From Shanghai you travel to Djakarta, the largest city in Indonesia. In this Dutch colony, you meet a number of people from Holland who convince you that you would be better off if you went back to Europe and settled in Amsterdam. One of them arranges for you to work at his cousin's diamond cutting factory, learning a new trade. You accept his advice and go to Amsterdam.
You spend two years as an apprentice in the diamond cutting factory and then pass the examination which allows you to have a full job of your own. The cousin is pleased with your work and wants you to continue. There is no reason why you should not stay since you have been well treated by him and by all the other people you have met in Holland.
In May 1948, however, the State of Israel declares its formal independence. You read every newspaper account you can find and spend hours listening to scratchy radio reports at the Jewish community center. Something inside you tells you that you must go to Israel and take advantage of the citizenship offered under the new Law of Return. You arrange passage on a ship to Haifa and leave the kind people of Holland for the uncertain future of Israel.
North of Haifa along the Mediterranean, you rent a small building. With the help of the Rothschild family in England and the DeBeers Consolidated Mines Ltd. of South Africa, you begin Israel's diamond industry. Because you remember the kindness of the Sephardim in Shanghai, you begin to train Sephardi immigrants to Israel to cut industrial quality diamonds. This is your way of repaying their tzedakah with your own. You are sure that you have done the right thing.
END