The Remarkable Life of David Sealtiel

This small book, ‘David Sealtiel,’ subtitled (in German) “I want to be a compatriot of the Jewish people,” describes the life of the man who rebelled against the bourgeois and orthodox way of life of his family in early twentieth-century Hamburg, and embarked on a life of almost unceasing adventures and escapades in Europe and the Middle East. Although the book is short, the content is amazingly dense and Sealtiel’s life was so eventful that this review will inevitably be long. What an astonishing life this man had!

The book was published in the framework of a series entitled ‘Jewish Miniatures,’ under the auspices of the Jewish Center, Leipzig. The author, historian Dr. Ina Lorenz, is the director of the Institute for the History of the Jews of Hamburg. I read the book in German, though in my opinion it deserves to be translated into English as well as Hebrew.

David Sealtiel was born in Berlin in 1903. His father, Benjamin, had been born in Hamburg, and in 1912 the family moved there, joining other members of the Sealtiel clan. David was given a traditional Jewish education, attending the Hamburg Jewish community’s ‘Talmud Torah’ high school. David was neither studious nor disciplined, preferring to spend his time roaming the streets of the city and mixing with individuals whom his parents considered to be undesirable elements. From an early age David displayed impatience with the rigid way of life of orthodox Judaism and was not prepared to fit in with the demands of the Jewish community and his family. His barmitzva was celebrated in the Bornplatz synagogue, though it is not certain that he actually graduated from school.

In 1923 David spent a year on a training farm (hachsharah) in Britissh Mandated Palestine, and this first encounter with the Zionist cause made a deep and lasting impression on him. He worked in various agricultural spheres, visiting newly-established kibbutzim as well as trying to sell holy water to Christian pilgrims and serving as a foreign correspondent for German and French newspapers.

In 1925 Sealtiel returned to Europe, travelling through Italy and France. He spent some time on the French Riviera, ending up in Marseille, where he joined the French Foreign Legion, possibly in reaction to the breakdown of his relationship with a young woman in Nice. In the Legion he served in North Africa, and even wrote articles about his impressions of the region and encounters with the Berbers for the Hamburg Jewish newspaper. He left the Legion in 1931 with the rank of Sergeant.

Sealtiel spent the following years in France, living with his mistress, Leony, in Paris, and then working for Royal Dutch Shell in the Alsace-Lorraine region. These were times of severe economic difficulties in Germany and the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazi party. While living in Metz, Sealtiel experienced his first encounter with Jewish refugees from Germany, and this coincided with his meeting with the Zionist pioneering movement in France (Hechalutz). Together with Zionist leader Peretz Leshem, Sealtiel established agricultural training farms in various regions of France, resigned from his position at Royal Dutch Shell and accepted employment by Hechalutz. He came into contact and worked with many leading figures in the Zionist movement, among them David Ben Gurion, Eliahu Golomb, Berl Katznelson, Israel Galili, Levi Eshkol, Gideon Rafael, to name but a few.

As head of the French Hechalutz movement, Sealtiel was involved in establishing the kibbutz known as Machar in the Correze region of central France. He spent some time there, and also married his first wife, Inge Goldberg, the daughter of a distinguished lawyer, and the young couple moved to Jerusalem in 1934. Sealtiel worked briefly as a gardener at the Hebrew University, though it is possible that this was merely camouflage. He engaged in clandestine activities on behalf of the Zionist movement and the Haganah, providing students with military training, and eventually working for Ta’as, the underground Jewish arms industry.

In 1935 Sealtiel was sent to Europe to purchase arms for the Haganah, and find ways to smuggle them into Palestine without being discovered by the British Mandate authorities. The comings and goings involved are described in great detail in the book, and eventually he was caught by the Gestapo, who tried him for arms smuggling and engaging in illegal financial activities. After lengthy interrogations and torture, Sealtiel was sent as a political prisoner first to Dachau and then Buchenwald concentration camps. In May 1939 he was released, possibly because a ransom was paid. He returned to Palestine that same year, resuming his activities on behalf of the Haganah and resuming his relationship with Judith Schonstadt, a young woman he had met while on the Machar kibbutz in France, and whom he subsequently married.

