The 99-year-old Queen of Slams - the story of Deborah Ruf Kaminer, the girl from Lviv who rose to greatness

At the age of 99 (and two months), she swims in the pool several times a week, communicates on WhatsApp on her cell phone, tends the orchid garden in her nice apartment. She greeted me with a wide smile while knitting a sweater in a gorgeous royal blue shade for one of her grandchildren. The fascinating story of the outstanding athlete Deborah Ruf Kaminer, the queen of baskets, begins in Poland and continues with the family's immigration to Palestine-AI when she was 9 years old.

A pleasant childhood in Lviv

Avraham Roof, was born in Lviv, Poland (now in Ukraine). At the end of high school he studied in Vienna and trained as an engineer. In Lviv he met Sarah Hazan (originally Chasen), born in the port city of Odessa in Russia (now in Ukraine), a dentist by training. When the Bolsheviks came to Russia, Sara fled alone to Lviv, but at the border all her documents were taken, including her certification as a dentist. Luckily for her, her classmates who opened a dental clinic in Lviv and knew her skills accepted her for a job in her profession.    

Sarah וAbraham They got married in Lviv and established their residence there. It was about three decades before an ultrasound device was used in the world of medicine and it was not possible to know the sex of the newborn and the number of fetuses. On June 24, 1925, when Sara knelt down to give birth, a male baby emerged into the world and was named: Meir. A few minutes after him, the head of a baby girl, who was named: bee, The heroine of our story.

The first years of their lives were spent by the twins Deborah and Meir in Lviv. As children of academic parents, they did not experience shortages: a maid, a nanny and a nurse were employed at home to help raise the children. When they grew up, the twins attended a Polish school where Gentiles and Jews studied together: bee Studied at the girls' school while Meir at the boys' school.  

The Roof family immigrates to Israel

In 1934, at the initiative of the Zionist father, the Roff couple decided to immigrate to Palestine. In preparation for the immigration, they registered their children for Hebrew studies in the afternoons at the "Tarbut" institution in Lviv. "We spoke Polish, German and Russian at home," she testifies bee. "But learning Hebrew was not successful and we only learned the language in practice when we arrived in Israel. We did not know the Yiddish language in Lviv at all, we were only exposed to it when we arrived in Israel." By the way, the Polish language lives in her mouth and pen to this day.

Since British military rule was introduced in Palestine-Land of Israel in 1920, immigration to Palestine was subject to the issuance of a certificate - a special immigration license approved in accordance with the tests established by the British Mandate authorities. Sarah She sought the help of an attorney David Bar-Rab-Hai (Boroboy) her childhood friend from Russia. From his office on Herzl Street in Haifa, which was opposite the Ora Cinema, David wrote letters and handled the arrangement of the long-awaited certificates for the Roof family and sent them to the excited Sarah and Meir.      

"On the appointed day, we traveled by train to Romania," she recalls bee. "In the port of Constance, on the shores of the Black Sea, we boarded the ship "Polonia", a Polish passenger ship on which many German Jews who had fled the terror of the Nazi regime arrived in Israel. The voyage lasted about a week and during it there was a severe storm. My brother and I, then 9 years old, treated it as an experience. I think that due to our young age, we did not understand the meaning of immigrating to Palestine, and in fact for the parents as well, it was a journey into the unknown." 

Bat Galim, first swimming lesson

"When we approached the shores of Haifa early in the morning and the lights of the houses flickered on the mountain, excitement was evident on the ship. When we went down to the shore, he was waiting for us Shimon Halperin, husband of Rachel, mother's cousin who came to Israel earlier. Shimon drove us to them, they hosted us in their small apartment in Hadera for a few days until we got settled. To this day, I am grateful to them for welcoming us with warmth and love.     

After a few days, father found in the Bat Galim neighborhood in Haifa a two-room apartment for rent on the ground floor on Nahalel Street, in a house built by the engineer Volovsky. Due to the distance of the neighborhood from the rest of the city, the apartments in Bat Galim were relatively cheap in those days. Meanwhile, father found a job as a road engineer in Moshava Rehovot. Due to the intense work and the distance, he came home once a month.

