Showing posts with label david ben ariel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label david ben ariel. Show all posts
Monday, July 12, 2010
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
David Ben-Ariel unjustly imprisoned and deported
See "Israeli police sent on wild-goose chase"
The Israeli police knew they didn't have a shred of evidence against me other than some hateful letter filled with false accusations that misled them.
As honestly reported in The Jerusalem Post article he referred to [Edward Abington, Jr.'s State Department letter], I wasn't interrogated...by 6 different SECRET SERVICEMEN about the TEMPLE MOUNT because of an "expired visa!" I charged Ms. Leech (his assistant) with complicity in their unjust actions against me for going along with their lie that my visa was expired and for turning a blind eye to their undemocratic ways. I'd given her a letter for Mr. Abington, Jr. to PROTEST MY POLITICAL ABUSE AND RELIGIOUS MISTREATMENT. Since he never bothered to respond, I'm not sure he even received it.
It was difficult to deal with Ms. Leech...since she was quite antagonistic, contending that Israel wanted to deport me because "you wanted to blow up the mosque." When I protested that simply was NOT TRUE, she angrily ordered her assistant, "Go see what he's charged with." He came back and said, "Visa violation." So she KNEW the real reason I was in jail was for being a member of the Temple Mount Faithful, but later went along with their LIE about my visa...
Mr. Abington, Jr. falsely accused me of being proud about my imprisonment. I'm not proud of it nor ashamed, but I do believe in making the most out of a bad situation...Why shouldn't I use my horrible experience to underscore and further the JUST CAUSE of the Temple Mount Faithful? How could anyone fail to understand this?...After all, it's the TEMPLE Mount, not the mosque mount!
Is it too much for an INNOCENT AMERICAN to expect his government to stand up for him? All I've requested from the beginning is for the Consul General to STRONGLY PROTEST my unjust imprisonment and deportation. They know what I say is the truth, but because of their hostile views, they're playing deaf, dumb and blind to the fact that I was a POLITICO-RELIGIOUS PRISONER.- "Why Edward Abington, Jr. Must Be Investigated!"
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
East Toledoan calls Beyond Babylon God's final warning
East Toledoan calls his book, Beyond Babylon, God’s final warning
Written by John Szozda
************
Feel free to buy it or read Beyond Babylon online for FREE!
Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
David Ben-Ariel at Knysna on the Indian Ocean

Being risky going out there, with the missing planks, feeling invincible after bunji-jumping earlier!
I was renting at Kibbutz Ha'On (on the Sea of Galilee) when I flew to South Africa for a glorious 7 weeks (Dec. 1991 - Jan. 1992) and spent 3 of them with a most gracious "colored" family in Athlone, Cape Town (I knew Celeste from Kibbutz Sdot Yam), as well as being shown around by Debbie (my German roommate's girlfriend from Kibbutz Reshafim), before heading up the Garden Route and all over & later on to Zimbabwe to see the awesome Victoria Falls!.
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Monday, January 11, 2010
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Will Madonna sing "Desert and Rain"?
That pain in her heart, that cry in her voice, would sound good singing Desert and Rain by David Ben-Ariel (me).
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Beyond Babylon read across America!

The best $60 I ever spent on advertising! Baruch Hashem. Folks across America, on the highways and national parks (Badlands, Custer, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Flaming Gorge, Dinosaur, Rocky Mountain, etc.), were seen reading and even saying out loud, "Beyond Babylon" - and to many of them I was pleased to be able to give my Beyond Babylon cards to that pictures my book and on the back has David Ben-Ariel and my website address written. I loved it.
Friday, February 20, 2009
A Nation of Drunks and Whores
Whenever our behavior gets out of control, GOD LETS US LOSE CONTROL! When we’re held hostage to bad habits, and refuse to let them go, WE GO INTO CAPTIVITY! A national lack of discipline results in God sending CORRECTIVE PUNISHMENT! Then we wake up and get with it, and beg God to save us. The whole purpose is to bring us to our knees and senses. That’s the main reason behind God letting us fall to Europe: to rise again in Christ...
We’ve been living a lie and have loved to indulge in deception. “Don’t confuse me with the facts” has been our shameful attitude, and truth has been treated like some social outcast. Therefore, God threatens to use Europe to wake us up...
Since we’re A NATION LIVING IN SIN—Jacob disowns us, Abraham doesn’t recognize us, and Isaac mourns our mixed marriages (Isa. 63:16). Israel’s birthmark was obedience to God (Gen. 18:19)...
There are spiritual factors behind our economic crisis! It’s in our best national interest to obey God and invest some time in personal Bible study.
