CHAPTER 17 - Contact Re Established, Strong Women and Sara Chooses her Path

Sara Makes her Choice

What is history but a version of the truth? All but the most neutral or the least truthful, claim the narrative of one or other side, nailing their colours to the mast of their chosen fiction. The Aronsons chose the flag of red, white and blue, emblazoned with a cross. And so for the purposes of this narrative must we.

British Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Cairo, 1915

The role of the British military force stationed in Egypt was ostensibly to protect the Suez Canal, the vital sea route via the Mediterranean linking the colonies in the East and Europe. At the time of our story, the British force in the region expanded into a transnational, offensive force under London’s command - the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. In order to keep the Ottomans and their allies away from the Suez, and to exert increasing pressure on the Turks, preventing them from diverting their soldiers to fight in other arenas of the war, London made the decision to carve up the globe. The Scramble for Africa, a mere precursor to the unseemly rush for the Middle East, that dismembered ‘plum pudding’ divided earlier between Napoleon and Sir William Pitt, now carved into bite-sized spheres of influence and hegemony, enabling the British to advance north towards the Land of Israel - then still Ottoman Palestine.

Turkish Troops Massing en route to the Canal

British Intelligence is receiving reports from their Bedouin spies - the Bedouins prided themselves on their tracking ability, not being owned by anyone and were quite amoral, prepared to work for either side, depending on who was prepared to pay them enough for their efforts. The British are made aware that the Central Powers are already moving their troops to mass near the Canal. The Suez Canal Defences, are in readiness. Among them, Advanced Ordnance, various  battalions, one troop of Imperial Service Cavalry, a half company from the Bikaner Camel Corps, a half company of Indian infantry - the 31st Indian Brigade, the 27th Punjabis, the 93rd Burma Infantry, an Egyptian section of battle-ready camels and other battle-ready, young innocents of all complexions and national identities; cannon fodder waiting in the wings.

For all this they require reliable, on the ground, up to date and impartial information - and what better couriers than the Jews of Nili? It is Lieutenant Woolley who paves the way for the renewed contact. Raphael Aboulafia is tasked with finding a suitable courier, a fellow Jew who had also fought in the Zion Mule Corps, and who was also recovering from injuries sustained in Gallipoli, in the same Cairo hospital, where Raphael had convalesced. The man’s name is Rabin, though no one knew his first name.  

****

Night. The rocky shore at Atlit. A man, clambers up the uneven slope, slipping and sliding between rough grass and loose stones, crawling on hands and knees towards the station.

Turkish Field Artillery Advancing towards the Suez Canal

His careful progress is abruptly halted when he sees the main highway that runs between Atlit and Haifa. It is filled with a constant stream of Turkish military ordinance moving southwards and Rabin is forced to spend an uneasy night hidden in the bushes.

The troop transports are indeed, reinforcements heading to Suez in readiness for their second attack on the Canal.

Dawn. The fields outside the Station. Rabin sees the ship that had brought him, flashing its lights in readiness for departure - the bright light of day would give them away - and Rabin knows they will not wait for him if he is late. Will he be stranded? In a panic, he looks about unsure what to do next. Where to leave his letter, communicating British intent to restart operations?

We hear Goliath barking from the courtyard. The distraught man fears going any further. In his dilemma, he notices a plough in the field. Hurriedly, he deposits the letter, in the cross-bar of the plough, not knowing - or at this stage, caring - whether it will ever be found.

He makes his escape, leaping and bounding back down to the shore, scraped and scratched, just managing to reach the ship before it goes.

Midday: The sun burns down, a pair of hands - one of Aron’s Arab workers about to use that plough, finds the letter and brings it to the Station.

                                              ****                                  

Aron, Leo & Sara - Contact Re established

Aron anxiously walking up and down in his office. Sara at his side, as the door opens and Leo rushes in and hands Aron the letter, left on the plough.

    “A dead letter drop, just like in a Dostoyevsky novel!” says that very literate and romantic, agent Owl.

Aron who finds this an inappropriate moment for Russian literature and remembers Dostoyevsky, only as a bore, tears open the letter and quickly reads the note:

We hear the voice of the writer of that message and passenger on the fast departing ship, Lieutenant Woolley:

    “In three weeks we’ll be back to re establish contact according to the new instructions. White for yes, red for no. Have your men ready - ”

Sara interjects: “And your women too.”

