The Shamash School Preparatory Meeting
Victor Ozair, Los Angeles
Reflections on the preparatory meeting for the International Conference of graduates from Jewish high schools in Iraq
There we were that evening all graduates from high schools in Iraq standing erect out on the lawn of the Heritage Center. there were excitement, laughter and thrilling shouts of joy. There were handshakes and embraces. there were exchanges of greetings and heated conversations in an atmosphere satiated with emotions, with warmth and friendship. Long forgotten memories from distant past, more than half a century, came to life again. These memories came so abruptly and in such vivid colors. They moved rushing with nostalgia and deep longing, intoxicating the mind with delicious reverie and enhansing a youthful sensation.
Those men and women crowding there seemed happy talking with such vivacity and strength. they looked engulfed in a realm of that beautiful past. Their minds were high above the worry of their present mundane affairs and distant from the toil of a full life struggle in Iraq and Israel. Amid all their cheers and smiles their wrinkled faces bore the toll of the years and their grey hair thinned noticeably. Yet they were all floating into that ecstasy of nostalgic youthful vitality, into a sweet true-to- life dream from that beautiful distant past.
On that occasion I remembered a poet who wrote:
I'd give all wealth that years have piled
The slow result of life's decay
To be once more a little child
For one bright summer day.
It was so gratifying and rewarding for all those old friends from school years to recall the past and tell proudly of their life long experience and their professional accomplishment, and to talk about their families, their grown children and grand-children.
Several hours passed by in such a bliss of reminiscence as the pleasure from those distant years came to an end. Helas! for this beautiful dream of that joyful, fair and innocent period. the crowd bid farewell, but promised to meet again in the spring of 1996 for the International Conference of graduates.
That evening at the Center was truly unique and unparalleled.