Chapter 11 An Old Testament Girl
Thomas Winslow was further frustrated that Esther’s addresses were always in care of someone else.
In her brief time in Vienna, she’d been in care of the Morgensterns—in Haifa, in care of Moshe Kleinberg.
And now, whatever her business was in Jerusalem, Esther was living with one stranger after another—not strangers to Esther evidently, but unknown to the Winslows.
And not all of Esther’s addresses were in Jerusalem.
Thomas Winslow would write to Esther at one address.
When she wrote back to him—not such a long time later—she was writing from a different address.
“Isn’t Esther living like an itinerant—what can she possibly be doing?” Thomas asked his family.
“More to the point, Daddy, did Esther convince you that Little Mountain will get the job done?” Honor asked her father.
Esther could convince anyone to get her pregnant, on her terms, Thomas Winslow was thinking—he didn’t doubt the wrestler was committed. Moses Little Mountain would keep his promise to impregnate Esther when she wanted him to.
As for what Esther could possibly be doing in Mandatory Palestine, the Druckers seemed determined to be as vague as Esther. Isaac, newly retired from Pennacook Academy, and Bluma were in close contact with her.
“It’s possible that protocol prevents Esther from making public statements about her Haganah activities, especially in writing,” Isaac told the senior Winslows.
This was the first they’d heard of Esther’s involvement with the principal Zionist paramilitary organization there.
(Honor must have known and kept quiet, her sisters thought.)
Haganah is the Hebrew word for “The Defense”—its purpose was to protect Jewish settlements from Arab attacks.
The Winslows were surprised to hear how many such attacks there’d been—like the riots of 1920, 1921, and 1929 (not to mention the 1936–1939 Arab revolt).
The Winslows were confused by the word Havlagah (meaning “The Restraint”), the official policy of Haganah—a policy of moderation, at least until the end of World War II.
To left-wing supporters of the Zionists like the Druckers, Havlagah was a morally superior policy—to abstain from taking revenge on Arabs (by not attacking innocent Arab civilians) was a way to stay friends with the British, and it didn’t hurt to give the rest of the world a positive impression of the Zionist ideology.
Yet the Winslows were further confused by the two words themselves—Haganah and Havlagah sounded too much alike.
“Defense and restraint sound potentially contradictory to me,” Thomas Winslow would say to the Druckers, who said nothing.
Isaac and Bluma knew how contradictory Haganah and Havlagah could be.
As long ago as 1931, there already was a split in Haganah; the more militant Haganah fighters had objected to the policy of Havlagah.
To many Haganah fighters, it seemed defeatist not to initiate counterattacks against Arab gangs—or against their communities.
Neither the Winslows nor the Druckers imagined Esther was a soldier.
Given her training as a nurse—and, as time went on, her age—Esther most likely was a medic.
Many female Haganah recruits served as medics.
What the Winslows and the Druckers would leave unsaid was foremost on Honor’s mind, and on her sisters’ minds.
Everyone knew that restraint didn’t come naturally to Esther.
But Esther Nacht knew how to bide her time—she was planning ahead.
By showing restraint, Esther would make herself indispensable to the British.
The British didn’t officially recognize Haganah, but British security forces cooperated with the group.
During World War II, about four thousand Haganah women volunteered for service in the British assisting forces.
In 1941, to prevent a possible Axis invasion of Palestine through North Africa, of course Haganah cooperated with the British.
The Palmach, the elite fighting force of the Haganah, was established in May 1941. With Israel’s independence in 1948, the Haganah would become the core of the Israel Defense Forces, with Palmach members constituting the IDF’s high command.
“The Haganah, the Palmach, the Israel Defense Forces—there are too many names to remember, Connie,” Thomas would say.
“I suppose they all need nurses, Tommy,” Constance told him.
This echoed what Isaac Drucker, in his vague way, offhandedly said. “It doesn’t matter what you call them, Tommy—the military probably has a use for nurses.”
Honor Winslow had her own way of saying this. “You can’t be a soldier forever, Daddy, but you can be a nurse as long as you want—Esther will always be looking after someone.”
Whatever Esther was up to in the Land of Israel, she was keeping an eye on Moshe Kleinberg.
Moses Little Mountain was married, and his new wife was pregnant, when it was time for him to impregnate Esther.
