Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence

In short order, Harel extracted the entire story. In 1960, in a scheme

planned in advance, Frei had been contacted by Yossele’s grandfather

and associates. She had taken a sea voyage to Israel as a tourist. On

board the vessel, she met a couple immigrating to Israel with their

daughter and became their friend. In the immigration line at Haifa

port, Frei stood beside their girl, and the immigration officer regis-

tered her as Madeleine’s daughter. In Jerusalem she was taken to the

place where Schumacher was hidden. She set about persuading Yos-

sele to wear girl’s dresses; a week later she left the country with him,

using fake documents in which he appeared as her daughter. For a

while Schumacher lived in Switzerland. Frei’s husband, a rabbi, was

his teacher. Then she flew with Schumacher to New York City and

handed him over to a Neturei Karta family in Brooklyn named Gert-

ner. Yossele had been given the name Yankele Gertner.

After these facts came to light, Mossad agents flew to New York in

September 1962. A team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, au-

thorized by Attorney General Robert Kennedy to cooperate, awaited

the agents at the airport. Together they went to Gertner’s apartment.

While the husband was at prayer, the agents rushed into the apartment,

saw the boy, and called him by his name: Yossele. The outcome was

that Schumacher was at once safely returned to Israel. The entire op-

eration had taken eight months. Nevertheless, the wide gap between

the Israeli Orthodox and secular populations was not bridged.

SEIDENWERG, AVRAHAM.SeeELAD, AVRAHAM (AVRI).

SELLA, AVIAM.Colonel Sella was an Israel Air Force (IAF) pilot. In

October 1980, as the newly appointed IAF head of operations, he be-

gan planning the Opera Operationto bomb the Iraqi nuclear reactor

at Osirak, which was carried out on 7 June 1981.

In 1984 Sella took sabbatical leave in New York City to study com-

puters. In April that year, while attending a party in Upper Manhattan

at the apartment of a wealthy Jewish physician, he was introduced to

Jonathan Jay Pollard, a civilian intelligence analyst in the U.S.

Navy’s Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) in Suitland,

Maryland. Later, Sella phoned the head of IAF intelligence in Tel

Aviv. Upon receiving the approval of the IAF commander, Sella

started to meet Pollard in New York in an attempt to cultivate relations

250 • SEIDENWERG, AVRAHAM

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