In October of 1948, my parents came to the US.  I don’t think they had much choice for all kinds of reasons.  Looking at their records from the United Jewish Relief it seems pretty apparent that they were shuffled off to some relatives who would kind of take care of them.  Maybe.

They’d already been to Palestine – in August of 1939 their communist past was discovered at customs and they were sent back to Danzig to await the imminent arrival of Hitler.   

What would have my life been like had they been allowed to remain in Haifa then – or had they been encouraged to return in 1948?  I imagine it would have been very different for me had I been brought up as a Sabra.  What if I had been raised on a kibbutz?  Certainly I would not have had the opportunities I had as an American.  But certainly I would have avoided the numerous antisemitic pressures I encountered – as a part of daily existence.  No complaints, but I remember how glad I was at the folk shule that the stage had a fresco of Israeli farmers building a future.