Kehilat Middlesbrough Newsletter No 8 October 2000 page 4
This is Michael Bharier writing from Rhode Island, USA. So far as I know, I am the only M’bro representative in New England. Tania (née Solomon) Fleischman washere in nearby Framingham, Massachusetts, but she and her husband Gordon fled the winters to settle in Florida. If there are others of us in this area, we would like to know.
My parents were Louis and “Minnie” (Miriam) Bharier. My father and his brother Max ran the Smarts toy and cycle shops on Newport Road in M’bro and Dovecote Street in Stockton. This company had been founded in North Orrnesby by their father Jacob (Yaakov Zalman) in 1910, and continued to provide toys and cycles to generations of’ Teessiders until my father retired and the Newport Road building purchased for highway construction in 1976. In fact, the shop was never demolished and is today a sporting goods store, now on a traffic island instead of a crowded street, across from the North Riding Infirmary. My parents had always been active in shul affairs. As the community dwindled and their years advanced, they decided to move south to be nearer my sisters in London. They settled in Watford in 1987, where they immediately became active members of the shul there. My father died in 1993. My mother now lives at the Hammerson House in northwest London close by my sisters.
I grew up in M’bro with my sisters Rose and Judy during the 1940’s, 1950’s and early 1960’s, 1 remember well the shul with its personalities and the cheder in the days of Rev Kersh and Sam Solomon (of whom we were ever in fear of having our ears clipped!). Along with several others, I went to Carmel College, so I missed out on the Fletcher era at M’bro High School, although seeing me frequently in the street with some of his pupils, Mr. Fletcher always thought I was one of them. I did my undergraduate degree in Bacteriology at Edinburgh University then moved out to California to pursue graduate studies. After completing these, I took teaching jobs in Los Angeles then in Cincinnati as a Microbiologist
I worked for many years in Los Angeles as a doctor, specializing in Dermatology. In 1994, we decided to relocate to Rhode island, where I continue to work as a Dermatologist. I have four children, the older two from a previous marriage. My wife is Vicky Esquenazi, and, aside from being my best friend, she is an excellent pianist.
My sisters, Rose and Judy, live in London. Rose is married to Dudley Leigh and they have three children. Judy is married to Roger Obrart. They also have three children.
Judy, Roger and I attended the final service at the M’bro shul on November 1, 1998. It was memorable and moving - and rather sad, with so many memories and “ghosts” hovering over us in that building. However, the sadness was counterbalanced by the pleasure of renewing acquaintance with so many old friends. I am delighted with the way this reunion and the subsequent Kehilat Middlesbrough Newsletter have brought together so many of us previously separated by time and miles. We kvetched about M’bro when we lived there but we all seem to have an attachment to it now. I still follow the Boro scores every week.
I congratulate David and Donald on their energy and persistence. Thank you! Michael Bharier
February 28, 2000
Rose Saville 1909-2000
Rose Saville, born 11 August 1909 in Leeds, died 14 July 2000 in Jerusalem aged 90.
Rose was born in Leeds and was a brilliant student at school but was unable to pass the matriculation examinations when she contracted Scarlet Fever and after some years of secretarial work, during which she became very active in the young Zionist Movements, she met and married Morris Saville of Middlesbrough.
There they set up an Orthodox Jewish home and Rose opened up a grocery shop which was to become for thirty years more the centre of the community than the synagogue.
The war years were difficult. Morris was away in the RAF and Rose was left to run the shop and bring up four children, the eldest of whom, a daughter, died tragically at the age of 4. The story is told that in 1943 Morris called her up and said “Great news, Rosie, Italy has capitulated”, to which she replied, “I didn’t know Italy was in the war” - Of course she had no time to listen to the news or read the newspapers, bringing up the children and running the shop on her own.
Her activities in the Middlesbrough community were manifold, the Ladies Guild, the Hevra Kadisha, WIZO, and she managed to take in a Kindertransport girl for three years during the war.
Despite the lack of Jewish educational facilities, Rose and Morris brought up their children in the way of Torah. Their sons Michael and David were among the first boys of the Middlesbrough Cheder to learn Gemarra since the days of Rabbi Isadore Epstein. Their daughter Ruth, was the first and last Middlesbrough girl to go the Gateshead Seminary.
In 1964 Rose and Morris moved to Sunderland where most of her family lived, where she worked tirelessly for the Sunderland Yeshiva
Eventually they achieved their dream and came on Aliya in 1971. Sadly Morris died after three years and Rose went on to live in the same small Jerusalem apartment for 26 years.
Again her charitable activities continued: she became one of the founders of the Savta Club, where English-speaking Grandmothers organized fund raising for the crippled children of the Alyn Hospital, besides working for Emunah, Herzog, Bikur Holim and Shaarei Tsedek hospitals.
Finally, her crowning event, a family gathering in Jerusalem, based on This is Your Life, Rose Saville, for her 90th birthday which was a more detailed history of her life than as set out in this article, surrounded by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Additionally she acted as the unofficial advisor to the editors of the Kehilat Middlesbrough Newsletter, the only virtual Kehila in the world, following the closure in November 1998.
She fell and broke her hip in March 2000 and whilst recovering she wrote to her only “contemporary” she knew who had done the same thing, the Queen Mother. When the reply came from Clarence House a week later, her joy knew no bounds and she pointed out to all visitors her correspondence with her, all of which contributed to her rehabilitation, but sadly her strength gave out and she died on Friday July 14th and was buried the same day, before Shabbat.
She is survived by her three children, Michael, David and Ruth.