Dear Rivaka, “Hazak”^[4]

I begin my letter with asking how you are. I have almost nothing to write, because my brother wrote everything…

I can tell you that the snow has already tried to fall here, but it melted after a while. The lake here has not yet frozen, but it is nevertheless very cold.

We are already attending the Lithuanian school. We study in the fifth form on the second floor. The room is very wide.

We have bought skates and are waiting for the lake to freeze over. Hanukah is already approaching, and also the tenth anniversary of the Jewish Scouts, Hashomer Hatzair, in Dusiat. We plan to perform a play for the anniversary. The play is called “Efo Habayit” [Where is home]. It is quite interesting. The leader of our group is Miryam Baron. She is quite a good leader. She has just come from the hachshara. She leads group activities twice a week.

The head of the branch, Yehezkel Shteiman, went to Memel [Klaipeda]. The “ken” [cell] is now headed by Chava [Shub].

Write me letters about Hadera and about the kibbutz in Hadera, and that will be material for our group subject.

With the scouts greeting “Hazak”,

From me, Dov

My dear Rivka

…

Here it is already autumn and it has gotten cold. Snow has already tried to fall, but quickly melted. The schoolchildren ran out and shouted: Der Fetter Shneor is gekummen” [Uncle Shneor has come” – a play on words for shney, snow in Yiddish].

However, the lake has not yet tried to freeze and the question is why, why? They say that it is waiting for Hanukkah, and the majority say it is probably waiting to get “smichut” [in Hebrew, to be ordained]. That is the fable of the lake in Dusiat. We are all anxiously waiting for it to freeze.

What's new with you in Hadera? Have the lakes and rivers, such as the Kinneret [Sea of Galilee], the Jordan River, the Kishon River, and so forth, already frozen? If there were such a thing as free passage to Eretz Yisrael I would come to visit you and skate on the ice. I think that I wouldn't need to bring skates because you would give them to me.

Ha, ha, ha…

Rivka, that's enough with such jokes. I want to know important things from Eretz Yisrael. How is life there? Here we receive the newspaper “Dos Vort” [The Word]. Please send us a newspaper from Eretz Yisrael. Send us pictures from the kibbutz. Write me everything, absolutely everything!

Best wishes from me, Avraham

Regards from our group, “Ahdut” [Unity].

“Hazak”

Dusiat