Watch the testimony of Isaac Bitton who recalls his memories about the Shaare Tikva Synagogue. Then, read his short biography.
Isaac Bitton was born in 1926, in Lisbon, Portugal in a Jewish family. His father, David Tangi Bitton was a policeman and a truck driver later on, while her mother Simy Bitton was a housewife and took care of their ten children. In Lisbon he attended public school and he studied Hebrew in a Jewish school as well. During WW2 Portugal was a neutral country, therefore many people including Jews fled there. As a teenager Isaac helped Jewish refugees at the local Jewish centre, and later on he joined the Youth Aliyah Movement with his brother. In 1944 they emigrated to Palestine and there they were trained by the British Army, and at the end of the war they served at a displaced-persons camp helping Jews. After that he fought in Israel’s War of Independence. He got married in 1947. With his wife they moved to the United States. He has three children and six grandchildren. His interview was recorded in 1996, in Woodstock, Illinois.