Archive

Henry Ben Ezra reports that he has recently discovered an old letter [on the internet] that he wrote to his parents while attending his first camp. He called me recently to discuss whether he should share this with us, but I couldn't understand him properly since his tongue was firmly planted in his cheek...

Our Madrich told us to write to our parents in case you heard about the flood on radio and are worried. We are okay. Only one of our tents and 2 sleeping bags got washed away.

Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Adam when it happened. Oh yes, please call Adam's mother and tell her he is okay. He can't write because of the cast. I got to ride in one of the search and rescue jeeps. It was neat. We never would have found Adam in the dark if it hadn't been for the lightning.

Our Madrich got mad at Adam for going on a hike alone without telling anyone. Adam said he did tell him, but it was during the fire so he probably didn't hear him. Did you know that if you put kerosene on a fire, it will blow up? The wet wood didn't burn, the marquee cover did and also some of our clothes. Brian is going to look weird until his hair grows back.

We will be home on Sunday if Mefaked Yosef gets the bus fixed. It wasn't his fault about the accident. The brakes worked okay when we left. Yosef said that with a bus that old you have to expect something to break down; that's probably why he can't get insurance. We think it's a neat bus. He doesn't care if we get it dirty, and if it's hot, sometimes he lets us ride on the fenders. It gets pretty hot with 162 people in a bus made for 48. He let us take turns riding in the trailer until the police stopped and talked to us.

Our Madrich is a neat guy. Don't worry, he is a good driver. In fact, he is teaching Jessie how to drive on the mountain roads where there aren’t any cops. All we ever see up there are logging trucks.

This morning all of the guys were diving off the rocks and swimming out to the rapids. Our Madrich wouldn't let me because I can't swim, and Adam was afraid he would sink because of his cast - it's concrete because we didn't have any plaster - so he let us take the canoe out. It was great. You can still see the tent and some of the trees under the water from the flood.

Our Madrich isn't crabby like some other Madrichim. He didn't even get mad about the life jackets. He has to spend a lot of time working on the bus so we are trying not to cause him any trouble.

Guess what? We have all passed our first aid merit badges. When Miriam dived into the lake and cut her arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works. Max and I threw up, but our Madrich said it probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken. He said they got sick that way with food they ate in prison.

I'm so glad he got out and became our Madrich. He said he sure figured out how to get things done better while he was doing his time.

I have to go now. We are going to town to mail our letters and buy some more beer and ammo. Don't worry about anything. We are fine.

Last week (or so), a freak weather system showered snow on to Sydney. Sydney? Semi-tropical Sydney?

A Personal Journey...

to Reconnect with our Olim

By Harry M. Stuart

Israel's 56th anniversary is one Elaine and I will never forget. We were in Israel to celebrate it with twenty-six of the friends I grew up with in Australia - the Olim. The decision to make this eventful journey was not made without coercion - Leah Feder's visit to Philadelphia some two years ago 'greased the skids' and her 'reminders' from time to time finally gained success. Our visit was very short due to travel arrangements and business commitments. But, in those 6 days, with the help of Jack and Rosette Mirjam's annual OzBash (party) and a SnagFest (BBQ) hosted by Effie (Jack) and Felicity Jacobi, we maximized our ability to meet everyone.

On Arrival

On our arrival on Sunday morning, Hedva Sheiner (Frida Goldstein) and Leah picked us up from the airport and whisked us away to Jaffo for coffee and tea - a wonderful way to start our stay.

Yom Hazikaron

This time of year has particular significance for both Elaine and me. The bitter-sweet period of Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut allowed us to mourn together for the thousands that have died - and are still dying - to defend the State of Israel. Our arrival day was on Yom Hazikaron and that evening we attended a remembrance service with Leah at the Miami Beach Community Centre in Ramat Gan. The audience numbered about 1,500 and, even with a significant number of young people in the audience, throughout the next hour you could hear a pin drop. At 8:15 pm with the wail of the air raid sirens, the country stood still for one minute - and the ceremony commenced.

Yom Haatzmaut

The next evening, following the TV broadcast of the State celebrations, Yom Haatzmaut - and the parties - commenced. In all, we made contact with twenty-six of my fellow (ex) Betarim, most of whom are pictured in the Rogues Gallery.

So - who held the record for the people with whom I was separated the longest? There was a couple that I had not seen since I was 14 years old. The last time we saw one another was the year I started high school and attended, the Olympic Games in Melbourne. That was was 48 years ago when Yosef and Dora went on aliyah - 1956! I think the time I last saw Theo Balberyszki and Jack Mirjam would also approach that number. There were occasions in the past 20 years or so when Jack Mirjam and I were 'in the vicinity' of each other. He, Rosette and Shimon Addess, I believe, were wandering around above us (in Canada). Rosette reminded me that Brian Rudzki and I did 'bump into her' in Melbourne some time in the 1980s when our schedules seemed to coincide.

