In my early twenties I supplemented my income by giving London evening class lessons in German. Apart from meeting a host of interesting people this also brought me into close contact with Dennis and Tony, as I have mentioned earlier. Drinks after class in the local pub were not unusual which might have been an added motivator for learning German, who knows?
Another of my courses was attended by Eli who spoke an accentuated English I couldn´t place, neither geographically nor language wise. On one occasion Eli appologised for missing class one week as it had coincided with a religous holiday. Unlike today, minority religous festivals were not on everybody` s lips unless you belonged to a minority of course. Eli didn` t look ”foreign” either, so I was rather curious as to what that holiday might be.
”Yom Kippur,” he replied, continuing with, ”I` m an Israeli.”
I learnt a great deal from Eli, with cloven hoof animals being kosher food, sticking to mind. Pubbing and partying with the occasional curry filled my non-working hours in the late sixties and Eli` s religion never once got in the way of things. In fact we shared a number of likes. Eli had a penchant for buying fresh bread direct from the bakery in the early hours of the morning. Another thing we shared and here I choose to be explicit in order to avoid any misunderstanding, was female company.
One weekend Eli said he had promised to stop by and pay an elderly couple a visit. Whether friends or family friends he didn` t say although he was sorry he couldn`´ t take me along and suggested we meet up a little later that day. In not so many words it became apparent that my presence in the elderly couple` s home would be uncomfortable for them. Having been born after the war and under the circumstances, the irony of being exposed to this curse didn` t escape me. I fully understood however and the feeling of relief at being spared my own discomfort, neatly juxtapositioned in.
There is no way I will condemn Ukrainian hatred of Russia and Russians. What Russians are yet to become aware of is, that the hatred will extend to the yet unborn.
