A Life To Live...

by Israel Kipen

  I remember that day very vividly. It was a sunny Saturday in Australia, and that weekend I was at Jack Skolnik’s Maroondah Lake Hotel in Healesville which was a fashionable holiday spot at the time with a sizeable Jewish clientele. A wireless had been set up on the veranda. As the vote was transmitted live from the United Nations, the atmosphere was as tense in Healesville as it must have been everywhere in the Jewish world. With bated breath, we waited for every vote to be recorded. The tension was hard to bear, but when the USSR. cast its affirmative vote and a sound of applause came through on the radio from the United Nations gallery, it became clear that the partition plan would pass with the necessary two-thirds majority. At the end of it all, everyone around me sighed with relief. One guest, Sam Aloni, ordered drinks all around for a l’chaim. Some had tears in their eyes. Otherwise, the reaction on the whole was muted. As if instinctively, each person felt that it might be too early to celebrate; the true struggle would only now begin.

  Those historical events at the United Nations had an Australian input with far-reaching consequences. The federal elections in September 1946 had returned a Labor government to office with Ben Chifley as Prime Minister and Dr Herbert Vere Evatt as Minister for External Affairs. According to Max Freilich of Sydney, a leading personality in Australian Jewry who was to play a vital political role in Australian Zionism, the Labor victory was “providential for the Zionist movement in Australia and indeed for the world Zionist movement”. Written in 1971 with the benefit of hindsight, this statement may have been sweeping, but it was not, in fact, exaggerated. At the time, the Zionist Federation of Australia was centred in Sydney under the chairmanship of Rabbi Dr Max Schenk. One of the active arms of the Federation was a department in Melbourne which was presided over by Dr Machover who left Australia permanently in 1946, but who nonetheless represented Australian General Zionists as a delegate to the 22nd Zionist Congress in Basle.

  The United Nations Special Commission on Palestine started work in Jerusalem on June 16, 1947. Two months later, the ship, the Exodus, left Marseilles for Palestine with 4,500 Jews on board, but was returned to France after the British refused its passengers entry, this act provoked a global outcry. Moshe Shertok, who was then the Head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency, urged Horace Newman of Sydney, the Vice-President of the Zionist Federation at a meeting in Zurich, to push on with political work in Australia. Max Freilich and Abram Landa, a prominent Labor politician in New South Wales, travelled to Canberra to plead for Australian support for the Zionist cause at the international forum. While in Canberra, Landa asked to be included as a member of the Australian delegation to the United Nations. The request was refused, but he did gain an invitation as an observer, an invitation which he accepted.

  Dr Evatt was to lead the Australian delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations. He was a candidate for the Presidency. He had gained recognition two years earlier at the San Francisco Conference of 1945. As it happened, Dr Evatt was defeated for the post of President of the Assembly by Dr Aranha of Brazil; but Dr Aranha suggested in turn that Dr Evatt stand for the Chairmanship of the Ad Hoc Committee on Palestine, to which he was unanimously elected. This was a crucial position to occupy in so far as the fortunes of Palestine were concerned. The Great Powers were trying to influence the composition of the Ad Hoc Committee and, consequently, the outcome of its deliberations and its final report to the United Nations Assembly. The final vote of the Ad Hoc Committee was 27 votes in favour of partition, 13 votes against, and 17 abstaining. Dr Evatt from the Chair had cast the first “yes” vote on behalf of Australia. New Zealand abstained. This abstention was a considerable disappointment to the Jewish Agency. In its wake, the personal efforts made by Max Freilich of Australia and Isaac Gotlieb of New Zealand to present the Jewish case to the New Zealand Prime Minister Frazer helped secure a “yes” vote in the ultimate voting in the General Assembly on the 29th November.

