Tributes

Meir Gottesmann: 12.4.1922–8.12.2000

Meir Gottesmann was an educator’s educator. He started as ateacher, but his readiness to assume responsibilities took him to anever-widening scope of educational activities. The focal point of hisincessant endeavors was the bettering of the individual young person’slife and life prospects, when and as long as the parents and familywere, for whatever reason, not in a position to provide all the necessarycare and guidance.

Meir’s basic approach was ever respectful of the individual—child,young person, parent or fellow educator—but he never lost sight of thegeneral cultural, social and even national contexts of our lives. Hefound an exemplary way to live with this paradox: to be the envoy ofthe institution he worked for and believed in, and at the same time,be the representative of the individual child or educational group vis-a-vis that institution.

He always felt that his role was to serve a cause that transcendsindividual interests. This was the case when he fought as a universitystudent in our War of Independence; when after the establishment ofthe State of Israel he worked (as a civilian ) for the Israeli DefenseForces as an absorption officer during the years of the mass immigra-tion; and finally, when joining Youth Aliyah.

This unique Zionist undertaking came into being, initially on a rela-tively small scale, when the Nazis rose to power in Germany in 1933.Its goal was to save Jewish youngsters by helping them emigrate to(then) Palestine, and to teach and educate them in Kibbutzim to becomeuseful working citizens of their new homeland. Eventually, Youth Ali-yah became the most important non-governmental organization in Is-rael caring over the years for the absorption and education of morethan a hundred thousand children; new immigrants as well as sociallydisadvantaged Israeli-born children and young people, in Kibbutzim,children’s villages and other specialized institutions.

From an educational supervisor and Director of Education, Meirprogressed to become Director General of Youth Aliyah. His commit-ment to “the family of Youth Aliyah,” as he called it, was total—up toand even beyond the last day of his service.

Child & Youth Care Forum, 31(3), June 2002 2002 Human Sciences Press, Inc. 141

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Meir’s choice of allegiances can be seen as primarily determined byhis deep sense of gratitude for living in Israel, his own country. Hewas born in a small town in Transylvania (Romania), where the smallJewish community had been living peacefully alongside the rest of thelocal population.The black tide of the Holocaust swept it all away.Practically the entire Jewish community was deported and extermi-nated in forced labor camps. Both of Meir’s parents, two of his brothersand one sister, as well as all his extended family, died there.

How could he go on living without bitterness or gloom, kind to all,full of energy and optimism?—one wonders. The ever-present warmafter-glow of past childhood happiness must have helped. But above all,his very special personality: intellectually brilliant, with a minimum ofpersonal ambition; genuinely “loving his neighbor”; loving to his family;loving his work; devoted to his friends, with a sense of humor devoidof sarcasm; assertive, while never provoking aggressiveness; a greatlistener, wise counselor in all human affairs, casting a luminous, smil-ing eye on everyone.

Nor was his interest directed exclusively to the Israeli or Jewishconcerns. His deep involvement and rich experience with residentialeducation as a preferential solution, and not as a service to be used bydefault for many youngsters in difficulty, made him an active partici-pant in FICE, the Federation Internationale des Communautesd’Enfants (later, Communautes Educatives). He was eager to learn aswell as to share Israeli experience with colleagues in other countries.Many of the FICE representatives became personal friends and FICEitself became for him, not surprisingly, “the family of FICE.”

Meir’s exceptionally conflict-free, love-infused childhood and youth inthe midst of his large family, the pleasant gatherings with his peersand young folk of different ages, where football was played (Meir wasenthusiastic but bad at it) and lofty philosophical and political discussionswere held (where Meir modestly excelled) seem to have set a sort ofprototypical model for his subsequent social and professional interac-tions, as well as for his educational credo and praxis: the importance foryoung people of the group with its benevolent power; the group itselfbelonging to a larger social entity, which in its turn is part of a largersocietal realm. The big challenge and central purpose of his professionallife was, so it seems, optimally and creatively to serve the changing needsof all involved in this great task, and to inspire others to do likewise.

