Name: Ralph Gartenberg
email:  roseandralph@argart.plus.com

There are two errors in your history. The  French boy who discovered the blaze at Danyrach Park in Llangadog was Andre Weil , not Roger Metzger who did not stay after war broke out. The photograph of the two boys who had speared a 29lb. salmon erroneously describes the tall boy as being me. He was, in fact, Arnold Cohen and I am the shorter one on the right of the picture. I was present when the fire started and put in charge (as a Prefect) of saving the store of fresh and tinned food the Head had accumulated.
With kind regards,,
Sincerely  Ralph (1938-1941)

 

Subject:  Flights from New Yorkkkk
Date:  Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:05:06 -0400
From:  Gunhild & Isaac Shamoun <shamoun@optonline.net>
To:  louis@baydee.com

Please notify all Whits residing in usa that there a daily Delta airlines flight from New York JFK airport direct to Gatwick. Great Business class fare @ $2600 round trip
THANK YOU, Isaac Shasmoun

 

Subject: RE: Whittingehame Reunion 2008
Date:Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:00:05 +0100
From:"Maurice Glynne" <mglynne@pilatmedia.com>
To:"Louis Mandel" <louis@baydee.com>

Sorry that I will not be able to make it.
Please express my regrets to all.

 

Subject: Whitniks at Le Marais Meeting
Date:  Sun, 20 Jan 2008
From:  Anton Loew <antonloew@nyc.rr.com>
To:      many

Date of Dinner: January 17, 2008

Whittingehame Club -Dinner with Jacob Israelachvili in Le Marais,
150 West 46 streets, at 7pm. (Between 6th and 7th Ave.) New York, NY

Surprise, surprise, even in terrible weather of rain and snow, not to mention rush hour traffic near the spectacular Times Square’s glaring
night lights, we had the most joyous occasion to get together and welcome our member BOY Jacob to New York. Eighteen Whitniks
and their lovely spouses were in attendance.

EXCUSES for not attending were as follows and of course they were missed:
Danny Gillerman had to fly to Israel.
Axel Stawski was in Brazil.
Micky Gillerman and Jolles were already in Israel.
Dibbo Attar was in NY on Tuesday but had to depart.
Albert Cohen had to fly to his grandson's Bar Mitzva in Israel.
Amos Yahil was in Chicago on business.
Elli Romano who was in Germany had to go to Connecticut.
Stanley Cohen was in New York for the weekend from England. He could not stay for the meeting, and had to fly out. Stanley came
NY to claim the 20 Pounds Sterling he had loaned to Ebo Cohen forty years ago. As proof he brought an unopened returned mail to
sender letter he had sent Ebo forty years ago. The letter was opened and after reading the three pages letter no where did they find that
Stanley requested the money to be returned.

You must admit Whitniks have the best creative excuses for not attending.

On the positive side, we would like to thank the attendees for coming.
Jack Abraham just came from Washington after meeting President Bush.
Joe Romano just flew back from Germany.
Michael Lewin and his lovely wife honored us. He was in the 1935 class and shared his wisdom with us.

THANKS GO TO:
Jacob for visiting New York.
Most important to Itzhak Djemal for solving the seating arrangement. He figured out how to sit 18 people at a table for 12. We always
knew he was brilliant and now we have the proof.

Members attending the event:
Mr. Jacob Israelachvili
Mr. and Mrs. Itzhak Djemal
Raphi Djemal
Mr. and Mrs. Jack Avraham
Mr. and Mrs. Anton Loew
Mr. and Mrs. Joe Romano
Abe Cohen
Solly Levy
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Lewin
Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Khedouri
Dr. and Mrs. Andrew Seidenfeld

IMPORTANT:
Please see attached award winning pictures of potential movie stars and starlets. A few Paparazzi were spotted in the bistro disguised
as Hassidic Rabbis with long beards making a racket. No body fell asleep during the speeches. Eldon and his lovely wife were topics of
discussion and missed. All other data and minutes of the meeting have been destroyed (not to incriminate the members.)

