One evening in March 1962, when Director of the Mossad Isser Harel had just returned from a trip abroad handling some Mossad emergencies, he received a message.
Prime Minister David Ben Gurion wanted to see him urgently.
The Director arrived at the home of Ben Gurion around 2200 hours and the two sat chatting rather informally for some time.
Harel knew it was the way Ben Gurion worked, treating serious matters rather casually, so he just played the game and waited.
After two hours of idle chatter Ben Gurion blurted out!
“Can you find that child, do you think?”
Just as casually Harel replied.
“If you want me to, I will try.”
Nothing more was said. No names mentioned, but both of them understood about whom they were talking.
After bidding farewell, Harel made his way home.
Where is Yossele
Late in 1960, a small boy named Yossele had been kidnapped by his ultra-orthodox grandfather in Israel.
Despite intense efforts by the Police Force he could not be found.
By 1961 the matter had Israel in a frenzy.
It aroused public opinion, split political parties, made front-page headlines and sparked violent arguments.
It was then that Ben-Gurion, facing serious consequences, decided it was time to call in Isser Harel.
When Isser took on the search for Yossele he had no idea it would prove to be the most complicated assignment of his entire career.
It eventually involved more than forty Mossad agents, but ultimately Yossele was found in Brooklyn and secretly smuggled out of America to join his parents in Israel.
Born to Secrecy
As a young man, Isser Harel led a very private life, even in his own family.
Externally, although his cold poker face expressed calmness, he was anything but calm under pressure.
He was savagely proud, never forgot an insult, and rarely apologised.
Yet nobody, not only his own family, was aware he was fundamentally sensitive, nor that he was secretly writing poems published under a pseudonym in Riga’s newspaper in Latvia.
Locked in his room at home were Russian classics – Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Lermontov.
He also discovered the works of Victor Hugo, loved detective stories, and memorized the exploits of undercover men like Sherlock Holmes and the like.
Isser Harel was born to secrecy, but unknowingly preparing himself for a distinguished career in the Secret Service in Israel.
The Call of the Kibbutz
When Isser turned sixteen, he joined a collective farm near Riga for a year’s training.
The farm was a Zionist Movement initiative, designed to build the ranks of Zionist Socialists.
That year proved to be one of the happiest of his whole life.
Belonging to a community of young people and tilling the soil thrilled him.
He decided to leave home, much against his parent’s wishes, go to Palestine and join a kibbutz.
He spared no effort to do his best, earning a reputation as one of the best workers on the kibbutz, but he had doubts about his ability to make a success, so he returned home.
In 1929 the call to arms echoed in Zionist circles around the world as bloody disorders broke out between Jews and Arabs.
Regardless of the presence of the British Army, the Jews were a minority and an organized Arab offensive could easily crush them.
Reinforcements for the Jews in Palestine were urgently needed.
Isser also wanted to join them, but at age 17 he was too young.
That didn’t deter him and he found a counterfeiter who supplied him with papers certifying that he had just celebrated his eighteenth birthday, and in January 1930 he obtained an immigration visa to Israel.
About to board a train en route to Genoa from where the ship to Israel departed, a militant Zionist whom he didn’t know handed him a package.
After leaving the station, he opened the package to find a small revolver and a generous supply of bullets.
Just before sailing, a Jewish Immigration Department officer came on board warning all the Jewish migrants to throw their weapons overboard before arrival.
“Beware of the English. If they find weapons on you, you’ll be refused entry,” he warned.
Isser Harel wasn’t peeved about that.
He got a loaf of bread, scooped out the dough and buried his revolver under some soiled clothing.
Somehow he stuck the parts of the bread together and when the customs official came on board after docking and asking if he had anything to declare, Isser simply answered: “See for yourself.”
Isser opened his knapsack and rummaged through it under the watchful eye of the official who just replied: “Go ahead.”
After docking, Isser Harel crossed the immigration barrier and disappeared into the throng of Jews and Arabs.
His journey into Palestine had started and the success was remarkable.
At the age of 40 years he was appointed Director of the Mossad and although his tenure as Director was no more than eleven years, his achievements were meritorious.
Arguably, the greatest was the capture of Adolf Eichmann, an assignment which he masterminded.
