Bat Galim memories of yesteryear • Playful with a golden heart - the story of Shmulik and Pnina Cohen

On a personal note

About three decades ago, I was summoned to a meeting with many participants in Tel Aviv, most of whom I did not know. Just before it began, someone from the other side of the large room called out to me: "I remember you, the candy actress from the student beach in Haifa." I smiled awkwardly. Later I met Eyal Fe And there at various professional meetings.

Years passed, in the meantime I retired from my workplace and established an independent business called "Mash'oli Haim" to document life stories and produce family books and nostalgic exhibitions. At the same time, I decided to investigate in depth the history of my favorite Bat Galim neighborhood, and interview its past residents. That's how I got to Shmulik.

A few years ago I visited him at his home, we went through photos together, we sailed on the wings of history and the hours ticked by without us noticing. Just before we scheduled another meeting, Shmulik showed me an album from a roots trip he made with his family in Thessaloniki, his hometown. This is how I found out to my surprise thatShmulik He is the father of Eyal I told about him at the beginning of my words. Our tiny country, did we already say?

About two years later, I prepared an article about the story of the Atallah family, the family of potters in Zamir Beach, a lovely family that I have known since childhood and whose stories are fascinating. To my surprise, he also joined in one of the interview sessions Shmulik Cohen, and that's how it became clear to me that he was Raja Attullah's good friend and even included in the story of his life. The edges kept getting connected to them...

Now I will tell you the story of 93-year-old Shmulik Cohen, who grew up as a child and teenager in Bat Galim in the 30s and 40s. The article is part of my series of articles about old Galim families in preparation for the events of the Beit Galim festival next month (January 2-4) during which I will present a historical and exciting exhibition of the wonderful neighborhood. You are welcome to add your memories in the comments and of course, I would love to meet you at the exhibition. 
And for those who didn't read the fascinating story of the potters family, here is a link to the article.  

Childhood in Thessaloniki

Esther וShaltiel Cohen asked They were married in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1922. A year later their first daughter was born, Allegra (1923) and later her sister was born, Leah (1926) and the siblings of the two, Complete. son of the elders, Shmulik, whose story we will deal with in this article, joined the family in 1933.    

The father of the family, served in the First World War in the Greek army and after that he worked for the electric company in Thessaloniki and as one who led a Zionist lifestyle in his home, dreamed of immigrating to the Land of Israel with his family. As early as 1924, Sheltiel traveled to Palestine (via Alexandria) to inspect the area and prepare for the family's emigration. Some time after his return to Greece, he traveled once more, but after it was found out that he did not have a residence permit, he was arrested by the authorities and deported from the country. 

From Thessaloniki to Haifa - the Cohen family immigrates to Israel

In 1935 the family organized to leave Thessaloniki on its way to the promised land. First, Shealtiel set out as a vanguard to prepare for the arrival of his family. Esther and the four children boarded a ship sailing from Thessaloniki to Beirut some time later.

"I remember that during the sailing from Thessaloniki the sea was rough and there were huge waves," Shmulik tells me. "From then until today, every time the sea is rough, I remember our ascent to Israel. Days that left me with an indescribable memory despite my young age." When they arrived at the port of Beirut, a man was waiting for Esther and the children with whom Shealtiel had coordinated ahead of time and it was he who assisted them in the further organization. From there they continued by train to Rosh Hankara, where they rented a diligence (horse-drawn wagon), and set out on a journey of several days until they arrived in Haifa.

In the meantime, Shaltiel rented for his family a small one-room apartment on the top floor of a building on Stanton Street in Haifa (later renamed to Shiba Zion), a street many of whose houses were owned by the Greek Orthodox Church.

In view of the experience he brought with him from Thessaloniki, Shaltiel was accepted with open arms by Pinchas Rotenberg to work at the electric company. At first he worked erecting electricity poles and later as an electrician at the Rotenberg power plant in Hoof Shemen. His wife took care of the children and the household.

at the Salesian School

Living in the Arab neighborhood, which was a daily danger during the events of the "Great Revolt" (1936-1939) led the Cohen family to move. This time, they found their home in a small apartment at 49 Hanamal Street, in front of the "Hameshbir" building of those days.

"My parents enrolled me in the Salesian kindergarten and school, next to the Ein Dor cinema, where my brothers and sisters were also educated," Shmulik recalls. "I remember very well the school uniforms, the same for boys and girls: a long shirt, a kind of knee-length black robe, with white buttons and open pockets on the sides.

