The First Volunteer - Paul Lowinger

PROLOGUE

THANK YOU for picking up this book and reading my story.

Perhaps it is not a story at all, but rather a collection of memories of FOUR unforgettable months spent in Israel during my youth.

There are many people to whom I am indebted and whom I owe many thanks.

There are my Parents, of blessed memory, both on my side of the family and that of my dear wife Kitty, without whose tenacity and inspiration the events in the following pages would never have come to be.

I send my thanks and love to all the Characters in this book who live and have lived in Israel. With the passage of time many of our relatives and friends both in Australia and in Israel have passed on. We cherish their memory and remember them with love.

But most of all, I thank my dear, beloved wife Kitty, who was there for me when I was at my lowest ebb and has loved and supported me always.

I thank her for her understanding and acceptance of some of the funny ways that make me who I am. It was her inspiration that made me start to tell this tale and to finish it.

Thank you also, Kitty, for humouring me and allowing me to dominate our computer at times unfairly.

In order to tell the story of that Summer of 1962, I have taken some liberties.

In order to explain why and how I came to be a Volunteer on an Israeli Kibbutz, I have embellished the tale by including my background, all the better to understand where I came from and where I was going.

If there should be one lesson learnt from the experiences that I have recalled in the following pages, it should be this: That nothing in life is certain and that it is always wise to expect the unexpected.

I hope that by reading of my memories, my children, David, Daniel and Joanne and all my grandchildren Eli, Miriam, Levi and Dov, Joshua, Jemma and Ethan, Beau, Eden and Summer, may get to understand me better.

Paul Lowinger

Sydney, Australia.

November 2016