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Benjamin "Ben" Dunkelman (26 June 1913 – June 11, 1997) was a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish officer who served in the Canadian Army in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
in the
1948 Arab–Israeli War
The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...
. In Israel, he was called Benjamin Ben-David.
Biography
Early life
Benjamin Dunkelman was the son of ''Ashkenazim'' immigrants from the town of Makov (modern
Maków Mazowiecki
Maków Mazowiecki is a town in Poland, in the Masovian Voivodship. It is the powiat capital of Maków County (or Powiat of Maków). Its population is 10,850.
History
The town obtained its town charter in 1421. It was a Polish royal town, admin ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
) in the Russian Empire. His father was David Dunkelman, the founder of the Canadian men's retailers,
Tip Top Tailors
Tip Top Tailors is a Canadian retail clothing chain, selling primarily menswear: suits, tuxedos , casual wear, sportswear and outerwear; as well, most stores have an in-house tailor (provides tailoring for clothing purchased within the store).
T ...
and his mother Rose was a committed Zionist.
[biographical entry in ] Dunkelman and his siblings grew up on an estate, Sunnybrook Farm (now the site of
Sunnybrook Medical Centre), northeast of Toronto built by his wealthy father.
Dunkelman later recalled about growing on Sunnybrooke Farm that "it was a dreamland, a children’s paradise".
He attended
Upper Canada College
Upper Canada College (UCC) is an elite, all-boys, private school in Toronto, Ontario, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The college is widely described as the country's most prestigious preparatory school, and has produce ...
in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, where he was noted for his active social life and for excelling at football.
Besides for his love of sports, Dunkelman enjoyed sailing Lake Ontario in his yacht.
In 1931, financial losses caused by the Great Depression forced David Dunkelman to sell off Sunnybrook Farm.
At the age of 18, Dunkelman went off to work on a
kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
in Palestine, at that time a League of Nations Mandate administered by Great Britain.
Dunkelman was inspired by his Zionist mother to go to the Palestine Mandate.
At the ''kibbutz'', he worked as a ''shomer'', an armed watchman, whose duty it was to protect the ''kibbutz'' from being attacked by Palestinian raiders.
Dunkelman recalled: "I went off a flabby, pampered boy; I returned as a tough young man who had seen the world."
He loved the Holy Land, and only reluctantly returned to Toronto.
He returned to Toronto in 1932 to assist his father, but went again to Palestine in the late 1935 to develop new settlements.
[
]
Military career
He was back in Toronto in 1939 when the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
broke out. He attempted to join the Royal Canadian Navy
The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack s ...
(RCN), but anti-semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
in the RCN at the time precluded a naval career.[Dunkelman, Ben (1984). ''Dual Allegiance: An autobiography'', Goodread Biography. ] Instead Dunkelman enlisted as a private with The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada
("In peace prepared")
, colours = None (Rifle regiments have no colours)
, march =
, mascot =
, battle_honours = See #Battle honours
, website ...
; as the war progressed he rose from Private to Major. Dunkelman enlisted with the Second Battalion of the Queen's Own Rifles in 1940. Dunkelman later gave his reasons for enlisting as an "active" (willing to fight overseas) member as: "I am a Canadian, proud of Canada’s heritage and proud-if need be-to fight for it."
He was in the second wave to land on Juno beach
Juno or Juno Beach was one of five beaches of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 during the Second World War. The beach spanned from Courseulles, a village just east of the British beach Gold ...
, the Canadian beach in the Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
on D-Day 6 June 1944. During his career with the regiment he earned numerous commendations. He also fought in the difficult campaigns in northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, including bloody battles at Caen
Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,[Falaise
Falaise may refer to:
Places
* Falaise, Ardennes, France
* Falaise, Calvados, France
** The Falaise pocket was the site of a battle in the Second World War
* La Falaise, in the Yvelines ''département'', France
* The Falaise escarpment in Quebe ...]
, and the Battle of the Scheldt
The Battle of the Scheldt in World War II was a series of military operations led by the First Canadian Army, with Polish and British units attached, to open up the shipping route to Antwerp so that its port could be used to supply the Allies ...
to open up the critical port of Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, . During the Normandy campaign in June-August 1944 and then during the Battle of the Scheldt, the Canadian Army took heavy losses. At the same time, the policy of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King of only sending "active" members who volunteered to fight overseas ensured there was a shortage of replacements for the losses as there were only a limited number of men who had enlisted voluntarily. Under Mackenzie King's policy, men were conscripted for the military, but only for the defense of Canada, leading to a situation where two divisions stood waiting on the coast of British Columbia and another division on the coast of Nova Scotia. At the time of the Battle of the Scheldt, Dunkelman wrote in disgust: "We knew why leaves were so scarce. Thanks to Prime Minister Mackenzie King's handling of the Conscription issue at home".
In 1945, he was awarded a Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...
(DSO) for his service in the Hochwald campaign in northwest Germany during the drive to the river Rhine. In March 1945, Dunkelman played a key role in taking the steep Balberger Wald ridge in the dark forests of the Hochwald.
After the war, he was offered command of the Queen's Own Rifles but declined owing to business interests at home.[ Dunkelman returned to Canada, but again decided to travel to war, this time to fight for ]Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
in the spring of 1948. On 14 May 1948, the Palestine Mandate came to an end and the State of Israel was proclaimed. Israel was immediately invaded by the armies of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon who joined the two Palestinian armies who had been fighting the Jewish population since December 1947. He arrived there at a time when the Israeli army was short of officers with combat experience. Initially, he took command of a mortar unit in the Mahal, the legion of Jewish and Christian foreign volunteers fighting for Israel.
Dunkelman's skill with mortars brought him to the attention of the Israeli High Command, and he was instrumental in the breaking of the siege of Jerusalem, which had been besieged by the Jordanians almost since the beginning of the war.[ Shortly afterwards, he became the commander of the 7th Brigade, the country's best-known armored brigade.][ Dunkelman and the 7th Brigade were initially sent to Galilee to halt the advance of the Syrians.] Under his command, the 7th Brigade stopped the Syrian advance and recaptured much of upper western Galilee.
In his autobiography, called ''Dual Allegiance'',[ Dunkelman tells the story of how, between July 8 and 18, 1948 during ]Operation Dekel
Operation Dekel ( he, מבצע דקל , Mivtza Dekel, Operation Palm Tree), was the largest offensive by Israeli forces in the north of Palestine after the first truce of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was carried out by the 7th Armoured Brigade ...
, he led the 7th Brigade and its supporting units as it moved to capture the town of Nazareth
Nazareth ( ; ar, النَّاصِرَة, ''an-Nāṣira''; he, נָצְרַת, ''Nāṣəraṯ''; arc, ܢܨܪܬ, ''Naṣrath'') is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In ...
. Nazareth surrendered after little more than token resistance. The Palestinians of Nazareth were overwhelmingly Christian. The Palestinian Christians of Nazareth had little interest in being incorporated into a Muslim state, whatever under the leadership of King Abdullah I of Jordan who wanted Palestine for himself or Muhammad Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the would-be future Palestinian leader who was being supported by King Farouk of Egypt and King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. The surrender was formalized in a written agreement, where the town leaders accepted to cease hostilities in return for solemn promises from the Israeli officers, including Dunkelman, that no harm would come to the Palestinian civilians of the town.
Shortly after the capture, Dunkelman received orders from General Chaim Laskov
Haim Laskov ( he, חיים לסקוב; born 1919, Barysaw, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic – 8 December 1982) was an Israeli public figure and the fifth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.
Biography
Haim Laskov was born in Barys ...
to expel the Palestinian civilian population from the town, which he refused to carry out. Israeli journalist and translator Peretz Kidron
Peretz Kidron (29 July 1933 – 6 November 2011) was an Israeli writer, journalist and translator.
Biography
He was born in Vienna, the son of Sara and Herman Kirchenbaum aywho were devoted Zionists and supporters of the Jewish state. His famil ...
, with whom Dunkelman collaborated in writing ''Dual Allegiance'', reproduced his record of Dunkelman's account of the capture of Nazareth in a book chapter entitled "Truth Whereby Nations Live":
:" ess than a day laterHaim Laskov ame #REDIRECT AME #REDIRECT AME
{{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...
{{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...
to me with astounding orders: Nazareth's civilian population was to be evacuated! I was shocked and horrified. I told him I would do nothing of the sort—in view of our promises to safeguard the city's people, such a move would be both superfluous and harmful. I reminded him that scarcely a day earlier, he and I, as representatives of the Israeli army, had signed the surrender document in which we solemnly pledged to do nothing to harm the city or its population. When Haim saw that I refused to obey the order, he left."
12 hours after Dunkelman had refused to expel the inhabitants of Nazareth, Laskov had appointed another officer as military governor.
