It was Jerusalem 1940. World War II was raging. And Mina Muehlendorf wanted to surprise her sister Kate with ballet tickets for her birthday.
While Kate appreciated the notion, she was adamant about one detail: If a ticket was bought for her, a ticket must also be bought for her beau, Dr. Maurice Brown.
Mina was reluctant, but acceded to her sister’s wishes. It wasn’t that she disliked Maurice Brown. She was, in fact, quite fond of him. The problem was that with the outbreak of war, Brown took it upon himself to enlist in the British army’s medical corps and had been transferred into the heat of battle in France.
Nobody had received word from him for several months. He could have died. He could have been captured.
Many things could have happened, but only one did. The day before her birthday trip to the ballet, Kate received a call from Cairo. It was her love, bringing news he would be home in time for her birthday celebration. The ticket did not go to waste.
Kate, 93 and Maurice, 92, recently recalled the story sitting in the living room of their Burlingame home. Maurice Brown’s furlough kicked off nearly six decades of shared adventure.
The lieutenant-colonel (who changed the spelling of his name from Braun lest he be thought to be German in wartime Palestine) had an eight-day leave with which to woo his sweetheart of four months. He made the most of it.
The two married within days. Time was slim, as Rosh Hashanah overlapped the tail end of the furlough and the couple had to find a rabbi willing to marry them on short notice just before the holiday.
The rabbi they found was so Reform he was called “Pastor Wilhelm” and he agreed to marry them the day before Rosh Hashanah. The ceremony took place at the rabbi’s apartment, with only the rabbi and his wife, the happy couple and two requisite witnesses present.
That one of the witnesses was Kate’s cousin Judah Magnes — first chancellor of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University — gives the story added color. The other witness was a tennis partner of Kate’s, chosen because the wedding was performed during his lunch break and he was able to leave work for an hour or so.
The couple bought their rings at Fulworth, a general store chosen because it happened to be across the street from the rabbi’s apartment.
“It was something,” says Kate, her German accent ringing 64 years after leaving Berlin for Jerusalem at the start of the war. “We didn’t need a big ceremony. The big ceremony is when you stick together as long as we have. That’s more impressive, to me.”
At the same time the couple bought rings, they bought bathing suits. Following the ceremony, they hopped a bus to the coast.
Because Maurice was visiting Palestine from the army, he had no coupons to use for food, which was being rationed during wartime. The couple’s honeymoon consisted of light meals at a bed-and-breakfast, and a half-portion each of Kate’s daily food allotment.
Now, 59 years later, the couple has a rich shared history. Between them, they speak numerous languages — English, Hebrew, Yiddish, German, French, Italian, Greek and Arabic, among others.
Maurice’s knowledge of more obscure dialects, such as Babylonian and Assyrian, brought him in contact with the famed Dead Sea Scrolls before their importance was fully understood.
It was Maurice who urged the precious documents not be hastily opened, lest they incur damage.
Together, the couple has ventured around the world. Maurice’s expertise in internal medicine brought him — through positions with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee — to Cypress, where he worked with Holocaust survivors refused entry into Palestine by the British. In Tehran, he helped found the first Jewish Hospital. The couple stopped in Kanoon Kheir Khah and Toronto before finally settling in the Bay Area.
The husband and wife still have abiding love for one another. She calls him Dr. Brown. He always answers.
“Honesty is important,” Kate says. She swears that because of their bond, she was certain not only that Maurice was alive during the war, but that he would indeed be back for her birthday celebration. “We trust one another completely, and love each other very much.”
“Plus,” she adds, “we haven’t had very many boring moments.”