It’s always enlightening to look back from the time of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to the early days of the Declaration of the State of Israel in 1948.
We readily forget events and the brave people who risked their lives at times to enable modern Israel to rise from the grave after 2000 years and to be recreated as one of the wonders of the modern world.
Many of us, not only residents of Israel, but many others elsewhere in the world, both Jewish and non-Jewish are determined that numerous acts of bravery should be rekindled.
Here is one story that typifies the spirit of the Jewish people in their determination to create Israel as a modern, democratic country nestled in an autocratic desert.
On 1st July, 1945 a tight-lipped future Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion met with a group of prominent Jewish businessmen from all over the United States.
He wanted to discuss with them the expected developments in the Middle East and the effect they would have on the Jewish settlements in Palestine.
His urgent message to the group was that the Jews of British mandate Palestine would soon fight a war with the well-equipped five Arab states and the Jews could be defeated.
After more than eight hours, he asked the invitees, who were sworn to secrecy, to set up a foundation to procure United States military surplus and help establish an independent Israel military industry.
A Positive Response
His plea was met with a very positive response and the group agreed wholeheartedly to form a Jewish underground to purchase and smuggle badly needed supplies and weapons to the embattled Haganah (the Jewish underground movement), who were fighting with the Jews to form a Jewish state in Palestine.
This led to the formation of a straw company called ‘Sonneborn Institute,’ named in honor of Rudolf Sonneborn who hosted the meeting.
Risking criminal proceedings, the Institute undertook to illegally buy and ship weapons to Palestine. In addition, they helped to rescue and smuggle tens of thousands of Jews from the ashes of the Holocaust to settle in the State of Israel when it was declared in 1948.
It was quite a remarkable enterprise.
Years later, Ben Gurion claimed the building of the Sonneborn Institute was one of the three greatest acts of his life, alongside his immigration to Israel and the establishment of the State of Israel.
One of the key discoveries of the Institute in the United States was a young electronics engineer from the New York suburb of Yonkers.
His name, Dan Fliderblum.
Investigative journalist Leonard Slater wrote a book ‘The Pledge’ (1970) where he chronicles the heroic operation of the Sonneborn Institute.
Twenty-one year old Dan Fliderblum assembled a group of electronic whiz kids, most of them veterans of the Army Signal Corps, whom he trained at the University of New York and who were well acquainted with the latest gadgetry.
They created a secret radio network to link the isolated settlements in Palestine and forewarn the residents of British search parties seeking illegal arms.
The group gathered in a loft somewhere in New York and, after work or school, assembled and manufactured a handsome radio set which was a transmitter disguised as a receiver.
Fliderblum then began searching for surplus stocks of radio equipment which might be useful and which were purchased and sent to Palestine.
One day Fliderblum came across a bonanza; nearly one hundred excellent sets, good as new.
He reported his find to the chief of staff of the Haganah who promptly contacted the Sonneborn Institute and secretly money changed hands through the agency of a highly regarded stockbroker, and the sets were shipped to Palestine.
Danny Fliderblum was fitted with a special company engaged in buying and exporting electronic equipment to Israel.
As the company grew, they were controlling tens of thousands of minute electronic items in addition to the complete equipment.
They even became consultants for some of the suppliers because they were more familiar with the surplus items being purchased.
As Leonard Slater wrote in his book, the United States (unbeknown) became the supply depot of the Haganah and later the Israel Defense Forces for the illegal trading of military surplus.
Danny Makes Aliyah
Danny Fliderblum eventually immigrated to Israel where he activated all the ‘procurement’ relationships he had cultivated over the years in order to enlist and serve Israel the way he had fought and served the IDF in the past.
In 1951 Maj. Gen. Yigal Yadin, Chief of Staff, informed Danny in a secret letter that he was appointed as an officer to head a technical branch at the Liaison Communication Corps.
Later, Danny became a leading figure in establishing the electronic industry in Israel and formed companies such as Elron Electric Industries and Elbit Systems.
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