Page 13 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - October 19

Bosham, in Sussex. The idea was that this would be We ran the place very democratically, the instrument
training for kibbutz life in Israel.
Hachsharot (communes) as they were called were
actually set up in Europe before the war, and
continued in the UK during and after the war as a
means of organizing immigration into Palestine,
which was under a quota, by the British authorities.
Of course, immigration was eased with the creation
of Israel, but hachsharot were maintained as a means
of training future chalutzim and prospective leaders
of the movement. In fact, it was a very idealistic
kibbutz life compared to the real thing, and even
idyllic. The premise was that we would work as farm
laborers, pool our earnings, and share everything.
I don’t remember how much I earned but it all went
into a common kitty. I am sure it was not very much,
as farm laborers, particularly unskilled did not earn
very much. In fact, we often worked piecework,
being paid by the row we hoed, or number of boxes
of sprouts or lettuce we harvested. Although we
believed in the equality of the sexes, for the most part
the chaverot (girls) did most of the cooking and the
housework. We lived on a very limited budget, and
tried to be very self-sufficient, i.e. not taking help
from outside, although I am not sure how much
Hechalutz (the parent organization,) and the Zionist
organizations subsidized the training farms.
In most cases, we were about 20 young people of
both sexes, mostly single with a few married couples,
either both from the movement and in some cases,
one was there because the other belonged to the
movement. Occasionally non-movement people did
join for ideological reasons, mostly socialist. I must
emphasize that this was not like the communes of the
60’s, no drugs, hot tubs etc. It was a working
commune and very self-disciplined.
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of decision being the asepha (meeting) where all of
us would participate in discussion on what we
considered “important" matters. These important
matters revolved around social items - internal about
personal relationships or external, about our
relationship to the outside world. We were most
definitely not religious, completely secular, and
although we did celebrate some Jewish holidays
(selectively), they were related to the season
(agricultural) or given a nationalistic flavor.
We also elected a secretary (Mazkir), treasurer
(Gizbar), and various committees particularly to
attend to our cultural (tarbut) needs. Culture was very
important, particularly music (classical) and
intellectual discussions on philosophy, Zionist and
socialist writers etc.
I do not remember there being any interest in “pop
music” or pop culture, which might have been
natural for a group of youngsters. However we did
relax at times and sing old pub songs, and dirty
ditties, this was the “British” coming out. This was a
specialty of certain chaverim (comrades), mostly
those from a Cockney background.
We really were an odd mix of British and Jewish
culture, and I suppose in retrospect that we were an
odd group of kids. We definitely were not the run of
the mill teens or young people. We also very much
believed in the idea of an educated peasantry, an idea
proposed by A.D. Gordon, a philosopher of the
pioneer movement.
Hurst Grange was an old rambling run-down
mansion that had seen better days. I think the house
probably still exists, or it did a few years ago. I
shared a room with a newcomer. The chevra (group)
was made up of a few of us newcomers, mostly
younger members of the movement, and older