Avram Berniger: The Gabbai's Story
There's a certain kind of insanity that moves the world forward. As an American, I think of the stand of Washington and the Second Continental Congress' against the British, or of Martin Luther King, Jr. against Jim Crow. As a Jew, I look at Herzl, and Begin, Moses, and perhaps most relevant to this article, Abraham, the man who stood up to the whole world to bring it a new truth.
Today we're talking about Avram Berniger, whose faith and vision share a bit of this insanity. In his day it was called עליה להגשמה, or Aliya for Fulfillment. It's hard to travel around Israel and really get the struggle it was to get where we are today. Routine commutes between cities were once journeys of days, often fraught with danger.
First Steps
When Avram and Alison first came to Kibbutz Bet Rimon, they got to phone home twice a year, and if they wanted to visit the family abroad, even at their family's expense, they needed permission. The kibbutz had two cars, members needed to schedule their use, and they couldn't afford it anyway.
They knew it would be hard, and they did what they could to prepare. Instead of going to study law at Cambridge, Avram became a certified Automobile Engineering. He was determined to be useful to the Kibbutz. His was a program designed to prepare people for all aspects of running a modern automotive shop. Ironically, Bet Rimon never established one. Alison took a professional sewing course. Her education was put to practical use.
They grew up in London, normal homes, state (what Americans call public) schools. Avram, from a very Zionistic family, always saw his future in Israel. Alison's path was a little less direct. Always a strong and independent minded woman, Alison joined B'nei Akiva, a little more religious, a little more Zionist than the youth group attended by her three siblings.
At B'nei Akiva, the brass ring was Aliyah l'Hagshamah, immigration to fulfill the Zionist dream, to grow and strengthen the state, the only state, that could be a true homeland to the Jews. They didn't know each other at that time, but both learned a tremendous amount, and they bonded with people who would become their life-long friends.
It wasn't long before each found himself in Israel. Avram came in 1975 and 1976 to help develop and work Kibbutz Lavi, and stayed another year to serve in the army. Alison's year was over 1977-78.
They finally met back in London, November 5, 1978. Avram was already well on his way to becoming an Automobile Engineer, and driving his own Vauxhall Viva. It didn't take them long to choose each other, and they were soon making plans for their marriage, and aliyah.
They married in August of 1980 and delayed their emigration three months so they could attend the weddings of a number of their friends. Alison's parents did not like the move to Bet Rimon at all. Her father asked “And what are you going to do when it fails?"
Israel Finally
Another three weeks and they were sitting on a sofa crying. What had they gotten themselves into? Bet Rimon had converted to a Kibbutz from an Army outpost under Sharon's hilltops settlement campaign. They were alloted a 12 square meter (120 square foot) ashkubit, essentially a prefab concrete room. It was Channukah, it was bitterly cold, and it was raining through the ceiling.
There were all of ten families here at the time. It was seven kilometers of one lane road to main road. And it was an uphill battle.
The timing was wrong. While they and a handful of others still believed in it, Bet Rimon just couldn't grow. Representatives of the Kibbutz HaDati (the Religious Kibbutz administration) would come and ask what they were doing wrong. But the idea and the ideal had become a hard sell.
There was no shortage of work. As in any classic kibbutz, there was a communal laundry, dining hall, and children's housing to run. The kibbutz started an orchard (that failed), a dairy, a chicken house, a wood stove and tool manufacturing operation, and the sewing workshop.
It was here Alison's training came in useful. She ran the shop, and they made all the clothes, and had contracts with outside concerns, but the world economy being what it was, eventually they couldn't compete with Asia, and that business also folded.
Alison went back to school in 1992 to become a nurse. She's now the chief oncology nurse at Rambam hospital in Haifa, and has her own car to get there.
Bet Rimon set up a guest house business, just in time for the second Intifada. Bet Rimon became a less desirable vacation destination.
New Beginnings
As Avram puts it “for many, many years, we lived under the shadow that we had set out to do something that was going to fail.”
Bet Rimon had a large debt burden and restructured. They would share the hilltop with a new neighborhood, and those who wanted to leave left. Most did, a handful to build in the new neighborhood. There was still a small core. The tool manufacturing had become a garden tool importer, and Avram its driver.
The fields were let out to another kibbutz, the dairy farm combined with those of two other kibbutzim, and the guest housing was offered for rent to those who wanted to move here. It took a few more years and the shadow is finally lifting.
Fulfillment
But for all of the challenges, they wouldn't trade it for the world. This life called Avram and Alison to be bigger than they'd imagined themselves to be. The adversity has helped them grow. They got out of the ashkubit, to a princely 60 meters (600 sq. feet) just after their first child was born. They had four more.
And their friends, two were on their Aliyah flight to Israel, and are still counted among their neighbors. Three others from B'nei Akiva were here within a year. Their children's best friends are their best friends' children.
And in the end, Alison's father was very proud of her. “He loved coming here more than Jerusalem. He was proud of what we had become.”
And now, the children are coming home. Four kibbutz families have children who have made their homes here, and now Shlomit, their fourth child is coming to join them. They are very excited.
A Spiritual Side
Along the way, Avram became the Gabbai. Some still remind him that he was never elected to the position, but time has made the selection final.
He filled the post for about two years in the early eighties. Then it was assigned to someone else. About 1985, the then Gabbai refused to continue. Avram stepped in and has been doing the job ever since.
He's kind of this big teddy bear who holds our whole community in his embrace. People love it that Avram has spoken at the Brit, the Bar Mitzvah, and their Wedding. And along the way, Alison has whipped up the women to put together countless community kiddushim for just about every kind of event.
And you'll see him stand up to speak at a Bar Mitzvah kiddush, and he looks out at the audience, and he loves these people, as does his Alison, and he thanks the lord for the path that lead him here, and he remembers his earliest memory of the honoree and his parents, and he connects the Parashah to this event.
And he seems to have a special memory for each and every one. And for all he's been through to get here, he's grateful for what he has, and the opportunity that has come to him to be a part of so many people's lives.
And as they look, back, they're proud of who they have become, and realize they Risen and Fulfilled, and continue to do so.
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Comment from: tsvika Member

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