The Shimon Greenhouse’s story (3)

(end, beginning and continuation

Before the war, I was only in first or second grade, and for a short time I studied with a rabbi, but immediately after the war, I went straight to seventh grade. I did not know well the Russian language. In Israel children often confuse inflections and cases, and that is only natural, but in the mid-1940s my environment laughed at me very much at school. When I opened my mouth in class, there was such a laugh that even other classes came to see. I was the only Jew in the class, and in mathematics I was always strong. After a month or two, I began to master the language and even started teaching my friends. There was one mathematics teacher who came from the front. He liked to drink. Sometimes he made mistakes, but I corrected him with all due respect – it was great entertainment for all. My friends would say, “Well, Simon – go and fix the errors there.”

I graduated from a Belarusian-language middle school, and there I learned Russian only as a part of curriculum. In the classes we read the poems of Yakub Kolas and Yanka Kupala. I finished the school with a gold medal, this gave me the opportunity to enter university without exams. I went to the State University of Belarus to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, and at the same time I studied law. The Institute of Law was closer to the Cheluskintsev Park in Minsk, and a few years later this institution was attached to the university and became a faculty.

Shimon Greenhouse: in 1949; with his mother near the monument in Krasnaye (1950).

I remember two chess players who played without a board, and exchanged loudly the moves between them. We often followed them and listened to how they played. One of them, it seems, was the grandmaster Isaak Boleslavsky.

I finished two faculties with honors. I received a scholarship; as an outstanding student, I had a 150% raise.

At that time in the Soviet Union was a custom, according to which those who graduated from the law faculty cum laude were immediately accepted to work in the prosecutor’s office or the Interior Ministry – not in the highest positions, but not in the lowest, either. But there was also strong anti-Semitism… I remember when I entered the Institute of law, most of the teachers were Jews and liberals… Their main idea was: “You can protect any crime, it could have been more difficult.” In the end, when I was in fourth year, everyone disappeared. Professors of state security came. We always laughed at their position: “Give us a man, and we will find him guilty for something.”

Then I realized that I would not succeed in making a career in any government office because I am a Jew, and this was a “crime”, aggravated by the fact that my parents were capitalists… My father, as I said before, was a businessman, and my mother Rosa kept the house, but she also devoted much time to helping the poor. Before the war, Jewish soldiers who served in the military town came to us for lunch and dinner. I also remember yeshiva students who came. My mother worked very actively with a group of women who helped the population. After the war, she worked for many years in a cannery of Krasnaye as a simple worker. Her brother and her family from Dokshitsy were very rich. But she liked the Communist ideas, even when we came to Israel.

I decided that I would be a teacher and went to teach in the area where I fought as a partisan. Between Ilya and Vileyka. There were no railroads or buses, swamps everywhere. Pupils had to go in the winter through the forest, to overcome 10 km, sometimes in the snow till the waist.

A trip to school in the winter, 1955

In 1956 there was the Sinai Campaign in Israel. I remember going to meetings where we had to “condemn the aggressors.” But I looked at the pictures of the Israeli tanks, and my soul was happy.

In 1957 the international youth festival was held in Moscow. I remember that we came from Belarus to see the Israelis, just to hold on to their clothes, to hear their words… and then I realized I had no place in the Soviet Union, even though I was a Soviet citizen. I could go to Poland, where Gomulka ruled at that time. But I had no documents confirming that previously I’d been a Polish citizen.

From Belarus it was difficult to go abroad, so I went to Vilnius, I arranged a fictitious marriage, and I submitted papers. I wrote to the police chief a letter that I was a Polish citizen, and he signed it and transferred it to Vilnius, but my petition was rejected. The request was sent to Radashkovichy for confirmation, we gave money to the police chief, he checked it again, passed it on – and by the end of the year we received a permit and went away. In Poland I was for about a year and a half, then my mother and I were allowed to immigrate to Israel. I worked as a plumber in a company assisted by the “Joint” commitee on the border with Germany. There were stone houses all around, and I was instructed to drill holes. I was considered a student of a Polish plumber, for him it was good, he got paid for it.

In February 1960 I came to Israel with only a hundred words of Hebrew. I went to an ulpan. I had aunts in kibbutzim Ein Harod and Yifat, so they took us there (to Yifat, me and my mother, in the north, between Nazareth and Afula). They gave us a small apartment, and I rarely came there. I went to an ulpan with dormitory in Givatayim. I studied for four months, and then I took a special course in physical-mathematical terminology. I could take a law course and become a lawyer in Israel, but for some reason I did not go for it. I did not work in the Soviet Union as a lawyer either. I started teaching in 1960, I got an apartment in Petah Tikva… and I started working at school, in several schools. The apartment was 30 or 35 meters on Yitzhak Sadeh Street. At that time I did not have enough Hebrew words, but I was well received, the students helped me. In my class there were very few immigrant children. Maybe 3-4 from 30-40.