Once, when I was frolicking as usual, I was privileged to have the teacher's cane placed on the palm of my hand. Since it is a Christian school, the children would cross paths several times a day. The teachers, who knew I was Jewish, showed understanding and allowed me to wait outside and not cross paths with my classmates."   

Wandering in Haifa, beyond Bat Galim, the "Green House"

Meanwhile, World War II broke out in September 1939. Following the Italian bombing of the Haifa port, Esther asked her husband to move the family's residence to a place slightly away from the port.

"Father found a small apartment for rent in the Bat Galim neighborhood," Shmulik says. "We lived in a two-room apartment on the second floor of the "Green House" at 9 Yonatan Street, corner of the second Aliya, a house designed in 1933 by the architect Alfred Goldberg. Upon our arrival, my parents enrolled me in first grade at the public school in Bat Galim."

The Gatenio family is deported to the Atlit detention camp 

During the years of the Second World War, about 17,000 evacuees arrived from European ports in the factory to save the Jews of Europe. Some of the ships were seized by the British authorities on their way to the port of Haifa and their passengers were deported after a struggle to detention camps in Cyprus and Batalit.  

Among the applicants were members of the Gatniu family: Sultana, Shealtiel's sister, her husband and their three children: His son, Mooney (Complete) andMichelle. They boarded a small ship called "Liberta" that docked in the port of Varna and put sails on it. During the voyage, the ship was captured by the British army and the many refugees who crowded on board were transferred to the Atlit detention camp. In October 1945, over 200 refugees were released in a heroic operation by Palmach fighters who broke into the camp.    

"When they were released," she said Leah In a conversation I had with her a few years ago, Nurse Shmulik, "Each of them got two liras and a kick in the ass... With one lira they bought shoes and found an apartment in the lower city of Haifa, in the area of ​​Hamra Square (now called Paris Square). Shlomo found a job washing dishes in a restaurant and at the same time painting signs and pictures and sketched the immigration ship along with a written and illustrated explanation of the route it took." 

11 people in a small apartment on Yonatan Street

After the release of Sultana and her family from the camp, they invited Shaltiel to live with them. Thus, for the next two years, the two families very cramped shared the small apartment on Yonatan Street.

"We lived 11 people in the small apartment," he recalled Shmulik. "6 people in one room and 5 people in the other room, a room within a room. Daily life consisted of a routine of waiting in line for the toilet and shower. The financial situation was difficult. Sultana's husband, who had asthma, coughed often and used to spit the mucus that accumulated into a tin can ) is empty.   

I would do my homework on the floor or on the seat of the chair. It's no wonder that in this situation I didn't excel in school and preferred life with my friends outside the house: playing soccer and basketball, swimming in the sea, sneaking into the pool (and being careful not to get caught), climbing the ladder to the bouncy tower and jumping into the water, or just running amok in the street... national and international swimming competitions were held in the pool, During the Sukkot holiday, swimmers from the Egyptian and Lebanese national teams participated in the competition. There were times..." 

"During the bombings, we would all run to the house next door on the corner of the street," she says Leah. "There, in the compound of Cafe Bina, where later the terminus of line 7 was, there was a makeshift shelter. On the second floor of the house lived the family that ran the cafe.

Due to the difficult economic situation, the children were required to help support the family. Complete He began working with the neighbor from the lower floor who worked as a painter and in a short time became a painter himself in Bat Galim's news and whitewashed many houses in the neighborhood." "He was a talented painter," Shmulik adds. And on 2 Bat Galim Ave.

When she was 12 years old, Leah found a job as a seamstress at the "Stock Company" seamstress on the corner of Bankim Street in the lower city, a seamstress owned by three brothers of Yikki origin who opened branches in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Leah gradually progressed at work, was appreciated and was even appointed as the manager of the sewing shop.

Leah and Shlomo Getnio move to the brigade housing

During the extended period in which the two families lived together, two romantic relationships were formed. The one, between Allegra, the eldest sister of Shmulik LHis son, Sultana's eldest son.

"Due to my mother's pressure, the relationship between Allegra and his son did not continue," Shmulik says. "But my sister's crush Leah וComplete Sultana's son, my mother's efforts were unsuccessful. In the end their great love won, the two got married and their daughter was born, Queen".

