Page 3 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - June 13

MIKE ARBEL
Lenny Yodaiken /Gerry Kelman
Michael Samuel Myer Nathan was born on
Xmas eve 1930 in Dublin, Ireland. His Hebrew
name was Israel ben Shalom. His birth date was
a constant source of joy to his friends and
disciples. His father, Percy, was a “Geordie”
from Newcastle-on-Tyne and his Polish-born
mother appears to have grown up in Liverpool.
At Wesley College, Mike was a brilliant student
and, as well as becoming senior prefect and in
essence school captain (the only Jew to be so-
honoured), he earned a Sizarship (a full
scholarship) to Trinity College Dublin in
Mathematics. Sometime around his last year at
school, Mike was inducted into Habonim by
Asher Benson, a Londoner who met the love of
his life from Dublin, Ida Silverman, at the 1933
Jamboree Camp, thereafter forgoing Hachshara
and Aliyah for marriage and family business in
Dublin.
Habonim had existed in Dublin before the war
but, as a result of a conflict between religious
and secular members over the lighting of a fire
on Shabbat, it was broken up by the communal
authorities. Asher gradually restored the
Movement and built up a group of youngsters, 9
to 12 years of age. In joining, Mike decided to
go out and find older members and so built up
two groups, 13 to 16 year olds and 17 year olds
and up. In the meantime a group of 6 to 9 year
olds had been started which included Mike’s
younger sister Louise. At its peak, Mike
probably brought the membership to about 100.
Mike himself ran the eldest group and embarked
on a socialist-Zionist education. He organized
weekend camps and, with Asher's help, managed
to acquire fairly decent camping equipment. He
took his group and others Youth Hostelling in
3
(AKA ABELS/ABELSKI)
Ireland where there were wonderful youth
hostels, old manors and castles. At weekends he
organized tiyulim into the Dublin Mountains and
on Saturday nights the group often attended
plays at the Abbey Theatre or performances of
Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. In addition to all
that he did his best to send members of the
movement to summer camps and winter
activities organized by the central Movement in
UK. If somebody could not afford to go, Mike
always found the means to see that they did. He
seemed to have superb contacts in the
community. Sometime in the early ‘50s, he was
sent to the Machon (the institute for madrichim
from abroad) in Jerusalem.
On his return to UK, Mike was 'appointed'
Madrich of the fourth Hachsharat Noar group,
(1954-55), a good group and a very successful
year. Then followed a spell of Movement Work
in London, quickly culminating with his
appointment as Mazkir of the Movement. Mike
then made Aliyah to Kibbutz Beit HaEmek
where he found a permanent job in Bananas. In
the early 1960s, he returned to the Movement in
London on a short-term Shlichut. It was during
this time that he met and married Irene Shumar,
the wedding taking place at the London Bayit.
In 1972, he was again dispatched to London as
Shaliach to the Kibbutz Desk. This period
overlapped with my own Shlichut to UK (to
Habonim) and Mike co-opted me to interview
potential Kibbutz volunteers a couple of times a
week. In the depths of a London winter, Mike
was distinguishable from a distance with his
exposed feet, sockless with sandals!
On his return home to the kibbutz in early 1975,
he successfully ran the banana growing
department. It was, by all accounts, very hard