  The sustained political activity of the Australian Zionist movement leading to the United Nations vote continued. An idea of the extent and direction of this activity may be gained from the minutes of the Annual Assembly of the State Zionist Council of Victoria held on March 9, 1948, at which the following resolutions were passed:

  The State Zionist Council resolved to recommend to the Zionist Federation of Australia and New Zealand

  a. To approach the Labor government through the Australian Council of Trade Unions and Trades Hall Council for the Australian delegation to continue to support the Zionist cause.

  b. To formulate memoranda to be submitted to the Australian delegation at the United Nations.

  c. To send cables to governments of countries which might support the Zionist cause and urge such support.

  d. To request that a representative of the Jewish Agency be sent to Australia to direct political work with government departments or alternatively to appoint a leading local Zionist spokesman to conduct the work.

  It is only when one looks at these events in retrospect, keeping in mind the fact that there were a mere 35,000 Jews in Australia at the time and that only a limited number of these identified themselves with Zionism, that one may begin to appreciate the historic role that the Zionist movement in Australia played in those fateful days.

  The uncertainties over the six months that followed the partition vote kept us in a state of constant tension. During that interval, the United States applied assorted pressures on Palestine Jewry to defer the proclamation of statehood. Secretary of State, General Marshall, threatened to remove the Palestine Appeal from the list of deductible charities; Moshe Shertok flew back in haste from New York to Palestine to urge the postponement demanded by America. It was only when the Zionist General Council met in the Tel Aviv museum on Friday afternoon of May 15, 1948, and David Ben Gurion publicly proclaimed the creation of the Jewish State to be known as Israel, that the tension we had lived with could lift.

  However, the relief and rejoicing of the Jewish world were short-lived. Independence brought the immediate invasion by Arab armies. The precarious alignment of forces, the pitiful state of the Hagana’s preparedness and the losses of life and the destructions incurred placed burdens upon world – and Australian – Jewry for which they were not prepared. The defeat of the combined Arab armies, followed by the United Nations-sponsored ceasefire agreement in November 1948, this time permitted a more sustained respite from the anxieties with which the Jewish world had been living.

  Israel had come through its first test by fire militarily victorious, but economically shattered. With the opening of the gates of Israel from 1949 onwards to all Jews who came, many of them having neither work nor shelter to turn to, world Jewry swung into action in the most practical way it could – in the provision of funds for the rehabilitation of the immigrants who could at first be housed only in makeshift tent-cities and had to be provided with food and social amenities on an unprecedented scale. A new sense of mutual responsibility thus sprang up among world Jewry. Jews everywhere who till then had at best been spectators looking detachedly upon the unfolding drama, suddenly recognised the demands of the hour, became morally involved, and felt committed to respond to calls for help from the Zionist movement. Not all Jews, however, responded. The anti-Zionists in the community were unmoved, while many simply remained on the sidelines as by-standers, either emotionally unable or unwilling to cross the threshold to personal commitment. I remember one episode in which, together with a man named Blumenthal, I was taking up a collection in the Oxford Chambers where I had my office at the time and which was tenanted almost entirely by Jews. In the corridor, we met up with a tall young Jew from Central Europe. We explained to him what we were doing and asked for a donation. He was aghast at our temerity. “What has it to do with me?” he said in German and walked away in disgust.

  Apart from the raising of funds, other forms of aid for Israel became a large and urgent task. Clothing and anything else transportable were collected and shipped to Jews in transit camp
s. The activity became a well-organised enterprise led by Lazar Suchowolski who later left Melbourne for Israel.

  The first Consul-General of the State of Israel to Australia, Mr. Harry Levin and Mrs. Ruth Levin.

  Amidst the worry over Israel and the work directed towards its welfare, Australian Jewry had reason for rejoicing when the first official representative of the new State arrived to open the first Israeli mission in Australia. This mission was initially at a consular level, located in Sydney, with Mr Harry Lewin and his wife Ruth as the incumbents. After settling in, they arrived on an official visit to Melbourne in October 1949. There was great excitement over the visit; the very notion that we should be hosting a diplomatically-accredited representative from Israel had a fairy-tale quality about it. The State Zionist Council geared into action to arrange a suitable reception and I was placed in charge of arrangements, with assistance being given by Essia Nemenoff of the Women’s International Zionist Organization office, Lily Solvey of the Victorian Zionist Organization, and Walter Duffield, General Secretary of the State Zionist Council. We hired the Melbourne Town Hall and arranged a dinner for some 1,200 people. Invitations to the dinner were at a premium and many people had to content themselves with watching proceedings from the upstairs gallery. The function was an event the like of which Melbourne Jewry had never seen before, and was attended at once by elation, exultation, pure joy and disbelief.

