overcome," the anthem of the American civil rights movement.

Arrested on a complaint signed by Arthur J. Goldberg, chief U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, the 19 were arraigned before New York City Criminal Court Judge Hyman Solniker on charges of disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly and trespassing. They were paroled for a hearing on November 25. Israeli leaders, both here and in Jerusalem, condemned the action by the extremists severely...

Betar USA Kinnus Artzi & Bet Sefer L'Madrichim 1948

2011-04-28T14:57:00.001+03:00

The frist notice received was this:

Pictures from US Betar Camp activities and the 1948 Kinnus Artzi received by Steve Esrati from one of Iris Kreiner's sons. They were taken in Camp Betar in the end of the fourties. - Steve A.

Then Ray Kaplan first wrote:

The last picture was taken in Pittsfield, MA in the summer of 1948 outside the hall where we held a Kinus Artsi to elect a new Natsiv Betar to replace Moshe Arens who was leaving for Israel in the fall. That summer, prior to the Kinus, we held a Bet Sefer L'Madrichim and set up a tent camp on the grounds of the estate of a Mr. Horwitz, a supporter of the American League for a Free Palestine. All the members of the Netsivut (still then in the States) were there, including Misha, Dave Krakow, Marty Marden (with his wife Jenny and baby daughter Judy), Seldon Bard, Tevia Shachori, and myself. We are all in that picture, along with Dr. Yisrael Lifshitz (an Irgun shaliach with a beautiful voice, who taught us many new Betar/Irgun songs). In addition, too numerous to name in the picture, were most of the the Mefakdim from New York and many from our out-of-town K'nanim. It was a wonderful Bet Sefer. I have an enlargment of that picture hanging in my den and can identify most of the wonderful Betarim, many of whom made Aliyah and sadly, some of whom are no longer with us.

Then Yitz Heimowitz wrote:

Picture 1 furthest front is Alter Heller, then Nanette Jaffe, Iris Nimowitz Kreiner, Lynn Sharon & Rita Gordon Kraushar in first row. In a row further back is Israel Klein (Izzy Ketani) next to a girl on his right. This is probably 1948.

In the picture of the Misdar, Seymour Simcha Rosenberg, who was Natziv, inspecting the misdar

In the mass picture No. 5 which was probably 1947, front row:
Dr. Israel Lifshitz, Dave Krakow, Reuven Kaplan, Gloria Strenger Heller,
2nd row: Miriam Krakow, Anita Kreiner over Dave Krakow's shoulder, Nanette Jaffe next to man in white shirt on her right
3rd row: Rita Gordon Kraushar is 3rd from left, Morty Dolinsky is next to her and Motel Kreiner next to Morty. Lester Hering is in the middle of that row.
First standing row includes Zvi Bubi Rintel and Tevya Schwartz Shachori
Those are all I recognize. - Yitzhak Heimowitz

But see the final note following the pictures.

Here they are:

1. Hand-to-hand defense

I believe that the Betaria in the two 'self defense' pictures is Evelyn Levine (deceased), taken during WW2, in the early forties. - Ray Kaplan

2. Bet Sefer L'Madrichim scenes

3. Bet Sefer L'Madrichim scenes:

4. The Kinnus Artzi photograph

The following is a detailed identification of the Betarim in the above named picture. Dave Krakow and I got together before the Chag and reviewed 'the picture'. The result is summarized in the attachment to this message. If I get any responses to identify the ' unknowns' in the picture, I will amend the list and let you know.

- Ray Kaplan

The identification is by row, starting with the row up front and going from left to right. The results shown were compiled by a joint effort of Ray Kaplan and Dave Krakow. Unfortunately, we could not identify some of the participants, (some 63 years after this event took place) and have so noted in the below listing. If anyone reviewing this listing can identify those listed as ‘unknown’, please send the info to Ray Kaplan and we will make the appropriate modifications.

First Row

Dr. Yisrael Lifshitz* – Etzel Shaliach

Dave Krakow – Katsin HaNetsivut

Ruth Goldenberg – Washington Heights Ken

Ray Kaplan – Katsin HaNetsivut

Gloria Heller (nee Strenger) – Bensonhurst Ken

Second Row

Miriam Krakow (nee Arens) – Washington Heights Ken

Anita Mayo (nee Kreiner) – Crown Heights Ken

Unknown

Sarah Keren (nee Malina) – Boston Ken

Alma Harris – Boston Ken

Unknown

Lynn Sharon (Roz Leader) – Lower East Side Ken

Nanette Hazan (nee Jaffee)* - Washington Heights Ken

Cantor Morris Levinson*

Lenny Stein* Bronx Ken

Third Row

Steve Esrati – Mefaked Boston Ken

Unknown

Rita Kraushar (nee Gordon)* Lower East Side Ken

Morty Dolinsky* Washington Heights Ken

Motel Kreiner* Crown Heights Ken

Unknown

Moshe (Mischa) Arens – Natsiv Betar

Lester Herring (Rabbi) – Mefaked Washington Heights Ken

Marty Marden* Katsin HaNetsivut

Unknown

Jack Albalah – Bronx Ken

Unknown

Fourth Row

Moshe Volpe – Philadelphia Ken

Marvin Krakow – Mefaked Lower East Side Ken

Joan Johnson (nee Beck) – Washington Heights Ken

Unknown

Herman (Zvi) Rintel* Washington Heights Ken

Unknown

Tevya Shachori (Teddy Schwartz)* - Mefaked HaTsirim

Unknown

Fifth Row

Unknown

Ralph Bieber* - Bensonhurst Ken

Hymie Bieber – Bensonhurst Ken

Marilyn Weintraub – Boston Ken

Jenny Marden* Bogrim

Unknown

Lower Right Hand Corner

Betari taking a picture - Unknown

Notes:

1) Seymour Rosenberg* - Katsin HaNetsivut (not in picture) was elected Natsiv Betar in absentia. He was studying at the University of California, Berkley at the time of the Kinus. After he was nominated to be the next Natsiv, he was contacted by phone and agreed to the nomination. He was then elected unanimously.

2) * - indicates deceased

3) Some Betarim who attended the Kinus were not in this picture, including Seldon Bard* - Katsin HaNetsivut

Gershon Kremer z"l

2011-04-28T10:01:00.000+03:00

Moshe Brodetzky sent this in:

Gershon Kremer, of Ken Betar Philadelphia, a Jewish War Veteran of WW2, architect by profession, who made Aliyah in 1947, joined the ETZEL in Yerushalayim who was among the first residents of MAALEh ADUMIM passed away before Pesach on Wednesday 13th of April.

Condolences to his widow SIMA at 02-5353874; 39 Hashofer St., Maaleh Adumim and son Yonatan amd daughter-in-law Carol Kremer 02-5356550.

Yehe zichro baruch.

Yehuda Lapidot mentions him:

...The repulsion of the Legion attack in Shmuel Hanavi Street and Notre Dame did much to raise the spirits of the Jewish defenders.

The next day the Legion was active along the northern front. After artillery shelling, the infantry advanced from the Police Academy towards the Pagi buildings. The Legionnaires succeeded in reaching the fence of the Sanhedria cemetery, but were repelled by heavy gunfire. Ben-Zion Rothenstein, an American, was assigned to one of the posts. As a veteran of the US forces in World War Two, he had received a study grant, which he was using to attend the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. When the fighting broke out, all American nationals were advised to leave the country, but Ben-Zion, together with several of his friends (including Moshe Brodetzky and Gershon Kremer) chose to join the Irgun instead and to take part in the defence of Jerusalem...

Alei Barikadot in the Knesset

2011-03-30T00:31:00.001+02:00

In the presence of American Betarim Moshe Arens, Moshe Brodetsky and Yisrael Medad, in addition to other guests and Irgun veterans, the Knesset commemorated David Raziel today and the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Irgun Tzvai Leumi (there will be a ceremony duriung Pesach at the Gidi Museum of the Irgun During 1948, too.

Here is the Chazaanim Choir singing Alei Barikadot:

When Palestine Resistance Was - Jewish

2011-03-28T15:43:00.000+02:00

How many names can you identify?

The Story of The Marine Carp

2011-02-17T22:41:00.000+02:00

This clip is in Hebrew. It's about the Marine Carp a ship carrying Americans and others on their way to (then) Palestine. The ship stopped in Beirut, was boarded and the Jewish men were taken off and imprisoned in Ba'albek.

One of the passengers, Muriel Arens, a Betaria from the US and wife of Misha Arens who became Minister of Defense and Foreign Minister of Israel, was on that ship as well.

The women were allowed to continue to Haifa and eventually the men were released, sent back to the US but not allowed to enter and then sent back to Haifa (this time without stopping in Beirut).

Betar Bronx in the 1940s

2011-02-08T12:20:00.000+02:00

From an article in Haaretz:

Opening Palestine's doors

The reflections of three Jerusalemites, who were Zionist student activists in the 1940s in America, shed light on what was arguably the most pivotal decade in modern Jewish history.

By Rafael Medoff

When Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin and I, together with guest speaker Moshe Arens, launched our new book in Jerusalem recently, it was our bad luck that a surprise sandstorm struck that evening, leaving us with a smaller than expected audience. But there was plenty of good luck that evening, too. For among the hardy book lovers who braved the erratic weather were three eyewitnesses to the very events recounted in our book, "The Student Struggle Against the Holocaust" (Schechter Institute and Wyman Institute, 2010 ).

Documents may be central to the study of international responses to the Shoah, but so is the testimony of the men and women who were actually there, helping to shape that critical period in Jewish history. Haviva Wiener, Miriam Bobrow and Rabbi Mordechai Chertoff are three such eyewitnesses.

