Letters May/June 1999

This is Michelle from Middlesbrough!

I moved around the country so much, that I lost touch with most people, except Pam Talisman and Lisa Vyner. I used to write to Sam Doberman and Rev Kersh but now they are long gone and I miss that connection to the past. My news is varied. I made Aliyah nearly two years ago after my 17 year marriage ended. Quite traumatic as you can imagine. My two still live in England with their Dad, neither of them would have settled here and were in the middle of just getting used to living in Sheffield.

Life has been an adventure here! I only recently started full time work after teaching English part time for over a year. Things are not easy, but I'm not complaining. I'm sorry I missed the reunion. My job is still new and I didn't want to lose it.

PS Did anyone remember Stephen Tieger, Mike Steingold or my cousin Susan Smollan, who I believe still lives in the M'bro area. Mike Steingold is the around the age of Paul Stock and Michael Niman. He lived in Green Lane, just at the top of Thornfield Grove.

I think what you are doing will be of great interest to more people than just the Boro folks. You will end up being able to map out the history of the community from its beginnings to its spread across the world. A community tree, not just a family one!

Michelle Michaels (nee Smollan)

Israel

Received my first issue of the newsletter, many thanks. I left Mbro at the tender age of 10—my memories are very much of the childish variety, with wartime playing a major role. These years were spent at 18, Emerson Ave.

My family moved south in 1946 on doctor’s advice; my father Sam Greenberg having been hospitalised for an extended period with tuberculosis, contracted during his time with the fire service.

At the tender age of 21 I joined my then fiance in Canada, where we stayed for the next 15 years. 3 children were born there – Dale, who is now a chemical engineer, living and working near Los Angeles with his Israeli wife and 2 children; Karen, who is a speech pathologist and recently returned to Israel from San Fransisco with her husband and 3 children; and Bram, who left after his army service to study at the University of British Columbia. After Canada we lived for a year in Germany outside Frankfurt and from there to Brussels, Belgium for 6 years.

After a 3 month visit to Israel as a volunteer following the Yom Kippur war (I am a physiotherapist by profession) I decided that this was the place to be and in 1979 David and I with the 2 youngest children made aliya. My parents, Sam and Rose Greenberg joined us several years later from Bournemouth, together with my brother, David. They lived in Natanya, not far from my father’s sister, Ann. My father would have loved what you're doing, I just wish he were still here to fill me in on all the questions that I now have. He never got over my mother’s death in 1992 and died 4 years later at the age of 90.

Many thanks and let me know if I can add any more to what I have already written

Rita (nee Greenberg) Sadlik

Israel

 

Many thanks for sending me the Newsletter. Although Middlesbrough featured only at the very start of my life - we left when I was six - being born there did leave me with one permanent legacy - namely being a Boro FC fan and following the team through thin and thin!!

I am now married (to Dawn) with two kids (Samuel 3, Anna 1) and one on the way. We live in Maidenhead, Berks, and belong to the Maidenhead Reform Synagogue.

My parents, Stuart and Ruth, divorced several years ago and have gone their separate ways. My dad still lives in the North East, although he has little contact with the Jewish Community up there. He will be 66 this year and is still in good health. He visited Israel for the second time this year to visit my brother, Charles and his family.

My mum has remarried and now lives in Hampstead. She has been heavily involved with Israel, first running a trade association and then for the last few years the British Israel Arts Foundation.

Best wishes with the venture.

David Kohn,

Maidenhead, England

I just discovered the wonderful website for Middlesbrough. Last year we were very fortunate to receive from Middlesbrough siddurim and machzorim that have been so useful to this small but active (and growing a little bit) congregation. It's wonderful to have enough books for all the congregation, and we appreciate Middlesbrough's generosity in helping us.
Best wishes,
Frank J. Gent
Exeter Shul
http://www.eclipse.co.uk/exeshul