From Hawaii to Haganah

As we started climbing the four-lane highway (14 meters wide) toward Jerusalem, . . . [a hitch-hiking soldier named David] explained to us when we asked about the rusty war equipment lying randomly on either side of the highway that the IDF deliberately left these as monuments to their War of Independence in 1948. I then commented upon my special knowledge of that war and touched upon the role that my father had in providing some equipment for those fighting without it. “Was your father involved with Al Schwimmer?” Imagine my astonishment that here, 26 years later, a young stranger should know this kind of detail. He explained: “I am a born Israeli, but my parents moved back with my sister and me to Switzerland. They still live there, but I have returned to live in Israel. When I was a boy in Switzerland my parents were friendly with Mr. Eisenstadt who was a friend of Schwimmer and Hank Greenspun. From them we learned of the war-surplus purchased by your father after World War II and how some of it ended up in Israel. So after the Korean War, Eisenstadt did the same thing. So again Israel had equipment from a former United States arsenal during the Suez crisis. I guess he learned from your father!”

“Mr. Eisenstadt”— also known as Paritz “Fritz” Eshet (1915-1967) — was a key advisor to Ben-Gurion in 1948 and “father” of the Israeli Artillery Branch.

Thus, through the later contributions of Schwimmer and Eshet to Israel’s defense, Nathan Liff’s gift, via Hawaii to Haganah, continued to resonate.

*Harold Brackman, a consultant to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, lives in San Diego. An historian, he has written extensively about the history of antisemitism and racism.

Giveon Cornfield served in the RAF in World War II, in the underground Haganah, and in the Israel Defense Forces during the 1948 War. A contributing editor to the IHC (Israel Hasbara Committee), he has written extensively on the Arab-Israel conflict. He lives with his wife (a former volunteer paramedic with Magen David Adom and member of the Irgun) in Honolulu.