SARINA ROFFÉ
SHULA COHEN A”H, THE ELEGANTLY DRESSED MOTHER OF SEVEN CHILDREN, WAS ARRESTED FOR ESPIONAGE IN BEIRUT IN 1961, SENDING SHOCK WAVES THROUGH THE JEWISH COMMUNITY. FOR 14 YEARS, THE YOUNG MOTHER HAD BUILT UP CONNECTIONS WITHIN THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF THE LEBANESE GOVERNMENT. SHE LEARNED THAT ALMOST ANYTHING COULD BE BOUGHT FOR BAHSHEESH (BRIBES).
Shula Cohen was born in Buenos Aires in 1920, the eldest of 12 children, and grew up in Israel. In 1936, when Shula was 16, she was married to Joseph Kishik-Cohen, a businessman from Beirut. After she moved to Beirut, she was a wife and mother, but her heart was always in Israel, where her parents and the rest of her family lived.
When Israel was created and the Arab states invaded, Shula came upon information critical for Israel. Somehow, she established a connection with Israel, sent a message and before she knew it, she became an active agent. Her code name: The Pearl.
Shula was well-connected with all the politicians in Lebanon, to the highest levels of government. Dr. Joseph Attie, the head of the community, also had good connections with the politicians there. The network fed her critical information that she sent to the Israeli government and at the same time, she arranged for hundreds, if not thousands, of Syrian Jews to cross the border to freedom.
One of her helpers was her nephew, Isaac Madeb, who is now a prominent Lebanese urologist living in Brooklyn. “The teacher at my school was Mossad. She promoted Zionism, which was against the law. She used to send messages with me to my aunt,” he said.
Isaac was born in Beirut in 1946, just before the creation of the State of Israel. His father, Rafoul Mahadeb A”H (the name was shortened when he came to the United States), was the community shokhet and mohel, and he worked in a printing shop.
Young Isaac attended the Alliance Israelite Universelle school in Beirut, where his family also attended services. His father managed the synagogue there and his mother sent food to the poor. In the Jewish neighborhood, where he grew up, there were many synagogues, including the main one, Maghen Avraham. There were Moslem and Christian stores in the area. All festivities took place in the home.
After Israel became a nation, many people from Syria moved to Beirut. Some got papers from the Iranian Embassy and were able to live in Lebanon as foreigners. Others were simply refugees. For a short period, it was not difficult to move to Lebanon and then, Syria began to impose severe restrictions, on its Jewish population, including a ban on travel. By January 1949, Jewish refugees were streaming into Beirut. They came with only the clothes on their backs. The Jewish community housed and fed them until accommodations could be made for them to leave for Israel.
According to Rabbi Elie Abadie, who was born in Beirut in 1960, “My parents, Rabbi Abraham and Fortunée Abadie, fled from Syria for their lives in 1948, after the mobs. The police they had once trusted, began burning synagogues and Sifrei Torot in what became known as the harayek.” The synagogue in Qamishli was burned to the ground, as well as the Great Synagogue in Aleppo, where stores were looted, Torahs burned and people were killed or injured.
Rabbi Abadie continued, “During the next 22 years in Lebanon living as Jewish refugees, we lived through the 1956 Sinai Campaign, the 1958 Lebanese Civil War and the 1967 Six-Day War. We endured discrimination, fear of persecution and hid our identity most of the time. After Black September and the transfer of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) leadership to Lebanon in 1969, the Jewish community felt threatened and began to flee. One day, a poster sized picture was plastered on many mosques all over Lebanon. The picture was of the three Rabbinical leaders, which included my father, all dressed in their Rabbinical robes with their talit. The caption under the picture read: These are the ‘Zionist Jewish Leaders who are helping Jews escape to Israel.’ The rabbis and their families knew they had to get out of Lebanon.”
