Page 92 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - Winter 20

IN THE BEGINNING Yehudit came on Aliya to Kfar Blum and had
not been back to Manchester since. She was
SHLOIMY ALMAN Z”L the first madricha there.

I
was privileged to be asked to relieve
Howard Cohen as co-madrich of Shnat
Hachshara on Beit HaEmek in 1979,
when he was conscripted into the army. Yehudit Avni at Bet Berl in 1979
Years later, I would discover that two of the
(The Israeli madrich was Roni Azati now of then chanichim were known to me - Albert
Archive fame.) Brown, father of Mike and Dave Brown, and

During the Habonim Kibbutzim Tour it was Mimi Tarsky, aunt of Ivri Tasker (my first
decided to attempt to rekindle contact with madrich in Habonim in a parallel universe).
Kfar Blum, which had ceased to figure on I met Yehudit Avni again at the 50-year
Habonim meshek tours probably due to the celebrations at Bet Berl, where she sang with
age of the Habonim vatikim (pensioners). the Habonim choir, and I photographed the
Shabbat afternoon, we were met in the car Shnat Hachsharaniks with the then President
park by the legendary Moggie Margalit, who Yitzhak Navon.
proceeded to lead the group and introduce
Kfar Blum. We ended up in the Moadon
where the Habonim vatikim had baked cakes
and met with us one-on-one.

One silver-haired lady, Yehudit Avni
(Polinsky), asked who was from Manchester
– we were three, and she asked for our family
names, I answered Alman. Quick as a flash,
she asked if I was related to Alman, the
barber, who had his shop on Gt. Ducie Street, President Yitzhak Navon at Bet Berl.
Strangeways. She went on to tell me that the The redhead is Dan Patterson
first Gedud of Habonim in 1932 met in the
back of my uncle’s barber shop. I never knew of my uncle’s Zionist leanings,
but it explains why he took me to Habonim’s
30-year celebration in 1959.

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