As a teenager in interwar Latvia, Haviva Sudarsky (today Wiener ) joined Betar, the youth wing of Zeev Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionist movement. "We hiked, we studied, we held marching drills," she told me in a recent interview. "Most of all, we dreamed of going to Palestine." But the British White Paper of May 1939 choked off all but a trickle of Jewish immigration, so the United States, not Palestine, became her destination. When war erupted that September, Haviva's parents sent her to New York together with her cousin, Moshe (Misha ) Arens - who would later serve in important academic and government posts in the State of Israel - and his family.

"During the journey across the Atlantic," Wiener says, "Misha and I spoke at length about Palestine and Zionism. We decided we would join the local Betar as soon as we arrived."

When the rest of the Sudarsky family reached New York City the following January, they were not surprised to find that Haviva, with her passionate Zionist beliefs, was deeply involved with Betar's Bronx chapter. But they were taken by surprise when her activism landed her behind bars.

It was the height of England's war against the Aliyah Bet illegal immigration movement. The British navy was working overtime to intercept the barely seaworthy boats trying to bring Jewish refugees to Palestine. Some ships were forced to return to Nazi Europe. In other cases, the immigrants were arrested and interned, and crew members were prosecuted.

Despite the desperation of Jewish refugees trying to escape Hitler, many mainstream American Jewish leaders sided with the British against Aliyah Bet. Rabbi Stephen Wise (leader of the American Jewish Congress and World Jewish Congress ) argued that since England was at war with Germany, Jews needed to "march shoulder to shoulder" with the British on all issues, "even if the Zionist cause suffered." Wise's Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs claimed that the immigrant ships "resemble concentration camps."

The young activists of Betar felt otherwise. On a freezing afternoon in February 1940, Haviva and several dozen of her comrades picketed the British Consulate in Manhattan. Brandishing signs with slogans such as "Open the Doors of Palestine" and "Don't Send Jews Back to the Nazis," they marched in front of the building until a squad of policemen arrived and arrested them all for demonstrating without a permit. The Betar members were taken to a local police station and then quickly released - except for Haviva and a second girl, named Leah, who were not quite 16 and therefore subject to different procedures.

"It was my first demonstration," Wiener recalls. "The last thing I expected was that I would spend two and a half days in jail!"

During those days, Haviva and Leah were required to attend a juvenile prison school, alongside girls who were, in some cases, openly anti-Semitic. Nor was there any kosher food available.

"But some of the girls were sympathetic and gave us their vegetables, so we managed," she says. On the third day, her father was allowed to post bail for her.

"The director of the prison's juvenile section called me and my father to his office, to reprimand me and to urge me to 'follow the example of [Supreme Court Justice Louis] Brandeis and obey the law,'" she remembers. "He made my father promise to 'keep a better eye on your daughter.' Of course my father promised, but when we left, he gave me a big hug and told me he was proud of me for what I did."

It was ironic that the prison official cited Justice Brandeis because, unbeknownst to the public, he was, in fact, a private supporter of Aliyah Bet. In one recently discovered document from 1939, Brandeis rebuffed an American Jewish leader who referred to that immigration effort as "illegal." The justice told him "that any attempt to curtail immigration was in violation of the terms of the Mandate [and, therefore, while] it may be considered illegal by Great Britain, we Jews considered it to be legal."

Haviva Wiener, who has lived in Israel since 1948, has no regrets about her activism on behalf of immigration.

"It's sad that more American Jews were not outspoken to support Aliyah Bet," Wiener says. "I'm proud that I contributed in a small way."

Haviva's sister, Miriam Bobrow, also contributed in her own way. Needing a little more time to wrap up their affairs in Latvia, she and her parents stayed behind for several months after Haviva left for the United States. Finally, on January 1, 1940, they boarded a ferry for what they thought would be an uneventful overnight trip from Riga to Stockholm, the first leg of their journey to America. But their boat was intercepted by the Germans in the North Sea, and forced to dock in a German port.

Over the course of five anxiety-ridden days, the Germans took away all the German-born Jewish passengers - except the Sudarskys because, having previously spent several years in the United States, they held American passports. They were allowed to continue on to Sweden, where, on January 6, 1940, they boarded the S.S. Drottningholm - the last ship to make the trip from Stockholm to New York City.

Once they had settled in their new home, Miriam joined her sister Haviva and cousin Moshe in the Bronx chapter of Betar. "We had educational meetings, sang songs about Eretz Israel, learned Hebrew, handed out leaflets on subways, that sort of thing," Bobrow recalls. She was at the Betar camp in upstate New York in July 1940, where the founder of that Zionist youth movement, Zeev Jabotinsky, suffered his fatal heart attack; she was one of the youngsters who stood guard outside Jabotinsky's tent until he was taken for burial the next morning.

In early 1943, when Bobrow was a senior at Manhattan's George Washington High School, Betar leader Ahron Propes issued a call for volunteers to participate in a dramatic pageant that was scheduled to take place at Madison Square Garden, called "We Will Never Die."

The pageant, written by famed Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht, was the first serious attempt to shatter the news media's virtual wall of silence surrounding the Holocaust. The sponsors, a Jewish activist group headed by Irgun (pre-state underground militia) emissary and future MK Hillel Kook (who also used the name Peter Bergson ), rejected the cautious approach of the mainstream Jewish organizations and decided the time had come to raise a public outcry about the mass murder of Europe's Jews.

The Bergson group, as it was becoming known, assembled a theatrical dream team for the production: award-winning director Billy Rose, world-famous composer Kurt Weill, and legendary actors Edward G. Robinson, Paul Muni and Stella Adler. Against a backdrop of over-10-meter-high replicas of the tablets of the Ten Commandments, the characters chronicled Jewish contributions to civilization throughout history, the suffering of the Jews in Nazi Europe and the need for rescue action. There were several crowd scenes, which is where Bobrow and a number of Betar friends came in.

"I didn't have any lines or anything," Bobrow says. "We wore blue and white, and waved Zionist flags." They may have been only teenagers, but there she and her friends stood, on Manhattan's biggest stage, alongside some of Hollywood's most famous actors and actresses, participating in an event that was nothing less than historic.

More than 40,000 people viewed "We Will Never Die" at its Madison Square Garden premier performances. Many more saw it subsequently in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, or Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall, where the audience included more than 200 members of Congress, six Supreme Court justices, numerous foreign diplomats - and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who was so moved by the performance that she devoted part of her syndicated newspaper column to the pageant and the plight of Europe's Jews. For the more than 100,000 people who saw the shows, and the many more who read Mrs. Roosevelt's popular column, it was the first time they heard about the Nazi mass murders. Making the public aware was the first crucial step toward bringing about U.S. government intervention.

"American Jews, the American government, and the rest of the world should have done much more than they did," Bobrow says today. "It's shameful that they neglected their duty, and that there was opposition to the Bergson group."...

Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in Washington, D.C., and author of 12 books about the Holocaust, Zionism and American Jewish history.

In Memory of Motel Kreiner

2011-02-07T08:20:00.000+02:00

Report from Yitz Heimowitz:

Last night Supersol sponsored an extraordinary and well deserved tribute to Motel Kreiner at a full Givatayim Theater. In word, picture and music it was acknowledged that Motel was the man who brought about and led the revolution in Israel from the Mom & Pop grocery age to the supermarket age.

Actually Motel led not only Supersol, but the entire country. The Histadrut opened many more supermarkets in Israel than the private sector could, but they were clueless about how to operate them, so they imitated what Motel did. Motel correctly regarded what he did as part of the Zionist endeavor to build Israel economically. Last night all the titans of the Israel food industry gave him heartfelt acknowledgment for what he did.

Two scholarships were awarded to children of Supersol workers, one funded by the Kreiner family and the other by the company. Motel & Iris's Betar background and ideals were fully documented.

Many American Betarim were present. The following is a list of those I saw, with apologies to anyone I left out: First and foremost, Iris. Also Misha & Muriel Arens, Steve & Shiffy Adler, Izzy & Sandy Herman, Gloria Heller, Daniel & Naomi Stolper, Jack Friedgut and Phyllis & Yitzhak Heimowitz.

Anyone who was there can tell you that what I wrote above do not do justice to the wonderful event.

Yitzhak

For The Historical Record: Polish Betar Uniforms

2011-02-06T11:38:00.001+02:00

From a new Polish-language documentary on Betar, an advertisement displaying how a Betar uniform should appear for three different groups and I would assume they be chanichim, madrichim, mefakdim or perhaps ktzinei netzivut (?) or maybe according to age:

and Shlomo Ben-Yosef's uniform:

Any history of Betar uniforms in the US?

Where did the first ones come from? Was an attempt made to copy the European style? Where were they produced? The Betar uniforms during the 40s seem to have been copied stylishly from army unifroms rather than scout dress.
^

Einstein and Rifkin of the American Friends of the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel

2011-01-19T17:38:00.000+02:00

Found here.

Transcript:

April 10, 1948
Mr. Shepard Rifkin
Exec.Director
American Friends of the Fighters
for the Freedom of Israel
149 Second Ave.
New York, N.Y.

Dear Sir:

When a real and final catastrophe should befall us in Palestine the first responsible for it would be the British and the second responsible for it the Terrorist organizations build up from our own ranks.

I am not willing to see anybody associated with those misled and criminal people.

Sincerely yours,

(Signed, 'A. Einstein')

Albert Einstein

For the second, more infamous letter on the occasion of Bergin's visit to the United States in November-December 1948, see here.

Betar-Lead Protest Against Lord Caradon at YU

2011-01-18T00:17:00.000+02:00

The Yeshiva University student organization invited Lord Caradon, then the United Kingdom's UN Representative, to speak at YU in May 1968.

The Betar members attending the university immediately set about to scuttle that event given the recent remarks Caradon had uttered as regards Israel maintaining its control over Judea and Samaria.

Here is a picture from The Commentator, and that's Baruch Kraus at left, Taaov Sklar behind and me thrid from left:

Here is something I wrote back in Friday, 31 Jan 2003:

YU's student council had decided to invite Lord Caradon, the UK UN representative, to speak at the university in 1968. The Betar club opposed this, set up a petition table to collect signatures, an opposing
table of "free speech" popped up next to us and the confrontation was on.

