Victor Nahmias BArch’ 77

I did not actually find love at UBC, but through UBC.

The simple story is that I came to the School of Architecture in 1973 and in December 1974 joined with a group of students and faculty to spend a semester in Israel as part of the schools Studies Abroad Program. I met my wife through a mutual friend at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem where we were working. We married in June and are still married – to each other.

Simple, straightforward, and vaguely “oh, that’s nice” interesting.

It is in the details that the story takes on its flavor. We weren’t supposed to go to Israel, we were supposed to go to Japan! We spent over a year working to develop contacts and relationships in Japan. One faculty member, Bud Wood, went there to try to seal the deal. However, we found it takes time to do this (the next group was able to take advantage of our efforts).

Just when it looked as though no trip would occur, we were offered leads to the Technion in Haifa, Israel, by the head of the planning department. Again, the intrepid Bud Wood took off, this time for Israel. While there he found the Technion not a good fit with UBC. He did meet with some faculty members from the Bezalel Academy and there it came together. With Israeli’s, these arrangements take no time. We meet, we like you, come stay with us. And so the stage is set.

At the Bezalel our group was blended with a group of Israeli students and faculty to work together on some projects. The Israeli’s were very interested in meeting the Canadians. I was invited by one of the women, Dahlia, to come to her house on Saturday night and to bring some friends. I did not know it at the time but she was interested in meeting one of my friends. More on that later.

Two weeks later the Canadian group was holding a Valentine’s Day party at the hotel we had taken over. We invited a number of the Israelis to come join us. Unbeknownst to me, one of Dahlia’s friends from Haifa had come to visit her some weeks before and had seen me in a design charrette. She was interested in meeting me. Dahlia invited her to come to Jerusalem and join her at the party. I saw my future bride for only ten minutes that night before her boyfriend, who had invited himself along and did not like what he saw, dragged her out of there. Too late.

Dahlia and Michal (my wife) invited me and my friend, Mineo, to come visit them at their parents’ homes in Haifa. Two weeks after our visit I proposed (I waited two weeks so I wouldn’t scare her off). We were married in June 1975 in a garden in Haifa.

Now for the coda: Dahlia followed us back to Vancouver. She and Mineo married that winter, and we were the witnesses at their wedding. All told, three long-term relationships began during that trip by UBCers to Israel. All three continue to this day.