מאגר סיפורי מורשת

My grandmother, Arlette Gotkine was born in Alexandria, Egypt on 23/6/1940. Her parents were called Elise and Daniel. She had 1 older sister who died about 4 years ago

When my grandmother was 16, an Egyptian soldier knocked on the door and asked her father for her. He didn’t know what he said but her parents decided to run away, to France.

She wasn’t allowed to tell any of her friends, not even her best friend, so she never even said goodbye, and they just left to France sometime later.They stayed in France for a short time, and then her father was relocated to Kenya for his work. He worked for a bank

My grandmother lived in Kenya for a few years but her parents lived there for much longer. There was a small community of Jewish families, including my uncle by marriage from my mother's side

After my grandmother left Kenya she came to Israel for a year, and then moved to Italy where her sister had lived since she left Egypt. Sometime after her parents joined them there.

My grandmother stayed in Italy until she met and then got engaged to my grandfather Stuart, who died nearly 5 years ago.

 School

My grandma studied in a French Jewish non-religious school which was called: "Lycée de l'Union Juive pour l'Enseignement". Although it was a non-religious school Hebrew was taught there.

After that she followed various courses to learn German and then Spanish and later, as a mature student, she went to University and got a degree in French and Spanish.

This allowed her to be accepted as a member of the Institute of Linguists, and to become an interpreter for British Government Agencies such as Courts, Police, etc.

In 1972 she got married to Stuart Gotkine, my grandfather who died 4 years ago. They moved to London, England, where my father and uncle were born.

Today she lives in England and comes sometimes to Israel to see us.

A Story my Grandmother Told Me

I remembered a very nice story for your project.

This happened to me the year I was living in Israel, just before the 6 Day War.

I was sitting in a cafe in Rehov Dizingoff in Tel Aviv with a friend, when the "melzar" went around the tables and asked if anybody could speak Italian. I said I did and he said "come with me". He took me over to a table where a lovely lady with long dark hair was sitting. She was Yaffa Yarkoni, the most famous singer in Israel at the time.

She wanted a song translated from French into Italian for a tour she was going to do in Italy. She invited me to go to her home and I translated the song for her.

She gave me, as a present, a record of her songs and she wrote something very nice on the cover. I still have the record and I will show it to you when you come to England.