We headed to a member meeting called the “Tveria Parliament”. This is a social group of retired citizens who meet almost weekly in Beit Ginzburg Community Center to discuss political and local issues.

The meeting was organised by Uri Mazar who we contacted in May 2014. There were about thirty members attending the meeting, many of them knew Dr Chaim Kobrin who was a well known figure in Tveria and they were delighted to see us. We asked them if they could recall any memories they had of Dr Kobrin. The stories around the table were similar.

“He was a great guy, every one liked him, he was a gentleman, he had respect to every person no matter who he or she was, if he got an urgent call he would leave everything and rush to the place where he was needed, he never said no, he always wanted to help, he never got angry, he was a loving person that everyone respected, he was a “Mench”

They went on and on emphasising how an incredible person he was.

My father enjoyed meeting the “Tverianim” as he calls them. They were all extremely friendly and warm. It was a nice feeling to be able to share with them our discovery journey and how we are searching for people who might have known Dr Chaim Kobrin, to fill in some missing stories.

Next, we headed to a meeting with a few retired players of “Hapoel Tveria” football club organised by Asher Yaish who was one of the top players of Hapoel Tveria. Yaakov Farag, another legendary football player of Hapoel Tveria as well as Avraham Abadi who was a reserve player and part of the team’s management joined as well. They were very happy to meet my father, the son of Dr Kobrin, and extremely excited to share their memories from that time. We sat at a coffee shop in the downtown area of Tveria and the nostalgic memories about the good old days of Tveria were flowing.

Every Saturday afternoon the family would watch the football team playing in Tveria, or they accompanied them to other cities in the county. Tens of thousands of people used to join the team wherever they went. During the 1960s, the football team of Tveria was one of the best in the country, they even reached 3rd place in the top football league of the country during the 1961/2 season and was the pride of the city. Chaim Kobrin’s greatest love and passion was dedicating his free time with the team. He was the doctor of the team and his daughter Gila was the sport journalist.

Avraham Abadi and Yaakov Farag

Asher Yaich - אשר יעיש

Itzhak Nizri

Yaakov Farag - יעקוב פרג׳

Football in Tveria was extremely popular. The football games were broadcasted on a popular sport radio show called “Shirim and Shearim”. People around the country used to listen to this show, following the games and the final results.

We were about to say good-bye and leave when Itzhak Nizri arrived. He was also one of the best football players of “Hapoel Tveria” in those days and a close friend of Dr Kobrin. He told us about the great admiration they all had towards him during those days and invited us to come to his home to show us photos he had.

After he gave us a short tour of his house, overlooking the Gailiea lake, Itzhak showed us many photos of the soccer team hanging in his guest room as well as all the trophies they received. He then took out many folders and photo albums with news paper clippings to show us what he has collected about the football team throughout the years. They searched together through the vast amount of information but could not find anything related to Dr Kobrin or any articles of Gila. It was such a shame as we had such high hopes in finding more about Dr Kobrin, but unfortunately the stories we collected remained the same.