Goldfoot Genealogy

Nadene Goldfoot                                         

In Tel Aviv, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, stands under a portrait of Theodore Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, as he reads Israel’s declaration of independence on May 14, 1948.  This took place 70 years ago.

On May 14, 1948, I had already been confirmed in our Neveh Zedek Synagogue in South Portland in 1946 and was now 13 years old.  At that age I had already finished  my first year of high school that would start up again in September and I would then be a sophmore. 
                                                                   

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, my president of USA from 1933 before I was born to April 12, 1945 when he died and this was announced to us when in class at Abernathy School.  I was 10 years old then.  We all cried.  He was our father figure.

That's old enough to know a little of what was going on in the world.  Still, I didn't understand the miracle that was happening; of after 2,000 years, our people were announcing the birth of their nation after waiting and praying for that many years 3 times a day.  My family's life was no different on that day than any other.  I don't think I even knew what was taking place. 

In May 1939, my future uncle Werner was one of the last Jews to get out of Germany and headed for the USA.  Werner Oster was then 21 years old.  His father had served in WWI as a German soldier. His family could only afford to get Werner out of the country.    My great uncle Max had been his sponsor, getting him a job with my father.  By September, he would marry my Aunt Anne. I was the very shy flower girl in the wedding.  
                                                                         
 Kristallnacht had taken place November 9th and 10th, 1938 and that was enough to tell the Osters what to do.  Werner had already been picked up by the Nazis once and placed in Dachau Concentration Camp between 1938 and 1939.                                                                           
                                                                       

About 1944, and Werner's on the right holding his 2nd daughter.  His 1st daughter, Harriett, was born in 1941, standing with the overalls.  My father is on the left holding my baby brother David, born in 1942.  His brother in law is in the middle holding his 2nd daughter.  His first, Dianne-standing, was born in 1938.   I'm down on the left with Dianne, Harriett and Donnie, all cousins.

 
During my life, WWII had started in Europe on September 1, 1939 with Hitler invading Poland, a country with a high Jewish population, some of which were our relatives, though unknown to us then.  In the USA, the war was declared on December 7, 1941 with the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.  I was 7 years old at the time.
                                                                           

My father, Meshke (Morris)  and Me

 My whole childhood has memories of the  inconsequential effects of this war on me; that of being a big participant of our weekly paper drive-bringing newspapers to our school to be weighed and reused.  Other activities were cutting out cartoon jokes from magazines and making books for the soldiers to cheer them up.  I spent all my time while drying the dishes with a dish towel dreaming up ways to end the war.  It was my wishful occupation then.  

1942 came along and finally I was a sister to a new baby brother, David.  After 8 years of waiting for a brother or sister, I finally had one, but my mother was scared to death of bringing in a child after WWII had started in December 1941.  He was born in August.  Now Mom and I both had something good to think about other than the war and paper drives.  

My father was able to obtain a bike for my Xmas gift somewhere during this period, which was hard to find.  Yes, Jewish and a child celebrating Xmas customs.  That was happening to Jews who by just being able to live-were undergoing an assimilation period that was inevitable.  Note; not the religion but the in your face customs of the land that beckoned to children.. We had an Xmas tree in our living room.  Joan, my Jewish neighbor girlfriend whose parents were from Palestine,  managed to talk them into a tree in their basement.  Who could deprive their children from visiting Toyland on Meier & Frank's 10th floor every year?  It would have taken a big explanation and parents weren't up to it.  
                                                                         

1946, ship heading for Palestine with refugees brought by Haganah Secretly

Our newspapers, and my family subscribed to both the morning Oregonian and the evening Journal, were only covering the war.  I couldn't imagine what a newspaper would be like with other news in it.  Thus, nothing was ever mentioned about Palestine and Jews.  As a child, I never heard anything about it at Sunday School, either, unfortunately. 
                                                                         

Remembering the USA Marines in the Battle of Iwo Jima capturing island from Japan-February 19, 1945 to March 26, 1945

The war was over on September 2, 1945, 3 days before my 11th birthday. when I would start the 7th grade at Abernathy School around the corner where I had attended since Kindergarten.
                                                                             
 I think I remember LIFE magazine's cover picture of a sailor kissing a girl then.  At the time, my father had been working during the war at 2 jobs; one being his own wholesale meat business and the other in the shipyards as a  boss with a crew.  When he slept is a mystery to me.  Now he could work full time on his business. 
                                                                           
Rifles used in the USA in Alcatraz prison in 1948 were made from 1934 to 1942, so that may also be the case that the Haganah in Israel of rifles procured for their protection.  The British had left the country on this date knowing that the Arabs were armed but hadn't allowed Jews to do so, and they been given the mandate to HELP the Jews in the development of the Jewish Homeland by the League of Nations.  It turned out that they were a deterrent, not a help.  Since 1929, when Jews were attacked in riots instigated by the Sherif of Jerusalem, an Arab, Jews had to come to the realization that they had to defend themselves, as the British didn't do it.
                                                                     
The birth of Israel was announced and this brought on the huge attack by the Arabs now called  THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE which started on November 29, 1947 actually, when the Arabs responded with violence to the United Nations resolution on Palestine, and it lasted until the signing of the Armistice Agreements in 1949.  I was 15 years old then, and was already going steady with a beau.    I remember a double date we had where the other guy, Si,  was talking about going to Israel to help fight.  I still wasn't aware of the events going on, but he and his family were very  much aware. 


