December 2006 - Maayan Segoli's 3rd birthday party.
We celebrated Maayan's 3rd birthday today at Kibbutz Dvir. Lots of family joined in the celebration (although seasonal flu and the cold spell prevented some from attending.). Maayan and four of his cousins (Nitzan, Lior, Itamar and Rotem) had a great time cavorting at high speed on their push bikes. When they had settled down, we all came inside and sang happy birthday songs to Maayan, watched him light and blow out the candles, and of course open his presents. The highlight was a show put on my Mikhal and Maayan, who told us all about the lion who loved strawberries.

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December 2006 - Jordan Davis visits.

We had a special guest this weekend - Jordan Davis from New Zealand who is on a  Birthright tour of Israel. We have known Jordan since he was a two-year old baby, when his parents Lindy and Richard Davis spent a year in the Bahamas. We were at his barmitzvah in New Zealand 5 years ago, and had a wonderful time with Lindy and Richard and Lindy's parents, Denis and Valda Knight.

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Chanukah 2006
After a week of candle-lighting and eating traditional doughnuts, Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, ended today. We attended many celebrations and candle-lighting ceremonies during the week. Chanuka is a wonderful opportunity to meet people we don't see often enough.

There were candle-lighting ceremonies in Eilat at Itamar's kindergarten, at kibbutz Dvir with the Segolis, at Raanana with the Rons, in Herzliya with the Habermans, and in Kohav Yair with the Peleds.

We were delighted to meet up again with Ariella and Naomi Peled, whom we met while touring the Red Centre in Australia, and their respective spouses. We have kept up contact (not enough!) and spent a delightful evening (and delicious meal) at the home of Naomi and Itzik.

Thanks to the Habermans and their traditional Chanukkah party, (see pictures from 2004,  and from last year) we had another opportunity to meet my "Goldberg" relatives (on my mother's side) - Michael and Janet Cohen and Joe Woolwich visiting from England, and we always look forward to meeting the Olkienitski clan on these happy occasions.

It's always wonderful being with our children and grandchildren ....

and with the Bravermans Louise, Denise and Yahel; and Aviv's sister and brother-in-law, Orit and Moshe.

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December 9, 2006: Welcome to this world, Gabriella Anne Nathan, (2 days old in the picture on the left below). Congratulations to new Mom and Dad, Melodie and Mark Nathan (see Nochomovich family tree). Gabrielle was born a month prematurely and spent some time in  neo-natal care in hospital. The picture on the right is in the car seat on the way home from the hospital (about 10 days old).We wish her continued speedy growth. Mazaltov also to grandparents Lucille and Graham Melamed on the birth of their new grandchild, cousin to Yehuda and Daniella Melamed.

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December 2006: Vered Loew and Yoav Shavit are getting married.

  Yoav Shavit. Vered Loew

Congratulations to Vered Loew on her engagement to Yoav Shavit. The wedding is planned for August 2, 2007. Congratulations too to Mom Yaffa and Dad Andy and to grandmother Rivka.Bortenstein.
(See more pictures of Yaffa and Andy taken at Yaffa's 60th)

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The Cotton children

Cecile (Levy) is my youngest cousin. She is married to Raymond Cotton and they live in Johannesburg, South Africa. These are their three children, Eric, Jenna and Raphael. This is the first time that pictures of the Cotton family appear on my site, and I hope that there will be many more.

Joel and Beryl Klotnick (see  Matz family tree.) from Johannesburg are visiting Israel and spending time with son Mark and daughter in law Sarina, and of course with grandson Yali. They found time to come to us for dinner, together with my cousin Shirley and her husband Nathan. As always it was delightful to be with all of them, and we spent a most enjoyable evening.

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November 7-30,  2006 - Exhibition of paintings of Dina Levy

Dina Levy is having an exhibition of her paintings at the Weil Centre ( Hanotea Street 6) in Kfar Shmaryahu.  The exhibition opens on Tuesday 7 November and continues until the end of the month. Dina is married to my cousin Jonathan (See Hershovitz/Levy family tree ).

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October 2006 - Welcome to this world Adam Joseph Levy
Hearty congratulations to parents Jason and Shari Levy, grandparents Seymor and Brenda Levy, and Sam and Bunny Tabasky; on the birth of Adam Joseph Levy on October 26, 2006. Here is his picture, all 6 pounds and 19 inches of him!
(See Hershovitz/Levy family tree, page 2)

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Yaffa Loew's 60th birthday October 2006
Yaffa's 60th birthday is on 30 October 2006, and we celebrated it at a delightful garden party and lunch at the Loew residence. Excellent food and company and the opportunity to  see that side of  Doreen's family  helped make the event most enjoyable. (see Schank family tree.)

The family choir - Zahava Karsblad, Roni Karlsblad, Moriah and Rochelle Kirsh, Rachel Karlsblad

Moriah and Rochelle Kirsh reworked the Givatron song, Bat Shishim. For the words (in Hebrew) to Yaffa's version, click here.