Aron hugs her tightly in his relief: “You’re right as usual.”

Sara smiles. It is this message that she prays will return her love to her and cement her activities in the spy cell.

But Leo is reading the instructions again: “New moon, white sheet, danger - red sheet. We can hang them from the tower balcony.”

****

The guesthouse in Istanbul’s Jewish Quarter. Absa paces around his less than salubrious room like a caged bear with a sore head. He has a cold. Hand-rolled cigarettes litter the ashtray. He has already wasted a whole month on what he considers to be useless activity. Despite the many orders signed and the many hours spent in those dusty archives with those many officials, nothing was actually implemented. He sought desperately to get back to the real work, but this needed another permit and this was a snail-paced process, like everything in that dying, geriatric, byzantine empire.

Finally he is given a permit for Romania which had never been his intention but he hoped he could get back to Palestine from there. He is packed and ready to go when a small girl, his landlady’s adorable daughter - who reminds him of his niece and nephews, Yardena, Moshe and Yedidyah - knocks at the door and gives him a telegram.

Avshalom rips it open.

We hear Aron’s voice over: “Come home immediately. Contact re established.”

Absa picks up the little girl and hugs her with joy and relief, giving her a sixpence for the good news, a few piastres in Turkish money.

Now all he needs is a new permit to return home. This, as one might expect, takes another nail-biting amount of time. Queuing at offices, at which he had so recently queued, imploring dead-pan clerks and implacable officials, to reverse Romania and insert Palestine back on the relevant form, and finally after the usual delays and clerical mistakes, receiving the required documentation.

****

Aron at his desk at Atlit. The door opens. Avshalom stands there like a sailor home from the sea, a warrior back from war - Sara stares at him in disbelief.

Aron asks brusquely: “What took you so long? Maybe you liked Istanbul too much!?”

Avshalom replies in likewise, masculine jokey vein: “Thought I’d be more useful here.”

Men, then, as now, finding it difficult to directly express their deep emotion for other men. Unless, of course, if they prefer the love of other men, which is definitely not the case with Absa.

He comes towards Sara and they hug each other joyfully: “Locust man, at your service, ma’am!”

Sara & Absa at Atlit

He picks her up and swings her round and round and Sara, who is not much given to exterior exclamations of joy, finds herself laughing and crying all at once, through unbidden tears.

****

Sara at the Window

A hot night. Bright moonlight shines through the window. 

Sara at the window regards sleeping Avshalom. She slips out of her night dress, dropping it to the floor. Naked, she climbs back into bed with him. Her sleepy lover is quickly aroused.

Sara who does not often encourage intimacy, particularly of a physical kind, lays herself bare for her sweetheart, stripping herself of both convention and clothing.

    “Love can transcend everything,” he says, after that private act of revelation.
    
    “Yes, my love. Even death.”

The Moon Waxes & Wanes

Through the window, the moon waxes and wanes in a time-lapse more familiar to film parlance, but indicating that three weeks has passed. 

****

The coast at Atlit. A moonless night. Aron and Avshalom wait on the shore on the appointed date.  

No ship. Nothing - an empty sea.

It is not possible for any of them to know that Lieutenant Woolley will not be returning any time soon and the intricate link from him to the British in Cairo is broken. Truth to tell, the British had never full trusted Aron or Avshalom as Allied agents and Lieutenant Wooley was the only one who could vouch for them. Woolley had been persuaded by his superiors to take a break that summer and leave Cairo on another spy ship, the Zaida for a little vacation. The Zaida, however, hit a German mine in the Gulf of Alezandretta and sank in less than a minute. Thankfully, Wooley and a few others managed to get off the ship and clinging to wreckage were picked up by a passing Turkish vessel. Lieutenant Woolley was taken prisoner and would see out the rest of the war from the confines of a prisoner of war camp in imprisoned at Kastamonu in Turkey. Thus the only man who could confirm the arrangements for contact between Cairo and the Jewish spy network in Palestine was, so to say, missing in action. Aron and Absa, of course have no knowledge of this catastrophe.

