Page 40 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Autumn 21

CARDIFF PELEG /KEN groups of older chaverim, which is rather
BRENDA (SAMUELS)
LANDES-GOREN
The Beginning
Early days
I came into
believe that Cardiff
Peleg
existence in the early
1940s, when many
members of Habonim, who
served in the army, may have been stationed
in or near Cardiff. I have no proof of this,
only vague memories of having been told
about it sometime later by our Rosh Ken,
Norman Berg, in the late 50s or early sixties.
Cardiff Peleg. Roath Park. Wendy Rappaport,
Mervyn Joseph, Brenda Samuels
I do have the names of three of the earliest
Madrichim in Cardiff Ken. Eric Ehrenberg
(Cardiff, Kfar Hanassi), Bimbo (Bernard)
Jessel, (Cardiff, Jerusalem), Gerald Cohen,
(Sacha Baron Cohen's father), together with
Lionel and Harold Ehrenberg, who were
Madrichim in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
They must have been among the founders of
Habonim in Cardiff, in the 1940s, before I
joined Habonim in 1949, at the age of 9.
At that time, Celia (Kellar) Berkovitch
(later Amiad), was our Madrichah when we
were Bonim. I don’t remember any other
40
strange. As we grew older, this initial group
of chaverim along with some new
members, became Tsofim and Vatikim.
Meeting Places
At all levels, our meeting places were
very much decided by the location of
the Jewish community. In the 1940s
and early 1950s we met in a hall that
was part of a kind of community centre,
adjacent to the Cathedral Road
Synagogue. This beautiful shul no
longer exists. Only its façade remains as an
historical monument.
Most of the Jewish community lived within a
3-mile radius of the synagogue. My two
sisters, Mavis and Rachel and myself, spent
much of our childhood in Cathedral Road.
We three learnt in the Cheder, 4 times a week
(my father was in charge). When we each
reached 14-years, we then taught in this
Cheder. We all three were chanichot of
Habonim there, having each begun as Bonim
at different times. At 15-years old I became a
Madrichah of Amelim, as they were called by
then.
Early ‘50s - Cardiff Peleg. Weekend camp near
Cardiff with NW London chevra
Actually, at first my parents sent us to Bnei
Akiva in another part of town, but I left
because the boys were wild. All I remember
of it was that they were just throwing chairs