A summary of American Jewish support to the creation of the state of Israel in 1947

1. Small but Mighty Support to the Jewish State
Rich Goldenberg
Jewish War Veterans of the USA

2.  MACHAL is an acronym for Hebrew, Mitnadvei Chutz
L’Aretz, ‫לארץ‬ ‫חוץ‬ ‫,מתנדבי‬ “Volunteers from Overseas”
 Some 4,400 men and women from more than 56
different countries volunteered for the Israeli armed
forces during the War of Independence. About 1,000 of
these came from the United States and Canada
 A drop in the bucket compared to 20,000 European
immigrants who went right into the IDF
 The difference? Many were WWII veterans with skills
needed for military success
 The emergence of modern “American Zionism”

3.  "The participation of ... men and women of other nations in
our struggle cannot be measured only in terms of additional
manpower, but as an expression of the solidarity of the
Jewish people."
-- David Ben-Gurion
 “We headed south until we saw the Egyptian forces from
above. There were thousands of troops, tanks and hundreds
of trucks. We flew lower, dropped the bombs, and started
shooting at anything we could spot. The Egyptians should
have shot at us, but they were stunned. They didn’t even
know Israel had an air force. The Arabs had everything, we
had nothing. And we still won. When I'm asked how we did
it, I say, we just didn't have a choice. That was our secret
weapon.”
-- Lou Lenart, Machal pilot

4.  The Road to War in Palestine
 Jewish Political Lobbying
 Jewish Fundraising
 Jewish Arms Purchases
 Jewish Fighters in the IDF

5.  UN votes for partition in Nov 1947 – Resolution 181
 British to evacuate from the mandate in May 148
 Jews and Arabs offered “partial” lands
 Jerusalem would stay under international (UN) control
 Palestinian Arabs reject the arrangement completely
 Both sides prepare for war
 United States sought middle ground and encouraged
negotiations between Arabs and Jews
 US worried about balance of power between Soviets and
American influence in Middle East

6.  Israeli military forces
were still forming
 Determined, but
unprepared for full-scale
war
 Haganah, Irgun, LEHI
and local militia forces
had no organized
command structure,
logistics, armor, artillery
or aviation

7.  Ben Gurion looks for
help finding senior
American or other
military advisors for the
fledgling defense forces
 Finding no other
candidates, New Yorker
and WWII veteran
Mickey Marcus takes on
the role himself in 1948
under the assumed name
Stone

10.  Human Rights or Jewish Votes?
 Yom Kippur, 1946, Truman approves the transfer of
100,000 Jewish refugees to Palestine without consulting
London
 1948 Presidential Politics in play?
 Abraham Feinberg, a major Democratic Party
fundraiser and Zionist close to Ben-Gurion, to whom
Truman was indebted, provided influence and counsel
 At a crucial point in the 1948 presidential race against
New York governor Thomas Dewey, Feinberg raised
$100,000 in two days for Truman.

11.  Eddie Jacobson, a reform Jew from Missouri helps
shape presidential decisions on Israel

12.  “The Jews are so emotional, and the Arabs are so
difficult to talk with that it is almost impossible to get
anything done. The British have, of course, been
exceedingly uncooperative. .. The Zionists, of course,
have expected a big stick approach on our part, and
naturally have been disappointed when we can't do
that.”
-- President Harry Truman,
February 1948

13.  Federation fundraising the dominant program
 In the last few years of the 1940s, the United Jewish
Appeal raised more than half a billion dollars
 Its 1947 drive was called the Year of Survival, 1948 was
the Year of Destiny, and 1949 a Year of Deliverance
 The $150 million donated by American Jews in 1948 –
when the state of Israel was founded – was four times
the total raised by the American Red Cross that year

15.  In February of 1948, Golda Meyerson (later Meir), acting
head of the Jewish Agency, was sent to the U.S. to try to
raise $25 million to equip the Jewish armed forces.
 In a speech that she remembered as "unscheduled,
unrehearsed ... and unannounced" at the General Assembly
of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds in Chicago on
January 21, 1948 Meir spoke so compellingly that she raised
twice the requested amount.
 Meyerson raised $400,000 in one day (the equivalent of
some $4 million today) on just one stop in Montreal.
 In the weeks following independence, she started a drive in
the United States and Canada for $75 million more (or
about $750 million in 2018 dollars).

