The Denver Jewish news., 1921-02-23
Making Their Way to
the Holy Land
CONTINUED from Page one.)

the entire two weeks OF the journey.
l finally persuaded the captain to
turn over to their use the castle Of
the ship which ordinarily is reserved
for the crew. The sailors were ut
first cOntented with the arrangement,
but by the time we reached Messina,
eight days later, their dissatisfaction
with this plan had grown to such an
extent that they threatened to strike
unless the castle was cleared Of the
refugees and returned to their use.
On September 18th, in the morning,
we entered the harbor of Smyrna.
This city has large Jewish commun-
:ty and since the food supplies of the
refugees were running very low it was
decided that committee of five,
should go into town and make arrange
ments for re-provisiOning.
But no sooner had we reached the
Custom House than the Greek officials
ordered the Oarsmen to take us back
aboard ship. The fear of 300 Russians
on one ship had apparently completely
overcome those officials, and it took
a good deal of persuasion before / OBJ
tanned permission for myself to land.
The committee of Refugees naturally
had to go back and stay aboard ship.
l got in touch with our committee, ill.,
forming them of the presence of 305
Jews on the BukOvina and in a few
hours row boat brought bread,
cheese, olives and even Smyrna figs.
The vessel remained in Smyrna
rhirty-six hours and all during this pc
riod the poor refugees were kicked
from one side to another in order to
make room for the incoming freight
and not allowed to get on the terra
firma," which was only few PAGES
away.
From Smyrna our way was thru
numbcrless uninhabited Greek islands
to the large island of Rhodes, which
is an Italian possession. Since ths
steamer was also Italian / started to
negotiate with the Captain about per-
mission for the refugees to get ashore
al least for few hours so that they
could get swim in the blue waters
of the Mediterranean and wash part
of their dirt and their troubles off.
'Insh Allah Apparently nothing
could be accomplished in that respect.
Everybody feared the refugees as car
riers of pest and disease. The GreeS.
Italian and Turkish cabin passengers
would look down upon them as they
lay in the freight holes, but would run
away as soon as any one Of them
would come ON deck, and the officials
at Rhodes sent doctors to examine
everybody before the steamer was al.
lowed to discharge its freight, but they
absolutely refused even to hear plea
for permission to land.
After considerable discussion they
finally allowed me to take along u
committee of three and to go ashore
for the purpose of purchase food.
Once in town 1 Immediately went
10 see the president of the Jewish com-
munity, whose address was furnished
W III NLhs ihu. A1io "os
Rahamin Cohen, and the names of his
associates in the communal work We're !:
Nisim and Natzliha. In Hebrew. the
first names of these gentlemen mean
mercy, Miracle and Luck and from
their actions toward the refugees they
appear to be really worthy of such
names.
In Il few hours we had n supply of
bread to last us until the next station,
fruits and even candy for the children.
A delegation also came to visit the
ship and to convey greetings to the
refugees. The delight and happiness
of the refugees in seeing Jews from
this lonely island coming to greet them
and to help them was beyond descrip-
ton. For almost an entire hour after
the ship started to pull its anchor they
stayed on the castle waving handkcr-
chiefs, throwing kisses and shouting
"Heidat" tmcaning in Hebrew Hoo
ray) to the departing delegation that
was lost somewhere in the mist.
From Rhodes our way led to the
town of AIalis, held by the Turkish
revolutionary forces together with the
Italians.
Since | had given up hope of obtain
ing permission for the refugees to land
l started to work Oh schemes to erect
shower bath for their use. At first
the very idea Of same struck the 1tal
ian captain as something unthinkablc,
for whoever heard of such privilege
as II bath for passengers that are
handled in every way like bundles of
freight:
But. again. apparently an American
J. ID. c. uniform, and. Furthermore,