מאגר סיפורי מורשת

We fell in love and married November 1966. We planned to take along trip to Europe starting June 1967. But something happened to change our future lives forever. Nasser the leader of Egypt closed off the Straits of Tiran in the late spring of 1967. That was a declaration of war towards Israel. Jews all over the world thought there was no way Israel could survive a war fought against all the Arab armies. So Jim and I decided we will come to Israel as volunteers for 6 months and then travel to Europe. And that is what we did. We came on one of the first flights that non soldiers were allowed on.  We didn't know a word of Hebrew ( I still choose to write this in English) We bought a Berlitz book on Hebrew at JFK Airport.

We tried to learn the alphabet on the plane and arrived

July 15, 1967.You may ask how  two young Jews from the United States couldn't speak Hebrew. Jim grew up in a Reform house and they didn't learn Hebrew. My parents came from Poland to San Francisco in the 1930s and were communists and spoke Yiddish and weren’t interested in my learning  Hebrew. Zionism wasn't part of Jims and my life. But when the buildup to the six day war began we became obsessed with what was  happening to our brothers in Israel.So  we decided to come to Israel for the first six months of our planned European trip as  volunteers. We arrived and were sent to work on  Kibbutz Dafna in the upper Galilee. Being in the beautiful Hula Valley made us  feel connected to the land of Israel. With the other volunteers we did lots of trips all over the country. The Kibbutz asked us to stay on and become members because we were a married couple and more serious than the rest of the volunteers, but we didn't think kibbutz life was for us because at that time children didn't sleep with their parents and we had to eat in the communal dining room and not in our own house.

The kibbutz life was interesting although it wasn't for us. We would wake up at 4 in the morning and were taken out to pick oranges and grapefruits. Breakfast was brought to us at about 7 or 8 and we continued working until one when we returned home to have lunch. There was other work, the kitchen for the women and the cotton fields for the men. Jims favorite job was to lay on the truck that had collected all the cotton that was picked in the nearby fields, By laying there he would flatten the cotton and sunbathe and read books that he brought. We were free in the afternoon  and  would hitchhike all over the Galilee and especially to eat Romanian steak in Kyriat Shmona.  On the kibbutz the volunteers slept in the original houses  and the bathrooms were 50 meters away which was a bit hard for us, spoiled westerners, but it was a wonderful time for us.  In December we went to Europe for 3 months . We started to miss the vitality and messiness of Israel so we applied to the Ulpan in Arad to start the course that began in March. The course should have been for 6 months but Jim found a job in the public relations department of the Technion . We came to Haifa in August 1968 and gave birth to our first son Asher in November.

הזוית האישית

We not only have not regretted our choice, but feel blessed that the Six Day  War lit the spark that made us come to this wonderful country we became observant ,built a wonderful family of three sons ,wonderful daughters in law and so far 11 grandchildren and one great granddaughter.

במסגרת יום הקשר הרב-דורי במחוז חיפה התקיים ביקור מיוחד בבית ספר נתיב אליעזר כרמל, בנוכחות קבוצת הקשר הרב-דורי – סבים, סבתות, תלמידות ותלמידים.

תמונות מביקור בבית ספר נתיב אליעזר כרמל, חיפה

 סבתא מירנה בנט עם הנכד איתן ועם האורחים בביקור: מנהלת תכנית הקשר הרב דורי עפרה ישראלי ושלום בוחבוט, המומנה על התכנית מהמשרד לשיויון חברתי 

סבתא מירנה מספרת את סיפור עלייתה מארצות הברית לישראל

סבתא מירנה עם צוות תכנית הקשר הרב דורי: רכזת מחוז חיפה שרית יעקב ומדריכת בית הספר ענבל חן 

הסבים והסבתות וכל התלמידים והנכדים והנכדות