Page 47 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Autumn 21
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and did not know, and into an environment were alien to me. My mother was my mother,
that was largely alien to me. but she did not qualify. However, observing
what others were doing and imitating them,
However, I persevered and one of the persons
who joined at about the same time as myself seemed the best way of carrying on.
was one Michael David Leigh who is now The Manchester group was run by Brian
Mike Leigh. Between us we climbed the Kaufman, a Liverpudlian known of course
greasy pole of office in running Manchester as Koffy. He was a very nice guy, I liked him
Habonim. He ended up as secretary and I very much and he had the supreme attribute
ended up as treasurer. Now of course we that was needed for the job – he played the
never use the word secretary or treasurer guitar. He was succeeded by Vic Sieve who
because we all spoke in a kind of “cod” was the only person who managed to lead and
Hebrew. It was something that I disliked get married while in office. The other person
intensely and still do. Either we should speak in this triumvirate was Geoff Goodman.
Hebrew properly or not at all! The one thing
we should not do is speak English and every
now and then drop in a word of Hebrew, for
reasons that I am not quite sure except that
we knew what that word meant. Never mind,
I came to no harm through it.
I also then ran, if that is the right word, the
youngsters’ group on a Sunday afternoon, as
well as taking part in the “grown up”
activities on a Saturday and/or Sunday
evening.
Geoff Shindler in a Movement camp
poster
In the late 1950s there a lot of Jews in
Manchester who, while not hostile to Israel,
were hardly great supporters of that country.
That fact was obvious on a Saturday evening,
when Manchester Jewish youth of all
persuasions gathered outside Laps –the
Jewish chip-shop. The views in the
conversation there were reminiscent of what
1960 M/c Whit Camp. From Left Geoff Shindler, Jerry must have happened around 1917, when a
Cowan, Koffy (Baruch Kadmon), Vic Sieff, Barbara Hulme
significant number of Jews in England were
Of course, there was one huge difference hostile to the Balfour Declaration.
between the boy-scouts and Habonim – girls.
As a backward 15-year-old (backward in the Manchester Habonim was both cultural and
sense of having one brother but no sisters), I sporty. We staged a play, for some festival or
had no idea how you dealt with girls. They other, in the Lesser Free Trade Hall—not the
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