Grapevine October 6, 2021: The American component in Aliyah Bet

• Author: GREER FAY CASHMAN
• Published date: 05 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The man in question was Murray Greenfield, and the occasion was in celebration of his 95th birthday – a factor that in itself, said Herzog, was a milestone, but seeing Greenfield surrounded by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren was a privilege.

Addressing Greenfield directly, Herzog said: "Murray you were at the beginning of what became the State of Israel. When you made aliyah in 1947, you could not imagine what Israel has become today. You are a trailblazer – a modern-day hero, a great Zionist and a lover of Israel. Your love of Israel is an inspiration to us all."

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Anyone who knows him can testify that Greenfield is a great raconteur. His family members have been hearing his stories all their lives and, according to his son Ilan, did not know whether to believe them, until they encountered some of the people involved in those stories and learned "that they were all true."

New York-born Murray Greenfield, the fourth of five brothers, never set out to be a Zionist. It was an accident of fate. After graduating high school, he signed up with the US Merchant Marine and, during the Second World War, served on several tankers.

Whenever he was home, he went to synagogue on Saturdays – mainly for the kiddush. On one such occasion, he met someone who told him that they were looking for people like him. He was given a phone number. He made the call and arranged to meet the person at the other end of the line for coffee at Horn & Hardart.

He was told that his mission would be to sail to different ports to pick up people who were Holocaust survivors and take them to what was then Palestine. He was warned that the ship would not be flying an American flag, that the mission was dangerous, and that he might go to prison. When he asked about pay, he was told that there was no pay. It was a voluntary job.

Young, curious and adventurous, his only worry was how to tell his mother that he was not going to college. When he plucked up the courage to tell her, she was taken aback, but when he explained that it was to help the Jewish people, she raised no objections, even though he did not specify the nature of that help.

The ship, which was really a rust bucket and in no condition to be sailing, was renamed Hatikva. Greenfield was unaware at the time that it was one of 10 ships manned by American volunteers who brought thousands of Holocaust survivors to the Land of Israel.

The Hatikva carried close to 1,500 passengers, one of whom was Auschwitz survivor Michael Goldman-Gilad, who has a riveting story of his own. As Gilad climbed the rope ladder to get on board the ship, Greenfield reached down to help him up and in a strong American accent said: "Shalom haver." They've been friends ever since, and Gilad was present at the tribute last Friday, and also appeared in an excellent documentary made by Yoni Glicksberg, who is married to Orianne, the youngest daughter of Murray's daughter, Meira.

Also present and in the film was Israel's Mr. Basketball, Tal Brody, who in an even broader American accent in 1977, following Maccabi Tel Aviv's victory over CSKA Moscow, declared "We are on the map, and we'll stay on the map." In the film Greenfield tells him that he was speaking a universal language when he said "We're on the map."

To anyone who may have wondered why the president chose to grace the Greenfield event, it is because the two families have been friends for many years.

When Greenfield decided to research American involvement in Aliyah Bet, he not only discovered that there had been 10 ships with American crews, but that this was a piece of unknown history.

Never backward in coming forward, Greenfield explained to the people sitting in the auditorium that he had been angry that this important aspect of history had been ignored, and had taken his beef to Chaim Herzog, who was subsequently the recipient of the first copy of The Jews'...