Meir was my husband.

Shoshana Gottesmann14, Rehov Soutine64684 Tel AvivIsrael

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A Tribute to Meir Gottesmann:A Pioneer of Residential Child and Youth Care of Our Time;

“Mister Youth Aliyah” in Israel

Very few people are so closely identified with an organization, or anideological movement, as was Meir Gottesmann with the Youth Aliyahchild rescue and educational movement in Israel. This youth organiza-tion was founded in Berlin on February 1933 by a remarkable Jewishleader, Mrs. Recha Freier, with the aim of saving Jewish young peopleby sending them to residential programs in the Kibbutz movement inIsrael during its pre-statehood phase.

After the end of the Second World War, Youth Aliyah carried outthe heroic operation of integrating adolescent immigrants into Israelby means of residential programs. Since its creation, Youth Aliyah hashad more than 250,000 graduates, most of them fully integrated inIsraeli society. For a lot of people, Meir Gottesmann as a person repre-sented Youth Aliyah, and on many occasions he was approached as“Mister Youth Aliyah.”

This outstanding person is no longer with us. He passed away onDecember 8, 2000, in his apartment in Tel Aviv, at the age of 78.

Meir Gottesmann was born in Transylvania, Romania in 1922. Hehad barely succeeded in finishing his high school studies when theSecond World War started. Although he was still an adolescent then,he had to struggle very hard, like many other Jewish people, to survivethe Holocaust in Europe. Meir, like many of his Jewish friends, wasactive in the Zionist Youth movement in Romania. Their aspirationwas to survive and emigrate to Israel in order to join the nation-buildingprocess of the Jewish state.

He arrived to Israel in 1944, with the dream of becoming a pioneer(“Chaloutz”), and therefore decided to join a Kibbutz—“Kinneret,” nearthe Sea of Galilee. He did not stay there for long, but it was enoughto shape his attitudes and points of view. As a dreamer and romanticperson, he remained fascinated by, and a big admirer of, the Kibbutzmovement throughout his life.

Meir Gottesmann loved the ideals of the Kibbutz, but as an intellec-tual, he was eager to study and develop his intellectual capacities. He,therefore, moved to Jerusalem and joined the Hebrew University ofJerusalem, studying at the departments of Philosophy and History. Hewas a brilliant student and had the privilege to be mentored by eminentIsraeli scholars such as Prof. Hugo Bergman, Prof. Rotenstreich andProf. Eisenstadt.

Like many other students of that time, he had to stop his studiesbecause of the 1948 independence war and join the student’s unit amongthe Israeli defense forces which took part in the battle around Jerusa-lem. He was even wounded in this battle for the defence of the Jewish

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part of Jerusalem. When the war was over, Meir came back to theUniversity and completed his academic studies.

Meir Gottesmann was a person who was always very much involvedin the social sphere. He started his professional career as an educationalofficer in the youth groups of the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces). Theearly fifties were a very difficult period in Israel. These were the forma-tive years of the new Israeli state. There was mass immigration andalmost two million people arrived in Israel from 1949–1953. Many ofthem were people who had survived the holocaust and needed to regaintheir stability and self-confidence, at the same time as participatingactively in building the structures of the new Jewish state.

Life was very difficult at that time. Camps of tents were establishedall over the country to accommodate the thousands of immigrants.Gottesmann’s task was to install primary educational programs for tak-ing care of children and young people among the new immigrants whocame from 120 different cultures. This experience of helping immi-grants to integrate in their new homeland became the leitmotif through-out the outstanding professional career that Meir Gottesmann devel-oped later on.

In 1953, he joined Youth Aliyah as an educational supervisor. Thisunique child rescue and educational movement became his second homeuntil the end of his life. He internalized the motto of Youth Aliyahfounders: “Let the newcomers be responsible for integrating other newimmigrants who have come after them . . . ” Very quickly, Meir becamea leading figure in the Youth Aliyah movement. He had a profoundrespect for every child, and developed an outstanding capacity to com-municate with young people no matter what their culture of originwas. He never forgot his own experience of being an immigrant, anddeveloped innovative projects in order to facilitate the integration pro-cess for adolescents coming to Israel, who, whether they had travelledalone or with families, were still struggling with their own adaptationto the new country.