 ****

Absa at the Station with Locusts

Aron at the window of the research station office, blames himself: “I should never have brought you back!”

Avshalom shakes his head: “It’s not your fault. Something must have happened. I’m going to find out - ”

Aron is adamant: “It’s too dangerous. I forbid it.”

Avshalom responds: “What are we going to do? Just wait?”

Aron: “Yes. And now the locusts are back again I need you here.”

    **** 

The road outside Zikhron Ya’akov. Aron and Avshalom with Abu Farrid, in the station truck. A swarm of locusts smashes stickily against the windscreen. Aron gets out of the truck cursing as the scene fades to red.

Arab Workers Spraying the Locusts with Poison

With their Arab workers they try every means at their disposal. Spraying and thrashing the undergrowth with branches, digging trenches filled with poisoned water and driving the locusts into the ditches with huge nets.

Digging Trenches filled with Poisoned Water

In the nearby village of Tantura, men sit arms folded, fatalistically watching their crops destroyed by the locusts. Aron on horseback, looks on in disbelief at their resignation. Abu Farrid, lifts his hands in a shrug.

    “God’s Army” - They say it’s no use fighting them, Mr.  Aron.”

****

The Research Station, Atlit. A line of bright fire burns as a ditch of kerosene ignites around a field.

Aron, Avshalom, Leo, Abu Farrid in the khaki uniform of the ‘Locust Brigade’ stand at the pick-up.

Turkish Locust Patrol Brigade

A Turkish Locust Patrol Brigade rides up - to requisition Aron’s truck. Aron argues. How can he do his work without the truck? Abu Farrid tries to intervene arguing too, in Arabic. The soldiers knock him out the way and drive off with the truck laughing and waving.

Abu Farrid, his jaw bleeding, is helped up by Aron.

Avshalom waves his fist at the departing truck: “Bastards!”

Aron has only one thing to say: “We need the bloody British!”

****

Arab workers and Abu Farrid, pile a few bags of grain into the horse drawn Station carriage. The fields and trees are stripped bare. Aron and Avshalom stand grimly watching, but Aron has made his mind up:

    “We’ll starve if we don’t get help soon. I must go now - Not to Egypt, but to London.”

Avshalom is flabbergasted: “To London!? How’re you going to cross to the British - to London - without the story getting to the Turks?”

Aron has already prepared his plan: “First, I’ll go to Berlin on locust business, then to Copenhagen which is still open, then I’ll stowaway on a British ship!”

Avshalom shakes his head: “Even for a pig-headed  know-it-all like you, that’s a tall order! You’re an Ottoman subject, they’ll arrest you straight away!”

    “Precisely - ” says Aron. “His Majesty’s navy will hand me over to the relevant authorities in Whitehall. I’ll be in the War Office before you can count to three! Meanwhile you will take my place here.”

**** 

Rachel & Purple Slipper Orchid

Rachel arrives at work at the Station, carrying another purple orchid in a pot, and finds Avshalom blocking her way. She asks where Aron is? And is told that he is ‘away’. When she asks where? Absa is evasive - and rude:

    “Business. Secret business. I can’t talk about it and he’s instructed me to run the station from now on. And you’re not to come here any more.”

    “You mean I’m dismissed?”, Rachel says in quiet disbelief.   

    “There’s no money for anything, let alone for running about the countryside looking for flowers!”

And so Rachel’s work there came to a bitter end and Avshalom threw her and her orchids out. 

She wrote about how he treated her: ‘The man who Sarah often described as chivalrous and benevolent seemed hostile and narrow-minded. It was clear that all he wanted was for me to disappear.’

Rachel was deeply hurt and never set foot in Atlit again. It was only once the spy ring was discovered that she understood the reasons for Avshalom’s behaviour, and indeed she would in later years, thank Absa for sending her away, saying that it actually saved her life. For if she had been caught up with the spy ring in Atlit, she too might have been arrested, tortured or killed.

