Regina Grinberg and participants in the Maccabiada

This is a photo of participants in the Maccabiada. I am in the uppermost row, the second from left to right, in a dark dress with a wreath on my head. The photo was taken at the Jewish school in 1936. There is a handwritten inscription in ink on the back: 'As a memory from 1936. On the occasion of the Maccabi games?. During the Maccabiadas, members of Maccabi from all around the country met and took part in various exercises. Starting in middle school I did sports activities through Maccabi, a Jewish sports organization that I visited from the age of 14 to the age of 17. Maccabi was mostly a sports organization, and I loved physical exercises. Unfortunately, and I do not know exactly why, the organization slowly died away over the years as many of the original supervisors left for Palestine. Beyond Maccabi there were precious few Jewish civic organizations in Shumen. There were a few Betar members in town, but they were not popular and could not attract young people. There was also a WIZO branch, of which my mother was a member, but I cannot say anything about this organization. I remember that we did some sort of charity project once, but I do not remember why. In my last years of high school I tried joining Hashomer Hatzair, but I did not like it. I thought that they were too limited. They agitated us all the time, asking ?when shall we go to Israel, when shall we go to Palestine?? Despite all of this rhetoric, not one of them left. I thought they were very hypocritical, and I subsequently stopped attending their functions.