2011 family updates

FAMILY UPDATES FOR 2011/2012

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The Levys (Eitan, Doreen and family)
The Segolis (Moran, Mikhal and family)
The Rons (Vered, Aviv and family)
The Bermans (Cindy, Ken and family)

The Bermans - Cindy and Ken; Michele; Jennifer and Paul, Chloe, Liam and Seth

Cindy, Eitan, Ken

the MacMillan twins

We're so pleased that Eitan is back at the helm of this wonderful Family Website once again. We're also happy and grateful to hear that Eitan has made a full recovery and we wish him all the best with the return of the Family Website. We feel good knowing that it's in his good hands.
Our news of the past year is our proud announcement of two more branches being added to the Family Tree of Hirshovitz/Levy (link to tree), compliments of our daughter Jennifer and our son-in-law Paul. Joining their 6 year old sister Chloe Lauren on our Family Tree are Liam Gabriel and Seth Morris, beautiful twin boys born on August 5, 2011.

MacMillan family

The Berman Family
Cindy (née Levy) and Ken Berman,

Daughter Jennifer (née Berman) and Paul, Chloe, Liam and Seth MacMillan (in picture)

Daughter Michele Berman

(Eitan adds: For a delightful picture of Chloe with a therapy dog, posted on my site in 2010, click here, and for a picture of baby Chloe click here.)

The Rons - Vered, Aviv, Danielle and Lior

Here’s a little bit about what’s new with our family over the past months…

Danielle turned 16 in September and celebrated with her girlfriends and family. She is in 11^th grade, at Mor Metro West High School in Raanana. She loves her school – has lots of good friends -though isn’t great about consistently attending classes... She finished the first semester with great grades and got an honor’s certificate. She is doing a photography concentration and is a very talented photographer. She had her first group exhibition at school, and her creative work received lots of praise. Having a 16.5 year old daughter is just wonderful and Dani has matured so much lately is just wonderful to watch. She is starting to think about grown up things like finishing high school, getting a driver’s license and what to do at the military. Meanwhile she is also enjoying being a teenager and her favorite things are friends, music and parties…

Lior turned 12 in September and celebrated her Bat Mizvah with friends, at a wonderful pool party. It was a great pool party with water, music and dancing, and she had much fun getting ready for it. Lior is in 7^thgrade at Alon Middle School. She has lots of good friends there, and goes to school with a smile. Lior is in a Dance concentration, and dances a lot before and after school. She is doing well at it, and enjoying it. She just got selected for a solo part (with 4 other girls from the group) at the yearend dance performance, so that’s exciting. Lior is wonderful and happy, and is a great friend to her girlfriends. She is getting more independent by the day, and recently took the bus by herself several times.

Tuli is our little white poodle that we rescued just over a year ago from the Humane Society. He was in very bad shape, both physically and mentally as he was on the street for a while following prolonged abuse. He is about 6 years old now, and requires endless amount of work and love… Today, 15 months after he came to us, it’s hard to imagine it’s the same dog, as he’s still healing every day and is now almost like a regular cute dog… The girls are crazy about him and he is very cuddly. His favorite is watching TV with them, while lying on top of them…

Aviv is doing well, and is involved in so many things it’s hard to keep track… He continues to manage his real estate fund in Poland, with his British partner. He goes to Poland every other month, and it’s so nice for the girls that he is home more as compared to past years, and all three have become very close. He has also become involved in social venture capital, and is mentoring a project for the Israel Venture Network on finding solutions of affordable housing for the community of secular, educated young professionals in Jerusalem. Aviv is a serious photographer and very talented, and loves the art scene and is involved in the photography community in Israel. He recently won his first competition at an important US based photography blog. (see This Week's Picture). Danielle and Aviv go photographing together, and it’s helped Danielle’s technique a lot and boosted her confidence.

vered in Japan

Vered is doing well. She started her third year at HumanEyes Technologies, a small company that she manages, involved in 3D. The company is growing and there are lots of good things going on, but she is working very hard for the success of her company. The company revenues are mainly from the US and Asia, and this year they are entering Europe. She loves what she is doing, and enjoys working with her team very much, but she travels intensively and that is a challenge for everyone. Health wise she is doing well, and somehow managing to find time to be with family and friend, keep up the healthy eating no salt diet and exercise (Yoga and Zoomba are favorites)… She is especially happy with her wonderful daughters and loving family, so all the family together is doing well!

