O Jerusalem! by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Israel-Arab War, 1948-1949
ISBN: 9022515702
Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster
Published: 1988-05-17T19:00:00+00:00

In Jerusalem, the crash of artillery fire marred the city's life. Unableto conquer the kibbutzim of Galilee, Fawzi el Kaukji had brought his armysouth to the hilltops of Judea. From Nebi Samuel, the height that YitzhakSadeh's men had failed to conquer, his gunners trained their cannon on themost prestigious target he could offer them, the rooftops of Jewish Jerusalem.

His exploding shells provided an inauspicious counterpoint to a secretand ancient ceremony about to be performed in the city below his guns.Yosef Nevo was ready to marry at last the redheaded girl whose motherhad so long refused to agree to their union. Naomi's wedding dress was a

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frilly white blouse she had bought for the occasion and a white skirt shehad managed to sneak past her mother's curious eyes. At the last moment,realizing she had forgotten a veil, she had torn one from a girl friend's hat.

Now, as the ceremony was about to begin, the rabbi whom Nevo hadbrought to the apartment of one of Naomi's friends reminded the coupleof a salient point they had forgotten in their obsession to keep their mar-riage secret. There could be no wedding without a minyan, the ten-manquorum required for public worship, and there were only four males inthe room.

Bride, groom, best man and rabbi rushed down the stairs to look forvolunteers. In the streets, deserted because of Kaukji's gunfire, they foundonly four Palmachniks passing nearby. They were pulled upstairs andassigned the task of holding the poles of the traditional wedding canopyover Naomi and Yosef's heads. To get the remaining men, one of Naomi'sgirl friends set out on a run for the Jewish Agency. "Quick," she shouted,racing from office to office, "ten men for a minyan!"

Her tactic succeeded; the required males were found. As the ceremonywas about to begin there was a knock on the door. Answering it, theowner of the flat found before her an English employee of the Agency,an intimate friend of Naomi's mother. He was clad in a sober suit and darktie. "My poor child," he whispered, "I understand you want ten men fora minyan." In the inexorable logic of that Jerusalem springtime, he hadassumed that the only religious office for which a minyan would be neededwas a funeral.

At the conclusion of the ceremony Nevo crushed a glass under his heel,a symbolic gesture of grief for the destruction of the Temple whose ruinslay barely three miles away. He gave Naomi a fervent kiss. Then Nevoreturned to duty with the Haganah, and Naomi went back to her mother.The conqueror of Katamon might be married at last, but until he couldfind a way to smuggle the woman who still did not know she had becomehis mother-in-law past the Arabs besieging Jerusalem, his share of maritalbliss was going to be limited to the fervent kiss he had just given his bride.

President Harry S Truman surveyed the men around his desk as amagistrate might contemplate the litigants before his bench. Indeed, thescene in his office bore its resemblance to a trial. Forty-eight hours afterMoshe Sharett's departure for Tel

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