Shlomo Gatenio, born in Yugoslavia, enlisted during World War II in the British Army. In 1946, Rodos married Leah, and after his discharge from the British Army, the two moved to 11th Alley in the Brigade housing, a residential complex in the Bat Galim neighborhood that was established for the discharged British Army. They later moved to XNUMX Aliya Street. 

Leah continued to work at the seamstress for about two more years, until the birth of their daughter. At the same time, she worked as a seamstress in a bra shop in front of the "Atsmon" cinema in Hadar Carmel. Later, when they left Bat Galim and moved to Be'er Sheva, she returned to Tovur.

Bat Galim, childhood memories

The world of sports was an inseparable part of the world of every child in Galimi in those days. Shmulik spent his childhood in the pool and at the beach with friends and was active in a variety of sports within the "Maccabi Bat Galim" team: swimming, basketball, athletics.

In January 1955, Shmulik participated in his first football game in the senior team of "Hapoel Haifa", a game that started with a lead in "Lahopoel" and ended in a draw in the final. In the coverage of the game in the press, it was written that "Po'el suffered from a poor composition. The defense was penetrating and the brakeman Koch made many changes. Cohen (Y.H. Shmulik) in goal showed good ability, while Ben-Nun and Gelsberg surpassed their teammates in defense."  

At the same time as his leisure activities, Shmulik was looking for a youth movement with values ​​and ideals that matched his views and decided to enroll as a trainee in the "Gaula" tribe of the "Scoops" movement in Hadar HaCarmel. At the same time, he helped support the family and lovingly cared for a pair of pigeons that his father brought from the power plant.

"As boys, during the holidays we looked for work to help support the family," he recalls. "With some of my friends, I cleaned weeds in the yards of the houses and worked with a few other boys loading and transporting construction shingles from the Carmel beach to Bat Galim. Using shovels we dug at the Carmel beach, filled buckets with sand, and when the horse-drawn cart was full, we drove the shingles to its destination in Bat Galim. It was physical work Not easy for her, we got a few dimes..."

The oil seller, the shoemaker, the gardener, the painter... the ice seller, the daughter Galimi of the Potter family, who passed through the streets of the neighborhood with a horse harnessed to a cart and with the help of a spike crossed the ice: half a block, a quarter of a block... the deaf milk department that used to go from house to house and sell milk in a jug from the cows in the barn next to her house in the neighborhood ... Arabs from the area who came on donkeys and sold chickens, vegetables, eggs. Epstein's bakery on the second floor and Naman's bakery on Nahalel street, and I remember and the smell rises in my nose... all these and more were my childhood sights in Bat Galim.

A gun in your pigeon hole

The days of the British Mandate rule and many residents of Bat Galim were secretly active in various missions within the "Haganah" organization, among them the Beit Bina brothers: Kalman, Nahum וBezalel who lived with their parents in a corner house on the second Aliya Street and Yonatan Street. The family members, who lived on the second floor, operated "Cafe Bina" on the first floor.     

"I was a housemate with the Bina family. I used to help collect the eggs of the chickens they raised in a coop in the yard," Shmulik recalled. "One day, it was during the war of liberation, I was sent to clean the debris on the roof of the cafe and feed the pigeons.

While I was cleaning, I suddenly came across a box with rags in it that seemed to be meant to hide something. My curiosity grew. I didn't hold back and carefully peeled off the rags and to my astonishment I discovered a gun lying at the bottom of the box. I ran upset to Nahum, who calmed me down and made me swear that I would keep the matter a secret. It was the gun of Bezalel, the younger son, who was removed on his return...

Another case was when one of the days one of my friends brought me, Robbie Epstein, a Toffee gun that he hid under his shirt which, as it turned out, he "borrowed" from his mother's husband who served in the British Army. I greatly appreciated his good will to help, but I asked him to immediately return the gun to its place before his parents noticed its absence.  

The days of the British Mandate

British soldiers walking the streets of Bat Galim were a common daily sight in the neighborhood where some of their camps were located. Shmulik says: "I remember that at that time there were British and Indian soldiers walking around the neighborhood. As children, we would run after the soldiers and ask them for insignia. We often received shiny insignia and buttons from them and we were overjoyed.  

