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David Golding 1937-2015

By Ronny Golding

David was two years younger than me. He followed me to primary school and then to high school. I remember him always smiling.

At Durban High School he excelled at sports - rugby and particularly athletics. I remember him in his matric year winning the 100, 220 and 440 yards (That's how they measured then). He was Victor Ludorum of the school and I was so proud.

He followed me to the University of Natal, where he qualified as an accountant. Now it was hockey, but he was injured just before the trials for the Maccabi games.

The family came to Israel in 1960, and David's first job was at the Canadian Embassy. There he found Kay, his loving and supporting wife for 50 years. They were blessed with three wonderful children, Yoel, Roy and Shelley and five lovely grandchildren.

David opened an accountancy and bookkeeping office in Raanana, at 4 Borochov Street. For more than a year my son Amir and I also had our office there. He served his many faithful clients loyally for decades.

After the family and his work, sport remained David`s great love. He promoted cricket in Israel and represented the country abroad. After that came squash where, as we all passed the age of 50, David formed 'The Masters', a group playing regularly on Friday afternoons. It was much more than sport – David organized social events, week-ends with the spouses, dinners and more. As we grew older David devised a revised game – 'the long game'. David,, you will be pleased to know that after almost 30 years 'The Masters' still play on Fridays, the annual dinner takes place, and the 'long game' thrives.

David was brought down by a cruel illness. I remember him saying to me four years ago that he remembered nothing of his years in South Africa (23 years of a man`s life just wiped out). "And", he added, "nothing of our mother."

David – you fought very hard against your illness. In hospital a few days ago you were still battling.

David – we love you, we will miss you and we will remember you.

David and ESRA by Merle Guttmann

David was an active, outstanding volunteer of ESRA. In the 1980s he volunteered for several years as our accountant. He was also a lively member of our Executive and amongst other activities he helped organize outings. In the early 1990s, with the mass immigration from the former Soviet Union, under ESRA's aegis, he helped a few Russian immigrants to set up small businesses so that they could make a respectable living. For over 30 years David distributed ESRA Magazines in Herzliya. "He did so", said Kay, his wife, "because he believed that "ESRA Magazine is a wonderful magazine which makes a great and profound difference to our lives as English speakers in Israel".

DAVID GOLDING –a personal recollection

By Hanan Baradon

A gentleman, a gentle man although not without temper and not without blemish, which served only to accentuate the kindness and goodness of the David I knew.

If high moral values and hard work are said to bring rewards, David was unjustly overlooked in this life. In fact the first significant "reward" I know of his receiving was a broken back awarded to him by his friends who threw him in the air to celebrate his winning his accountancy degree in South Africa and not catching him as he fell back to earth.

An intensely private man, David gave away nothing of his own affairs, neither to seek advice nor to boast of his achievements. In fact I had no idea that he had a sister until I met her quite independently of him. When I asked David if he minded my asking her out, his reply was that he didn't interfere with other people's lives. And so David became my brother in law, as did his brother Ronald whom I had known, also independently of David, for several years at the time.

A friend for over 50 years, I met David when a small group of South African immigrants (and one Canadian) living in the Herzliya/Ramat Hasharon area set up a part-time enterprise, 'Settlers', in an attempt to help finish the month through a bit of Import-Export. David was the accountant, Gaby Glazer was the lawyer, Maurice Mendelowitz was the backer, David Eidelman was the ideas man. I was the 'consultant'.

'Settlers' morphed into a small, real business called Contact, and of all the businesses which David helped initiate it is probably the only one still operating profitably today although without any of the original partners remaining.

David worked at the Canadian Embassy at the time, very close to my office, so that we could easily get together of a lunchtime for a natter. Sometimes we were joined by a co-worker of his, a flame haired pixie called Kay.

His contacts and activities were wide-ranging, from his cricketing associates at the club with which he was so closely identified to the members of the more unexpected Kfar Shmaryahu Synagogue where he was treasurer and activist for many years. Nor was cricket his only sport and were it not for the limitations imposed on him by his back he would, no doubt, have had even more of a sporting life.

I remember David as one of the truest friends in my life, one to whom my debts of gratitude can never be repaid, and I am sure I am not the only one with such a debt to him. I remember him as a husband to Kay and father to Joel, Roy and Shelley, I remember him as an always striving businessman and as the accountant to many small businesses started by South African immigrants. I remember him in his travails and for his smile. I remember the terribly sad last years of his life, but most of all I remember him as a gift to others, a decent human being. 

 

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