The Arizona Jewish Post issue of September 27, 2019, has a wonderful article on Willy Halpert, a nonagenarian living in Southern Arizona who had escaped the Holocaust as a young boy. I happened to be looking up names from my past and came upon the story. I didn’t know Willy had the complex childhood he described in the interview or most of the other things he tells of his long life. I only knew him for a few months during his forty-year residence in Israel when he was running the Aqua Sport diving business in Eilat teaching SCUBA, renting out snorkeling equipment, and hosting experienced divers from all over, who attested that Eilat was one of the best underwater dive spots they knew of.
I met Willy there when I was in my early twenties after I had graduated from Temple University as a French major and after having spent a year in Paris. I was ready to come back to the states. My mom suggested I stop in Israel first. I figured why not? She was probably hoping I would meet a hunky sabra and decide to stay. It didn’t happen.
In Jerusalem I visited Aunt Mira, an original pioneer who had been there since the forties, and then I took a bus to see some more of the country, including the Golan Heights with its aftermath of the Six Day war. Finally, I took a six- hour bus ride down to Eilat, thinking I’d spend a few days in the far southern tip of the country. I had no idea what to expect, no idea what to do with myself really. That trip would end up lasting ten months and prove unforgettable.
Once in Eilat, I hitchhiked on a dusty road three kilometers outside the town to Coral Beach or Hof Almog. Near some tin one-room shacks across the road from the sole modest hotel, I discovered the Aqua Sport dive center right by the ocean, with Willy and a few SCUBA instructors on staff from around the world. I asked about working there and was hired on as a cook. I was very excited but worried about my culinary skills, which were limited to a weak attempt at spaghetti and meatballs trying to duplicate the thick pasta sauce I recalled from childhood. Taking pity on me, one of the British Sub-Aqua Club diving guests helped me shop and prepare a passable chicken dish. I barely survived the first week.
Willy was always a competent and knowledgeable gentleman. I was provided complimentary SCUBA lessons when the guys had down time, but I was never completely comfortable in the water. I had only reached a Red Cross intermediate swimming level as a city girl at summer camp. The underwater world was amazing, but as you might imagine, I didn’t last too long at the diving center. The memories of Eilat, Aqua Sport and the name Willy Halpert, however, remained lodged in my mind.
Back in the USA over 55 years later, I recently checked out Willy’s name and found a very exhaustive article on him and a fascinating video that he narrates about his life. Just search his name as I did! I saw that Willy lives in Arizona part of the year and has been sharing his life story in talks and interviews, going back to the day when he was separated at seven years old from his family during WWII. I knew none of this before about him.
I am so glad to find out that he is well and speaking out about his experiences. Willy is fluent in at least five languages and has lived in many places during his ninety-plus years. Forty years in a younger Israel running Aqua Sport is only a small part of his long story. He, however, will always be a big part of mine.
Editor’s note: Willy Halpert, 92, and his wife, Marilyn, divide their time between homes in Toronto, Canada, and SaddleBrooke, Arizona. Willy is writing a memoir, paints watercolors, and collaborates with a cousin in London who speaks about the Holocaust based on Willy’s life as a hidden child in Belgium.
Helen Gendler is a retired community college English as a Second Language instructor.
She is an occasional but enthusiastic writer whose credits include a colorful children’s picture book and a unique novel authored with five other Jewish women.