Most Youth Aliyah programs were operated in residential institu-tions. However, Meir did not like the effects of institutionalizationand developed the concept of community group care. The Israeli youthvillage model, which was original and remains unique today, was verydear to Gottesmann. He himself contributed a lot to the on-going devel-opment of this very special kind of residential care. The principles uponwhich it has been based are:

1. Heterogeneous composition of the students’ group. New immigrantsthat need the group care experience in order to overcome the cross-cultural transition process successfully, together with socially dis-advantaged youth who need extra-familial care because of socio-economic reasons.

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2. Avoidance of negative stigma associated with residential care. Theideological context of immigrant integration as part of the nationbuilding process acted as an antidote that protected the residentialnetwork in Israel from the negative effects of the social stigmathat affected similar networks in Europe, the United States andelsewhere.

3. Maintaining children in residential care at low budget. With thelimited resources of the Israeli society, this original way of “educat-ing away from home”, a Gottesmann term, and the title of one ofhis books, was relatively inexpensive because of the ecological modelapplied. This served as a substitute to highly expensive professional-ised types of residential care which were developed in Europe afterthe Second World War.

4. Normative educational framework instead of treatment orientation.The rationale of the program was based on normalization principles,focusing on education rather than on treatment-oriented approachessuch as the medical model, or the psychoeducateur model, to namebut two.

Meir Gottesmann was for many years the Educational Director ofYouth Aliyah, and it was during this period that the organisationreached its greatest size in the 69 years of its existence, with 19,000young people under its care. In 1978, he was appointed Director Generalof the Youth Aliyah organization, a position that he carried out mostsuccessfully until his retirement at the end of 1984.

Meir Gottesmann was very active also on the international level,mainly participating in the activities of the International Federationof Educative Communities (FICE). He was involved in FICE’s activitiesfrom the early sixties, as Israel representative on the Federal Council.Although he was representing a small country, he gained a specialstatus among all FICE members and leaders. When he retired fromhis office in Youth Aliyah, he was recognized by FICE as a Life HonoraryMember, an honor that is usually awarded only to past Presidents ofthe international association. Among his contributions to FICE, therewas the Malmo Declaration of which Gottesmann was one of the initia-tors, where it is stated:

“Residential institutions for children should be seen not as a last resortbut rather as an important and valuable intervention, that should bechosen at the proper moment in the development of children who needthis kind of intervention.”

Another aspect of Meir Gottesmann’s contributions to the child andyouth care field are the numerous publications and books that wereedited by him. Among them:

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• A book that he co-edited with Prof. Martin Wolins from the Universityof Berkley in California: Wolins, M. & Gottesmann, M. (1971). GroupCare; An Israeli Approach. Los-Angeles: Gordon and Breach. Thiswas the first scientific attempt to describe and analyze the specialIsraeli model of residential care.

• Another book of great interest is the summary and collected papersof an international seminar that Gottesmann organized in Jerusalemin 1983, where he invited scholars and practitioners from differentcountries to exchange views about the contribution of residentialcare to the education of immigrant youth: Gottesmann, M. (1988).Cultural Transition—The Case of Immigrant Youth, Jerusalem: TheMagnes Press, The Hebrew University.

• However, there is no doubt that for those of us in Israel, for whomGottesmann represented an ideal type and a mentor, the most preciousamong his publications is the book where he summarized his viewsabout Youth Aliyah’s educational principles: Gottesmann, M. (1988).Educating Away from Home The Israeli Way. Youth Aliyah: Continuityand Change, London: Freund publisher in association with FICE. Hepublished this book in two versions, in Hebrew and in English, so thatboth his colleagues in Israel and abroad could share his views abouteducating youth and residential child and youth care.