But instead of developing our relationship with God and staying sober and celibate, we’ve whored around and given birth to pagans (Hos. 5:7). That’s why God can’t accept us as His National Priest since our lifestyle choice misrepresents Him! God doesn’t want any part in our perversion. Since we’ve denied His natural order of things, He won’t recognize our illegitimate children! He hasn’t fathered them (Hos. 4:6).
God says we haven’t been humble and obedient like Abraham—the Father of the faithful—but are “…a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the LORD…” and don’t want anything to do with the truth. We don’t want to be shown where we’re wrong, and we don’t want to hear about it (Isa. 30:9-11). “So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction” (Jer. 7:28). We’ve orphaned ourselves and act like bastards!
Instead of becoming a model-nation we’ve become a STRIPPER! We’ve taken all the fine things that God’s given us and laid them out before foreigners (Hos. 2:1-13). We’ve squandered our time and energy in pagan ways and heathen practices. Therefore, God’s going to STRIP AWAY OUR PEACE AND PROSPERITY! We’re going to be left exposed to the elements and stripped bare before NAKED AGGRESSION! Since we refuse to return to God, we’ll be sent back into SLAVERY!
We’re a nation of DRUNKS AND WHORES—so God’s going to let us hit bottom so hard it’ll appear we’ll never bounce back! God’s no longer going to enable us to carry on in our ways, drinking ourselves to death and dying for sex. We’ve gone from bad to worse: “You have stricken them, but they have not grieved You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than rock they have refused to return” (Jer. 5:3)...
We’ve left God’s ways, throughout history, to follow men’s ideas. We’d lose our love for the truth and become enamored with error. Due to this spiritual insult and breach of contract, God would send a number of eviction notices. He’d cite us for breaking our lease and inform us we’d worn out our welcome. But we’d rip us those notices and abuse those who delivered them: “And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them [far in advance], but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, ‘Repent now every one of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever” (Jer. 25:4-5).
We didn’t want to be reminded that God had set us free from men to serve Him. We could only call the Holy Land home as long as we remained holy! There were clauses that if we failed to make repairs and keep the place clean, we could forfeit our biblical right to the land and be DISINHERITED (Jer. 17:4)...
As we go further into NATIONAL DEBT AND DISGRACE, instead of turning to God for divine assistance, we turn to foreigners for loans! But it’ll be our downfall! Will Europe or Saudi Arabia offer to bail us out? Japan or China keep us afloat? Or will they forcibly put us into receivership? Throw us into debtor’s jail? Require FORCED LABOR? Who hasn’t heard of loan sharks (Hos. 7:11-12)? Or how they fly into a frenzy over blood money? They won’t just break our bones—they’ll BOMB OUR CITIES (Ezek. 6:6)...
Ancient Israel fell prey to every con-artist (painting pretty pictures of peace), passing phase or new fad—drunk on the ecumenical spirits. Yes, “…they have erred through wine, and through intoxicating drink are out of the way: the priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they are out of [their wits and gone astray] through intoxicating drink they [can’t see or think straight], they stumble in judgment [they can’t even walk a straight line]. For all tables are full of vomit and filth no place is clean” (Isa. 28:7-8).
The party’s over, the place is trashed, and everybody’s going to wake up with a HORRIBLE HANG-OVER!
It’s interesting to note that, during my days as a lowly kibbutz-volunteer, the British were notorious for being drunks. They had earned such a bad reputation that some kibbutzim and moshavim wouldn’t accept any English volunteers. God condemns the Sceptered Isle for being SPIRITUAL DRUNKS! He castigates “…the crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim” (Isa. 28:1-3). Of course, we’ve all been a bunch of drunks and whores, in love with Babylonian babes and brew: “Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart… For the spirit of [promiscuity] has caused them to stray [from the truth], and they have [whored around] against their God”(Hos. 4:11-12). What nation hasn’t had one too many Catholic concoctions (Rev. 17:2)? It’s past time to GET SOBER!
-Excerpt from Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall - Chapter 4 - Victims of Tradition
Drunks and Whores (David Ben-Ariel YouTube video)
We’ve been living a lie and have loved to indulge in deception. “Don’t confuse me with the facts” has been our shameful attitude, and truth has been treated like some social outcast. Therefore, God threatens to use Europe to wake us up...
Since we’re A NATION LIVING IN SIN—Jacob disowns us, Abraham doesn’t recognize us, and Isaac mourns our mixed marriages (Isa. 63:16). Israel’s birthmark was obedience to God (Gen. 18:19)...
There are spiritual factors behind our economic crisis! It’s in our best national interest to obey God and invest some time in personal Bible study.
