At dinner Monday evening, Isaac introduced us to a friend of his named Aryeh because he believed he could help us with our project.

Aryeh had been a journalist with the Jerusalem Post and knew all sorts of people, including very important people. Now Aryeh worked for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and was quickly eating dinner before having to go across the street to the King David Hotel for a meeting.

The head of the ADL was in town from New York and there would be a flurry of activity. The ADL is a Jewish organization that seeks to combat defamation of Jews. Specifically, according to the ADL Charter of October 1913, “[The ADL’s] ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.”

Aryeh was a small energetic man who ate his pasta at warp speed. Between bites, he provided us with some ideas of where we could speak with Israeli Jews. He didn’t seem very interested in our project or perhaps he just became preoccupied with telling stories.

Once upon a time Aryeh had owned a blue and white Suzuki jeep he called “The General Lee”. He called it that because he had a sticker of the Confederate flag on the back and a plastic statue of General Lee mounted on the dashboard.

I thought it a bit odd for someone from the ADL to display such icons of American history. Aryeh was born to Irish parents who converted to Judaism. He grew up in Louisiana. Surely he knew what the Confederate flag and General Lee represented. Perhaps he was just mocking racist rednecks who still proudly waved the Confederate flag as a representation that African-Americans, as a lower race of people, should have remained slaves. If that were the case, however, I didn’t see the connection. It seemed to me that someone from the ADL shouldn’t be anywhere near condoning the symbolism of the Confederate flag nor drive a jeep that was christened “The General Lee”. If it was indeed some sort of mocking of such things, it was at best in the poorest of taste. At worst, he was truly celebrating what the South had stood for—the hypocrisy of which would be staggering.

Aryeh loved The General Lee and was very upset when it was stolen one day.

“I began calling all my contacts in the Palestinian Authority to see if they could find my jeep,” he said.

The jeep was finally tracked down in Hebron. Aryeh was informed that the jeep had already changed hands about a half dozen times and he would need to pay NIS 7,000 (about $1,500) to get it back.

“Of course, I had to get The General Lee back,” Aryeh said. “So I went to Hebron to buy it back.”

After many hours of coffee and tea and waiting for someone to bring The General Lee, it finally arrived.

“The flag had been torn off the back and the statue of General Lee busted off the dashboard,” Aryeh said. “I couldn’t believe it. Why would they do that? Only his boots remained.”

Isaac tried to console Aryeh that he could probably find another plastic statue of General Lee to mount on the dashboard of The General Lee.

“Maybe on eBay,” he said.

“I don’t know,” Aryeh said. “I got that one at a museum when I was a kid. I doubt it.”

Aryeh was done with his story, done with his pasta and needed to get over to the King David Hotel for the important meeting with the head of the ADL.