In Kiryat Eliezer there was a camp of Indian soldiers who were attached to the British army. Once, while a soccer match was being held between a team from Yugoslavia and "Hapoel Haifa" in Kiryat Eliyahu, the British soldiers declared a curfew. The game was stopped and the "Khelniyot" surrounded the field with concertinas (iron fences) and were looking for members of the "Hagana" organization and other weapons. Check one by one. It was not pleasant, but as children and boys, we accepted with understanding and for a moment we were not afraid..."

I remember reading in the newspaper when qualifying ships were seized, including the ship "Hana Sanesh". I remember very well the ship Uloa ("Chaim Arlozorov") that ran aground on the shores of Bat Galim. I was in seventh grade at the time. At a certain moment the word spread from mouth to mouth and the whole school, with its students and teachers, ran to the beach. We saw the poor illegal immigrants jumping into the water trying to extricate themselves and we saw the British soldiers bringing them back to the ship."  

Bat Galim - a neighborhood that is a family

"It was a neighborhood where we were all like one family," Shmulik recalls wistfully. "We were a small and diverse population and we were all good friends with each other, regardless of age or opinion. We played outside together, one took care of the other, we looked after each other.  

Bat Galim for me, it's my whole world, my whole childhood. On Shabbat we liked to walk in groups, in nature, from Bat Galim to Wadi Jamal (Ein Hayam), where stones were thrown at us. We threw it back and weren't particularly excited... We loved the fields, the vegetables, the wheat and chickpea fields behind the railroad tracks... We would run in the fields like there was no tomorrow, lie down on the wheat and imagine that we were jumping into the water...  

The sport in its branches was very dominant in our lives, many great athletes came out of our small neighborhood, as well as prominent figures in many fields. The quiet beach was at that time a beach used by the British aristocracy in the country, wonderful shows were staged in the casino. Every Saturday there was a "Cultural Sabbath" at the school which included performances, discourse lectures. It was a glorious neighborhood.

The pearl from Beit Oren

In his adulthood, Shmulik continued in his father's footsteps and started working at the Electric Company, where he worked for 50 years in a variety of positions. That's how he met the one who became his beloved wife and best friend. He says about their acquaintance:

"As a sign of appreciation for our work, we once received a ten-day vacation from the electric company and I was assigned to the guest house in Kibbutz Beit Oren. I arranged with a friend to travel together, but at the last minute he was unable to come. During my stay at the guest house, I met a cute girl from the kibbutz who worked there. We fell in love... to this day, we Together with great love. In 1961, after my marriage to Pnina, we lived with my parents, who in the meantime had moved to Sherl Lutz Street. 26, in front of the Navy, after that we moved to Bikurim Street."

For Shmulik and Pnina, who are celebrating 62 happy years together, 3 sons who were privileged to enjoy their mother as a private nanny at home in their first years of life. The two embrace eight grandchildren and a one-year-old granddaughter.

A young and energetic couple

Shmulik and his wife Pnina are sporty young men, sons without age. Every day, in any weather, in the afternoon they go out to walk a considerable distance on the beach, bathe, and return refreshed and full of energy.

During our meetings I was exposed to Shmulik's special personality. He worked with "Thorns in Tusik", a hard worker and hard worker, talented in everything his hands touch and does not shy away from hard work. He did the fitting of the "sweet" shelter by himself. The same goes for improving the appearance of the elevator in the building, he builds, renovates, creates, carvers... and of course, all with love. The residents of the building where Shmulik and his wife Pnina live.

He buys fish fillets at the market and takes care of their meticulous cleaning. To this day, he takes care of the cleanliness of the well-kept apartment where the couple lives. Moves the sofas and tables for thorough cleaning, including regularly vacuuming the collection of nostalgic items hanging on the entrance wall. "We never brought a maid," he testifies. "I do everything and enjoy it."  

About his broad heart, the one who helps and contributes a lot to his friends and also to those who are not among them, I will not expand, so as not to embarrass you excessively. I'll just hint that the title I chose, "Naughty with a Gold Heart", reflects the character of the boy daughter Galimi. All that remains is to wish this lovely couple good health, longevity, happiness and contentment.  

cautious optimism (very)

In one of our conversations, about a week before the ceasefire agreement was signed, I asked Shmulik for a message of hope in the spirit of the times we are passing by. But even from a staunch optimist like him it was not easy to find words of hope these days.

"What is happening in the country today shocks me," he says. "I really hope that better times will come soon. More patience, more understanding and acceptance of each other, more respect for each other, with leadership that speaks the truth."