But instead of developing our relationship with God and staying sober and celibate, we’ve whored around and given birth to pagans (Hos. 5:7). That’s why God can’t accept us as His National Priest since our lifestyle choice misrepresents Him! God doesn’t want any part in our perversion. Since we’ve denied His natural order of things, He won’t recognize our illegitimate children! He hasn’t fathered them (Hos. 4:6).
God says we haven’t been humble and obedient like Abraham—the Father of the faithful—but are “…a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the LORD…” and don’t want anything to do with the truth. We don’t want to be shown where we’re wrong, and we don’t want to hear about it (Isa. 30:9-11). “So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction” (Jer. 7:28). We’ve orphaned ourselves and act like bastards!
Instead of becoming a model-nation we’ve become a STRIPPER! We’ve taken all the fine things that God’s given us and laid them out before foreigners (Hos. 2:1-13). We’ve squandered our time and energy in pagan ways and heathen practices. Therefore, God’s going to STRIP AWAY OUR PEACE AND PROSPERITY! We’re going to be left exposed to the elements and stripped bare before NAKED AGGRESSION! Since we refuse to return to God, we’ll be sent back into SLAVERY!
We’re a nation of DRUNKS AND WHORES—so God’s going to let us hit bottom so hard it’ll appear we’ll never bounce back! God’s no longer going to enable us to carry on in our ways, drinking ourselves to death and dying for sex. We’ve gone from bad to worse: “You have stricken them, but they have not grieved You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than rock they have refused to return” (Jer. 5:3)...
We’ve left God’s ways, throughout history, to follow men’s ideas. We’d lose our love for the truth and become enamored with error. Due to this spiritual insult and breach of contract, God would send a number of eviction notices. He’d cite us for breaking our lease and inform us we’d worn out our welcome. But we’d rip us those notices and abuse those who delivered them: “And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them [far in advance], but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, ‘Repent now every one of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever” (Jer. 25:4-5).
We didn’t want to be reminded that God had set us free from men to serve Him. We could only call the Holy Land home as long as we remained holy! There were clauses that if we failed to make repairs and keep the place clean, we could forfeit our biblical right to the land and be DISINHERITED (Jer. 17:4)...
As we go further into NATIONAL DEBT AND DISGRACE, instead of turning to God for divine assistance, we turn to foreigners for loans! But it’ll be our downfall! Will Europe or Saudi Arabia offer to bail us out? Japan or China keep us afloat? Or will they forcibly put us into receivership? Throw us into debtor’s jail? Require FORCED LABOR? Who hasn’t heard of loan sharks (Hos. 7:11-12)? Or how they fly into a frenzy over blood money? They won’t just break our bones—they’ll BOMB OUR CITIES (Ezek. 6:6)...
Ancient Israel fell prey to every con-artist (painting pretty pictures of peace), passing phase or new fad—drunk on the ecumenical spirits. Yes, “…they have erred through wine, and through intoxicating drink are out of the way: the priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they are out of [their wits and gone astray] through intoxicating drink they [can’t see or think straight], they stumble in judgment [they can’t even walk a straight line]. For all tables are full of vomit and filth no place is clean” (Isa. 28:7-8).
The party’s over, the place is trashed, and everybody’s going to wake up with a HORRIBLE HANG-OVER!
It’s interesting to note that, during my days as a lowly kibbutz-volunteer, the British were notorious for being drunks. They had earned such a bad reputation that some kibbutzim and moshavim wouldn’t accept any English volunteers. God condemns the Sceptered Isle for being SPIRITUAL DRUNKS! He castigates “…the crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim” (Isa. 28:1-3). Of course, we’ve all been a bunch of drunks and whores, in love with Babylonian babes and brew: “Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart… For the spirit of [promiscuity] has caused them to stray [from the truth], and they have [whored around] against their God”(Hos. 4:11-12). What nation hasn’t had one too many Catholic concoctions (Rev. 17:2)? It’s past time to GET SOBER!
-Excerpt from Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall - Chapter 4 - Victims of Tradition
Drunks and Whores (David Ben-Ariel YouTube video)
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Saturday, February 07, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall

Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall by David Ben-Ariel
Mr. Ben-Ariel clearly has a God-given love for the Jews and the nation of Israel. His Israeli lawyer has stated that David's "future is linked with that of the Jews," and Gershon Salomon, chairman of the Temple Mount Faithful says, "God has some special task" for him. His sacred bond with the land and people of Israel has been strengthened over the years by his service as a volunteer on eight kibbutzim (collective farms) throughout the Holy Land, including during Operation Desert Storm. As a firm believer in the Israelite roots and responsibilities of the Anglo-Saxons and Northwestern European peoples, David works towards the ultimate reconciliation and restoration of Joseph with Judah. As a student of biblical prophecy, he is alarmed about Germany and the Vatican's increasing control of the European continent, remodeling it after the Holy Roman Empire. As the outspoken author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall, he is determined to do all he can to help wake up the world to the clear and present danger Germany poses to world peace, with a special emphasis on the Middle East.
