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I was born here and I'm telling them about my childhood.
You pray at the municipality too, when you were in charge of...
How are you? -Fine.
What are you doing these days?
I retired from "Prazot" 18 months ago.
I just finished my studies at university...
That's great. Is Yamin Suissa there?
No, he left a long time ago... -I'm kidding.
Good luck. -Thank you.
Tell them about the municipality.
He was a senior director at the municipality.
Thank you. Good bye. Have a good day.
I prayed here when I was little. In this synagogue.
Was it a Sephardic synagogue? Yes, Eliyahu Hanavi, Sephardic.
I was the mayor's advisor at the time.
He was our neighborhood liason,
now... at the municipality.
He grew up in this neighborhood
and he prayed at this synagogue when he was little.
Now he's telling his story for the television.
Do you know the Cohen family?
The Cohen and Levi families take up half the phone directory.
No, the Cohen family that lived in the Quarter.
There were many Cohens, which one are you referring to?
Avraham, who taught at Porat Yosef.
Cohen, there were many Cohens living here.
Tell us about your childhood, that's more important.
I'm in the middle... okay.
This is the synagogue where my family prayed.
We came here once a week to pray.
This place is special not only because we prayed here,
but because this is the place
we gathered in when the Quarter fell.
Since they attacked our house
which was close to Ha-Yehudim Street, by the walls,
they rounded up all the Jews
and brought them to the synagogue.
This is the synagogue I was in.
I showed the people, in that corner over there
was where I lived for a few days
and we were there when we were informed the Jordanians had entered.
They locked the doors from all sides
because we were afraid they were going to slaughter us.
Women and children were screaming and crying.
The men fought outside.
There was yelling and sobbing
because we thought they were going to slaughter us.
We had no choice but to open the doors
and the Jordanians came in.
I must say they were very kind,
very polite, they treated us well,
and they didn't let the Arab mob hurt us.
They took us through Ha-Yehudim Street
until Zion Gate.
We spent the night at Zion Gate
as the Israeli army fired into the Old City
and the Jordanians fired from outside and we were in the middle.
No one understands how scary it was and how...
Were you born in the Quarter?
I was born at 1 Ha-Yehudim Street.
The house no longer exists, it was torn down.
When you entered Ha-Yehudim Street
you entered through two posts, right? At the entrance.
On either side there were houses
that were torn down to expand the plaza.
So the house no longer exists
but I showed these people
the exact spot where I was born.
Thank you. -Where were your parents from?
Excuse me? -Where were your parents from?
Take a shot of... Sophomore year at university.
Where did your parents immigrate from?
My parents' ancestors came from Spain in 1492,
during the Spanish expulsion,
when the Jews dispersed throughout the world.
They must have made many stops
and taken many trips in the Balkans and Turkey,
all kinds of places, until they reached Israel.
What was their last stop before coming to Israel?
My father was born in Hebron.
I'll tell you, I haven't yet told the others,
we have documented proof
that my family has been in this country for 12 generations.
12 generations? -12 generations.
That means the family came here after the expulsion quite early.
That's 12 generations with proven documentation.
They may have come here before that, I don't know.
So they were Marranos? -Excuse me?
They were exiles who had to hide?
Of course. When they fled.
Where do you live now?
I'm a native of Jerusalem, I've lived in Jerusalem all my life.
Several years ago I moved to Lapid,
a community town near Modiin. -You're my neighbor...
I thought you looked familiar.
From the Rami Levi supermarket. -Could be...
So I live there. My grandson is with me.
My children and grandchildren live in Lapid with me.
How does it feel leaving Jerusalem? -It's difficult, but it can be done
I left Jerusalem too. -You left physically, but...
I'm here in spirit.
You can't leave Jerusalem. You can't disconnect from this city.
It's in the heart.
Sadly I sense the transformations this city is undergoing
and since I was a director at the municipality, as he said,
I knew Jerusalem not only because I was a resident
but because I provided services as well.
I was familiar with the various neighborhoods
and many people, in the municipality and out,
and I see the transformations this city is undergoing.
And the transformations it has yet to undergo...
It's very depressing.
Maybe we should go back to the times of the Black Panthers.
Since you mentioned the Black Panthers...
Did I say something wrong?
