Another Country, a New Family
A ll during my years on Yagur, I was in touch with my uncle Usher in Montreal, and my relatives in the United States were constantly urging me in their letters to come visit them and resettle in the U.S. I always refused. I definitely did not want to move to the U.S. and I was reluctant even to visit because I did not have money for the fare. I was proud of the way everyone in the kibbutz shared everything, and I felt it would be unfair to take such a trip, even if my relatives paid for it. I had not seen my Uncle Usher and Aunt Chava for eight years. They had settled in Canada because they had not been allowed into the United States. My cousin Shalom (Alex) and his wife Sal- ly, who had obtained a visa to the United States and now lived in Brooklyn, urged me to come to visit. My father’s brothers, Alex and Jack, who had been in the United States since 1925, were also urging me to come. When my grandfather Shlomo Golub died in 1954, he left a small apartment house in Brooklyn to his five children and my father’s share reverted to me. The value of each share was between $1,000 and $1,200, which was a lot of money in 1954. Upon inheriting this sum, I finally felt that I could let my relatives buy me a ticket because I would be able to repay them when the estate was settled. On that condition, I accepted a ticket from them. During the six months it took to get a visa, I saved money by skipping lunch. With the money I saved, I bought gifts for my rel- atives from the Bezalel Art Gallery, books about the War of Inde- pendence, and other souvenirs. I wanted to be able to give everyone at least a small gift. I boarded an Israeli ship named the Jerusalem
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