In Palestine Sealtiel was arrested by the British authorities, accused of having participated in an attack on an Arab village, imprisoned in Acre and condemned to death. However, on Rosh Hashana 1939, he was pardoned, together with other prisoners. Under cover of working for Tnuva Food Industries, he was able to acquire and distribute arms and ammunition, while operating to blow up bridges and engage in clashes with Arabs in the Haifa region. He was appointed chief of Haganah operations in Haifa in 1939 as the Second World War broke out.

In 1942 Rommel’s forces were approaching the borders of Palestine, where Arab forces led by the Mufti of Jerusalem were waiting to join them in slaughtering the Jewish population. The Jewissh population organized to defend itself in the case of invasion by Nazi troops, but Rommel’s defeat by the British force led by Montgomery enabled them to breathe freely once more.

When the armies of several Arab countries advanced on the newly-established State of Israel in 1948 Sealtiel was appointed commander of the forces defending Jerusalem, which was then under siege by the Arab forces. No food or supplies were able to reach the Jewish areas of the city, as the Arabs of the surrounding villages were able to destroy the convoys attempting to relieve the siege. When it became clear that the Old City of Jerusalem could not hold out, while the newer, mainly Jewish, neighbourhoods had been conquered by the Haganah, Sealtiel agreed to a ceasefire on condition the Jewish population of the Old City of Jerusalem was saved. A heavy price had to be paid, and the Old City, with the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall remained in Jordanian hands. When the Old City was reconquered in the Six Day War of 1967, Sealtiel took the first opportunity to go there, proclaiming it to be “the happiest day of my life.”

In the years that followed David Sealtiel rose to a senior position in the Israel Defence Force and eventually filled several ambassadorial positions in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba and the Netherlands. While serving in Amsterdam he tried to trace the fate of his family, only to find that no one had survived. He died suddenly in Jerusalem in February 1969 of a heart attack. In his eulogy, his friend Gershom Scholem said: “…he displayed the characteristics of his formative years, as well as the internal contradictions of his adventurous nature — love of danger combined with a sense of discipline and order.”

From the River to the Sea

9 May 2021 Downing Street pro-Palestinian demonstration

The catchy slogan that is chanted so ardently by supposedly well-intentioned human beings in demonstrations being held around the world, ‘Palestine shall be free, from the river to the sea,’ is in effect a call for the destruction of Israel. And that, of course, is what the terrorist organization of Hamas wants to achieve.

The ability to ignore reality and fabricate theories and fantasies, twisting historical facts and despising actual reality, may bring consolation to a few hot-headed individuals, but will do nothing to solve the problem that lies at the heart of the Israel-Palestinian problem. Until the Palestinians, including Hamas, are prepared to come to the negotiating table there can be no solution to the problem. So I feel it’s time to set the historical record straight.

When the United Nations voted to partition British-mandated Palestine in 1948 the Jews accepted the decision while the Arabs did not. The Arab countries did not hesitate to mobilise armies in order to conquer the country and keep it in Arab hands. The heavily outnumbered Jewish population fought with its back to the wall to retain the land that had been its ancient home, knowing that any defeat would put an end to the dream of a Jewish homeland. Having been all-but annihilated by the Nazis not many years before, the Jewish people knew what defeat would mean for them..

History has had many twists and turns regarding the Jews. They flourished in their homeland two thousand years ago until they were exiled by the Romans. They flourished in the diasporas of Spain, North Africa and Eastern Europe until they were once again persecuted, slaughtered or forcibly exiled. Throughout their history, the Jews have had to get up and leave their homes on numerous occasions until in the nineteenth century they started to make their way back to their ancient homeland in order to rebuild their lives there, establishing towns and settlements, buying land and developing agriculture.

After fighting off superior forces in 1948 the nascent state of Israel was subject to attacks from its Arab neighbours in 1956 and 1967, when it managed to conquer the areas known today as the West Bank, Sinai and the Gaza Strip. The last two were handed back to Arab control in agreements reached with the Arab countries concerned, and much of the West Bank is under the autonomous Palestinian Authority. During the nineteen years that Jordan controlled the West Bank nobody gave a thought to the establishment of an independent Palestine.