Resource:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_the_United_States_during_World_War_II
http://www.notfrisco2.com/alcatraz/charts/firearms.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_the_United_States_during_World_War_II
Update: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/president-roosevelt-meets-king-saud-at-bitter-lake-february-1945 (Thanks to Andree L.) a must read.  

                                                                   
Nadene Goldfoot
On May 14, 1948, 650,000 Jews were living in Israel and became citizens.  One such founding father was someone who had actively fought for this day, Stanley Goldfoot from South Africa, my newly discovered 3rd cousin.  He had become the Chief of Intelligence for the Stern Group, one of the fighting forces against the attacking Arabs and the British army.

Stanley was born on May 2, 1914 in Houghton, Johannesburg, South Africa.  He died November 24, 2006 in Jerusalem.  At age 18 upon graduating from high school, he immigrated to Palestine.  That year, 1932, had already seen the 1929  riots in Jerusalem led by Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Sherif of Jerusalem, also called THE GRAND MUFTI.  where many Jews had been attacked and killed by the Arabs upon hearing that Jews were granted half of Palestine for a Jewish Homeland by the League of Nations.  This had come about with the 1st World War ending in 1917 whereby the Ottoman Empire  had sided with Germany, the Axis in the war, and had lost their Ottoman Empire.
                                                                       
Stanley had heard a speech about the Zionist vision by Ze'ev Jabotinsky at the age of 18 which appealed very strongly to him.  It was all he needed to hear before packing a bag, leaving a shocked family and heading for Palestine.  He joined a HaShomer Ha'Tzair Kibbutz, picking eggplants in the fields and making floor tiles, called "balatot."
                                                                         
Since he had arrived alone without an entry permit, the British police soon shipped him out of the country together with another South African.  In South Africa, he was then drafted into the South African Army, where he learned to handle a rifle.  Stanley joined the Jewish Revisionist Party, another name for LEHI.

At first opportunity, he returned to Tel Aviv to open the first "School of English" which gave him entry into the British High Society where he was privy to important information from the top echelon of the British Army.  He was now able to pass this invaluable information onto other LEHI members.  Stanley did this with alacrity, under cover of legitimately representing English and French news.  His valuable "PRESS CARDS" gained him admittance everywhere!
                                                                             

Stanley with 1st wife Rebecca "Rollo" Finger and their 2 daughters born in 1942 and 1950 probably taken in on an Israeli beach after 1948.

Stanley was active in many other activities against the British Mandatory Power while working in Jerusalem as a respected journalist.  Some of those activities were so sensitive that they were never made public.
                                                                     

King David Hotel, where I first met Stanley in 1980-1981 He said, "Don't worry, I'll know you."

 "According to the Israeli newspaper Dvar, as a member of the Stern Gang and also Irgun, Goldfoot was responsible for planting the bomb at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22nd July 1946 which killed 100 British soldiers and officials. In 1948 he was also convicted and jailed by an Israeli court for the murder of UN envoy Count Bernadotte.   I could not find any evidence of his actual involvement in the bombing of the hotel, though he may have been in on the planning.  When I asked, him, he was mum about it.
                                                                     

My own uncle, Charles Goldfoot, looks so much like Stanley, I think. Charles was born in 1906, a little older and would have been Stanley's 2nd cousin once removed.

 Goldfoot has subsequently been influential in raising large sums of money, allegedly up to $100 million a year, for the 3rd Temple  JTF through American Christian TV and Radio stations and evangelical churches. He did this by speaking in football stadiums in the USA.   Although van der Hoeven has denied direct involvement in efforts to see the Jewish Temple rebuilt, he has admitted that, " ... when supporters volunteer to give money for building a temple, he directs them to Goldfoot."

After May 14 1948, he made aliyah legally in 1956, having been living in New York City.  His main goal became his desire to establish a Zionist English newspaper,  THE TIMES OF ISRAEL.  This paper eventually appeared on the streets of Israel, New York and the West Coast of the USA.  For this purpose, he even spent a year in New York to raise funds to promote his newspaper.

In the first issue of the TIMES OF ISRAEL, Stanley wrote his famous controversial LETTER TO THE WORLD FROM JERUSALEM, which at the time, caused a huge stir.  His article is still relevant, and I am therefore, including it. Uri Gobey, a South African Israeli IDF admirer of Stanley, also added this:
                                                                           
"Eventually he became an intelligence officer and worked with Yitzhak Shamir."
 Yitzhak was also in the Stern Group and was Stanley's age, being born in 1915.  He became Israel's 7th Prime Minister and served from 1986 to 1992.  I had just left Israel in the end of November, 1985. Yitzhak died on June 30, 2012.

