An Illuminated Life
– By Channah Bardan –
The kibbutz sent Rosenfeld to cooking school in Haifa to learn to be a vegetarian chef for the communal dining hall. While there, she would look across the Mediterranean and say out loud, “One day soon, I will take my children and cross this sea!” It gave her a certain kind of strength to say these words. Little did she realize how powerful those words would be! Kibbutz life was very difficult for Rosenfeld. Because living was completely communal, all of the children were housed in a special residence where they lived and ate together and learned as a collective while the adults worked. Parents only saw their children from 4:30 in the afternoon until 8:30 in the evening, when they put their children to bed. Rosenfeld found it excruciating being separated from her babies—and she missed Hanoch terribly!