Mother, as I remember her certificates testifying to her training as a dentist were taken from her, could not find a job in her profession and was looking for a living. Salvation came from a surprising direction: Mom started cooking meals in our house for Technion students who lived nearby. The demand provided a good livelihood and hearing of my mother's dishes made wings: chicken soup with vegetables, mushroom soup, boblica (a kind of pancake), potato pie in a pan. My brother and I were responsible for washing the dishes at the end of the meal."          

bee וMeir, who arrived in Israel at the age of 9 with no knowledge of the Hebrew language, were assigned to the second grade, the lowest grade for their age, at the Bat Galim school under the management of Shlomo Kodesh. his wife, Hadassah, was a dentist and a good friend of the mother, Sarah. Within a few months of their stay in Israel, the children already mastered the Hebrew language. "Even when the parents addressed us in Polish," says Deborah, "we made sure to answer them in Hebrew in order to assimilate the language into us and them."  

Deborah's first swimming lesson was with her father in the sea at Bat Galim. "We entered the water," she says. "Father told me to lie down on a wooden board that he brought with him and showed me movements that I should do with my hands and feet. I focused on performing the movements until suddenly in one of the waves the board disappeared and I was left lying on the water without it and I continued with the movements. These were my first steps in swimming... In the meantime I became a professional swimmer and competed within an association "Maccabi Haifa". Later Jewish swimmers who came from Germany and Austria at the end of the war also joined the association.

The Bat Galim pool was opened in 1935 in preparation for the Second Maccabiah competitions, when seating tribunes were built on both sides of it. I was privileged to be among the spectators at the competitions. The pool, whose surface was salty sea water, was our second home and a meeting place with all our friends. My brother and I liked to swim in the pool, he jumped from the upper jump but I didn't dare..."

Avraham is admitted to the Hadar Carmel committee

In the meantime, in 1936 "the events" (the events of 1936-1939) broke out. In one of the incidents directed against the Jews, one of the team engineers of the Hadar Carmel was injured and had to amputate his leg. As a result, the position of an engineer became vacantAbraham He was hired in Haifa as a road engineer. During this period, he was engaged, among other things, in the construction of the Rupin road and in the design work of the Talpiot Market structure. Years later he moved to work at the "Gev-Yam" company.

Following the livelihood, the Roof family moved to live on the third floor of house number 24 on Yosef Hagidam Street. Deborah and Meir went to study in the 1943rd grade at Ammi A. School in Hadar HaCarmel and studied together until they finished their studies in the 24th grade at the school. Near the outbreak of World War II, it was time for them to move to high school and their paths diverged. In the absence of the ability to finance high school studies for their two children, the parents decided to enroll Meir in the school in Samat in order for him to acquire a profession, while Deborah worked during the day in a travel agency to help support the family and at the same time attended evening classes at the "Even Pina" school on Nordau Street, until the year XNUMX. During this period the family moved to XNUMX Masada Street.      

does, Sarah, found a job as the organizing secretary of Wicho in the northern region, a position that was tailor-made for her size and energetic character. Her office was on Sirkin Street, but most of the time she was running around (of course on buses) throughout the northern region in order to establish Wicho branches for women in the various localities. Among other things, she established a restaurant to feed orphaned and homeless children in a children's estate on Horev Street in Haifa.

The girl Deborah enlists in the "Haganah" organization and later in the IDF

At the age of 16, at the end of World War II, Deborah joined the "Haganah" organization, on the recommendation of Naomi Shapan (Later stroke), from the organization's headquarters in the Haifa region.

Deborah deepened her activities as part of the "Hagana" and at some point she went to a military training course that was held in Shafi'a and at the end of the training. During the course, Deborah became friends with Carmela Shitrit (Later Haft)

"There was a camaraderie between us, like brothers," says Deborah. "We went to physical training, KAFAP (face-to-face combat) and weapons training in various places in and around Haifa. "We learned to disassemble and assemble the weapons and we shot at the ranges, but everything related to weapons was not my favorite."    

A particularly exciting moment for me was when in one of the pictures Deborah showed me I recognized Leah Greenberg to home Atias, then a shooting instructor at Hagana. I interviewed Leah, born in Tunis, for a long period of time and produced the fascinating story of her life in the book Eb Kars combined with hundreds of photos from the stations of her life ("From Tunis to the Slopes of Carmel" produced by "Masholi Haim"). In June 2022, Leah passed away and is one hundred and four months old.   

Among her friends and members of the "Haganah" organization, she remembers Naomi Shapan, Leah Atias (later Greenberg), Yehuda Litmanovich (who was later killed on his way to action on behalf of the "Haganah"), Israel Litaver (Lior), Aryeh Pickman, Moshe Goren, Yael and Moshe Goren, and more .

