• news

• News in Israel

• Events in Israel

marching song

The shoemaker who did not miss a day of work for 70 years - and became a Jerusalem symbol

Pinchas Ravihia dropped out of school at the age of 9 to help support his family.

After the War of Independence, he opened the shoemaker's, his life's enterprise and his second home, which became a permanent institution in the Jerusalem landscape, and was also commemorated in songs and stories.

Three years ago, at the age of 90, he closed the door for the last time.

He passed away last week

Tags

• marching song

• Jerusalem

Eli Ashkenazi

Saturday, November 20, 2021, 5:00 p.m.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments

For 70 years, every morning, in the freezing Jerusalem cold when the sidewalks were covered with snow, or on a morning of summer heat, Pinchas Ravihia would come to the shoemaker's. For seventy consecutive years, he hardly missed a day of work. He would walk into a store, put on a long apron and sit down at the sewing machine or put shoes on the humidifiers and nail nails that would put wayward soles in place. Three years ago, when he was already 90 years old, following an incident in his heart, Ravihia left the shoemaker's and was forced to close the door for the last time.

Pinchas Ravihia was born in Jerusalem in 1928 to Shlomo and Rachel Ravihia, also born in Jerusalem. Shlomo was active in the Nili underground that helped the British in their struggle with the Turks. About thirty years later, his son Pinchas also fought against foreign rule, which his father helped. Together with Pinchas the family numbered seven brothers and sisters Work to help support the family.

He studied shoemaking and worked as an apprentice shoemaker and later as a shoemaker in the "Naeli Natan" workshop in Jerusalem.

While working he volunteered to join the underground Irgun, initially infects fliers and later as a fighter standing, his hands also deposited a weapon. His name in the underground was "knees", which later became the family name more for it over time.

At 16, he was arrested and imprisoned by the British in prison Latrun and ran a prison sentence of several months. After his release, he returned to the Irgun and participated in various battles, including in Ein Kerem and Deir Yassin.

During the War of Independence, he was wounded by a bullet in the shoulder during the battles for the defense of Jerusalem in the area of ​​Sheikh Jarrah, near his residential neighborhood, Mea Shearim.

He was hospitalized at Hadassah Hospital and after a long recovery period was discharged from military service.

Over the years he has volunteered for reserve service in the Civil Defense Unit (GA).

More on Walla!

"The Optimist from America" ​​exposed her students to the secrets of the theater.

They did not miss the final show

To the full article

"The store became his second home and the enterprise of his life" (Photo: Official website, Sasson Tiram)

After the war, his parents moved to the Katamon neighborhood, which was emptied of its Arab residents.

Pinchas wanted to return to the shoemaking profession and with the help of the Ministry of Defense, as an IDF invalid, he bought a store where he opened a shoemaker

's shop

.

It was not only his wisdom and professionalism that attracted him; the light of his face, being a conversationalist and a number of stories made many people come to his shoemaker's shop. And they would come to Rabihiah to repair them.

Hili Trooper, the Minister of Culture and Sports who grew up in the Katamon neighborhood, wrote this week: "I remember the smell of the skin and the adhesives in the place and especially its simple and straightforward conduct. If you did not have money to pay when you arrived, Pinchas always said 'everything is fine, pay later.' It was a decent job, and it turns out that honest people believe that others are honest too. "

Knowledge to identify people by shoes worn (Photo: Official website, Sasson Tiram)

Rabihia never left Jerusalem and left the borders of Israel only once, to visit his son's family who were on a mission in London. The son, Yitzhak, said that his father, as a son of the city of Jerusalem, spoke not only Hebrew but also perfect Arabic, he also knew Dino and as someone who grew up in Mea Shearim he also spoke Yiddish. His talent as a storyteller and the use of his unique pictorial language, expressions and the Jerusalem language of yesteryear, made quite a few customers sit down and talk to him at length. "Sometimes he would tell me that it was not pleasant for him to ask people to let him and let him concentrate on his work," Yitzhak said. He knew each customer by name and knew how to identify people by the shoes they wore - what type of shoe they were, where they were purchased, how the soles were worn that indicated the shape of the walk and other signs that only he knew how to identify.

Among the many customers was also a young woman who immigrated from Morocco, whose visit to the store resulted in a brief conversation and later a love story that ended in marriage. In 1957, Pinchas and Yaffa married. The couple had a son and a daughter, Isaac and Rachel, and over the years five grandchildren were added to the family.

"Dad was a happy man," his son testified.

"Happy in part, devoting his life to his family - the narrow and extended. He always pampered others, never himself, never complained, was always optimistic and interested - really - in those around him. He always asked and demanded the safety of his customers."

The shoemaker Pinchas Ravihia became a Jerusalem symbol, a native of the city whom the person who met him saw in him a figure that characterizes Jerusalem whose personal story is a stone in the human mosaic of the city.

The shoemaker from the Katamon neighborhood

His character was immortalized in a song so identified with the capital: the song "My Jerusalem" written by Dan Almagor and composed by Nurit Hirsch. The song describes the same characters from everyday life whose stories make up the diverse picture of Jerusalem. Described where a street vendor from the market, Belen Mea Shearim, a young man from Damascus, a soldier Ashdot Yaakov fought in the city and Sandler's Katamon neighborhood:

In the same year, 1969, another song was written that became an asset to Iron Flock in Hebrew song, and Sandler is also mentioned in it, and the character of Rabihia can also be seen in it.

This is the song "On His Hand Will Bring" written by Yoram Tahar-Lev and composed by Yair Rosenblum.

The song describes the everyday characters of humble people, who according to the song are the ones who actually form the infrastructure of the new society built in Israel.

Among the characters even Sandler:

(Photo: Official website, Sasson Tiram)

Ravihia himself made a decent living from his profession and also the change in the shoe market and the mass and cheap production, did not make customers stop coming to his store.

He also rejected various tips designed to increase his income;

Some advised him to sell shoes or related products, but apart from laces, he did not sell any more products.

In the last years of his work he shortened the working day which began at exactly eight in the morning and ended at seven in the evening.

His son, Yitzhak, said that "he would finish work at 14:00 and then he would get on a bus and go to the Mahane Yehuda market, buy some cucumbers, tomatoes or peaches."

He described that several years ago, when his father was already in his late eighties, he sadly told him that that day, for the first time in his life, he was running after a bus that left the station and this time could not reach him.

Last week, after suffering from severe pneumonia and being hospitalized for two weeks at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, Rabihia passed away.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments