Murray S. Greenfield (; September 11, 1926 – September 23, 2024) was an American-born Israeli writer and publisher.

Biography

Murray Greenfield was born and raised in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on September 11, 1926. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he served in the

United States Merchant Marine The United States Merchant Marine is an organization composed of United States civilian sailor, mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of ...

. Following the war, he was a volunteer crewman on the '' Aliyah Bet'' ship ''Hatikva'' to transport Holocaust survivors to

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

and was imprisoned by the British on

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

before settling in Israel.Father and hero Murray Greenfield: A Zionist inspiration at 97
/ref> Greenfield settled in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

, seeking foreign investors to deposit capital in the Palestinian Economic Cooperation. In the early days of Israel’s independence, most philanthropists only thought of donating charity to poverty-stricken immigrants. Greenfield later moved to

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

with his bride, Hana Lustigova. He was one of the founding members of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI), wherein he later served as executive director. Under his directorship, the AACI flourished; Greenfield pioneered and established loan funds, a mortgage company, and a variety of housing projects in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, Tel Aviv, and

kibbutzim A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, i ...

. Greenfield was always involved in public service, but the cause to which he dedicated the most time was rescuing Ethiopian Jewry; he was volunteer director for seven years of the American Association for Ethiopian Jewry (AAEJ). In 1981, Greenfield founded Gefen Publishing House, later taken over by his sons, Dror and Ilan. After Dror’s death in 2003, Ilan continued to run the company. Today, Gefen publishes up to 35 titles a year and is the main English language publisher in Israel. Hana and Murray Greenfield had three children. Hana Greenfield died in January 2014. Murray Greenfield died on September 23, 2024, at the age of 98.

Books

In 2010 his best-known book, which he spent more than a decade researching, ''The Jews' Secret Fleet'', was published, about the participation of North American sailors in '' Aliyah Bet''. He was himself was just such a volunteer participant. The then-illegal vessels brought more than half of the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

survivors from

displaced persons camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displace ...

s to Palestine, over which the British gave up the British Mandate of Palestine, after which the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

voted to establish Israel. In 1973, Greenfield published a book along with his wife titled ''How to be an Oleh, or Things the Jewish Agency Never Told You''. He founded and contributed editorially to Israel's first-ever English language magazine, ''FrontPage'', and later a monthly titled ''Rossvet'', aimed at Russian immigrants. Hana, a

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...

, wrote ''Fragments of Memory'', which has been published in six languages. They founded the Czech Torah Network. * * *

Films

In 2008 a documentary film directed by Alan Rosenthal was released, ''Waves of Freedom'', which features Murray Greenfield. Rosenthal was inspired to create the documentary after reading Greenfield's book ''The Jews’ Secret Fleet'', which has an introduction by

Martin Gilbert Sir Martin John Gilbert (25 October 1936 – 3 February 2015) was a British historian and honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He was the author of 88 books, including works on Winston Churchill, the 20th century, and Jewish history inc ...

. A new edition of ''The Jews’ Secret Fleet'' was published in 2010.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Greenfield, Murray 1926 births 2024 deaths 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers Jewish Israeli writers Israeli non-fiction writers Jewish American non-fiction writers Writers from New York City