East Toledoan calls his book, Beyond Babylon, God’s final warning
Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall by David Ben-Ariel
Beyond Babylon (free to read online)
Beyond Babylon
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Miriam Weiss: Holocaust Survivor and Kibbutz Mother
Miriam Weiss: Holocaust Survivor and Kibbutz Mother
Miriam Weiss: June 29, 1915 - January 4, 1997

Miriam Weiss and David Ben-Ariel,
Passover at Ramat Yohanan, 1990
On that precious list of "Righteous Gentiles" (rare individuals who assisted Jews during the Holocaust) is the great name of Jan Bulski who risked his life and family in Poland to save my "kibbutz mother" -- Miriam Weiss -- who I met and was "adopted" by at Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan near Haifa in Northern Israel while a volunteer there from October 1982 to February 1983.
This is an excerpt from Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan, Restal Hotel, Tiberias, Israel -- a letter I wrote an American friend (without touching it up for spelling), July 27, 1989 from Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan, Israel:
"Miriam & I cried yesterday when she received a letter stating the man in Poland who hid her & saved her from the Gestapo & Holocaust, died. She opened up last week & told me what I hadn't known & how wealthy she was raised, how wealthy she married w/jewellery & furs & extensive rich contacts & travel in Europe & how happy she was, and had a cook for her & her husband & a maid also, & how after Hitler invaded Poland her husband immediately joined the underground buying weapons & insisting she move in w/friends for safety sake & how he was later captured by the Gestapo & murdered in Matthausen, Austria concentration camp & how sick w/grief & pain she was, she so loved him. And how one of the women who risked their lives to help save her later was caught attempting to save others & was murdered herself after being shipped to Ravensbruck concentration camp & how her mother was in the Warsaw Ghetto & sent to the gas chambers in Treblinka concentration camp. She cried when she spoke of how much pain can one take after her husband's death. Miriam just turned 74 about a month ago. I don't know how they handle such hell... She's been ill for the last 2 months & I feel helpless to help her..."
While writing this article to honor Miriam's memory and share history, I've practically gone mad looking for the fuchshia-colored paper I knew I had with her maiden name and the name of her Catholic Polish husband, a Gentile, one of four brothers who each owned the largest industrial banks in Poland, a paper I typed up in her home the day after she gave me detailed information about her life. I can't find it and wonder if I threw it out figuring Yad Vashem already has the information or what, but I can't imagine doing that as I would want to add my personal touch and memories to it. Perhaps it's all symbolic of the fears and frustrations of looking for lost family members, Holocaust survivors, and it's out of your control and so overwhelming.
Miriam said when Heydrich (Himmler?) thought things were going too slowly in Poland, he decided to round up a lot of people on "Black Saturday." That's when they took her husband away since he was involved in the Polish Underground. Miriam said she was in the Warsaw Ghetto with her mother (Miriam's parents were Zwi and Hana Hampel) but got out and was hid by a woman who was later sent to Ravensbruck herself for helping to rescue Jews. One night some drunk Poles came and banged on the door and told the woman they knew she was hiding "schwein, Jewish schwein," pretending to be Gestapo, and only left when they got a fur out of it. That's when the lady told Miriam she would have to go back into the Warsaw Ghetto until some other place could be found for her.
Miriam said that she had dyed her hair blond to look as Aryan as could be and wore a widow's veil and that the Nazi guards at the Warsaw Ghetto made a comment about how young she was to already be a widow. Later when another place was found for Miriam, she said her mother was so happy for her to get out but it was the last time she saw her and Miriam attributes her survival to her mother's prayers. Miriam said her mother was sent to Treblinka where she died, but a letter from Henia Seidman [Miriam's best Israeli-Polish friend] to me says she died in the Warsaw Ghetto. Miriam also said, if I remember correctly, that she was hid in a hole in the ground at Jan Bulski's place, and that the only thing to comfort her was a small vial of perfume she kept. I always gave her a gift of perfume for Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). Henia wrote Miriam was hidden in their kitchen. One thing for sure is Miriam said after the war everybody talked about where they were during the war and how hardly anybody could believe where she was hidden, as Jews weren't welcome there before the war! Miriam felt the Poles were more anti-Semitic than the Germans.
Miriam told me that she later arranged, after the Russians came, to make it to Berlin but you could never know for sure if the one you paid to help you get there would show up or come through and her help did, but she ended up in the Russian section of Berlin on Christmas Eve and was in a small room with no windows and mattresses on the floor with about 50 other people crammed in there. She said everybody hoped to get into the American quarter. She also said after the war there was so much food, almost too much food.
