Earliest Memories

One evening I asked Mom and Dad about their earliest memories.

Dad said it was his father coming home drunk one evening.  Seems to me an odd early memory of his father, as getting drunk was not a feature of Grandpa Morris's life.

Mom said her earliest memory was when electricity came to Tel Aviv and their home on Grusenberg Street.  She was four or five years old.  Prior to electricity she remembered the old gas lamps, both in the house and on the street.  She remembers a time after electricity started when her father took her by horse and carriage to Jaffa, and you could still see the gas lamps.

She talked about a Tel Aviv man named Rutenberg, who studied in Russia, and was responsible for developing electricity in Tel Aviv and other communities.

Pinchas Rutenberg

Wikepedia says this about Rutenberg.  Pinhas Rutenberg (February 5, 1879 – January 3, 1942; Russian: Пётр Моисеевич Рутенберг, Pyotr Moiseyevich Rutenberg; Hebrew: פנחס רוטנברג‎) was a prominent engineer and a businessman, a Russian socialist and a Zionist leader. He played an active role in two Russian revolutions, in 1905 and 1917. During World War I, he was among the founders of the Jewish Legion and of the American Jewish Congress. Later, in the British Mandate of Palestine, he had obtained an exclusive concession for production and distribution of electric power and founded the Palestine Electric Company, currently the Israel Electric Corporation. Rutenberg also participated in establishing the Haganah, a nucleus of the future Israel Defense Forces, and served as a President of the Jewish National Council.

In fact, there was also a shady feature to Rutenberg's life.  Rutenberg was a friend of Father George Gapon, a popular working class leader, who in 1905 organized a peaceful workers' procession to the winter palace of the Tzar.  Army pickets fired on them, killing hundreds, an incident known as Bloody Sunday.  Rutenberg saved Gapon from the gunfire.  However, later, Gapon revealed his secret connections to the police, reasoning that his connections would be useful to the workers.  Rutenberg reported this to party leaders.  Sometime later, after visiting Rutenberg at his cottage, Gapon was found hanged at the cottage.

Mom also recalled another man who served as a founding Chairman of the Palestine Electric Corporation, Lord Reading, who came and spoke to her school (called the Gymnasia) when she was 8 or 10 years old.  Her shool was the first secular school in the world that taught in Hebrew, and it was not uncommon for dignitaries to come and speak.  Mom remembers these words from his speech:

The Marquess of Reading

"I rose from the poorest rungs of society being a Jew, to being Viceroy of India - second to the King."
Mom remembers that the first large electic station was called "Lord Reading Station".

Yesterday Mom shared another early memory - of the earthquake of 1927 - when she was seven years old.  She was at home with their family's Yemenite Jewish helper Simcha.  Mom said she was "some woman".  Simcha (Joy) was forced into marriage when whe was eight years old, and a few years later had a son whose name was Sa'adya (helper of G-d).  Simcha fled Yemen with her son, walking all the way to Palestine.

Mom and Simcha were at home when the rumbling began.  There was an old-style iron on the table - the kind you put hot coals inside.  Simcha had the presence of mind to move the iron to the tile floor, then took her out into the street.  There was not any damage to their home, or much in Tel Aviv.  However the Arab town of Nablus was largely destroyed.  She remembers everyone collecting blankets and such to send to Nablus.

The 1927 earthquake in Palestine was a devastating earthquake that shook the Palestine and Transjordan regions on July 11, 1927. The epicenter of the earthquake was in the northern area of the Dead Sea. The cities of Jerusalem, Jericho, Ramle, Tiberias and Nablus were heavily damaged and at least 500 were estimated to have been killed.

It is interesting to note that Simcha, translating as Joy, was Mom's family helper when Mom was very young, and now her new helper, 85 years later, also has the name Joy.  But that is another story.