The Whispered Message

A story for ages 10-14 about Independence Day and the founding of Israel

"Can you tell me an old family story?" Ruthie shifted from one foot to the other as she asked Safta-Rabba Chana. "My magazine had a story about a girl who learned all kinds of things from her grandparents' stories." She bit her lip. She had never asked her great-grandmother a question. In fact, she was kind of afraid of her. Safta-Rabba Chana was so old that her hands were bony and had stick-out blue veins. The hands were ugly and looked like they hurt. But worse, the veins looked like they might pop open and bleed. And sometimes the old lady would fall asleep while listening to someone. When that happened, Ruthie was always afraid she was going to die.

Until just before Passover, a few weeks ago her parents, she and her little brother had lived in the United States. All the rest of the family--on Abba's side as well as Imma's--lived in Israel. Now that Ruthie and her family lived in Israel too, she was getting to know all of them. For the first time, she was curious about them. This very old woman could probably help her learn.

Safta-Rabba Chana smiled. "I could tell you many old family stories," she said. "But I will tell you one. What holiday are we celebrating this week?"

Ruthie grinned. She knew that! "Independence Day, Yom Ha-Atz-ma-ut"

"That's right," said Safta-Rabba Chana. "A few years ago I went with your Uncle Danny and his family to a festival at the town's pavilion. Just outside the pavilion were stands selling noisemakers, cotton candy, and other snacks.

"Like most festivals, the music was very loud. It needed to be--lots of children were running all around eating snacks and chasing each other. I was listening to the songs and watching the children.

Photo courtesy of the city of Haifa, taken at a recent festival

“Suddenly someone whispered in my ear. I gasped and grabbed my chest. I knew that voice! But the last time I'd heard it was more than 50 years ago, just before I left for the airport to make aliyah—to move from the USA to Israel.

"It was my grandmother, my father's mother. Of course she wasn't really there, but her voice was clearer than the telephone. She said, 'Look at this: the music, the crowds, the children running around having such a good time. All we wanted to do was save the children, and look at this place now.'

"I could hardly breathe," said Safta-Rabba Chana. "I knew what she was talking about. That last day, the last time I spoke to her, we really talked. I asked her to tell me stories, the way you are asking me. And one of the stories was about the beginning of the Hadassah organization.

"Today the Hadassah organization does many things. But when it started, it had one focus: saving lives in this land. Today the Hadassah Hospital is one of the largest in the Middle East. It treats people from all over the world. All religions, all races. There are Muslim doctors, men and women. Christian doctors. All kinds of doctors and all kinds of patients. And your great-great-great grandmother was one of the earliest supporters.

"This was more than 110 years ago. The land was called Palestine then. This was the name the Romans gave to Judea when they conquered the land, destroyed the Second Temple, and took most of the Jews as slaves to Rome.

"This land in 1912 was ruled by Turkey. Back then they were called Ottomans. They had ruled the country since the 1500s, but they didn't do much except ruin the land. They were the worst kinds of colonial rulers: they took whatever would make their country rich and left the land in terrible condition.

"They cut down most of the trees and used the wood to build railroads and to run the railroads. Back then, trains burned wood to create steam. This made the energy to move the trains.

“Without tree roots holding the dirt, the rains eroded the steep mountains in the north. The dirt ran down the mountains along with branches, leaves and other junk. It all blocked up the rivers. This flooded the flat land, creating swamps. And what critter loves swamps?"

Ruthie scrunched her forehead. "Bugs?" she guessed.

"Yes! Mosquitoes. And these mosquitoes carried a terrible disease called malaria," said Safta-Rabba Chana. It killed many people. There were other diseases, too. One, trachoma, caused people to become blind.

"The land was not a good place to live. It was a hard place to farm. Farming land had become swamps, and the mountains are too steep and rocky for farming. They're even too steep for raising most animals. Most of the Muslims, who had invaded about 1300 years earlier, returned to their homeland of Saudi Arabia or went to Syria or Egypt. But tucked in quiet corners of the land there were still Jewish villages. Their residents had always lived there. Most of them stayed because it was their homeland, even though they were very, very poor.

