Number 58: Raymond went to Theodor Herzl School for all 12 of his school years. It was a Jewish Day School in Port Elizabeth with only one class per standard – small and intimate.  I don’t think we comprehended at the time how special the shared experience was and how close we became to the people in our class, until many years later.

For some decades we went our own ways and stayed in touch with only our very closest friends. Then, for the first time after 41 years since Matriculating and leaving school,  we held a reunion on Kibbutz Ketura in Israel during January 2016  – the Kibbutz on which Cecil Rimer lives. Ten out of the 23 people who matriculated (thank G-d all still alive at that time) were able to participate in this wonderful celebration.

At the Reunion we lit a candle for Sandra Abraham z”l who was in our Class for many years and who had sadly passed away a few years before the Reunion.

We each presented a brief story of our lives since leaving school, held a quiz (Parsons Hill vs Summerstrand) on school related trivia, watched some slides of school days, spent time together walking through the Kibbutz, eating meals and relaxing. The in between years seemed to vanish and it was as if we had all been together yesterday…

This photograph, taken on a boat in the Red Sea off Eilat in Israel, reflects all 10 of the participants:

Back Row from Left Hand Side:

1. Estelle Slevin ‘nee Sendzul
2. Pamela Peled ‘nee Symon
3. Michelle Brown ‘nee Levy

Middle Row from Left Hand Side:

4. Gerald Birin
5. Avron Abraham
6. Cecil Rimer

Front Row from Left Hand Side

7. Felicity Schwartz ‘nee Awerbach
8. Max Pohl
9. Raymond Schkolne
10. Louise Plutchok, previously Podolsky,  ‘nee Michalowsky