Madam, - Further to Manus O'Riordan's letter of February 22nd regarding the late President de Valera's message of condolence to the German ambassador in 1945, permit me to take this opportunity of elaborating on this subject.
But first I wish to thank Mr O'Riordan for his subsequent letter and his blessing of long life. I reply in the traditional Hebrew response to this blessing: Baruch tiheyeh - "May you also be so blessed".
I discussed this question with President de Valera and he explained to me that, owing to the difficult situation in the relationship of the Irish Republic with Britain at the time, he felt unable to join Britain in the Allied war against Germany, and, like many other small nations, he chose to maintain a state of neutrality. He said he had severely condemned the Nazi persecution of the Jewish people and he had conveyed this to the German ambassador.
His message of condolence on the death of Hitler was merely an official act which was required by diplomatic protocol and was no judgment on the righteousness of German actions. In fact there were a number of occasions when his neutrality leaned toward the Allied cause. When President Roosevelt died he paid a very warm tribute to him at a special meeting of the Dáil.
I understood his "troublesome" diplomatic situation, and I accepted it.
During his years with the Irish Volunteers he developed a warm mutual friendship with a predecessor of mine, Rabbi Dr Isaac Herzog, whom he visited in the Chief Rabbi's residence in Dublin's South Circular Road.
He mentioned a number of times that he greatly admired the new-born State of Israel, and welcomed its liberation from British control. He was particularly impressed by the successful revival of Hebrew as the daily spoken language in Israel.
President de Valera was deeply moved when I brought him a sapling of a fir tree in 1973 from the Eamonn de Valera Forest which the Irish Jewish community had planed in Cana, near Nazareth, in his honour. When the Israel forestry department sent him three trees growing in the forest, he was happy to plant them himself in the grounds of Áras an Uachtaráin so as to have a part of the Holy Land near his home. I participated in the planting together with Prof Mervyn Abrahamson, chairman of the forest committee.
I would like to add that when the UN urged Israel to withdraw from extensive parts of the liberated areas of Palestine, he said that if he had still been president of the League of Nations he would have seen to it that Israel did not give up any of the territory that it had regained after the Arab attack resulting in the Six Day War in 1967.
With cordial greetings to the many friends, Jewish and non-Jewish, that I made during my happy stay in Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
Rabbi Dr ISAAC COHEN, Shemaryahu Levin Street, Jerusalem, Israel.