As a result of the activity, and the fear that YU would be in an intolerable PR position, we of Betar were invited to confer with the Rav. As we were TI boys, our entrance to his office was met by sneers
from his Shi'ur students (they assumed that if not on our way out of the college, we were in for a tongue-lashing). About an hour later, we walked out with the Rav basically committing himself to undue the
invitation (which was accomplished) but with a promise to publicly air his views on the matter of territorial withdrawal. He accepted our reasoning about the situation in that if Caradon came, the scene would get very messy.

This was causing quite a stir as since the issue of missionaries almost a decade earlier, the Rav had really never spoken out specifically on a political (rather than a Mizrachi religious concern) question. His talk was broadcast over the university radio and several of his former students took pains to come.

If I am not mistaken, it was then that he expounded on the parallel of the doctor being the expert on breaking Shabbat to heal by insisting that military persons are those one goes to on matters of security. Of course, he was not aware of the intense politicization of the IDF (I presume so for otherwise, why would he set such a parameter) but it was quite an event (in the 1969 yearbook, p. 31, there's a picture of the table and a young me)..

.

As it happens, in an interview published in the Journal of Palestine Studies, “An Interview with Lord Caradon,” Spring - Summer 1976, pgs 144-45, he was asked :

Q. Would you say there is a contradiction between the part of the resolution that stresses the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and that which calls for Israeli withdrawal from “occupied territories,” but not from “the occupied territories”?

and he replied:

A. I defend the resolution as it stands. What it states, as you know, is first the general principle of inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war. That means that you can’t justify holding onto territory merely because you conquered it. We could have said: well, you go back to the 1967 line. But I know the 1967 line, and it’s a rotten line. You couldn’t have a worse line for a permanent international boundary. It’s where the troops happened to be on a certain night in 1948. It’s got no relation to the needs of the situation.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that I cannot at this moment recall the exact words that set us off, it muct have been bad. Here's what I found previously:

Akiva Orr, Matzpen founding member tells this tale from Caradon:

"In 1938 I was the District Commissioner of the Nablus district. The Palestinians rebelled against Britain and a member of your family participated in an attack on a British police station. I was the judge who sentenced him and I gave an order to blow up this house. I am sorry for it and I have come to ask for your forgiveness".

And Orr continues:

I don't know if they forgave him. However I know no Israeli governor ever asked forgiveness of a Palestinian family for giving an order to blow up their house. I wasn't surprised to hear of Hugh Foot's behavior because it matched my impression of him at the gathering in Leeds. Though he surprised me once more. When I met at Jerusalem in 1997 a delegation sent by the British organization "Medical Aid for Palestine". This organization gathers donations, medical equipment and volunteer medical staff in order to support the Palestinian health services. The organization was headed by Lord Gilmour, who served for a while as the minister of defense in the Thatcher's cabinet. When I met Lord Gilmour in Jerusalem I asked him how was Lord Caradon doing. Gilmour was surprised: "Didn't you hear he has died?" I apologized that I did not. He added "So you haven't heard about his last request", "Regretfully not", I answered.

Lord Gilmour added "He asked to be buried wrapped in the Palestinian flag".

Until this very day I wonder why the last request of the British representative to the UN, who served in important government positions in Britain, was for his coffin to descend to the grave wrapped in the Palestinian flag.

For Amatzia Veterans

2010-12-27T13:07:00.000+02:00

Ma'ariv has been posted in digital format with search capabilities from 1948 to 1968.

I've selected some examples for those of us who merited to do our Hachshara period on Machon at Amatzia or who simply lived there:

Source

That last one I remember well.
Source
^

Camp P1cture 1960

2010-12-09T23:09:00.000+02:00

Another Newspaper Clipping of the 1966 Syrian UN Mission Takeover

2010-12-09T23:08:00.003+02:00

The SightThat Awaited Betar Machon Participants at Amatzia

2010-11-28T14:38:00.000+02:00

"Big" Ben Rappaport

More Pictures from Mount Herzl Ceremony

2010-11-28T12:10:00.000+02:00

At Eli's grave:

At Chuck's grave:

Photos: Winkie

More From Eli and Chuck's 2010 Azkara, Baruch's Video

2010-11-28T11:12:00.002+02:00

All the Azkarah Pictures, Movie form

2010-11-27T20:10:00.002+02:00

37 Years Post-1973

2010-11-26T14:59:00.001+02:00

Every year when we at the Military Cemetery at Mt. Herzl, it has become routine to hear how surprised the soldiers are to hear that we've been getting together religiously every year since after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when both Eli and Chuck were killed.

"You've been friends for so long?" they ask
"Much longer than that" we tell them.

I guess that for these young soldiers, 1973 must sound like the "middle ages," or at least like the War of Independence. Today, the soldiers probably have parents who were too young to have fought then.

We're not all that old, are we? We had our first babies within months of each other.

And now there's a new generation.

Let's get together for more smachot.

Betar Songs

2010-11-22T11:35:00.000+02:00

Over 70 songs of Betar and the Irgun and Lechi collected on four CDs in a book:

Camp Yarden

2010-11-16T14:32:00.000+02:00

And Steve Adler writes -

Camp Betar-Yarden 1957 Neversink, NY.

Sitting in front on floor:

L-R: Izzy Herman, Yitzhak Heimowitz and Art/Aharon Bashani-Braunstien (All living in Israel)

Standing in last row on extreme left is Ralph Yerachmiel Shane (living in Israel) and next to him Gil Henkin z"l

Maybe others on the blog can identify others in the picture.

Dance Group 1958 Picture and 1957 Program

2010-11-16T14:30:00.003+02:00

Above is the Betar Dance group that participated in the 7th Israel Dance festival held at Hunter College NY in 1958

Steve Adler identifies them as:

From L-R boys: Gil Henkin, Mischa Abramov, Yerachmiel Shane, Steve Adler, Aharon Bashani- Braunstien.

Girls: Phyllis Haller. The rest he does not remember and perhaps others can fill in.

Here is the program from the previous year, 1957, when it was held at Hunter College 1957 with the names of the Betar participations. I think this was the first time that Betar participated.

We danced to Hava netzei Bemachol and Al Tira. Danny Dassa was our director and choreographer.

Steve A.:

On Dani Dassa, here and also here.

Jeff Maas in Shiloh

2010-11-06T22:45:00.000+02:00

Yes, as you can well imagine, we had a busy Shabbat remeniscing about the "good old days," when we were an awful lot younger, fitter and slimmer. We also tried catching up on friends from then.

Barak Koffler in Israel

2010-10-31T23:44:00.000+02:00

Barak (Bruce) Koffler, Betari from Toronto, is on a visit to Israel, his first, with his wife Tamara and visited the Begin Center in Jerusalem.

On Sunday night, he and Winkie got together for awhile:

A Picture of Chuck and Other Betarim

2010-10-29T00:10:00.001+02:00

This picture was given to me by Nissan Teman and was taken in 1964. I am fairly sure that it was ~~after the first Israel Day Parade down, then, Lexington Avenue - which was before they moved it to Fifth, but I could be mistaken~~ (see comments below) as I joined Betar only in the Fall of 1964. That should be Central Park.

From L-R: Danny Epstein, Elinoar Ariav, Chaim Chuck Hornstein, Baruch Kraus, Reuven Genn, David Sprung and Aaaron Kinsberg.

Please add in comments any corrections of additional info.

Yiddish Newspaper Reports on the 1966 Syrian Sit-In

2010-10-25T14:33:00.000+02:00

Via Reuven Miller

Newspaper Clipping of 1966 Syrian Mission Takeover

2010-10-19T15:57:00.000+02:00

From Reuven Miller

NA Betarim Celebrating!

2010-10-17T07:56:00.000+02:00

Pictures from Yoav Sprung's Wedding
Mazal Tov to David and Elinoar and the Ariav's!

Yahrtzeit for Eli Solomon and Chuck Hornstein - 37 years

2010-10-15T15:40:00.000+02:00

The Hazkara this year – 37^th – for Eli and Chuck will be held on Tuesday, November 23^rd, 16 Kislev. We will meet at 3:30 PM (15:20) at the entrance to the military cemetery Har Herzl.

AFSI Jabotinsky Memorial

2010-08-21T21:54:00.001+03:00

Douglas J. Feith was Keynote Speaker at the AFSI memorial for Ze'ev Jabotinsky:

Renowned author and political commentator Rael Jean Isaac delivered the introductory remarks for Douglas J. Feith, the evening's keynote speaker. "Doug Feith's father was a member of the Jabotinsky youth movement, Betar, in pre-World War II Europe, so it comes as no surprise that Doug has had a lifelong interest in Jabotinsky," she said.

Mr. Feith is a former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, serving in this position from July 2001 until August 2005 in the Bush administration. He helped devise the U.S. government's strategy for the war on terrorism, and contributed to policy making for the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns. He also served as a Middle East specialist on the White House National Security Council and then as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, where he heads the Center for National Security Strategies.

"Few people are honored 70 years after their death," said Mr. Feith, speaking of the unique and multifarious contributions of Jabotinsky to the Jewish people and the creation of the Jewish state. "Jabotinsky's remarkable accomplishments and prescient ideas are still applicable today," he continued, speaking of his perspective of the Arab/Israeli conflict. "Jabotinsky was convinced that the Arabs could not be bought off with political concessions, and in his essay entitled, 'The Iron Wall' that was penned in 1923, he wrote: 'Except for those who were born blind, they realized long ago that it is utterly impossible to obtain the voluntary consent of the Palestine Arabs for converting "Palestine" from an Arab country into a country with a Jewish majority. As long as the Arabs feel that there is the least hope of getting rid of us, they will refuse to give up this hope in return for either kind words or for bread and butter, because they are not a rabble, but a living people. And when a living people yields in matters of such a vital character it is only when there is no longer any hope of getting rid of us, because they can make no breach in the iron wall.'"

