In Praise of Watchmaker

I was very happy to read Renee Singer's article about Susanna Kaufman, Clockmaker in the latest ESRA Magazine #197. I had, for a long time, saved an advertisement by her, knowing that at some stage I wanted to heal my antique and much loved clock. I had, in fact, taken my clock to Susanna about a month before the article appeared and I had formed a very favorable impression of her, her shop and her work. Obviously, when I read the article, I was very happy to have my impression corroborated.

A week after reading the article, Susanna called me to tell me that my clock was ready. I drove to Raanana from Modiin on a rainy Friday morning and cannot begin to describe what a wonderful piece of work she had done, and at a very reasonable price, all things considered. This clock, its ticking and its chimes, is one of my very earliest memories. It had been one of the wedding gifts received by my late parents, back in the first half of the last century. When, almost 30 years ago, my mother gave me the clock to bring home with me to Israel, I was overjoyed. Unfortunately, the clock did not travel well and since I did not then have the means to repair it, a then elderly clockmaker – also in Raanana where I was living at the time – suggested that he take out the insides and put in batteries. I had no choice but to agree, if I wanted to use the clock; which obviously, I did. I promised myself, that "one day" I would have it fixed.

And so, the very first time that I saw Susanna's advertisement in ESRAmagazine, I cut it out and kept it. Very recently, I moved to Modiin and decided that as part of inaugurating my new home, I would at long last, have my clock fixed! Susanna has constructed an entirely new mechanism which sounds exactly the same as the original sounded. And, I now have to wind it regularly once a week, just as my daddy did when I was a little girl, 70+ years ago!

Susanna – what a wonderful discovery you have been for me. Thank you.

Bernice Lewak Zohn

Modiin