Special to the JTA the Odyssey of a Young Boy

Hanoch Howard Moher is only 15 years old, but he packed a lifetime into an odyssey that took him from his parents’ home in Manchester, England to Israel. His odyssey is the stuff of novels and motion pictures, a tale of a Jewish youth who decided that his place is in Israel and once having made that decision, took the 300 Pounds Sterling he had received for his bar mitzvah and started the long route to the Jewish homeland.

His story emerged at a Jewish Agency’s new immigrants hostel near Haifa where he was sent after leaving the ship on which he was a stowaway. He was quite willing to tell his story and he told it with zest. How did he manage this feat, especially since he had no passport? Peering through his large-rimmed eye-glasses and shifting the rucksack on his back, Moher unfolded the following tale:

When he left his family of seven in Manchester, he went to London, obtained a special Europe-valid document and crossed the English Channel to France. There he got hold of a map of Europe and ascertained that with his special document he could travel as far as Turkey, the nearest country to Israel, without running into any problems. Arriving in Turkey by plane, Hanoch decided that the next, shortest step to Israel would be through Syria.

Asked if he wasn’t afraid to travel through Syria, in view of the hostile relations between that country and Israel, he replied that he was not afraid of the Syrians. “After all,” he observed, “I am a British subject.” Fortunately for him, however, he never got to Syria, having failed for three days to hitch a car ride that would take him across the Turkish-Syrian border. He had to find an altemate route to Israel. The only other route available to him was by sea.

STOWS AWAY ON FREIGHTER

Hanoch’s next move was to go to a Turkish port where he found a freighter that was bound for Haifa. He tried to be open and above-board about it and asked the ship’s captain to allow him to board the vessel. The captain refused. Time was beginning to run out, for two reasons: he couldn’t find kosher food, the only kind he eats, and he was beginning to suffer from hunger pangs since his diet consisted only of some bread now and then; in addition, it was almost Shabbat and he wanted to be in Israel before Shabbat began.

When night fell, Hanoch went back to the freighter. There were no guards and captain in sight. He boarded the ship, lowered himself into the hold and hid away among crates and barrels. When the ship arrived in Haifa last Friday, he emerged, disembarked and presented himself to Israeli authorities.

It took the authorities several hours to arrange things for him and he asked them to hurry up as Shabbat was quickly approaching. About an hour before the beginning of Shabbat, immigration officials arrived at the scene and took him to the Jewish Agency’s immigrant hostel at Bat Galim. Hanoch had barely enough time to change his clothes and wash up for what was to be his first Shabbat meal in Israel, and a kosher meal at that.

He knew he would be allowed to remain in Israel. “I am a Jew and there is the Law of Return,” Hanoch said, smiling. He has been issued a temporary one-month permit–until his papers arrive and his parents give their consent for him to stay in Israel. He is determined to remain here.