See you in Brighton
Anton Loew (Tony Lev) at 646 284 8705

 

Subject: Whittinghame Club
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005
From: "Mark Fefer" <m2it@zoom.co.uk>
To: <louis@baydee.com>

Dear Louis,
I was a junior when you were at Handcross, I was a little shy so Jake was very kind to me, so too were most of the seniors and prefects.   I am writing to ask if you know the date of his Mr. Halevy's passing and his place of burial? I would dearly like to pay my respects.   In his address to the school in the shul when the closure was confirmed, he mentioned my upset at the closure and referred to me as ' little Fefer' ( which got a few laughs I can tell you ). If the school had not closed soon after, that would have been my tag from that day on I suspect as all my peers plagued me with that for weeks.

The attached photo is a clipping from the site, I am dead centre of this in shorts.  The second attachment, also from the website is a complete surprise to me. I am the little one with hands in pockets. It may be of interest to you but the buildings behind and the tower are all now demolished. The derelict walled garden remains but encloses a beautiful kindergarten school, retaining the original fountain. The current owners of the property, Handcross Park School, are very nice people and allowed me to wander round to revisit the place. The seniors block and the quad where the shul was, are now gone as is the Dutch Barn, however the Blue Stairs are still Blue but the glazed doors are removed. The main entrance remains as does the entrance hall with all it's paneling and trophy the lovely trophy cabinet. The dining room is now a chapel.  Louis do you remember, was there a pipe organ in the room adjacent to the kitchens? I went past the kitchens, do you remember the cocoa trolley? I could almost taste it as I went through to the back stairs, that lead up to Mr. Hall's study and then up to the sick room and the attic. The Pond has been retained and maintained in nice order by the school. They have respected the beauty of the place and although there have been changes, they appear to have been essential to the success of the school rather than for change's sake.

I had a friend Isaac Lowenwurtz, whose mother was very ill and Jake took in Isaac into the school at his own expense.  Isaac did not speak any English when he arrived but he was my real close friend nevertheless, and I would dearly love to be in touch with him. I think he emigrated to the USA. Also my great friend Ian Fenton, who I had many a stay over with during holidays.

Another memory that sticks with me were the seniors dances, when they were allowed to invite young ladies to a dance at the school. As juniors, we were fascinated to watch these lovely ladies arriving at our school and mixing with our seniors. Everyone crowded into our dorm to catch a glimpse of these adorable ladies arriving. Some of them would hear our giggles and look up, and we were so happy when some of them gave us a ladylike little wave and a blushing smile. It wasn't long before matron came in and soon had us tucked up in our beds.

I have to say, that I attended another boarding school for four years after the closure, but I don't feel nearly so sentimental about that as I do about my time at Whittingehame. Strange, but I think we all recognise what a family we were and still are. What an honour to belong to this family.

Regards and best wishes
Mark Fefer

 

From: MHNY1407@aol.com 
To: eldon_smith@whittingehame.fsnet.co.uk 
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2001 5:14 AM
Subject: Re: 

Dear Mr.Smith. 
Thank you for your Holiday Greetings. 

I just wanted to let you know that this past week I was browsing thru the Whittingehamian web-site and it brought back beautiful memories of my time in school. I was eight years old when I arrived to school from Turkey with my two brothers, and I always had the feeling of being 'Home away from Home" It was a wonderful feeling. 

I remember one day during class in Handcross, you said that when we leave school we will remember it as the best years of our lives. I have to say now, it was truly an under-statement.

please extend our sincere thanks to all who were involved in the Whittingehamian web-site. They did an outstanding job. We have been going thru this terrible crisis in New York, and as we browse thru the web-site it has brought in the sunshine in to our lives. It is truly magnificent ! 