For several years, Gottesmann took upon himself to edit the interna-tional bulletin of FICE-International, a mission that he succeeded inrealising with great dedication and competence with the precious helpof David Lane from the United Kingdom. He handed over this responsi-bility later on to Robert Soisson from Luxembourg (who later becamePresident of FICE).

He continued to maintain and develop his dialogue with residentialeducators all over the world through intensive correspondence withmany of his friends in FICE, and particularly with the editing andpublication of two books, which were his last active contributions toFICE-International. The two books (published with a single “n” ratherthan a double “nn” in Gottesman) are: Gottesman. M. (1991). Residen-tial Child Care: An International Reader, London: FICE Publicationsin association with Whiting & Birch; and Gottesman, M. (1994). RecentChanges and New Trends in Extrafamilial Child Care: An InternationalPerspective, London: Whiting & Birch in association with FICE.

It has to be emphasised that all these publications could not havebeen realised without the very generous support of his great friend,Mrs. Hella Kleeman, the Chairperson of Youth Aliyah Friends’ commit-tees in Europe.

Reading the last book, one can easily recognize that Gottesmann wasdeeply disheartened to see the decline of residential care all over FICE’s

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member countries. The new trend is focusing on community-based in-terventions and extensive efforts to reconnect even the most disturbedchild with his family. This orientation is far different from the classicalresidential care that focused on the child himself solely, regardless ofhis family. These concepts were very well adapted to the rehabilitationof Holocaust survivors, or for the education of adolescents in the revolu-tionary phase of the Israeli society. These assumptions are very seri-ously questioned nowadays, however, when strengthening the familyand the community is taking the lead. Gottesmann, the romanticdreamer of the youth community found it very difficult to adjust tothese new trends, and therefore decided to step down from FICE’s scenecompletely, after having finished the publication of the 1994 book.

Meir Gottesmann was married to Shoshana, who is a well-knownpsychologist in Tel Aviv. Together they raised two daughters who areboth married and brought them a lot of happiness with the six beautifulgrandchildren.

Emmanuel GrupperThe Administration for Rural EducationYouth AliyahABC Building, 2 Hashlosha StreetP.O. Box 941961090 Tel AvivIsrael

“What They Really Need. . . . ”:In Memory of Meir Gottesmann

Because of who he was as a person, I find it very difficult to speakof Meir in terms of the “late” Meir Gottesmann. For his friends andcolleagues, he is present in our memories, as an important part of thehistory of FICE. His work and initiatives remain in the best achieve-ments of this international association over the last thirty years. Duringhis time as our contemporary in the human community, he continuedto ask questions all the time. It is a pity we have to go on without hiscontributions.

Meir was realistic enough to consider all of the different importantfactors in residential child and youth care and education that was hiscentral interest during his life. He was so sensitive and genuinelyattached to young people that he would never agree with the dominationof an administrative approach in the life conditions of thousands ofchildren and adolescents in residential institutions. Nor did the aspectof professionalization really satisfy him. In some respects, he tried tointegrate or combine different main streams in his work. In other

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respects, he followed a direction far away from what seemed to bethe current trend. Looking back, and around myself, I am trying tounderstand and to evaluate what he accomplished. More than once, Ihave found confirmation of his diagnosis in current problems.

Meir was highly committed to the Youth Aliyah movement. This hadbeen the organizational instrument to rescue precious parts of hisgeneration and the next one. His point of view in planning and actingwas both a political and a humanistic one. Therefore, he could not besatisfied with the trends of growing individualism and liberalism inMiddle Europe, and their influence on child and youth care settings.His arguments were strengthened by his own life experience, but theywere not fixed only to them. Looking around and looking forward, herecognized the danger in the years to come. Young people withoutfamilies to care for them would no longer belong to peer groups arrangedby adults, which at least allowed for an integration “on the side,” andencouraged them to compare their starting positions in life. Youngpeople in the middle of the present push of modernization will not havelearned to work and practise, to train and play together. Will they beforced to live alone, or with changing partners? Will they surrender toideologies or join gangs?

