CARMEL COLLEGE in the KOPUL ERA CARMEL COLLEGE in the KOPUL ERA A History of Carmel College September 1948–March 1962 Chaim Simons (Alumnus 1953–1960) Urim Publications Jerusalem • New York Carmel College in the Kopul Era: A History of Carmel College, September 1948 – March 1962 by Chaim Simons Copyright © 2016 Chaim Simons All rights reserved No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews and articles. Typeset by Ariel Walden Printed in Israel First Edition isbn 978-965-524-236-2 Urim Publications P.O. Box 52287 Jerusalem 9152102 Israel www.UrimPublications.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Simons, Chaim, author. Title: Carmel College in the Kopul era : a history of Carmel College, September 1948-March 1962 / Chaim Simons. Description: First edition. | New York : Urim Publications, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2016025467 | ISBN 9789655242362 (paperback) Subjects: LCSH: Carmel College (Oxfordshire, England)—History. | Rosen, Kopul, 1913–1962. | BISAC: HISTORY / General. | EDUCATION / Philosophy & Social Aspects. Classification: LCC LF795.O97 S56 2016 | DDC 373.22/2094257—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016025467 This book is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Dr. Kopul Rosen and his wife Bella “I am called the founder of Carmel but the real truth is that I am the co-founder: Bella is at least an equal partner. Had we not been united by the deepest of bonds we could not have faced all our problems together and triumphed.” Letter written by Kopul to his father-in-law shortly before he died. Contents Preface 9 Acknowledgment 15 Section One: Overdrafts and Their Results Introduction 19 Chapter 1: Cash and Carmel 25 Chapter 2: Three Carmel Estates 104 Chapter 3: Guinea Pigs and their Successors 156 Chapter 4: Bed, Bread, and Blazers 216 Chapter 5: The Most Memorable Days 254 Chapter 6: Not Everything is Lessons 283 Chapter 7: Play the Game! 355 Chapter 8: The Eternal Link 411 Chapter 9: End of the Kopul Era 429 List of Carmel College Archival Material and Recollections 437 Index to Carmel College Archival Material 439 Section Two: Teachers at Carmel – This Is Your Life! Introduction 457 From Cradle to Old Age or Grave 471 Bibliography (of Sections 1 and 2) 672 Index of Names associated with Carmel College 677 Section with Colour Photos 681 Preface FOR FORTY-NINE YEARS, there was an important Anglo-Jewish institution in the south of England, for the first five years near to New- bury and in the following forty-four years adjacent to Wallingford. This was Carmel College, which unfortunately came to the end of its existence in 1997. Carmel College was founded in 1948 by Rabbi Kopul Rosen and there were about 800 pupils who joined Carmel College during the Kopul era (September 1948 – March 1962). If its history is not recorded, Carmel College will disappear from the annals of history. What is more, this needs to be done speedily, since as time progresses, documentary evidence will cease to exist and those who can give evidence will have left this World. In order that my personal recollections of Carmel College should not be forgotten, in 2004, I wrote them down and I also made a revised edition in 2006. It was a very detailed account occupying well over 100 pages. But it needs to be stressed that these were my own personal rec- ollections. A history of Carmel College needs to be on a far wider base, and for this reason on 15 November 2004, I put the following message on the Carmel Message Board (which at that time was on the internet), which included the following, “A history of Carmel College [needs to] be written. I would suggest it be divided into 4 parts corresponding to the 4 Headmasters (or Principals). Since it is easy to suggest that others (but not oneself!) do the work, I am prepared to volunteer to do the era of Rabbi Kopul Rosen.” It would seem that the number of Old Carmelis who saw this Message Board was not large and I got virtually no response to my message. How- ever, the opportunity came in a reunion in Jerusalem to mark Kopul’s 10 Carmel College in the Kopul era 50th Yahrzeit. This was held on 1 March 2012 at Yakar in Jerusalem with a video link to a reunion held in London at precisely the same time. At this reunion, which in Jerusalem and London together was attended by about 100 Old Carmelis of the Kopul era, I put forward my suggestion. A few days later I sent an e-mail to the 200 Old Carmelis of the Kopul era, whose e-mails I knew, with details of how I proposed to write this history of Carmel College during the Kopul era. After over two years of work, the book is