We want to wish you and Ella "Seasons Greetings, and a Healthy, Happy New Year" 
Warmest Regards, and hope to see you soon, 

Ebu Cohen and family

 

July 8, 2001
Our Treasurer has received the following letter from the Head of Modern English Collections at the British Library.

"Dear Raphael Attar, 
Please thank the Whittingehame Club for the kind donation of "Jake's Legacy". It is a gratefully received addition to the national printed archive and a fascinating bit of history in its own right.  I first met Eric Shanes in the late 1970s as he was embarking on his first Turner book and followed his writing and curatorial career with great interest. Please pass on my best wishes (and thanks) to him.  

If the club has a programme of visits, I have no doubt we could arrange a tour of the British Library for its members - just let me know.
With thanks again, 
Stephen Bury"

 

From: Paul Wynblatt <pw01@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: <eldon_smith@whittingehame.fsnet.co.uk>
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2001 7:42 PM
Subject: Hello


April 22, 2001
Dear Eldon,

Ann and I just got back to Pittsburgh from a trip which began in early January. Thanks for your February message which we found in the large pile of accumulated mail.

Our long trip this winter was one of the bonuses of a recent change in my status at Carnegie Mellon University. As of the beginning of this academic year (Sept. 2000), I am operating in a phased retirement mode, which involves work on a half-time basis. This means that I work full-time during the Fall semester, and can do as I please during the Spring semester. As a result, we began this year by spending ten days in Israel, visiting my mother and other relatives, then spent a month in Jülich (Germany) and two months near Marseille, where I have on-going scientific collaborations.

Towards the end of this extended "working-holiday", Ann made a short trip to England during which she visited Blenheim Palace, which brings me to the real reason for this letter. When we eventually caught up with each other at the Pittsburgh airport, one of the first things she mentioned was the visit to Blenheim, and the beautiful tapestries depicting the battles of Oudenarde and Malplaquet. Now, I was not one of your star History students. In fact, my memory for names and dates was so bad (even as a teen-ager) that History was always my bete-noir. However, one of the few things I learned while sitting at the feet of The Master was the usefulness of acronyms; I am referring of course to BROM 4689. So I was able to impress Ann by asking whether there had been any tapestries of the battles of Blenheim or Ramillies, and to quote the relevant dates. That conversation reminded me that I was so dazzled with the concept of acronyms, that I
began to apply them to all of the historical events you were teaching us at the time. One of the few I still recall was intended to help me remember all of the reasons for Britain's loss of the American War of Independence. I concocted the acronym: SWIM FABULDAG, although I no longer have any idea what the various letters stand for.

I saw a copy of the e-mail message in which Mordechai Chvili reported to you on our meeting near Geneva. We spent a very pleasant week-end together reminiscing about the good old days at Whittingehame, and catching up on the events of the past 45 years. It was a very enjoyable reunion.

Since you asked about my e-mail address, I am sending you this by e-mail.
Best regards to you and Ella,

Paul

Paul Wynblatt
Prof. of Materials Science and Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh PA 15213

Phone: 412 268 8711
Fax: 412 268 7596

 

From: <ernest.sinyor@ps.ge.com>
To: <eldon_smith@whittingehame.fsnet.co.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2001 2:40 PM
Subject: RE: www


Eldon,

Xie Xie ( pronounced Chez Chez like in french) , meaning thank you. I am actually in Shanghai over the next 2 weeks negotiating a contract closure with people who are reputed to be good negotiators but who are meeting their match with a " whittingehame- trained" counterpart. I learned a lot about negotiating from the staff at Whittingehame and those long nights standing on detention helped to INCULCATE those principles. The British influence is evident in the architecture he but China seems to have evolved in its own right. Today we visited the Peace hotel which was built by a Sir Victor Sassoon in the 1930's who was wealthy and influential and owned 1900 buildings in Shanghai. He could have been a typical Whittingehame student , coming from Iraq with a sephardic background .

I will look up the correspondence section when I get back as access to the system is exorbitant from here.

It is nice to hear from you . All the best to Ella.

Ernest