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October 2006 - Wedding party for Rachel and Yuval
The Israeli party for the wedding of Rachel  Engleberg (see Matz family tree) and Yuval Moskovitz was last Monday night. (The wedding was last month in Colorada, USA). It was a great party, with a lively atmosphere and excellent food. Moran, Mikhal and their kids joined us, and we had a most enjoyable evening. Rachel and Yuvie went back today (via London) and we wish them every success in their future, and hope we'll see them again soon. Fortunately Rachel's sister Rebecca (on the left in the picture on the left, and also here)  is remaining in Israel and we hope to see more of her. For another picture of Rachel and Yuvie, Click here .

Dan, Dina, Yarden and Lior, Malia, Jonathan

Dovvie and Ziona Glassman; Dani blowing out her candles; Yaffa Loew and Lotem Segoli;

Orit (Aviv's youngest sister) and Haim; Lior blowing out her candles; Yaffa and Vered Loew and Yoav


Edna and Anat (Aviv's sisters) and Eli; Gali and Asaf Nickel; Mikhal, Moran, Maayan and Lotem Segoli with Doreen;


Lotem Segoli showing Doreen how SHE blows the shofar

Lior Ron - 2006 Champion Shofar blower.

At the Segolis in Mevaseret Zion - September 2006
We spent a lovely evening - and a tasty meal - with the Segoli family in Mevaseret, as Yael and Avraham entertained their 4 daughters with spouses and children. Avraham's mother Rachel was also there, as was Avraham's brother on a visit from Hong Kong. We took Dani and Lior too, and it was a lovely evening.

Mazeltov to Daniel Klotnick, in Melbourne Australia, on his barmitzvah. Congratulations to all the Klotnick clan, to parents Steven and Sharlene (in the picture), brother Jordan, sisters Candice, Romy and Tarryn; and  grandmother Milly.

Venice - June 2006

Breakfast at the Pensione Accademia                        The view from the Rialto Bridge


On the Venetian island of  Burano                                                       The view from our hotel window

Verona - World Bridge Championships - June 2006: Doreen's impressions

The (bridge) tournament is very demanding both for the players and the directors. Perhaps because of this in the evenings everybody chills out over Italian wine, German beer and good food. Most of the bridge staff stay at our hotel and the feeling of camaraderie among the directors is very real. They discuss the day’s problems and rulings that they had to give. I notice that tournament directors really do not like it when their rulings are appealed by the players, even if the appeals committee rejects the appeal.

I’m preparing a profile of tournament directors.  Besides the real love of bridge and their fascination with its rules, they all seem to be night birds and most think that a midnight double espresso is just the thing to put them to sleep. Needless to add most aren’t at their very best in the morning, however when we walk into the breakfast room we exchange greetings with the director from Egypt and say hello to the Mexican director (Jewish) as he piles proscuttio onto his plate and tells me that it's not kosher. We make sure to eat dinner at the Chinese restaurant recommended by the director from Hong Kong (not very good) and make sure to have a beer with the (Moslem) director from Pakistan. Slavek from Poland gives us a bottle of Polish vodka and he is delighted when we offer to bring him something from Jerusalem when we go to the European Championships in Warsaw in August. Rahmi entertained us when we were in Istanbul last Pesach; all the directors join us in promising to come to Istanbul if he gets married. Pierre and I exchange loaded remarks about sharing the same bed which causes a few raised eyebrows as the other directors don’t know that Eitan and I were guests at their house in Lausanne when Pierre and Francoise were away last summer.  And then there is Dimitri from Greece who always likes Eitan to work with him at the World Junior Championships so he (Dimitri) will have good company. This year it works out well – Eitan will continue from Italy and I will return home to work immediately.  And we haven’t even mentioned Anda, the other Israeli director, Max from England who apologizes that because we’re going to Warsaw he couldn’t fit Brighton into this summer’s itinerary for us. We exchange words with Maurizio who is Italian but speaks some Hebrew because of his frequent trips there. 
We have dinner with Goran and Tini Mattsen and I promise Goran, who is the chairman of the European Seniors’ Committee, a trip to Jerusalem on his next trip to Israel. Goran’s father was an UN Official in about 1956 and he came to visit one summer when his father was stationed at the UN Headquarters in Jerusalem. We were delighted to discuss the nun from Notra Dame who looked out of the window one day only to have her false teeth fall into no-man’s land. It caused an international incident (and much merriment) as UN officials (including his dad) as well as Israelis and Jordanians went searching through the fields until they found her teeth.

So after a hard two weeks we bid farewell to our friends with promises to meet in Warsaw in August at the European  Championships.

Mazal tov, Roni. (See also Archives of This Week's Picture)

February 2006. International Bridge Festival :Party at our house for tournament directors  in honour of our overseas guests, Ton Kooijman and Maurizio di Sacco. Three cooks combined for a delicious evening.

in Israel. She was 98. Heartfelt condolences to her children Sybil Firer, Merrick Silberman and Frankie Klaff and their families.
We knew Ellie - Mrs Silberman - from our Durban days, as the mother of friends Merrick and Frankie. When Frankie "became family" we got to know her better, and visited her occasionally at Bet Protea. Two years ago she visited us, and we solved the problem of the stairs by using a custom elevator.
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