Page 5 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - September 15
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AMATSYA ARNON
A he was very active in the local Peleg of the
matsya was born in Manchester in 1930,
Movement and he established and conducted a
second of three sons born to Nachman
and Dora Englesberg, who first met in
with a clear Mancunian accent which only
the 1920s in Palestine. Cracow-born Dora Lifshitz number of youth choirs. Amatsya was soft-spoken
worked at the time with Gedud Ha'avoda, building enhanced his very prominent charisma. It was
the Afula-Nazareth road. Riding past on his horse, during this period that he met Valerie Roskovsky
Nachman, "the Englishman from Balfouria", who he married in 1953 while they were both still
could not help noticing her. It was love at first students.
sight. However, Dora
contracted a life- In 1955, despite much
threatening form of pressure to take on the job
malaria and was strongly of Mazkir Habonim,
advised to move to a Amatsya and Valerie (in
better climate. Dora early pregnancy) came on
returned to her parent’s Aliya to Kibbutz Beth
home in Cracow and, after Ha'emek. They were
reuniting and marrying Kibbutz members for four
there, the couple came to years before leaving. He
settle in Nachman's home soon found employment in
town, Manchester. Here the "Prime Minister's
they would remain for the Office" where he would
next four decades, playing an important part in the work for the next 17 years, including a term of
Jewish community's cultural and Zionist activities. secondment to the Foreign Ministry (1964-1967)
Among such activities was the founding of the as First Secretary at the Israeli Embassy in Dar-es-
Manchester – north of England – branch of Salaam, Tanzania, and later, assignments in
Habonim. Amatsya and his brother Jonathan, who Europe and elsewhere.
lives with his wife Rachel in Tel Aviv, were born Amatsya retired from 'The Service' at the age of
into the "Movement". The birth of their older 46 and embarked on a very successful musical
brother, the late Aryeh Arnon, predated the career which began with formal studies in
establishment of Manchester Habonim by a Musicology at Tel Aviv University. For a few
couple of years, but Aryeh – Lionel - was in his years, he gave private piano lessons and
day a loyal and active member of the Movement. subsequently several series of popular lectures at
Tel Aviv University, and elsewhere, on music for
Amatsya was a promising student at school, at
sports and at music, as well as academic studies, the general public, as part of the Adult Education
and he enrolled to study Physics at Manchester programme.
University. After one term, he changed his mind Being 'crossword mad' in his youth, Amatsya
and switched to Oriental Studies, subsequently spent a few years developing a Hebrew version of
attaining a second degree. Throughout his studies, the “Cryptic Crossword” for the Israeli public, a
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