ready. It is divided into two sections. The first is a history of Carmel College during the Kopul era, and the second is biographies of the teachers who were at Carmel during the Kopul era. (This will be elaborated on in the Introductions to these two sections.) I decided that the book would be meticulously documented, but in order to encourage people to read beyond the third page, I have tried to utilise a lighter style than is normally found in scholarly works. I have also included some humour – as with all humour some people will like it, whilst others won’t! Just a word about the numerous quotes to be found in the book. Strictly speaking, if one wants to replace a capital letter in a quote by a small letter, or vice versa, the letter should be enclosed in square brackets. I have not done this, since it is less aesthetic and also makes it harder to read. Within a quote, round brackets ( ) mean that the words included in the brackets are words found in brackets within the original quote; words contained within square brackets [ ] indicate that these words do not appear in the original but have been added by myself for the sake of clarity. If a direct quote was more than about four lines long, I inset the quote on the left- hand side and omitted the quotation marks at both the beginning and the end of the quote. There are “Manuals of Style” which rule, for example, whether a full stop should come before or after inverted commas, or before or after the number of the footnote. I have not followed any of these “Manuals of Style” but have made my criterion that the text should look aesthetic, and thus it could well be that the position, for example, of a full stop will not necessarily be consistent throughout the book. There are often several ways to transliterate the same word from He- brew to English, and the authors of the various quotes brought in this book indeed used different transliterations. The original transliterations have been retained. Since today with the “Google” search engine, it is easy to find things on Preface 11 the internet, I have not, for sites referred to on the Internet, included the URL, but have just written the word “Internet.” On a number of occasions I have used material from Wikipedia. It is true that in some scholarly circles Wikipedia is frowned on, but almost all the Wikipedia references used are for background material and not directly for material on Carmel College. I have tried to make the references user-friendly. Thus I have often repeated in full a reference which occurs on several occasions, rather than in an abbreviated form. In addition, in order to prevent the reader from having to search through earlier quoted references in order to understand an abbreviation, here is a list in alphabetical order of the abbreviations appearing in the references: Auction Crookham = Auction catalogue used for the sale of the Crookham House Estate on 22 September 1939, Lot 15, (West Berkshire Mu- seum). Auction Greenham = Auction catalogue used for the sale of Greenham Lodge on 20 September 1938. Lot 20, (West Berkshire Museum). Biography of KR = the online book by Jeremy Rosen, Kopul Rosen 1913– 1962, (published in 2011). CCLtd = the company “Carmel College Limited.” CCPE OSA Magazine = Chelsea College of Physical Education, Old Students’ Association Magazine. Conveyance Mongewell = Deed of Conveyance for the Mongewell Estate dated 7 August 1953. FMF = the book In memory of F.M. Friedmann, (Oxford, 1978). Founding Days = G. P. Warner, “The Founding Days of Eversley Col- lege,” (Kent County Council, 1973). Gertner = the book Meir Gertner – An Anthology, ed. A.H. Friedlander and Fred S. Worms (B’nai Brith: London, 1978). Inspectors’ Report = Ministry of Education, Report by H.M. Inspectors on Carmel College, issued 8 June 1955. KR = Kopul Rosen Memories of KR = the book Memories of Kopul Rosen, ed. Cyril Domb, (London, 1970). OCA = Old Carmeli Association. Pedgley = the book by Berenice and David Pedgley, Crowmarsh, A history of Crowmarsh Gifford, Newnham Murren, Mongewell and North Stoke, (Crowmarsh: Crowmarsh History Group, 1990). 12 Carmel College in the Kopul era Purchase Mongewell = Contract for sale and purchase of the Freehold Mansion House and premises known as Mongewell Park situated in the Parish of Crowmarsh (formerly Mongewell) in the County of Oxford, dated 26 January 1953. Rau letters = Anthony Rau, Letters written home from Carmel College between 1950–1955. Reflections = the bookReflections: Carmel College 1948–1988. Review by Governors = Review of the Year 1955/56 by the Chairman of the Board of Governors of Carmel College, 6 December 1956.