Memories of My Father-in-Law
or
How a NYCPD detective helped in Israel's War of Independence
by
Dorothy Schiff Shannon

“And she was the lookout.” He nods toward his wife, eighty-five year old Pauline. He is now over ninety, but still wears the toughness of the New York City detective he was most of his life. He talks of a time before I knew and married his son, before the birth of the State of Israel. In what was then called Palestine, a clandestine war was being fought against the British, who were the colonizers.

“Yes, they would come down Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn and she would be sitting on the stoop where we lived. She would go upstairs and warn me and I would get the package from the spare room, and meet them.” When I had asked my new husband what was in the room, he had grinned mischievously and replied, “Guns!”

He finishes his story with this incident. On one occasion, on the way to the port of Boston with the gun-laden car, the driver was stopped for a traffic violation by a member of the Connecticut Police. When the Irish policeman saw the cargo, the two exchanged insider smiles and the car was allowed to proceed.

(Posted May 23, 2010)