July 21, 1957 Sunday morning
9:15 AM Israel Time 2:15 AM US time
The flight to Israel and surprising Elaine
My father, Bob Jacobs always talks about that special first trip to Israel sponsored by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). He would finally see the land of the Jewish People. He also looked forward to surprising his girlfriend Elaine, who arrived in Israel three weeks earlier on a Young Hadassah youth group tour.
“July 21, 1957 Sunday morning 9:15 AM Israel Time 2:15 AM US time“
I don’t know of anyone else who dated a letter showing both the US time and the Israel time.
“I had a most wonderful & enjoyable trip. The ride was smooth and swift. The service was excellent with the most delicious meals I’ve ever eaten in my life.”
I have eaten EL AL’s food many times, and while it may be very good compared to other airline food, I find it hard to believe that it was the best food he ate in his entire life. It certainly isn’t better than my grandmother’s home cooking… (On a separate note, my grandpa William Jacobs was also a great cook.) Apparently, my father was so enthralled with El Al, that it even affected his taste buds.
We landed first in Gander Newfoundland, London, Paris, Athens and finally Israel at Midnight Saturday.”
There were no direct flights to Israel from New York in July 1957. The flight with the stopovers was 28 hours.
The first direct flights from NY to Israel were in December 1961. (The flight took 9 hours 35 minutes which was a world record. The flight from NY to Tel Aviv is the same 9 hours 35 minute in 2019 as it was in 1957.)
It is amazing how someone could only have good things to say after flying for more than 27 hours with multiple stopovers.
“The Israeli customs agents were nice and we were finished in about ½ hour, just as a TWA plane was about to land.”
TWA was one of the other US airlines that flew to Israel from the United States in 1957. Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline that existed from 1930 until it stopped operating in 2001.
“In Lydda I was met at the airport and we went by taxi to Jerusalem…”
Bob arrived at Lod airport which was also known as “Lydda” since it was located on the outskirts of the Israeli town, Lydda. In 1948, Lydda changed it’s name to Lod but many people still referred to it as “Lydda”. In January 1974 Lod Airport became “Ben Gurion Airport”, after Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion passed away.
“On the way I conversed with the driver in Hebrew. My ability to speak Hebrew made me proud”
Bob had learned Hebrew in Yeshiva of Flatbush as a child in Brooklyn. He was one of the few kids on tour who was proficient in Hebrew, which proved to be a big advantage to him while in Israel. His girlfriend and future wife Elaine, also had a background in Hebrew from her junior high school days earning a “certificate of excellence in Hebrew”.
“I and everyone else was amazed at my knowledge of the country and the battles that were fought along the Jerusalem Corridor. “
The Jerusalem Corridor was an area between Jerusalem toward Tel Aviv where some of the largest battles in the War of Independence took place.
“It seems Elaine recognized someone from the ZOA group…”
The ZOA (Zionist Organization of America) plays a special part in my father’s life because it is where he met his wife Elaine. In 1951, at the age of sixteen, he was already volunteering for ZOA.
In 1955, he attended a meeting at the ZOA chapter in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn which was hosted by the President of the chapter, Isidore Mirwis. This particular ZOA meeting proved special, because my father met his future wife, Elaine, the daughter of Isidore Mirwis who was 16 years old at the time. My father recalls his thoughts: “She was drawing posters on the floor and serving drinks, and I knew I had to meet her”. It was love at first sight, and shortly after their encounter, they began dating.
Two years later in 1957, Elaine’s parents decided to send their daughter on a six-week summer trip to Israel sponsored by the Hadassah Organization on their Young Hadassah tour. My dad, who had never been to Israel before, decided it would be a great time to go. He would finally get to see Israel and would get the chance to surprise Elaine.
“We arrived (in Jerusalem) at 2:30 am. Guess who I met? Right, Elaine”
Bob arrived in Jerusalem at 2:30 AM to try to surprise Elaine who was staying with the girls’ Young Hadassah group at the David Yellin School in Beit Hakerem, Jerusalem.
According to my father, the guard tried to stop him from going inside. My father answered that “the only way to stop me is to shoot me.” The guard obviously did not want to shoot my dad, so he let him into the girls’ dorm.
My dad found one of the girls. Her name was Doris and she woke up Elaine.
Elaine woke up and was surprised to see Bob. They started to talk. They stayed up all night and walked down Jaffa Road. They have taken many walks since and Elaine eventually became my mom.
“This morning at 5:30 I ‘davened’ and went for a walk in Jerusalem”
The letter states that my father davened at 5:30 AM. (“daven” is the Jewish word for pray) My dad always tried to daven (pray) first thing in the morning with “kavanah” (the proper intention and feeling). For him, it was more important to say less with the proper kavanah than to say more without the proper kavanah.
“No hot meals were served on Shabbas”
In 1957 EL AL flew on Shabbas. It was not until 1982 when Prime Minister Menachem Begin passed a cabinet resolution preventing El Al from flying on Shabbat.
My father mailed many of his letters and received most of his letter from the ZOA House in Tel Aviv . For many years the ZOA House in Tel-Aviv served as an anchor for overseas youth groups and an activist center for Zionist youth groups in Israel. During 1957 alone, 330 cultural functions took place at the ZOA House! Events like these inspired and educated young Jews to become more active as Israel advocates and to assume leadership roles in American Jewish life. Unfortunately, the ZOA house in Tel Aviv was closed in 2003.
With emergence of “progressive” Jewish organizations such as the New Israel Fund, a ZOA renewed presence in Israel is vital. The NIF enjoys a strong and effective presence in Israel which keeps them engaged in the dynamics of Israeli society. This ongoing
presence keeps them in constant contact with key Israeli activists and politicians, it keeps them in daily contact with the target populations they are influencing and even catapults them to positions of power within the Israeli political spectrum. Worst of all, their on-the-ground presence in Israel enables them to recruit “new blood” to their cause.
This is a major reason why the ZOA needs an active and permanent branch in Israel: to counter the “progressives” and present a proud Zionist alternative.
