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Stephen G. Esrati
Stephen G. Esrati,73, a retired Cleveland Plain Dealer editor and prolific philatelic journalist, was among the first American hostages in Lebanon.
He worked on the Boston Herald-T...view moreStephen G. Esrati,73, a retired Cleveland Plain Dealer editor and prolific philatelic journalist, was among the first American hostages in Lebanon.
He worked on the Boston Herald-Traveler, The Celina (Ohio) Daily Standard, the Toronto Globe and Mail, and The Plain Dealer.
Born in Berlin in 1927, Esrati moved to Palestine in 1933 and to the United States in 1937. He holds two degrees in political science from Boston University.
He served in Italy in the U.S. Army in World War II and was recalled to active duty for the Korean war. He also served in the Irgun Zvai Leumi, a Jewish underground army in Palestine. He was active in the U.S. Army Reserve through 1960, last as a sergeant first class in the 320th Special Forces Group in Boston.
His experiences in Special Forces formed part of the background for his earlier novel, Comrades, Avenge Us.
Esrati and 60 other men were removed from a U.S. passenger ship, the Marine Carp, in Beirut shortly after Israel declared its independence in 1948. The Lebanese claimed they were “Zionists heading for Palestine to fight.” They were held about six weeks in a former French army barracks in Baalbek that later became the headquarters of Hizbullah.
His nonphilatelic writings have appeared in newspapers on three continents.view less