In 1947, Zipporah Porath, won a scholarship
from the Zionist Organization of America [ZOA] to spend a year at The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
Letters
From Jerusalem, 1947--1948 tells the story of a young New Yorker
who became a part of history as she witnessed and participated in the struggle
for Israel's birth as an independent state.
The book is composed
of the actual letters Porath wrote to her family during that fateful year.
"My family never threw away anything," said Porath in a recent interview
with @The Source Israel, from Porath's home near Tel Aviv. After her parents
passed away, she was in their apartment going through a lifetime collection
of papers. "I sat cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the room sorting
everything into piles. Then, unexpectedly, I came across a file which contained
every single letter I had written as an eyewitness to the emergence of the
state and the War of Independence."
"As I read each letter I found myself reliving the incidents, everything
that happened. I saw how, as a journalism major, I reverted to reporting
what was unfolding around me," continued Porath. "In one moment I realized,
I can't handle this, wrapped up all the letters and sent
them home."
About a year later, when she finally decided to tackle becoming literate
in word processing, Porath, took the letters and used them as an exercise
in transcription. As she was going through the process, she realized that
she had a first hand account of the War of Independence through an American's
eyes.
Like many of us,
Porath finds it uncanny that the very same thing is happening in Israel today
that took place in 1947--1948: we are still fighting for Israel's right to
exist.
Of the terrorist
attack on Hebrew University's Mount Scopus campus this past summer, Porath
recalls how in 1947 "We felt that we were high on the hill away from the
crowds," at the University. "Now, the very same kind of terrorist incidents
are still occurring to university students, with the same consequences and
reactions."
|
| Zipporah Porath (2002) |
An optimistic and reflective woman, Porath is confident that "We will get
through this, somehow. I never believed that my own children and grandchildren
would still be fighting the same war. I am an optimist. I don't know how
and when this war will end, but I do know we will overcome. We have to,
we have no other state."
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