Page 24 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Autumn 21

move to Israel in the mid-1930s, my
They sent funds to the Palestine Land Development Company
in order to meet their obligations. (Indeed, part of this grandfather became gravely ill, passing away

money had reached the latter Company by various channels in 1936, and the family sadly had to stay in
during the war years.) The first two members who settled

in Eretz Yisrael were Louis Levinson and B. Davis who made Edinburgh. David returned home from
their homes in Tel-Aviv. Hayyim Inwald, who had passed
away not long after the war had left instructions to be Canada, later graduating as a doctor in

reburied at Karkor, together with a legacy for setting up
a dispensary there. Levis and Shulman, both from Edinburgh. The dream of aliyah was
Edinburgh, Scotland, visited Eretz Yisrael to see how abandoned.

Karkor could be developed, but died on board an Egyptian
boat in an epidemic which was raging at the time. In
October 1918 Dr Hayyim Weitzman wrote to the Achuza member Eight years later, a woman and her daughter

David Harris:
arrived in Edinburgh from Israel. Although
“You will understand of course that just at
present it is till difficult to travel to her name was also Simon, she was no
Palestine, and still premature to think of relation. The woman persuaded my mother to
settling there.”
sell her the rights to the family's land in
However, the company was convinced that work on the spot

must not be deferred and sent Israel Oçserman to the Israel. Grandmother's brothers and sister
country as their representative to carry out the

preliminary work involved in digging a well and putting found out, resulting in a fierce family row.
the area under plantation, subject to consultation with
the members who already settled in the country. In 1986, after selling my business, my late

The Directors also regret to have to record the tragic wife and I made Aliyah. Soon after our
death which has taken over two of our members, the late

Messers. B.Levene and H.Shulman, both of Edinburgh, who, arrival, we travelled to Karkur to see the
on their return from Palestine, caught a contagious

disease on entering Port Said. They were placed in almost legendary place I had heard about all
quarantine but unfortunately died within three days of my life. I checked in with the local kfar office
each other. This was a severe blow to the poor wives and

families and likewise to all the members of the Company, in Karkur to request assistance. After
and the Directors immediately communicated with the
families and expressed to them their sympathy. explaining who I was and the family's history

with Karkur, Mr. Perach, the local official,
The First London Achuzah Company's 1920 Annual Report

mentioning that three men from Edinburgh had caught took down a thick file that contained many
typhoid fever on the return home and died in Port Said, Egypt. letters from my mother, her brothers and her

sister. The records showed that during the
The Annual Report also mentioned that three intervening years much had happened in
men from Edinburgh had travelled to Karkur and Israel, and the family connection
Palestine to check on the company's to Karkur was lost.
investments but caught typhoid fever on the Meanwhile, Karkur had slowly progressed
return home and died in Port Said, Egypt.
from an empty wasteland to a sleepy farming
Those members anxious to settle in Karkur colony founded by English- speaking
included my grandfather and grandmother. chalutzim, then becoming a moshav, which
There were other families that went to today has morphed into Pardes Chana-Karkur
Palestine from Edinburgh such as the - an up-and-coming residential area on the
Kaufmans, the Tossmans who went as early Binyamina train line.
as 1920 and the Nathans to name a few. But My grandfather would have been pleased to
as serious proposed pioneers, the family know that two of his grandchildren and two
prepared themselves by sending their son of his great-grandchildren have fulfilled his
David to study agriculture in Canada in 1932. dream of Aliya.
Although all shipping and other
arrangements had already been made for the

24