As a social worker... -It's in his soul, there you go.
I began my work in Musrara.
I worked there for 4 years.
Those who were later known as the Black Panthers
were panther cubs at the time... -Yemin Suissa.
No, Suissa didn't live in Musrara. He lived in Katamon.
But it began in Haifa, in Wadi Salib.
There were others in Musrara,
some were Knesset members,
you know them, I don't want to say their names.
I worked in that neighborhood for 4 years,
when Musrara was a border neighborhood
between the Jordanians and... - Mamila too. -Mamila too.
Families squatted in the houses
and the living conditions were very harsh.
The houses were beautiful, you know what Musrara is like.
But the conditions were very harsh.
Many families lived together in those days in cramped conditions,
and the sanitation conditions were awful too.
It was a difficult time.
I must say in Dr. Avraham's favor,
who was the director of the sports and...
No, society and youth. -Yes,
and I was the mayor's advisor on matters of the neighborhoods,
whenever I sought his help he was always there
whether it was in terms of budget, activities,
events, women's clubs...
He was always helpful. You did good work, good luck.
Thank you. -I want to say something.
We're students, we studied management
of senior citizen homes and institutions for the elderly.
We never thought of creating
an institution for the Black Panthers.
For the elderly.
A senior citizen home or an assisted living facility
in which to house these masses of people
with the soul, the energy.
Sadly, some are no longer with us.
Saadia Marciano, of blessed memory, is no longer with us.
Charlie Biton? -Charlie Biton is alive and kicking.
Kicking? -Kicking.
I think he still has plans.
We haven't heard the last of him.
I respect Charlie's work.
He did a fantastic job
for himself, for the people he lived with
and for the State of Israel.
More people... -And the State of Israel.
Thank you.
Thank you. -Thank you.
That was a free performance.
I know you from the municipality.
Don't complain to me.
That was a free show.
Avraham, please tell us
why Eliyahu Hanavi? Why was it your synagogue?
You're asking me a trick question.
Eliyahu Hanavi was one of the prophets,
I assume it's named after him.
I mean there are 4 Sephardic synagogues in this area.
Why did your family come here? -I have no idea.
I have no idea.
They may have come here
due to a family legacy,
my grandparents came here, my aunts and uncles came here,
maybe that's why they attended this synagogue too.
I'm assuming, I'm not sure.
If you could go back
to the age of 7,
imagine yourself a child,
not much younger than Tomer, I assume. -That's true.
Sitting here by your father,
describe that memory to me.
What do you see, what do you feel, what's going on?
There was a sense of sanctity.
Something special.
You shifted from the profane to the sacred.
You went from regular weekdays
to a day that is very special.
Everything was special on this day.
I told you that we showered, bathed, wore nice clothes
on this day, right?
That was a sign in itself.
We ate special food that we didn't eat during the week.
We met parents, relatives, friends
who we didn't usually meet on weekdays.
This synagogue was a place of community.
Where the entire community met.
It was a unique experience, a sacred experience,
and I'd say there was a sense of awe.
There was a sense of fear
that something big was happening here,
something very special.
We respected this moment.
Describe your favorite holiday at this synagogue to me.
My favorite holiday?
I can tell you about an event.
Bar Mitzvas, for example, at the synagogue.
When the Bar Mitzva boy reads the Torah
he has this fear of being alone
on the podium and reading
in front of the entire congregation
and everyone's a part of it.
Afterwards people throw candies at him from all directions
and he carries the Torah Scroll for the first time
and everyone helps him with that.
That was a very special experience,
of shifting from childhood to adulthood, obviously.
Seeing the older boys go through that experience
was very exciting.
I always watched them and asked myself,
When will it be me?
When will I do that? It was very exciting.
Did you have a favorite holiday?
Yes, Hanukah.
During Hanukah it was very cold outside.
Usually it rained.
Our clothes didn't always keep us warm.
At home it wasn't always as warm as it should be.
We used to go to the synagogue
and gather together
and light the candles.
We also lit the Menorah outdoors.
People put their Menorahs right outside their front doors.
It's not a religious holiday, but it's a holiday,
a community holiday that brought us all together.
Was there a holiday at synagogue
or a ceremony, besides the Bar Mitzvas that you told us about,
anything else of interest?
