Kehilat Middlesbrough Newsletter No 17 July 2003 page 4
My brother David gave me the Kehilat Middlesbrough website address. It is ages since I last looked at it and I must say it is excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed looking at it and reading everything. I went through it with a fine tooth comb.
I have so many memories of Middlesbrough, all of them happy. It was a wonderful place to grow up in. Everyone knew everyone and there wasn't a feeling of anonymity, which can be found in the larger communities. I still get funny looks when people ask me where I come from. People still say "Middlesbrough, where's that?"
I now live in North London and have been living here for the past 30 odd years. I married a Londoner and have two children, boys, one at Leeds University studying engineering and my older son is studying at Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
I had forgotten that you [Donald] were articled to Philip Niman, my father. Philip Niman & Co was very well known within the Jewish community and beyond. My father was very involved with all things Jewish and was also very civic minded too. He was extremely well respected within the wider Middlesbrough community, doing a lot to help Jews and Christians alike.
I remember him telling me that when he was demobbed he was asked if he would help out at the RAF Welfare Board, just for six months or so. He stayed for nearly 40 years, purely on a voluntary basis, as well as working very hard for the Spastic Association Charity, amongst many others.
My memories of Middlesbrough go back to when I was a small child and going to shul with my cousin Helene Simons and sitting with all the girls and giggling with them on the back row above the clock, dashing out just before the sermon and coming back in again just in time for Adon Olam and then we tore straight into the kiddush in the communal hall. Not a very religious memory but a happy memory all the same.
I also remember being beaten to the first prize at the Purim fancy dress party by Cherly Baum. We were both dressed as Little Bo Peep and Little Bo Peep won first prize. She was obviously a lot faster than me, because she jumped up onto the stage to collect her prize whilst I was still elbowing people out of the way to get there.
My mother Judy is now living near me in London. She moved here after Dad died. Philip Niman & co is no longer. It is now called Crutes, having been taken over in 1992. Its not the same and there are only a few who remember him now. Barbara Silver (Niman) London, England