While imparting a general overview of the life of Jabotinsky, Feith said that Jabotinsky was a "rational, pragmatic, non-Socialist Jewish nationalist who rejected the totalitarian nature of fascism and communism." Mr. Feith spoke of Jabotinsky's career as a journalist, a poet, a proponent for the revivification of the Hebrew language and a tireless fighter for Jewish statehood. During the dark days that presaged the Holocaust, Jabotinsky posited himself in the forefront of a campaign for Jewish survival. It was in Warsaw in 1938 that he told his Jewish audience, "Liquidate the exile, before the exile liquidates you."

"Jabotinsky viewed the creation of a Jewish state as a matter of life and death," said Mr. Feith. "He was a man who combined erudition with action and as a result of his positions on Jewish resistance to subjugation and his campaign to form a Jewish army, he was unfairly smeared as a fascist."

As the father of Revisionist Zionism, Jabotinsky's political platform of maintaining the territorial integrity of the historical land of Israel and the establishment of a Jewish state with a Jewish majority on both sides of the Jordan River was rejected by the Zionist Executive in 1935. They refused to state that “the aim of Zionism was the establishment of a Jewish state." It was at this juncture that Jabotinsky resigned from the Zionist Organization and founded the New Zionist Organization (NZO) to conduct independent political activity for free immigration and the establishment of a Jewish State.

"Jabotinsky held a deep belief in the royalty of man, that we are all created in G-d's image. He extolled the views of universal equality and individual liberty," said Mr. Feith. Quoting from "Shir Betar," the Betar youth movement anthem written by Jabotinsky, Mr. Feith continued, "Even in poverty a Jew is a prince; whether slave or tramp, he was born a prince, crowned with the diadem of David."

Jabo Memorial at the Cemetery

2010-08-06T20:28:00.004+03:00

Don't know what year; probably early sixties. I'm pretty sure that is Aviva Stone front and center, but can't identify the others

Shachna

Camp Reunion 1962

2010-08-02T21:24:00.007+03:00

I photographed these from my album (I do not have a scanner)

Camp reunion 1962? Took place somewhere around Duane Street Manhattan I think.
Top picture: Eli Solomon z'l, Rena Epstein, Phyllis Nathanson? (Wally's gf) Walter Chayes, Mella Pollacheck?, Benny Rosen, ??, Alan Laytner;

Bottom picture: David Sprung, Jerry Kandel (hidden), Naomi Franklin, Shoshana Fenig,
Jenny Greenblatt?, Benny Rosen, Nissan Teman, Alan Berg.

Shachna

Mishmar HaKovod

2010-07-21T16:30:00.004+03:00

Rain Parade 1966

Right to left
Jerry Kandel, Danny Epstein, Dovid Skolnik, Chaim Fischgrund Chaim "Haran" Horenstein z'l, Rhisa (Rich) Tzohar. Mella Pollacheck, Aharon Goldberg, Mel Laytner and I can't remember who carried the other rifle and is not in the picture

Shachna

Kumsitz Music and Musicians

2010-07-20T23:54:00.001+03:00

(l-r:)
Eli Solomon הי"ד
Charles (Chuck) Shachna Waxman
Dr. Haim Frydman

Any other info? Time? Place?

North American Betarim 1995

2010-07-16T07:47:00.002+03:00

At the wedding of Tammy Genn to Noam Kaminsky in Tiberias, Israel

- - -

Camp Betar 1963(?)

2010-07-13T00:07:00.007+03:00

Please contribute identifications of above Betarim and any additional details including year, circumstances (was that a Bet Sefer L'Madrichim?), etc.

Jabotinsky's Yahrtzeit At Mt. Herzl

2010-07-12T21:11:00.005+03:00

The American Betar delegation this year included (l-r)

Chaim Fischgrund; Shmuel/Steve Adler; Nissan Teman; Yisrael Medad (photo taken by honorary Betariah Chandi Medad, born on 29th Tammuz) :-

Yisrael Medad met up with former Natziv France Jacques Kupfer (they once stormed the stage of the 1971 Zionist Congress to prevent a motion of support for UJS after they supplied blood to Fatah):-

A Betar Soccer Story

2010-06-11T16:13:00.003+03:00

The World Cup/Mondial Tournament is beginning today.

So, a soccer story is appropriate.

In 1968, I was head of the Yarden Camp which was the under-the-tent section. I was then informed that I was to be in charge of the delegation traveling from Camp Betar to Canada for the Zionist Youth Movement Maccabiah.

One element was soccer and a game played was Betar vs. Shomriyah.

The shmutzniks showed up with sneakers and some even went barefoot. I presume they were the Israeli kids of the shlichim.

I looked at our side and most of the players seemed to be wearing heavy shoes, even boots. That would weigh down their running ability and it seemed strange.

I asked on of our madrichim what was doing and the answer I received was:

"we won't be kicking only the ball."

American and Canadian Betarim at Tel Chai

2010-03-12T15:04:00.001+02:00

Nissan Teman (l.) and Reuven Genn (r.)

Nissan Teman (l.), Reuven Genn (c.) and Sheldon Yeshayahu Lerman (r.)

2010 Yom Tel Chai Memorial Ceremony

The First Step

2010-03-10T12:01:00.006+02:00

Anyone remember The First Step?

Naomi Franklin?

I found this, that's Sybil [Kaufman] Kaplan on the right:

Story of My Land

2010-02-18T15:44:00.003+02:00

This is this original (see our old stationary) knocked out by Benny on one of Garbers old typewriters!!

Kretchma

2010-02-10T13:22:00.001+02:00

Anyone know any Betar alterations th these original words?

Kretchma - Words and music by Gene Raskin

When you hear Russian songs, do you suffer?
Does your heart start to pound in your chest?
If you do then come down to the Kretchma,
It costs plenty, but it's from the best.

And there is singing, and there is dancing,
And the Russian vodka is all right.
Come to the Kretchma, that's where you'll ketchma,
Drinking vodka every night

In the corner is standing a Cossak.
You can see him from way down the block.
And inside the candles are gleaming,
But, except for the candles, it's dark.

And there is singing and there is dancing,
And the borsht and piroshki's all right.
Come to the Kretchma, that's where you'll ketchma,
Drinking vodka every night

In the middle is standing Natasha,
All the men are beginning to pant.
When she's dancing her shoulders they vibrate,
And when she's singing you see that she can't.

And there is singing and there is dancing,
And the Russian baritone's all right.
Come to Kretchma, that's where you'll ketchma,
Making whoopee every night.

Betar Youtubes

2010-01-01T07:20:00.000+02:00

Even though they aren't North American, they're still worth posting. (Sent by Steve Adler)

Memorial 2009 For Eli Solomon הי"ד

2009-12-23T14:23:00.003+02:00

Memorial for the Gallows Martyrs

2009-12-16T21:28:00.005+02:00

That's Bobby Brown directly behind the speaker.

The Shaliach, Yosef Mintz z"l, is last at the right on the dais.

US Betarim in Moscow

2009-12-16T21:26:00.001+02:00

Anti-Arafat At The UN Demo

2009-12-16T21:19:00.000+02:00

Camp Betar 1955

2009-12-16T21:18:00.000+02:00

Anyone help with identification?

The 1969 J'Accuse Pompidou Demo

2009-12-16T12:52:00.003+02:00

In early 1969, Jacques Pompidou arrived in New York and Betar decided to protest his anti-Israel position and statements. I even think that the NY Zionist Youth Council printed off rolls of round stickers for the subways, etc. and announcing a major demo near the UN with the logo: "J'Accuse, Pompidou".

The separate Betar action was planned to be a sit-down in front of the French Consulate-General on Fifth Avenue.

Instead of managing to get our backs to the building, when we dashed across from Central Park, the presence of closing in police, I recall, forced us to basically end up lined out towards the street making it a very short game of "embassy drag".

Here's Barry Liben being escorted away:

I seem to recall another photo that made it into either the Post or Mirror with Barry, with handcuffs on, having his arms raised behind him and a very painful expression on his face.

Can I ask the Betarim:

a) anyone have any other momentos that we can scan? clippings?

b) who participated?

c) personal reminisces?

Thanks.

Winkie

Another Soviet Jewry Demonstration or "What Were We Thinking"

2009-11-20T18:12:00.003+02:00

In the early 70's a group of Betarim (Johnny Brown, Jeff Maas, Stan Levine, Marty Kaplan, David Tewrsky and I) attended a WUJS conference in Asbury Park New Jersey, staying at the Berkley Carteret Hotel from Friday - Sunday. The conference is attended by many different groups - Zionist and others. The purpose of the conference was to come up with a plan of activism for Jewish students and I seem to remember a publication coming out at the end, though I do not have a copy. Of course, we came to Shabbat diner in out tilboshot - kind of freaked some people out!

So, on Sunday as we were packing to leave, someone suggested that we stop at the Soviet Mission to demonstrate our activism. Well, some of us did (don't remember what we did with our luggage) with some hastily created signs.

When we got to 67th street, there was a school bus outside the mission. One of us says "lets takeover the bus", so we get on. Once on board we notice that it was full of kids ( happened to be kids of the mission staff who were coming back from school). So we get off the bus and notice that the doors to the mission are open to let the kids in and we walk right in with them and sit down near the outside wall.

I don't remember how long we sat there with our signs before some ugly looking security staff approached us. After a while we left ( did we finally realize where we were, or did someone see a shoulder holster?) As I said, "what were we thinking?"

Tel Hai

Shachna

Rosh Betar On TV

2009-11-04T14:38:00.001+02:00

Jabotinsky Memorial on Israel's Channel 1

On Thursday, 5 November, at 9:45pm, Israel's Channel 1 will broadcast the memorial event held at the Begin Center for Ze'ev Jabotinsky's 69th anniversary of his death.

