Page 22 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - September 15
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TEN YEARS AS CHAIRMAN
ARYEH WOLFIN, KFAR HANASSI
I together which has moved from Kfar Blum to
n October 2003, the Garin Hey generation
Nachsholim. The venue and the program of this
reunion, which took place in Kfar Hanassi,
where close on a hundred participants took
today's reality".
part, was beyond all expectation (see Iton March annual weekend event will be more congenial to
2004). The then chairman of Irgun Vatikei And so it was! Furthermore, In the September
Habonim, the late Yoel Varod ז"ל , who 2006 issue of the Iton I wrote in my Chairman's
‘infiltrated’ the event, wrote in his editorial in Report that…
that same Iton: "the idea of creating a "new look" to the
"I had the pleasure of attending the opening organization making it multi-generational with
session of the Garin Hey reunion. It was a great an internet website in addition to the Iton,
surprise for me to meet a generation of Habonim together with more intensive work on the
that I was unaware of; a large group of people archives, and historical research, caught on in a
who grew up in the movement after I left on aliya big way………. The meetings take place on a
in 1947…………….. I could only wish that they regular basis at the home of Coral Navon in
would begin to take over IVH." Haifa…..Yoel…….., together with Lionel
Shortly after the event, Yoel approached me to Holland and Francis Van Emden are regular
become chairman of IVH, which I agreed to with attendees, ensuring continuity. They arrive at the
some persuasion, and on taking office, I meetings from Ramat Hasharon, Netanya and
approached some of my contemporaries and ex- Haifa respectively. Michael Schnur and Eddie
chanichim to join the committee. Yoel's wish had Rivlin travel all the way from Rehovot and rarely
indeed been fulfilled, as we began to take over miss a meeting…………Alec Collins from Kfar
the reins of IVH. At the end of 2006, my Hanassi, the symbol of the Garin Hey ethos,
Chairman's Report in the Iton at the time joined the committee and threw his weight
reflected the new look of the organization: behind finding a new formula for the IVH annual
"The energetic refurbished committee, whose weekend………Geoffrey Felberg from Petah
members reflect the wide range of involvement Tikva, who took over from Zelig as treasurer,
in Israeli society, and who cover a wide range of rules the financial roost with a rod of iron………
generations, meets at fairly frequent intervals. From then on during the next seven years there
Under its auspices, work is carried out on were several quality additions to the committee
maintaining the archives for research purposes, including Tehila Beck, Len Goodman (both
a webpage has been set up, the very popular Garin Gimmel), Frank Farbenbloom, Yigal and
''Iton'' continues to be published and tiyulim and Linda Levine (Garin Zayin), Phil Margolis ,
annual weekend get-together's are organized. In Danny Margolis, Clive and Wendy Noble and
addition a history book on Habonim's Harold Hirsch, who took over the editorship of
involvement in Aliya Bet (illegal immigration the Iton. They all worked hard on maintaining
during the British Mandate) is being written, the archives, running the finances, organizing
which is based on the personal accounts of functions, including the Habonim 80th
vatikei Habonim. Currently, the committee is Anniversary grand event and Kfar Hanassi's 60th
engaged in organizing the annual weekend get- anniversary, not to mention the annual events in
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