About 85 Americans, who were among the some 200 Americans who helped bring in 90,000 Jews to Palestine after World War II, held a 30th reunion here this week. A simultaneous reunion was held in Israel.
Murray S. Greenfield, a former New Yorker who came here from Israel for the reunion, said many of these former sailors had not seen each other since they were interned by the British in Cyprus. The ex-sailors who had served aboard such ships as the “Exodus,” “Hatikvah” and “Haim Arlozoroff” spoke for the first time openly of their internment and of British naval attacks on the ships in open waters. Some 50 of the former naval underground runners now live in Israel while many of those in the United States have children who settled in Israel.
The ex-sailors have decided to tape their memoirs and hopefully publish a book on the period. The British Navy and Foreign Office are now releasing records of that time. The book will be dedicated to six Americans who died during that period, one of whom was killed on a ship and the other five who died in Israel’s War of Independence. The meeting here was held under the auspices of the American Veterans of Israel.
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