Mike Gal in front of a cabinet filled with some of the trophies he has won playing bridge.

Mike Gal at age 92 and a few months according to his definition, is an inspiration to all of us that life is what you make of it. Mike lives in Tel Aviv, which has been home for most of the years he has lived in Israel.

Mike's business in the latter part of his life has been tourism. He says he was the first native English speaking tour guide in the country when he acquired his accreditation in 1964. His wife Bracha shortly joined him as a tour operator leaving her position with the Ministry of Defense after many years and together they formed the well known Israeli tour firm of Masada tours. After ten years they sold the business because they were never free, with calls coming from clients and problems arising twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

Today, Mike's wife continues to work for a tour agency on a full time basis at the age of 83 and Mike books tours and groups into Israel from most English speaking countries in the world. In addition to his job Mike is a bridge mavin, plays some four times a week with different groups and has his home decorated with dozens of bridge trophies. He says he's been playing bridge since he was 17.

Mike’s first love was flying. He learned to fly at Manchester University in 1936 while acquiring a degree in engineering. When World War II broke out in September 1939 Mike was among the first group of men in Wales to be called up for duty in the Royal Air Force. He was among those designated as a "pathfinder" and wound up training pilots and navigators for the Canadian Air Force, the South African Air Force and the Australian Air Force. He met up with the latter in Palestine and even followed the group to Iraq where he held an administrative position for a time. While with the Canadian Air Force, Mike was stationed in Libya and spent some time in Egypt with the South African pilots. He returned with the Australians to Palestine and remained here till almost the end of the war and was finally sent home to Wales and discharged.

What really changed the course of his life, a story unto itself, is the evening of November 27, 1947. An historic date for the State of Israel, when the newly formed United Nations approved the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Mike was sitting at home with his father listening to the radio and when the final count was announced he felt himself rising from his chair and shouted out loud that he was going to volunteer in the new Jewish state. His father in an equally emphatic Yiddish said to him "du bist meshugah” (are you crazy?)

Mike contacted a rabbi in Liverpool who told him it would have to be a clandestine venture because of the politics that were so ripe at the time in Britain. When Mike tells the details of how he eventually got to Palestine, it sounds like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock thriller. He was told to purchase personal items he'd need, go to London's Euston station on a certain day and time and once there to buy the Daily Mirror newspaper, open it as though he were reading it while standing on a specific platform, and someone would tap him on the shoulder and ask if he was Mike. He was told not to turn around and to follow whatever instructions he'd be given. When his contact approached, Mike was told to buy a ticket for the boat-train from Dover to Calais and then a ticket to Paris. In Paris he was met by someone who told him to go to a certain address and wait there for further instructions. At the house he was told to wait until more men came, he stayed at the facility for several days while some 31 other men showed up.

His adventure only got more complicated. From Paris they got on the train to Toulouse and it took 36 hours to travel the several hundred miles. Once they arrived in the city they were placed into what appeared to be a huge glass house that was partitioned into two sections, one that housed the volunteers and the other a much larger number of refugees who were all going to be smuggled into the new Jewish homeland. They remained at the glass house for a few days. A C47 Cargo plane arrived at a local airport and they were told this would take them to Palestine. Somehow British Intelligence had learned about the clandestine operation and wouldn't allow tankers at the airport to refuel the plane. The 31 men along with Mike were told to be ready to move at a moment's notice since a few tankers had been smuggled into the airport and would refuel the plane which would take them to Corsica where another crew had enough fuel to get them to Palestine. Under the cover of darkness they managed to get on the plane and arrived in Corsica where a team was waiting to refuel the new Jewish military cargo plane. The next stop was Palestine. This entire operation had taken more than a month and a half.  

The plane landed in the Haifa airport and immediately all the men were removed to small, segregated barracks on the rim of the airport while the British authorities said they would investigate all of the newcomers. Mike had no papers. His passport and all other documentation had been turned over to the people he had met in France and had never been returned. They did have freedom to move about and one day while walking around the outskirts of the airport a man approached him and in broken English asked Mike if he was "one of them." Mike understood what he was trying to ask and said "yes" and the stranger said that he would be back and help get Mike out of the barracks and into the country. The following day Mike's newfound friend arrived with a jeep filled with huge sacks of rice and grains. He told Mike to hide under the sacks on the floor of the vehicle and not to speak or come out until he saw his friend's face again. Mike did as he was told and next heard a British voice call out "halt" and the jeep came to an abrupt stop. Next, he could feel a rifle butt going into the bags and after about five anxious minutes he heard an "okay" and they were on their way.

Mike never returned to the airbase and has no idea of what happened to the other 31 volunteers. He wound up at a hotel in Tel Aviv waiting for a Hagana intelligence Officer who would brief him on what was wanted or needed from him. After a few days of hiding out at the Hayarkon hotel, the Hagana man arrived and told Mike he wanted him to function in the air force but first to set up a manufacturing operation to produce the wooden butt for a machine gun. They knew how to manufacture the guns but not the wooden butts. In college Mike had majored in industrial wood production and was able to walk into the clandestine factory in a section of Nachalat Yitzhak and begin operation. The factory was later moved to Jaffa.

Mike worked at the factory until June 1949 when he enlisted in the Air Force and helped establish the country's first commercial airline which was called Aileta Airlines. They were supplied with two military cargo planes by the air force and their main function was to fly supplies into the newly established city of Eilat. For a while Mike continued flying back and forth to Eilat until he met his wife who told him he had to stop flying if he wanted to marry her.

Mike and Bracha were married in July 1950 and he says with great pride that the Israeli Air Force band played at his wedding. Mike went on to hold a variety of high level jobs in engineering and research positions. While he was working as a production and manufacturing manager at a candy operation in Nazareth and getting home only on weekends, he was contacted by a former air force officer who told him to stop wasting his time and learn about the tourist industry as an Israeli guide. It only took him a few hours to think about the drastic change which his wife very much liked since it meant he'd be at home every night. His training for the new position took some four months.

Because of his government contacts and as the first native speaking English guide in the country, Mike never lacked for work or clients. Whenever well known figures or important English speaking celebrities or politicians wanted to tour the country, Mike was usually called upon to escort them. He has been a guide for Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Paul Newman, Otto Preminger, Harpo Marx, Billy Rose and Senator John Warner, who was one of Liz Taylor's eight husbands.

Mike says he's never bored, his mind is always busy and he's looking forward to celebrating his 100^th birthday with his family and friends.

Photo Captions:

Mike with a young and beautiful Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Mike stands in front of a cabinet filled with just some of the trophies he has won playing bridge.