Shlichus to USAF Thule Greenland: Background on 6 tishrei 5725, Part One, Rabbi Shmuel Lew - 5785

it's exactly 60 years from to and today is it is 60 years since the idea of my to Greenland was brought up to me and um a lot of the details were in the was in involvement with the re beforehand and while I was there and after I came back so I want to give a little bit of a summary of what happened and many details about which are not so well known the way I saw it then on the day that chabas that very difficult chabas for all of us with a long story so I want to divide it into four and do it over the uh number one the background to the whole number two and what happened and uh Etc and how it it touched it number three Tuli Air Force Base where I was the whole trip there and and what happened over yum and number four what happened afterwards and when I was called to with messages from the re and things that happen regarding it afterwards so I want to just first of all today speak about the background to explain what kind of why it's a top secret base and uh the Department of Defense of the United States is in charge of allowing people to attend that base there's a an Air Force Base in Tuli Greenland Tuli Greenland is a few hundred miles maybe 500 miles it's less than a th000 miles from the North Pole it's a place where four months of the year it's only light four months of the year it's only dark about two months ises and and and two months is semi-normal just to give you an idea the on I had to check this out on AR Kipper that year the at that Air Force Base was 7:28 daylight time and onip it was 7:14 in other words theia was moving 14 minutes per day and it was you know not that long after September 21st so the background is that the Americans were surprised in Pearl Harbor in 1940 by by the Japanese so they decid decied to make an early warning system that was the basis of the Cold War that in case the enemy shoots a lethal missile you have advanced notice and it's enough notice to be able to give a second a strike against them as well and um so the Americans created a shield on the and the northern hemisphere in three places in Canada the very north of Canada is a base and in the north of England and in Greenland and between them they cover anything that comes from the Soviet Union from Eastern Europe any missile would be detected today they have satellites they have satellites then not as sophisticated as today the place still exists today and um it was top secret the radar installation is inside a big building like a g Bol it's the largest radar in the whole world and um so it shouldn't you shouldn't be able to see where it's I think that's the reason but it was in this large large Gulf world of a of a building now the conditions there are so extreme that the Air Force men who were sent there were sent for one year and no women can come there no wives they was just the air force people and there were so many nervous breakr grounds amongst the people that they changed it they became a year but it's divided you go for half a year and then you go home for few weeks and then you come back for another 6 months and every single serviceman there know exactly how many more days they have until they have to leave and uh until they can go back home besides that the all the technical side and the professionals doctors and things is a very very big field it was run by the radio Corporation of America RCA which owned NBC is very major major I don't know how it is today but it was then like the biggest communication type of company and they provided the technical electric electronic uh matters that company and people who worked for them this I asked people here to find out why they came there they would come there because they could make in a year this what people told me were Jewish the Jewish people Engineers doctors young guys in their 20s they said they can earn there three four times as much in America without having to pay taxes so they went there and then they set up their homes uh when they came back just want to give you a just a a a mus a little bit of an idea of where what kind of a place and where the background is now one of the people working there maybe was the only one that kept kosher was a man by the name of Kim TW from from Brooklyn and he his wife was in in New York maybe Manhattan New York and she would send him kosher food every few weeks a package and she would get buy that by Rabbi label bitki he had that store 27 and a half ess6 whatever it was called a small an narrow uh big store in in the east side he would send her the packages now it came before R he was there and he told his wife that they don't have AER so this was maybe a month before two weeks before R so his wife told Rabbi bitki say anything you can do about it Rabbi bitki went to Rabbi UD krinsky and RAB krinsky founded up the Jewish welfare board who supposed to deal with servicemen and things like that so they said two weeks notice is not enough because it's a very delicate sensitive place and we you know we we it's it's not enough notice we need much more notice to be able to work through all the people that you have to do about it so rabut went and approached a man by the name of General David sov David sov was the head of RCA radio Corporation of America a very famous Jew at that time and he was also the president of the largest reformed congregation Temple Emanuel in Manhattan they had the services on the radio you know was all this big V things what I didn't know I knew about David son was that he was actually born in Poland he was probably a Jew like David Chase who had not met schim like rabbi H and ging Etc he called him up and David S said I'll do whatever I can I have to you know it was not easy but he he went and got permission to send the Scher to uh Greenland and this he came back onia for yum he was going to be home and um he was all excited I'm not sure if he's spoke to RAB krinsky or to Rabbi bitki but anyway he said that 180 people heard Cher that was how I was told the story and that and Rabbi krinsky approached me today 60 years ago it was Thursday Dal my wife was in England we went to England for my brother-in-law's wedding on beginning of el and I came back and she came back to New York before suus with our son who was a few months old that's a different story and Rabbi krinsky just told me about the story I I came here to 770 that evening and he said how would you like to go there I said look I'm an OV myself and uh it wasn't really on the car you know but see the end is that that say evening Rabbi khov called me into his office and he said and I said what and he said to go to go to Greenland the point is that had aover from the Mira where he studied in man in Ocean Parkway