Page 78 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Autumn 21
P. 78

the movement (as was customary) or the time        no doubts about where I wanted to go. I didn't
               they had spent in Amiad.                           want to listen to anything else. I just wanted
                                                                  to come here. Moreover, since Kfar Hanassi
               Dot and Simon Schayngesicht                        really needed more people, they accepted us
               Simon: I was on Hachshara in Maayan Zvi.           without  having  to  be  a  candidate  first.  We
               We were not married yet. Then I moved to           were accepted as members from the first day.
               Garin Hey.                                         They  were  very  nice  to  us.  After  all  these
               Dot:  Most of the members of Garin Gimel           years  I  really  would  do  it  all  again.  Not
               were  already  in  Israel  and  when  it  was      everything was rosy all the time but all in all
               decided to start a new Garin it seemed more        it  was  a  good  decision,  and  I  would  do  it
               logical  to  join  something  new  instead  of     again. This is my home. They are and were
               being  the  tail  end  of  something  already  in   things that are not to my taste, but no place is
               existence. So, we joined Garin Hey.                ideal  and  there  are  problems  wherever  you
               My  first  recollection  of  Kfar  Hanassi  was    are. I have no regrets.
               when they asked us to write down the jobs,         Garin members arrived in several groups. We
               we  would  be  interested  in  doing  and  I       were the first group to arrive in Kfar Hanassi.
               remember  writing  3  things  in  order  of        Simon had arrived in Israel 9 months earlier
               preference:  taking  care  of  children  was  the   and was in Maayan Zvi. I came with others
               first  and  I  don't  remember  the  other  two.  I   from  the  Garin  and  joined  Maayan  Zvi.
               was  very  surprised  when  they  let  me  work    Gerry and Diane, Alec and Edna came with
               with  children  and  only  much  later,  did  I    us. We reached Kfar Hanassi and soon after
               figure  out  that  they  had  had  a  lot  of      we  arrived  and  were  followed  by  Jason
               difficulties finding someone who wanted to         Reggie's group.
               work with them.
               I  don't  remember  who  interviewed  me,
               maybe it was Eric.
               In 1953, I was in Israel at the first Habonim
               camp and one of the places we visited was
               Kfar Hanassi. We were there for 3 days and I
               fell in love with the place. We slept in what
               was  supposed  to  be  the  Almond  Garden.
               There was no floor. We slept in sleeping bags
               on  the  sand  and  Nocky  Shein  showed  us
               around  the  kibbutz.  It  was  a  special
               atmosphere and once I got back to England, I
               told everyone that when I come on Aliyah, I                    1960 – The last big group of Garin Hey
               want to be in Kfar Hanassi.                             Left to right: Back row: Raymond Solomon,
               When they started talking about Hachshara at              Jason Pearlson, Alan Brazil
               Maayan  Zvi  about  our  future  kibbutz  they            Second row: Shosh Solomon, Reggie
                                                                       Pearlson, Shulamit Frank:
               began making suggestions as to where. I had               Front row: Joey Englesberg, Paul Bilgory




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