"Ze'ev Jabotinsky: The Poet and the Author" was held in July 2009 and was considered a unique event because it highlighted the artistic side of Jabotinsky and how that artistic quality informed his leadership. Speakers at the event were Herzl Makov, Chairman of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center; Roni Milo, Chairman for the Public Council for the Commemoration of the Legacy and Achievements of Ze'ev Jabotinsky of the Prime Minister's Office; Prof. Yehuda Friedlander and poet Miron Isakson delivered academic lectures; Izzy Mann was the moderator. Yohanan Yovel sang Jabotinsky poems to his own melodies and the B'nei Binyamina Choral Group sang Betar favorites. Thespian Oded Tehomi read dramatic excerpts from Jabotinksy's novel, Samson.

Altalena Witness, First-Hand Account by Charles Rotter

2009-11-02T08:13:00.000+02:00

I still remember as a young boy standing on the Tel Aviv beach opposite the burning Altalena. And I still remember very vividly Menachem Begin making his speech on the Irgun Radio Station after surviving the attempt on his life while he was escaping the burning Altalena. Begin never finished that speech and broke down crying for his fallen comrades. Many of those listening to his speech cried together with him.

This is what the evil murderer Rabin should be remembered for, instead of being hailed as a false hero by the perfidious Left.

Somehow forgotten during the tasteless "Rabin Festival" season is the fact that Rabin suffered a nervous breakdown just prior to the start of the 6 Day War, which was a good thing because in his absence Ezer Weitzman unleashed the Israeli Air Force's devastating attacks upon the Arab air forces, something the cowardly Rabin never would have had the nerve to do.

Another monument to Rabin's cowardice are the skeletons of the "Meshuryanim" armored cars left on the road side to Yerushalayim as monuments to the Palmach soldiers ( the G'Dud Ha'Chamishi 5th Palmach Battalion) who were trapped and died in them, while their cowardly commander non other than Rabin ran for his life on his Jeep to Jerusalem and refused Yigal Allon's direct orders to pick up reinforcements and go back to the battle scene in order to rescue them claiming he was too tired and hungry. Or in his direct quote:

"Ani Ayef Ve'Ra'ev Ve'Ani Holech Li'shon."
"I'm tired and hungry, and I'm going to sleep."

A true Leftist "Hero" indeed.

Shaul Charles Rotter

Fred Taub, American Jewish Hero

2009-09-23T04:59:00.002+03:00

Fred Taub has been nominated as "American Jewish Hero."

Fred has been a relentless force in pursuing justice and encouraging other to be active in the community.
Fred was instrumental in bringing John Demjanuk to the front pages, and had guided the Betar Youth organization from decades.

Good luck!

To vote for Fred, click here!

A Message From Ronn

2009-09-14T16:50:00.001+03:00

Friends:

I was made aware of the email to the Betar list regarding my firm and wanted to clarify some things.

Thank gd, 5WPR, my firm is the 21st largest PR firm in the US. The firm I started less than 7 years ago was named to the INC. 500 list, and our client list includes members of the Forbes 400, Fortune 500 and countless others. As a former Rosh Hanagah of Betar USA, I will always consider myself a proud student, and follower of Ze’ev Jabotinsky and that will impact all aspects of my life.

Professionally, while non-profit and Jewish based organizations represent a tiny sliver of our business, our client experience includes the Israel Ministry of Tourism, Mayor of Jerusalem (Nir Barkat – Who has appeared here [in the US] 2x in 2009), Chabad, Aish Hatorah, Pastor Benny Hinn, Pastor John Hagee and a slew of others.

I am quite proud personally to sit on the board of Aish Hatorah, ZOA, Shuva Israel (Rabbi Pinto), and many others. Those are personal beliefs having nothing at all to do with our clients, or client list.

We will continue to do great work, and I’d love feedback from my fellow Betarim on the recent Jerusalem Post article which appeared here:

Tel Chai,

Ronn Torossian

Shtay Gaddot LaYarden

2009-09-14T16:34:00.003+03:00

Shtay Gaddot LaYarden

Shared via AddThis

There was at least one member of American Betar in the jeep.

Letter in Haaretz on Dr. Meir Havatzelet

2009-08-30T10:10:00.001+03:00

Hebrew instruction

Regarding "Paradise lost," Haaretz Magazine, August 14

I can't judge the childhood and adolescent impressions of Prof. Ehud Havatzelet or the complexity of his relationship with his family, and particularly with his father, nor can I testify to it. But as a student back in the mid-1960s of Dr. meir havatzelet at the Teachers' Institute of Yeshiva University in New York - an institution in which the studies were conducted in the "Hebrew into Hebrew" method - I would nevertheless like to point out that the father of the successful Jewish writer impressed me and my peers with his knowledge of Hebrew literature, on the one hand, and - for those who belonged to Zionist youth groups - with his devotion to the idea of Jewish nationalism, on the other.

Members of Betar in particular learned from him about [right-wing poet] Uri Zvi Greenberg, and about other writers. And even if he did not identify himself as being affiliated with the nationalist camp, the conversations outside class enriched and excited us, not to mention the possibility of hearing genuine "sabra" Hebrew. He was pleasant man, who demanded attention and interest in the subjects, but the hard work that was required also led to enjoyment of his lessons.

Yisrael Medad

Shiloh

Chaim's Trip to Poland

2009-08-26T22:29:00.004+03:00

Sorry about the delay in my posting this to the blog. Batya

Here's Chaim's report, and following are some photos:

Date: Saturday, August 15, 2009, 3:39 PM

I sent the letter below last Wednesday. It was not delivered to the list because it was too heavy, probably because I attached too many pictures. This I'm only attaching one picture. If anyone wants more of the area please write and I will send them

I returned yesterday from a most interesting visit to Poland . It wasn't my first. There is one place I visited that may be of interest to the Betar list. My hotel was on 2 Muranowska Street . I remembered the book by Chaim Lazar Muranowska 7 (Metzada shel Varsha in Hebrew) and immediately set out to find the "building". Some reading this letter may not know that nearly 90% of Warsaw and just about the entire area of the ghetto were destroyed during the german invasion in 1939, the Ghetto uprising in 1943 and the Warsaw Uprising in Aug 1944. The city has been rebuilt but the streets are not exactly where they were during WWII. I realized that I wouldn't see the original building but wanted to see the place nevertheless.

I saw the plaque which is placed on Muranowska 1. This plaque is no doubt the result of the efforts of Moshe Arens - a great historic wrong is beginning to be corrected. The plaque speaks of the two flags flown over the building, as is the name of Arens's book. Interestingly it is on the corner of Anders St . Betarim will recall that Menachem Begin came to Israel as a member of the Anders army. Obviously this was not the name of the street before WWII (nor during the communist era). Apparently the current building is about the same height as the original buildings but the surrounding buildings were not nearly as tall as they are today. It is easy to understand how the flags were seen in much o the ghetto

The tour of Warsaw for my group began at the plaque. I asked two guides who guided us whether groups visit the site and whether they hear the story Pawel Frenkel and the ZZW. One guide told me that there are groups that come to the site because nearby is a memorial to the Polish victims, Jewish and Christian, of the Soviet oppression and the expulsion of thousands to the labor camps of the USSR (attached is also a picture of this monument). The other guide told me that very few groups come to this place and that not many guides actually know about this. I wondered whether my group saw this only because we happened to be at a hotel across the street. I didn't get a straight answer.

Muranoska Street is a bit off the beaten track but really not by much. An effort must be made that all Jewish groups, whether from Israel or around the world who come to Warsaw on the March of the Living or other frameworks visit this place and learn the story of ZZW - at least in Warsaw if not in the schools. There is a commemorative plaque for Pawel Frenkel elsewhere in Warsaw . It's been there for more than a decade in the area between the Umsclagplatz and the memorial to the Ghetto (the original Rapaport memorial, a copy of which is in Yad Vashem)

I understand that there is also a plaque (or one being prepared) in the place where Frenkel was actually killed. It is in front of 11 Grzybowski St (I am not sure of the spelling). I didn't have the time to go there

Chaim Fischgrund

Our First Lawyer

2009-08-17T08:39:00.002+03:00

For those of us in 1960's New York Betar, there was one name we all thought of when "lawyer" was mentioned. That was Yitz Heimowitz.

Yitz's legal skills were legendary to those who had protested at the Syrian UN Mission in the fall of 1966, simply because he got them out of jail, even though US Ambassador to the UN, Arthur Goldberg was ready to have them executed, without even knowing any details of the case. I was then, just getting acquainted with Betar and was totally awed by the daring of all involved.

Yitz, his wife Phyllis and their baby son, made aliyah just before we did. Over the years, we've kept in touch. Even though they are a bit older than we are, our daughters are about the same age. Their elder daughter was even in Bar Ilan Law School with our second one, and their younger one and our third received "Rector Prizes," as top students at the same Bar Ilan University ceremony.

A few years ago, Yitz celebrated his Seventieth Birthday at a joyous party and we heard some amazing stories. I'm glad to say that he has written his memoirs, "Memories of a Lawyer's Life," and it's a great book. Yitz was extremely involved in legal issues concerning dual citizenship, Israeli-American and was one of the leaders of AACI, Americans and Canadians in Israel.

Following is a story we remember, which isn't in the book:

When we were about to buy our first home in Israel, we called Yitz to check out the contract. We had found a nice new apartment under construction in Bayit V'Gan, Jerusalem. We sent him a copy of the purchase contract and made an appointment with the contractor. The three of us arrived together, and Yitz explained some problems he saw with the contract. We trusted him completely.
The contractor looked at us strangely and asked:

"Who is that man?"
"He's our lawyer."
"Why do you need a lawyer? I have a lawyer."
"But your lawyer is your lawyer and ours is ours."
"I don't understand. My lawyer is good enough for all of us."

