Page 54 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Winter 20
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GLASGOW HABONIM IN THE talking about Jesus and we sang some hymns.
I realised something was wrong and asked
1940S her if this was Habonim or perhaps the
synagogue. She directed me to the building
MILTON TAYLOR across the road. There, I found a group of kids
of varied ages, all under 13, singing in
Hebrew. Thus, I joined Gedud Degania, and
started a life in Habonim.
One has to remember that this was in the
middle of the war, with the threat of air raids
and possible invasion. I had returned from a
few months’ evacuation in the country. I was
I very conscience of being Jewish. My parents
must have been 10 or 11, when I joined
were not very religious, but traditional,
Habonim in 1942. My parents sent me to
a private teacher for Hebrew lessons. I
recall the discussion and fear of a German
am not quite sure why since I was already keeping kashrut and observing holidays. I
attending classes at the local cheder. The invasion. My parents had arranged with a
lessons were in modern Hebrew, taught by non-Jewish family, the Frasers that, in the
Ruth Ross, one of the early founders of event of German occupation, I would go to
Glasgow Habonim. She lived on Sinclair live with them under a new name. Ruth, my
Drive, close to the future location of the Hebrew teacher, had already indoctrinated
Bayit. She was an ardent Zionist, and me with the Zionist idea, and thus it seemed
suggested I join a Jewish youth movement, natural to join a Jewish Youth movement
Habonim. In Glasgow, at that time, there rather than the local boy scouts. The Jewish
were several Jewish youth movements: Lads Brigade (which I believe later became
Habonim, Bnei Akiva, and the Jewish Lads Maccabi) was too military in style for me,
Brigade. Habonim was by far the strongest even though the director was an uncle, Louis
and met at various locations in Glasgow. In Flacks.
my case, the closest was Queens Park
Synagogue, one of perhaps ten synagogues in
Glasgow at the time. The Jewish population
of Glasgow in the 1940s was estimated to be
about 15,000.
My first day was accompanied by a small
mishap. I went by myself to the Habonim
meeting. I had never been to that particular
shul before, so I wandered into the
neighbouring church by mistake, and sat Rikkudei Am in the Bayit – 1950s
down with a group of children about my age. (from Ralph Golomb's personal collection)
The group leader, a young woman, began
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