Page 5 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - October 19

A LIFETIME OF SERVICE
IN HIS OWN WORDS*
ASHER TARMON
Prologue
The most formative element in my life was my
involvement with Habonim. It became a symbol
and proof as to the value of friendship, its
enduring nature, its primacy over every other
human appetite or obligation. It transcended
family ties, motivated sacrifice and promoted
dedication to the wellbeing of your mates and of
the group.
I’ll begin from the time I was recalled for a double
purpose. One was to act as the central shaliach to
the many JCCs (Jewish Community Centres) that
had started and for consultation at headquarters.
Also to found and establish a world body of JCCs,
which today is called global JCC with an office in
Jerusalem. The original office, of which I was the
founding director for JWB (Jewish Welfare
Board), is not used anymore. The JWB was
established in 1917 to provide a club for the
Jewish servicemen.
Asher, you said that as regards an article for
the Iton that you had in your mind what you
wanted to say
It would take too long to do that, so with a great
deal of difficulty, I’ve managed to produce
something that will help. This is a prologue and
this is an epilogue. So, in the prologue I say that
the most formative element in my life was my
involvement with Habonim. It tells you why. And
the epilogue is a paraphrase of someone who
devotes more and more time to remembering.
Have we all become slaves to memory?
Let’s fill the space between the prologue and
the epilogue
As suggested, there has to be something between
the prologue and the epilogue, so all I can do is
give you an idea of what came to mind. The last
summer camp of Habonim before WWII was held
5
in August and this time, it was an all-country
camp for the very first time. People came from all
the different gedudim, Scotland, Ireland, England
and so on and there was a young lady, who was a
madricha, her name was Edith. We fell in love and
started corresponding. I had to get back to work
but as soon as war was declared I rushed up to see
what I could do to save her. I was that naïve.
We continued to correspond after I came back
home to work at a Jewish Print shop. Eventually I
left the Print shop to become the director of the
training farm for a hundred kinder transport
youngsters in north Devon. The army had rejected
me because I was wearing glasses. Even now they
are only decorative. I don’t see any better; I take
them off to read. Reading has always been my
most compelling hobby. I can’t talk about the arts
anymore for years but reading was very important.
Edith and I corresponded until I started work with
the young people in Bydown, the name of the
training farm. I was so impressed by the fact that
here was a group, a number of youngsters, who
despite the fact that they were alone, stateless,
without culture, without a language, without
schooling, yet they had the drive to sing songs
about Israel, to dance and so on. I decided there
and then that I would go to Israel and fulfil the
Habonim ideal of becoming a chalutz. So, I wrote
to Edith about this, but this was not in her plans
and our communication came to an end. We’ll
come back to Edith later.
From there, Baruch Tal, who was the shaliach,
invited me to come down to south Devon where
Habonim had established three wartime hostels. I
was the “father” of the Dawlish hostel. I was there
for three years. Meanwhile, the army must have
been looking for me, having given up the idea that