Seeking Closure

Exactly 62 years ago today (according to the Hebrew Calendar), a 16 year old named Alexander Rubovitz was hanging posters near the Jerusalem intersection of Ushiskin and Keren Kayemet streets.  He had been tasked with this job by the Lehi (which along with the Etzel/Irgun, was one of two underground paramilitary Jewish groups) of which he was a member.

While engaged in this task, he was abducted and never seen again.

His abduction had been witnessed, and a hat found at the scene was linked to a British policeman (actually a soldier seconded to the Police) named Major Roy Farran.  Farran fled the country but was returned to face a military court martial connected with his role in the disappearance of Alexander Rubovitz.

Unfortunately, since the body was never found and no eye witness could positively identify him as having been at the scene of the abduction, Farran was acquitted due to lack of anything but the most circumstantial evidence.

Considering the lack of solid evidence in the case at the time, and the fact that Farran was a highly decorated WWII veteran, it is not particularly surprising that he was acquitted.  Add to that the fact that he was accused of having kidnapped a member of what the British considered a terrorist organization, and the outcome makes perfect sense.

After the acquittal, members of both the Etzel (Irgun) and Lehi (Stern Gang) plastered the country with posters holding Farran personally responsible for the abduction and murder of the 16 year old boy, and swore revenge against him.

An article that appeared in Time Magazine in 1947 paints Roy Farran in fairly glowing terms, and recounts how, shortly after his return to England, a package bomb intended for him was opened by his brother Rex, resulting in Rex's death.

According to Wikipedia, former MK Geula Cohen (who served in the Lehi) recounted having heard that a package bomb was addressed to 'R. Farran', and that they did not know at the time that he had a brother who shared his first initial. 

Roy Farren moved to Canada, served in the Police force there, and entered politics... ultimately rising to hold the position of Solicitor General until his retirement in 1979.  Throughout his life he refused to discuss the case of the abduction of Alexander Rubovitz, and he presumably remained on the assassination list of the Lehi until his death of natural causes in 2006.

Some 57 years after the abduction of Alexander Rubovitz, Israeli private investigator Steven Rambam of Pallorium Investigations released a Report containing evidence, interviews and previously classified British documents allegedly proving that a British "Q" team headed by Farran had abducted Rubowitz, and that Farran had personally "bashed in Rubowitz's head with a rock" and then disposed of the body with local assistance.  His body was allegedly buried in the desert between Jerusalem and Jericho, near what is today the Jewish town of Ma'aleh Adumim. [Source: Fay Greer, Jerusalem Post, March 17, 2009]

In a very well researched book entitled 'Major Farran's Hat', extremely compelling evidence is presented that leaves little doubt that Farran was involved in the abduction, and that he even delivered the fatal blow.  But since he is now dead (and considering the egregious fact of the botched assassination attempt that took the life of his blameless brother), I think it would be unproductive in the extreme to continue the pursuit of the case with the sole goal of proving Farran's guilt.

However, the body of a 16 year old boy named Alexander Rubovitz remains missing to this day, and his family, friends and former comrades deserve the closure that can only come with the discovery of his remains and his re-interment in a marked grave.

It may be a bit cynical of me to say, but I feel in my heart that if this young man had been a member of the Hagannah, the Israeli Defense Ministry's unit tasked with locating missing combatants (including pre-state paramilitary participants) would have long ago found him and laid his remains to rest on Mt. Herzl.

This afternoon at 4:00PM, a group of Lehi veterans will hold a memorial service at the site of the kidnapping – the corner of Ushiskin and Keren Kayemet streets in Jerusalem's Rechavia neighborhood.  I urge anyone who can, to attend and show their support.  [If you attend, please send me a photo so I can add it to this post.]

Anyone can argue that it was only through the efforts of the Hagannah... or of the Etzel... or of the Lehi... that the British were finally convinced to depart and hand the Mandate for Palestine to a world body empowered to approve the Partition Plan that would lead to our statehood.  But the truth is that all three acted in what they thought the best interest of the nascent Jewish state, and some combination of their efforts did eventually have the desired result.

Now is the time to find the remains of a boy who fought for Israel's Independence, and who certainly deserves to be interred among the heroes of the nation he helped to create.