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Rebuilding their lives
The fiery national pride and desire for a homeland that marked those early victories in the War of Independence only grew as the young country did.
Establishing Israel was a struggle. While Europe was rebuilding from damage done in World War II, Israel was a start-from-scratch Postwar immigrants dug boulders from their fields by hand. They lived without running water or electricity in tents, lean-tos, shanties, mud huts or caves. Most lived four or five families together, with one kitchen. In the summer, they suffered heat and malaria; in the winter, there was mud up to their knees. Ruth Or has lived in Israel since she was 5, when she and her mother came to join her father. Ruth and Asher now live in a newish suburb on the other side of a wide greenbelt from Jerusalem. Their house has much symbolism. There's a sun etched into the concrete driveway, conjuring up the meaning of their name: Or -- light. A silhouette on the iron front gate is a likeness of Deborah, a judge in Bible times. Ruth and Asher both are judges in Jerusalem. He hears cases against government employees. She presides over a district court for serious criminal cases and is the first woman judge at her level in Israel since Deborah held court under a palm tree to resolve disputes among the ancient Israelites, more than 3,000 years ago. A portrait of Ruth and Asher hangs in a den off the living room. They are tanned Israeli youths in sand-colored desert shirts, sleeves rolled halfway up their biceps, staring resolutely out to the left of the picture frame. The future really would be theirs, they seem to be saying; we'll make it so. But in the years after the War of Independence, continuous hostilities with the Arabs and an astronomical growth rate made life hard for everyone. "You must take into consideration that in 1947 there were 600,000 Jews in Israel," Ruth Or said. "When the British left and the gates were opened, another 600,000 came from Europe, Morocco and Iraq. That meant 100 percent growth in a very short time in a very small space. New settlements like mushrooms came out of the Earth." Housing was inadequate. The Arabs cut the water pipeline supplying Jerusalem; the burgeoning population had to depend on wells for a dwindling supply. Everything was rationed. Customers registered with shopkeepers, who took orders for their needs. The government then requisitioned just enough goods for those on the lists. Eric Weiss left Israel soon after the independence war. His sister, Frances, had left to join their parents in Portland a couple of years before. Weiss had not seen his mother and father in 12 years, since they had fled Hitler in opposite directions. So in 1950, he emigrated once more, this time to America. The following year, he sent for Gerda. They were married in Portland and honeymooned in Seattle. |
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