His arguments were neither “conservative” nor nostalgic. They seemto be prophetic. It is obvious now that child and youth care needs morethan sufficient money, and more than programs and research. It needsinspired people. Meir was convinced that “personality matters more thanprofessional job training,” and therefore he worked hard for a correspond-ing description of the tasks in child and youth education and care. Inthis context, he complained of the poor working conditions for staff mem-bers, as well as the low esteem in which they were held by society. Iknew this well from my country, Germany. He did not agree with the“solution” of this question, found by many European countries, thatchose to abandon residential care for less expensive community-basedprograms. Of course he was aware of the necessity to support familiesand children within their life space and their social network. Yet, hethought that it was not the appropriate solution for every social or devel-opmental problem. He believed we have to try both ways, residentialcare and community-based programs, at the same time and not wasteour strength by letting one kind of help oppose the other.

In the first International Reader that he edited, Residential ChildCare (Gottesmann, 1991), Meir uses the expression “global educationand care” as an abbreviation for the best possible efforts in his country.It seems to me that middle Europe must continue on and find such astandard. Where and when residential care has been good up to now,it has been as well: integration, compensation, support, schooling, train-ing, challenge, shelter and “love in structure.” It could only succeedwhen there existed “no conflict . . . between the individual and collec-

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tive interests” (p. 192). Meir was idealistic enough to recognize thatthis is not the case at present time. But he remembered that it hadbeen true during the first years after the creation of the state of Israel.

These were the first years of FICE-International as well. In thosedays, Children’s Communities were, on the one hand, an educationalaim, and on the other hand, a base for membership in FICE. It seemsto me as if this must have been very near to Meir’s thinking. YouthVillages combined professional and voluntary work, and they struggledhard to gain a place in society and a way of living for their disadvantagedmembers. They could not count on families, and therefore tried to buildup self-esteem together with collective experiences, group identity andusefulness within society.

In 1980, the FICE Federal Council met in the Netherlands. Amongother activities, we had the opportunity to visit a big Youth Village.The director had asked some of the boys to show us around. Meir andI joined an English-speaking group and listened to a rather enthusiasticboy who spoke about his opportunities and progress in the village andlater on. He especially valued that fact that he lived in a room of hisown, and at this point Meir began to ask him questions. Meir wantedto know if the boy wanted to remain single for the rest of his life, if hethought that he had enough social skills to get along with other people,and if his part in society was as yet well defined in his mind. In a word,Meir was asking if he and his peers knew what they really needed.Deeply impressed, I listened to this discussion and debate that was sofar removed from the current trends in my country. The boy apparentlybegan to think it over, and lost some of his conviction. I have beenoccupied since then with considering the connection between historicmoments, personal standpoints and the efforts of child and youth carein each part of our world.

Perhaps during the next years, child and youth care will continueto focus on families as a whole social entity; on teaching families tomanage everyday life and cope with unemployment, broken homes,and diminishing responsibility. Perhaps, or perhaps not. But, if in thenear future the number of immigrants and of socially disadvantagedpersons increases, they will meet in our children’s communities andsocial welfare facilities. We know already that it is inhumane andimpossible to just feed thousands of juvenile “pensioners”. We have todo much more. Then we will remember what Meir did and said, andwhat he wrote about the many opportunities that residential care canoffer for our societies.

Anne FrommannHallstattstrasse 32D72070 TubingenGermany

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The Attentive Pedagogue

Meir Gottesmann was an emigre most of his life. Following the horridevents of 1939–1945, he moved from a central European Jewish cultureto the new culture that had begun to develop in Israel.

People with similar biographies tended either to assimilate com-pletely into the new culture or adhere to their original culture in thenew country. Gottesmann chose to combine the two approaches. Overthe years, he became highly acclimatized and very active in the Israeliculture, but his aesthetic taste, ethical convictions, value system, cour-teous behavior, manner of speech and accent—which he did not try todisguise or hide—remained distinctly European; a mixture of Transyl-vanian, Austro-Hungarian and secular Ashkenazi Jewish as well asZionistically-oriented culture.

