With his excellent eyesight – “I can still read Rashi script” – positive demeanor and youthful attitude, Conway, who moved to Protea Hills retirement village in Shoresh seven years ago, could easily pass for a man of 80, or even 75.
He was born in London’s East End in 1921, the seventh of 11 children. His father came to London from Brest Litovsk at the age of nine, ran a shoe store, but spent much of his time engrossed in Talmudic studies, corresponding with such famed rabbis as the Chofetz Chaim and Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski. Joe’s father was also a cantor in his local synagogue and befriended Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, who was stranded in England throughout World War I. Rabbi Kook wrote a letter to the British authorities attesting to the father’s position as a religious officiant, which exempted him from military service.
Joe changed his last name from Cohen to the less-Jewish-sounding Conway when he applied to medical school, to increase his chance of being admitted. In January 1940, he was accepted to St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London. World War II had broken out in 1939, and in addition to his medical studies, Conway was a member of the Home Guard, an armed citizens militia that supported the British Army during the war.
“We had uniforms, and we did a bit of training,” he says, “but nothing very serious, mainly fire-watching and putting out fires when the Germans dropped incendiary bombs.” Medical students were exempt from national service and were drafted to serve in the British Armed Forces.
Conway has vivid memories of the Blitz, the German bombing campaign on London during 1940-41 in which more than 40,000 civilians were killed.
“I remember we used to spend nights in a coal cellar under the house,” he recalls. “It was a very serious business. Not very far away, around the corner from the house, there was a nunnery. The whole thing was blown up by German air raids.”
Joe’s bacteriology instructor at St. Mary’s was Sir Alexander Fleming, who received the Nobel Prize for his discovery of penicillin, which initiated the era of antibiotics in medicine. Joe graduated from medical school in 1945 and trained as an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon. He began his national service in 1948 at the age of 27, serving as an eye specialist for British military personnel based in Fayed, Egypt. Joe traveled throughout RAF military outposts in the area, in Egypt, Khartoum and Yemen.
On one occasion, Conway utilized his geographical proximity and a friend’s “protectsia” to visit the new State of Israel.
“I went to Cyprus as an eye specialist to see patients,” he recalls. “I arranged with a friend who was the medical officer of the air force station in Cyprus to go on leave in Cyprus. Unofficially,” he says mischievously, “we popped on a boat and came to Israel.”
Dr. Conway explains that his friend in Cyprus had been helping the Mossad, and the two were met by Mossad agents when they arrived in Tel Aviv. The men arranged a 10-day tour for them. Conway and his compatriot traveled to Kibbutz Lavi, which was then a small collection of huts on a stony hill, and arrived in Kibbutz Ein HaHoresh, north of Netanya, for Shabbat. When he inquired as to the time when Shabbat services would begin, he was told, “What are you talking about? This is a Shomer HaTzair Kibbutz. We don’t do that here!”
IN 1949, while performing his regular medical duties, Joe learned of the existence of Operation Magic Carpet, the secret plan to bring the Jews of Yemen to Israel. Conway had flown to the British colony of Aden, where he was examining patients at an RAF station near the eastern approach to the Red Sea.
“When I arrived, I was told that a gentleman wanted to see me,” he recalls. Conway pulls out a photo album and shows me a small black and white photograph.
“It was this man,” he says. The man was an Israeli eye specialist who didn’t speak any English. As Dr. Conway knew little Hebrew, the pair began talking to each other in Yiddish in the RAF hospital in Yemen. Joe learned that the doctor was working in the Hashed Camp, where the Israelis were gathering thousands of Yemenite Jews to fly to Israel. Many Jews arrived near the camp after walking through the desert with their clothes in tatters. Joe recalls seeing them wearing Western-style clothing provided by the Israelis, which didn’t match the weather conditions.
“There was a man walking around in the heat of Aden in a black dinner jacket,” he chuckles. Operation Magic Carpet brought 49,000 Yemenite Jews to the State of Israel between June 1949 and September 1959. While the operation met with many difficulties both before and after their arrival, Joe says the cooperation between the British, Israelis and Americans in carrying it out was exemplary.
Joe finished his national service in 1950 and married Joy Presman in 1953. Joy’s father was a supporter of the Irgun and a friend of Menachem Begin. Joe pulls out his well-worn copy of The Defence of the Realm – The Authorized History of MI5 (the British secret service) and delightedly opens to a page that mentions his father-in-law as an Irgun supporter accused of stockpiling explosives in his garage.
Joe and Joy had four children – two boys and two girls. Joe enjoyed a long and successful career as an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon in the National Health Service before retiring in 1986 at the mandatory retirement age of 65. He continued working in private practice for many years before entering the field of medical-legal work, preparing reports on eye injuries for legal cases. In January 2014, Joe and Joy moved to Protea Hills to be closer to their two daughters, both of whom live in Israel (their sons live in London). Joe points out another reason why he wanted to move to Israel, saying, “The climate here is much kinder than the English climate.”
The Conway family tree now numbers 19 grandchildren and more than 50 great-grandchildren. Joe and Joy were happily married for 64 years until her passing in 2017. Joe was quite friendly with the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, and recalls Rabbi Sacks asking him, “What is the secret of your long and happy marriage?” Without missing a beat, he replied, “Joy’s apple pie.” From then on, whenever Rabbi Sacks saw Joe, he would ask, “Joe, how’s the apple pie coming along?”
Joe remains a serious reader of history books. He takes The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich off the bookshelf, the book he is currently reading. Joe enjoys socializing with his many English-speaking friends at Bet Protea and working with ceramics, a hobby that he began in London. He attends the weekly Hebrew Ulpan at Protea Hills, though he estimates it will take him “about five million years” to master Hebrew.
What’s the secret of his longevity? “Keep occupied.”
What are the most important things in life? “Family, love and caring.”
With 100 years of experience backing it up, it’s hard to argue with Joe Conway’s priorities.