There was only to be one more meeting between Rachel and Sara when for one last time Sara came to visit her and Rachel wrote in her journal: ‘I would not forget our final conversation for the rest of my life. Sara was surprised to see a book by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov on my desk, which I had borrowed from Aron’s wonderful library and hadn’t yet managed to read. I told Sara about a legend to do with Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and Sara asked me, “What do Hasidic legends have to do with nature research?” I responded that Rabbi Nachman, like the other great Hasidim, must have loved nature and understood the secrets of creation, and as far as I was concerned, there was a connection between Hasidism and the nature of our land. Afterwards, we spoke about suggesting to the newly formed Hebrew Language Committee that the title geveret - ‘missus’, which seemed to us both to have derogatory connotations, be replaced with the word ‘adona’ for a married woman and ‘adonit’ for an unmarried girl - feminine versions of the masculine Hebrew term for ‘master’. That was the last time we spoke.’

Two women, ahead of their times, sharing a strong belief in women’s rights and dignity, one woman doomed to a bloody death, one to rise to become a President’s wife and to live a long and renowned life.                       

 ****

Of feminism and the suffrage, Sara knew little and cared less. She was never held back by being a woman and had no time for the more outlandish antics of Britain’s suffragettes such as falling in front of horses, breaking shop windows, bombing and arson or blocking civic traffic, though she admired Emmeline Pankhurst. A little irony, that a year after Sara’s passing, the right to vote - though only for property owning ladies over the age thirty - came into force in Britain.

Pioneer Women Farmers

Pioneer Couple Working Together

There were, of course, many women who worked as hard as men in the settlements, kibbutzim and various political dispensations of the time, some as farmers, some as wives and mothers, others as proponents of various Zionist movements, such as Hovevei Zion and Bilu.

When the World Zionist Organisation was founded by Theodor Herzl in Basel, Switzerland, women were permitted to attend, not as delegates but as wives and Herzl specified that women did not have the right to vote. By the Third World Zionist Congress, women’s suffrage was recognised as a fundamental principle and right.

However in Zikhron Ya’akov, women were categorically denied suffrage in the town assembly where ‘traditional values’ prevailed.

Despite this world view, Avshalom’s family the Feinbergs, Belkinds and Hankins, have plenty of women active in the area of female rights.

Absa's Aunt, Dr. Olga Hankin-Belkind - Midwife

Absa's Aunt, Dr. Sonia Hankin-Belkind - Gynaecologist

Drs. Olga Hankin and Alexandra 'Sonia' Belkind, are Absa’s aunts. Olga is midwife to Jews and Arabs. Sonia is one of the earliest gynaecologists in the land, and works in the Jewish hospital in Jaffa and whose patients were in the main, Moslems whose tradition would not permit their examination by male doctors,

The Hadassah International Research Institute provides an excellent working paper which serves to elucidate women’s issues in pre-State Israel. 

Manya Shochat - Socialist & Radical

Some of those mentioned will be familiar to us, including Manya Wilbushevitz-Shochat, proud member of HaShomer, Zionist, socialist, radical and revolutionary, who will become known as the ‘Mother of the Israeli Collective’, she creates the first prototype of kibbutz, a gender-balanced community where women work in the field with men - and wear trousers, not dresses. 

Absa's Sisters, Shoshana ‘Shoshi’ Feinberg & Tsila Shoham-Feinberg

Avshalom’s sisters who we have also met, Shoshana ‘Shoshi’ Wilbush-Feinberg - fervent Zionist and intellectual, who will marry Manya’s brother, Nahum Wilbushevitz, and Tsila who cuts her hair short and favours manly clothing, and who is an active WIZO volunteer her entire life, establishing the department for women’s rights and running agricultural schools for many years. 

And Rachel Yanait who we have, of course, met, and who took an active part in left wing political life was one of those progressive women. In 1908 when Manya Shochat visited Rachel in Jerusalem, she suggested stealing money to purchase arms! Manya was one of the founders of HaShomer, as we have heard, despite it being primarily a male organisation and Rachel, as we have read, joined too.

 Sara Malkin middle row left with Fellow Pioneer Women

Another fearless Pioneer, Sara Malkin, describes the dilemma she faced upon arrival in Palestine: while in her Zionist youth group, she had fought as an equal, alongside men, for the right to make Aliyah. However, on her arrival, the equality quickly vanished: the men went to work in the fields while the girls earned their livelihood in sewing, housework and what was called, mysteriously, ‘services’. This Sara overcame the problem of gaining her choice of employment, by on occasion, dressing as a man.

