Posted on 06/18/2005 10:40:05 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Robert F. Maguire Jr., who was once dubbed the "Irish Moses" by an Israeli prime minister for heading up a dangerous secret airlift that flew 40,000 Jews to the newborn state, has died. He was 94.
Maguire died June 10 at his Northridge home, according to his son Robert F. Maguire III.
Maguire, a Portland, Ore., native of Irish and British descent who was raised as an Episcopalian, was a World War II veteran working for Alaska Airlines in 1948 when the company agreed to fly refugees from Yemen to the newly established Jewish state.
The American Joint Distribution Committee contracted for Alaska to join the airlift, dubbed "Operation Magic Carpet," after the Imam of Yemen agreed to let virtually the entire Jewish population leave the country.
The operation was not made public out of concern that Arab states, battling Israel at the time, would shoot down the planes as they crossed 3,000 miles of territory.
When Alaska Airlines withdrew from the program several months later, Maguire kept it going by creating Near East Air Transport with purchased or leased planes.
Maguire told the Los Angeles Times last year that he was motivated by adventure more than money, but he never forgot the gratitude of the Yemenite Jews.
They would sing and offer blessings as they flew into Israel.
"It was so touching you almost don't want to remember," he said.
The Jewish community never forgot, however. Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, called Maguire "the Irish Moses."
Last year, Maguire was awarded a medal of valor from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, the center's founder and dean, noted that most of the pilots for Operation Magic Carpet were Israelis.
"It wasn't his conflict," Hier said, adding, "He risked his life every single day."
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
That the dude oh rack him
I got beef with Alaska airlines why they withdraw hey Kathy I thought Alaska airlines are bada***
Wow - Yemen sure took off after the exported all the Jews.
ROFL that so true about Yemen
RIP!
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