Welcome To The Tribe

Introducing......

Chayim Natan Yisrael

A BIG name for a little man. The Bris was a very emotional day for me, we initiated our baby boy into the tribe and gave him his name. While I was pregnant my maternal grandfather passed away and we had discussed that if the baby was a boy then we would most likely name him after my grandfather, Chayim Yisrael. After the baby was born we knew this would be his name. There is an idea that parents get ruach hakodesh (divine inspiration) in deciding the name of their child, we really saw this because the day before the bris both Y and I had the idea separately to also give our son one of Y's paternal grandfather's names, he was Natan Alter, so we chose the Natan. And there we have it, Chayim Natan Yisrael, Israel gives life or we give life to Israel!!!

Mazal Tov!

some other people's pics

On Tuesday morning, July 22, I landed at Ben-Gurion airport and there were about 200 people that came to greet the new olim that made aliyah from North America to Israel.

There were 217 olim on the flight including 50 singles (including 23 people joining the IDF through the Garin Tzabar program) 28 families with 98 children (98 - wow!).

The youngest oleh in the group is 3 months old and the oldest oleh is 88 years old. The flight also included 4 dogs and 1 cat.

A man named Jacob that came to greet the new olim posted pictures that he took
www.jr.co.il/pictures/israel/history/2008/a322.htm

Here are some pics he took. I am in the background of a couple, that's me in the green shirt.




Frances Greenberg, the first to receive her Teudat Oleh. She was the oldest new olah and was a passenger on the famous Exodus, that was denied entry to Israel. She moved to the USA with her husband and now at 88 she says “It’s time to fulfill the dream of my youth.After 60 years, I am finally coming to Israel to stay!”

Frances on the plane shows a photograph of herself and other passengers on the Exodus on their way to Israel. Unlike with the Exodus this time she will make it to stay!


My friend Marna came to meet me and the other olim at the airport. Thanks everyone!

Jewish History

I went to visit with my grandmother yesterday to spend some time with her before I leave. Little did I know I would be leaving with some history. My Grandpa Joe z"l passed away about 3 years ago and my grandmother, now 88 is getting ready to move to a retirement community.

She gave me an old throw pillow that is used to love that they got in Thailand ages ago. It is Thai silk and is yellow with brown fishies on it.

She also gave me small hexagons that she crocheted from scraps of yarn. It is a work in progress and she just adds more as she makes them. I am really exited because because I was looking for a pattern for an afghan made out of yarn scraps and this is perfect and I am so excited to incorporate my grandma's pieces into my own afghan.

My grandmother also gave me these amazing old Jewish books. The small brown one was an army issued Bible for Jews that was my grandpa's when he was in the army.

The blue and red is a Rosh Hashanah Machzor that was my grandma's mother's. It was printed in Vilna and all of the commentary and extras are Yiddish.

The Beautiful white one is a Siddur from Budapest and is over 100 years old. It has amazing metal detail on the cover and...

...0n the inside my great grandfather signed it and wrote a note when he gave it to my grandpa in 1981. This siddur is absolutely beautiful and delicate. It is in Hebrew and Hungarian, something that I have never seen before but I will treasure this and the other books my grandma gave me. I hope to even use them on very very special occasions.

Iam so blessed to have all 3 of these books that each have so much history. May the merit of my ancestors help me to be the best that I can be!