Page 57 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Winter 20

TEL BARUCH TSAFON VIA stories of a distant land. I am not quite sure
why making and decorating a cardboard
SINCLAIR DRIVE brick should have had such an effect on my

life, but it did. I suppose, on reflection, that if
YIGAL LEVINE I had not enjoyed that initial encounter with

Habonim, then it would never have played
such an influential role in my life – an
influence that continues to the present day, as
I now volunteer at the Habonim Archives in
Yad Tabenkin.

In a short space of time, well relatively, the
once-Boneh (yes, I know it dates me but
T Amelim used to be called Bonim, and I joined
he writer, Yigal Levine, was born
a Peleg but ended up in a Ken) suddenly
George Levine, formally educated at
Kelvinside Academy when it was still
the first newly-formed Chotrim group in the
a boys-only school, informally educated by found himself playing the role of madrich to
Dr. Cosgrove in the Garnethill Cheder, but Bayit. I must have been really dedicated as
really learned about life and, to be honest, had the Bayit was not round the corner, but in fact
what proved to be a life-changing experience, entailed a 55-minute journey across the
thanks to joining the first Habonim Gedud, whole of Glasgow sitting on the top row of
which opened in Garnethill Synagogue. the 44 bus.
So, I suppose my life story was actually
determined when the then Rosh Ken, Danny
Gavron, suggested to David Tobias that it
was going to be his job to start the first
Habonim Gedud to be organised in Garnethill
Synagogue. For the non-Glaswegian readers,
I should point out that the vast majority,
probably in excess of 90% of Glasgow Jewry
live in the South side of Glasgow, while
Garnethill is very much a part of the West
End of Glasgow, where I lived.

David duly arrived, as did four of us, for the The Bayit in Sinclair Drive sounds like the
first Gedud meeting. Something must have title of a Netflix series, but in the 1960s, it
worked well as both madrich and chanich was in fact a place that was exciting,
now live in Israel. definitely stimulating, sometimes raucous,
but always interesting.
It was here that I was introduced to a blue
shirt, a yellow kerchief, a wondrous device
called a woggle, lots of fun and games and

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