אוסף עובדיה בן שלום ונעמי לבית גרמי

Naomi Ben Shalom was born in the village Sadeh in central Yemen on Pesach 1926. Her parents were Zviya nee Oshri and Yichye (Zecharya) Germy. Her maternal grandfather, Saliman Oshri, was the Mukhtar of the village and her grandmother, Sa'idah was a midwife. Her paternal grandfather made a living from weaving cotton clothes and selling them. One day, in the summer of 1932, when Naomi was 6 years old, a local Arab man appeared at their house and demanded that her father sell her to him. Yichye told the man that she was ill and his response was that she would get better if she drank the blood of Jews. The father decided to immediately go to Israel with his wife and two daughters, Naomi and her younger sister, Sarah. They started preparing for the journey in secrecy and then set out on the way to Aden. The trip was filled with hardships. They mostly walked at night and during the day they hid in caves. When they reached Aden they went to a house where the Jews went to wait for approval to leave for Israel from the British authorities. After one month the family moved to a rented room in a private house where they lived for 6 months. The money they brought with them ran out quickly and the girls were sent every week to ask for money from wealthy Jews in Aden. The approval finally arrived, but by then Salam had passed away. The family sailed to the Jaffa port and from there to Jerusalem. In Israel Yichya was called Zecharya. His brother Shlomo rented an underground storage area- a converted water cistern- for them to live in. Zecharya worked invery stressful places and Zviya worked as a laundress in charedi homes in Meah She'arim. They had four more children: Shmuel, Mazal, Bracha and Esther (Eti). Naomi began attending kindergarten and later went to the Shpitzer School (a talmud torah for girls) in the Bucharan neighborhood in Northern Jerusalem. When she was in the third grade her parents did not have money to buy school books for her and the teacher reprimanded her for this. She came home, burst into tears and refused to go back to school. The other daughters in the family also helped with the livelihood of the family. They worked cleaning houses and babysitting. Naomi, at the age of 11, joined her father in what was called, 'Jewish labor' picking oranges in the orchards in Hadera that was organized by the Worker's Organization. They left their home on Sunday morning and returned Friday afternoon. During the week they slept in homes of Yemeite Jews in Hadera. After the season Naomi started working cleaning homes. She generally would bring home the leftover food. One of the homes she worked in was the small "hut" where Rachel Yanait and Yitzchak Ben-Zvi lived. At the time he was the Head of the National Committee (later he became the President of the State of Israel). Rachel Yanait's mother lived with them and their two children. Naomi helped take care of her. Zecharya became a merchant of sacred objects. And as part of his work he travelled around the country. While he was staying at the home of the Ben Shalom family in Netanya, he met their son, Ovadia who worked as a diamond polisher, and decided that he should marry his daughter. Ovadia and his brothers visited Jerusalem a number of times and eventually Ovadia and Naomi became engaged. A year later, in 1943, Naomi, who was 17 years old, married Ovadia Ben Shalom in the yard of her house in the Bucahran neighborhood. Ovadia Ben-Shalom was born in1923 in the village of Bnei Taybeh, near the town of D'mar in Yemen. His father, Rabbi Shalom Ben-Zecharia Mahfood was the leader of the Jewish community in his village and the surrounding villages. He was an educated man who studied folk medicine. His mother Miriam was a potter. Ovadia's parents decided to move to Israel out of Zionistic feelings and a love for the Holy Land. After the wedding the couple moved to a three room hut in the Ben-Zion neighborhood in Netanya. Ovadia could not work because of a strike in the diamond industry, so Naomi started working as a housekeeper in the home of Dr. Bin. One year after they married, their daughter Dalya was born and one year later their son, Yigal (1945). The family built a small house on a plot of land that Ovadia bought before the wedding. It had one room, a kitchen and a bathroom. Ovadia joined the ETZEL Movement and later moved to the Haganah where he served in Palyam (Sea Company) under the command of Mordechai Elkayam. With the outbreak of the War of Independence Naomi began to work as a paramedic with Magen David Adom. Her two children stayed home with their grandmother. Ovadia was drafted but was released after just 3 months to return to his job as a diamond polisher. During the war Naomi's parent's home was bombed by the Jordanian Army. Her younger sister, Mazal (11) was hit by shrapnel and lost an eye. After the war Naomi and Ovadia volunteered helping new immigrants. In 1950 their son, Yehoram was born and they added a room to their house. That same year Ovadia started working in the Employment Office of the Histadrut, helping mainly immigrants from Yemen. In 1954 their youngest son, Ilan, was born and when he started going to kindergarten Naomi went back to working outside of the home. At the same time she started to learn arithmetic and to read and write in night classes. Later she took private English lessons and completed elementary school through the 'Tehila' program. Naomi worked as an assistant kindergarten teacher for 25 years. She retired at the age of 60 and then volunteered through the Na'amat organization in the Goldmintz House and the Feldman House serving food and drinks to soldiers. Ovadia Ben Shalom worked in the Worker's Union, and in the late 1960s, Ovadia felt that the ethnic uniqueness of the State of Israel was endangered by the "melting pot" concept that dominated the establishment. He sought to strengthen the culture of various ethnicities and of the values of religion and tradition. In 1970, along with seven other members, Ovadia established the Society for the Advancement of Society and Culture in order to preserve the heritage of Yemenite Jewry and the tribes of Israel. Naomi assisted him in this work. The association's activities include cultural and scientific work, including the Institute for the Heritage of the Tribes of Israel and the Museum of Yemenite Jewish Culture and Heritage in Netanya. Ovadia was elected to the Netanya City Council and even won the title of "Darling the city". He passed away in 2004 after a serious illness. The children of Naomi and Ovadia went to secular schools despite the fact that they grew up in a religious home were they kept the mitzvot .Dalia (1944) became a teacher. She moved with her family to Moshav Sadot in Yamit. When the area was evacuated she was one of the founders of Moshav Ein Habesor. Today she is the Cultural Coordinator at Eshkol Regional Council Yigal (1945) studied in the Tchernekovsky High School in Netanya and in the early morning he delivered newspapers. During vacations he worked in the building industry to save money to go to University. He served in the army during the Six Day War and afterwards he completed his B.A. in Economics. During his studies he worked at the National Insurance Agency where he met his wife, Ahuva. He later completed his doctorate and became the CEO of the National Insurance Agency. Yehoram (1950) stopped his studies in 8th grade and began working in Bank Hapoalim, however he later completed his high school studies in night school. He completed his MA in International Affairs in the US and worked at the UN. Ilan (1955) too left his studies in high school and began working in the diamond industry. At the age of 35 he passed away suddenly from a heart attack. In this photographic collection there are personal and family pictures of Naomi nee Germy and Ovadia Ben-Shalom, their children and grandchildren. اقرأ أكثر