Brothers in Arms

He and his brother Milton were born in the Bronx, New York, in 1922 and 1920 to Benjamin and Minnie Geberer, who had emigrated to the United States from Romania. The boys had a sister, Beatrice. Milton, who, Milton and family moved to Jerusalem, where he worked in the Jewish Agency publications department. When the war for independence started, Milton joined the Haganah, which prized his language skills and promoted him to major. In May 1948, a reporter interviewed him. “The Arabs are good shots, but lousy fighters,” Milton said. “When we move in, they usually move out, but their snipers hurt us.” On May 17, near the Jerusalem railroad station, an Arab sniper shot him dead. Harlow volunteered in New York and also sailed for Palestine aboard . He was at sea when Israel declared independence and troops from five Arab states, including Lebanon, invaded the country. The was to dock in Beirut, then sail to Haifa, Israel—but Lebanon was now at war with Israel. The ship’s captain radioed the U.S. consul in Beirut that he had many young Jewish men aboard and feared for their safety. The consul assured him there would be no trouble. At Beirut, officials took the ship’s Jewish male passengers into custody and detained them at Baalbek. The then sailed for Haifa. Many suspected the State Department had tipped off the Lebanese. While my father and the rest were behind bars, he learned of his brother’s death. When returned to Beirut, authorities ordered the imprisoned volunteers to return home. Some disembarked at Palermo, Italy, and made their way to Israel to fight, but my dad returned to the States. In 1949, he and my mother went to Israel. They stayed a year, but my mother’s asthma landed them back in New York.