17.  A 1946 memorandum by Loy Henderson, then director of
the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs, was openly
critical of U.S. policy in Palestine, said U.S. policy reflected
a bias toward "people of Jewish blood"
 Secretary of State George C. Marshall firmly opposed
American recognition of the new Jewish state
 The United States maintained an arms embargo against all
belligerents in 1948
 Looking to strike a balance between Jews and Arabs
 British and French interests in many Arab nations
 French ties in Syria
 British ties to Egypt and Jordan
 British officer Glubb Pasha, commands Arab Legion

18.  Vastly outnumbered,
outgunned and
undersupplied, Israel
mobilizes a nation for its
fight for survival in May
1948
 Marcus continues to help
build the one key
element of Israeli war
preparations – the senior
staff

24.  The network purchased explosives, munitions, fighter
airplanes, bombers and other materiel from the War
Assets Administration
 Most of the arms and equipment smuggled out of the
US made its way to Israel camouflaged as innocent
civilian cargo in commercial vessels

25. • James and Dr. Edith Levin Ross
emigrated from Russia in 1925,
and settled in Youngstown, Ohio
in 1930. That year James founded
Ross Radio Company, a
distributor of radios, televisions,
and related components. In 1947,
Ross Radio was a depot for
weapons collected from World
War II veterans by local members
of the Young Zionists of America.
• These guns and ammunition were
packed in crates marked "radio
parts" and shipped to New York,
where they were cleaned,
matched, re-crated, and
smuggled into the Holy Land.

26.  Al Schwimmer, Father of the Israeli Air Force

27.  Charlie Winters, the “Godfather” of Israeli Air Force

32.  By the end of the War of Independence, home-grown
Israeli pilots had been trained, and the Americans and
Aussies, British and Canadians and South Africans
could shake hands and take their leave with honor

33. Above: Jordanian shelling of Jerusalem
Left: Machalnik Paul Shulman
Right: U.S. Naval officer Harold Shugar,
first a law student at Hebrew University,
then Haganah volunteer and mortar crew
leader and finally gunnery officer on
Israel’s first combat warship, the Eilat, a
former Coast Guard icebreaker

34.  Jordanian
forces threaten
to isolate
Jerusalem and
prevent Israeli
supplies
reaching the
old quarter
 Armored
convoys unable
to pass by
Latrun

37. “In addition to his rich
military and
administrative
experience, Marcus was
blessed with a winning
personality, radiating
warmth, authority and
trustworthiness.”
-- Yitzhak Levy, Head of
Haganah Intelligence

38.  Marcus leads the
Jerusalem Front,
commanding the first
Jewish division of troops
with the rank of general
since Judas Maccabeus,
2,100 years before.
 If supplies can not pass in
front of Latrun, he
proposes to go around on
a biblical trail kilometers
away

48. Israel, in contrast to the Holocaust, presented American
Jews a vision of Jewish destiny rife with hope and
possibility. It offered them a positive opportunity to
reimagine and reshape the Jewish present and Jewish
future. American Jews explored this opportunity not
only in the spheres of political action and philanthropy,
as has been well documented, but in the realm of
culture. In the early postwar decades, Israel became
essential to the creation of that culture. In bringing Zion
home, American Jews attempted to secure a place for
themselves in the American landscape.
-- Emily Katz, Bringing Zion Home: Israel in American Jewish Culture,
1948-1967

49.  “Having been overseas, I know the blessings of living in the
United States. I have had the privilege of being present at the
birth of the State of Israel, a prophesy of the bible fulfilled in our
lifetime.
 “I have participated in two wars, World War II and the War for
Israel’s Independence. I have been bombed, shelled, machine-
gunned and strafed. My mortar exploded on one occasion when I
was not present, killing the entire gun crew. My position was
destroyed by a car bomb.
 “I have had a loving wife, two wonderful sons who have beautiful
families, and three handsome grandsons. I consider myself a
most fortunate person and count my blessings.”
-- Harold Shugar, Jewish War Veteran of the USA, IDF Machal