Weddings. People celebrated weddings here.
The groom read the Torah, he was called "Hatan Torah."
He read the Torah
and there was a festive atmosphere surrounding the wedding.
When it was a relative it was even more exciting.
A sister or aunt or cousin.
Obviously that was even more exciting.
Do you remember your sister's wedding?
I remember both my sisters' weddings.
Both my sisters.
You asked me what my favorite thing was,
I loved the songs they sang. The melodies.
For the Bar Mitzvas and the weddings.
I don't sing well,
don't ask me to sing, because I'm not good at it.
But it was fun to hear.
My late brother was a choir boy.
He sang in the choir and he knew all the tunes.
I loved listening to him,
at synagogue and at home.
Was their a choir here? -A children's choir.
He was in the choir.
He sang and knew all the melodies.
He sang at synagogue too.
I remember the Slichot,
that was an extraordinary experience.
We used to leave our warm beds at night,
go down into the dark street and go to synagogue.
At synagogue they handed out sahleb.
Do you know what that is? -What is it?
It's a mixture of rice with milk or water
with cinnamon or rose water sprinkled on top.
It was warm
and it was fun to drink and eat.
We often came here for those treats.
We loved those treats.
They handed out tea or coffee to everyone.
Here in the synagogue? -Yes, in the synagogue.
The atmosphere was very special.
Coming to pray in the middle of the night is very special.
I remember it well.
Since it was dark out,
often we made flashlights
out of a tin can,
a beverage can,
not a beverage, canned goods.
We used to make holes in it,
put a candle inside and light it
and walk down the street with it.
I remember stories...
We were afraid no one would wake us at night
or that we wouldn't wake up, we didn't have an alarm clock.
So someone had to wake us up.
Sometimes the synagogue attendant would wake everyone up.
Sometimes, as kids,
we had a pact,
we used to tie a rope to our foot,
hang the rope out the window,
and someone would pull on the rope from outside and wake us up.
Another experience.
Can you tell me about the choir?
I wasn't in the choir.
I know my brother was. No more than that.
I only know that on holidays,
the children gathered here and sang.
When it was permitted to play music here,
this was a place that music was allowed,
someone usually played the oud or the violin
which accompanied the choir.
The children knew all the words and it was very impressive.
Did they play music and sing on Shabbat too?
Yes, they sang the...
There were special melodies for Shabbat.
But I don't recall anyone playing an instrument in the synagogue.
When did they sing?
I don't know what it's called in Hebrew...
Songs? -No, no.
If there was a special event... -What?
If there was an event,
some of the prayers were sung.
Everyone knew the words and everyone sang.
Everyone sang together in harmony.
There was a special kind of elation.
When did the choir come in?
It didn't come in. It was part of the synagogue.
It wasn't anything special.
There was someone who conducted,
taught the children
accompanied the choir and they sang with him.
Did they stand up in synagogue and sing, or...
I must say I don't remember.
I don't remember.
I only know that at times
the prayers were accompanied with music and songs
and it was very pleasant to hear.
I want to hear a little bit about the wedding,
because we'll discuss that more in detail soon.
On the other hand,
let's talk about your sisters' weddings.
What do remember about the ceremonies?
They started with a prayer in synagogue.
But not this synagogue.
Not this one? -No, in the grooms' synagogue,
they belonged to different synagogues.
So the wedding took place in different synagogues.
Which ones?
If I remember correctly,
it was...
My younger sister Sara
got married in a synagogue in the city center
and my other sister got married in Givat Shaul.
That's what I remember, more or less.
The ceremonies themselves didn't take place in the synagogue,
they were secular ceremonies, not religious.
So the party took place outside the Old City.
In an event hall.
In a school or a hall outside the city.
That's where the wedding took place.
So now we...
Do you have anything else to tell us about this synagogue?
Something you wanted to tell us or Tomer?
No, that's all.
So let's go to the last place...
If you want, I can tell you another anecdote.
Every Shabbat
we kissed Father's hand and our grandparents' hands.
We actually kissed them.
And they blessed us.
We extended our hands, they kissed us.
We kissed their hands
and they placed their hands on our heads and blessed us.
Who did that? -That happened every Shabbat.
Who blessed you?