Morris, Benny
Benny Morris ( he, בני מוריס; born 8 December 1948) is an Israeli historian. He was a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Beersheba, Israel. He is a member of t ...
(2004). ''The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , pp. 419–20.
:"Two days after the second truce came into effect, the Seventh Brigade was ordered to withdraw from Nazareth. Avraham Yaffe, who had commanded the 13th battalion in the assault on the city, now reported to me with orders from Moshe Carmel to take over from me as its military governor. I complied with the order, but only after Avraham had given me his word of honour that he would do nothing to harm or displace the Arab population.
...I felt sure that
he order to withdraw from Nazarethhad been given because of my defiance of the evacuation order."
Dunkelman's defiance of the evacuation order forced Laskov to attempt to obtain sanction from a higher level. However,
David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the name ...
finally vetoed the order;
the Arab inhabitants in Nazareth were never forced to evacuate. Dunkelman's argument that expelling the mostly Christian Palestinians of Nazareth would damage relations with the overwhelming Christian nations of the West seemed to have changed Ben-Gurion's mind.
[Haiduc-Dale, Noah ''Arab Christians in British Mandate Palestine: Communalism and Nationalism, 1917-1948'', Edinburgh: Edinburg University Press, 2013 p.186] During the war, Dunkelman met and married Yael Lifshitz.
Lifshitz was a corporal in the Israeli Army who served under Dunkelman.
Civilian career
After the war Dunkelman was offered, but refused, a commission in the peacetime Israeli Army; the Dunkelmans returned instead to Toronto where he went into the family business, which he expanded then sold to
Dylex Limited
Dylex Limited was one of Canada's largest retailers during the 1970s and 1980s, where it operated a number of specialty retail stores, including women's wear, men's wear, and family stores, including BiWay, a large, and now defunct, Canadian dis ...
in 1967. In recognition of Dunkelman's World War Two service, the Parliament of Canada voted to give Yael Dunkelman Canadian citizenship, instead of forcing her to apply for Canadian citizenship, which her husband called a "splendid gesture".
The Dunkelmans were to have six children.
He later became a developer. Among his developments were the
Cloverdale Mall
Cloverdale Mall is a community shopping centre located in the Etobicoke area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at 250 The East Mall northeast of the intersection of Dundas Street West and Highway 427). It opened in 1956 as an open-air shopping plaza ...
and the
Constellation Hotel, later renamed the
Regal Constellation Hotel
The Regal Constellation Hotel was a large hotel with focus on trade shows, convention and hospitality training centre near Pearson International Airport near Toronto, Ontario.
Built in 1962, the hotel consisted of two 15-floor towers, 6-storey at ...
.
Dunkelman was one of the founders of the
Island Yacht Club
The Island Yacht Club is a proprietary yacht club in Toronto, Ontario Canada. The club is located on of land on Mugg's Island, one of the islands in the Toronto Islands. The club is accessible from April to October using the club's private boat ...
, which he founded in 1951 after the
Royal Canadian Yacht Club
The Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) is a private yacht club in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1852, it is one of the world's older and larger yacht clubs. Its summer home is on a trio of islands (RCYC Island, South Island and North Chip ...
refused to accept him on the account of his being Jewish.
Dunkelman lived in retirement in Toronto until his death.
In 1967, he almost died of a heart attack, which led him to retire from the family's business of running the Tip Top Tailor company.
After his heart attack, he decided to focus on his real passion, collecting art.
He and his wife also ran the Dunkelman Gallery in Toronto as well as several restaurants.
The Dunkelman Gallery, which he founded in 1967 became a "well-known as a showcase for Canadian and international artists".
In September 1969, the Dunkelman Gallery hosted the personal archaeological collection of the Israeli Defense Minister, General
Moshe Dayan
Moshe Dayan ( he, משה דיין; 20 May 1915 – 16 October 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1953–1958) du ...
, which mostly consisted of art from ancient Canaan and Phoenicia.
There is a bridge on the
Lebanese border called ''Gesher Ben'' in Dunkelman's honor. His story is told in the film ''Ben Dunkelman: The Reluctant Warrior''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunkelman, Ben
1913 births
1997 deaths
Israeli military personnel
Canadian Army personnel of World War II
Upper Canada College alumni
Canadian Jews
Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent
Nazareth
Israeli people of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
Jewish military personnel
The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada soldiers
Canadian Companions of the Distinguished Service Order
The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada officers
Military personnel from Toronto