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November 15, 2002/Kislev 10 5763, Vol. 55, No. 12
A letter from the Promised LandWorld War II veteran writes homeBUD RUBIN
Thurs. Dec. 18, 1942 Somewhere in Egypt Dear Mother and Dad: I'm writing tonight to try and tell you all about my leave to Palestine. I had the most wonderful time I ever had in my life. I'll try my best to relate my experiences to you. We didn't have much time there, but the little time we did have was the most wonderful I ever did experience. We left here Sunday and went by truck to Cairo, Egypt. There we took the train. I don't think I ever told you about these trains out here. Well, they are terrible. You can travel in three classes. First class you travel in glassed-in compartments with fairly comfortable seats made of leather, four to a compartment. Second class in which we traveled has eight to a compartment. The seats are made of straw, like the street car seats back home, very uncomfortable for long trips. There are no reclining seats like we have back home. Third class in my estimation is no different than our cattle cars. So here we were, 40 Americans soldiers on leave to Palestine, traveling eight in a compartment in a second-class coach. We rode through the Nile Valley for some time and then went eastward toward the Holy Land. It was really a rugged night. We couldn't get much sleep sitting up all night and crowded as we were. Some of us managed to get a little sleep here and there, but it didn't amount to much. During the night we were so darn tired and uncomfortable that we were actually sorry we ever went on the trip. But the next morning upon arriving into the Promised Land and seeing green grass, trees, etc., we immediately changed our minds. It was a sight for sore eyes, especially since we just came from the deserts of Egypt. We saw orange groves after orange groves. It was such a beautiful sight that we all forgot about being sleepy. We also saw many Arabs. They look very much like our Egyptians here but seem a little cleaner and look very mean. Our train arrived in Lydda, Palestine, the next a.m. From here we went by bus to Jerusalem, Palestine. We met out guides, two of them, both Jewish. The bus trip from Lydda to Jerusalem was very picturesque. The route took us through the Hills of Judea. It was as beautiful as any country I have ever seen. The most wonderful sight my eyes ever beheld was the moment we entered Jerusalem, Palestine. The sight I beheld made me realize that the Jewish race still exists. Everything was in Hebrew or Yiddish, signs on stores, names of streets, ads in the buses. Why, even cigarettes were in Hebrew, not only the packages but the cigarettes also. We checked into a hotel, which was very modern and owned by Jewish people. It was clean and very neat. They put four of us in a room. I met the man who owned the hotel and was in charge of these conducted tours. His name was Mr. Rubin. He was certainly surprised to find that I was Jewish and that my name was also Rubin. The remainder of the tour he couldn't do enough for me. He actually treated me like his son, looking after me all the time. After we were settled at the hotel, we went into the dining room and had breakfast. Mother and Dad, we had pasteurized milk. Yes, the real thing. It was the first milk I've had since leaving the States. I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed it. While we were eating breakfast a very nice girl came in. She was dressed so much like our American girls that naturally we all looked up at her. Here I was minding my own business when Mr. Rubin brings this girl to where I was sitting and introduced me to her. I stood up naturally and was a little embarrassed with 40 soldiers looking up and sneering. She was a New York girl and has been living in Tel Aviv since 1936. All the boys wanted to know why I was introduced. After all, there were 40 of us in the party. We all left the hotel then and boarded buses for the start of our tour. We went along a very nice road going uphill all the time. On the way, we passed the Tomb of Rachel. We arrived to the highest point in Jerusalem, which was on the top of the Mount of Olives. It is 2,500 feet above sea level. On top of the Mount of Olives was a small church. It was believed that Christ ascended to heaven at this point. The view from here was very beautiful. We could see the old and new city of Jerusalem. We also had group pictures taken at this point. I sent them home this afternoon. We took quite a few snapshots ourselves. When they are developed I'll also send them home. From the Mount of Olives we went to the spot where Christ was crucified. Then we went to Bethlehem. On the way there we passed the new hospital which was built from funds given by American Jews. I don't think anyone back home realizes how much the people here appreciate the donations they get from the States. They are really building up Palestine. In Bethlehem we went to the Church of the Nativity, which was erected on the spot where the barn once stood that saw the birth of Christ. From here we went to the caves of Solomon. From these caves Solomon gathered stones to build his temple and the walls that surround the old city of Jerusalem. We had to use candlelight to go through the caves. The stones look like lime, and it was very interesting. From here we went to the Church of all Nations. Thus ended our morning tour. We went back to our hotel for dinner. We had a typical Jewish meal. Chicken soup, roast chicken and even chopped liver. It was delicious. All the people there got a laugh out of my Yiddish. They all wanted me to speak. Every time someone would come in they would ask me to say something in Yiddish for them. They told me that it was very seldom that they meet an American, and more seldom do they meet one that is Jewish. I stood on the corner of the hotel after dinner and just watched the people go by. It thrilled me to no extent. There are many men and also boys wearing long twisted sideburns such as I have seen in pictures many times. The native tongue here is Hebrew. It is spoken on the streets, in the stores, etc. I got quite a kick greeting the different Jewish people as they walked by, naturally greeting them with "sholom alechem." One old Jewish man about 90 years old that I greeted stopped to ask me if I was an American. I told him yes. He asked me if I knew his son who was in New York. When I told him that I was from Chicago and didn't know his son, he seemed very surprised and thought that I should know him. I got quite a kick out of him. Naturally we spoke Yiddish. He also thought it terrible that I couldn't converse with him in Hebrew. But with the little Yiddish I know I got along swell