My father, grandfather and grandmother,
they blessed us
and usually they gave us sweets.
They didn't have much to give, but that's what they gave us,
raisins and chickpeas. Those were the traditional sweets
they gave us on Shabbat.
Did your mother go to synagogue?
She went to synagogue and sat in the women's section.
Can you please answer with a full sentence?
Excuse me?
Please answer with a full sentence.
Yes. My mother, aunts, grandmothers and sisters
sat in the women's section in synagogue.
Often we looked up and smiled at them.
We couldn't talk to them during the prayers,
but there was a tiny kiss from a distance.
Those are some of my memories.
I remember the women's section
was full of women,
all wearing head coverings.
The atmosphere was sacred, they listened to every word,
they kissed the Torah.
When the men came by with the Torah,
they kissed it from a distance.
Usually, the man who carried the Torah
would approach the women and raise the Torah in their direction
so they could see the Torah
and kiss it like this, from a distance.
Let's go to his school.
Before that we have one shot to take on the way
that we didn't do this morning, so... -We'll go our separate ways. -Yes.
Do you have my phone?
We don't have much time. Ofer, we really have to go.
Ofer, I'm not kidding.
Tell me when to start talking. -Now.
Go back where you were.
Go ahead.
We are overlooking
what used to be the Sephardic Hakura.
The Hakurawas the field
where the residents gathered
for social get-togethers, shopping,
and games.
This was the center
where everyone came to play from all over the Old City.
They played soccer, all kinds of games.
One could meet many people here.
This was the place
that was the center of the Jewish Quarter.
The buses parked here too.
The two buses, bus no. 2.
And the school that is here, by the Hakura.
Including my house which was at 1 Ha-Yehudim Street.
Including Niger's shop, the cheese maker who sold cheese.
Including the "Casa Zorotas," the ruined homes
in which we played and spent some of our free time.
The matzo factory was over here.
So this was the place
where people gathered and procured services,
where trade was conducted.
It was both a social place and a commercial place.
Okay, please turn around in that direction.
Show me with only your hand what we will see,
turn around a little more, that's right.
Point out to me where the Hakurawas.
The Hakuraextended over this entire area.
It was a bit smaller.
It was smaller.
Please turn your back to us even more... Exactly.
You insist on filming my bald spot, okay.
This was the Hakura,
but it was a little smaller.
Some of the buildings that were here were torn down.
The two buildings that were at the entrance to the Old City
no longer exist, including the house I lived in.
The Bader building, which was built at the time,
which was in the process of being built, no longer exists.
Those trees weren't here.
Today the area is green,
it's paved,
it's been developed.
At the time there was only a field, no more than that.
It was a dirt field, that's what this area looked like.
But much smaller.
Come in, if you want to say something, please do.
If you don't, you don't have to.
Come in, if you want to say something, please do.
Okay.
The school I went to
used to be in this structure.
That was the first and only year I studied in the Old City.
This was the Talmud Torah Sephardi.
I haven't been here since the Quarter fell.
This is my first time back here,
my first visit to this building,
and I must say, I don't recognize a thing.
I think everything's changed.
I don't remember anything I see here.
Except perhaps the outer fence
that surrounded this building
and through which we looked down at the houses.
But besides that, inside, I don't recognize anything.
So far. Maybe I will.
The place was presumably renovated and changed.
I don't recognize a thing.
Nothing.
I may remember if we go into one of the rooms.
This is the plaza I mentioned, you see?
That's the plaza we saw from the yard.
There was an external yard
and we looked down through this fence.
That's the only thing I remember.
All the rest, the inside, the structure,
looks totally different than it was then.
The place was renovated and changed.
I don't know if this entire structure existed.
It's unrecognizable.
The only thing I do recognize
is the yard, downstairs,
that we used to see during recess, when we came in,
this yard, yes.
We used to watch the goings on. That's all I remember.
I don't recognize anything else.
These were obviously classrooms.
If we can go in,
maybe I'll recognize something else.
I remember one of the children you're going to interview
sat by me in class and during the war, a bullet flew in
and he was wounded, I wasn't.
I sat beside him, it's a miracle I wasn't wounded.
He was wounded.
I met him after many years,
he barely recognized me.
He barely recognized me.
He barely remembered the incident.
