Meet Anna and Yifat!
I've been so busy with visiting friends that I've fallen behind on my writing. I had an amazing visit with Tina and Jeff. After they toured the south they came back to meet me in Tel Aviv at the Palmach Museum. The Palmach was a secret Israeli army pre-state that was made up of new immigrants from all over the world. Some had escaped the Holocaust, some came from Arab countries, some from the US, South Africa, etc all with the same goal, to fight against the British occupation and create a Jewish state.
After the museum, we headed north to Afula to visit the high school where Tina spent a year in the 80's before we met in 1989 at Haifa University. We spent the night in an adorable cabin in Yavne'el with a view of the mountains near the Sea of Galilee. The following day we walked the ancient streets of Tsfat and greatly expanded Haifa University where we rode the new cable car down and then up the mountain. Our friendship is intense. Jeff and Tina lost their 14 year old son, Brody, to a brain tumor almost 2 years ago. https://www.brodyhuberfoundation.com/ I knew Brody from the many times we visited each other throughout his short life. He always gave me his room where I bunked with his Iguana "Westy". Their grief is part of every moment and we spent many hours talking about Brody, their family, and how they cope with their new reality. There were also many moments of laughter and of course memories of our own shenanigans here in 1989.
Mike arrived on Friday and we had a great time with Tina and Jeff exploring the Old City of Jaffa, walking Dizengoff, watching "foot volley" on the beach, and of course eating yummy Israeli food.
The blogs are swirling around in my head and so I'm going to introduce two amazing friends today. Both of these women have a connection to Momentum.
Anna Vainer is the Associate Director for Partnerships in Europe and Asia for Momentum and we met when I was helping to coordinate the Momentum Health Care Heroes Trip for November 2021. We easily connected on-line and when we met in person on the trip I felt as though we'd known each other forever. Anna is originally from Kieve in the Ukraine and came to Haifa with her family in 1991 when she was 11 years old. She came during a huge wave of aliyah from the former Soviet Union and ironically 2 months later I was here on a business trip with the American Zionist Youth Foundation. We stood on the tarmac as they deplaned waving Israeli flags and singing "Hevainu Shalom Alechem" (We bring peace to you...a popular Jewish song.) Anna said she was greeted similarly.
We caught up in Haifa my 2nd day here and she showed me the new area by the Port that has fun little shops and restaurants. We walked and talked for HOURS. I mostly wanted to hear about the Momentum trip that she recently coordinated for moms from Russia and the Ukraine. She shared about the successes of the trip and the many challenges it took to coordinate it from the lack of bank accounts for many women from the Ukraine, the loss and worry of family members from both sides, and the need for a number of psychologists on the trip (which we don't usually have.) I'm always impressed with Anna's tenacity and ability to bring people together and this trip was beyond anything she'd had to do before. Anna lives in Haifa with her husband (also from Russia) and her two "tweens".
Yifat Kuperman was the Israeli Community Leader on my bus for the same Healthcare Heroes Trip in 2021 and we first met on Whatsapp before the trip. She was impressed that I wrote to her in Hebrew. She is the the Cardiovascular Center Administrator at Sheba Hospital and throughout the 8 day trip our friendship deepened. I had recently started a Hebrew class on-line and I loved hanging out with her Israeli women and working on my Hebrew (I always had great comprehension and was never shy to speak 1:1, groups were more challenging for me which is why I started the Hebrew class in the first place.) We caught up in November 2022 for a walk in Tel Aviv and she pushed me to speak Hebrew on our walk since she knew I was still working on it. Now that I'm here, she's also become a day to day friend. Texting only in Hebrew and inviting me for Shabbat a few weeks ago. When I walked in the door, she and her husband Gideon told me- only Hebrew! I was up for the challenge and it was an incredible 30 or so hours of speaking Hebrew in a large group.
On Shabbat afternoon we went for a walk and shared about our family history. Yifat's parents both came from the former Soviet Union where they practiced Judaism in secret. In the early days of their marriage and during Yifat's childhood, they were religious in that they went to shul (synagogue) on Saturday mornings but drove there and parked 2 blocks away. They watched television in the afternoon. They sent Yifat and her sisters to a religious school and she realized that they weren't actually religious. At the age of 11 she and one of her sisters told her parents, from now on we are going to be religious. Her parents kept their traditions and Yifat began her journey. Here in Israel being "religious" has so many different meanings/levels. For Yifat, keeping kosher and observing Shabbat is important to her. Her 4 children have taken on different observances, for example her daughter has moved to Jerusalem to study in a seminary and learn Gemorrah (study of Rabbinic Judaism) and her son who is in the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) goes to synagogue 3x/day. I'm excited to spend time with her this week with our husbands at the Latin Festival in Tel Aviv.
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