After
thanking the rabbi for the tremendous attention that
he had shown towards me, on the Monday morning of
April 21, 1969, I left for Vienna. Again I was in a
train, this time however I was traveling for the
first time as a free man! While in the train, I
noticed that the rabbi had placed some money into
the pocket of my jacket next to the piece of paper
containing the HIAS address in Vienna where I was
going. I was tremendously impressed by all this as I
had never encountered a more attentive person in my
entire life. In about two (2) hours I was in
Vienna. It was about 11 AM. As I left the station
looking for a taxi, I was amazed to see that all of
the taxicabs were Mercedes-Benz.
In Romania only the President and no else had
Mercedes-Benz cars. Here I was, now riding in a
Mercedes-Benz! Upon giving to the taxi driver my
piece of paper with the HIAS address, he immediately
acknowledged it with a nod of his head as if he was
saying "I know exactly where it is."
I arrived at the
HIAS headquarters for Austria and the receptionist
was aware that I was coming. After filling out a
long questionnaire, I had my first interview with
an official from HIAS. The interview was tense,
unfriendly, and the bottom line was that I was
discouraged to go to America and encouraged to go
to Israel where I had some 50 relatives --all on
my mother's side. Their argument went like this:
"I
cannot approve your going to America. You have
nobody there, you speak English poorly and you
will end up on the unemployment line. Why don't
you want to go to Israel where you have so many
relatives? You see, Israel is not like Romania.
Israel is a free country and from Israel you
can, if you want, go to America. So because of
my responsibility towards your well-being I
cannot accept your application for you to go
America. You need to go to Israel."
In a subdued
voice, I asked: "Do you need my signature of
consent to go to Israel? "Yes, we do" the official
responded. Well, to this I added:
"For
me, you see, it is inconceivable not to go to
America and because of this I could never be
able to sign a paper consenting to go to Israel.
I do not want to go to Israel. I want to go to
America. "
Recognizing that
this interview was leading nowhere, the HIAS
official advised me to come back in a few days and
to reflect in the meantime on everything that had
been said. Also, I was told that HIAS had arranged
for me to have a room in the city where I could
stay while in Vienna and that I would also receive
money for food.
Returning in a few days to my next scheduled
appointment, again no progress was achieved as
both HIAS and I held to the same intransigent
positions. A new appointment was scheduled in a
week's time and the result was the same. Another
appointment was again scheduled with the same HIAS
official. The lack of progress because of my
"stubbornness and lack of cooperation" prompted
the official to refer this matter to the Executive
Director of HIAS for Austria for the final
disposition of this case.
I began to worry
considerably about my chances with HIAS helping me
to reach my ultimate goal --that of reaching the
United States, and consequently I began working on
contingency plans involving the seven addresses
that I had from the rabbi from Graz and that of
contacting directly the United States Embassy in
Vienna and asking for political asylum. With these
growing concerns and tentative alternate plans to
bypass HIAS, I went to see, as scheduled, the
Director of HIAS. This Director, a man of
considerable wit, articulated in a most eloquent
way the position that the Agency was taking and
once again emphasized the necessity for me to go
first to Israel. Stating my case, in an extremely
subdued voice, that there was not even a remote
chance for me to consent to going to Israel,
notwithstanding my great numbers of relatives that
were living there and of the fact that I could
have become an Israeli citizen within 24 hours of
my arrival there, I insisted that for me really
there was one and only one place that I could
consider living and that place was America only.
In exasperation, the Director asked me: "But WHY
when from Israel you can go directly to the
States?" To this I responded that this was my
burning desire to live in America and nowhere
else, and that I would appreciate if he could help
me in that direction. Then, continuing, I said:
"Could
you at least help me arrange for an appointment
with the Consul from the American Embassy here
in Vienna where I could state my case? With or
without HIAS' help I am determined to reach
America from here."
To this the
Director informed me that the American Immigration
laws would require that a person intending to
immigrate to the United States have a guarantor
vouching for that person and since I did not know
anybody in America, I obviously could not have
such a guarantor vouching for me in America. Then,
he continued:
"HIAS
could be a guarantor, if we are convinced that
immigrating to the United States is the best
course of action. Can you give me a compelling
reason why you should immigrate to the United
States rather than to Israel?"
Bowing my head
down, I stood in complete silence for some
two (2) minutes when the Director
interjected:
"You
see you do not have an answer and, that is why
we cannot approve for you to immigrate from here
to the United States."
Looking straight
into the Director's eyes, in a forceful voice I
stated:
"Oh,
but I have an answer! I have in fact the most
compelling answer to your question. You saw from
my application that my field of expertise is
Astronomy and that my last job was at the
Observatory of the Romanian Academy of Sciences
working on the PAGEOS International Project. It
is my desire to continue working in my
profession and by sending me to Israel this
would not be possible as Israel does not even
have an Observatory! Why are you forcing me to
change my profession?"
To this, after a
pause and with a subtle smile, the Director said:
"OK.
You have convinced me. We will be your guarantor
for your first two years in America. I will
arrange all the necessary paperwork. From here,
you will be going to Rome, Italy which is the
center of HIAS for all of Europe. You will stay
there a number of months while you are waiting
to receive the immigration visa from the United
States. There, you will have an interview with
an Official from the United States Embassy. I
wish you well and good luck!"
I was enormously
relived by all this. My three (3) weeks ordeal was
over. I was tremendously excited and happy.
Reaching America now appeared to be within my
grasp as a milestone towards that end had just
been passed. I was convinced that somebody above
was watching over me!
