It all
began in March 2008. While researching a radio article for Front Page Jerusalem I stumbled upon the MACHAL. Now that was interesting!
Reading
about those special people who helped fight the War of Independence, a seed was planted for a new novel. I printed out a flyer
of a book titled: “Letters from Jerusalem
1947-1948”, written by a Zipporah Porath and filed it together with all the other material I gleaned. It would have
to wait till later, because I first needed to finish writing/editing the biblical/historical novel that I was working on at
that time.
As I seriously began to think about the new novel, I realized that I needed
a back story before I could use the Machalniks. Thus, I needed to go back in time and ended up in 1938 Amsterdam. Knowing that I had to cover the whole WWII and its aftermath, by
the time my heroine would get to then British Mandate Palestine, the novel would end up being a trilogy!
I loved
the challenge and embarked on the WWII research, which gave me a lot of new insights about pre-war life for the Dutch and
Jewish people and the hell of the German occupation. As I had to stick reading books about the time period I was researching,
Zipporah’s book wasn’t relevant, being set in the 1947-1948 period. However, I knew I would order it when the
time came.
In 2009, several articles (taken from Zipporah Porath’s book) appeared
in the Jerusalem Post. When I wrote another radio article about Machal, I came across the book’s flyer, and felt
prompted to order the book. NOW. Not wait till later.
The rest is history, for I wrote to the e-mail address mentioned
on the flyer, told Zipporah why I was so interested in the book and Machal, and we’ve been corresponding ever since.
After Wim and I read the book we just knew this was a story that had to be brought to a wider
public. It was an eye-witness account of a unique time in history – the Birth of the State of Israel.
During
that crucial time in 1947 and 1948, Zippy didn’t run back to the safety of America, but stayed and helped fight for the survival of the State .
When a formal truce finally
brought some stability in Israel, Zippy returned
to the United States in order to wind up her
affairs. However, instead of returning to Israel
as planned, she was asked to work for the Israel Foreign Office. It was there that she met her husband Joseph. They returned
to Israel in 1952 and settled in Zahalah,
where their two sons were born. Joseph was a civil engineer who helped build Savyon, where the family eventually moved to.
Zippy and her family had to live through Israel’s many wars ~ the Sinai Campaign in 1956; the Six Day war in 1967; the Yom Kippur war of
1973 and the 1982 war in Lebanon.
One of the reasons Zippy’s book Letters From Jerusalem 1947-1948 is of utmost
importance is because today’s youth forgets what price was paid in order for the Jewish State to be born.
Now aged
86, Zippy still feels she belongs here ~ Israel
is her home.
She is as committed to the country as she was when she realized what was at stake and willingly
put her life on the line. “We count just by being here… Then, as now, I know why I am here,” she ends the
book.
I believe that God wanted us to meet Zippy. I found in her a kindred spirit, loved her wonderful
sense of humor and very soon a precious friendship developed. Not only that, we felt privileged to serve this special woman
in practical ways. We tried to find new outlets for her book, and created brochures to bring her story to a wider public.
As of writing, the two letters have been translated into Dutch, and we are working to get more translations in
print. Lovingly, Zippy calls Wim her “PR manager” and I dubbed myself her “personal secretary”.
Even though the Jerusalem letters were written before and during the War of Independence, much of its content is still relevant today.
Write
to us if you’d like to receive the brochure of the “Two letters”, to get a taste of the book.
Better
still: order the book ~ you won’t regret it!
