 Haika and her sister |
Haika was born
in 1919 in Bialystok, Poland, the youngest of three
children. Her father's house was resonant with Jewish (mainly
secular) culture. The languages most spoken at home were
Yiddish and Hebrew. Nahum Grossman, Haika's father, owned a factory in the little town of Sokolky. His house was open to the influences of the times. Haika went to a Hebrew day school and then to the Hebrew high school belonging to the "Tarbut" network of schools. She finished her studies a year before the outbreak of World War II. |
| Having finished high school, Haika had originally intended to fulfill her dream of immigrating to Israel and attending the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her grandparents, who had gone to Israel several years before, eagerly awaited her. |  A photo Haika, aged 16, gave to her friend Meir Orkin when he immigrated to Israel in 1936. |