As a child, Dr. Madeb saw that many refugees were coming from Syria and that they stayed in the community and then left. He knew about his aunt’s network in Beirut helping the Jews from Syria who had escaped. Sometimes people from Syria stayed at the printing place where his father worked, as it was near the port and people often left by boat at night. Rabbi Abadie said that his family also housed Syrian immigrants, including Rabbi Isaac Farhi.
When refugees started to arrive from Syria in 1948, Shula found a smuggler willing to take them across the border into Israel. Gradually, she expanded to include more smugglers. When things became too dangerous, she stopped, but would resume months later. As more and more people came, arriving at the Maghen Avraham Synagogue, the community found hiding places for the escapees. Most of them came from Damascus, but some from Aleppo.
To help those who escaped Syria, code words were developed among those who helped her. Her son Isaac said ‘14 rolls of cloth.’ This was the Arabic phrase he used to inform his mother that 14 Jews were on their way to Israel. Dr. Madeb said all the messages he passed to Shula were coded.
It became difficult for the Jewish community in the Wadi Abu Jamil to absorb too many people, so they had to be moved out quickly. They used warehouses and cellars to house the refugees. The escape route into Israel became difficult, or there may have been too many people at a time. Shula developed alternate routes and began sending people out by boat into the Mediterranean, where they would be picked up by the Israelis. Aliya Bet was the Israeli operation to bring Jews out of Arab countries to safety in their borders.
Shula entertained and cultivated influential businessmen, politicians, and senior army officers. Her parties were used to glean information which she passed on to Israeli intelligence. Her husband Joseph’s store helped as a place to make contact. Her position as his wife helped her raise money among the merchants to help the refugees. Albert Elia, secretary of the community, helped with paperwork, fake passports and IDs Shula bought with bribes from her government contacts.
Her son Isaac, who became the Israeli Ambassador to Egypt, wrote: “Over time, a fairly regular procedure was formed: the young people who crossed the border from Syria reached Beirut, people there found places to hide them, either in the synagogue or in residents’ homes. The next step was to inform Shula of their arrival and she would prepare for their journey to Israel.”
Gradually, the Syrians figured out what she was doing and tried unsuccessfully to kidnap her. Lebanese intelligence began an investigation into Shula’s activities. A new person in her network had turned her in. Lebanese intelligence, the Deuxieme Bureau, rented an apartment above Shula’s in the same building, as well as an apartment opposite hers. They used remote listening devices on the floor, walls or ceiling, linked to satellites and recorded the voices and sent them to control rooms. After two months of surveillance, the Deuxieme Bureau had enough evidence to make an arrest and did so on August 9, 1961.
Her trial began on October 27, 1961, and on July 25, 1962, she was sentenced to death, but due to international pressure, including from Israel, her sentence was commuted to 20 years. Cohen only served six years of her sentence imprisoned in Beirut. While in jail, she was severely tortured. Her daughter Carmela brought her kosher food. After the 1967 War, there was a prisoner exchange between Lebanon and Israel. They exchanged two Lebanese ministers, as well as some Syrian and Egyptian soldiers, for Shula. They took her to Rosh Hanikra, where she crossed the border. The rest of the family left with one suitcase and joined her in Israel.
Growing up with the refugees from Syria coming and going, Isaac Madeb passed the Brevet, an official exam which one had to pass in order to move on in education. He then attended a French high school. He took the baccalaureate exams and received a grade that allowed him to go to medical school at Beirut’s Saint Joseph University, until 1968. After the Six-Day War in 1967 there was a dramatic change in the atmosphere at the university toward Jews. There was a lot of anti-Semitism.
Realizing he could not stay in Lebanon, Dr. Madeb went to the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and told him he wanted to continue his medical studies at the Sorbonne. He was accepted and finished his medical degree in Paris. While he was in Paris, he stayed in Rothschild student housing because it had a Jewish atmosphere. During that time, he learned English and passed the exams needed to get a visa to do his residency at Maimonides Hospital in the United States. The United States had a shortage of doctors due to the Vietnam War, so they had a program of reciprocity. However, Dr. Madeb had to first go back to Lebanon.
