Gloria Levi - Kissing an Old Dream Goodbye: A Memoir 1950 – 1959

Kissing an Old Dream
Goodbye

A Memoir

1950 1959

Gloria Levi

A Fictive Press Book

A Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2019 by Gloria Levi

All rights reserved. This book or anyportion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any mannerwhatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher,except for brief quotations in a book review or scholarlyjournal.

First published in 2019 by FictivePress, a division of BizNet Communications (2815699 Canada Inc.),British Columbia, Canada.

fictivepress.com

Fictive Press and fictivepress.comare trademarks of 2815699 Canada Inc.

Some names and particulars have beenchanged to protect the privacy of individuals.

An Arab Shepherd is Searching for hisGoat on Mount Zion by Yehuda Amichai, with permission from SheepMeadow Press.

Front cover photo and back coverbackground, provided by Gloria Levi: Stone cottage at Kfar Daniel,Israel, 1957
Back cover photo, provided by Gloria Levi: Gloria Levi and NormanLevi, Toronto, 1951
Author photo by Susan Curtis
Cover design by Fictive Press

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguingin Publication

Title: Kissing an old dream goodbye : amemoir, 1950-1959 / Gloria Levi.

Names: Levi, Gloria, author.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print)20189069066 |
Canadiana (ebook) 20189069074 |
ISBN 9781927663677 (softcover) | ISBN 9781927663684 (Kindle)|
ISBN 9781927663691 (EPUB)

Subjects: LCSH: Levi, Gloria. | LCSH:Jews, AmericanIsraelBiography. | LCSH: Jews,CanadianIsraelBiography. | LCSH: IsraelBiography. |
LCGFT: Autobiographies.

Classification: LCC DS113.8.A4 L48 2019|
DDC 956.94/004924073092dc23

Praise for Kissing an Old Dream Goodbye

A riveting read from beginning toend. The story of a remarkable woman whose life intersected with acritical time in Jewish history. Levi captures the struggles of ayoung woman striving for personal identity and family balance, withthe backdrop of a similarly young country striving to find itsidentity. She writes with insight, humour, honesty and passion, ina book you wont be able to put down. MarkL. Winston is a Professor and Senior Fellow at Simon FraserUniversitys Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, and author of the2015 Governor Generals Nonfiction Literary Award for Bee Time:Lessons From the Hive.

In contrast to the better knownnarratives of the refugee Aliya and the Middle East in the firstdecade of the State of Israel, this is the seldom told story of ayoung Anglo family, impelled to immigrate to the newly born stateby Zionist idealism, hope and a sense of adventure. Theexhilaration of realizing their dream is soon mixed with thepettiness, doubt and drudgery of daily life in the new state,followed by their heartbreaking resignation. A captivating personalstory in all its detail and complexity. Rahel Halabe is an eminent Arabic/Hebrew translator inIsrael, a gifted Hebrew teacher and author of the two volumeinnovative textbook, Hinei, anIntroduction to Biblical Hebrew .

A heartfelt journey where youngidealism encounters the real struggles of young immigrants to thenewly formed State of Israel. Levis experience as a pioneer inIsrael during those early years foreshadowed the complex challengesthat would grow for the young country as it became moreestablished. She leaves the reader smelling and feeling the land ofIsrael from the 1950s, with all its brilliance and troubles. Rabbi Yonatan Gordis is a partner atChangeCraft, a consulting firm specializing in change processes inthe philanthropic and non-profit fields, and a director of Sh'ma Now .

Tomy grandmother, Basha Riva,
who lived in Jewish time and embodied
the character traits (midot) of compassion and love.
She taught me the beauty and wonder of Jewish ritual.

Contents

Im tirtsu, ain zu agada.
If you will it, it is no dream.
Theodore Herzl

Standing on the Marseilles pier,Norman told me later, he noticed me immediately. I was a short,slender young woman with shoulder-length, wavy brown hair. I wore along tweedy-brown raincoat, paint box in hand, guitar strung overmy shoulder. I neither painted nor played the guitar. Norman saw meas some kind of bohemian. I stood in line as I waited to board theSS Negba, an Israeli ship taking hundreds of Moroccan Jews fromMarseilles to settle in the new State of Israel. Old men with theirTorahs, women in their colourful kaftans, and hundreds of children,many with shaved heads, who had been treated for ringworm or eyedisease. I was 19 years old, impatient to set sail for Israel, theland of my dreams.

I spent my teen years in theLabour Zionist movement and dreamed of becoming a pioneer inIsrael. I had read many of the earlier Labour Zionist ideologues,Jewish history and socialist writers. I grew up in Brooklyn, NewYork. Emotionally, socially and culturally, I was surrounded byJews and rarely met non-Jews. I was fiercely independent and a bitof a rebel, and had a stormy relationship with my mother. My fatherhad died when I was eleven. I paid my own way through universityand had recently been living independently in GreenwichVillage.

I had just completed my firstyear at New York University, majoring in psychology and philosophy.However, I began to intellectually question and doubt many of mybasic assumptions. This summer trip would be an opportunity to testmy values and ideals. Could I live as an American and a Jew? Whatdid I really want out of life? Who did I want to become? What didself-realization really mean?

As I headed to my cabin, I wasstartled to find a middle-aged man there. He was speaking German tohis wife. Not knowing how to handle the situation, I turned to theyoung man in the neighboring cabin and said, Theres a man in mycabin! On this, the lowest deck, there was a hold for the dozensof children, and two cabins, one designated for women and one formen. The young man, who introduced himself as Norman, promptlyentered my cabin, spoke to the man in German and arranged for himto share his cabin as intended.

Norman was of medium height,with broad shoulders and a strong muscular torso. He wore largethick glasses that hid his warm, large blue-green eyes. He had highcheekbones, a square firm chin, wavy brown hair. I was immediatelyattracted to him and to his beautifully deep resonant voice andBritish accent. And, clearly the feelings were mutual.

Norman had joined the BritishArmys tank corps in 1944 and was in Germany as the war ended. Hehad been with the British troops who liberated Buchenwaldconcentration camp. In 1947, he was deployed to India during thebloody time of Partition. When he was demobilized, Norman haddifficulty adjusting to civilian life. He was restless. When Israeldeclared its independence and the five surrounding Arab nationsattacked the country, Norman volunteered and fought with theMachal (overseas volunteers). Having experienced manylife-and-death situations, Norman was an emotionally mature23-year-old, returning to settle in Israel.

It was 1950, two years after theDeclaration of Independence of the new State of Israel. The shiplanded at the Haifa harbour and passengers began to disembark.Bearded old Moroccan Jewish men, tears streaming down their facesas they carried a Torah scroll in their arms, marched down thegangplank and bent to kiss the ground of the Holy Land. From theupper deck, I watched with tears in my eyes and felt the poignancyof the moment. It was like a scene in a Hollywood movie, only thiswas real life.

I had arranged to visit friendsfrom the Habonim movement at Kibbutz Gesher Haziv. Norman had armybuddies at Moshav Habonim and joined them. However, ignoring ournewfound romance was intolerable to me. So, after three days atGesher Haziv, I said goodbye to my friends, put my rucksack on myback and hitchhiked to Moshav Habonim. Norman and I made our baseon this South African modified kibbutz, a