While Deborah's activity in the "Hagana" organization deepened until she was drafted into the IDF, her brother continued Meir From a young age to the field of aviation. He was active in the "Aviation Club" centered on Jerusalem Street in Hadar Carmel, where he built gliders with his friends. During this time he became friends with Ezer Weizmann, who lived with his family on Melchet Street, and the two maintained a close friendship since childhood.  

During World War II, Meir served in the British Royal Navy. With the establishment of the state, he enlisted in the air service of the "Haganah" and was one of the first pilots in the Israeli Air Force. He served in the Air Force until 1967 as a fighter pilot, as a squadron commander and a base commander and graduated from the National Security College. After his release from the IDF as a lieutenant colonel, he turned to civil aviation as a captain in Al-Al and Arkia until his retirement. 

Shortly after the establishment of the IDF, Deborah enlisted in its ranks. On the appointed day, she reported to the recruitment office in Haifa, which was located on Mokhles Street.Carmela Shitrit, Physical training supervisor of the Women's Corps (Women's Corps) in the IDF.  

Carmela, who remembered Deborah's mastery in the field of sports from the Hagana military training course, decided to recruit her as an instructor in a physical training course. In view of the urgent need for instructors to teach physical training in the IDF, Deborah was immediately taken in and without going through any training she began to train the enlisted soldiers at the education center The physical one in the "Dora" camp, not far from the place where the Wingate Institute will later be established. Some time later she was even promoted as an officer and was appointed to command a physical training course, even though she was not trained in an officer course.

Queen of the Baskets, Hall of Fame

Still in elementary school, following the family's move from Bat Galim to Hadar Natasha bee the swimming branch and began to engage in the gymnastics branch in which she also excelled. At the same time, she was registered as an apprentice in the 'Maccabi HaTzair' movement at Maccabi House on Herzl Street. During this period she trained in apparatus gymnastics, volleyball and athletics on the side exclusionary statement, later a valued physical education teacher at the "Harieli" school.

In 1937, when she was 12 years old, Deborah started playing basketball in the "Maccabi Haifa" association and was even appointed as a coordinator. For seven years she played in the team's uniform, until she "crossed the lines" and moved to play for the competing team. Between 1950 and 1954, Deborah served as "captain" of the "Hapoel Haifa" basketball team. Until the establishment of the league in 1958, it participated in games held against Maccabi Tel Aviv and teams from the working settlement.

At the sports field in "Hapoel" she met Star of Zaid, the daughter of the legendary guard Alexander Zeid, who is nine years older than her, whom she first met when she served as a substitute when the gym teacher at the Ammi A school had to leave. Later the husbands of Deborah and Kochabat were close friends.  

Deborah was a member of Israel's first national women's basketball team and in 1950 went out with the team to proudly represent Israel at the European Women's Basketball Championship in Budapest, Hungary. It was the debut of a women's team in the European basketball arena and the first flight of an official representative delegation from Israel on the plane of the national company "El-Al".

Although, the basketball team finished the European Championship in 11th place out of 12 after one victory (against the Dutch team), but on a personal level Deborah was crowned with the impressive title: "Queen of Baskets". Although she was not gifted with great height, she stood out in the basketball game and in her role as a coordinator she excelled in seeing the game, shooting, agility, high passing and "rebounding".

As a respected and accomplished past actress, she won Deborah Roof Kaminer To be among the female basketball players featured on the "Hall of Fame" website. This is a project established by Anat Dragor, One of the most prominent Israeli basketball players, a basketball coach, who has a lifetime achievement award from the sports association, with the aim of documenting and preserving the achievements of female basketball players in the history of women's basketball in Israel.

When I express to her my admiration for the variety of sports in which she was involved and excelled, Deborah humbly says: "Whatever I touched, it was fine..."

Teacher for life

In the summer of 1949, after her release from military service, Deborah enrolled to teach physical education at the branch of the kibbutz seminar in Haifa (gymnastics seminar). Upon graduation, which she completed with honors, she worked as a physical education teacher in four elementary schools in Haifa, including Ammi A. where she attended as a child. She later taught at a high school (1952 - 1981) and at Ironi A in Haifa (1981 - 1985).  

The fact that the sport was a way of life for her and her active experience in all its branches is evidence bee, helped her pass on the extensive knowledge she had acquired to her students. Alongside this, she was characterized by a close relationship with the students and was also involved in various personal and family contexts that affected the studies. "It is important to have a listening ear and to love others," she says. "Even students who were less good at sports received the same personal treatment from me. I was careful not to hurt them just because they are not good at sports."