he had AA who was ready to go was a rabbi but Rabbi krinsky said that since it's not an easy thing to do you need special clearance from the Pentagon itself from Washington for any person that visits there and if laich is organizing it it has to be a of that's why he asked me and um said I have this for you I was not I very it's sounded exciting but I was concerned because I was a Noel and the fact that Rabbi krinsky told me was fantastic the fact that Rabbi told me was super fantastic but I wanted to know really is this that they need to find somebody or is it me is it something which the de wants me to do in which case then no holds bar do anything so I asked I said is this like speaking at this time in which everyone is supposed to do but it doesn't it's not a specific person for a specific place or is it with my name so he said I will tell you the told me to tell you that you should not worry about the fact that you'll be Ain in the even though you're an OV it's 100% M so I said okay if that's the case I'm ready to go then he told me about the 180 people to for I found out lady I asked the people in Greenland they said maybe nine people heard it or maybe the minum had nine people maybe he blew for other people I don't believe there's anywhere near 180 Jews there at that time and but anyway so he said that the re said that all travel accommodation and expense for the food that you have to take with you amers will pay and you should go to the Mikvah on Union Street and speak to the lady who looks after it tomorrow Friday and get about 200 sets of paper slippers that they have there in the women's mikah on Union Street and take them with there'll be and take the Reb's English letter which just came out take that with you and there were also from Mar and also in Danish Greenland is owned by Denmark so therefore take with there with two booklets um one was the the merus booklet small pamphlet called chabis which translated into Danish and the two letters of theb about the age of the universe they were BS that came out in which I I got and and and I got I took a couple of copies with me um right now I then I went and I bought a k and I bought a there was no in English I was going to use my mar which I had the old print from New York but I I bought a Philip bbal English ma also so I could study it beforehand be able to explain to them some background some a bit of there people are very very very um unfamiliar with anything anything and uh and I bought food but meanwhile we didn't get the permission from the Pentagon the permission had to be given um before Sunday Sunday evening Z Tish the the last plane to Greenland before yam Kipper which was Tuesday night the last plane was leaving on Sunday the Pentagon permission they said takes five working days to get it even if they were going to give it even if you have the person to ask for it RAB krinsky called up the I forgot to mention this he called up the Jewish welfare board and they were exasperated they said if laich laich were told to get someone to go to Kat India would you be able to do it he says if we had to do it we would do it they said we cannot do it we don't work like that so he called up General David sonov and he said getting a ster is one thing getting a person needs this special clearance and uh I'm going to work on it and he went to work on it meanwhile we were going told me go ahead as if everything's going to happen and um the rebba went to the o on he Tish on Friday about midday or sometime I was in the Americas the whole time finding out what's happening Rabbi krinsky was was at the oil in the car he had a cell phone a cell phone then was a big thing you know was a very big thing it was it's not something you can put put into anybody's pocket it was like a big machine like a like a old fashioned tape recorder and but he had one there for emergencies and the told him at some stage to check up to see if the permission was given and just then just before then David Son of called up to the Americans and said that he tried everything and there's no way they're going to give the permission and I suggest that laich has very good public relations use every single Avenue you have in public relations and the P the United States defense department the Air Force will not like having bad publicity so that's the way to maybe that was his advice um that was given over to Rabbi krinsky he got on the phone I don't know exactly what happened but I'm going to tell you a few things I well could tell you is that the involvement in getting the permission which we I didn't know to shabas except that the gave me Mas shab but um the involvement of the government there was an involvement of the two state senators of New York even though there were Republicans and there was a Democratic president the president's office itself President Johnson was involved and it looks like Rabbi sh shrager there are few letters mentioning him he was he had arranged the Patrols in Brooklyn the forerunners of the sh they were called the mabes and it was very public in all the papers so he was a well-known figure at that time those months and he made a lot of calls but I the one call that I know about and I have correspondence also with the with these people is as follows Rabbi krinsky is from Boston and there he knew a very prominent Jewish doctor called Dr Rosengard Rosengard had a clinic called the Rosen God Clinic he was he was like the Mel you had a whole Clinic people would see all kinds of doctors and he was a specialist he'd see you for 15 minutes a half hour and uh he had top clients one of his clients was a man by the name of John McCormack you might not have heard of John coric but he was the next in line to the presidency then he was the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the law the constitution of America is that if the president is dead or incapacitated the vice president takes over if the vice president is incapacitated then the Speaker of the House takes over he was the speaker of the house and there was no vice president because Kennedy had been shot a year before so Johnson was the president he was next in line speaker of the house and Dr Rosengard called up John mccor John mcor who was a religious man uh Protestant he said I'm a personal close friend of Eugene zuker he is the the secretary of the Air Force in the president's cabinet and he is a religious Catholic and he respects religion and he will do something about it and Eugene zuker told him John if that Rabbi is not on the plane someone's going to have to answer to me in other words he got personally involv we didn't know that until much until after shabas that's in the next uh voice note um yeah so we'll continue with the story of in the next voice note