August 11
Bob Visiting Lake Kinneret and Kibbutz Degania
“I saw the Kibbutz Dagania yesterday & the destroyed Syrian tanks. This was one of the most remarkable feats of Israel’s army in 1948.”
Bob Visiting Lake Kinneret and Kibbutz Deganya
August 11, 1957
Sunday Morning 7:20 AM
Dear Mom Dad & Alan,
I spent the weekend at a hotel on the shores of Lake Kinneret. I saw the Kibbutz Dagania yesterday & the destroyed Syrian tanks. This was one of the most remarkable feats of Israel’s army in 1948.
Today we are going into Western Galilee & then will spend the night in Jerusalem.
I haven’t heard from you for 3 or 4 days now but I guess it’s just the mail.
I’m sorry I didn’t write more often but every time you get set to write everyone’s leaving for some interesting place.
Mom, how do you feel, Dad, the same, & Alan are you being a good boy? I’m keeping a diary and taking plenty of pictures so all my adventures will be explained when I return home. It’s time to leave so till tonight when I write again.
Love Bob
David’s Comments:
August 11, 1957
Visiting Lake Kinneret and Kibbutz Degania
“I spent the weekend at a hotel on the shores of Lake Kinneret”
Bob always loved the Kinneret. The hotel Bob and Elaine’s group stayed in was the Ohalao and he would bring his family to swim in the Kinneret almost every year in the summer.
At the end of the summer, the family would donate the rubber boat they had used to Israeli soldiers. (Click to hear
“I saw the Kibbutz Dagania yesterday and the destroyed Syrian tanks. This was one of the most remarkable feats of Israel’s army in 1948”
During the 1948 War of Independence, a column of six Syrian tanks reached Kibbutz Degania. The kibbutz members were farmers equipped with mismatched rifles and possessing no armored vehicles. But it was a victory of the weak over the strong. One version of the battle claims that a young man named Shalom Hochbaum hurled a molotav cocktail under the lead Syrian tank, setting it ablaze, repelling the Syrian assault. To this day, the disabled tank sits at the gate of the kibbutz, and is what Bob was referring to in this letter.
“ I’m keeping a diary and taking plenty of pictures so all my adventures will be explained when I come home.”
After finding the letters, I looked for the diary and never found it. But I did find many picture of his 1957 trip to Israel.
Elaine’s Comments on Bob’s August 11th letter:
“We slept at a hotel on the shores of the Kinneret.”
Elaine:
“The hotel where the youth groups stayed was the Ohalo Hotel on the Southeastern shore of the Kinneret. It is still in existence in 2020 and has a beautiful view of the Kinneret.”
(Ohalo Hotel Video needs to be updated when my parents come to Israel.)
“Today we are going into Western Galilee…”
“We left the Ohalo Hotel on the shores of the Kinneret on our way to Western Galilee. Our bus climbed the hills to Har (Mt.) Arbel where we had a breathtaking view of the Kinneret below. There was a picture taken of Bob and myself (see above) as we were sitting atop Har Arbel. I was in total shock not only when David found the 1957 letters to Bob’s parents but also the pictures of our trip. This picture was my favorite.”