Page 89 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Autumn 21

AN ANSWER TO ALAN to be alive to the problems of today whilst not
ROSENTHAL AND ERRATUM
SYLVIA FLOWERS
D historic process. What we did in those far off
ear Coral and Harold, I was
most impressed with your latest
Iton, so many thanks to all those
involved.
I have passed my
st
91 . birthday and
am lucky enough to
still be independent;
swimming regularly
once more, painting
and still driving
around (they even
renewed my license for another two years!)
Many of my 14 great-grandchildren can now
look down on me with impunity! Apart from
that I am still interested in Movement affairs
and want to add a few facts, details and
pictures to round out the picture.
Firstly, to answer Alan Rosenthal’s
statement that we are steeped in nostalgia. As
a self-taught historian, (B.A. Hons. M.Phil.
London University external student), I think
that the politics of today will become the
nostalgia of the future. What he calls
nostalgia, I call social history. Up until the
last few years, only facts, (written usually by
males, mainly about males), was considered
worthy of being remembered. Nowadays the
part played by each person, male or female,
black or white (and all the colours in
between) are part of history and is now being
fully researched to show the part they have
played in history. Once they were dismissed
as irrelevant but no more. The main thing is
89
forgetting the lessons of the past. I think that
the evolution of the kibbutz and its decline,
the loss of socialist fervour and dreams are all
part of an ongoing process and is a part of the
days of the 40s and 50s may be nostalgia to
the younger generation but is history to us old
folk!
Garnethill
Synagogue
A minor erratum for George Levine. His
gedud was not the first time Habonim met at
Garnethill Synagogue. I ran a gedud there in
the late 40s. I don’t remember the exact date,
but it was before I went on the Machon in
1950. At the same time, I had a plugah in the
Gorbals (Portland St. Synagogue) and once
invited them to a meeting in my home in the
West End, a big old house with huge attics,
where we danced the horah to our hearts’
content. We also had a group called “Junior
Vatikim”. We used to invite to my home boys
who had come from the concentration camps
and were recuperating at a home near
Cardross. I don’t know what language I
spoke to them. Some ultimately joined
Habonim and came on Aliyah.
Although I did not know George (Yigal) at
the time, it was he who later gave my name
to the BBC and they interviewed me twice
about life in Israel.