"In the late 1800s, many Russian and Ukrainian Jews moved in. They left their homes because of pogroms, massacres of the Jews. They decided to drain the swamps so they would have farmland again. But many of them got sick with malaria and died. Others became blind from trachoma. Babies and children especially were sick and dying.

"American Jewish women who were living much more comfortable lives wanted to help. Your great-great-great-grandmother was one of those people. She joined a brand-new women's club called Hadassah. She and the other members worked hard to raise money to help.

"First, Hadassah sent two nurses. Soon they sent more nurses. For the first time there was real health care. But the nurses didn't just provide health care. They also provided health education. As people got healthier, they began to do business. Many Muslims came from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and other Muslim countries because now the health was better than in their home countries. Business was better, too. The land became a much better place to live.

"That day at the concert, I knew my grandma's spirit was whispering to me. She was very, very glad to see happy, healthy children eating snacks and running around in the sun while the parents relaxed on blankets on the grass, listening to Hebrew songs. The women in her organization had spent countless hours raising money to save children living in terrible conditions. And now, in little more than 100 years, Israel had become a vibrant place full of happy Jewish life."

Ruthie was silent. She tipped her head to the side and bit her lower lip. "Some of the girls in my new school have bragged about how long their families have been in Israel. They said I will never be as Israeli as they are." She straightened up and sat tall. "Now I can tell them that one reason we have a good life here is because of my great-great-great-grandmother's hard work."

"That's right," said Safta-Rabba Chana. "You are a newcomer, but you have long, strong roots here. Never forget that all Jews have long roots here, whether they live here or still live in galut, in one of the countries where we have lived for the long, long time since the Romans took us out of our land. This land belongs to all of us. It was given to us ages ago. Our ancestors are the only residents of this land who have ever ruled it. Everyone else--the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottoman Turks and a few others--have all be invaders. They came for what they could take, not to make their lives here, not to make this a good place to live. Only we have done that, because it is our homeland.

"Israel is ours, now and forever," Safta-Rabba Chana finished. "Thank you for asking me. It's good to remember. Now, though, I need a little rest. I know many other true stories to tell you, so ask me another time."

---

For Parents, Teachers and Others

The history of Israel is being rewritten these days by the true colonialists: the Muslims. Within 50 years of Mohammad in the mid-600s, Islam had taken over lands from Saudi Arabia, where it began, to the Atlantic Ocean. They accomplished this by slaughtering everyone who did not convert. For the true history, read Jewish sources or books and articles written before 1960.

Independence Day in Israel follows immediately after the second of the country’s two memorial days. The first is a week prior: Yom HaShoah v’Gvurah, the day we remember the Holocaust, both the victims and the heroes. This second Memorial Day is to remember the soldiers and victims of terror—those who died here in this land because they were Jews.

I always attend religious services at a synagogue that was built more than 100 years ago on a site that has been a synagogue since the time of the Second Temple. The caretaker is Margalit, a woman in her 90’s whose family has always lived in that community, Pikiin. The cave of Bar Kochba is in this town. These days, the town’s population are mostly Druze.

This year, tomorrow (on Yom HaAtzma’ut itself) I will be going with friends on a hike around the ruin of the Montfort fortress, a Crusader fort, not far from here. Afterwards we will have a cookout. This is a fairly typical way of celebrating. This year, fireworks are prohibited. Most of us do not want to hear or see fireworks; we had enough of the true “bombs bursting in air” during the worst of this war.

Bibliography

Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question, Ottoman Rule, 1516-1917, https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/31097/i-ottoman-rule

Emerson PM, Bailey RL. Trachoma and fly control. Community Eye Health. 1999;12(32):57. PMID: 17492008; PMCID: PMC1706026.

Anthonj, C., Rechenburg A., et al, Contracting Infectious Diseases in Sub-Saharan African Wetlands: A question of use? A review. October 2017, International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health.