The conversation continued rather fruitlessly on the same track until we looked at each other and realized that it was time to leave. As soon as the three of us left the building, we all bust into hysterical laughter. Later on we bought a different apartment.

You can see that humanity in the stories Yitz included in his book. It's privately published.

NA Betarim At Wedding of Gilad Udler

2009-08-12T14:47:00.004+03:00

Jabotinsky Memorial

2009-07-22T08:06:00.004+03:00

At the 69th Jabotinsky memorial, American Betarim spotted included Misha Arens and wife, Muriel, Dov Hertz, Yona Ferman, Steve Adler, Chaim Fischgrund, Nissan Teman and Yisrael Medad.

Steve Adler: Demonstration Against the Shipment of American Tanks to Saudi Arabia

2009-07-12T21:51:00.008+03:00

The picture below is a part of a news clipping (Mordechai ben Emek is Morty Dolinsky z"l) of a demonstration against the shipment of American Tanks to Saudi Arabia. I think in the winter of 1957.
I am on the right of the picture. The guy standing behind me, Zvi Abusch, a Bnei Akiva madrich and I organized a walk-out of over 200 kids from Manhattan Talmudical Academy to participate in the demonstration. I think it was the first and only time that there was cooperation in a demonstration between both movements.The school administration wanted to throw us out of school but through the intervention of Rabbi Louis Bernstein, one of the teachers who latter became the president of the US Mizrachi, we were suspended for only 3 days.

Steve Adler

Old Friends

2009-06-28T23:44:00.005+03:00

Its nice when old friends can get together. So, last month we had David and Carla Kandel, and Jerry and Linda (Kovary - Tom's sister) Gissinger over for a bbq. Good food and a good time were had by all. Here are some pics. We don't look a day over 20!!!!!!

Shachna

Archival Film of American Betar 1942

2009-06-14T23:22:00.007+03:00

The Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive has an almost 30 minute film produced in 1942 or 1941 composed of various events and scenes related to American Betar. It's here. And the data base card is here but the year could not have been 1940 as Jabotinsky died in August 1940. The Committee for a Jewish Army was founded in January 1942 so it is a presumption that the film was made in 1942 although it could have been in 1941. If one goes here, ZionNews seems to announce, on p. 7, the opening of the flying school in the Fall of 1940. And on p. 13 we read that Eri on set sail from Mandate Palestine in December 1940. In the issue of Febraury 26, 1941, p. 21, Eri is not yet in NY but p. 22 announces the Aviation School opening. See p. 39 for news that Yirma was sailing to the US from England. And p. 40, dated late December 1941, notes the graduation of its first pilots. So the film was made over a period of later 1941 to summer 1942.

It includes an inaugural ceremony of the Betar air training school out at the Rockaways including pilot lessons. A Betar Misdar. A field day up in the mountains. A demonstration on 5th Avenue in Manhattan on behalf of a Jewish Army and the second yahrtzeit ceremony at Jabotinsky's grave.

Steve Adler notes that the blurb for the film "The Jabotinsky Aviation School" reads:

Alex LOEB (b. 1902, d. August 1939) lost at sea in late August 1939 along with Richard DECKER, 23, in the Ryan C2 Brougham monoplane "Shalom". They were making a transatlantic flight with Palestine the ultimate destination. They were involved with Jabotinsky's Aviation Schools and Jewish Army. The plane had been owned by the Horrocks Malted Milk Company and had a British Roundel on the fuselage side as did some of the the Jabotinsky aircraft at their Rockaway school on Long Island. They blew a tire at Roosevelt Field on takeoff, got caught, and US authorities denied the Shalom permission to take off and so they transported the Shalom to St Peters, Nova Scotia, where they took off from the beach at low tide, without permission of authorities (two pilots had already been lost attempting these Atlantic flights in little planes that year) and were never heard from again. At the time of the flight Jewish refugees and the ship St Louis were gripping the Jewish community along with the warclouds in Europe. Loeb and Decker were dramatizing Palestine and the Jewish Brigade there. The war news doomed them to oblivion, however.

Moshe Arens writes:

This is a film of considerable historic value. It was taken by Sam Pickart, an American Betari, originally from Czechoslovakia, who fell in the service of the US Air force in WWII. Among those who appear in it are Col. JJ Mendelson, a Spanish-American war veteran, who was at the time the head of the Revisionist organization in America. Also [Aaron] Propes, Irma Halperin, [Joseph B.] Schechtman, Aaron Hanin, at the time Netsiv Betar in US, Isaiah Warsaw, a hero of the war in the Pacific, who came on the Altalena and fought with the Irgun in Jerusalem. Also Marty Marden who was a Captain in the US Army in Europe, and many others.

Yitz Heimowitz adds:

In addition to the names mentioned by Misha, I think I recognized Harry Levi and Seymour Simcha Rosenberg who followed Misha as Netziv.

Barak Koffler had previously commented:

I found a letter from Eri Jabotinsky and signed by him, from the 1940s --to Betarim in New York City. It invited them to attend the Jabotinsky Flying School and I think it was at far Rockaway. I donated that letter to the Jabotinsky Institute many years later, and have a letter of acknowedgement from them, thanking me for the document to be placed in their archives.

P.S.

An additional notation here would seem to be wrong in its details:

Reel 4 and 5: Scenes of Zeev Jabotinsky's Yarzheit in Hunter, NY., activities at the Brit Trumpeldor summer camp in Hunter, NY and of a Betar Youth demonstration against Nazism in New York in the 1930s.

Rosh Betar was buried in Queens and as WW II broke out in 1939, the demo would have to be later.

1951 Demo: German Soccer Team Visit to NY

2009-06-12T16:42:00.002+03:00

Curtesy of Steve Adler

A 1970 Picture Of What?

2009-06-12T16:37:00.003+03:00

I just found this. I think I'm in the center top row, just behind the fellow in a white golf shirt.

Seems to be a demo.

Anyone have details?

Seems to be Arthur Goldberg lower left.

Another Clipping From the 1966 Syrian Mission Sit-In

2009-05-22T15:02:00.003+03:00

The Betarim: (from the front of the line back) Reuven Genn, Reuven Miller, Nissan Teman and Menachem Goldberg.

(sent in by Reuven Miller)

Steve Leibowitz Interviewed

2009-05-21T15:42:00.002+03:00

One on One: 'Are you asking as a journalist or as my wife?'

May. 20, 2009
Ruthie Blum Leibowitz , THE JERUSALEM POST

The advantage of interviewing one's husband is not having to dress up and drive across the country - or even across town, for that matter. The disadvantage is that it's difficult to simulate distance of the kind such exchanges normally involve. Well, that and the other little issue of how it's going to come across to the reader. It's this last bit, more than anything else, that had kept me from adding Steve Leibowitz - otherwise a perfect subject for this column - to my list of one-on-ones.

But I decided to succumb to better judgment in this case, because Leibowitz, originally from Queens, New York, is a walking wikipedia of the Anglo scene in this country. And his endeavors, both as chief editor of Israel Television's IBA News in English and as president of American Football in Israel, affect the lives of many English-speaking immigrants.

Leibowitz, 57, became an ardent Zionist with the outbreak of the Six Day War, when his passion for Israel was only equalled by his love of sports and rock'n'roll. (Today, a bust of the late Menachem Begin sits on a shelf in his room, next to statuettes of quarterback Tom Brady and "the boss," Bruce Springsteen.)

An activist in American Betar, he made aliya in 1974, soon after which he became a community organizer for the Likud, which - to his great delight - came to power for the first time in 1977. It wasn't long after that that he began working at the Prime Minister's Office (under Begin), serving as an official in the Government Press Office, explaining settlement policy to foreign journalists.

From there, he became a Jerusalem correspondent at the English-language newspaper The Nation. When it folded a year later, Leibowitz became a sports reporter for The Jerusalem Post, as well as a news-related features writer for In Jerusalem, a job he continued doing for several years, even after moving to Israel Television.

IBA News was launched in 1991, just as the first Gulf War broke out. With everybody in the country holed up in sealed rooms, with gas masks in tow, the IBA team's faces became familiar in one fell swoop, due to a prime-time slot on what was then the country's only TV channel. Leibowitz was among its founding staff.

A lot has changed since then, including what many Anglos felt was an unfair marginalization of the only local broadcast they were able to watch and fully understand.

As the station became embroiled in a ratings war with the commercial channels, Leibowitz explains, English began to get "pushed around." But veterans, like Leibowitz and colleagues Leah Zinder, Yochanan Elrom, Dennis Zinn, Jonathan Elkins and Laura Cornfield, "stuck it out, as IBA survived many threats to its existence."

Lo and behold, rather than being put on the proverbial chopping block, IBA News is now being beefed up with extra airtime.

While reports of reforms and severe cutbacks at the Israel Broadcasting Authority continue to emerge, the English department at Israel TV is being bolstered. Why?

We're getting bolstered because the Broadcasting Authority sees that our department has been making money. We are sold to Web sites here and abroad, as well as to certain TV stations in the US. There are a dozen clients who buy IBA News on an annual basis, among them The Jerusalem Post.

It is true that we used to be the "bastard child" of Israel TV, initially given only 15 minutes, and bumped around whenever we were inconvenient for another department - with Hebrew programming, of course, always being given priority. But then, several years ago, with the addition of Channel 33 - which was established as the local Arabic station - possibilities opened up for us. It was then that we were given a full half-hour slot, which is actually 22 minutes in American terms, since the other eight minutes are devoted to commercials. We still have a presence on Channel 1, with a 10-minute bulletin every day at 16:50, but we are an important part of Channel 33 [news on weekdays at 17:00-17:22; Fridays and Saturdays at 18:00-18:22] - a full partner, with strong support from IBA Chairman Moshe Gavish, Director-General Moti Sklar and Arabic department head Rafi Yehoshua. And once it became clear that we were able to sustain ourselves financially, I raised the idea of expanding English programming beyond straight news. This is how Close-up, was born about three months ago. It is a 30-minute talk show focusing on the issues of the day, and it is broadcast every Wednesday on Channel 33 at 17:25, immediately following the regular IBA News. I host it, together with anchor Leah Zinder, one of the best journalists in the country.

