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In this week’s part of the Chapter of Mattot in the book of Numbers/Bamidbar, the Israelites are planning to cross the Jordan River to fight for the land of Israel. The tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of Menashe – let’s call them the 2 ½ tribes - wanted to remain on the east side of the Jordan River for their economic benefit, because the land was particularly suitable for their cattle grazing.

The 2½ tribes approached Moshe to discuss this plan.  Moshe (Moses) was not amused – he was furious with them, thinking they were abandoning the other tribes.  But they made a deal with Moshe; the men who were fit to fight would leave their women and children and the other men and their cattle behind in fortified towns east of the Jordan.  And the fighting men would “speedily advance” before the other Israelite soldiers as “shock troops”- what we know today as commandos or special forces - to fight with the other tribes in their conquest of the other side of the Jordan.  They would not return to their towns until the land was secured.

This story of the 2 ½ tribes and the concept of the “speedily advancing shock troops” or special forces reminds me of the Palmach – Palmach is a Hebrew acronym for Plugot Machatz, which translates to spearhead platoons, or in modern terms, commandos or special forces of the Haganah, which became the Israel Defence Force.  

And, when I think of those who stood side by side with the Israelites and then went back to their homes “across the Jordan”, I also think of over 200 volunteers who came from North America to be the crews on rescue ships , as part of the Aliyah Bet.  The Aliyah Bet was a clandestine movement that brought Jews from Europe to Palestine by sea from 1934 to 1948 when the State of Israel was proclaimed, and for a short time after.

These North American volunteers took action, gave months and even years of their lives to help man these 11 North American bought ships alongside Haganah officers, from 1945 to 1948.  Money was raised in North America quietly but effectively, to buy ships after World War II ended, when the numbers of refugees from Europe grew.   A bit of training was provided.  And away these volunteers went, to work on these ships, with no pay, no fanfare, no fringe benefits.

In all, more than 32,000 immigrants travelled on these 11 Aliyah Bet boats that were manned by American and Canadian sailors.  That represents almost 50 % of the total number of refugees who sailed from Europe to Palestine from 1945 to 1948.

The most well known of these boats for many of us is the “Exodus”, which was made famous by Leon Uris.  We can weave the parallel stories here – a boat that brought refugees from the Holocaust was named in memory of another time, when the Israelites escaped Egypt and made their way to the land of Israel. (and here we are back at Parashat Mattot.)

One of the books written about Aliyah Bet is entitled The Jews’ Secret Fleet by Murray Greenfield.  The book focuses on 10 of the 11 boats that were manned by North American volunteers.  Today I want to focus on one sailor, named Moishe Katz, from Montreal, and his time “speedily advancing” as a member of Aliyah Bet and the Palmach.

Moishe Katz arrived in Montreal at the age of 12, in the summer of 1939.  He and his parents and sisters came from Kovel, which at the time was part of Poland.  The rest of his family that remained in Kovel perished in the Holocaust, except for one uncle. 

Moishe’s father died in 1941.  A couple of years later, Moishe  worked for a while at Hamilton Steel.

In 1945, when he was 18 years old, he and a group of his buddies, mostly from the Habonim youth group, met with emissaries from the Haganah. They were sworn to secrecy, and they signed up to join the “Jews’ secret fleet”.  They were seeking adventure and to do good - to help those who survived the Holocaust, to bring them to Palestine.  Moishe was assigned to a boat that would try to run the British blockade, to bring refugees safely from Italy to Palestine.

Moishe was a Canadian citizen and at the time that meant he was also a British subject.  If he were to be caught by the British while trying to challenge their rule over Palestine, that could mean being charged with treason.  So, Moishe Katz became Menachem Kaplansky, complete with papers identifying him as a Jewish immigrant from Italy.

Those who ran the Aliyah Bet missions had to find larger boats to transport the growing numbers of refugees after the war, and the boats had to be fast enough to stand a chance at running the British blockade.  Two Corvette ships were bought from the Royal Canadian Navy.  These warships could travel at 20-knot speeds (which was considered pretty fast).  One was called the Beauharnois - it was eventually renamed the Wedgwood.  Menachem joined the soon-to-be Wedgwood crew at Staten Island in January 1946.  They tried to recondition the ship as best as they could, starting with removing all of its weapons.  Menachem was an engineer and a fireman and a boiler room man, and probably had a few other jobs too, all in the engine room.  He had experience working at Hamilton Steel, at the ripe old age of 17, so he was an expert…

The soon-to-be Wedgwood and Menachem set sail to Europe during Passover of 1946.  It broke down at sea a week into its voyage.  The sea was rough and cold.  Not good. 

