STANMORE & CANONS PARK SYNAGOGUE - Stanmore and ...

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FEATURES Martin Kisner Postcards from Israel ‘By my calculations this card should arrive the same time as I get home’ ——— So I started the last postcard from Israel to my parents and brother, posted from Eilat in August 1964, a very different place from the one we know today. The variety of instant communication that we now take for granted was then but a dream in a science fiction writer’s mind. The humble postcard was generally the way we stayed in touch. First postcard posted 12 July 1964 - El Al Boeing 720 When I recently came across those postcards and airmail letters I sent home during that 6 week visit to Israel, it occurred to me that had I been able to communicate via email and text those writings would have long been deleted or consigned to the recycle bin. Now, 48 years on, as I hold and read those postcards and letters, I can still feel the excitement and the thoughts I experienced on that first visit to Israel. I was also struck by the amount of information I could cram onto one card and the legibility of my writing. Thank goodness for Microsoft Word today! I set out for my first visit to Israel on the 12th July 1964, as part of a Jewish Agency Youth and Hechalutz group. The trip lasted six weeks and was the fulfilment of a childhood dream. First postcard - posted from Lod Airport. ‘Have landed safely at Lod Airport’… A picture of an El Al Boeing 720 on the front. Details of the flight, places we passed over and the novelty of an in-flight kosher meal. The excitement of setting foot in Israel. The heat experienced as we left the aircraft, which I remember likening to walking into a blast from a hairdryer. Next stop Jerusalem. There were two airmail letters posted from Jerusalem over the next 12 days. ‘The building is large and cool, food good and plentiful, sanitary arrangements could be better’… We were based in Beth Hakerem at a teachers training college, which in the summer became the Summer Institute. This is a divided city. We visit the Mandlebaum Gate and see the Jordanian soldiers on the other side. No visit to the Kotel, no walk down the Suk and along the Cardo. But there is plenty to see in West Jerusalem. The image from that first visit to Yad Vashem, entering a darkened hall and looking down on the candles flickering on a relief map of the concentration camps across Europe named in Hebrew and English will always stay with me. Memorably some of us attended a concert given by Yehudi and Hepzibah Menuhin or Menuchin as the Israelis call him. I managed with one other member of the group to visit the Kol Israel radio studios of the then Israel Broadcasting Company. We were shown around the studios, watched a programme being recorded and were treated extremely well by the staff. The second letter covers a sixday tour of the Galil. We stayed in a hostel on the unspoilt shores of the Kinneret, a beautiful place. The night sky on the shores of the lake was unforgettable. We visited Kibbutz Ein Gev, where we had a fish and chip lunch on the other side of the lake beneath the Golan Heights. It was a dangerous place to be in those days. We travelled to Rosh Hanikra, Akko, and Safed and stayed on Kibbutz Ayelet Hashachar with a much-appreciated swimming pool. On our return to Jerusalem on 21st July we repacked and set off to Tel Aviv for 2 days where we stayed at the Maccabi Village. ‘ It was a wonderful place to stay if only for two days’ ... I visited the Weitzman Institute and also went to a Beethoven Concert at the Mann Auditorium given by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Josef Krips. 40
FEATURES Second postcard – 24 July, posted from Haifa, although strangely the picture on the front shows Jerusalem. ‘I’m writing this card from Haifa, where I’m staying with Uncle’s relatives for the weekend’… the only two members of his family to survive the Holocaust. I’m the first member of our family to visit them. They made me very welcome and I spent an extremely enjoyable two days there taking in a more relaxed view of the city. I returned to Jerusalem on the 26th July where the next few days were spent attending lectures and cultural events, prior to setting out for 10 days working on a kibbutz. Third Postcard – 9 August, posted from Kibbutz Tel Re’im in the Negev, close to the Gaza border, picture of views of Be’er Sheva and camels on the front. ‘The work is hard the heat intense and the accommodation lousy’… More details of Kibbutz life covered in airmail letter postmarked Be’er Sheva - 6th August. Up at 5.00 am. A tractor and trailer collects us at 5.30am and takes us to the orchards. We then spend over three hours of backbreaking work hoeing weeds between the grape vines. Collected at 9.00 am by tractor and taken back to the kibbutz for wash and breakfast. 10.00 am to 2.00 pm rest period, spent mainly in the swimming pool. Then back to the orchards in the afternoon heat for over three hours picking and packing plums. After supper, collapse worn out into bed to be ready for the next day’s labour. Return to Jerusalem then straight up to Haifa to spend my final free weekend with my uncle’ relatives. Exhausted, sleep the clock round. Final letter postmarked Haifa 15 August ends ‘Time is now 5.15 and all the buses and trains have stopped and the shops and cinemas have closed and the streets are becoming quiet as very shortly the sun will set and it will be Shabbat in Israel’ Second postcard posted 24 July 1964 - Jerusalem Third postcard posted 8 August 1964 - scenes from Beer Sheva 41
Page 1 and 2: STANMORE & CANONS PARK SYNAGOGUE SP
Page 3 and 4: Editors’ Note The views expressed
Page 5 and 6: EXECUTVE REPORT Stephanie z’l, Jo
Page 7 and 8: EXECUTVE REPORT From the Wardens’
Page 9 and 10: STRATEGY REVIEW Anthony Angel Strat
Page 11: PESACH MESSAGE Rabbi Mendel Lew All
Page 15: PESACH MESSAGE Rabbi Benji Landau W
Page 18 and 19: NOBODY CARES True or False False We
Page 21 and 22: FOOD FOR THOUGHT Ashley Goldblatt I
Page 23: FOOD FOR THOUGHT Dr Ian Goodman Are
Page 27: ISHA CHACHMAT LEV Melanie Angel Sus
Page 31: FEATURES Joan Sheridan Nachus Nachu
Page 34 and 35: FEATURES go together. From what I h
Page 36 and 37: FEATURES cont. from 33 By the time
Page 38 and 39: FEATURES Sara Greenfield A Week of
Page 40 and 41: FEATURES Alistair de Kare Silver Ge
Page 44 and 45: FEATURES Fourth postcard posted 18
Page 46 and 47: FEATURES Graham Newman What is Spir
Page 48 and 49: OBITUARY Synagogue in 1973, it was
Page 50 and 51: AROUND SHUL Susan Lipman Baby Bless
Page 52 and 53: AROUND SHUL Stanmore Synagogue Comm
Page 54 and 55: AROUND SHUL cont. from 51 medical d
Page 56 and 57: YOUNG STANMORE SHED is an awesome w
Page 58 and 59: YOUNG STANMORE cont. from 55 candle
Page 60 and 61: YOUNG STANMORE Ashleigh Jacobs One
Page 62 and 63: GROUP REPORT YITZCHAK RABIN LODGE O
Page 64 and 65: CALENDAR 5773-5774 2013 5773 Monday
Page 66: CONTACT INFORMATION YOU CAN ALSO CO

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