Page 67 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Winter 20

visiting a cinema in Tel Aviv. The place was
air-conditioned, and it was the first time in

my life that I had been in an air-conditioned
building – in Egypt, we lived in tents! What

was so strange was coming out of a cool
building into the Tel-Aviv heat and humidity.

Othello's Tower

I stayed in a cheap hotel and woke up at night
to find the bed full of bedbugs. I was furious,
got out of bed and found the owner,
physically hauled him out of his room and
made him change the bedding. Fink’s Bar - Jerusalem
While in Jerusalem, I stayed with my uncle
I got on the ship at Larnaca. It was an
overnight voyage and, in the morning, we and aunt in Bet Foner at 30, Ben Maimon
docked in Haifa. I got up early to see the Street. I remember going to Fink’s bar in the
shoreline of Israel as we approached. On the centre of town; it was about the only place in
ship, I learned how Italians ate spaghetti by Jerusalem that was open in the evenings.
curling it around their forks against a spoon. Many years later, our son David used to go
I was really impressed, because I’d never there regularly to meet his friend. Sadly, it is
seen it done before. At the dockside waiting no longer in existence.
for me was my cousin’s daughter, Rutie, who At the end of the holiday, I went to Haifa and
took me back home to Ramat Gan. I think she got on the ship back to Cyprus. I collected my
managed to get time off from the army to uniform in Nicosia, changed clothes, and was
meet me. During the time I was in Israel, I flown back to Egypt. The army never knew I
stayed mostly in Ramat Gan and Tel-Aviv. had deserted!
However, I also went to visit my family in
Jerusalem and Karkur. and to visit my friend,
Stanley Hyman and his wife Rosie, in Amiad.
I travelled on buses and managed to see quite
a bit of the country. Israel was only 6 years
old and very different from the country we
know now. The overwhelming impression
was heat, dust and the struggle to build the
country. Unfortunately, the photos I took
didn’t come out well, so I cannot reproduce
them here. One vivid memory I have was of

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