Kehilat Middlesbrough Newsletter No 4 October 1999 page 3

I am the elder daughter of Miriam and Ernie Hush, both of whom were born in M’bro. We moved to Great Ayton during the War and my father continued to live there until his death at the age of 90 in 1985. My mother was the daughter of Rev Jacob and Mina Silverston, who had five sons and five daughters. Three are still living: Harry (91) in London; Frieda (87) in Leeds and Lena (85) in Haifa. Her children all live in Israel, where they were born, except for Ilana, who was born in M’bro. Lena, who was pregnant, had come back to M’bro to visit her sick mother. Incidentally Lena and my late uncle, John Tabor, went to Israel before the foundation of the State. He worked for the Electricity company.

My other grandfather, Isaac Hush, came to England from Germany when he was about 18. He worked as a packman or peddler in Cleveland and had two pawnshops, in Cannon Street and Corporation Road. Upon his death, my father took them over. Isaac married twice and one of his daughters, Leah, lived in Cornfield Road, M’bro, with her husband Ernest Myers. His other son, Lipman, who was a philatelist, lived in Claude Avenue. The other daughters married men from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Norwich, Birmingham—we have cousins scattered all over the place!

Unlike most of my contemporaries, I went back to M’bro and worked there for five years as a reporter and sub-editor on the Evening Gazette. I joined the BBC in Newcastle and became a radio producer. In 1970 I moved to Manchester and went on being a radio producer until my retirement in 1995. I now lead a life of idleness and pleasure (comparatively speaking) in the leafy Manchester suburb of Withington.

Initially I thought the Newsletter was a crazy idea, but now I feel it has great interest and appeal, as we all wonder whatever did happen to all those people who were part of our growing up.

Gillian Hush

Manchester, England

I came to M’bro in 1934 after I married Morris, who had come to M’bro with his parents from Lithuania. We ran a kosher grocery shop for nearly thirty years, moved to Sunderland for seven years and then came on aliya to Jerusalem. Morris died here three years later. Having been brought up in Leeds and later, with most of my family, in Sunderland, M’bro was not the ideal place to raise three children, as few other families were Shomrei Shabbat.

However, Michael has completed forty years as a Reader and Baal Koreh in Leeds—with no small thanks due to initial encouragement from Rev Kersh.

David runs almost-free Bar Review Courses in Israel for new immigrants. I like to think that he was influenced by Morris’s great acts of Hessed, including the Hevra Kadisha, with Benny Goldstein, David Solomon and Lionel Simons. This organisation was second to none in the North East. Ruth, who also lives in Jerusalem, heads an organization which looks after families in need. No doubt all this goes back to her being the one and only M’bro graduate of the Gateshead Jewish Teachers Seminary.

But now this M’bro post-demise activity; all of a sudden, people are proud to talk of their M’bro roots. It never happened when the Community was alive. It is significant that of our fifty active members in Israel, more came from Newport Road and Southfield Road than Cambridge Road and Green Lane.

Rose Saville

Jerusalem, Israel

[Happy 90^th Birthday to you, Rose—ad Mea V’Esrim!]

I am the younger daughter of Dinah and David Solomon (sister of Tania). I married Alan in M’bro in March 1969. Apart from four years in Israel from 1977 to 1980, I have lived in Liverpool. We have two sons and one daughter (who was born in Israel). My parents moved to Liverpool 11 years ago. They celebrated their 64^th wedding anniversary on the first day of Rosh Hashana.

Some formative M’bro memories:

• Mr & Mrs Vickers – shul caretakers; they had a rabbit hutch round the back near the Succah
• Cheder outings to Leilholme –
• Sunday night youth club
• Chanuka parties in the Linthorpe Assembly Rooms

Carry on your excellent work.

Lorraine (Solomon) Coleman

Liverpool, England

Thank you very much for sending me the newsletter which I have enjoyed reading. You may be interested to know that when my husband and I lived in Melbourne (1966-68) we were befriended by Phil and Miriam Greenberg. Phil’s sister Blanche was a great friend of my mother (Miriam Silverston).

The date of the Closing Service was extra special to us; we were married in the Shul thirty-four years previously on November 1^st 1964

Carole (Hush) Goldbaum

Beckenham, Kent, England

(More letters on page 4 )

Sadie (Greenberg) Ramati of Ra’anana, Israel, points out to us that, contrary to what we wrote in the Smollan Sheva Brachot report, her cousin, Sadie Mendelovich, was not the first Olah Hadasha from M’bro since the establishment of the State. Her sister, Linda Greenberg, made aliya in October 1948—a few months earlier.

There were of course earlier olim prior to 1948; Lena Silverston and Harold Jaffe were two. Can our readers tell us of others?

Boro Quiz no 4

1. Name 3 mayors of M’bro

2. Which was the most famous bridge constructed by Dorman Long?

3. Name an MP for M’bro West and one for M’bro East

4. Where does Yorkshire play county cricket?

5. Name six cinemas which all operated at the same time

6. Name five families who were Cohanim (except for Cohen) and five (except for

Levy) who were Levi’im

7. Who gave the Kol Nidre Appeal sermon in 1951 when there was no minister

between Rabbi Miller and Rev Kersh?

8. Who was the first Madrich of Bnei Akiva and when?

9. When were the old and new cemeteries opened?

10. Who was the only Jewish person killed in an air raid in WW2?