27th February, 1951
Tel Aviv

Dearest Sweetheart,

It’s your birthday today and I am sure you have celebrated it in better style than you would have done here. Many happy returns Poiky and it’s a damned shame I can’t even give you a kiss. But there it is. I hope you received the telegram in time. As you know it’s an idée fixe with me that you were born on the 28th but your mother knows best. Liki is always asking for you and wants to know when her dad is coming to see her and Moshe. Yesterday when Dod Chalav came he asked her where her father was and she told him at doda  Matty’s. When she was asked thereupon what he was doing there she said off-handedly: (unintelligible). See what a reputation you’ve got. Dod Chalav grinned from ear to ear and wanted to know whether the poor man wasn’t ever fed at home. This week you wouldn’t get any meat for the weekend again – so you had better make the best of things now, and when in England, you can participate in the pioneering of reindeer-meat eating. I had wanted to take some snaps today but the film wouldn’t move on. It’s the one we put in – remember? As I didn’t want to risk anything I took it to our friend at (unintelligible) and she put it right for me in the dark-room and told me too, incidentally, that I was making good progress. I was pricked again today and I find that the injections are getting easier and I don’t get stiff anymore. I can already feel the effect. Indeed when Libby came to see me yesterday she remarked that I was beginning to look like my old self again. That should please you. She sends you her very best regards. Other friends have not been since. I found a little booklet with adorable knitwear for children and have settled your mother already with a three-piece (skirt, bolero and blouse) ensemble for Liki. Libby told me that most mothers were already buying for the summer and there is practically nothing in the shops. Liki’s shoes are falling to pieces and I must get her another pair if I can find them. Things are really going from bad to worse.

I had the water tap mended in the kitchen and it could only be done because your father had a spare fitting downstairs. That, too, is unobtainable. I hope you are making some progress with your affairs though I can see it’s a most inopportune moment for doing business. I am wondering when (and if) you will be going to Schmidts. In their letter to me they are really looking forward to your going there. If you do, you will go to my parents’ grave and put some flowers on it for me, won’t you? Your father told me that he had given you the name of a firm in case Ruth’s father can’t manage things. I wish we could have been together today but, as I said before, I am sure you spent the day very happily at Matty’s. Have you seen Aida yet?

This must be all for today. We all send our love, all them stinkers of yours and a very special birthday hug from Bossy.

P.S. I did write to Kauffmann’s nephew. I’ve done my duty!