Book & Cook

Bird, birds singing early in the morning. That was the first sound I heard on the first morning I woke up at the new boarding school. It took about one minute before that beautiful sound was muffled by the sound of the musical clock. It was blasting all over the campus. Just before the radio program starts at 6:00 AM. The smell of the pine trees was permeating the air when the door opened, and the house mother walked in to make sure we were up. There were six of us in the room: Mark from Morocco, Hezi Akerman the Fisherman son, Short Naftalie the son of the cook, Tall Avraham – also from Morocco, Shimon who was a nasty boy from the moment I met him, and myself. It took a few hours the afternoon before, for all of us to get to our room and to settle down. We introduced our selves and went to the dining room for dinner. The six of us sat on a big table with two other kids from another room. Food was a light Israeli salad, scrambled eggs, dark bread, and some fruit for dessert. I don’t th...

After giving up on the two youth organizations, there was one more group I wanted to try. “The Scouts,” they were not affiliated with any political party and in fact, they are International. Unlike the organizations in the USA the Israeli scouts were coed. Walking to the Scouts center took a while. It was on the south side of the town. As I was walking, I could hear the Shabat evening sounds of people’s forks or spoons tuching the plates and the sound of people blessing or singing Shabat songs. I wasn’t sure who to see or who to talk to when I get there. But as soon as I arrived, I realized I didn’t have to worry about it. Shlomit Bar Menahem was there, as well as Ne h amah Lerner and Sarah Markovich who smiled at me as soon as she saw me. Everyone was dancing in a circle to the “Bon Fire Dance”. There was no music, so everyone was also singing the melody of the dance. Standing to the side of the entrance was a tall boy who reminded me someone I knew but couldn’t recall.  “Hi, my n...

“Moving again?” I asked mom. “Well,” said mom, “yes, and we will be moving again after that in the summer.” “Why? Haven’t we moved enough? We have our own house.” “We bought a new house, down the road, much bigger, on the 3 rd  floor.” “Will I have to change school again?” “No, we will move to the “Kibbutz” in Ein HaThelet for a few months until the new house is ready for us. You will be riding the bicycle to school. We rented a small house for the next few months in the back yard of a house next to your friend Avi Dagan.” “In the early 20 th  century, way before the city of Netanya was established, there was a little Kibbutz on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It had a three-floor building right over the cliff. It was used to help the new pilgrims find their way to the shore during the British mandate.  Depending on which window was lit at night the pilgrims knew if it was safe or dangerous to land ashore. Once they city of Netanya was formed, the kibbutz was d...

  “Big Nail and Small Nail were neighbors” Dad started his story, “Big Nail was very rich and Small Nail was very poor.” We were sitting around him at the yard in front of aunt Rachel and uncle Rone’s house. All the kids of our family loved to hear Dad’s stories. He was a great storyteller, and he also did some magic tricks the little kids loved even more.  “Big Nail had a big flock of beautiful sheep. Small Nail had only one cute little sheep. He loved his sheep and took care of her. He shared his food with her and protected her like his child. One day, Big Nail invited a few friends for a party. He wanted to feed them but by no means did he wish to waist any of his sheep for the dinner party. He had to get the sheep from Small Nail. And so, he did. In the middle of the night, he stole the sheep from Small Nail and roasted it for his dinner party. “No way, cried Batyah, Aunt Rachel’s daughter. “Well,” said Dad, “it wasn’t the only bad thing he did. He tried to take over Small...

“I would like to introduce you to the new Mariners teacher,” Moshe Kotler the Vice Principal and our new class teacher said. “Zak. He is the former and director of the ‘Zevulun’ Youth Organization. He will teach you how sailors navigate and how to row boats. If you wish, you may join Zevulun and also learn to sail sailboats.” This was very exciting, except for one or two boys we were all very happy. The girls had some other activity – something to do with home keeping, I think. “I am not sure why the girls aren’t a part of this class,” said Zak, “my daughter is a very good sailor, but we would do the best of it.” “When are we going to go on the boats?” asked Sha’ul Shriber. “Next week.” “What do we do in the winter when it rains?” “Well, we will try to plan more indoor classes in the winter, but rain never stopped boats from sailing.” “Nice!”  The following week as soon as classes were over, we took a long walk to the “Zevulun” beach where the club was located. Zak showed us a few ...