So in 1971, he returned to Beirut for six months, married Lily Mann and did a rotation at the American Hospital in Beirut in general practice. His father advised him to go to Brooklyn, New York, for his residency because there was an established community. He came to New York in 1971 and at Maimonides Hospital, he worked on his specialization in urology.
Once in Brooklyn, Dr. Madeb quickly became active in the community, working with Nouri Dayan at Ahi Ezer Congregation as vice president. He organized the Lebanese Jews and began their first congregation, Har Lebanon in 1976. Later he helped form Sephardic Lebanese Congregation in 2004, where he was president for 15 years. In 1982, Dr. Madeb began an organization called Beer Miriam, which has helped over 1,000 people in Israel and the United States with medical expenses.
According to Rabbi Eli Elbaz, “Dr. Madeb really cared about, and was devoted to, the synagogue. He took care of the big things and the smallest details to make sure everything was done properly. He made sure the employees were always paid on time. He instituted religious programs and increased the religious level of the synagogue. People from Lebanon were traditional. He made it so there were plenty of shiurim on many subjects for everyone. He had his hand in every aspect of the synagogue.”
In the meantime, Dr. Madeb’s Aunt Shula had settled in Israel with her family. She had been afraid to leave Israel because the Syrian government had a $12 million bond on her head, but she bravely went to Toronto in the mid-1980s for three weeks to see Judy Feld Carr. Shula had become a mentor to the Canadian Musicologist who helped over 3,000 Jews leave Syria from the late 70s until the early 90s. Judy Feld Carr said that during the time she was working on helping the Syrian Jews, Shula was the only person she could confide in.
During that first visit, Shula spoke at several synagogues. Feld Carr saw to it that Shula got a new wardrobe and was treated to salon grooming. The Canadian Jews could not advertise Shula’s speaking engagements, but through word of mouth thousands showed up to hear her speak.
She made three visits to the United States. Two visits were to the Simon Weisenthal Center in Los Angeles in 2001. She gave lectures and spoke to the Jewish community and was awarded the Medal of Valor at a ceremony in Los Angeles in June 2001. She came to New York and was honored by Brooklyn’s Sephardic Lebanese Congregation in 2005.
Dr. Madeb, helped Shula Cohen as a child and as an adult, he helps his community in Brooklyn. He is currently president of Congregation Beth El of Flatbush, Shula lived to be 100 years old.
In the meantime, Dr. Madeb’s Aunt Shula had settled in Israel with her family. She had been afraid to leave Israel because the Syrian government had a $12 million bond on her head, but she bravely went to Toronto in the mid-1980s for three weeks to see Judy Feld Carr. Shula had become a mentor to the Canadian Musicologist who helped over 3,000 Jews leave Syria from the late 70s until the early 90s. Judy Feld Carr said that during the time she was working on helping the Syrian Jews, Shula was the only person she could confide in.
During that first visit, Shula spoke at several synagogues. Feld Carr saw to it that Shula got a new wardrobe and was treated to salon grooming. The Canadian Jews could not advertise Shula’s speaking engagements, but through word of mouth thousands showed up to hear her speak.
She made three visits to the United States. Two visits were to the Simon Weisenthal Center in Los Angeles in 2001. She gave lectures and spoke to the Jewish community and was awarded the Medal of Valor at a ceremony in Los Angeles in June 2001. She came to New York and was honored by Brooklyn’s Sephardic Lebanese Congregation in 2005.
Dr. Madeb, helped Shula Cohen as a child and as an adult, he helps his community in Brooklyn. He is currently president of Congregation Beth El of Flatbush, Shula lived to be 100 years old.
A genealogist and historian, Sarina Roffé is the author of Branching Out from Sepharad (Sephardic Heritage Project, 2017). She is researching a new book: Syria – Paths to Freedom. Sarina holds a BA in Journalism, and MA in Jewish Studies and an MBA.
