So now they're celebrating
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http://jnonline.us/main.asp?SectionID=23&SubSectionID=167&ArticleID=4321NEWS: Teamster Connection
Jimmy Hoffa and his labor union’s help to be cited by Israel.
Kimberly Lifton
Special to the Jewish News
Just mentioning the name Jimmy Hoffa conjures up many images of the legendary Teamsters union president.
But it does not prompt conversations about Jimmy Hoffa's valiant role in supporting freedom fighters before Israel won independence or about a 1956 mission to Israel - where Hoffa dedicated an orphanage in Jerusalem and met with Israel founding father David Ben-Gurion and then-Minister of Labor Golda Meir.
The vital role Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters played in fighting for Israel's independence, and supporting the Jewish state throughout his lifetime, is almost unknown. Now that's about to change.
Next month, the American Friends of the Yitzhak Rabin Center will laud the Hoffa-Israel connection when the organization gives its Israel Legacy Award to Jimmy Hoffa's son, Teamsters General President James P. "Jim" Hoffa, a labor attorney from Troy.
"The visions of my father and those of Yitzhak Rabin were strikingly similar in many ways," Jim Hoffa says. "They were both vocal proponents of democracy and social justice."
Organizers expect the event will raise $1.5 million. Proceeds will be earmarked for completion of a 1,200-square-foot museum next fall at the Rabin Center in Tel Aviv to commemorate Israel's 60th anniversary. During the February festivities, the Rabin Center will dedicate a permanent memorial to James R. Hoffa and the Teamsters at the museum's War of Independence exhibit.
"These honors recognize the extraordinary contributions of the Teamsters Union and the entire Hoffa family to the birth, survival and development of Israel at a time virtually no one in the world thought Israel would survive the combined armies of her hostile neighbors," says Stuart Davidson, president for the American Friends of the Yitzhak Rabin Center in New York.
"Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters provided critical support to a struggling Jewish state rising from the ashes of the Holocaust," Davidson adds. "The Teamsters Union has always stood firmly beside Israel, a nation built on trade union values, and it continues to do so today."
In The Beginning
Jimmy Hoffa's relationship with Israel began when, as a rising young union official from Detroit after World War II, he helped the Teamsters transport food, medical supplies and arms to Israeli freedom fighters, according to union officials, archivists, Hoffa relatives and labor attorneys.
"My father thought this cause was important, no matter what the risks during the early years," Jim Hoffa says. "Freedom is not free."
His family says the elder Hoffa's passion for Israel and the Jewish people never wavered during his remarkable life - from his rise to the top of one of the largest, strongest and most successful unions in American history, through his legal problems that plagued his later years, until his mysterious disappearance from a Bloomfield Township restaurant in 1975.
"Dad joined the cause because of the camaraderie," Jim Hoffa explains. "He was fighting to establish unions. Israel was fighting for statehood. It was a parallel struggle."
Teamsters senior adviser and Detroit Jewish community member Richard Leebove is optimistic that the honor from the Rabin Center will help promote the less known story of Jimmy Hoffa as a zealot for the common good, a humanitarian and one of Israel's earliest friends from outside the Jewish community.
"The rough and tumble Teamsters and a rising leader from Detroit became unlikely allies to the young Jewish state," Leebove says. "The media caricature of a crass and iron-fisted labor boss often ignores the role he played in supporting Israel and the other great social causes in the United States and overseas.
"Jews played a major role in the [U.S.] labor movement," Leebove adds. "Labor unions were among the few institutions that stood up for civil rights, opposed anti-Semitism, opposed Communism and supported democratic states like Israel."
For The Underdog
No one knows exactly how the relationship between the union and Israel began, but those who knew him say Jimmy Hoffa's affections were genuine.
"[Jimmy] Hoffa had long admired the Israelis for their values of survival, pride and pioneering, which he likened to the values of organized labor in the United States," writes Hoffa biographer Arthur Sloane in Hoffa, the only comprehensive biography published.
