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Happy Fathers Day!
On Fathers Day I think about the Weinreb men. This story is about my grandfather David Weinreb in the first picture with my Grandmother Sara. She was a heck of a strong woman…a story for another post. My Grandfather was in the Hagganah, the grassroots Jewish army, serving in the medical division.
In 1947, British soldiers entered their Tel Aviv home looking for weapons. My Father (as a little boy in the second picture below) recalls a soldier putting him on his shoulders and asking “little boy, does your Daddy have guns”. Before he could answer, my Grandfather stepped in, and said “No.”
The other soldier suddenly paused on the third picture below and said “you have a picture of our prime minister” (this was actually a picture of my great grandfather Solomon Weinreb who died in the Holocaust…and had a striking resemblance to the UK’s prime minister Clement Attlee in the fourth picture below). My Grandfather, quick on his feet, said “of course, he is our leader”.
The soldier apologized to my Grandfather and Grandmother and immediately left. While Attlee wasn’t particularly friendly to Israel, the ironic resemblance protected my family.
A twist of fate that stuck in my Fathers head all these years. I recently asked my Father, “were there guns?” And this time, without my Grandfather there to answer, he said “I don’t know” with a shrug of his shoulders.
On Fathers Day I think about the Weinreb men. This story is about my grandfather David Weinreb in the first picture with my Grandmother Sara. She was a heck of a strong woman…a story for another post. My Grandfather was in the Hagganah, the grassroots Jewish army, serving in the medical division.
In 1947, British soldiers entered their Tel Aviv home looking for weapons. My Father (as a little boy in the second picture below) recalls a soldier putting him on his shoulders and asking “little boy, does your Daddy have guns”. Before he could answer, my Grandfather stepped in, and said “No.”
The other soldier suddenly paused on the third picture below and said “you have a picture of our prime minister” (this was actually a picture of my great grandfather Solomon Weinreb who died in the Holocaust…and had a striking resemblance to the UK’s prime minister Clement Attlee in the fourth picture below). My Grandfather, quick on his feet, said “of course, he is our leader”.
The soldier apologized to my Grandfather and Grandmother and immediately left. While Attlee wasn’t particularly friendly to Israel, the ironic resemblance protected my family.
A twist of fate that stuck in my Fathers head all these years. I recently asked my Father, “were there guns?” And this time, without my Grandfather there to answer, he said “I don’t know” with a shrug of his shoulders.
