Chapter 9 A Preexisting Idea #3
A basic tenet of Zionism, making aliyah is “the act of going up”—from the Hebrew word aliyah, which means “ascent.” As the Rosenthals would struggle to explain to the Winslows, aliyah is the opposite of the Hebrew word yerida, which means “descent”—namely, the emigration of Jews from the Land of Israel.
As politically aware as the Winslows imagined they were, they didn’t know how harshly the United States had restricted immigration in 1921—despite the persecution of the Jews in Europe.
The Winslows were barely aware that Mandatory Palestine was under British administration.
The Winslows were completely unaware of the Fifth Aliyah; the fifth wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine began in 1929.
Hitler’s rise to power in Nazi Germany would lead to mass migration between 1933 and 1939; in those years, as many as 55,000 Jews from Central Europe immigrated to Mandatory Palestine.
Without Esther—meaning without the Druckers or the Rosenthals—what would the Winslows have known about the Arab riots there, or the British White Paper, which sharply cut Jewish immigration?
The Winslows were over their heads trying to understand Esther’s terms of engagement with the U.S.
Army. Neither the Druckers nor the Rosenthals could help the Winslows comprehend how Esther “deferred” her active service in the U.S.
Army Nurse Corps—“pending other plans of engagement,” as Esther vaguely put it.
(After all, what did the Druckers or the Rosenthals know or care about the military or an army nurse’s service?)
What the Winslows would slowly understand was that the Druckers felt more empathy for Esther’s inclination to Zionism than the Rosenthals did.
Isaac and Bluma were Viennese-born Jews.
The Rosenthals had been born in New York; their parents had emigrated from Europe, but the Rosenthals were more assimilated than the Druckers.
Isaac and Bluma knew they were living in the privileged seclusion of an all-boys’ private school—an ivory tower of academia, where they were accepted and felt safe to be Jewish.
Yet they were aware that the Jews in Vienna weren’t safe.
What the Winslows didn’t know—what not even the Rosenthals knew—was that Isaac and Bluma Drucker had already put Esther in contact with some old Social Democrats, now members of the Austrian Resistance in Vienna.
When Esther told the Rosenthals, the Winslows were further alarmed that the Rosenthals were alarmed.
“You can’t blame Esther for making things happen,” Isaac told the Winslows.
“Isaac wishes we made more things happen,” was all Bluma said to the Winslows and the Rosenthals.
Both the Winslows and the Rosenthals thought the Austrian Resistance sounded dangerous. By now they all knew danger didn’t deter Esther Nacht.
But hadn’t the aging Druckers been away from Vienna too long?
How old were their old friends in Vienna—Social Democrats, now reputed to be in the Austrian Resistance?
In 1934, when Esther was on her way there, the fascists had taken charge of Vienna; the Austrian fascists had designated the Social Democrats as an illegal political party.
Many socialist leaders had left Austria for Czechoslovakia.
According to Isaac and Bluma Drucker, many of their Jewish friends from Vienna were also exiles in Czechoslovakia.
“You can get a new passport made in Brno,” Isaac said.
“Bernard and Joanna Morgenstern will look after Esther—they’ve not left Vienna,” Bluma told the Winslows and the Rosenthals.
“Not yet,” Isaac added—ominously, the Winslows thought.
The Rosenthals knew what the Winslows were thinking.
To Thomas and Constance, with their lofty literary standards, all this intrigue sounded like an espionage novel—a tacky thriller.
Trains back and forth between Brno and Vienna, Austrian Jews and socialists in exile in Czechoslovakia—fake passports and crossing borders in secret.
The Winslows could understand why Esther wanted to learn German and be in Vienna—her birthplace, in the country her parents had emigrated from—but why did Esther need to be involved with old socialists in the Austrian Resistance?
This was where Esther’s commitment to “making aliyah” mattered.
Esther’s embrace of Zionism was met with much more empathy from the Druckers than the Rosenthals.
Vienna was a necessary stepping-off place for Esther, who was on her way to the Land of Israel, which she believed was the rightful homeland of the Jewish people.
More Jews would be (and should be) leaving Europe, Esther believed—not only leaving Austria.
Fascism was ramping up in Europe, not only in Austria—or so the Druckers told the Winslows and the Rosenthals.
Honor seemed to know more about Esther’s Jewish business than the rest of the Winslows.
It was Honor who told her parents how Esther had deferred her active service in the U.S.
Army Nurse Corps. In truth, Esther declined her enlistment into military service.
As Honor said to Thomas and Constance, instead of enlisting in the U.S.
Army Nurse Corps, Esther chose to immigrate to her Jewish homeland in Palestine.
“It sounds like Esther’s move to Palestine is permanent,” Thomas Winslow told his daughter.
“I thought you and Esther had a pact—you said she’ll be back when the time is right,” Constance said to Honor.
“She’ll be back just once—Esther is going to have a baby for me,” Honor told her parents.
“Esther will be back when she’s pregnant, but the baby will be mine—all mine.
That’s our pact,” Honor said. That was when Thomas and Constance Winslow realized that their grandchild Jimmy—who wasn’t yet conceived, much less born—was already a preexisting idea.