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445

Kibbutz Hulda 
April 6-  Wed. 

Tel Aviv

unusually well trained, & everyone who read, the young & the adults, all had clear, expressive voices & read beautifully.

The program lasted for two hours, from 8 till 10. The tables for 500 guests were laden with Yontif food - & no one, not even the youngest children of them - were so much as permitted a crumb during the program. I marveled at the reverence of their approach to the occasion.

After the dinner, everyone adjourned to the central dining hall for the dancing. Occasionally the accordion played, but mostly the dances went on without music. The dancers, all creating their own music with song. And what lusty, powerful voices & bodies! The dancers, themselves, are strenuous, jumping & whirling madly about in quick rythm, their faces flushed their powerful legs, trained in the fields holding the rythms so well. The dances were charming, surprisingly varied. They have their own polkas, tangos, quick waltzes, etc, all



446  

Tel Aviv.  
April 6

accentuated with the stamping of feet and the clapping of hands.

On way back to the hotel, I stopped into the Hotel Dan for a cup of tea with Leon Grizer. Luxurious & beautifully situated on the sea, it is an ideal, restful spot in the center of the city. Young man with gun hanging from a piece of string on his shoulder.

Thursday, April 7

9 AM. Oleisky arranged for me to have the car, with Barbara to drive for the day. We drove out to see the ancient ruins & sculptural excavations at 'Ash Ke Lon'. This was also an old port situated on a natural site on the sea, [[?]] on top of the hills like a half moon, reclining.

Afterwards, drove to Jaffa, an old town I love & lunched there in a dismal old café. The Arabian proprietor served with the flourish of the headwaiter at the Ritz, his fat belly & shining, mustachioed face beaming as he bowed & showed me the way to the stinking hole, serving as toilet in the rear.