In June 1971, a flight from Nicosia landed at Lod Airport. On board was Karl-Bernd Motl, a 31-year-old Austrian insurance agent with Jewish roots. For five months, Motl studied Hebrew at an ulpan in Jerusalem alongside new immigrants from various countries. Politicians, including Prime Minister Golda Meir, often visited the ulpan to address the newcomers and thank them for choosing to come to Israel. Motl excelled at Hebrew. Every morning, he read Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. He attended public lectures at the Hebrew University and occasionally hopped on a bus to explore other parts of Israel. In the evenings, he sat at the desk in his rented apartment and wrote.
