On June 10, three days before the new Israeli government was inaugurated, I drove my Jerusalem Post colleagues Greer Fay Cashman, Liat Collins and Erica Schachne to Motza Illit, a tiny community near Jerusalem overlooking the rolling Judean Hills.
There, at the beautiful home of former Israel Radio broadcaster Sara Manobla, we celebrated the 90th birthday of a very special man – Neville Teller, who lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh. Before making aliyah from the UK with his late wife, Sheila, a decade ago – on July 4, 2011 – Teller combined a career in the civil service with writing for BBC radio, and was awarded an MBE in the 2006 Queen’s Birthday Honours “for services to broadcasting and to drama.”
In brief remarks at the party, Teller – who is eloquent in the Queen’s English – said he considered himself “very lucky” and was thankful to “providence and the Almighty.”
“When you’re this age and you see other people around you of your own age in different states of physical and mental health, you can only thank the Lord that you’ve been spared that much, which I have been,” he said. To which his son, Richard, said, “Baruch Hashem!”
Teller has three sons, 10 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, most of whom live in Israel.
Manobla recalled that during a visit to Jerusalem in 1980, Teller had seen the sign of Kol Yisrael, the Israel Broadcasting Authority, and asked to meet an English-speaking broadcaster. Manobla, who served as director of English Programs until retiring in 1999, came to meet him, and at the end of the meeting, Teller invited her to join him and Sheila for dinner. “And the rest is history,” Manobla said. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
At Manobla’s 80th birthday party at her home seven years ago, she introduced Teller to me, and that’s when he became a contributor to the Post and later to The Jerusalem Report. Among the articles he penned was a profile of Manobla – “The matriarch of Israel Radio.”
Born in London and educated at Oxford, Teller worked in marketing, the media and the civil service, but his passion was radio. “A contributor to BBC radio for many years, my work includes some 50 radio dramatizations and well over 250 abridgements for radio readings,” he writes on his website, https://www.nevilleteller.co.uk/.
He has written extensively about the Middle East, with half of his 10 publications on the subject. His latest book, published in 2020, is Trump and the Holy Land: 2016-2020, and a new one is to be launched on July 28 – More Audio Drama: 10 More Plays for Radio and Podcast (His first Audio Drama book came out in 2019).
Teller told me he had learned from his late father-in-law that one should engage wholeheartedly in an activity after retirement – or risk fading away. Teller has focused his energies on writing, and he is both gifted and prolific. One of his sons, Matthew, a London-based accomplished author and broadcaster in his own right, says his father “writes from the heart, thoughtfully and with purpose.”
“He’s always been able to see a clear line of explanation through the most complex ideas,” Matthew says. “That’s an amazing skill. I’m so proud of him, and so grateful for the love of words he passed on to me. I’ve never forgotten how he would teach me to read when I was little, sitting together at the kitchen table!”
Teller is the quintessential English gentleman. His wit and warmth remind me of a quotation from George Bernard Shaw: “A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.”