At the same time as thousands of Arabs left their homes in Israel as a result of the war of 1948 a similar number of Jews was expelled from the Moslem countries where they had lived for hundreds of years (thousands of years in some cases). While the Arab host countries kept ‘their’ refugees in abject misery in refugee camps, Israel shared what little resources it had with the newcomers, absorbing them and building homes for them as quickly as possible.

The cynical abuse of their brethren by the Arab countries is echoed by the attitude of the Hamas rulers of Gaza towards the population of that unfortunate enclave. When Israel occupied it after 1967 it became the site of flourishing agricultural settlements. These were left in place when Israel pulled out in 2005, in the hope that the local population would make use of them. This did not happen, of course, and Israel’s departure was the signal for a rampage of destruction, pillage and devastation.

There aren’t many Israelis who don’t feel sorry for the impoverished, beleaguered civilian population of Gaza. There can be no forgiveness for their leaders, who use them as human shields and deploy the funds sent to alleviate their distress in order to buy weapons, build attack tunnels, and waste their efforts on the pointless exercise of trying to eliminate Israel.

Israel cannot possibly allow itself to be defeated in any military confrontation with those who seek to destroy it.

• Public Domain
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Here We Go Again

The above was the heading of a post I wrote a few weeks ago about the general election, but heck, it works just as well for what I’m writing about today, the escalation of violence in Israel and Gaza.

The first time I realized that things were getting serious was when I was in my German lesson at the community centre near my house in Mevasseret Zion. “What’s that noise?” I asked the lady sitting next to me. “It’s the siren,” she said, whereupon we and the other participants (all elderly ladies like myself) got up and moved to the shelter, which happened also to house the toilets. We heard (and saw) fire trucks and ambulances racing past, and after hanging around for a while, we all packed up our things and went home to watch the news on TV. A rocket fired from Gaza had landed on a nearby hill, causing very little damage and no injuries, thank goodness.

Since then matters have escalated most horribly, with rockets fired from Gaza raining down all over Israel, our forces retaliating in similar vein, and – most terrifying of all – violent clashes erupting in Israel between Jews and Arabs. To see and hear this happening after so many years in which both groups managed to live side by side in relative harmony is truly horrifying.

Here in Mevasseret Zion we are near the Arab village of Abu Ghosh, and it is to restaurants, shops and bakeries there that we go for meals and all kinds of requirements. Our relations with the providers of those services there are and have always been civil, even amicable, and it is difficult to imagine their friendly attitude turning into enmity at the drop of a hat (or a rocket). Let’s hope that at least their business sense will prevail.

Does this mean that we have been living in a fool’s paradise for the last 73 years (i.e., since Israel’s independence), or at least since 1967 (when Jerusalem was reunited and the West Bank and Sinai were conquered)? Since then there have been political developments that presaged movement towards some kind of settlement of the political situation. Sinai was handed back to the Egyptians in the framework of a peace treaty. Treaties were signed with Jordan and, more recently, Arab Gulf States. Gaza was handed over to Palestinian rule and Israel’s settlements there were disbanded. The Palestinian Authority was established in the West Bank (or Occupied Territories, if you prefer) and accorded considerable self-government rights.

The situation in Jerusalem has had its ups and downs. The area of the Temple Mount where the Al-Aksa mosque is situated has been left in Moslem hands, while the area of the Western Wall is open to Jews. Arabs and Jews mingle on public transport, shopping malls, hospitals, and commercial establishments of every kind. Holy sites of each religion in Jerusalem and elsewhere are open to worshippers of all faiths, thus, Bethlehem, Nazareth and the sites around the Sea of Galilee are accessible to Christians, as are the churches and holy sites in Jerusalem, and the same applies to Moslem and Jewish holy sites all over the country.

The history of this part of the world has always been fraught and full of conflict. The fate of all its occupants depends on their managing to live side by side peaceably. There have always been ups and downs in the extent to which this has been achieved, but rampaging around, rioting, attacking people and destroying property is no way to set about it.