  As an aside, as the person responsible for the arrangements, I was asked by Mrs Lewin, who was a painter, whether it might be possible for her to do some painting in the city gardens. I called for her at the Menzies Hotel the following morning and, with easel in hand, led her to the Botanical Gardens. As we crossed the bridge over the Yarra, Ruth Lewin noticed a neon sign reading Kraft on a building on the south side of the river. When I explained that Kraft referred to a cheese-manufacturing company, she related the story that during the siege of Jerusalem, when food was scarce, she had had a tin of Kraft cheese at home which she would not open until the siege was broken. It was with that tin of Kraft cheese that she and her husband celebrated the liberation of Jerusalem!

  Melbourne Jewry’s reception for the Lewins was both a great success and a major psychological turning-point for many local Jews. The presence, in the flesh, of official representatives of Israel in our midst had the effect of translating into palpable reality what, earlier, was often a nebulous content and perception of Zionist aspirations. The impact of the visit was thus both inspiring for the Zionist movement and positively contributory to its practical work.

  Reception given by the State Zionist Council of Victoria to Consul-General Mr. Harry Levin and Mrs. Levin at the Melbourne Town Hall, At the Head Table l to r. Dr. & Mrs. J. Jona, Rabbi & Mrs. Stranski, Mr. A. Sicree, Rabbi Dr. & Mrs. H. Freedman, Mr. & Mrs. J. Solvey, Mr. Doron (Consul of Israel), Mrs. J. Rapke, Mr. H. Levin (C-G of Israel), Mr. Sam Wynn (Chairman of function), Mrs. R. Levin, Mr. H. Newman (Sydney), Mrs. Doron, Dr. & Mrs. A. Patkin, Mr. M. Ashkenasy KC & Mrs. H. Ashkenasy, Rabbi & Mrs. Gurvitch, Mr. & Mrs. A. Brekler (Perth), Mr. & Mrs. A. Maisel, and Rev. W. Rechter.

  In order to put into perspective my private life and communal involvement, it is appropriate here to record that I became engaged on the stroke of twelve on New Year’s Eve 1950, just several weeks after this major event, and married on March 9th. In fairness to my future wife, I had warned her that I was deeply involved communally and that evening meetings would often keep me away from home. What I did not know myself was precisely the extent to which events throughout the ‘fifties would make demands on my time. In fact, I had to leave Laura at home alone most nights of the week. It was clearly the wrong thing to do to a young bride, but events were cascading with such rapidity and urgency that my involvement mounted with each passing week. By November 1951, I was a member of the Executive of the Zionist Federation of Australia and New Zealand, representing there the State Zionist Council of Victoria. The Zionist Federation carried the burden and responsibility for Zionist policy making in Australia, this body being the country’s representative of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization. Belonging to the Zionist Federation added fortnightly meetings to my schedule which was already crowded with attendance at meetings as a member of the Victorian Zionist Organization, which was one of the constituents of the State Council of Victoria, whose executive I had joined on February 15, 1949, and of the United Israel Appeal which was an undertaking of both the State Zionist Council and the Zionist Federation and engaged in a number of separate activities, each of which required meetings of their own. Such meetings had often to be held during one’s lunch hour as well as in the evenings. Concurrent with these, I was involved with Mount Scopus College, first as a member of the School Council, then, from August 1952, as a member of the Executive of the College, this doubling the number of meetings I was obliged to attend, not to mention other serious responsibilities which membership of all these bodies carried with them.

