I hitched a ride with the iconic Ruth Dayan, who was General Moshe Dayan’s first wife and the mother of all three of his children. At the time Ruth was 95 years old and still driving. "It's a new car. I totalled the last one in an accident," Ruth said as she got behind the wheel.
I knew that Ruth was a long time social activist on behalf of the underprivileged and immigrants and also an ardent peace activist devoted to bringing about Arab-Jewish reconciliation. Additionally in 1954 Ruth had founded Israel's fashion house Maskit. Before getting into the car, Ruth had just spent the entire day at her son Udi Dayan's art exhibition that took place in a stately old Arabic house in Jaffa that he rented out with another artist. Udi was a talented 70 year old sculptor who welded pieces of metal into birds, animals and faces of people. Udi used to run the farm that Moshe and Ruth Dayan had on Moshav Nahalal but he became a sculptor after he sold the farm when his second marriage failed. Udi told me that his father Moshe was upset when he lost the farm. ‘He was upset that I cut off the roots of the Dayan story” [from Nahalal]."
Ruth, the energetic matriarch of the Dayan dynasty told me while driving that "I usually help him [Udi] with the set up in advance of his art shows.” Udi told me, that everybody liked Ruth, who was always so generous with her time in helping people-both Jews and Arabs.
Ruth, who had sat outside in the courtyard area of the house greeting guests, explained to me that the light green cotton dress she was wearing was "from Maskit in the 60's- “they don't make dresses like this by hand anymore," she said, adding that the same dress in white was made for Suzy Eban, the wife of UN Ambassador Abba Eban for when she went abroad.
On the ride through Old Jaffa we passed by the Peres Centre for Peace in the Ajami Arab neighborhood of Jaffa, a strikingly modern building, whose architecture was far different than that of the old style stately Arabic homes. Ruth explained that she disliked the building. "It should have been designed to fit into the neighborhood. It is not at all compatible with the surroundings," she said.
Ruth navigated her way through the narrow streets of Jaffa, saying “I remember these streets from my childhood."
While talking, she missed a turn off and we ended up having to go through the tourist part of the old city of Jaffa, where one needed to pay to get in.
"We are still going to get home," Ruth said, "It's just going to cost us ten more shekel."
Ruth asked the guard politely if it was possible to drive through the area without paying. "We are not looking to park here-we want to just drive through. I missed the other turn off."
He nodded, and said, "O.K. Just this once."
Ruth smiled and said. ‘You see some people here can be nice."
"In Jaffa, I'm not used to all these new buildings on these streets--They weren't here during my childhood days,” Ruth explained.
She pointed out a building that was the old police station, "Look they are tearing it down, to make a hotel...Who needs more hotels here."
Yael, Ruth’s daughter, who is a former member of the Knesset told me Ruth regularly used to drive with a pistol in the car -although not anymore.
Ruth drove through Tel-Aviv until she stopped to drop by Yael’s apartment. She delivered two sculptures of seagulls from Udi's art show that she bought for her grand daughter for her 41st birthday. I got out there, happy to have arrived safely, and I make my way home.
Sadly, both Ruth’s two sons, Udi Dayan ,the sculptor, and Assi Dayan, the famous Israeli actor and filmmaker, predeceased her. When Ruth passed away this year (in February 2021) she was just shy of 104 years old. She was buried between her two sons on Moshav Nahalal, where she spent the some of the happiest days of her life.
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