I can explain why.
That guy had a bad accident in the army.
He was severely wounded.
The accident marred his memory.
That's why he doesn't remember, but I do.
I remember his name, I remember...
I don't want to say anything just now.
You'll interview him, I don't know if he'll mention it.
In any case, I remember he sat by the window,
I sat towards the inside of the class, we sat at the same desk.
A bullet or shrapnel penetrated through the window.
He was hit and it went right past me.
I remember
it was one of the scary events I experienced in those days.
Some of the memories, you see...
There are enough memories that evoke the fear
and anxiety of those days.
You speak often of the fear and anxiety.
When did you experience the fear and anxiety?
I'm telling you all these stories...
Listen, I'm telling you about a gunshot that flew by me,
about my house that I had to leave...
It's...
Someone's looking for me.
It's hard to hear you when someone's looking for you.
I'll turn it off.
You said something about the bullet.
When did this happen?
It happened during the siege.
We still went to school.
I don't know if you know this,
but many teachers who taught at this school
volunteered to stay on.
They stayed here and continued to teach us.
They weren't residents of the Quarter.
They lived outside the Quarter
but came to teach inside the Quarter.
Many of them volunteered, some were taken captives.
So that's one story.
Or seeing your house
and knowing you won't be going back.
Or seeing the destruction, the dust, the fire,
everyone falling around you, collapsing right under you.
Those are sights that an adult looking back today,
can't actually feel them.
Only a child who went through an experience such as this
can remember it.
At synagogue, when we were informed the Jordanians were coming in.
Or when we were separated from our parents
and our father was taken captive.
When we were taken to Zion Gate, on the night of May 28th,
when the city fell and we were taken there
and the Jews were shooting on one side and the Arabs on the other.
And we were in the middle.
Can you imagine yourself in such a situation?
Spending a night there, the bullets flying over your head,
you see them over your head and you're laying low.
We're focusing on the story of the Old City,
but where did they take us from here?
We were taken as refugees to Katamon.
They took all the way in trucks from Zion Gate
to Katamon
and the drive there was horrible.
We got there, they put us in a church,
they gave us bread and jam, it was a Friday, I remember.
A slice of bread with jam and a cup of tea.
Then we had to continue on foot
and descend Mount Zion.
Today the mountain is well kept and beautiful, it's fun to walk there.
At the time it was neglected.
Rocks and stones, we could hardly walk.
Women and old people had to walk the entire way,
wounded people, disabled people and children too.
That entire experience,
the rising dust, the many children who lost their parents.
They lost their parents.
There was yelling and screaming, people had to be calmed down.
You can't forget those sights and those sounds.
Even after so many years.
Not to mention what happened later at Katamon.
We got there as refugees and everything started over again.
The fears of the war, the hunger, the bombings.
That's a story in itself.
But was there anxiety and fear when you lived here before the war?
No, not that I recall.
I must say,
I only have good memories.
I don't want to paint a rosy picture,
but I remember life was good between the Arabs and Jews.
My father was a metal merchant,
he met with many Arabs.
He spoke their language.
He traveled with them, they visited him.
I remember at the end of every Passover
one of my father's employees
used to come over with a basket with lettuce, pita and honey.
Those were things we could only eat after Passover.
We couldn't eat them during Passover.
So to shift from the holiday to a regular day,
this Arab would bring us a basket with lots of things.
So, Arabs and Jews.
I remember my father was taken captive
and that man was standing against the wall with a rifle.
When he saw my father crying, he cried too.
He cried.
So the Jews and Arabs were very close.
And we lived well under those conditions.
We lived with one another.
We traded, we ate, they spoke the same language.
Many Arabs spoke Yiddish,
they spoke Ladino and Hebrew.
And the Jews spoke Arabic.
So I remember a pretty good life with the Arabs that lived here.
There's someone here who can open one of the classrooms.
There is? Okay.
I would like a room that overlooks Silwan, if possible.
A room overlooking Silwan? -Yes.
Upstairs. -Okay.
Are there original classrooms upstairs?
Yes, on the fifth floor. -What? -The fifth floor.
But the rooms are original? -Upstairs. Let's go.
But all this is new, right? This wasn't here.
No. -We need something that was here.
Yes.
