KADDISHEL
A Life Reborn
go home to Yagur or other kibbutzim for Shabbat. I would design a plan every weekend to work them all in, and try to avoid making anyone take a bus. Our drivers went home on Fridays and came back on Sundays. They would drop people off along the way home and pick them up on the way back. There was always a car going to Yagur — I was in charge, after all. More importantly, well-known dignitaries and prominent leaders in the labor movement lived at Yagur, including Yitzchak Tabenkin and Israel Bar Yehuda. This was a good period in my life. I was an eligible young bach- elor of twenty-five with a private room in a private house and ac - cess to a car, which was quite unusual in Israel during those days. The organization rented rooms for us in Tel Aviv, and since we came from kibbutzim, we were in demand as tenants: honest and straightforward, unlikely to cause problems, and certain to pay the rent on time. Moreover, since most of us went home every week- end, the owners saved on precious hot water and other expenses. Our rooms were in the nicest neighborhood, near the Yarkon River. We ate breakfast and dinner together in a communal kitchen and received an allowance for lunch. I enjoyed the job very much, in part because the car made me equal to other people, despite my handicap. There was another ben- efit: I was exposed to new people and places, which broadened my horizons. I also stayed in close touch with survivors from Ludvipol, my landtzmen. Even before I began working in Tel Aviv, I went there on vacations and stayed with my old friend from Ludvipol, Eliahu Kleinman, whose large family had practically grown up next door to me. When I moved to Tel Aviv, I felt very happy to renew our warm relationship and reawaken some happy childhood memories. 1 Romance came my way again. While I was working for the Kibbutz Administration in Tel Aviv, I met a young woman, a Holocaust survivor, who lived in the Tel Aviv area and was very bright and well educated. She had spent a few years living and go- ing to school at a kibbutz until she left to live in the city with her parents. We had much in common, including our political views.
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