Edward Abadi

His father Jacob was a merchant from Aleppo, Syria, who moved to Jerusalem and had a little shop in the Old City selling fabrics. His mother, Reina, was a native Jerusalemite. Her brother, Moshe Mizrachi, together with his sons, built the Edison Theater, Orion and Orna Cinemas. Hisparents were forced to flee Palestine to avoid the Turkish Army draft. They moved to England, the USA (where my father was born) and finally to Panama. The Abadi family numbered 11 children. He, the eighth child, was sent to boarding school in Manchester, England. He and his
four brothers spent five years there.
He volunteered for the US Army as soon as he was 18 years old. He was the first American in the Canal Zone to do so. Studying military engineering at Stanford University he became friendly with some Zionists there. The Army shipped him to New Guinea and the Philippines in order to fight the Japanese.
When he was discharged after WW II, he made his intentions clear to his family that he intended to make Aliya. His family was not pleased with this as they wanted him to go into business with them, together with his ten brothers and sisters. He decided to volunteer for the refugee effort. In Autumn 1946, after becoming a member of the Hashomer Hatzair Youth Movement and spending time at the movement training farm in New Jersey, Eddie, then 23, boarded the “Northland” in Baltimore. Which was later renamed “The Jewish State”.He was one of about 250 Americans who assisted in the illegal Aliya Bet immigration prior to the establishment of the Jewish State. He spent a year as bosun on the refugee ship that was sponsored by the Mosad for Aliya Bet.
He passed away in August 1994.