In addition, sometime soon we will be launching Spotlight, hosted by IBA staffers Jonathan Elkins and Viva Press, which will deal with culture, hi-tech, Israeli innovations, with a media corner hosted by Elli Wohlgelernter. Aside from all that, we plan on having a daily 10-minute interview show called IBA Q&A, Sunday-Thursday at 20:50-21:00.

There's no getting around the fact that English is the international language. And we are the world's window into Israel. I will keep pushing for more programs, until someone stops me. It makes me and the staff work harder, but I view English screen time as my personal hasbara mission.

What kind of viewer response do you receive?

I know that thousands of people set their clocks by IBA News. Most say, "Bring it on; give us more about what's going on in Israel."

But we also receive criticism, usually from viewers on the Right, who think that we should never bring up anything negative about Israel, or that we should be taking a more conservative stance. But our goal is not to take a political position. We try to report on the news as it is, with all of its stripes. I'll bring in a Peace Now activist, just as I will someone from Gush Emunim, as well as representatives of the government and the opposition. It is true that the balance we try to achieve overall sometimes isn't complete on a given broadcast, but we try to be balanced, and over the long term, our viewers respect that.

Speaking of how you portray Israel, unlike your Hebrew counterparts, your broadcast rarely reports on crime. Is that a function of time constraints, or is it an editorial decision on your part?

It's both. I don't like to devote too much time to crime stories, because our viewers tend to hunger for the bigger picture - which means politics and security. And though crime is an important internal issue here, with rape, child abuse and so on that have to be reported on and dealt with, they don't necessarily have to be emphasized on our show, because they are not mainly what our viewers are interested in knowing about Israel. Having said that, we do not ignore social problems, and we try to bring on guests who offer solutions.

Apropos the guests you bring on your show, how much of your selection boils down to their fluency in English?

It's a major consideration. We don't want to torture our viewers with people who are hard to understand. And because we don't have the ability to include subtitles, those who speak better English end up getting more airtime than those who don't. Thankfully, there are many Israelis from across the political spectrum, and in different fields, who speak excellent English. We have a long list of these - about 1,000 people - who agree to come on when they are invited.

You frequently use Jerusalem Post reporters. What do you think about the trend of considering members of the media "experts," by virtue of their covering certain beats? Why interview an economics reporter, for example, instead of an economist?

We're not expecting a person from the Post to act as an expert. We're looking for the person who is not only a reporter, but who also does analysis, such as your editor-in-chief, David Horovitz, or your political correspondent, Gil Hoffman, and military reporter Yaakov Katz. They are able to give our viewers the benefit of their analyses. And our viewers are also Jerusalem Post readers, so they are familiar with the names of your staff, which gives added value. The exposure has been mutually valuable. The Post is the only English-language newspaper in Israel - Haaretz is a translation of the Hebrew paper. So, we also sometimes invite Haaretz reporters who know English, but everyone at the Post does. So, it's a perfect fit that serves both of our interests.

If, as you claim, so many people in the world are hungry to hear about Israel, why has nothing come of the many private attempts to establish a 24-hour English news channel here?

It all boils down to money. Over the past few years, at least four different individuals have approached me for advice about how to best launch such a project. I was happy to sit with each and discuss the value of a round-the-clock news station in English. But each went away and never returned - I guess when the numbers didn't crunch. The idea to do what Al-Jazeera did by creating an English-language broadcast is a great one. But Al-Jazeera has unlimited funds from the Qatari government, which is something the Israeli government doesn't have. And even the amount of commercial time that could be sold is limited. I imagine that one day such a thing will exist, probably on the Internet.

You are also the president of American Football in Israel - another Anglo venture. How did that happen?

I was always involved and interested in sports. I've been playing in the softball league here since 1978, and I'm still playing - at the age of 57! I even pitched a victory last week. But my true love has always been football. And when I made aliya, it was the one thing I missed here. Then The Nation, where I had been working as a reporter, folded [in 1989]. And not only was a room in its Jerusalem office left empty, but because it was in Beit Agron, where the Government Press Office and other media-related organizations were located, there was a satellite dish on the roof. So, Danny Gewirtz [a colleague] and I decided to pirate the signal from American Armed Forces Television, and to start offering to show games there for all of the Anglos who couldn't otherwise watch American sports.

We put up posters around the city, and many people starting turning up. It became a whole social club. Our biggest draw was football, and we discovered that there were a lot of guys out there who also missed playing the sport.

So we organized a league of eight teams, comprised mostly of American immigrants, but also two yeshiva teams. We then approached a political friend of mine, Ruby Rivlin, who was involved in the Betar organization and Betar soccer team, and he got us a field to use, in Bayit Vegan. We didn't realize just what a monster we were creating. By 1999 - a little over nine years later - we had grown to 36 teams. The biggest problem we had while growing was finding places to play. We had to keep moving around. When Bayit Vegan wasn't available, we moved to the YMCA stadium, then to the Hebrew University and to other places. It was a constant battle. None of the facilities had lights, which meant that the only time we could play was Friday mornings.

One day, one of our players happened to spot Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, in the lobby of the King David Hotel. He walked up to him and told him about our football league, and asked if he would be interested in knowing more about it. Mr. Kraft said he was, so I contacted him, and he invited me to put together a proposal on how he could help, and to come and see him in Boston. In the meantime, I went to see the mayor at the time, Ehud Olmert - whom I knew from my days as a Likud activist, through my work at the Government Press Office and finally from IBA News - to propose an idea. I had noticed an unused field next to Beit Berlin, overgrown with weeds, which had been built originally as a soccer field, but which had been totally neglected. I proposed that the city would give us that land, the Kraft family [Robert and his wife, Myra] would pay for its development, our football association would handle all the games and the Jerusalem Foundation, which was very interested in sports facilities, would be the conduit for donations. After Olmert and the Jerusalem Foundation agreed, I went to Boston to show my proposal to Mr. Kraft. The rest is history, so to speak.

Today, we have 95 teams playing on a regular basis at Kraft Stadium: 57 men's teams, 16 women's teams, 16 high school teams and six teams in the coed league. And there are an additional 200 or so kids who come from Jerusalem and elsewhere to play at Kraft. So, Kraft Stadium was able to help us develop football into a major sport in this country. I don't mean that it can compete with soccer or basketball, but it's now recognized by the state as an official sport, and our national teams compete abroad.

Once we became established with flag football, I felt it was time for the real thing, tackle, which we started last year, with great success - and interestingly, unlike with flag football, that drew mostly Anglos, tackle is being played by sabras. In fact, one of our star players this year, the quarterback for the team Real Housing Haifa, is Itai Ashkenazi, the son of Chief of General Staff Gaby Ashkenazi.

You said that Ruby Rivlin had been instrumental in getting you access to Betar Jerusalem fields. Over the past month, you have developed a new kind of connection to that soccer team. There have been several news stories, mainly in the Hebrew press, but also in these pages, about the potential sale of the team to philanthropist Guma Aguiar. Some of them have been inaccurate. Can you set the record straight?

It happened by chance, when you and I were invited to take part in the March of the Living, which this year was sponsored heavily by Guma Aguiar. Two of the people who work closely with him [Bobby Brown, his CEO, and Charley Levine, the head of Lonestar Communications] are Betar comrades of mine from the "Old Country."

During the three-day emotionally wrenching trip, we spent a lot of time commuting from one place to another by train or bus. On one of the train rides, Guma and I talked about sports. We hit it off right away, because he's also a football fan, and is even interested in playing in the tackle league as a linebacker next season. Anyway, I knew about all kinds of philanthropic efforts of his in Jerusalem, and I asked him whether he would be interested in buying Betar Jerusalem, whose owner, Arkadi Gaydamak, left the country. He said he was. But since it wasn't the right time to be talking about such things, we postponed the discussion until after returning from Poland. He invited me to his house to discuss it.

I gathered whatever information I could, and briefed him on the current ownership, the prices involved and other issues, including the negative reputation the fans have. I also let him know that whoever owns Betar automatically becomes a media personality, so he should take that into account. This led to several more meetings, which I won't go into here, with the relevant people in Betar. Where it stands now is fluid. We'll have to wait and see what happens. [see here]

What's in it for you?

Are you asking as a journalist or as a wife?

My playing matchmaker between Guma and Betar has to do with my love of sports and Jerusalem. Betar is on the brink of collapse - heading into bankruptcy - and it's a sad day for soccer fans. Betar has a huge fan base in this country, and even abroad, as the representative of Jerusalem. With all of my interest in American football, I realize that in Israel, the No. 1 game is soccer. And I realize what a tragedy it would be if Betar were forced into Chapter 11, without a buyer who is going to lift it back up to where it needs to be.

But hasn't Betar been terrible for Israel's image, with all that "death to the Arabs" chanting at matches? Can any owner alter that?

I took my son, Mikey, to a Betar game a few years ago, and vowed it would be the last, because of behavior like that. It wasn't an atmosphere I wanted my child exposed to. That has to change. The fans have crossed the line and hurt the team. There was even an incident when they ran onto the pitch before a match was over, causing Betar to lose. It's just unacceptable behavior, which the players and owners have never wanted. But the ownership has to be willing to confront the fans.

Confront them in what way?

Guma's idea is to drown out their profanity with loud music. But my advice is to be tougher than that. I would employ the zero-tolerance approach that's used in many professional stadiums in the United States. They bring in a judge, and rowdy fans who break the law are arrested right there in the stadium.

Sports produces some of society's most important role models. My son, for example, has posters of his favorite athletes on his wall, and I remember how hard it was for him to discover that one of them was on steroids.

