The Technion’s story has been intertwined with Israel’s for more than a century, from laying the foundations for a new nation to shaping its future.
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In an exciting collaboration, award-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and Warner Bros. are set to bring the extraordinary life of Al Schwimmer to the big screen (opens in a new tab). Schwimmer, an American World War II veteran, is celebrated as the father of the Israeli Air Force and the founder of Israel Aerospace Industries. His daring efforts in 1948 to smuggle fighter planes and weapons to Israel played a pivotal role in the nation’s War of Independence.
Schwimmer also played a crucial role in establishing the aeronautics department at the Technion, now the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, which continues to be the only one of its kind in Israel and produces nearly all of Israel’s aerospace engineers.
Born in 1917 to Eastern European immigrants, Schwimmer began his aerospace career at Lockheed Corporation and later worked for TWA during World War II. His expertise and connections proved invaluable when he orchestrated a clandestine operation to supply Israel with much-needed aircraft and weapons, defying an arms embargo imposed by President Harry S. Truman.
Schwimmer’s operation was nothing short of a Hollywood thriller. He purchased a fleet of 30 American planes left in military inventory after the war, transferred them through a fictitious airline operating in Panama, and recruited volunteers — most of them World War II veterans — to fly the planes to Israel in circuitous routes to evade detection.
Despite the challenges and FBI investigations, his contributions included smuggling 125 fighter planes and 50,000 weapons — some of which came from Czech warehouses from the Nazi era — significantly shifting the balance of power in Israel’s favor. His network included notable figures like Jewish mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Meir Lansky, and even rumors of support from Frank Sinatra and Milton Rubenfeld, the father of Paul Reubens (Pee-wee Herman).
“I believed those 600,000 Jews were going to die,” Schwimmer later reflected about the Jewish population of British Mandatory Palestine in an interview with Boaz Dvir, who produced the documentary, “A Wing and a Prayer.” The film premiered in 2015, three years after Schwimmer’s death. Schwimmer described the alternative as allowing a “second Holocaust” to happen, encapsulating the moral urgency that propelled his actions.
Convicted in 1950 of violating the U.S. Neutrality Act, Schwimmer was stripped of his voting rights and fined $10,000 but refused to seek a pardon. After his citizenship was revoked, he returned to Israel at the behest of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who said he was “America’s greatest gift to Israel.”
Ben-Gurion tasked Schwimmer with building Israel’s aerospace industry. Schwimmer founded Israel Aerospace Industries, which grew to become the largest aerospace company in Israel, valued at $1 billion by the time of his retirement in 1988. In 2001, President Bill Clinton granted him a presidential pardon, restoring his American citizenship.
The film, currently in development, promises to capture the essence of Al Schwimmer’s daring exploits and his indomitable spirit. Inspired by an article in Business Insider titled “America’s Greatest Gift to Israel,” audiences worldwide will soon learn about the man whose courage and ingenuity helped create a nation and shape the future of Israel’s aerospace prowess.