Page 29 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Autumn 21

wife, Inga (RIP) and two children in the hold of a copy, but we did. I remember how
Bayit, which was a large rambling
farmhouse. The Bet Noar, where we lived,
th
was a 17 -century two-story building with
low doorways. I don’t know how George,
our madrich got in and out every day!
Can you imagine the excitement? 10
teenagers aged 16-18, 5 boys and 5 girls
living together in the ancient little house. We
were a mixed bunch. Stan and Carol from
London, Mike from Glasgow, another
George, David and I from Leeds, Zack
from Manchester, Gill and Maxine from
Nottingham and Shelley from Liverpool.
We worked in the
morning and studied in
the afternoon. I Fortunately for me, the second term was
absolutely adored the
studies. I wanted to learn
everything I could about
Israel, society, Jewish
history and, of course,
Hebrew. My special Frank Beth
favourite was Aims and
Ideals of the Movement taught by Frank
Beth, (RIP), a shaliach from Amiad, who
came down from London to teach us once a
week. The lessons were interactive and I
learnt so much from the analytic way that he
taught us. I used the same method of
presentation many times in my life, both as a
teacher and also for building strategies as a
festival producer.
In that same month,
October 1964, Bob
Dylan released The
Times they are a
Changing. I have no
idea how we got
29
we would lie on the floor in the main room at
night, turn the lights out and listen to the
record, non-stop, until we knew all the words,
and could even write sketches using the tunes
with our own variations of the lyrics.
My first experience of work on the farm was
far removed from my utopian ideal of being
a proletarian farm labourer. 7 a.m. on a
freezing and dark October morning, well
before breakfast, I was sent to clean the parts
of a huge, ice-cold metal, farm machine, by
hand. I didn’t have any gloves and I had
typist’s delicate fingers. The farm manager
came by and I said “Mr Stewart, I can’t do
this”. “No such thing as can’t,” he said.
spent in the laundry (boring, but easier for
me), and the third term I was in charge of the
garden of the Bet Noar. By then, it was early
summer. I remember how we opened the
windows of the Bet Noar, and Gill would put
on records while she cleaned the place, and I
would dance about in the garden to Yemenite
songs sung by Shoshana Damari.
We ate all our meals in the main Bayit with
the Hachshara group. There was always
something going on, lots of fun and jokes and
singing of Israeli songs and folk songs. Some
people had musical instruments. On Friday
nights, we would dress in our best clothes and
enjoy a Shabbat meal and cultural
programme for all of us in the Bayit. We, girls
on the Hachsharat Noar, would share our
clothes, and we would take it in turns to wear
favourite shirts and sweaters for the occasion.
Some of the Noar girls had boyfriends in the
Hachshara group. I was envious. The
concept of having a boyfriend appealed to me