of World Mahal. He received this nickname from his friends during a ball game in his native South Africa during World War II. Born Harold Simon in the Orange Free State, Smoky’s father was from Lithuania, his mother was from England, and they lived with 29 other Jewish families in a small town that was mostly made up of Afrikaners. There was a community rabbi, and although they celebrated the Jewish holidays, their connection to Judaism and Zionism was minimal.Later on, his family moved to Johannesburg, where Smoky finished his studies in accounting and commerce at the University of Witwatersrand. In 1941, in the midst of WWII, Smoky volunteered to join the South African Air Force and also later in the war flew for the Royal Air Forceover the deserts of western Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. After the Nazis retreated from Africa, Smoky continued carrying out sorties against them over Sicily and the rest of Italy.He was a navigator and bombardier (an air crew member responsible for sighting and releasing bombs), from planes such as the Boston, Catalina and Baltimore, where he gained extensive operational experience. None of the planes Smoky flew in was ever hit.At the end of the war, he returned to Johannesburg and worked as an accountant. In April 1948, he married Myra, who was seven years his junior, and who worked as a meteorologist for the South African Air Force. Three weeks after the wedding, the young couple surprised their families when they told them they’d decided to make aliya and