Jerusalem,

[Undated - sometime in december 1947]

Dear Mother Dad and Naomi

I guess you've been in the dark long enough. But please don't share this letter with anyone. It's only for your information.

While I was sitting one day in a student hang out, Cafe Brazil, someone I didn't know passed me a note setting up a mysterious appointment with another unknown party, who asked if I would do my share to help defend Jerusalem. With typical impulsiveness I said "Yes," never realizing what I was letting myself in for.

The swearing-in ceremony was in the best cloak- and-dagger tradition and very impressive. A dark room in the basement of the Rehaviah High School, with only a dim light shining on a table draped with a Jewish flag. Sitting behind the table were three men, their faces hidden in the shadows, who questioned me carefully. Then, confronted with a Bible and a pistol, I was sworn to a simple, powerful, pertinent pledge. Only a select group had been chosen, those whose background, loyalties and attitudes had been quietly investigated, and I was proud to have passed muster.

For convenience sake, the American girls were put into a special unit and assigned a group leader who didn't understand or refused to speak a word of English. Presto! We were part of an illegal army, the most unsoldier-like soldiers ever seen. The nearest any of us had ever gotten to firearms was at a shooting gallery. Lipstick and toilet paper were our true heritage. In a way, the full seriousness of our act didn't really register for a while. That day, we saw only the funny side of it and giggled all the way home.

Our first assignment, as I look back on it, was real kindergarten play, but we were so convinced of its importance that we took it in dead earnest. Our instructions were to guard the house we lived in, two persons to a shift, twice a week, patrolling the grounds and the roof of the building...