The Segolis – Moran, Mikhal, Maayan and Lotem

March 2012

We are completing our third and final year of post-doc studies , California, doing post-docs at the University of California Davis. Mikhal continues as a post-doctoral scholar in the Entomology department. Details here. At the beginning of 2011, Moran started a new post-doctoral fellowship at UC Davis in the Agroecology lab. where he is modeling the carbon cycle in agriculture fields. Details here

Our children Maayan and Lotem are doing well at school and eagerly awaiting their new sister - Mikhal is pregnant and expecting a baby girl in the middle of April.

Moran has been accepted to a three year post-doctoral fellowship in Townsville, Australia and we will move to Australia in October 2012.

For more detailed updates with pictures from the past year – you can visit our monthly updates in Hebrew or the sporadic English updates .

The Levys - Doreen and Eitan
written by Doreen, March 2012

When Eitan stopped his family site a light went out of our lives. As we look back at his unceasing efforts to post news about our immediate and extended family we appreciate the present he gave us. As I try to recreate the “lost years” without his homepage it is really difficult; so much has been lost. So welcome home Eitan. May your excellent recovery from your operation continue and give you strength to follow all your interests. And to our extended family: Please send us snippets and updates; nothing is too small. If you don’t, I know Eitan feels his hard work is not appreciated and is in vain.

Our dramatic news is that just over six weeks ago Eitan had open-heart surgery with a valve replacement and two bypasses. Everyone assures us that modern medicine makes this a routine procedure. Well, yes, perhaps for the doctors, not so for the patients. But Eitan is driving, exercising, going to bridge meetings and walking the dog. He says the doctor says he should not wash dishes, but this is somewhat suspect!

With heartache we sold our house in Hofit and moved to a groundfloor garden apartment in Netanya – and found that we loved the new flat; we and our dog Flopsy feel very much at home. Even though the furniture is different, the paintings make us feel as if this is where we belong. I like living in an apartment and enjoy the give and take with our neighbours – there are only 6 apartments in our building so we know everyone.

Over Hannuka, when Moran, Mikhal and their children visited from Davis California we had a family dinner. The meal was somewhat marred by Vered and her husband Aviv having to take me to hospital after I spilled boiling soup over my forearm. The hand is completely healed now. But during those very painful weeks, again and again thoughts of our son Aviv filled my mind: when he was 16 he spilled boiling tar over his forearm. That month he spent in hospital was a terrible time. In the end he had plastic surgery and his hand is completely functional. My 2nd and 3rd degree burns and infections were nothing compared to the prolonged and intense pain he suffered. He never showed greater fortitude than during that traumatic period.

In September Eitan finally retired from teaching. If we had not moved he may just have continued!

This last summer was spent as usual in Europe with Eitan directing European Bridge Tournaments. He now holds the post of Chief Tournament Director of the European Youth Championships. We thoroughly enjoyed his directing first in Albena Bulgaria and then (again) in Opatija Croatia, where the work was sweetened by meeting old bridge friends again.

Our first visitors to our new apartment were Danielle Glasser, the granddaughter of my uncle Mike Glasser, and her friend Kez from Australia. We had a family dinner for Sharon and Joe Leibowitz, Eitan’s cousins, also from Australia. We are strengthening our Australia connections because Moran and family are moving to Townsville Australia in September. Other visiting friends from down under, New Zealand this time, were Richard and Lindy Davis, friends of ours from Nassau Bahamas days.