Kehilat Middlesbrough Newsletter No 4 October 1999 page 2

Many thanks indeed for the three issues of the Newsletter, all read and inwardly digested and ashamedly unanswered until now. I have always had plenty to say for myself in person on whatever subject is raised, but never had any enthusiasm for shul committees—other than the one which raised funds for the shul hall and the (rarely used) tennis court. And as for letter writing I have always been the laziest.

I congratulate you on your enthusiasm, your literary talent and your initiative and your success in the very interesting and readable Newsletter. Long may it continue. Even if there is a limit to the number of anecdotes—and I have a headful—there is the by-product of the "lost and found" friends and relatives, the exchange of personal news and greetings between ex-Boro survivors who, like me, have an inborn resistance to new inventions such as email, and a dating agency for ex-Boro pensioners.

By the way, it was not Ruth Miller, who was a little lady at cheder, but her lively sister Naomi who used to shout for all to hear "sticky Stocky is stuck up", which provoked me to chase her round the Brentnall Street shul.

Harold Stock

Ashton under Lyme, England

I always feel a bit of a fraud when you kindly send me the Newsletter, as I left M’bro before I was two! Our parents, Harold and Adèle Glass, married in 1939 and made their first home in Emerson Avenue in M’bro. They were both Tynesiders, but my father’s work took him south to Billingham, where he was a plant manager for ICI. Eventually we moved to Surbiton in 1950. My parents’ lifelong friends Sophie and Nat Bharier lived in New Malden, a 2-3 mile cycle ride for Tony and me and for Julian and Roma, frequently taken. That story continues in this generation, as my husband Basil and I are regularly in touch with Roma and Melvyn Brooks.

I see my old friend, Helene Adam, nee Simons, and I’m in regular contact with Yetta Rothfield, my cousin. She is the magnet which draws me back to M’bro for frequent "awaydays" up to Teesside. Life moves on, but it is amazing that so many links still exist—even for me, a one-year-old, leaving the town just after the War!

Jennifer (Glass) Hillman

London, England

My name was Kitty Taylor. I was born in M’bro in 1913. My parents ran a wallpaper shop in Grange Road.

My father was Harry Taylor and my mother Jenny Taylor. I had three brothers and five sisters.

We all went to Hugh Bell school and Brentnall Street shul. I was the only girl in Rabbi Epstein’s class. I asked my parents if I could be the first girl to enter Jews College in London, but they refused. I remember all the names, especially Eric Jaffa, who was a joker. Rev Turtledove was one of our teachers.

There was mention of a grocery shop at the bottom of Church Street - it belonged to my aunt, Mrs Myerson. I am 86 now and left M’bro in 1935 to go to study nursing at the London Jewish Hospital and married one of the doctors there. I never returned to my home in M’bro. So many names conjure up my childhood—Smollan, Israel, Doberman, Sandler, Saville, Marks, Claff, Brechner, Burnett, Server.

I have a niece, Cynthia Hefetz, who was born in Redcar - she is the daughter of my sister Leah Wiseman and she lives in Kfar Saba. It was a pleasure to read the Newsletter and think of the old days, but sad to read that so many people have left.

Kitty (Taylor) Howard

Leeds, England

Many of your readers will remember the late Becky Cohen, who died on 8 August 1999 aged 93. She was born in M’bro in 1906 to Chazan Yankel Moshe and Mina Silverston.

One day, while travelling on a bus in M’bro with her brothers, she was introduced to a young man, Joel Intract, who "happened" to get on the bus. Only after they were married did he tell her that not only was it an arranged meeting, but that it was also the first time he had ever been on a bus. After he died, his family established the Joel Intract Memorial Home in Sunderland (which recently merged with the Newcastle Home).

In 1941 she married Dr Mick (Myer) Cohen, the son of Chazan Shalom Cohen of M’bro. As Liverpool was under heavy bombing she lived in Lancaster, while her husband continued to work in Liverpool. Now the wife of a struggling GP, whose surgery was bombed by the Germans, she had to adapt to a very different life style. Instead of a chauffeur driven Bentley, she would now go to Tesco with her Rolls, as she called her shopping basket on wheels.

She lived for many years in Liverpool and had 3 sons: Geoffrey, a surgeon who lives in Sheffield; Ian, a pediatric hematologist/oncologist, living in Elkana, Israel; and Ken, a solicitor, living in London. Becky and Mick Cohen moved to Sheffield in the early 1990s to live with their son Geoffrey. Mick died 3 years ago. Becky is survived by her brother, Harry Silverston, who lives in London, sister, Freda Hirst in Leeds and sister Lena Tabor in Haifa.

Ian Cohen

Elkana, Israel

I was born in Majek, Lithuania in 1914. My father went to South Africa and when he was settled, he sent for my mother, elder sister and me to join him. Our trek could be the subject of a book. We travelled the length of Russia, crossed over to Japan and then sailed from Yokohama via Ceylon to Cape Town. And all this during WWI. You can imagine a young mother taking her two very young children half way round the world. The whole journey took 12 months

In 1940 I joined the South African Armed Forces and sailed to the War Zone. During the fighting, I was captured by the Germans in North Africa and escaped. I was recaptured and escaped in Europe at least half a dozen times. As a result of a prisoner release in 1944 I was sent to England, to the home of my next of kin, my mother’s sister Sarah Saville, who lived with Uncle Joshua at 19 Berner Street, M’bro.

During my stay in M’bro I went on a ramble with the local FZY to Great Ayton—or perhaps it was Stokesley. Amongst those taking part were Hilda Saville, my cousin’s cousin, Reuben and Shirley Goldstein, Louis Lazarus and Rita Goldberg. Also with us was Etta Garbutt of Stockton, whom I married in 1947. We settled in Kimberley, South Africa.

In 1961 we came on Aliya with our daughter Maureen, who now lives in Arad with her family. My other M’bro connection: my late wife’s sister, Sheila, is married to a pillar of the community in the eighties, Ronnie Niman.

Alec Gelb

Moshav Dor, near Haifa, Israel

The Editor reserves the right to edit letters as appropriate