Page 59 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Autumn 21
P. 59
when I found various cafés serving At Hurst we had Malcolm Tatarsky “the
Indonesian food to stimulate my palate. Each mad Russian” to keep us amused. In ‘S
menu discovery seemed better than the Graveland we had Rafi a slight youth under
18 who could not only make people laugh but
could balance any article that could be lifted.
If it was small, he balanced it on his finger, if
it was larger, on his hand, right up to a chair
with a leg as the fulcrum. He had the chevra
in hysterics laughing at me, when he taught
me apparently innocuous phrases in Dutch,
that sounded perfect in my ears, until when I
repeated them to learn them, they turned out
to be dirty expressions.
Habonim in Holland - 1950s
previous one. I visited the world-famous
Rijksmuseum, also the Stedelijk and Van
Gogh Musea. Another gem for me was a
match for something I had missed in London
- the Bevis Marks synagogue. Amsterdam
boasts a late 16th Century Portuguese
Synagogue, which has no electric lighting. It
is illuminated by giant brass candelabras
whose candlelight illuminates the interior Habonim in Holland - 1950s
darkness. Participating in the Kol Nidrei
Night service there is a never to be forgotten As with Garin Gimmel the chaverim
experience, with the service conducted in the eventually spread out across Israel. There
warm glow of additional candles, jammed were Bram Baer and Mordechai
into candle holders adjacent to the Machzor Erlichman who paired with a girl named
from which I was reading. What a place! Ruti. Jaap van Praag was the person who
introduced himself at the start of our stay and
On the Habonim summer cycling camp, we
crossed the Afsluit Dijk separating the North he had a friend, Shulamit. There was also
Sea from the polders, to arrive in Gelderland Hans Kapper, which I found out meant
with its Kroller Muller museum, containing a barber, and Joop de Vries plus a girl with a
huge collection of Van Gogh’s work. The well-known name, Rivka. Other names,
sculpture park, set in the midst of the national which ring fully Nederlands are Guus
park, is worthy of a visit in its own right. The Scheverschurder, Zeev Bardfeldt and
great thing about the countryside was its Chava van Gelder, who were the senior
flatness, making cycling a doddle with not chaverim, almost madrichim.
too much effort. Many years later in Tel Aviv, looking for
work as an Israeli Tour Guide, I wandered
59
