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spent five or six months at a time on various

young political activists. They had no fixed base. Each platoon

the Palmach. It numbered something like 6

heroes in their doomed uprising against the Nazis. Little by

toward us in the village. The people seemed warm

seated on stoops outside breastfeeding their babies. We saw cattle

I spent most of my waking hours in the company of my

he turned and told me about the first time he’d heard it.

I was struck by the almost trancelike look

as the beautiful melodies of Tchaikovsky’s violin

we would listen to a classical music concert on my

my protector and role model. Like my mother

was a highly valued asset. But in politics

beyond my immediate family and a few close friends.

bookish and self-contained child. Only in later years did I come to

outward displays of emotion were seen as a kind of selfishness that

he became responsible for managing any aspect of the

and his natural caution was an additional asset as the kibbutz got

stocky and strong from his work on the kibbutz. He had a

he never grew to more than five-foot-four. Still