everywhere I went. I just felt like I was one of them and just felt like I belonged there. It's a wonderful feeling to know we have a country of our own. In the afternoon we resumed our travels. We all got into our buses and headed down through the mountains of Palestine. We rode quite a way down through these green covered hills and finally entered Jericho. I believe there are more orange groves here than anywhere in the world. These oranges are as big as any grapefruits I have ever seen and sweet as sugar. Another remarkable thing about them was the price. They charged us 10 mils or one piastre Egyptian money (4 cents our money) for six of them. Naturally, we all bought all we could carry to take back with us, and let me tell you, we really bought a lot of them. After leaving Jericho we went to the River Jordan and then went further on to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea was much larger than I had ever imagined it was. At parts it was just as wide as the Mississippi River. So ended our first day's tour of the Holy Land. We went back to the hotel for our supper, and a wonderful supper it was. Immediately after supper, they told us that they had a surprise for us, and boy what a surprise it was. All 40 of us were invited to the home of Max Steinhardt, the world-famous painter. He has paintings all over the world. I remember seeing him and some of his paintings reprinted in Life Magazine some time ago. He is a German Jew and came to Palestine when Hitler came to power. He's a wonderful man. I spoke to him for some time. They invited about 30 girls from Jerusalem to the party to dance with us. They had a screen set up in the house, and the first thing on the program was a talkie of Palestine. It was a wonderful movie showing what the Jews have done in the last 10 years. I don't think any of us from America actually realize what these people have done. They are pushing back the desert and making a green country in its place. There are many cooperative farms in Palestine. Most of the Jewish people on these farms have migrated from the Axis hold and have started them, making it pay. They do not work for individual profits but put it into a fund for everyone's benefit, working together, eating together and pooling their crops. It's really wonderful. I didn't see any of these farms, for we didn't have time, but I can surely realize what they are doing. After all, it's not easy to start life anew after leaving a country in which you have lived all of your life. It means readjusting your whole life. After the movie, we danced with the lovely girls, and it was just swell. You know, being an American out there means a lot, but also being a Jew, they couldn't do enough for me. Boy, my Yiddish sure improved that night. Many of them came from Germany, so naturally they had very interesting stories to tell. In the meantime they served coffee and sorts of cakes. Gosh, they treated us swell. After awhile all the Jewish girls there danced a Jewish folk dance for us, and let me tell you, it was really rugged. They were all worn out after the dance. I don't remember ever seeing anything like it. It consisted of two circles, one circle went one way and the other went the opposite way. It's hard to explain but it tired me out just watching them. The evening ended with us boys singing "God Bless America." Immediately following, the people sang their Jewish anthem. The melody was familiar to me, but the words stumped me. I sure wish I knew the words, so I could have sung it with them. And so ended our first day. We went back to our hotel for a good night's rest in a soft clean bed. It had a spring mattress and clean sheets. What comfort. The next morning immediately after breakfast we went by foot to the Old City of Jerusalem. We had to enter through the Jaffa Gate, which has long been standing. All along the old streets were little stands with stores having open fronts. They were owned by Arabs, Jews and some Greeks. What surprised me was the cleanliness of these shops. They weren't dirty and didn't have flies around the food like here in Egypt. We went to the oldest synagogue in Jerusalem, called the Constantinople Synagogue. It was very, very old but it was in the same style inside as many of our synagogues of today. I also saw the Torah, which was centuries old, and the Wailing Wall. Then we went to the Mosque of Omar. It was very beautiful inside, with its gold dome and stained glass windows. I also saw a miniature reproduction of the mosque made of Mother of Pearl. The miniature was at the Chicago World's Fair, and I very well remember seeing it there. The Mosque of Omar was erected on the sight where Solomon's Temple once stood. And at this very same spot was where Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Issac, when an angel stopped him. The rock where the Jews made their sacrifices is still there. There is a big hole in the rock where the blood would flow down into a small cave underneath it. We went into this cave. Then we went to the Prison of Christ. It was here where Christ was held prisoner before his crucifixion. They still have the rock that held him. It has two large holes for his feet to fit in. We also went to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It is where Christ's Tomb is and also over the site where he was crucified. They had caged in a statue of the Virgin Mary, which was loaded with all sorts of jewels given by people all over the world for many years. The jewels are valued at 3,000,000 pounds or $12,000,000 of our money. We then went back to the hotel for our lunch. Again we had roast chicken. After lunch we had a few hours before train time, so I walked around the city. It's very modern, this new city of Jerusalem. I bought you a nice little prayer book and more gifts. I am completely broke now, but the trip was well worth it. There was something I always wanted to do and that was travel. I always wanted to see the different people and their customs, and boy I am really seeing it. I really hated to leave more than I can begin to tell you. They all treated us so wonderful, and it actually hurt me inside to leave them. They came to the station with us and off we went back to this desert where I now am writing this letter. So ended another chapter in the life of your son. I hope the next chapter will find me home with you again. This letter took me two days to write so I hope you find it interesting. Your loving son, Buddy Rubin moved to the Valley 22 years ago from Chicago. He has three children, 54-year-old Martin Rubin and 52-year-old Iris Fox, both living in the Valley; and 49-year-old Neal Rubin, of Berkeley, Calif. He also has six grandchildren. Rubin's wife, Rosalyn, died 10 years ago. |
