The last of the some 100,000 Jewish immigrants who violated a British ban and made their way to pre-state Palestine from 1934-1948 are eligible for a special award initiated by Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Zeev Elkin.
The award will be handed out to the survivors of the illegal "maapilim" ships that ran the British blockade to bring Jews to pre-state Israel; immigrants born in displaced persons camps in Europe and in detainment camps on Cyprus; children born on the famed ship Exodus and other ships carrying refugees from the Holocaust that were not allowed to make safe port in Europe; and immigrants who made their way into the country over land – as did many immigrants from Arab countries – while the British Mandate was in effect.
One recipient is Rachel Ben Haim, 92, who reached pre-state Israel in 1946 aboard the immigrant ship Enzo Sereni. She was born in the Hungarian village of Szerencs, the middle child of seven. She and her family were sent to Auschwitz, but she survived.
After the camp was liberated, Ben Haim and her sisters returned to their hometown only to find that the family's home and shop had been robbed and vandalized. This is when Ben Haim decided she would make her way to the land of Israel.
"It started with a phone call from my sister Eva. She said, 'If you want to go to Eretz Yisrael, pack up right away and get on the train that leaves in a few hours for [the city of] Miskolc. The Jewish Brigade is organizing a group of maapilim [illegal immigrants] here."
Ben Haim packed her few belonging and got on the train, where she met two brothers of her sister's fiance. One, Zoli Reisner, would later become her husband and father of her children.
In August 1945 the group left Austria for Italy. Ben Haim was provided with false papers that presented her as the wife of one of the members of the Jewish Brigade. They remained in Italy for a few months, and on Jan. 7, 1946 were carried to the port in army trucks, where 908 immigrants boarded the Enzo Sireni under cover of darkness.
For two days, the ship bucked the waves until it was captured by the British at Haifa Port. The immigrants were sent to a detainment camp at Atlit.
"We slept in huts, on wooden boards. There was food, but it was terribly cold at night. At one stage, I had to curl up under the blankets with my brother-in-law Zoli. That's how our romance started," Ben Haim recalls.
Shortly thereafter, Ben Haim and her future husband were released and made their way to Kibbutz Maagan in the Jordan Valley, where they lived in a tent in the intense heat.
Elkin says that when he started studying Hebrew and Zionism in Jewish camps in the former Soviet Union, one of the stories that influenced him the most was the story of the Exodus ship.
"So I'm proud that I have the honor of closing the circle and creating the award for the maapilim."
All immigrants who meet the criteria for the award are invited to submit an application via the Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry website.