Menachem and the others in the engine room managed to get enough life into the ship in order to shlepp it to the Azores.  They worked on that clunker for two weeks until it was fit to sail.  They eventually got it to Savona, Italy, where the ship was fitted with bunks and provisioned with food.  Then it picked up 1,250 refugees from 14 countries, mostly at a stretch of beach near Savona.  It was all very cloak and dagger.  There were lots of near misses with the British army and navy in the vicinity, and other government officials who were not at all pleased to see these Aliyah Bet vessels in their vicinity.

In a displaced persons camp near Savona, Menachem found his one surviving uncle who had not left Europe in time before the war.  His uncle Chayim Katz was not in great shape.  Menachem helped him get his papers and be on his way to the United States.  There were many such stories at that time – some of us think of them as miracles.

Back to the Wedgwood – it snuck out of Savona early in the morning on June 19, after a very close call with the not so friendly Italian police.  The Wedgwood was spotted by British destroyers at sea. When it entered the three-mile limit near Haifa on June 26, 1946, the British ships closed in.  A banner was hoisted from the mast of the ship. It read: “We survived Hitler.  Death is no stranger to us.  Nothing can keep us from our Jewish homeland.  The blood is on your head if you fire on this un-armed ship”.

Two warning shots were fired by the British, but nobody was injured. The ship was boarded by the British.  Menachem and the crew mingled with the refugees to avoid being identified by the British.  Once the ship was brought into Haifa harbour on June 26, the ship’s officers from the Hagana were spirited away by local Hagana agents disguised as dock workers.  The refugees, along with the North American volunteer crew that mingled with them, were brought by the British to the Atlit detention camp south of Haifa.  Nobody knows why the British did not take an interest in ferreting out the crew. A few days after the Wedgwood crew and refugees were detained; the British then moved them out to a field next to the camp. They had to make room at Atlit for the Jewish leaders who were arrested on June 29, 1946 as part of what has become known as Black Sabbath.  The Wedgwood detainees were left alone and within a short time they disbursed.  Menachem was gone before the British got too interested in him.

Menachem then spent a couple of years based at Kibbutz Kfar Blum in the north of Israel, as a member of the Palmach.   He underwent training, including with a marine commando-type unit (Palmach – Yam – the naval “shock troops”).

He wrote numerous letters describing his experiences.  Several of those letters were written to Helen Pedovitch, a girl from Montreal who he liked, or loved – not quite sure - it depends who you asked. He invited her to come join him in Israel. She passed. But she kept writing to him. And he kept writing to her.

There were lots of amusing and also very human moments documented in Menachem’s letters.

Menachem got very sick for some time while stationed at Klar Blum. He had a slow but steady recovery, which was aided by a local nurse, who was very taken with him, and maybe he was a bit taken with her too. But in the end, he kept writing to Helen.

In 1948, Menachem joined one of the last Aliya Bet ships, called the S.S. Mala. The Mala had started its life as a United States Presidential Yacht named the Mayflower, which was used by presidents Theodore Roosevelt through Herbert Hoover.  Needless to say it was overhauled considerably before it picked up 1,200 immigrants in a secret location near Marseilles France.  It arrived at Haifa on July 11 1948.  Menachem remained on that boat, sailing until October 1948 on various missions.  He changed his identity back to Moishe Katz after the state of Israel was proclaimed.  The boat SS Mala was later renamed the “Calanit”. Menachem/Moishe remained on the Mala/Calanit when it became part of the fledgling Israeli navy.

The regimented Israeli navy was not Sergeant Moishe’s cup of tea. He left.

On December 26 1948, he left Israel and hitched a ride as a crew member aboard the “Negba” from Haifa on its way to Marseilles, where it was to pick up more immigrants to Israel from France and Morocco.  

Moishe returned to Montreal in January 1949 around his 22^nd birthday.  He had packed a whole lot of fighting and experience into the past three years, and he was ready to return to his home, to his side of the Jordan.  And yes, he married his girl and his pen pal Helen Pedovitch. Their wedding was on June 26, 1949 - exactly three years after the Wedgwood docked in Haifa.

Moishe intended to return to Israel with Helen.  Life got in the way, and they remained in Montreal, and raised a family.  But his experiences from 1946 through 1949 left an indelible mark on him. In 1972 Moishe and Helen made aliya with their son, and settled in Haifa – he had to be near the sea.  His daughter had come to Israel the year before, and was studying in Jerusalem.

During the Yom Kippur War, Moishe was too old to serve with the soldiers, but he was not prepared to stay back with the women and children and older men. He volunteered, again, this time to “shlepp pekelach” – he delivered “care packages”  to soldiers from their families, including baked goods, gefilte fish and socks and who knows what else – in his car, to the soldiers at the northern  front. 

Moishe died in 1981, and he is buried overlooking the sea.

In case you have not already guessed, Moishe Katz aka Menachem Kaplansky, was my father. I am very proud.   Shabbat shalom.                                                   

Judy Katz Howard is a longtime member of Congregation Darchei Noam. She delivered this D'var Torah on July 19, 2014.