Miriam married someone I think she met that Christmas night in Berlin or knew him in Poland, Hanoch Eisenberg, and wandered with him in Europe and as Henia wrote, "the Joint brought her and her husband...to Italy. From Italy they went by ships to Israel, but in the time of English Mandate their ship was kidnapped and brought to Cyprus camps. In Cyprus they were perhaps a year and in 1949 they came to Ramat Jochanan."
Actually, Miriam had some friend or relative visiting Ramat Yohanan from Kibbutz Yagur who was reading a letter from her, as Miriam told me, and she started crying and Henia Seidman, being the soft-hearted woman she's known to be, asked her why and she told her how Miriam was so depressed in Cyprus and Henia said for her to tell her to plan to come to Ramat Yohanan. When Miriam first came to the kibbutz from Cyprus after Israeli independence, they called for Henia who was working in what was then the kitchen (not the big beautiful cheder ochel -- dining room -- they have today, she pointed out), practically a wooden shack, and although she had soot or something on her face her beautiful blue eyes shone through (and Henia had such beautiful blue eyes) and Henia and her mother hugged and welcomed Miriam as family. Henia's family left Poland before the Holocaust.
Miriam divorced Eisenberg who didn't want to stay on the kibbutz and moved to Tel Aviv. She later married - for one day - David Weiss from the kibbutz. I used to say hello to him and often saw him working at the kibbutz factory, Palram. A very short man, older, with white hair. I once ate with David and mentioned the Queen of England continued King David's dynasty, and was surprised he was familiar with the belief but appeared to dismiss it as "a nice story."
Miriam and Henia were both short Polish Jews. We would always sit together in the dining room and eat and they would carry on in Polish and some Hebrew and English. If you didn't know them you would think they were always arguing, but that's just how they talked, as I chuckle remembering them. The mail boxes were in the dining room too, and since it was easier for me to walk with my "long legs" and get Miriam's mail, I would. That's how I brought the letter to her that day when we found out Jan Bulski had died. I had only written him about once and sent him maybe $20 or more through some grateful Polish organization in Toledo, Ohio that would make sure he received it. They said it would be exchanged on the black market for more zlotys. He was a diabetic and did receive something monthly from Yad Vashem after Miriam and Henia saw to it. A tree was also planted in his honor on the "Avenue of the Righteous Gentiles" at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Miriam cried and said he didn't have to risk his life and the life of his family to save her but that he did and that he was such a good man. Henia and I just kept quiet and wept with her.
Miriam told me her family had their money from the tea industry. They bought and sold the famous Lyon tea from England and then repackaged it or whatever they did to make a profit. She loved the European concerts and later travelled with her husband all over Europe and North Africa. She said her love of music came from her mother.
Miriam had another kibbutz "son" like me, also an American, whose name is Joe from New Hampshire. She was going to leave him her photo-album. Joe travelled with her to Switzerland to visit a mutual friend whom Miriam tried to play matchmaker between him and her, but they remained friends and nothing more. Miriam used to ask why Moses couldn't have led the Children of Israel to Switzerland! People would speak of Miriam's sons as "Joe and Hoover." (I was born with the family name of Hoover but legally changed my name to David Ben-Ariel for religious reasons). Miriam used to exclaim, "Do you know how many people would love to have your passport? To be an American?" I would tell her that although I dearly love the United States I want to live in Israel and she would mellow and say something like, "Well, if that makes you happy, if that's what you want." She also worried that I would get killed like Meir Kahane for being so outspoken.
One of my many fond and funny memories is Miriam and I arriving somewhat late to a Sukkot celebration around the swimming pool at Ramat Yohanan, and there were plenty of people standing around and we looked for a place to stand and then she found a bale of straw to sit on near the front and then there appeared to be some confusion as the lady who was to lead the children's singing was frantically looking about and then discovered that Miriam was sitting on the folded banner that had the words to their song!
Miriam used to rest in bed after we ate in the afternoon and listen to her classical music (I gave her Grandma Vivian Hoover's classical albums) and read The Jerusalem Post and then sigh how she hated politics, comment that she was weary of world news, but she would continue to read the newspapers and listen every hour on the hour to the news on the radio as I read a book or wrote in her living room (where she displayed the Austrian crystal glass castle I once gave her for a gift, which I called "the Kingdom of Messiah" -- because of its brilliance -- and Joe's paintings adorned her walls...Miriam had an artist and an author for her sons).