After reading history, sociology and philosophy at the Hebrew Uni-versity of Jerusalem, Gottesmann became an educator and an educa-tionalist. His area of specialization was children of immigrants andimmigrant youth. The biography of these youngsters was often similarto his own. As a direct practitioner of educational work, but also as aneducator of educators who supervised and directed their work, Gottes-mann emphasized the experience of cultural transition, an experienceshared by most of the youth who were educated in the organization hedirected. A large part of his impressive and universally acclaimed suc-cess as an educator, and an educator of educators, can be credited tothe fact that Gottesmann could draw from his own personal experienceas a newcomer lessons applicable to the lives of the youth who wereeducated by his organization.

In human lives, there appears to be considerable value in similarityof biographical experiences between interacting givers and receivers ofa service. Education is perceived by learners as particularly meaningfulwhen they feel that the experience of their educators is close and relevantto their own. Gottesmann’s pedagogy was not based on fixed principlesand rules. He created it anew every day, while listening carefully, pa-tiently, and, especially, respectfully to the educators and their students.

His professionalism as Executive Director of a nationwide educa-tional project, was not based purely on consistent and well-structuredexpertise, but on the dynamic attention Gottesmann paid to his staffmembers. His way of “running the business” was paying unceasingattention to his interlocutors, and to their understanding of the ever-changing reality of the organization and its wider social context. Gottes-mann believed in the expertise of those who worked with him andvalued their professionalism. At the same time, Youth Aliyah was notan anarchic or a “loosely coupled organization” that had no unifiedthemes or comprehensive policy, and changed direction with every windthat blew or every caprice of fashion.

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Meir Gottesmann was a charismatic and an effective boss by virtueof his authentic inclination and ability not to be a boss. For 15 yearshe was my boss.

Mordecai ArieliTel Aviv UniversitySchool of EducationTel Aviv, 69978Israel

Three Spring Meetings with Meir Gottesmann

In our point of view, how much the educator knows is not as importantas who he is. So, the personality is of primary importance if we want theeducator to be a model for the youngsters. At the same time, as experienceshows, if somebody is well-educated, knows and understands what he isdoing, he would do better work. (Meir Gottesmann, at a late night meetingin Neurim youth village, Israel, in May 1990)

I have been working in child and youth care for 25 years, and I feelmyself to be so fortunate that in this period of time I learned not justfrom my personal experience, but from a few great educationists whomI have met. They have served as exemplary models in my work, andwithout any doubt, Meir Gottesmann is one of them.

We met many times in Hungary and Israel, and even in other foreigncountries. I would like to recall three of our meetings.

We first met on an early spring day in the early eighties. At thattime, I worked in the Child Care Department of the National Instituteof Pedagogics in Hungary. Meir arrived as a guest and asked aboutour experiences in community education in Hungary. We had not knownhim earlier, but within a few minutes we felt as though we were continu-ing a dialogue that we had already started a long time ago. It wascaptivating to experience his open views, his attentiveness, and his openattitude towards our point of view. He had a very strong, determinedviewpoint that was based on long and rich experience. However, thatdidn’t make him closed to contrary opinions. In fact, with his remarks,he helped us to gain deeper insights, and to recognize connections inour ways of thinking of which we were not even aware. This dialoguewas extraordinarily inspirational. It did not just develop our knowledge,it urged us on to further thinking.

In addition, we also received other kinds of assistance from him. Inthose days, the Hungarian child and youth care system had been devoidof foreign experiences. As a Vice-President of FICE-International, Meirhelped us to develop our international connections. This was the start-

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ing point of a process that led us later, when the political situationallowed it, to establish the Hungarian section of FICE.

