The book "Memories of Our 'Y'" is filled with stories and photos of true events - sometimes humorous and sometimes poignant - that occurred during the thirty-plus-year history of the Passaic YM-YWHA on Washington Place.

The following vignette is from the book:

1948: The Passaic "Y" and the New "State of Israel"

I think every Jew who was a teenager or older in 1948 remembers the dramatic and exciting vote in the United Nations when the nations of the world agreed to partition the land of Palestine into an Arab country and a Jewish homeland, the first Jewish homeland in more than 2,000 years.

My friends and I would sit in the back of the "Y" Game Room and talk about the worrisome Palestinian Arab uprisings that had started in November 1947, killing many Jews in Palestine. We felt helpless, the same helplessness we had felt when we first learned of the Nazi Death Camps in 1945. We also remembered our hopeless rage when British troops forced survivors of Hitler's Death Camps into barbed wire compounds on Cypress to prevent them from moving to Palestine. Now, in 1948 powerful Arab nations threatened to invade Palestine to stop the Partitioning. The Arab nations bragged that they would eradicate all the Jews in Palestine, pushing them into the Mediterranean Sea. The influential Grand Mufti of Jerusalem roared, "I declare a holy war, my Muslim brothers! Murder the Jews, Murder them all."

In Passaic, although we talked, we felt we could do nothing. The Passaic adult Jewish community also felt hopeless even though it was in the midst of the largest fund raising in its history - a 1948 goal of $750,000 - more than twice as large as ever before.

Starting about April 1st, the underground Jewish army in Palestine, Haganah, began to fight back with early successes in recapturing land that had been seized by the Palestinian Arabs. These small successes provided some hope to my friends and their parents. Our hope was buoyed higher when on May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion formally announced the creation of the new State of Israel. This announcement caused dancing in the streets in Israel as well as in many countries with significant Jewish Populations. In Passaic, the Herald News published a story about Jewish teenagers dancing while the largest gathering of Jewish adults in the "Y's" history turned out for the celebration.

The formal partitioning was scheduled for May 15, 1948. However, on that date the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon invaded the new country.

In America, we all listened to the radio and devoured the newspapers. The prime topic of conversation at the "Y" was the "hopeless" battle occurring between the overwhelming Arab armies and the small poorly armed Jews of Israel. The Arab armies included the famous Jordan Arab Legion, the most modern army in the Middle East. It was highly trained by the British, and tightly disciplined with the most advanced military weapons.

We at the "Y" certainly believed that the Jewish farmers and pioneers in Palestine would be no match for such a military onslaught. Our dread was strengthened when King Abdullah of Jordan announced that he would personally lead the Arab Legion to capture Jerusalem, the heart and soul of any Jewish homeland. The Egyptians started marching through the Sinai Desert and began to bomb Tel Aviv. Simultaneously, armies from Syria, Lebanon, and the other Arab countries started invading from all sides.

Before May 15th, the Jews had evacuated the elderly and children from Jerusalem, vowing that every inch of land promised in the Partition would be protected. They would not yield or surrender any land.

On May 15th the Passaic "Y" held a celebration rally in its auditorium. It was the largest crowd ever assembled there. All of Passaic's prominent Jewish leaders spoke. As part of that rally, attendees pledged an unprecedented amount of money in support of Israel.

However, the war news continued to be grim. Israel had no Air Force, yet was being bombed by the mighty Air Forces of Egypt and other Arab countries. The Arabs' mechanized armies were marching and yet, by a true miracle of God's work, the small Jewish population in Israel - only about 700,000 total including children and the aged with fewer guns than there were members of that Jewish Community - were fighting to repulse the Arab armies.

That was the status when a special Israeli event was announced for the evening of May 26th at the Passaic "Y." On that day, the headline in the Passaic Herald News read, "Egyptians lead Arab units on new Holy Land assault. Strike near Jerusalem." This lead newspaper article continued:

"Arab troops paced by Egyptian units attack Jews today on the southeast outskirts of the beleaguered Jerusalem officials announced. The Egyptians, aided by Jordan Arab Legionnaires and Arab irregulars mounted the new attack from the outskirts of bloody Ramat Rehel between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. In addition, they struck at all the different sectors of the modern city."

