search
David Shayne

Running the British Blockade -The Voyages of Syd Abrams

In November 1947, a young man from Seattle, Washington, climbed onto the back of a truck loaded with packages on a quay in the Port of Haifa and hid among the cargo.  The young man was Sydney, “Syd” Abrams, and he was escaping British custody, after spending weeks as a British prisoner in a detention camp on Cyprus.  Syd was one of the hundreds of men and women, both Jewish and not, who risked their lives and endured tremendous hardships to try to bring tens of thousands of Jewish refugees-many who were Nazi concentration camp survivors-to Palestine.

On Friday, January 17, 2025, Syd passed away peacefully in Jerusalem. I had the great privilege of not just knowing Syd, but I was able to sit down with him and listen to his incredible adventures when he served as a crew member of the “Aliya Bet” ship, the Geula, whose journey ended like most of the “Aliya Bet” ships, captured by the British Navy in the waters outside of British ruled Palestine.

Syd was born in 1927, in Seattle, Washington. His parents came from the Russian empire, although his mother grew up in a small town called Republic in Washington State. His family lived in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Seattle and were members of the same synagogue I attended decades later.

During the last year of World War II, 1945, Syd tried to enlist in the US Navy but was rejected due to poor eyesight. Following the war, along with most American Jews, he learned for the first time the full story of what the Germans did to the Jews of Europe.  Like many young American Jews, he wanted to do something to help the survivors. He and his close friend, Elihu Bergman, managed to contact a Haganah operative in the US. Eventually, Syd, Eli and a third Seattleite, Bailey Neider, were recruited to serve as crewmen on a de-commissioned naval vessel anchored in Miami called the Paducah.

WHAT WAS “ALIYA BET”?

In 1939, the British government issued what is remembered as “The White Paper,” announcing a new policy severely restricting Jewish immigration and land acquisition. Moreover, the new policy stated the intent to establish an independent and predominately Arab State in 10 years. Immediately after World War II, the Jews of Palestine hoped the British would change their policy to, at the very least, admit large numbers of homeless Jewish refugees from war ravaged Europe. But the British firmly maintained the White Paper policy, causing the Jews to launch a general uprising against British rule.

The strategy included a plan to smuggle in large numbers of these refugees via the Mediterranean Sea on various ships that would be purchased and outfitted for that purpose and depositing the refugees on some secluded section of the coast. The Haganah, the largest of the Jewish underground military organizations, ran the massive operation, previously dubbed “Aliyah Bet” (the smuggling of “illegal” immigrants began, on a much smaller scale, in the 1930s). From August 1945, right up to the end of the Mandate on May 15, 1948, some 70,693 passengers sailed on 65 ships to Palestine. The command responsibility for each ship was assigned to the Palmach, the Haganah’s elite guerilla force.

THE VOYAGE OF THE PADUCA/GEULA

Syd and Eli, after spending some time training in New York, joined the crew of the Paducah in the Spring of 1947.  The Paducah’s skipper was an American Christian named Rudy Patzert.  According to Syd, Rudy had difficulty finding work in shipping due to supposed left-wing political affiliations. (This was the time when any American suspected of Communist ties or sympathies faced black listing and other forms of ostracization). The Hagana commander of the Paducah was Mordecai “Moka” Limon, who commanded several Aliya Bet vessels, including the Paducah.

The Paducah crew was quite a collection. In addition to Syd, Eli and other young American Jews, it included a large Irish-American nicknamed “Heavy” Greaves and an exiled Spanish nobleman named Miguel Buiza Fernandez Palacios—“Don” Miguel, as he was affectionately known, he himself was a refugee from his homeland, Francoist Spain.

The Paducah sailed in May of 1947.  The British, whose intelligence and naval operatives became adept at seeing through the various subterfuges the Haganah employed, suspected the Paducah probably even before it departed American waters. After a lengthy a perilous Odessey through the Azores, Spain, and France, the ship finally made it to Bulgaria, where it uploaded some 1300 passengers.  Together with a 2nd ship, the Northland, the Paducah sailed to Palestine via the Black Sea, the Bosporus Straits and the Dardanelles.

As the 2 ships entered the Mediterranean, the British Navy awaited and attached escorts. Clearly, no amount of subterfuge would avail, so the 2 ships “revealed” their Haganah names: The Geula (“Redemption”) and the Medinat HaYehudim (The State Of The Jews). As the ships approached the territorial waters of Palestine, the British seized both ships, towed them to Haifa and forced the passengers on to waiting prison ships to be transported to Cyprus.

To save the crew from possible prosecution and incarceration, they were disguised as passengers. Rudy Patzert became “Mendel Levy” and learned a few words in Yiddish to aid the deception. The deception worked and the British never discovered the true identity of the seaman who so skillfully skippered his ship through all of the perils from Miami to the shores of Palestine. “Heavy” Greaves was not so fortunate, however-when he stripped for a medical exam the British could clearly see the archetypical US Navy tattoo of an American flag with Anchors across his chest. One did not need to be Ian Fleming to figure out this man was not likely a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz and after his true identity was ascertained, he was in fact incarcerated for several months.

Like Rudy, Syd and the rest of the crew escaped detection and after a few weeks in the Cyprus detention camp, were transferred to Palestine.  As they debarked to be transferred to another detention facility located south of Haifa at Atlit, Syd executed a daring escape by persuading a British soldier that he was not a passenger but a journalist, following which the Jewish stevedores in the port engineered his escape on the truck referenced above. Rudy escaped by jumping off the bus transporting them to Atlit when it got stuck in a traffic jam. (Eli did likewise but was recaptured and interred in Atlit for a few weeks)

Syd stayed in Palestine for a while, continuing to volunteer with the Haganah and eventually returned to Seattle. He married Marika, an Auschwitz survivor he met while both were students at the University of Washington. Marika went on to become a renowned artist and Syd had a successful career in the Wine industry.  They had one son, Eli, who moved to Israel.

In the Summer of 2016, I got a call from a friend who had been working as an assistant for Syd, told me about Syd’s involvement in Aliya Bet. My friend knew that I have been researching and writing a book about the Palmach and thought I would be interested in meeting Syd. Thus, I came to sit for a few days in Syd’s beautiful house overlooking Lake Washington while he regaled me with his fascinating adventures.

I did not stay closely in touch with Syd but did see him from time to time. I saw him last shortly after he moved to Jerusalem, where his family took such good care of him.

Sydney Abrams was a remarkable individual, a member of America’s “greatest generation” who joined Israel’s founding generation, often called the “Silver Platter” generation, derived from a poem by Natan Alterman of the same name. The final stanza, describing the vision of 2 weary soldiers who appear out of nowhere reads:

“Then a nation in tears and amazement will ask: “Who are you?” And they will answer quietly, “We are the silver platter on which the Jewish state was given.”‘

Gradually but inexorably, the “silver platter” generation is passing into history. Syd may have been the last surviving crewmember of the Geula. But not the last surviving person on that fateful ship. At Syd’s funeral, an unassuming gentleman named Naftali got up to speak and revealed he, too, had been on the Geula -as a 9 month old baby– and wanted to honor the man who had taken such risks to bring his family to safety.

Thanks to Naftali and others who cherish and honor the sacrifices of the “silver platter’ generation, Syd’s legacy will live on.

About the Author
David Shayne is a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, he received his BA from Tel Aviv University in Political Science and his JD from the University of Oregon. He served as an attorney for the US government for 21 years, until his retirement in 2022, following which he relocated to Tel Aviv. He currently works as a senior attorney for a private company in Jerusalem, Israel.
Related Topics
Related Posts