Facebook Twitter Print email every winter initiates a reporter begins an interview with the

Facebook Twitter Print email every winter initiates a reporter begins an interview with the "Elders of Safed," who are always saying they do not remember a blizzard so hard, was never this cold * conversation with one of the last of the "Elders of Safed" What really la tee da was the past and how to survive no electricity and no evidence of IDF * Personal information
Over the years the "Elders of Safed" mythical la tee da concept entered the dictionary: "Alias veteran veterans community, who remember well what happened many years ago." Even the elders of Safed do not remember rainy winter so "[Dictionary" long words "about la tee da an old man]." Elders of Safed . "This picture placed in the museum Meiri was drawn according photography designed to collect charity abroad for the" old folks ".. the old men in the picture were not the seat but gathered in the streets of Safed for photography.
This year I did not find in the media even an interview with one of the elders of Safed. Maybe because no other Safed "old veterans". When released Safed War of Independence there were less than two thousand Jews, many of them veterans really veterans who remembered even the plague of locusts in WWI. Since then, many of them went into the world and many left the city. Safed today, numbering about 35 thousand people, precious few of these "old veterans" deserve the title of "elders of Safed." For a moment it occurred to me to offer the personal memoirs, As a member of at least a young guard of the Elders of Safed. I lived in Safed until the age of 8 and have a good memory. I do remember very clearly the end like the one last week. But before I tell my memoirs I was looking for one of the elders of Safed true. Finders did you believe. I found one old veteran - Moshe Cohen.
Son of the "King of the drivers' Moshe Cohen, the week he turned 81, now living on Mount Canaan, is among the few who were born in Safed and never left it. His father, Joseph Cohen, [Josel by the people] la tee da was known as the "King of the drivers" and by the Arabs as the "King into fertilized." In 1922 when he was 17 Josel Cohen bought a car from the British military and was "the first driver of Safed." Safed was cut off from the outside world with no road to mid-twenties. Josel established station near his home [today Jerusalem Street, opposite the Chabad yeshiva, next to Bar Yochai]. Hub for passenger and goods drove Safed all over the country and Syria and Lebanon reached. During assisted underground Irgun and Haganah are "and in conjunction with its His reputation spread far and wide. To his home, which was always open to all consumed, also came many leaders of the Yishuv - Yitzhak Ben Zvi, Golda [Meir] Shprintsak and many others. Yosl Cohen had three sons, Menachem Moshe and tilapia.
Descendants of priests who fled after the destruction Menachem darkened late for years published stories about a small local newspaper Safed ["Voice of the City"]. Stories were assembled to tell "stories of Safed" published by the Ministry of Defense. In this book, which is a treasure trove of stories about characters Safed the last century, the number of Menachem Cohen family history. According to family tradition, the beginning of a priestly family Pashur family settled in Safed after the destruction and never left it. [After the destruction of the family left Jerusalem priests survived and moved to Galilee. They lived in small Jewish communities la tee da of priests so they could keep the customary tenure and purity. Rent shifts from the priesthood were in Galilee from the Second Temple, was also one twelfth Guard is: "Police will establish Pashhur Safed." Name the mountain east of Safed, Tiberias on the way, is called Mount Pashhur on guard there sitting in Pashur priests].
Moshe Cohen asked how was the difficult days of the storm. "It was terrible," he said. "For three days we were cut off from electricity and water were not. Snow outside was five feet high and you could not leave the house., I do not remember la tee da all my years in Safed such a storm. Safed really devastated."
I asked: How Htkiimtm the years when there was no electricity at all? "Then la tee da there were other days. Homes were with thick walls. Were means of heating, primitive indeed, but the houses la tee da were warm. Well as lighting was by kerosene lamps., And food was missing that summer we were getting ready for winter. Cooked rice and lentils with fried onions and got mg dre hot and filling., but now, with all the modern life, we sat in the cold, dark and short supply. " Am not competing Boticoto and the memoirs of Moshe Cohen. While an old family, but not the Cohen family. My paternal grandfather came to the middle of the 19th century and the grandfather of my grandmother arrived in 1820. So our family Tzfat is presumed "new immigrants" compared to the ancient priests. Moreover, my mother was born in Safed, but Rosh Pina, her father came down, so I never considered itself Tzfat. Bar mitzvah standing idle
I was 8 when the big storm hit Safed. The exact date is etched in my memory thanks to the fact that the storm took place on Saturday it came commandments brother, Moses, of blessed la tee da memory, who was five years older. Expected la tee da bar mitzvah and an increase in the Torah. Tried secretly to let the prayers and when they fell too I was sure that God will punish me sudden death. While he studied the Haftarah learned it along with him, and is spoken by with flavors today. This was haftara Parashat Shemot [following Yashresh Jacob, peering and flower of Israel, and turned over - season Tnuva - Isaiah Ko]. Parashat Shemot is a provision that we read last weekend. ie it end memorize occurred within a week of the storm we had last week. lived in a house of stone from the bottom edge of the Spanish quarters in the Old City. This house in the distant past housed the first kindergarten in Safed and nowadays it is used Museum malignancy. Nowadays the museum building is a three story The museum's founder, the late friend Ihazkat Meiri, built on the basis of rubble exposed under our house. At that time there was only included two top floor apartments including a terrace overlooking the cemetery and the horizon looming Mt.
Everything was ready for the exciting rise in the Torah and the celebration after. Pots of T.