The war raged on inside Jerusalem's old and new city and elsewhere in the Holy Land echoing the failure of the United Nations to bring about a truce. That night a special event was held at the Passaic "Y" and Ritz Ballroom in Passaic. The headline of the next day's Herald News was, "Jews Respond to Plea With $120,000." The article continued:

A plea by Mrs. Golda (Myerson) Meir, Deputy Prime Minister of the New Republic of Israel, for immediate payment of 'United Jewish Appeal Pledges' brought $120,000 in cash from Passaic Jews last night. (Note: In the year 2001, this would be equivalent to $915,000.)

Golda Meir spoke at two meetings, a dinner meeting at the Ritz Ballroom and a public meeting at the YM-YWHA. After both talks, a flood of checks and currency all but inundated the drive committee.

The money came in so fast that an hour after the second meeting the figure was still only approximate. Contributions ranged from $5 and up to checks up to $3,000 and more. One donor dipped into his pocket to donate more than $500 in currency . . . Golda Meir aroused both audiences with a matter-of-fact accounting of the war in Palestine. She was a motherly looking woman whose English was pure American: she'd been brought up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin . . .

Meir told her audiences bluntly that she was asking for cash because money donated months in the future would come too late to help the struggling new nation.

The Herald News account omitted what we teenagers thought was the most important part of Golda Meir's visit. While the adults were in the "Y" auditorium hearing speeches from various Passaic Jewish leaders to be followed by a speech by Meir, she was actually up in the gymnasium where more than 100 youths were gathered. The gym was very crowded. I was fortunate to be standing near the entrance door and had more room than most people, perhaps a foot of space on each side of me. A short speech was given by Judge Morris Pashman who introduced Mrs. Meir. As I have said, the gym was really crowded, yet during her talk, it appeared that she was looking everybody directly in the eye. Certainly, I knew she was looking me directly in the eye.

She explained that teenagers the same ages as we were fighting for their lives at that very moment in Israel. She said that Israel needed cash now . . . not later in the year, but now. Among us teenagers, she knew we probably had $1,000 in cash in our pockets at that very moment. Pledging money to Israel payable over the next year would be important, but Israel needed to immediately buy ammunition, guns, and medical supplies, and only cash would do that, not future promises.

When she finished, we gave her a thunderous applause. Then a gentleman stepped onto the platform (unfortunately, his name has been lost in history). If we didn't have enough cash, he said he would take all the pledge cards signed by teens that night and advance a personal check for half that amount to give to Golda Meir while we were still at the "Y." An enormous cheer went up and pledge cards were distributed.

Many of the teenagers had never held a job and yet almost all of us pledged $50 or $100 to be paid in equal weekly installments over the next year. Also, when they "passed the hat" I noticed all of us reaching in our pockets to take out whatever money we had. I had $4.47, so I put seven cents into my shirt pocket and donated the $4.40 - I had to save the seven cents because that's how much it cost to take the #74 bus back to our apartment.

Yes, Golda Meir suspected there was more than $1,000 in the teenagers' pockets. She was wrong. That night in that gym, $2,100 in cash was turned over, plus the money the Samaritan advanced, based on one-half the value of the teenagers' pledges - $5,250. We teenagers provided an astounding $7,350 in cash that one night - equivalent to $56,000 in year 2001 funds!

As far as I know, every single pledge made that night, for money to be paid over the next year, was paid in full. Moreover, over the next few days teenagers who weren't present at the "Y" that night provided additional thousands of dollars for Israel's immediate needs. For example, my friend Phil Epstein (who became president of the "Y" in 1969), pledged his entire pay from working as a waiter at the "Y's" summer camp in Milford, Pa. to be donated to Israel, and he did just that.

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Israel's War of Independence ended in 1949. Armistice Agreements were signed: with Egypt in February, with Lebanon in March, with Jordan in April, and with Syria in July. Only Iraq and Saudi Arabia didn't sign Armistice Agreements although they both did withdraw all their troops.

In the end, Israel not only forced out all the invading armies, it also captured more than 3,000 square miles over and above the area established in the UN's Partition Plan.