Page 20 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - October 19

nearby municipal Heaton Park, which gave us a chance Afterwards, notices were read out with details of our
to relax with good friends.
All too soon, the course ended with a moving Award
Ceremony where we received our Graduation
Certificates. In spite of unremitting hard work, I was
both proud and pleased to have been a student of the
Habonim Institute. It was a brilliant course and no
doubt comparable to University standards.
As newly trained Leaders, we dispersed to take part in
the annual Habonim Summer Camps. David had
organised a month long residential seminar at Hurst
Grange in Twyford, near Reading and I fetched up at a
remote campsite in Wales. Perhaps it’s just as well
that I have only hazy memories of collecting a large
group of noisy over excited 9-10 year olds at a London
train station and pushing them, willy-nilly into our
allotted carriages. What I do vividly recall is swinging
the heavy door closed and trapping my thumb in it. I
remembered – in time – that Leaders can’t let rip with
shouts of agony; they must grin and bear it!
Life under canvas in Wales was an entirely different
ball game from our small weekend camps in
Derbyshire. I learned a great respect for our
maintenance staff who had arrived a week earlier to
erect a marquee, dug trenches for the latrines and
provided washing and cooking facilities. In addition,
there was a medical tent, which was manned by a
medical student with a Habonim background. I was
very pleased to be able to contribute my “barbering
skills” with a short-back-and-sides for a very “shaggy”
member of staff! He was impressed to say the least.
Every morning began with our Mifkad, ceremony
when, dressed in our blue Habonim shirts, we all stood
to attention for the raising of the Israeli flag.
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group activities, etc. The details of our daily life
escapes me but no doubt we kept the children busy
from dawn to dusk with talks on Jewish themes,
enacting Biblical stories, handicraft sessions, sports
fixtures and nature trails; you name it – we did it! I
mustn’t forget to include the essential learning of
Israeli songs and the ones that caught on and became
our special theme song especially after Friday night
dinner. But I don’t think I could ever forget that on
my twenty-first birthday when everyone was seated in
the marquee for lunch, they all sang ‘Happy Birthday’
to me, ending in a rousing cheer! I received a rather
special parcel – an English/Hebrew dictionary – a
cherished birthday gift from David and which I still
have. How he had remembered to buy it and bothered
to find the postal address of the camp I’ll never know
because I don’t think I asked. But I did reply thanking
him and using one of his scholarly phrases, one
certainly never used in everyday language: “Behold,
here I am under the great canopy of the skies” which
was a very flowery expression for: “Here I am in the
open air.” We kept in regular touch by letter after that.
One of the hallmarks of Habonim Leaders is the
burden of responsibility thrust upon young shoulders –
and you can say that again! It was a completely new
experience for me. I had to learn fast to get to know
my group, the show-offs and the shy ones, those who
needed a gentle but firm control and those who
benefited from encouragement. Within a few days
those children came to me with their ‘everything,’ not
just bumps, bruises, wasp stings, constipation and
diarrhoea, which thankfully were dealt with by our
medic, but home truths, a bullying sibling, quarrelling
parents and home sickness. I did my best and came to
wonder if I had the makings of a trainee
psychoanalyst! But from learning through observation
and perception I became a young adult during that
fortnight.
The return journey was fraught. The only transport
available to take us to the local train station was in the
back of a hay cart. I spent the entire journey to
London picking off bits of hay and other items of
farmyard detritus from the worse cases! (I couldn’t
deal with the smell!) In spite of my tireless efforts, I
deposited a bunch of dishevelled but wildly
enthusiastic kids into the arms of their welcoming
parents.
I arrived home tired out but with enough time to
recover before travelling to Liverpool for Fay and