Every time I visited Israel, I would head straight for Miriam's. The last time I saw her was in 1995 when her friends told me she had Alzheimer's. She had been moved from her apartment to the nursing home. They told me if she would remember anybody, it would be me. I went in and she was strapped in a wheelchair, wanting out, and wanting me to get her out and speaking German to me. (Miriam knew German, English, Polish and Hebrew). She held on to my arm so tightly, looking frightened, and I said, "Miriam, it's David. I'm American. Speak Hebrew or English. I don't know German." She was crying and I was crying. Another Miriam, originally from Berlin, was very angry about Miriam's deteriorating situation and said the Germans who doubted the Holocaust should hear Miriam reliving it and crying out for her mother, as if once wasn't enough! Henia wrote me that Miriam was born in Poland June 29, 1915 and died January 4, 1997 at Ramat Yohanan and was buried there and "got a very fine monument at our cemetery."
For greater insight into my beloved Miriam, I'll close with portions of a March 18, 1988 letter of commendation she wrote on my behalf to Joseph Tkach, Jr. of the Worldwide Church of God:
...my kibbutz son David Hoover...first came to our kibbutz seven years ago...he posted [actually somebody else did in the communal dining room] an article he had written about his struggle to free himself from drugs for all the members to read. A very brave thing to do since drug addiction is here considered a terrible social and personal crime. I invited him to visit me and we subsequently got to know each other well. David stayed on our kibbutz six months the first time. He worked hard and thus earned the respect of many members here. There was never any trouble. Quite the contrary. And David shared with us his Christian beliefs that had given him such strength to overcome his addiction...When I say he shared his beliefs I mean that he offered but did not force them upon us. As might be well known to you we are sensitive to any aggressive presentations of Christianity that denigrate our Jewish heritage. But David has a deep and affectionate respect for it. I myself am not religious and must admit that I am sometimes bewildered by his impressive knowledge of the Bible and Jewish customs but if it give his life fulfillment I am very happy for him...Over the past seven years David has come to Ramat Yohanan to celebrate Sukkot. He has stayed with me and is a very well behaved guest. He also corresponds with me regularly and started my subscription to Plain Truth which I do read with interest. Recently I continued the subscription. I might add that several other members of our kibbutz now read it too...I think confidence can be placed in him to represent your church here in the Middle East...
Sincerely,
Shalom,
Miriam Weiss
I yearn to return to Zion and visit Miriam's gravesite, but Ramat Yohanan just wouldn't be the same without her. And the dining room without Miriam or Henia...
Other articles that mention Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan:
Israel Work History (Worldwide Church of God)
Herbert W Armstrong and Worldwide Church of God Mentioned in Israeli Newspaper
Joseph Isn't Jewish!
Miriam Weiss: June 29, 1915 - January 4, 1997

Miriam Weiss and David Ben-Ariel,
Passover at Ramat Yohanan, 1990
On that precious list of "Righteous Gentiles" (rare individuals who assisted Jews during the Holocaust) is the great name of Jan Bulski who risked his life and family in Poland to save my "kibbutz mother" -- Miriam Weiss -- who I met and was "adopted" by at Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan near Haifa in Northern Israel while a volunteer there from October 1982 to February 1983.
This is an excerpt from Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan, Restal Hotel, Tiberias, Israel -- a letter I wrote an American friend (without touching it up for spelling), July 27, 1989 from Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan, Israel:
"Miriam & I cried yesterday when she received a letter stating the man in Poland who hid her & saved her from the Gestapo & Holocaust, died. She opened up last week & told me what I hadn't known & how wealthy she was raised, how wealthy she married w/jewellery & furs & extensive rich contacts & travel in Europe & how happy she was, and had a cook for her & her husband & a maid also, & how after Hitler invaded Poland her husband immediately joined the underground buying weapons & insisting she move in w/friends for safety sake & how he was later captured by the Gestapo & murdered in Matthausen, Austria concentration camp & how sick w/grief & pain she was, she so loved him. And how one of the women who risked their lives to help save her later was caught attempting to save others & was murdered herself after being shipped to Ravensbruck concentration camp & how her mother was in the Warsaw Ghetto & sent to the gas chambers in Treblinka concentration camp. She cried when she spoke of how much pain can one take after her husband's death. Miriam just turned 74 about a month ago. I don't know how they handle such hell... She's been ill for the last 2 months & I feel helpless to help her..."
While writing this article to honor Miriam's memory and share history, I've practically gone mad looking for the fuchshia-colored paper I knew I had with her maiden name and the name of her Catholic Polish husband, a Gentile, one of four brothers who each owned the largest industrial banks in Poland, a paper I typed up in her home the day after she gave me detailed information about her life. I can't find it and wonder if I threw it out figuring Yad Vashem already has the information or what, but I can't imagine doing that as I would want to add my personal touch and memories to it. Perhaps it's all symbolic of the fears and frustrations of looking for lost family members, Holocaust survivors, and it's out of your control and so overwhelming.