After the setting up the state of Israel, Stanley  moved to the United States. Then  he returned  to Israel.   In 1964, he decided to establish a new paper in the English language, because he sensed that the Jerusalem post, " was too leftist. He founded Zionist newspaper in the English language as "de times ugh Israel", published in Israel, New York and the west coast of the United States. In 1969, he wrote and posted the letter, now famous.  . He died in Jerusalem in 2006, at age 92.
                                                

His father was from Lithuania and had immigrated to England and then Ireland;.  Descendants of Simon Shimon Goldfoot.  With conditions in Lithuania, many Jews there had immigrated to Palestine at this time.

1  Simon Shimon Goldfoot b: 1874 in Telsiai, Lithuania, Russia/ Ireland d: October 28, 1958 in Johanesburg, South Africa Died: age 84
.. +Sarah Tavriger b: March 1887 in West Derby,Lancashire, England d: November 28, 1956 in Johanesburg, South Africa age 69.
                                                                       

Stern 1907-1942 Killed by British Police while being arrested

Stanley met Avraham Stern, the leader of this group, who was 7 years older than Stanley.  He was a Nationalist, knowing that the only hope for Jews'  existence was to have their own country back, since they had been scapegoats for everyone since losing their Jerusalem in 70 CE.  Many people today seem to be against the idea of Nationalism, but this is one example of the benefits of having one's own nation.

Abe, called Yair,  left the group, Irgun Tzevai Leumi in 1939-1940 as their leader because they had refused to continue anti-British activities in Palestine during WWII.  He had formed an underground organization later known as LOHAME HERUT ISRAEL.   The British called this the Stern Gang, which carried out acts of sabotage, etc.  Stanley corrected me when I mentioned it with this name and told me it was the STERN GROUP.   Yair had been one year older than my own father whose father had come from Telsiai, Lithuania as well.  The families were of course related.  Stanley was my 3rd cousin.  Being in the USA, my family knew nothing about him, nor were they ever aware of what was going on in Palestine.
                                                                                   
Remember the movie, EXODUS.  released in 1960?  Sal Mineo played Stanley, I believe.  Though Sal was short, Stanley was a tall, slender man in real life.  Based on Leon Uris' novel, this historical epic provides a dramatic backstory to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, in the aftermath of World War II. Ari Ben Canaan (Paul Newman), a passionate member of the Jewish paramilitary group Haganah, attempts to transport 600 Jewish refugees on a dangerous voyage from Cyprus to Palestine on a ship named the Exodus. He faces obstruction from British forces, who will not grant the ship passage to its destination.  

Haganah, meaning DEFENSE, was a clandestine organization for Jewish self-defense in Palestine being the British weren't doing it. It took over from HA-SHOMER in 1920 and existed until 1948 when its members were transferred to TZEVA HAGANAH LE-ISRAEL.   After 1929, it intensified when the British policy was that of appeasement to the Arabs.  By 1931, Haganah split up, only with some reuniting  in 1936.  In 1939, the British WHITE PAPER put the icing on the cake with groups like the Stern Group becoming very serious.
                                                                       

Helen Goldfoot, 2nd wife that I met in Jerusalem with ancestors also from Lithuania

In 1980 Stanley lived on Dor V Dor Street in Jerusalem (from Generation to Generation). He would have been our 2nd to 3rd cousin, and being a Goldfoot, would have had the Y haplogroup that my brother has, and that's QBZ67.

The Jerusalem Temple Foundation was founded by Stanley Goldfoot, a former "terrorist" member of the Stern Group  together with Terry Reisenhoover and several other American evangelicals to facilitate the rebuilding of the Temple.96 .  When I visited him in 1981 and later on, he showed me the plans for the Temple.  I had originally found him by using the telephone book-written in Hebrew, after seeing a picture and article including him about the Temple group in the Jerusalem Post, the English newspaper.  Imagine his surprise, being located by a new American cousin.

When Stanley died, this was said of him:  "Also, in every generation, there were Jewish heroes with vision who were willing to sacrifice everything, even their very lives, in order to preserve G-d's promise to the Jewish people.                      

Stanley Goldfoot

One such hero in our generation is Stanley Goldfoot. During his lifetime, Stanley witnessed the rise of tyrants such as Hitler and Ahmadinijad, who are bent on destroying the Jewish people.
Sadly, our friend Stanley passed away last week, November 24, 2006, at the age of 92. His family and all his many friends not only mourn his passing, but remember with gratitude his love and devotion for Israel and the Jewish people. "

Resource:  https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/state-of-israel-proclaimed
Book:  Genesis 1948-the First Arab-Israeli War, by Dan Kurzman; p. 557, 561, 564, 568
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia:  Stern Group Abraham Stern
http://www.templemount.org/goldfoot/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzhak_Shamir