Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of their Aliyah - Blumberg Family

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The Blumberg family recently celebrated the 50th Anniversary of their Aliyah! A hearty Mazel Tov from all of us at Telfed.It was a cold, SA winter morning, July 27th, 1961, when many family members and friends gathered at the Jan Smuts Airport to see Sam, Mickey, Lynette and Pauline Blumberg off, on their way to settle in Israel.

Dressed in “going away” winter clothes, the little family boarded a DC7 for the long flight to Tel-Aviv. Twenty seven hours, with a frightening stop over at the deserted and partly destroyed, Elizabethville airport, which was teeming with armed rebels, who escorted us to the toilets, at gun point.
The next stop was Athens, and at last Tel-Aviv.

We were met by Amnon from Telfed, who probably knows every SA Oleh who came during the 60’- 80’s. We were taken to Mercaz Klitah Ben Yehuda, a dusty little colony of single and double storied buildings, hardly a person in sight. We made our way to the office and were shown to our ‘dirah” which had not been swept or cleaned since it was built three years before.
We were in total shock and did not know where to put ourselves and where to begin. I remember lying down on a sheet less, sochnut bed, feeling totally faint. I heard my little five year old Pauline say “Daddy, why doesn’t Mommy get up?”
“Ask her, the big Zionist!” he answered. “What is a big Zionist?” she asked.

We spent 8 months at the Ben Yehudah , Family Mercaz Klitah and then we moved to Jerusalem, where we bought into a partnership in a jewellery store, downtown. After looking around for a good school and decent neighbourhood, we moved into our apartment, in R’chov Hechalutz, Beit Hakerem, where our son Eitan was born in 1964.
 I had a difficult pregnancy, laid up for months, new olim, no supporting family but the neighbours and some friends took over. I always said that without the wonderful devotion, commitment and friendship shown us by strangers, we would have found it almost impossible to cope.
The best Purim costumes the two girls ever wore for Purim, were put together by friends that year!

I am blessed with three wonderful children who have made lives for themselves with their Israeli spouses, have given me seven amazing grandchildren and who in my opinion are the “Big Zionists”.
To my regret, Sam did not live to enjoy the dividends.
It was my luck and privilege to have been able to put my Zionist Ideals to practical application and for this, I will be eternally grateful.