I started working in a technical school, not in the gymnasium, which was called “Amal”. The principal was also from Russia, like most teachers. I felt like I was in Russia. I also worked at a gymnasium, taught physics there. At this stage Israel built an atomic reactor – not in Dimona, but in Nahal Sorek, on the shore. To deceive enemies, they told everyone it was a textile factory… and the state chose 10 schools in the country to study nuclear physics there. The supervisor seemed to like how I was teaching, or, maybe the students were good, anyway our school was also chosen. We went to the construction site every week, and the technicians and professors explained, gave assignments and lab work. For the only time in my life I saw how a nuclear center was being built, and how to inject fuel. We parted very well, and the students behaved very respectably at the construction site.

After a while I got a letter from an 80-year-old physics inspector who wrote that I had behaved like a bully, the professors and the Laboratory technicians had been hurt and my students broke some tools… I saw black in my eyes. I thought to myself, “What should I do?” I decided: I would go back to see the professors and technicians, because we embraced them when we finished the practice… There was no direct transportation, I went to the streets, and from there I walked to the nuclear power station… Then the “Shin Bet” organization stopped me. They did not even let me talk to anyone, they thought they had found a spy from Russia! Two agents of the Secret Service, just like in the movies: one good and one bad. One of them seems to be helping you and the other threatening… And at the end of the day they broke me, I was already thinking about signing whatever they wanted, I was willing to confirm that everything was true. But they probably turned to someone more senior, and he told them, “Let him go.” And in the evening, they released me, “the good agent” accompanied me, and he said, “I suggest you stay away from here, and if you get close to here you will disappear and your family will not see you again.”

I did not know what to do, how to be in school? I went to the manager and told him the whole story, not knowing if he had received a copy of the letter from the inspector. The manager said, “You know what, I believe you, let’s send him a letter.” I did not know how to write, so he himself wrote and sent. The inspector lived in Haifa, and for a long time there was no answer. One day the manager says, “I will go to him myself.” He went, they took the documents with the inspector, and that’s what they found. My last name is Greenhouse, and they confused me with some kind of Greenberg from a kibbutz who came to the center unprepared… and I received a letter apologizing, which I keep up until now.

I always say this and tell how fate at work may depend on the trust of your boss… we must believe him. And what could it have been? I would have been fired, and no other employer would have taken me.

Then I was appointed deputy director (grade teacher), and when the director retired, I was appointed to his place. I did not want to be a principal at all, it was good for me to work as a grade educator. The principal was more interested in political issues, his brother was one of the closest people to Menachem Begin, almost the best friend. And even when I was a class educator, I had many executive functions, but I did not get any respect or punishment for it. But the teachers, apparently, were pleased with me, so they wrote a letter to the Ministry of Education in my favour.

When I was invited for an interview, I have been a bit insolent. Because I did not think about the job: if they appointed me as principal – all right, but if they don’t, nothing special. Nevertheless they appointed me. It was in 1978, and for 20 years I worked as a principal.

When I took the “Amal B” school there were about 300 students, when I left the position, there were 1500. I did dangerous things: If a new department could be opened, I was always ready for it. I asked permission and opened it.

In his principal’s chair

I was in a very good relationship with the students. In class I was very stiff, a dictator. But I am a liberal dictator – I let my students breathe! And they must listen to me, I must always see it. I do not understand how bad discipline can be for students. For me, they always have to sit, are not allowed to chat, I have to see their eyes, otherwise I do not feel well.

As a principal, I continued to teach. In addition to classes, I tried to help the students, they were always crowded in my office, the secretary brought them coffee. When I retired, I had no day without work. I started working as a teacher and I still work today. For more than sixty years.

Together with former President Shimon Peres. Both were born in the same country.

I thought God, or fate, had already grace for me – previously they molested me so hard… But they сome down on me once again. My son Gil got seriously ill at the age of 13 and was fighting with his disease for 20 years. He had a brain tumor – not malignant, but rather aggressive. He underwent surgery in Canada and Israel… He managed to finish his studies at school and university. He understood in computers very well: he opened an international high-tech company with his friends. On his last day he still gave orders to the workers. This company exists to this day.

Gil and his parents in Europe, 1995

For me, his illness was even worse than the war. But I feel he is still with me all the time. I always agree with him about what I’ll talk. Two years after his death, I got cancer, and my doctors told it was under the influence of his death. But fate or God did it so that the disease was discovered before the holidays, on Passover. At the same time I prepared the students in mathematics at the highest level. And immediately on my first day off I was given an operation – a long one, it lasted between seven and eight hours.

After the surgery I awoke very quickly. I went to the doctor who operated me, to ask what the forecast was. He said: “A very good forecast, 50 percent stay alive.” When I got up in two days, he looked dissatisfied, he said: “You’re like that… not thin, not young… old, how did you get up so fast?” At first, there were lots of drugs. At seven I had chemotherapy, and my wife took me to work at eight o’clock. It was in 2003. Since the operation every six months I go to the surveys, the doctor gives me a letter… I look at this letter as if it’s a pass for another year of life.