Jimmy Hoffa's associates say he had a penchant for the underdog, compassion for those less fortunate and zero tolerance for injustice and mistreatment of workers. They describe him as philanthropic and blind to color, religion and race.
Hoffa cites an unnamed intimate describing Jimmy as "a sucker for any sad song or hard-luck guy." In the book, Hoffa's daughter, Barbara Crancer, a circuit court judge in St. Louis, describes her father as a man "who would give anybody anything."
Hoffa once rounded up the neighborhood children near a Teamster complex in Detroit and bought ice cream for them all. He purchased new sports equipment many times for these boys and girls living in a less-than-prosperous section of the city, near Tiger Stadium.
Teamster archivists say Jimmy Hoffa wrote a personal check to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights organization for $25,000 during the 1960s. "He was the most progressive person I ever met," says Barry Solomon, a Detroit-based labor attorney. "Jimmy admired the courage of the Israeli people fighting for their existence against the odds. To him, it mirrored the beginnings of the labor movement."
As Jimmy Hoffa moved up the union ranks, his passion for Israel continued to grow, as did Teamster support. After Israel's successful battle for independence in 1948, the Teamsters lent financial support to the fledgling nation by buying millions of dollars of Israel Bonds, and Jimmy Hoffa continued to find causes to support within the Jewish state, Teamsters archivists say.
Hoffa "greatly respected the ability of the Jewish people through the ages to overcome hardships," biographer Arthur Sloane writes.
A Father's Steps
Next November, Jimmy Hoffa's two children plan to visit Israel for the dedication of the Rabin Center museum and the Hoffa/Teamsters exhibit. It will be Jim Hoffa's first trip to Israel; Barbara made the pilgrimage with her father in August of 1956 when Israel broke ground for the James R. Hoffa Children's Home, then situated on one of the terraced hills of Judea in Ein Karem, a small village that was the scene of heavy fighting during the Israeli war of liberation.
During the '56 dedication, Jimmy Hoffa handed a check for almost $300,000 for the orphanage to Israel Counsul General Simcha Pratt.
Hoffa helped raise the money four months earlier during a State of Israel testimonial dinner honoring the labor leader's role during Israel's early years. The event was held at the Michigan State Fair Coliseum in Detroit. The mega-fundraiser drew 2,650 A-list guests, including union leaders from throughout the country; Abba Eban, then the Israel ambassador to the United States; leaders of the United Automobile Workers and representatives from most other unions.
General Motors, Ford, Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck purchased blocks of tickets and sent ranking vice presidents to the dinner.
During the '56 trip, Hoffa and Barbara met a variety of dignitaries, including Ben-Gurion, Meir, the mayors of Jerusalem, Haifa and Beersheva and the leaders of the Histradut labor organization. They visited an industrial plant in Haifa and talked with shop stewards and workers.
"We hope this children's home will be a center which symbolizes the spirit of Israel," Jimmy Hoffa said in his dedication speech. "We believe that the job that Israel has done in setting up educational centers for young and old alike is unique.
"Building this country in a span of a few short years - building its industry, its homes, its schools, its strength - is an undertaking unparalleled in human history. You are a nation which believes in democracy and lives it. You are a beacon of light in the Middle East."
Crancer describes the trip as "fascinating" and looks forward to returning for the Rabin Center's museum dedication with her brother. They will travel with close associates and Teamsters from Nov. 7-16.
"We are trying to carry on a tradition," Crancer says. "My dad admired the Israelis for working so hard. My dad felt a connection, having gone through the labor struggle himself. Rabin was a great man who believed in peace. Dad would have loved to make this trip again to see how the country has grown and progressed."
In Israel, the Hoffas will participate in a commemoration of Rabin's assassination with Israeli dignitaries, including the prime minister and president of Israel.
"We are raising money for Israel, and I am excited about that and about going to Israel," says Jim Hoffa. "It has been more than 50 years since my dad went to Israel with Barbara, and it will be great to retrace the same steps. My family has a long connection to Israel."
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