Miriam said when Heydrich (Himmler?) thought things were going too slowly in Poland, he decided to round up a lot of people on "Black Saturday." That's when they took her husband away since he was involved in the Polish Underground. Miriam said she was in the Warsaw Ghetto with her mother (Miriam's parents were Zwi and Hana Hampel) but got out and was hid by a woman who was later sent to Ravensbruck herself for helping to rescue Jews. One night some drunk Poles came and banged on the door and told the woman they knew she was hiding "schwein, Jewish schwein," pretending to be Gestapo, and only left when they got a fur out of it. That's when the lady told Miriam she would have to go back into the Warsaw Ghetto until some other place could be found for her.
Miriam said that she had dyed her hair blond to look as Aryan as could be and wore a widow's veil and that the Nazi guards at the Warsaw Ghetto made a comment about how young she was to already be a widow. Later when another place was found for Miriam, she said her mother was so happy for her to get out but it was the last time she saw her and Miriam attributes her survival to her mother's prayers. Miriam said her mother was sent to Treblinka where she died, but a letter from Henia Seidman [Miriam's best Israeli-Polish friend] to me says she died in the Warsaw Ghetto. Miriam also said, if I remember correctly, that she was hid in a hole in the ground at Jan Bulski's place, and that the only thing to comfort her was a small vial of perfume she kept. I always gave her a gift of perfume for Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). Henia wrote Miriam was hidden in their kitchen. One thing for sure is Miriam said after the war everybody talked about where they were during the war and how hardly anybody could believe where she was hidden, as Jews weren't welcome there before the war! Miriam felt the Poles were more anti-Semitic than the Germans.
Miriam told me that she later arranged, after the Russians came, to make it to Berlin but you could never know for sure if the one you paid to help you get there would show up or come through and her help did, but she ended up in the Russian section of Berlin on Christmas Eve and was in a small room with no windows and mattresses on the floor with about 50 other people crammed in there. She said everybody hoped to get into the American quarter. She also said after the war there was so much food, almost too much food.
Miriam married someone I think she met that Christmas night in Berlin or knew him in Poland, Hanoch Eisenberg, and wandered with him in Europe and as Henia wrote, "the Joint brought her and her husband...to Italy. From Italy they went by ships to Israel, but in the time of English Mandate their ship was kidnapped and brought to Cyprus camps. In Cyprus they were perhaps a year and in 1949 they came to Ramat Jochanan."
Actually, Miriam had some friend or relative visiting Ramat Yohanan from Kibbutz Yagur who was reading a letter from her, as Miriam told me, and she started crying and Henia Seidman, being the soft-hearted woman she's known to be, asked her why and she told her how Miriam was so depressed in Cyprus and Henia said for her to tell her to plan to come to Ramat Yohanan. When Miriam first came to the kibbutz from Cyprus after Israeli independence, they called for Henia who was working in what was then the kitchen (not the big beautiful cheder ochel -- dining room -- they have today, she pointed out), practically a wooden shack, and although she had soot or something on her face her beautiful blue eyes shone through (and Henia had such beautiful blue eyes) and Henia and her mother hugged and welcomed Miriam as family. Henia's family left Poland before the Holocaust.
Miriam divorced Eisenberg who didn't want to stay on the kibbutz and moved to Tel Aviv. She later married - for one day - David Weiss from the kibbutz. I used to say hello to him and often saw him working at the kibbutz factory, Palram. A very short man, older, with white hair. I once ate with David and mentioned the Queen of England continued King David's dynasty, and was surprised he was familiar with the belief but appeared to dismiss it as "a nice story."
Miriam and Henia were both short Polish Jews. We would always sit together in the dining room and eat and they would carry on in Polish and some Hebrew and English. If you didn't know them you would think they were always arguing, but that's just how they talked, as I chuckle remembering them. The mail boxes were in the dining room too, and since it was easier for me to walk with my "long legs" and get Miriam's mail, I would. That's how I brought the letter to her that day when we found out Jan Bulski had died. I had only written him about once and sent him maybe $20 or more through some grateful Polish organization in Toledo, Ohio that would make sure he received it. They said it would be exchanged on the black market for more zlotys. He was a diabetic and did receive something monthly from Yad Vashem after Miriam and Henia saw to it. A tree was also planted in his honor on the "Avenue of the Righteous Gentiles" at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Miriam cried and said he didn't have to risk his life and the life of his family to save her but that he did and that he was such a good man. Henia and I just kept quiet and wept with her.