Our second memorable meeting took place in the Pestalozzi Kinder-dorf in Trogen, Switzerland. Meir asked me to write a chapter to thebook he was editing, Residential Child Care: An International Reader.It was about residential child care opportunities offered to children inHungary. He sent me a very logical, brief guide to help me to arrangemy text. I can’t say it was easy, but it was delightful to make theHungarian chapter of the book. Before the book was finally edited, heorganized a seminar meeting in Trogen, also attended by YitzhakKashti and Mordecai Arieli representing Israel. I had the honor tomake a personal presentation in front of these internationally respectedexperts about the current Hungarian political changes, and their ex-pected influence on the child and youth care field. Meir Gottesmannwouldn’t even have known that this was my first speech about Hungar-ian child and youth care in a foreign country. Well, this was a greatexperience and I owe it all to him. Later, he asked me for furtherarticles for the new FICE International Bulletin. I loved to fulfill hisrequests, and I was keen to meet his high professional requirements. Henever proclaimed these expectations; rather it was I who was thinking:“what will he say about my writings!” The way that I felt about himis summed up in what he wrote in the Youth Aliyah Bulletin in 1984:

As a general director (of the Youth Aliyah organization), I regarded mycommission as a duty to give others what I got, so that the new generationsof educators and psychologists at Youth Aliyah could receive my knowl-edge. The torch must be transmitted to others.

I must admit, I have tried to follow his guidelines in my personalwork.

Our third springtime meeting was in 1990 in Israel, when a Hungar-ian FICE delegation had an unforgettable twelve day study tour, athis initiation. In addition to the various aspects of this most excitingjourney—personal, cultural and professional—a very special and closerelationship was formed between the delegation and our colleagues inIsrael that still continues after twelve years. Meir Gottesmann hadalready retired in 1984, and though during our visit to Israel he wasno longer in office, we felt strongly his presence during the whole trip.We felt it in the reaction of his colleagues, in the respect as theyspoke about him. We experienced the results that the Youth Aliyahorganization had made with his contribution and direction. We sawthe realization of those principles which already characterized him:confidence and support, and a reality in which nobody, neither childrennor staff members, are alone. The question was not “where are youfrom?” but “who would you become?” We met with those values that

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he always followed, even in the most involved professional debates:tolerance, democracy and humanity, as well as the search for newsolutions. I clearly remember the last evening of our visit to Israel. Heheld a summary discussion with us. He was so determined, but open toour questions and highly anxious to hear our impressions. I remember,although we were very tired, being flustered by the next day’s travel;we all engaged our attention in the dialogue, and his animating spirit,determination and his sweet humor were simply captivating.

It is strange that now he isn’t with us, while his personality is stillshining. I felt I had a duty to pay my respects to the memory of thisgreat educationist, Meir Gottesmann. I can say his example is stillaffecting us in a geographically distant country, Hungary. For thosewho were fortunate enough to have known him, his memory is still inour thoughts.

Andras DomszkyNational Institute for Family and Social PolicyBudapest, Hungary

An Inspirational Guide

There is a dent in the wall of the old quarter in Jerusalem, createdby a blast. Meir showed me the dent. One night, in 1948, his unit triedto break into the old quarter to save some hundreds of Jews who werebesieged in a small neighborhood within the wall. While his comradesprepared the detonation, Meir waited with the rest of his platoon. Hewas so tired after a long period of fighting, that he fell asleep and wasnot woken up even by the loud explosion. The wall did not give way.There was not enough explosive material. The poorly trained soldiersreturned to their base, and the besieged Jews were killed or captured.

When Meir told me this story, he had already become my admiredfriend. Ever since, when I walk by the dent in the wall I cannot avoidthinking: “How many Meirs were lost in the wars? How many Mousta-fas? Ivans? Fritzs? Johnnies? Marcelos? What would our world be likeif they had all lived out their years? What would their children andgrandchildren look like?

Youth Aliyah was part of the profound attempt to say, “Let us tryanother way.” It was created in the spirit of the Marshal Plan thathelped past enemies to rebuild, rather than punish them and makethem compensate for their horrible sins, as the allies did after WorlWar One, only to reap bitter fruit twenty years later. Youth Aliyahwas part of the surprising reaction of Jewish people after the Shoa:

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with all the rage in their hearts, with the burning sense of humiliation,and with a significant amount of strength. There were at that timetens of thousands of Jewish fighters in Europe. They were trained andexperienced veterans of armies and of partisan units, well equipped,politically and financially supported. And still, they did not chooserevenge. No settling of old accounts. Building. Rehabilitating. Savingthose who survived and creating a worthy world for their children.Meir was an epitome of this idea. A Holocaust survivor, who—fromthe day he could stop fighting—dedicated himself to the rehabilitationof traumatized young refugees.