The Rosenthals had been somewhat aloof from the Zionist and Haganah conversations.
On the subject of Little Mountain knocking up Esther, though, the Rosenthals, the Druckers—not to mention all the Winslows—were on the same page.
Esther was uncharacteristically restrained; she didn’t say how many times she and Little Mountain had sex.
Years later—long after Jimmy Winslow was Honor’s child—those Winslow daughters would carry on about Esther and Little Mountain in their own vernacular. “The pregnant wife was a promising sign,” Faith would say first.
“We knew Moses was carrying a loaded gun,” Hope usually added.
“We knew Little Mountain wasn’t shooting blanks,” Prudence liked to put it.
“Girls, girls—no guns and blanks around Jimmy!” Constance said.
The Winslow grandchildren who were old enough to be in school—including the little ones, who were only in kindergarten—were on Christmas vacation when Esther came “home,” as she called Pennacook.
It was the end of December 1940; Esther wasn’t due for another two months.
She’d not wanted to risk miscarrying at sea.
Esther was as tall and slim as ever, but she didn’t hesitate to show anyone her small but growing baby bump.
Esther wanted everyone to know she was expecting.
In regard to the Rosenthals, the Druckers, and the Winslows, Esther wanted them to know that her feelings about the British had changed.
In 1939, the British White Paper had harshly curtailed Jewish immigration to Palestine, pissing off the Zionists.
In Esther’s opinion, the Zionist leaders weren’t pissed off enough.
Ben-Gurion had said: “We shall fight in the war against Hitler as if there were no White Paper, but we shall fight the White Paper as if there were no war.”
That didn’t sound sufficiently pissed off to Esther, who would one day be in favor of Haganah’s sabotage activities against the British.
Esther would support Haganah’s assistance in bringing Jews to Palestine in defiance of the British.
And after World War II, when Haganah was bombing British bridges, rail lines, and ships—the ones used to deport illegal Jewish immigrants—Esther would be in favor of the bombing, too.
“It’s like when the Arabs attack us—we’re going to fight back,” Esther told the Rosenthals, the Druckers, and the Winslows.
“When Jews want to come to Palestine, they must be allowed to come—if the British don’t let Jews in, we will drive the British out,” Esther said.
(To a New Englander like Thomas Winslow, driving out the British wasn’t a bad idea.)
Esther was no less outspoken on the subject of the United States not yet taking up the fight—she meant “the war against Hitler,” as Ben-Gurion had called it.
“Why has the U.S. not entered the war—are we waiting for someone to attack us first?” Esther asked. (The Winslows would remember this the next December, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor—and, following Japan, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.)
But when she was pregnant that Christmas of 1940, Esther just told the Winslows her thoughts on the burning of the Fasanenstrasse Synagogue in Berlin.
The liberal Jewish synagogue had been closed by the Nazis in 1936.
The synagogue was burned during Kristallnacht in 1938.
The name meant “Crystal Night,” as Esther would explain—in reference to the shards of broken glass littering the streets, after Jewish shops and synagogues were smashed.
Now the Night of Broken Glass had forever marked the name of Nacht or Nachtman—any Jewish name with Nacht in it was a reminder of Kristallnacht.
“I’m keeping my name—I’m a Nacht, and I always will be,” Esther told the Rosenthals, the Druckers, and the Winslows.
“Not vague anymore, Tommy—our Esther is back,” Constance said.
“Right you are, Connie—I was worried about the vagueness,” Thomas told her. What still worried those two was Honor’s vagueness.
Of more interest to Honor and her sisters was Esther’s news about Little Mountain’s wife—she’d had a baby boy.
“Maybe Little Mountain makes boys,” Faith was the first to say.
“It would be a little different for this family to have a boy around,” Constance ventured in her cautious way.
“A James Winslow has a nice ring to it, Connie,” Thomas said.
“If he’s a James, he’ll be a Jimmy,” Hope insisted.
“I’m betting Little Mountain makes a Jimmy!” Prudence cried.
The talk about Hitler’s war had worried Honor.
If the United States were in a war, the young men would be in it, she was thinking.
Maybe Faith’s husband was too old, and he had trouble with one knee, but Hope’s husband might be young and healthy enough.
Maybe I don’t want a boy, Honor was considering.
What if her child was a young man when the U.S.
was in a war? she was worrying, but—for the time being—she was silent.