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A Hanukkah Miracle for Israel

(Washington Post) Sixty years ago, a converted World War II Victory ship carrying 888 pregnant Holstein cows steamed across the Atlantic Ocean to help make Israel a "land of milk and honey." 200 cows gave birth at sea and only six died, said Morris Levy, the only veterinarian aboard. An armistice ending the 1948 Arab-Israeli War had been signed in March 1949. Ten months of battling six Arab states had depleted the nation's food supply. The native Syrian and Damascene cattle were not heavy milkers. Levy, now 90, received a doctorate in veterinary medicine in 1943 from Auburn University veterinary school. At Sol and Ben Levinson's dairy farm near Williamsburg, Va., Levy met members of the Israeli Cattlemen's Association. The Israelis had $1 million to spend on livestock and the Levinsons recommended Levy to help them spend it wisely. Throughout the Midwest and Northeast, the Israelis bought heavy milkers and shipped them by rail to Newport News. The Levinsons recruited 42 Mennonite dairymen from Virginia and Pennsylvania to handle and milk the cattle. "They were overjoyed to be going to the land of Jesus," Levy said. Many Israeli dairy herds descend from the Holsteins Levy ably shepherded.
2009-12-18 08:37:23
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