My wife, Yona Shahar-Levy, was a young journalist in a weeklynewspaper that Meir used to edit in the mid-1950s for young refugeeswho massed into Israel from Europe and the Middle East. When wewere reading the old issues together many years later, we were amazedby the optimism, by the love of humanity, by the complete lack of “gungho” patriotism. And, certainly, one could not find the slightest sign ofhatred. That was when I first met Meir. Though we were only superfi-cially acquainted, he even “approved” (at my then fiancee’s request)our marriage. Always the father figure. The ideals that guided Meir’sway of shaping Youth Aliyah were a mature development of the youth-ful innocence that filled those papers.

Fifteen years later, I started working with Meir, then the educationaldirector of Youth Aliyah. I started the second chapter of our connectionas a young inexperienced director of a youth village that took in stu-dents from Youth Aliyah. Fortunately, I had as my guides and support-ers Meir and a group of people whom he had taught and trained.

Meir was an extraordinary teacher and an inspirational guide. Andso we continued until he retired. We used to talk, think and writetogether for many years afterwards.

Over the course of twenty-five years, working with uprooted youth,I frequently asked myself (some times in so many words), “What wouldMeir do in this situation?” “How would Meir judge this decision?” “Howwould Meir appreciate this idea?”

So, people who live like Meir never pass away. Everyone that workedwith him, learned with him, contemplated tough problems with him,will forever seek his approval. Everyone who grew in Meir’s light,who was guided by Meir’s conscience, goes on carrying the message ofhumanistic ethics that is Meir’s legacy—a legacy preserved duringtimes too horrible to comprehend and, by a lifetime endeavor, pro-foundly passed on to future generations.

Zvi LevyHenrieta Szold 2Jerusalem, 96784Israel

Tributes 155

Meir Gottesmann: Pioneer and Inspiration

Meir Gottesmann died suddenly on the 8th of December at his homein Tel Aviv. He was one of the great figureheads in international child-care in the second half of the twentieth century, as well as a good friendand colleague to those who knew him and worked with him.

Meir was born to a Jewish family in the northern part of Romania,and though he lost many relatives in the concentration camps duringthe Second World War, he himself managed to escape when beingtransported. He made his way to Palestine, which was soon to becomeIsrael.

The peak of Meir’s career was to be Director of Youth Aliyah from1978 to 1984. This organisation was set up in 1932 to receive andeducate young refugees arriving in Israel and to help them to integrateinto the life of the country. This organisation has had a massive influ-ence on the life of the country over the years and many prominentIsraelis, such as Cabinet members, were cared for and educated byYouth Aliyah as young people.

Prior to his years as Director, Meir was Educational Director formany years. Education was close to his heart, whether for the childrenand young people in his care or for the madrachim, the social educatorswhom he trained.

Meir also contributed extensively to international childcare, playinga major role as Israel’s representative in FICE. Among his achieve-ments were a number of books which he edited and which still warrantreading, such as the International Readers in residential child care.[Ed. note: See the abbreviated curriculum vitae at end of this issue forreferences.]

As a person, Meir was warm, positive and witty. He could be reliedupon to help resolve international misunderstandings and he alwaysdisplayed generosity and wisdom. As Dr. Emmanuel Grupper said,“Meir was a most dedicated person for the cause of children at riskand a great believer in residential and community education and care,an outstanding person and a most exceptional man.”

In his later years, Meir suffered a number of illnesses, but he re-mained active. He leaves his widow, Shoshana, and two daughters,and we extend our condolences to them.

David LaneEditor, Children e-journalwww.children.uk.co26 Marriott GroveSandal, WakefieldWF2 6RPEngland