She's taking me there.
(Arabic) Can we go up here?
She brought us to the roof, she didn't understand.
Yes, she brought us up here to observe Silwan.
This is not what I asked for.
No, no.
Let's go downstairs and enter one of the rooms.
From before the war.
Rooms that were here before the war.
Before the war. -Fifth floor. -Okay.
Let's see.
Where's the room with the windows overlooking Silwan?
A window overlooking Silwan.
These are not classrooms, this is now a hostel.
No, no, it's not this.
No. It's a hostel now.
They built bedrooms here.
What we'd like to see
are the rooms...
I'll try, it's not that easy.
(Arabic) Let's try Fourth floor
There are no windows overlooking Silwan.
(Arabic)
This is the only side that overlooks Silwan.
It's not true.
That's what I mean, let's go in this side.
The same direction... -Over there.
No, no. -Downstairs, where we were.
Arabic
We're filming in this building, among other places.
I went to this school.
You have authorization, right? -Yes.
That's what I'm trying to say.
I studied here.
Everything's changed, I'm unfamiliar.
In one of the classrooms, the windows overlooked Silwan,
the Arab village.
They shot at this building from there and my classmate was wounded.
We're trying to find not that room necessarily
but a room that's similar, where we can see Silwan.
But all our rooms are clean.
They worked hard. We're expecting...
How about if we go in for a second?
Look, we're expecting guests. -Yes.
They worked hard to clean up.
We can't go into a room now,
I signed off on them.
Everyone signed off that they're clean...
We can't go in. It's spotless.
Can we open the door? We won't go in, we'll look from outside.
One room? -Yes.
One room in particular? -Yes. -Which room?
A room that overlooks Silwan.
Do you want me to open up all the rooms?
Oh, okay.
There was no entrance here. The entrance was from there.
Oh, okay.
This is the inner yard, right?
This yard could be seen from the school.
That's what I said, this yard was here, everything else changed.
But it was an open yard. This was newly built.
Is this what you need? -Exactly.
But there's a house that makes it impossible to see.
No... the street. There's an empty street.
You mean the road that goes down to the Kotel? -Exactly.
So it's not even in that building.
In these rooms. -Could be.
Oh, this could be it. This looks old.
You see, these walls are old. You see?
The walls we walked by. I think these are it.
Here we go, he's right, here it is.
Can we come in? -Can we come in?
Here we go, this is it. -Here? -Just a minute...
Very nice.
Here, wonderful. There you go.
We sat here, more or less,
and they shot from there.
The bullet came in from here.
You insisted and you got it. -What year was this? -1948.
He was wounded by a bullet or shrapnel.
And it missed me.
Avraham, I want to go back
to that last year, that awful year.
But before that, where are we now?
This was a classroom. -Describe it to me.
There were desks.
Two students sat at every desk.
There was a blackboard.
There was a podium
with a desk, the teacher stood beside it.
That's what the classroom looked like.
The lessons were written on the blackboard.
It looked like a regular classroom.
Exactly what I'm describing.
Do you recognize anything in this room?
Yes, the walls, the structure.
How many years do you think this building has existed?
I can show you a book,
I think, I think,
around 120 years, something like that.
I have a book with me that answers that question,
it shows the principal, Hanina Mizrachi, he was the principal.
Lea, my teacher who was taken captive
and her husband, Wolf, who was also taken captive.
They were both in captivity.
So the teacher, the homeroom teacher and the school principal.
In the book I brought with me,
if you want I can show you...
Oh, be careful, the notes are falling out.
All the notes fell out.
This is a book that came out on the 75th anniversary of the school.
The 75th anniversary.
What year was that?
In 1950.
So the 75th anniversary was in 1950, how many years have gone by since then?
61 years. -Add 75...
136 years. -That's what I said without looking.
There are pictures of the principal.
The carpentry room. We studied carpentry.
Did you study carpentry? -Here at school...
No, I didn't. The students studied it, I was...
I want to hear about your experience at school.
What did you study? -That's what I'm doing.
My schooling experience was very interesting.
I was among the few children
who went to kindergarten.
Kindergartens were very exclusive then.
Not every child in the Old City could go to kindergarten.
I went to kindergarten.
A regular kindergarten, like... It was on Habad Street, by the way.