The students, for their part, appreciated her sensitivity and her attitude towards them. In her apartment, countless trophies that she won over the years are proudly displayed. "My favorite trophy," she tells me, is the one I received from my student on my 90th birthday, engraved with the words: "First place - Teacher for Life Championship."    

Deborah and Hank get married, Asa and Daphne join the family

your husband, Hank (deer) Kaminer, an outstanding athlete in the 'Dror' association in Poland met a bee on the basketball court. He served as an officer in the Polish army and arrived in Israel with his unit at the end of World War II in the uniform of the Polish army. The unit arrived from Iraq and was located in the south of the country.

One evening, he was approached by one of the Polish officers with whom he was friends and found out that the next day the unit was leaving the Land of Israel for Italy. "If you are interested in staying in Israel, this is your chance to leave," he said. The next day, when the Polish unit left the country, there was no Yank among its men.

Hank He settled in Kibbutz Tel Amal (later Nir David) in the Beit Shan Valley and stayed there for a year. When the wife of his childhood best friend, Dolek Omshweif Amishab (later the coach of Israel's first national team in women's basketball), was hospitalized at the Emek Hospital due to a serious illness, Hank offered to raise their daughter in a kibbutz to make it easier for them. That's how she won Karnina (curry By all accounts) to enjoy kibbutz life at a young age. When she grew up, Karnina studied at the Reali school and unfortunately she died about a year ago from an illness.  

About a year later, Henk decided to move to Haifa, he was hired at Bank Hapoalim and later at the Electric Company, where he rose through the ranks and served as the company's deputy accountant. At the same time, he continued his sports activities in the fields of volleyball, handball and basketball.

At one of the basketball games on Friday afternoons, they met bee וHank. The love between the two blossomed. About a year after her release from the IDF, Deborah married Behir Liva.Hank He was a charming man," she says bee longingly 

The couple had two children: the eldest daughter, bay (currently bar-און), was born in 1952 and already as a baby absorbed the spirit of sports when her mother brought her to training. As the daughter of athlete parents, it was only natural that from an early age Dafna exercised in the "Hapoel Har Carmel" team and the Israeli girls' national team. Dafna graduated from the Wingate Institute as well as law at Tel Aviv University And in recent years she decided to convert to the field of language editing.    

the son, Asa (Nimrod) Kaminer was born five years later. Already in his youth he also followed in the sporting path of his parents and played basketball in the "Hapoel Haifa" team. At some point he decided to retire from the game in favor of a career as an international basketball referee and was crowned the youngest international basketball referee in Israel.

To add to the tragedy, Asa was killed in the blood of his days. When he was 42 years old, while crossing an intersection with a green light in his car, a car appeared from his left that did not obey the red light and Asa, who was alone in the car, was killed on the spot. On the special tombstone on his grave in the Herzliya cemetery, a basketball basket and a whistle. 

Two years after Asa's death in an accident, his father also died, Hank. 

Deborah has 5 grandchildren (three from Daphne and two from Asa) and three great-grandchildren.  

26 years in sheltered housing, enjoying every moment

In 1996, following the recommendation of a couple of friends, Deborah and Henk decided to move from their house on Hanasi Boulevard to the Dor Carmel sheltered housing in Haifa, a decision that turned out to be very successful for them.

For years, Deborah volunteered to give exercise classes to her friends in the hall and pool and was even elected by a majority of votes to serve as chairwoman of the tenants' committee, a position she held for years. "I moved here with my husband 26 years ago," says Deborah. "It's a big part of my life." Amusingly, three of her students also live there: Dalia Nir, Dalia Rotem, Psi Sinder And recently Tamar also joined.

To this day, at the age of 99 and two months, as in her youth, she does not sit still. She swims in the pool several times a week, grows a bunch of orchids in her well-kept apartment, knits for her grandchildren. She controls the mobile device, goes shopping from time to time with her student in the Yagur complex and tries to be busy with interesting and fun activities.   

A few days after the outbreak of the "Iron Swords" war following the events of October 7, Deborah began knitting stocking hats for IDF soldiers. Among her belongings, a manual for knitting war hats for soldiers, an exciting document she kept with her from the days of the War of Liberation in 1948.

Deborah Roof Kaminer is an inspiring woman. We wish her good health and many more days of varied and enjoyable pursuits.