Reconnectees - the complete list

All in all, here's a complete list of our reconnectees, not in any particular order, most appearing the the Rogues Gallery: Leah Feder, Hedva Sheiner (Frida Goldstein), Yosef and Dora Steiner, Jack and Rosette Mirjam, Shim and Pearla Feder, Theo Balberyszki, Henry and Ros Ben Ezra (Bishopverder), Shimon (Brian) Addess, Danny and Heather Rosing, Celia and Leo Regev (Rogovin), Mervyn and Sue Doobov, Solly and Rosalie Goldstein, Leon Kempler (Rosalie's brother), and a few surprises (for me, not for them): Max Oren (Streubel), Lionel Bomzon (Flapper - not his maiden name, by the way), and Miriam (Deston) and Henry Briggs. Although Jack and Jocelyn Goldberg were not in Betar, I knew them socially from the old days in Melbourne. [We spent a wonderful evening with them and Jocelyn's parents and sister - but that's a story for another time - when the pictures arrive.] Also attending the OzBash was Miriam Golovesky, the widow of one of our Shlichim Chaim Golovesky. Effie (Jack) and Felicity Jacobi hosted the next day's SnagFest in their Australian home near Netanya (correct me on the location - the Hebrew directional signs were hard for me - I could never get past the first letter before we saw the next sign).

Yosef and Dora’s Dinner

On Wednesday night of that week we were treated to a wonderful dinner at Yosef and Dora’s home. My last remembrance of them was the one I had in my head captured from the 1955/56 Kinglake West mizdar photos [that appear in Shim's and my collections]. The amazing part of that evening was being able to see, and digitally capture, Yosef’s meticulously created and maintained archives of Betar's history in the years of 1948 through 1956 – six volumes of newspaper articles, photos and artifacts in plastic pages. We spent hours leafing through the pages and talking about the events and politics of that era. The captured material will need a little work but eventually will be published in the The Past section on this site. For those that lived through that era, lots of memories may be unleashed – lots of questions may be answered.

A Day In Netanya

The Bishes invited us out to their home on Thursday. We took the train up to Netanya and followed Bish’s instructions to the letter: “When you get off the train, go up the stairs, turn left and I’ll be waiting in the parking lot”. When our wanderings instead took us through a parking lot with no Bish which then turned into an industrial area, we ultimately decided to try the other side of the station – where we found Bish calmly waiting for us thinking we were on the next train from Tel Aviv. His response: “I meant for you to turn to the other left”. Nevertheless, we saw Netanya for the first time and had a wonderful BBQ lunch at their home. That afternoon we chatted on the phone with Dov Rosenfeld who had just arrived in Israel. A couple of days too late, Dov!

The Dell Test

Since we were traveling and since I am always thinking about technology and how it can be improved, I asked Dell (wink wink) if they would like me to conduct some torture tests on my two-year-old laptop while I was in Israel. I had to think of some unique tests that the computer would not normally be subjected to in the States. So, I chose the following protocols:

1. Six foot train drop test. Place the laptop inside a bag (along with some cameras to give it a little more weight) and place in the luggage rack of a speeding suburban train. The one from Tel Aviv to Beit Shemesh would be perfect. When the train lurches enough, let the bag make a wide arc and drop on to the floor. Open the bag – test the computer and see if the hard disk still operates. First test: successful. The laptop still worked.

2. Canon shot test. Place the same bag inside an x-ray machine at an airport, Ben Gurion being handy. Make sure that it is still loaded with cameras and a few more metal things in it to really give it mass. Stand back while the machine slowly draws the bag into its barrel and then watch it shoot the bag out of the other end into a small wall so that it makes a sudden 6-g stop. Second test: successful. The laptop still worked.

3. Let it stew. Wait 48 hours until after you arrive home. Start the laptop. If the message comes up: ‘Hard disk not found’, then the laptop test failed. The laptop test failed. Report to Michael Dell who will send out a new disk drive - definitely of a totally different configuration to ensure that the restore of the back upped data will fail. Take 10 hours out of your life and reload all operating systems, applications and data and continue computing.

4. Decide not to make the same offer again.

Connections with a family lost

The culmination of our visit was a (re)connection with a family I didn't know I had six weeks before this trip. Through continuing genealogy research on the internet, a not-known-about 2nd cousin and I found each other. By coincidence, our family names are the same - anglicized independently by our fathers when we were at a very young age. Simon Stuart, as we found out, lives in Israel with his family and on this trip we met for the first time - in Beit Shemesh (the site of the Dell computer test #1). Through our meeting we now have contact with several other cousins who live in London, New York and Florida - and we were able to trace our families back through Krackow, Poland, to 1752!

All-in-all, it was a wonderful week - meeting old family and new family - some related by blood, some by life-long friendship.

See you next year, guys.

Thanks to the generosity of many sponsors from Australia, the United States and Israel, we are pleased to announce that the site will continue - well into 2005 and beyond.