That's where our kindergarten was.
Then I was in two kutabs. Do you know what a kutab is?
Kutab is a school,
it's before actual school,
for children under school age.
We went there and learned the alphabet.
There was a class
with Haham Yona and one with Haham David.
Haham David was lenient,
pleasant, considerate, he was fun to be with.
Haham Yona was very difficult. He beat us too.
Yes, they beat children in those days. That's how they punished us.
Who were you with?
I was with Haham Yona, I didn't like it at all.
Then I moved to Haham David's class,
this was before I reached the age of 6. -What did you study?
I studied the alphabet, there was a piece of cardboard
on which they wrote down the alphabet, with the vowels.
Vowels, large letters.
As little children
we had to repeat the letters like parrots.
The teacher would say: Alef, ah,
and we would repeat: Alef, ah... Bet, bah...
Gimel, gi... We repeated after him like parrots.
That's what we studied... And prayers as well.
The rabbi's wife would give us sweets.
She'd bring sweets to the children,
the teacher would tell her who was a good student,
and he'd get more sweets than the others.
Until I turned six,
at which time I had to undergo psychological exams
in the New City.
I went to a psychologist,
she built something out of beads of different colors and shapes
and asked me to reconstruct what she had built.
I passed
and I was accepted into the Talmud Torah Sephardi.
I spent only one year there, unfortunately, but...
When the Quarter fell,
they built the same school in Katamon.
We went there.
In the beginning it was called Sephardic Boys Schoolm,
Talmud Torah Sephardim,
and later the name changed to Harel.
It had branches too.
There was the Neve Ya'akov school in Katamon.
In any case, I went there until 8th grade.
In the year you were here, what did you study?
What was the curriculum like...
You're asking a little too much of me.
I can't remember exactly the entire curriculum.
I remember I had a notebook,
and for the first time I had a pencil and an eraser,
and I wrote and scribbled,
it wasn't easy, learning that language.
I didn't have a desk at home.
Like you do.
I had a little bench,
I bent my legs and sat down and wrote.
We were discussing traumas, right?
I guess one doesn't forget traumatic events.
When I got home I got a glass of cocoa.
The glass was next to the bench.
I moved it and the cocoa spilled onto my notebook.
That's not something you forget.
That's not something you forget.
That's one of my experiences from the first year.
Did you play here? -Yes, absolutely.
A large part of 1st grade schooling involved games and music.
We had a teacher who played the accordion and the violin.
Some of the classes were accompanied by the violin
and the accordion, it was lots of fun.
We had assemblies outside.
Either a welcome ceremony or raising of the flag,
the assembly was first thing in the morning.
They said whatever they said, I don't remember exactly what,
and then we went to our classrooms.
What flag?
I don't know exactly what they did with the flag.
I don't remember if it was the Israeli flag.
I have no memory of that.
But I do remember the inspections in the morning,
and one of the things that may interest you
is they always checked us for cleanliness.
The children had to be clean and tidy
when they came to school.
A child who was dirty or untidy was sent home
to clean up.
We had to stand in a line,
with our shoes next to one another,
we had to show that our shoes were shiny.
We extended our hands
and we held a handkerchief
to show that we have a handkerchief.
Our fingernails had to be cut and clean.
They checked our ears, to see if there is...
fertilizer inside in which you could plant trees...
or that our ears were clean.
If our ears were dirty,
they sent us home to wash them.
Then they checked our hair for lice.
We lived in cramped conditions.
It was hard to maintain sanitary conditions.
Often they found lice or lice eggs in a boy's hair
so he was sent home to treat it.
Sometimes they checked our eyes,
we had our eyes checked,
because many children suffered from eye diseases in those days.
They checked our weight, our height, in the nurse's room.
Going to see the nurse was special,
we had to remove our clothes and remain in underpants for the first time.
Someone would check us all over
and it was very exciting and unusual.
That's what I remember.
It was short, I regret to say.
Too short.
I barely completed that one year
and the city fell and...
we had to move to Katamon.
When we were under siege, they tried to keep us busy.
Those were different times.
Once they took us to a children's club
and showed us Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy films.
They tried to keep us together, so we wouldn't hang out in the streets.
It was a very dangerous time.
