The SS Artza arriving in Israel with Jewish refugees 1957
August 25, 1957 Sunday 1:00 pm
Dear Mom, Dad and Alan,
I just came back to the Hotel Carmelia after a morning tour of the Port of Haifa.
One of the most interesting things I have seen since being in Israel is a refugee being unloaded & the people cared for. The S.S. Artza landed & with some more of the escapees from behind the Iron Curtain pulled in right in front of me.
The excited and screaming faces are something I will never forget as they looked down into the Promised Land. The greatest was when a refugee recognized a long lost relation in the crowd below; the screams that you heard. The pitiful sight of the cartons crammed with all their earthly belongings, of little children not knowing what is going on. But the best was as they came down the gangplank & embraced loved ones that many hadn’t seen in tens of years. I even felt like crying for joy with them.
We then went on a motor launch & saw the whole of the port including many Israeli warships.
Have to close now since they are calling me for lunch.
Love,
Bob
August 25, 1957 Sunday 1:00 pm
The description my father gave of the refugees on the SS Artza is self-explanatory. Many more Jews have made aliyah to Israel since the SS Artza. I hope that we have many more Jews coming to Israel in the future from all four corners of the earth.
“We then went on a motor launch & saw the whole of the port including many Israeli warships.”
I don’t know where Israel obtained these warships but I doubt that they were supplied by the United States. To my knowledge, the US did not supply Israel with any weapons until 1963.
“I just came back to the Hotel Carmelia after a morning tour of the Port of Haifa.“
The Carmella hotel which was built in 1913, was 44 years old when my dad visited. In 2017 it was renovated and is now a boutique hotel.