  At the time of my arrival, the offices of the Zionist Organization were at Carlow House, situated at the corner of Flinders Lane and Elizabeth Street. The place was very cramped and restricted in the operations and administration of the Organization’s ever-increasing affairs. We sought new premises to house all branches of the body and found suitable ones in Collins Street next door to the Melbourne Club. A deposit was paid, but a permit for our activities in the immediate vicinity of the Melbourne Club was refused. The premises had, of necessity, to be re-sold; but the resale netted a profit of 10,000 pounds. A further search resulted in the acquisition of an old house on large grounds at 584 St Kilda Road, Melbourne. According the minutes of the State Zionist Council of October 30, 1952, Mr Solvey, who was then President of the State Zionist Council, announced the purchase of the property for 19,000 pounds.

  The thrust of Zionist activity was overwhelmingly in fund-raising, with the United Israel Appeal being the chief agency in this activity. By agreement with the Keren Hayesod and the Jewish National Fund, the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO), the Hebrew University, and others, all their separate appeals were merged into a single appeal, with the Keren Hayesod Head Office apportioning a certain percentage allocation of the total proceeds to each. This permitted a united and co-ordinated action on behalf of Israel with a contribution of personnel and facilities by all groups within the Zionist spectrum, as well as the possibility of an agreement with other organisations over the allocation of time slots in the communal appeal calendar. Accordingly, a specific time could be set aside each year for the United Israel Appeal to launch its campaign. The word “United” in the name of the appeal related to the organisational aspect of fund-raising activity. The actual appeal techniques and the efforts exerted to raise funds were quite another matter. The need was unprecedented. The coffers of the Keren Hayesod were empty and it could not possibly collect all the moneys required for the reception of the immigrants who flooded into Israel. Hence, the demands made by the Keren Hayesod Headquarters for greater exertions to raise funds were constant, and the translation of these demands and exertions into money collected proved a year-round responsibility. In those days – the early ‘fifties – money was not easy to come by. The very notion of the size of donations had remained more in tune with pre-State days. It required, therefore, a major psychological adjustment among people who were in a position to contribute to give in measure to the country’s immediate needs. To facilitate an adjustment of the kind needed, appeal emissaries from Israel were brought to Australia. They told of the State’s economic situation, of immigrant absorption, of the ma’abarot (makeshift tent-cities) and of the desperate privations and endurances of the impoverished new arrivals. Barely recovering from the War of Liberation and from the losses in terms of life and limb which affected the small Israeli community at the time, the State had, simultaneously, both to accommodate and rehabilitate the newcomers and to proceed with nation-building and sustain a crushing defence budget. The number of emissaries available who spoke English w
as not particularly large, nor was their stature particularly great, the relatively small Jewish community of the day – and its financial returns – not being such that would reward the sending of any particularly outstanding personality to Australia. Individuals of station were more likely to be sent where the returns of an appeal were more promising. Hence, we made do with whomever the Keren Hayesod could spare and generated added enthusiasm with local talent, which proved not unimpressive, but was less effective than overseas personalities if only because they were familiar. Often, we would exchange speakers with Sydney for the sake of a new name and new attraction. In those days, drawing-room meetings for the appeal were major social events in the community. To be invited to an Appeal-opening dinner was to be accorded status, while the organisation under which auspices the dinner was held gained communal credit.

  In addition to the speakers who came from overseas and interstate, the personnel of the Consulate and later of the Legation of Israel were invited to address organised gatherings. In mid-1950, the Levins returned to Israel and Mr Joseph Linton took over as the first Israeli Minister Plenipotentiary. Mr Linton had been Director of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency in London in the days of struggle with the Mandatory power. He was also a confidant and associate of Chaim Weizmann.

  Interstate conference of the Zionist Federation of Aust. & N.Z. held in Sydney in the mid 1950s.

  Front row from left; I. Roseby, the author, P. Ungar, Dr. F. Benfy, Dr. A. Benfey, Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman, H. Newman, M. Freilich, S. Wynn, N. Jacobson, M. Friedman. Back row; Dr. E. Krauss, A. Newhouse, Hovev, J. Solvey, T. Mahemoff, M. Wassner, Dr. M. Ferstanding, R. Cohen, H. Kessler, T. Freilich and A. Kessler.