Ben Moche - April 24, 2009
Landing in Israel
What do you remember about coming to Israel, landing in Israel on the ship? Do you recall?
Well, first I find out the other people speak the language I speak, they Hebrew. My parents didn't so, I was the big macher, you know.
Uh-huh, uh-huh.
You know uh, being a translator. But when we got to Israel...
[laughs]
It wasn't as good as we thought it was going to be.
Uh-huh.
Because uh, they put us in tents...
Mm-hm.
You know, and then they moved us to a place called Ramle, you know, which is a Arabic city. And, and, and at that time there was still fighting going on, you know, with the tank. And there was no work.
Mm-hm.
And there was no food.
Hm. Was it hard...
But we felt safe.
What do you mean you felt safe, can you explain that?
Well, I went to school. I, I, I, I didn't have to identify myself as a Jew, everybody was a Jew, okay. Uh, we were not afraid for my neighbors that are going get drunk.
Hm.
And take it out on the Jews, you know. Um, there was no Hitler anymore.
Mm-hm.
Which we understood at that time, so basically uh, we felt that we are on our way to prosperity.
Mm-hm.
Which took a long time to get there, but, uh.
Mm-hm. Let me go back also, how did you learn Hebrew, the language, yourself as a, who taught you Hebrew? How did you...
Um, I went to school and uh, in Wegscheid, you know, we'd been there for a year and a half, almost two years. And I went to school besides my parents hired me a private tutor too, but I went to school and the school was in Hebrew.
Mm-hm. Who, who ran the school?
I don't know, must have been the Joint again.
The Joint, mm-hm.
Yeah.
So that's where you learned to become fluent in Hebrew?
Oh yeah.
???
Right.
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