Miriam told me her family had their money from the tea industry. They bought and sold the famous Lyon tea from England and then repackaged it or whatever they did to make a profit. She loved the European concerts and later travelled with her husband all over Europe and North Africa. She said her love of music came from her mother.
Miriam had another kibbutz "son" like me, also an American, whose name is Joe from New Hampshire. She was going to leave him her photo-album. Joe travelled with her to Switzerland to visit a mutual friend whom Miriam tried to play matchmaker between him and her, but they remained friends and nothing more. Miriam used to ask why Moses couldn't have led the Children of Israel to Switzerland! People would speak of Miriam's sons as "Joe and Hoover." (I was born with the family name of Hoover but legally changed my name to David Ben-Ariel for religious reasons). Miriam used to exclaim, "Do you know how many people would love to have your passport? To be an American?" I would tell her that although I dearly love the United States I want to live in Israel and she would mellow and say something like, "Well, if that makes you happy, if that's what you want." She also worried that I would get killed like Meir Kahane for being so outspoken.
One of my many fond and funny memories is Miriam and I arriving somewhat late to a Sukkot celebration around the swimming pool at Ramat Yohanan, and there were plenty of people standing around and we looked for a place to stand and then she found a bale of straw to sit on near the front and then there appeared to be some confusion as the lady who was to lead the children's singing was frantically looking about and then discovered that Miriam was sitting on the folded banner that had the words to their song!
Miriam used to rest in bed after we ate in the afternoon and listen to her classical music (I gave her Grandma Vivian Hoover's classical albums) and read The Jerusalem Post and then sigh how she hated politics, comment that she was weary of world news, but she would continue to read the newspapers and listen every hour on the hour to the news on the radio as I read a book or wrote in her living room (where she displayed the Austrian crystal glass castle I once gave her for a gift, which I called "the Kingdom of Messiah" -- because of its brilliance -- and Joe's paintings adorned her walls...Miriam had an artist and an author for her sons).
Every time I visited Israel, I would head straight for Miriam's. The last time I saw her was in 1995 when her friends told me she had Alzheimer's. She had been moved from her apartment to the nursing home. They told me if she would remember anybody, it would be me. I went in and she was strapped in a wheelchair, wanting out, and wanting me to get her out and speaking German to me. (Miriam knew German, English, Polish and Hebrew). She held on to my arm so tightly, looking frightened, and I said, "Miriam, it's David. I'm American. Speak Hebrew or English. I don't know German." She was crying and I was crying. Another Miriam, originally from Berlin, was very angry about Miriam's deteriorating situation and said the Germans who doubted the Holocaust should hear Miriam reliving it and crying out for her mother, as if once wasn't enough! Henia wrote me that Miriam was born in Poland June 29, 1915 and died January 4, 1997 at Ramat Yohanan and was buried there and "got a very fine monument at our cemetery."
For greater insight into my beloved Miriam, I'll close with portions of a March 18, 1988 letter of commendation she wrote on my behalf to Joseph Tkach, Jr. of the Worldwide Church of God:
...my kibbutz son David Hoover...first came to our kibbutz seven years ago...he posted [actually somebody else did in the communal dining room] an article he had written about his struggle to free himself from drugs for all the members to read. A very brave thing to do since drug addiction is here considered a terrible social and personal crime. I invited him to visit me and we subsequently got to know each other well. David stayed on our kibbutz six months the first time. He worked hard and thus earned the respect of many members here. There was never any trouble. Quite the contrary. And David shared with us his Christian beliefs that had given him such strength to overcome his addiction...When I say he shared his beliefs I mean that he offered but did not force them upon us. As might be well known to you we are sensitive to any aggressive presentations of Christianity that denigrate our Jewish heritage. But David has a deep and affectionate respect for it. I myself am not religious and must admit that I am sometimes bewildered by his impressive knowledge of the Bible and Jewish customs but if it give his life fulfillment I am very happy for him...Over the past seven years David has come to Ramat Yohanan to celebrate Sukkot. He has stayed with me and is a very well behaved guest. He also corresponds with me regularly and started my subscription to Plain Truth which I do read with interest. Recently I continued the subscription. I might add that several other members of our kibbutz now read it too...I think confidence can be placed in him to represent your church here in the Middle East...
Sincerely,
Shalom,
Miriam Weiss
I yearn to return to Zion and visit Miriam's gravesite, but Ramat Yohanan just wouldn't be the same without her. And the dining room without Miriam or Henia...
Other articles that mention Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan:
Israel Work History (Worldwide Church of God)
Herbert W Armstrong and Worldwide Church of God Mentioned in Israeli Newspaper
Joseph Isn't Jewish!
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