Ada Maimon - Zionist & Histradut Member

Ada Maimon, promoter of the working women’s movement in Palestine, occupied a prominent position in the labour movement - the Histadrut - and at the Zionist Congresses. She was active on the Executive of World WIZO and in the struggle for women’s rights. Some consider her, the strongest feminist voice in Zionist history. But despite their many successes, both Ada Maimon, and Sarah Malkin would write many letters to the editor of the Hapoel Hatzair newspaper, revealing their deep disappointment in the limited opportunities for women.

There were of course, a number of other professional women in Palestine: botanists, nurses, doctors, social workers, educationalists, artists, poets, activists and others, who, though almost entirely excluded from Yishuv historiography, worked in the public sphere in the creating of a new identity for Hebrew women. 

And every woman in the Yishuv wanted to be a part of that new identity. Zikhron itself, like so many other towns and villages had its women's committees and federations. Everyone wanted to better themselves and get an education - these meetings were usually held after work, in the evenings, whether in agriculture, sheep shearing, plumbing or carpentry. One of these women was Frida Lulu, housekeeper at the Atlit Agricultural Station.

Women's Federation Lesson in Shearing with second from left Frida Lulu

But above all, there were doctors, graduates of medical schools in Poland, Switzerland, France and Edinburgh, mostly born in Russia - where medical places were denied them - and who worked with devotion and determination in the new colony. Educated, independent women, who believed in the future of medicine in the Yishuv, they remained largely anonymous, their medical and social involvement ignored in the literature. The Ottoman authorities denied them medical licences, but they continued, undaunted to work against malaria, and for better sanitation, more clinics and to counteract the general shortage of medical practitioners. 

Dr. Helena Kagan, Israel's First Female Paediatrician

Among them, Dr. Helena Kagan, Israel's first paediatrician, who received the first license ever awarded by Turkey to a female doctor, Dr. Sarah Ben Ami Solodar, niece of Dr. Hillel Yaffe, who joined her uncle in the fight against the ubiquitous threat of malaria, physician Bat Sheva Yonis-Guttman, a pioneer in the field of infant care, Drs. Esther Ginsburg and Ita Geliebter - the latter two who opened surgeries at their homes, being unable to obtain public positions due to their sex.

When the Great War broke out, they turned their attention to the famine and the epidemics that came with it, especially among children, many of whom were severely malnourished. The war lead to a shortage of doctors, many of whom left the country or were deported by the Turks, while others were conscripted into the Turkish army. Hospitals closed and medical supplies were expropriated. Conditions were terrible - and even worse in Jerusalem and Jaffa when Jews, among them, many professionals with foreign nationalities, were expelled.

Sara was certainly not immune to all these setbacks but she differed from most of the free thinking, Zionist women of her peers. First, because she was native born, second because she - and the Aronsons in general - were not part of the prevailing left-wing Labour movement - and thirdly, Sara preferred not to belong to any movement at all. She was her own woman, unhindered by group politics. She had no profession to speak of, except for the dubious honour of ‘Spy’, if that counted as a vocation. Yes, if things had been different, she might have liked to be a nurse as she had once confided in Leo. But things were not different and fate and random acts of the universe had already decided her destiny.

She was an ‘ordinary’ woman - so far as anyone of her class and mindset at such a tumultuous period, can be called ordinary. She loved her family, was particularly close to Rifka in a protective, big sister way, adored her little nieces and nephews. Was fond too, of traditional ‘female’ occupations and pastimes: cooking, gardening, sewing pretty clothes, social trips around the colony, to visit family and close friends, enjoyed the occasional tea dance or ball and once even visited the city of Paris, and there are a number of lovely, intimate pictures of her in this guise.

The Sisters in the Garden

The Sisters with Sara Hinda & Nieces & Nephew 

Sara and Rifka in Jerusalem with the Weitz family, 1911

 

Such pleasures and pastimes are now long over.

 

Sara Embraces her Destiny

 

When the War came, Sara could not simply stand back and do nothing. Her decision to embrace her destiny and enter the espionage arena on her own terms, was a logical and necessary one. As a woman, for whom her gender was only one part of her persona, and not one that would stop her, from achieving her stated goals, it seemed to her that there was no other choice.

****