Page 34 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Autumn 21
P. 34
LEEDS KEN. A PERSONAL
PERSPECTIVE Leeds Ken from that time is probably easiest
to define by what it was not. London was
JASON FEDDY another country. We weren’t Manchester:
next door but so very far away, with its
“Oh Leeds Habonim, lovely Leeds Habonim enormous stone castle of a moadon, its bayit
We are the best of all the kinim. and seemingly endless and super-confident
population - like us but not like us - a vast
We’ve come today and we’re going to win.
side of the family to be looked up to and
Leeds Habonim, lovely Leeds Habonim.” envied. Then again, we weren’t Birmingham.
R Birmingham? Who even knew
eally rubbish, but it has
there were Jews in Birmingham?
stuck in my memory. I
The Addams Family of The
don’t know who wrote
it, and I’m sure no one believed Movement. I bet they couldn’t wait
it, but there it is. Leeds to get to Leeds Uni and assimilate.
Habonim’s old theme song Right now, I’m 55 years old with
from the 70’s. When would we the memory of a tea strainer, so I’m
sing it? What would we “win”? going to get a lot of this wrong and
Presumably, it was created for (I’m sure) a lot of flak for doing so,
some sort of inter-ken Uxle- but my goal here is to be engaging
Voogle and kept for less and give a taste of Leeds Habonim from the
appropriate inter-ken events. perspective of one chanich from the 70’s and
early 80’s who later went on to do a lot of
drugs. We clear? I’m apologizing in advance.
So, the Moadon itself was a damp and flimsy
rectangular plasterboard and wood affair
situated in the northernmost reach of the city,
on a muddy path in a mossy copse of trees
next to the Harrogate Road, behind the
beautiful Church of St. John the Evangelist
“Oh Leeds Habonim, lovely Leeds Habonim which was built in 1853. With its dreaming
We are the best of all the kinim. spire, apple tree lined vicarage (excellent
We’ve come today and we’re going to win.
Leeds Habonim, lovely Leeds Habonim.”
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