The bottom line is that war and aggression generally have dire (and unforeseen) consequences. When Arab armies sought to obliterate Israel in 1948 and 1967 they ended up paying a heavy price and achieving little if anything. No one can blame Israel for retaliating in view of the barrage of rockets being fired on its citizens today. After all, England did not sit back and accept the German attack on London known as the Blitz. The ruins of Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden and other German cities provide evidence of that.

The Palestinians would do well to consider the lessons of the past. And the government of Israel would do well to bear in mind the sensitivities of all the segments of its population.

The 16th Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition

Some fifty years ago the International Piano Master Competition honouring pianist Arthur Rubinstein was established in Israel. Every three years (four years in 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic), young pianists from all over the world compete in front of audiences in Israel  for the prizes awarded by an international jury in the framework of the competition.

Each competition enables young musicians to test their mettle against one another, as well as to thrill audiences with their talent and ability. This year, again because of the restrictions imposed as a result of Coronavirus, the competition was held in a ‘hybrid’ version, with the initial recitals being given in various countries and seen and heard all over the world by means of the internet.

The final stages were held in Israel, with each of the six finalists playing a piano concerto by Beethoven (the year the Competition was due to be held, 2020, was the tricentennial anniversary of Beethoven’s birth), before going on to perform a piano quintet and concluding with a piano concerto from one of the great Romantic composers.

I learned to play the piano in my youth, and although I did not get very far with my studies then, every few years since then I have tried to resume my efforts, with varying degrees of success. But I feel that this gives me a clearer idea of how much skill and dedication, not to mention sheer talent, is involved in reaching the levels of virtuosity and musicality displayed by the various participants.

This year there were thirty-two initial competitors, all of whom had attained a very high level of playing the piano. Ten of them were women, twenty-two men. All were between the ages of twenty and thirty, and came from all four corners of the globe, though the large proportion of competitors from the Far East was evident.

At this point I must admit to having a personal interest in the competition this year. It may sound a little far-fetched, but one of the competitors, Ariel Lanyi, lives next door to us, and the walls of our two salons abut one another. Hence, even though our houses are solidly built, we are well aware of his practicing routine, as Ariel is able to produce a powerful (and wonderful) sound from the beautiful Steinway Grand which dominates their living area.

Since we are delighted to have such a talented musician living next door to us (and are friendly with his parents), even though he spends much of the year in London and elsewhere, it is only natural that we favoured his candidacy for first prize. In addition, Ariel also writes a weekly blog about music, which I almost always share on Facebook. He writes very insightfully about a selected piece of music for the piano, which he then goes on to play. Although he is only twenty-three years old, his knowledge of music theory and his analytical ability far surpass his youth, and I always learn something from reading his thoughts.

And so at the final stages of the Competition I was listening with bated breath to each performance. I might add that Ariel’s performance of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations at one of the early stages was a veritable tour de force, winning accolades from prominent musicians, among them Israeli pianist and composer, Gil Shohat. In the final stages, Ariel’s performance of Beethoven’s third piano concerto, which I heard over the radio, also marked a high point in the competition, seeming to bring Beethoven himself to life.

In the final stage of the competition, Ariel played Brahms’ second piano concerto with great aplomb and maturity, gaining resounding applause from the audience in Tel Aviv. In the final event, however, Ariel was not awarded one of the first three prizes, though he did gain a well-deserved prize for his performance of a work by an Israeli composer. I don’t envy the judges who must decide which of the very talented young pianists should be awarded a prize, and at every stage they were at pains to point out that they were all very talented. The three final winners, Juan Perez Floristan from Greece, Shiori Kuwahara from Japan and Cunmo Yin from China, were undoubtedly talented, but in my opinion no more so than any of the other three finalists.

For us music-lovers (the French have a word for it, melomane) the world of music moves on to the next concert, the next festival, or whatever the fates have in store for us. For Ariel Lanyi and the other competitors there is always another competition, another performance or another event to tackle. We wish them all the best of luck and the strength to continue bringing joy and harmony to our world.