Rashḳes - Days of lead: defying death during Israels War of Independence

Moshe Rashkes is a war hero, a humanitarian hero, a successful author, and one of the founders of the state of Israel. He is also my father.

My father and his family fled Poland in the late 1920s, due to the increasing number of pogroms and growing anti-Semitism. He was only two years old when his family arrived, with very little money and very few possessions, at the shore of what was then Palestine. They moved to Tel Aviv, where life in the 1930s was far from easy. The family lived in a small one-bedroom apartment, worked double shifts, and went hungry most daysbut they felt relatively safe. News from Europe came in sporadically and it carried unimaginable horror, initially from ghettos and later from death camps, and, sadly, included the news that most members of the Rashkes family who had stayed in Poland were either missingor gone.

As a youngster, my father and his friends understood that in order to survive they would need to fight. It was more than self-defense, it was survival, and fighting for Israels independence and simple right to exist was not an option, but a duty and a necessity. My father fought on the Jerusalem front and was severely wounded in a heroic battle at the entrance to Shaar Hagai, the gate to Jerusalem.

My fathers injury transformed his life drastically, and his miraculous rehabilitation formed his philosophy of life and his future. In 1952, he was elected Chairman of the Israel Disabled War Veterans Organization. One of my childhood memories is walking with my father on the main street of Tel Aviv and being stopped time and again by peoplestrangers to mewho profusely thanked my father for things he did for them. They were veterans and he was fighting for their rights, for their dignity, and for their recognition.

After serving the veterans, he decided to lead and build a sports center for disabled children. He became a major advocate for rehabilitation through sports, applying many of the methodologies that had helped him with his own rehabilitation. Thousands of disabled kids have gone to the Israel Sport Center for the Disabled and it has helped them gain confidence, pride, and success. My father was, and still is, a hero for many of them.

In 1962, my father published his first book. Its Hebrew title translates into English as Days of Lead . He once told me that he wrote the book in order to be able to forget. The memories were simultaneously very painful and very important, and the book served as a tool for bringing relief. The book was a major success and an astounding best seller, and praise came pouring in. My father, with barely a high school diploma, had created a masterpiece.

Recently, as my father approached his ninetieth birthday, I asked him if I could translate the book and publish it for the first time in English. This was one of his dreams that had faded into the background over the years because of his busy schedule. This dream is now a reality and it has become one of the best birthday gifts for this wonderful and special occasion. The publishing of the book also coincides with Israels seventieth anniversary, an event that would never have happened without the spirit and bravery of my father and his fellow soldiers.