There was shooting from all directions and the children were in the streets.
Sometimes, as I told you,
the Arabs' shops and homes were abandoned,
so the children looted them.
It was often very dangerous,
because they could've laid down mines or left grenades.
Those were things that children did
and that had to be prevented.
They prevented those action by keeping the children together,
either in the club or by sitting together.
That's what they did in those times of distress,
when the area was closed and surrounded.
I'm amazed at how much I remember.
I can't believe it. Where is this coming from?
I don't think I've talked so much about it in a long time,
about all these memories of mine.
How do you feel here, in school?
I feel like a 6-year-old child,
sitting here and trembling, afraid I may have done something wrong,
maybe the teacher is not pleased with me.
That's what it was like.
I brought this book with me,
it came out on the 75th anniversary of the school.
We celebrated the event in Katamon.
The school no longer existed then.
There are pictures inside.
Pictures of the school in Katamon.
And its diverse branches.
I want to show you a picture of...
Here, the staff.
The teaching staff in the yard at Sephardic Boys Schoolm in Katamon.
Look... -Where was this?
Ha-Shayarot Street. -I see...
Do you live there? -Yes. -Where do you live?
Maapilim Atreet. -Maapilim? Okay.
Go into Ha-Shayarot Street, there's a nice 3-storey building.
On the right hand side of Ha-Shayarot Street.
If you're facing San-Simon,
it's on the right, at the beginning of Ha-Shayarot Street.
We want to focus on the Old City right now.
Okay. -Just for now.
Here's a picture of the nurse giving the kids a shot.
Was this in the Old City? -By the way, there's a boy here,
his name was Aryeh Gini, of blessed memory.
He was a friend my age.
His brother, Nissim Gini,
was the youngest fighter of the State of Israel.
He fell in the Old City.
I think his name is memorialized in several locations.
But you have to see the picture of the principal,
Hanina Mizrachi,
a historic, highly respected man.
You don't see pictures like this just anywhere.
He's no longer alive, obviously.
Do you remember him? -Yes.
A very impressive man.
Okay, I don't want to keep you.
The notes fell out, they were in order.
We sat in this dining hall and prepared the food.
There were monitors... -Did you eat here?
You see, the dining hall.
The older children
cleaned and cooked and studied nutrition.
They also prepared the meals.
At 12:00 or 1:00 we gathered here for lunch.
What did you eat? -What did we eat?
The food was very modest.
We had bread at every meal. Bread was important.
It was a main component of the meal.
Thick, meaty slices.
For some children it was the first and only time
they ate bread.
This was the place to eat bread.
We always had soup with every meal.
I don't remember having many vegetables, I remember we had cabbage salad.
I guess it was easy and cheap. So we had lots of cabbage salad.
We had fruit compote for dessert
or pudding or jello.
Very seldom did we have a piece of cake.
During which hours were you here?
School started at 7am.
It ended, for the low classes at 1pm.
12pm or 1pm.
The older children studied later hours.
We're going to sit downstairs,
is there anything you'd like to add besides that picture?
I think you sucked me dry.
So we're going to sit downstairs.
Worse comes to worst, we'll find the picture later.
Yes. -Let's go then.
Thank you...
Mr. Hanina Mizrachi
was the principal here for many years.
He was a very respected man.
A top quality educator.
We had a lot of respect for him.
We feared him too.
Going to the principal's office was a very scary thing.
But he ran this place with a strong arm
and he was also the principal
during the early years of the school in Katamon.
You can leaf through it and get to...
Just keep your hand on the...
leaf through it and get to it.
From the front, exactly. Then get to it.
I told you I had a principal I remember fondly,
a very respected man.
Mr. Hanina Mizrachi.
We have it. Thank you.
This is the nurse's room. Injection day.
You can see the nurse giving the children a shot.
Usually against small pox,
or ringworm, or the mumps...
Here's a picture of the dining hall,
with the children preparing the meal.
Tilt the book towards me. Diagonally.
I think I got sun stroke because I don't feel well.
Roll the picture, like that, leave the book,
just roll the picture and come back to it.
Yes, go back to the dining hall and show me the picture.
I have to sit down.
Straighten the page towards me, just a bit, the book, diagonally.
Leave it parallel to the floor, straighten it.