Lena Avraham

Lena Avraham was born in Thana, Maharashtra in 1936. Mrs. Avraham’s mother worked in a women’s prison where many women who took part in the independence movement were jailed. Mrs. Avraham recalls that once, at her mother’s work, she saw Kasturba Gandhi, wife of Mahatma Gandhi from a distance when she was a child. During the struggle for independence, Mrs. Avraham recalls, English clothes were boycotted, including ties and hats. One day someone took her father’s English hat from him and threw it in a fire. These kinds of boycotts took place frequently in Mumbai, she remembers.

During Partition, Mrs. Avraham witnessed a man killed in front of her house. She did not go outside alone during that time, and went to and from school on a bus. Mrs. Avraham got married in Karachi after she moved there with her family in 1959. Soon after, the family decided to migrate to India. Later, with her husband and two children, Mrs. Avraham flew to Israel, where she worked as a kindergarten teacher.