Warm memories of "Babylon" Hospitality

By Greer Fay Cashman

The Internet Jerusalem Post,

September 5, 2001

From the editor:

It is an old article, but worth reading. Great thanks to Lucyna Artymiuk, who often sends us interesting articles from Australia.

By the waters of Babylon, they sat and wept for Poland as they prayed to get to Zion.

This was the flavor of a large gathering yesterday at Beit Hanassi, where the bulk of the participants were octogenarians. It was not a meeting of geriatrics, but a reunion of Polish war veterans and Jewish refugees who had come with General Anders Army via Iran and Iraq to Eretz Israel, as well as some of the hospitable Iranian and Iraqi Jews who had given them food, shelter and a clandestine route to their destination.

Former prime minister Menachem Begin was a soldier in Anders Army, as were celebrated shopping mall developer David Azrieli and veteran Jerusalem Post archivist Alexander Zvielli.

Arye Reich, who served in Anders Army from 1942-43 and won a medal for valor for service in Italy, arrived in his old Polish army jacket replete with medals and ribbons.

One speaker after another, including Rabbi Pinchas Rosengarten, who had been a chaplain with Anders Army, rose to say how meaningful it had been to him or her to experience the warmth and generosity of the Jews of Babylon.

They spoke of how they had been taken into people's homes, and of the efforts made during Pessah to ensure that they were provided with matzot and wine. This was no small effort, as there were more than 4,500 Jews in Anders Army, plus a large number of Jewish refugees who came in rags and tatters.

When the Nazis invaded Poland, many fled to the Soviet Union, where they were arrested and put in prison or labor camps. After Hitler invaded Russia, many of the Jews received amnesty, and rushed to join Anders.

Zvielli firmly believes that were it not for Anders and Begin, there might not be a State of Israel.

President Moshe Katsav said how amazing it was that Jews separated for so many generations with nothing in common other than the order of their prayers could come together in a sense of mutual responsibility. Yesterday's meeting was particularly symbolic against the backdrop of Durban, he said, where "a conference against racism became a conference of racists."