At the end of 1963, Haim Gori arrived in Paris for a few weeks, on the occasion of the publication of the French translation of “In Front of the Glass Cage,” his memoirs from the Eichmann trial. In January 1964, Paul VI made the first historic papal visit to the Holy Land, which received extensive media coverage.
One day in February, we learned at the embassy that the French Cardinal Tisserran, an elder of the Vatican Council of Cardinals, who we had accompanied on a visit, was going to speak about him that evening atThe Church of the Magdalene, the huge building resembling a Greek temple in the heart of Paris. We were interested in knowing how the Cardinal would present the visit, and Ambassador Walter Eitan assigned me to call the Madeleine secretariat to find out details and ask if I could attend the lecture.
My question must have caused great embarrassment to the church people, as they had not thought of inviting us officially on their own initiative as representatives of the Holy Land, and they went out of their way to make up for it. While I was still talking to them on the phone, Haim Guri came into my room, and I asked him what he was doing in the evening and if he would like to come with me.
He ran, and we talked about picking him up in the diplomatic-license-plate Heda Shabu car I had at the time. We thought to ourselves that we would simply join the crowd of listeners gathered at the church, and Chaim was dressed accordingly, with some kind of tattered raincoat, similar to the one worn by the television detective Columbo. It is even possible that Peter Falk was the one who copied Chaim's raincoat.
Then the church people apologized again and said that there were no seats left for us in the first row of the audience seats, and so they placed two armchairs for us (luxurious, in the style of Louis XIV), in front of the gilded wooden railing at the front. That's where they seated us when we entered the church hall, which was packed to the brim – over a thousand believers in their finest attire.
Two priests entered after us, carrying the Archbishop of Paris, the elderly Cardinal Platten, led him to us, and extended his hand to us for a peace-shake.
At the end of the story, the great organ of the church began to play, and a ceremonial procession of the cardinals and bishops was organized to exit the huge hall through the central avenue, and we were invited to join the procession. So we passed hundreds of delighted faces, two citizens, one of whom was wearing a mysterious raincoat, to the sound of the organ and a group of priests and bishops in their robes and symbols.
I believe that those who were there are still wondering who the two strange aliens who passed through were, and do not know that they were two Jews from the Land of Israel, to whom the extraordinary honor was given to atone for the sin of not inviting a representative of the embassy in advance.
Cardinal Tisserran, a learned theologian who is fluent in the languages of the ancient Middle East, can be said to have saved the honor of the Catholic Church during the Pope's visit. As you may recall, Paul refused to enter Israel from Jordan through the Mandelbaum Gate and his welcoming ceremony was held in Megiddo.
On Mount Zion, he went to the Church of the Dormition and the Hall of the Last Supper, and refused to visit the Holocaust Basement, which then served as Yad Vashem. Tisserran went there and lit candles in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Cardinal Tisserran, a learned scholar of the Eshkol, who is fluent in the languages of the ancient Middle East, can be said to have saved the honor of the Catholic Church during the Pope's visit. As you may recall, Paul refused to enter Israel from Jordan through the Mandelbaum Gate, and his welcoming ceremony was held in Megiddo.
As for the Church of the Magdalene, it is worth noting its connection to Judaism and the Land of Israel. It is named after Mary of Migdal on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, the friend and disciple of Jesus. According to the “Golden Legend” from the tenth century, she came to the south France After the crucifixion, and spread the new religion in Provence.
She spent the rest of her days as a nun in a cave, where she was laid to rest. In the 13th-15th centuries, the Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume was built on the site, the most important Gothic building in southern France (Var). The place itself is very much worth a special visit.
From the stories of Joseph G. in Paris
Like most Israeli writers and artists in Paris, Haim Guri used to sit inMontparnasse district At the Select Cafe. There he also met Joseph G. (officially named Joseph Gutman), an old and ill-fated acquaintance from the days of the War of Independence. That G., who was penniless, was sleeping in a friend's laundromat, which was closed at night, but that didn't stop him from boasting about his courageous connections at the top of government and the arts.
One day, Kol Yisrael reporter Izo Reger (later mayor of Beersheba) and Yedioth Ahronoth reporter Edwin Eitan expressed their desire to interview President de Gaulle. No problem, said Joseph G., I will arrange a meeting for you and Haim Guri at the Elysee Palace in the coming days. For two weeks, the trio waited every morning with great tension for the long-awaited meeting. But G. appeared every day at noon with a different excuse for postponement.
To make up for it, he invited them to a concert by singer Juliette Greco at the prestigious Olympia Hall, without either of them having purchased tickets. He managed to get them into the hall and seat them in one of the prestigious boxes, until the ushers came and removed them. G led them to Greco's dressing room, entered, and embraced her with demonstrative warmth, but when he left for a moment, the singer asked his entourage, "Who is this man?"
Ji later said that he had been invited to the USSR to produce a monumental film there, and that he had a meeting with the cultural counselor at the Russian embassy, whose name he gave, to summarize the details of his trip. Experienced scholars, Haim, Ijo, and Edwin doubted the credibility of the story, and came to me at the embassy to try to examine it.
I was then First Secretary, in charge of information in France and the French-speaking countries. French Around the world. Even though we still had proper diplomatic relations with the USSR at the time, I went out to the nearby bistro, so as not to call from the embassy, and dialed the Soviet cultural advisor with a token.
Yes, yes, he was indeed supposed to be with me now, the advisor replied to my question whether Mr. Yosef Givon was with him, but he did not come. The next day, his friends asked him why he did not go to the important meeting with the Russian advisor. Yes, I was at the embassy, he replied, but at the entrance I met Ambassador Vinogradov and gave him a hard time about why Khrushchev did or said such and such.
It is not known whether G was actually at the Soviet embassy or whether anyone there believed in his ability to produce a film. The only clear fact is that he arranged a meeting with the cultural advisor at the embassy. This was his modest part in the Yosef G. affairs, which Chaim Guri wrote about extensively in a series in the newspaper, and also compiled in a book.
