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About Cyril Legum
My romance with Israel began in 1948 when at the age of 16 several of my friends & I, from the Hashomer Hatsair soccer team, received army training on Sundays on a farm outside of Johannesburg. The organizers sent the older guys to Israel and after a while our group was told to finish school first and then we could come back and talk about Aliyah.
After finishing medical school at Wits I told my distraught parents that I'm off to join the Israel army. This was after the Sinai campaign and I guess my folks understood that South Africa, at the time, was not such a great place to stay, especially with a father who was a card carrying communist and a friend of Brahm Fischer and company. Furthermore his cousin, Colin Legum, was a labor leader and a thorn in the Apartheid government's side. I was probably considered to be a subversive as well as I worked for the Garment Workers Union in my vacations and was present at a protest meeting at which the crowd was rushed and battened by the police. This was a historic occasion as Colin Legum was arrested and expelled from South Africa which solidified and increased the opposition to the government.
The expenses for our trip were covered by the South African Zionist Federation and, amongst the young Nachal volunteers were two very nice youngsters, Yitzchak Brenner and David Katzenellenbogen.
In January 1958 we arrived in Israel with a handful of young South African volunteers in a propeller driven plane that refueled in Nairobi and Khartoum.
We were placed in the Eden Hotel near Shuk Hacarmel & I decided to immediately go to Jerusalem and see the western wall. On returning to Tel Aviv I found that my only suitcase had been stolen and the thieves, probably nice Jewish boys, had left me only my stethoscope. This was a surprise but as I was soon to be inducted into the army it just meant buying a toothbrush and paste and washing the clothes I wore each night.
We began our army career in kibbutz Ein Gev on the Kinneret and very close to the Syrian border. The first night the kibbutznikim had great fun telling us terrifying tales of shelling. When we had all fallen asleep they set of the siren and shouted at us to get into the trench. Bleary eyed and half dressed we emerged to find all the "veterans" standing around laughing at us.
Within 1 month I had joined the Paratroops, jumped from a plane & settled in as the doctor of the parachute training school. I met Shula 9 months after arriving in Israel. We
got married 3 months later. The wedding took place in the army headquarters mess with the army's chief rabbi Goren officiating. The commanding officer of my base at the Tel Nof paratrooping school sent a contingent of paratroopers with sandwiches. We had a wonderful wedding & it cost us nothing.
At the end of the same year Orie was born. We had 4 boys & our first 4 grandsons are boys. The other 3 are girls, 2 adopted & the other, Jonathan's daughter, Nina Rose (the latter name after my mom)
Shula became a brigadier general & did wonderful work after the 1973 war, setting up a unit for soldiers in distress. I started up one of the first Genetic Institutes in Israel. The rest of our very exciting & fulfilling life will have to wait for the next bulletin.
Shula passed away peacefully at home, in my arms, while watching the news on television, 2 hours after Friday night dinner which we had with some of our children & grandchildren. She had a massive pulmonary embolism which was mercifully quick. It was caused by her diabetes. Shula always did things elegantly. It happened 2 weeks before our 49th. Wedding anniversary.
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Cyril Legum's Timeline
| 1932 |
July 15, 1932
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Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa
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| 1938 |
January 1938
- September 1944
Age 5
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Orange Grove, Johannesburg, South Africa
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| 1945 |
January 1945
- September 1951
Age 12
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King Edwards the VII, Johannesburg, Israel
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| 1952 |
January 1952
- December 1958
Age 19
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Witwatersrand Medical School
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