Now I work six days a week. I get to school at seven-fifteen, and my studies start at eight-thirty… I help students solve math problems. They all have my phone, they call me after nine at night, we solve problems, and they can ask questions until midnight. My wife is not pleased, of course. I usually go to sleep at 1 AM, and I get up at five-thirty in the morning. I suppose I’m like a camel in relation to sleep. When I was at university, I knew almost nothing a week before the exam. My partner laughed: “What, you do not know that?” I could sit for 80-100 hours – not sleeping, not eating, just drinking and learning, learning, learning… Three days before the exam, I jumped up to their level, two days before the exam they already gathered around me, and I taught them.

Diplomas, awards, certificates of appreciation and personal gifts belonging to Shimon Greenhouse

When I do exams, I check everything that day. By morning I’m already putting in the grades. The students wake up, and they already know how much they got.

With the young athletes

Once our school won the World Handball Championship (between schools, of course). And no, the students do not deal much with chess at the moment. They spend a lot of time on computers and electronics. They write plans to build robots.

Testimony of Shimon Greenhouse for Yad Vashem and his opinion on Israeli youth.

What was the story with the court?

Yes, three times parents of the students sued me.

Once we went with the students on a trip to Sinai, the guys hung up at a steep speed, and the teachers stood at the bottom, trying not to let them reach the highway. So I was not a principal yet, but I was among those teachers. One guy was hit in the head, his cells moved. I often went to the hospital because I felt guilty. The boy was treated for a long time, then he went to the university, but could not finish – the consequences of the injury took their toll. As a child, he practiced volleyball. The parents saw the income of a famous volleyball player and asked the school to pay him 10% of the income. It ended in nothing.

The second time a student who was finishing school, studying his 10th year (in our school there are 10 years of schooling) contacted a group of thieves. His parents did not let him see these “friends”, so he hanged himself. They sued us, as they wrote, for not caring about him, as if he did not go to school for 40 days (in fact, he missed 40 hours of study).

And the third case, when the students traveled somewhere with a youth organization, and one of them was killed by a car. I had nothing to do with it, but the lawyers seemed to have such an order – to sue the school and the principal. This time, I did not even appear in court.

What else would you like to know?

A few years ago, we reached Krasnaye. I think that after I left for Israel, I came to Belarus three times, once with my family. Yes, that’s right, I ordered a new monument to the victims of the Holocaust in Krasnaye. The person who built that monument set up a memorial in Haradok neae Maladziechna as well.

In Belarus during making the film “Sioma – visit in Belarus.”

I met with the Belarusian ambassador in Israel, somewhere in 2001. His father was also a partisan, the ambassador himself told me about it.

Poland, 1995; lighting a memorial candle on Mount Herzl

I participated in the first march of life in Poland. A few years ago, I was chosen to light a torch on Holocaust Remembrance Day – in Jerusalem (six people were chosen). And this year I also received the “Life Work” award. The President signed the order, and the Minister of Education, Naftali Bennett, handed me the prize. For the first time, such a prize was given to the teacher. Sometimes it is given to professors or scientists.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Shimon Greenhouse; at the President’s Award Ceremony with the President of Israel Reuven Rivlin

I do not follow closely what is happening in Belarus. But I keep in touch with a school teacher in Krasnaye. Sometimes we talk on Skype, or she calls in the evening. Her name is Alla Shidlovskaya. She sent us a book by Sergei Starykevich.

Shimon with teachers and pupils of the school in Krasnaye, Belarus; messages from Alla Shidlovskaya

My eldest son Tal was born in 1963. He graduated from the Gymnasium in Tel Aviv, went to study engineering at the Technion. He served in intelligence, with a high degree, but he retired more than 20 years ago. He checks elevators and cranes. His wife Tzila is a lawyer in our city, she is from Turkey. They have a son and a daughter.

Tzila and Tal at their marriage day; their son Guy and daughter Amit

My son Nir, born in 1971, is an electronics engineer and a graduate of Tel Aviv University. He works for “Panasonic”, providing computer equipment for large organizations. His wife Inbal is a doctor, works at the Tel Hashomer clinic, her father is from Morocco and her mother has roots in Hungary. They also have a son and a daughter. Their family lives in Givatayim.

Nir is promoted to Major degree; Nurit during her army service

Her daughter Nurit was born exactly during the Yom Kippur War (1973), and Lisa gave birth to her in her clinic. The period was worrisome, the doctors expected there would be many wounded. The senior sister asked, “Why have you come on my head now?” And my wife – who herself is a maternity nurse – answered: “I will do everything myself.” My daughter’s husband is Ofer Bar, and his ancestors also came from different countries (Romania, Morocco). They have three children. I particularly want to mention my granddaughter Yael, who is in third grade, but already knows the computers well and makes presentations for me.

How did I get through everything I went through in the war, and then? I do not know myself. No, not religious faith helped me. I worked a lot and always thought about my relatives.