The players have to abide by a certain set of rules, and the same is true of the fans. There's a contract here between the fans and the players that can be broken by either side. And when it's broken, it damages the sport.

My general philosophy is that organized sport, whether amateur or professional, has tremendous potential for the good of Israel. The football league, for example, gives a good 1,200 players the chance to play the game they loved in their childhood, and even pass it on to their sabra offspring.

If the big league soccer team, Betar Jerusalem, becomes healthy, not only could it elevate the city's image abroad, but it could become the team favored by Jews all over the Diaspora. So maybe I will be remembered some day as the guy who brought football from the Diaspora to Israel, and helped bring soccer from Israel to the Diaspora.

Rina's 40th Aliyah Anniversary Party

2009-04-29T22:37:00.005+03:00

Rina Genn invited family and friends over to the Genn residence in Karkur today to celebrate 40 years since her Aliyah.

Food, drinks, camaraderie and some stories.

A few pictures:

Rina and Reuven listening

Reuven talking

Rina and to her left, her mother, Helen Epstein and Eli Solomon's mother,Evelyn,

Shlomo "Bubby" Ariav

(l. to r.) Elinoar, Chaim Fischgrund, Nissan Teman and Yisrael "Winkie" Medad

Elinoar, Helen Epstein and Tammy and Debbie in the background

Emily Udler with her son, Daniel

And here are some pics from the party at the airport lounge 40 years ago:

Rina and Frieda z"l:

Chaim Fischgrund, Emily Udler and Rina:

Rina (background) Nissan and Eli z"l:

Eileen z"l and Winkie:

"Plans" and Memories of 1973

2009-04-19T08:21:00.001+03:00

This is cross-posted on Shiloh Musings under a different title.

Just because Israel's Defense Forces have prepared to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities doesn't mean that the plans are truly operational.

Every single country has its military prepared for operations it may never order. In Hebrew, the term is "b'megurot," in the "drawer," or "closet."

Sometimes, to "shut up" military officers and keep them from nagging their superiors, they're given a unit or platoon of soldiers for their "pet" battle plans. This doesn't mean that the plans are taken seriously. It's just good management to let the overly dreaming officer play soldiers so he'll stop driving everyone nuts.

A classic case was in post Six Days War Israel, 1967. During the summer of 1973, my husband attended an unforgettable World Betar Convention. He told me that some of the older Israelis there were bragging about their IDF positions and history. Somebody got the late Gidon Shiponi to reveal his army reserves job:

"Arik Sharon and I are training men to cross the Suez Canal."

That sounded ridiculously far-fetched, even to Betarim, but that's the army, and that was Arik Sharon, and that was Gidon Shiponi. And that's probably why Arik was passed over for Ramat Kal, Chief of Staff.

Well, I don't know how many of you remember who had the last laugh.

Yom Kippur, October, 1973, Israel was shocked by coordinated attacks by Egypt and Syria, on our northern and southern fronts, the northern and southern June, 1967, cease-fire lines. Our army and politicians were in a frenzy of panic. All of our military experts had declared us invincible. We had been reassured over and over that the Arabs would never attack us again.

There was only one spot of calm, and that was Arik Sharon. He and his officers, including Shiponi of course, were fully prepared. They shocked Egypt by efficiently crossing the canal.

But I have no doubt, that most surprised were Sharon's superiors, including the politicians in the know, who had never expected those plans to go any further than some "reserve duty exercise."

The IDF file cabinets are full of "what if" plans, long past their possible usefulness. Every army has them. You have to be prepared for all possibilities. They're supposed to be kept top secret, since their effectiveness is severely reduced when the element of surprise is deleted.

It was once much easier for Israel to keep its secret plans secret. No foreign army was privileged to know anything. Israeli army officers didn't consult with foreign countries. Israel didn't ask permission. We were much stronger then.

Our security is endangered by the close contact, the close connections we now have with the United States. It's to our detriment and possible, G-d forbid, destruction. We should reject all American aid and advice. I don't want to be killed by kindness and Trojan Horses. I fear our "friends" more than our enemies.

G-d willing a Shavua Tov, A Good Week to us all.

The 1966 Syrian UN Mission Takeover Clippings

2009-03-16T20:39:00.005+02:00

Following several serious terror incidents by the Fatah in mid-late 1966, 20 Betarim set off to protest by conducting a sit-in at the Syrian Mission to the United Nations.

Reuven Miller provided these newspaper clippings and all those who participated or think they know anything relating to the activity are invited to comment and provide more details.

The Semel (Shoulder Patch ) Post 1969

2009-03-06T11:38:00.002+02:00

Up until the Kinnus Olami, the map of Shtei Gadot was on the background.

(see the logo above for the original patch design, or, at least, the one I wore)

American Betarim At Begin Center Event Honoring Elitzur Friedman

2009-02-17T09:05:00.008+02:00

The Annual Itzhak "Elitzur" Friedman Lecture, sponsored by the Friedman Family in conjunction with the Begin Center, took place Monday evening in Jerusalem. The event is described here.

And here are the pictures:

(l-r) Wilma Friedman, Estelle Friedman, Freda Hurwitz, Miriam Arens

The Friedmans

In the second row, Dave and Miriam Krakow

(l-r) Izzy Herman and wife; Shmuel Adler (kneeling); Aaron Bashani-Braunstein; Winkie; Moshe Brodetzky; Chaim Fishgrund; ? ; Miriam Krakow; Aaron Kinsberg

Same crew, different arrangement, minus Aaron Kinsberg

Moshe Brodetzy and Aaron Bashani and wives

(l-r) Aaron Kinsberg and wife; Chaim Fishgrund

Moshe Arens and Danny Krakow

Joanthan Friedman (in front row)

(r-l) Jonathan friedman and Mischa Arens

From The Photo Album

2009-01-27T23:12:00.006+02:00

I will appreciate help in identifications.

1. Winkie at a Camp Betar Bunk

2. Camp Yarden

3. Bet Sefer L'Madrichim 1969
4. Tas
5. Winkie up a tower
6. Teudat Betar distribution ceremony in Central Park, r-l: Winkie, Nissan Teman, Chaim Fischgrund
7. Shlomo Bubbie Ariav & behind l-r: Baruch Ktraus, Jenny Greenblatt, Marci Rosen
8. Marci Rosen & Reuven Genn
9. Tzipporah Ariav & Carmela Shiponi

In Katamon

2009-01-07T16:29:00.001+02:00

That's Ben Rappaport (r) and Reuven Genn (l).

1963 or 1964.

Betar Milwaukee Marches

2008-12-09T11:28:00.004+02:00

Here's Bobby Brown leading Milwaukee Betar in the Israel Independence Day Parade in Milwaukee.

Betar was the second largest youth group in attendance, and Bobby had trained the new Betarim to walk in perfect formation in front of the Jewish Federation headquarters. Before the parade, parents called not wanting their children to march, but the entire group did show up. Notably, many in the Jewish community were quite surprised to see a large group of uniformed Betarim marching. Several of the older supporters had been Betar members in Poland before the Holocaust, and they openly wept when they saw the Milwaukee Betarim marching.

In this picture, the group is being directed by Moshe (Marty) Katz and Geela Polansky, who both have their backs turned as they use megaphones to rally the Betarim. The photo was shot in 1978 or 1979.

Information provided by Dan Frankel

Benjy Aharoni

2008-12-03T09:14:00.002+02:00

Here is Benjy Aharoni in 8/1966 at camp:

Some Pictures From The 35th Azkara

2008-12-02T06:15:00.002+02:00

Here are a few pictures I took at Mt. Herzl Cemetery and afterwards at Reuven and Yehudit (Joan) Miller's Har Chomah apartment.

There was a nice crowd at the cemetery, and as our custom we began at Eli's grave and then walked to Chuck's. For some strange reason, it seemed to many of us that the distance grew and the hill got steeper.

We toasted: "To friendship"

Batya

At The Memorials For Eli Solomon and Chuck Hornstein (Haran)

2008-11-26T07:45:00.004+02:00

As we do annually, former American Betarim and friends of Eli Solomon and Chuck Hornstein, killed in the Yom Kippur War, gathered at Har Herzl Military Cememetery for the memorial services.

Here's this year's group:

Front row (l-r): Reuven Miller, Nissan Teman, Aaron Bashani

Second row: Eugene (Butch) Brody, Yisrael Medad, Emily Udler, Yehudit Miller, Heather Rosing, Risa Tzohar

Third row: Chaim Fischgrund, Rina Genn, Danny Rosing, Batya Medad

Back row: David Sprung, Reuven Genn, Nachman Eckstein

A Tel Chai Fund Poster

2008-11-24T16:05:00.000+02:00

Old Picture of Camp Betar from Steve Adler

2008-11-16T14:11:00.000+02:00

Yes, I admit that there aren't any "new pictures" of Camp Betar, since there isn't any Camp Betar any more. But this one is older than many remember.
Batya

Pix and Clipping from Steve Adler

2008-11-16T14:02:00.001+02:00

The below is a picture and part of a news clipping (Mordechai ben Emek is Morty Dolinsky z"l) of a demonstration against the shipment of American Tanks to Saudi Arabia. I think in the winter of 1957.
I ,who is on the right of the picture and the guy standing behind me, Zvi Abusch a Bnei Akiva madrich ,organized a walk out of over 200 kids from Manhattan Talmudical Academy to participate in the demonstration. I think it was the first and only time that there was cooperation in a demonstration of both movements.The school administration wanted to throw us out of school but through the intervention of Rabbi Louis Bernstein, one of the teachers who latter became the president of the US Mizrachi, we were suspended for only 3 days.

"Unknown" Camper, Camp Betar

2008-11-16T12:05:00.004+02:00

These were sent by Big Ben Rapaport. He doesn't know who the boy is. If anyone does, please let us know in the comments.

Thanks