• We wish all our friends a Happy New Year and a successful and healthy 2023.
• Last night we went with the Rons and Meghan and her family to enjoy a Chinese dim sum meal - see picture here.
• There's no opportunity to include the New Year festivities on today's site update. Next week we'll heve pictures and a description.

THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
17th December 2022 2022

THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
10th December 2022 2022

• This week we saw an excellent Madam Butterfly production and enjoyed some of the FIFA matches but otherwise it's been a quiet week.
• We now have a new bridge champion in the family - Doreen has become an Israel bridge Assistant Silver Master.

THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
22nd October 2022

Hagar Gefen in Hospital

The incident as reported in yesterday's press, from Haaretz Newspaper 21 Oct 2022

Israeli Settlers Beat 70-year-old Activist, Threaten to Kill Her

Hagar Gefen and another activist were helping Palestinians with an olive harvest south of Bethlehem when they were attacked by settlers

A 70-year-old Israeli woman and another activist were attacked by Jewish settlers armed with stones and clubs in the Bethlehem area on Wednesday while helping Palestinians harvest olives in Kisan, a village south of Bethlehem, according to testimony from the volunteers.

Hagar Gefen, 70, said that although this was not the first time she was attacked for helping Palestinians harvest their crops, she did not imagine that such severe violence would be directed toward her. Gefen was moderately injured in the attack, and was hospitalized at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem with a broken hand and ribs, a punctured lung and stitches in her head.

Click here to read the full article in Haaretz

Hagar is our friend of many years from Hofit. Her whole life is devoted to helping people less fortunate than herself, be they the elderly or sick in Hofit, teaching people with disabilities or helping Palestinians. She regularly accompanies Palestinian shepherds in the Jordan valley, peacefully helping them ensure access to water and grazing grounds for their flocks.
Now it is the time for the olive harvest. When a group of  Jews from Israel and volunteers from Italy reached the grove south of Bethlehem, the olives had already been taken by settlers. They saw the masked Jewish terrorists appproach and although Hagar tried to shield herself from the mob, they found her and brutally attacked her with clubs while screaming she had no place in Israel.
This attack is terribly unsettling, not only because Hagar is a personal friend, but especially as the army and police did nothing to try and apprehend the Jewish terrorists who mercilessly beat an elderly woman. Where is the most moral army in the world now?

x   x   x   x   x   x   x

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

Regular visitors to this page will notice that it has now been streamlined. The homepage should be the initial page of a site containing links to detailed information on other pages of the site. My previous homepage included all this extra detail and the page was crowded and difficult to navigate. Some of the links did not work and some linked to the wrong page. I have now corrected this and the homepage is as it should be with general information and current updates. Details and previous events can be found by using the links on this homepage.
(There may still be some mistakes in the links - please let me know of any problems.)

x   x   x   x   x   x   x

THIS WEEK'S NEWS

• Best wishes to grandson Maayan Segoli who tomorrow begins his studies at Ben Gurion University. Maayan will be living away from home in the University dorms. See This Week's News from two  weeks ago.
  
• As always Doreen was happy to have lunch with Shirley Poluck, a long-time friend from our ulpan days 57 years ago. Shirley is visiting her daughter and family in Israel. We see her fairly regularly in Israel (for example earlier this year) and occasionally in London.
• We met with the lovely Segoli family and their friends at  Avram Segoli's home to remember his wife Yael who passed away 2 years ago. (see Yael's memorial page.)

---

THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
15th October 2022


  The Segoli Children in Hyde Park, London

• Israel TV Channel 12 showed an excellent  report Diving with Sharks featuring son Aviv Levy, the technical director of the Underwater Observatory, who among other topics, spoke about the problem of man's extermination of sharks. As usual, Aviv gave an excellent and professional performance. Click here for the  report on Channel 12 and here for a shot taken from the TV.
  
• Yaffa Loew (see Schank family tree) has not been well and has been in hospital for over 3 weeks.  We visited her yesterday and she is making very good progress. We all wish her a speedy and full recovery.
• Doreen is still in pain after her fall last week. She's had an X-ray and a CT scan and fortunately there doesn't seem to be any permanent damage.
• We are in the middle of the week-long sukkot holiday. Among other traditions Jews enjoy eating in a sukka, a booth or temporary structure from where the stars can be seen. The tradition  is a reminder of the Israelites who needed temporary shelter when in the desert.  We enjoyed two meals in a sukka, one with Joel and Beryl Klotnick (see Matz family tree) and one at the Rons with cousin Jonathan Levy (see Levy and Matz family trees and his family.
• Last week I wrote about some of our RV trips. By chance, when going through some old papers, Doreen found a detailed, informative and fascinating account she had written of an RV trip  on the West coast of USA, where daughter Vered and Aviv had joined us for a few days. Read Doreen's account here.

THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
8th October 2022


  Touring in a Motorhome (Caravan or RV) - South Australia 2002

• Doreen had a bad fall at the beginning of the week and has bruised her ribs.  Nothing permanent but super painful.
• We continued our tradition of  spending Yom Kippur  in Eilat with Aviv and Limor and children. As usual, nice and relaxing.
• Grandson Maayan enlisted in the Army this week. He's on a special programme where his active service is delayed for 3 years while he studies Physics at Ben Gurion University. During this time he will need to spend some time in basic training.
  
• Next week the Segolis are taking advantage of the sukkot holidays and are going for a short trip to London.
  

While we were overseas we heard about the passing of Eli Vinocour, husband of long-time friend Naomi (Hertz), and we extend our condolences to her and her family. Naomi was the only girl in my kindergarten class at Sharona in Durban. (see picture). She and my late sister Fern were best friends and she was a frequent visitor to our home. Her mother and Doreen's mother were also good friends. She left on aliya to Israel in 1963 a year before Doreen and I;  in Israel we kept in touch with her and Eli.
On our return from overseas we visited Naomi and talked about old times and old friends. Then Naomi showed us a gold ring and bracelet. On the bracelet was written "Naomi". "Turn it over" said Naomi and to my great surprise I saw written there: Tony-Fern, 30.3.63 . This was a parting gift my sister Fern and I gave Naomi when she left South Africa for Israel. Naomi had kept the bracelet and ring for nearly 60 years! Both Doreen and I were very touched.
(see picture of the other side of the bracelet.)

• We are in Eilat visiting the Levys and enjoying ourselves. The highlight was Doreen's dive with Aviv. Since getting her insurance she has been waiting for this opportunity. See pictures here.
  
• Son Moran and grandchildren Lotem and Maayan Segoli went diving in Dahab, Sinai with granddaughters Danielle and Lior Ron. By all accounts they had a great time. Pictures here.
• Doreen met with  friends of old  from our Hofit days at the home of Ruhama Plotnikov.
• Just for fun I made a jigsaw puzzle from our family's last reunion. Clich here to 'solve' it.
  
• Later this week we fly to Wroclaw in Poland where I will be officiating in the World Bridge Series. We return in 3 weeks and a few days after that it's off to Poland again, this time to Warsaw, for a tournament directors course I am organizing. During July, August and September I will have been overseas for 39 days for bridge competitions. All this is after I retired!

Nathan Kansky (14 March 1924 - 23 July 2022)

• Sad news about granddaughter's trip with her robotic team to the USA. Some of the team caught Covid and in order not to affect other participants they had to withdraw from the competition. Lotem and others are in quarantine and will be returned later to Israel. We are sad that they couldn't compete but happy that they did the right thing by withdrawing.
  
• Doreen and I have written an account with pictures of our Madeira visit.
• We celebrated daughter Vered's birthday at a Thai restaurant in Tel Aviv. See picture.

The important job of a bridge tournament director (TD) is acting as the judge but is also responsible, among other duties, for the orderly progress of the game, and usually for arranging and preparing a tournament.
As the judge the TD is responsible for maintaining order and for giving rulings following irregularities during play. Some of these rulings are simple but, especially at a Championship, they can be very difficult and necessitate discussions with other TDs and even other players. These rulings can affect the winners of the Competitions. Players are not always happy with TD rulings but they have an option to appeal.  In the European Bridge League (EBL) the appeal is heard by a 'reviewer' whose decision is final. I share the reviewer job with two other persons and for the European Championships which took place in Madeira I was the reviewer. Amazingly, there were no appeals - I cannot remember another Championship where there were no appeals. The main reason for this is the quality and high standard pf the TDs (pictured above) at this event.
The TDs are trained and chosen by a TD Committee of which I was Chairman. (At Madeira I decided to relinquish this post but remain in an advisory position).
My first international role as a TD was in 1980 but I took a 17 year break because of work duties. In 1997 I went on a training course and resumed my activities as an international TD. I worked my way through the ranks and eventually was appointed head of the TD training courses which are held every year. The 15 TDs above (+ 1 absent) are all graduates of these courses. Two of them were my mentors, and 2 trained with me. I trained another two and trained and certified ten of them. The next course will be in Warsaw in September and that will be my last as organizer although I will still be involved in the preparation of the course.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my years as a TD and as a trainer of TDs. Apart from bridge, the two F's (friends and food ) have been amazing. We have visited many countries and there is a special relationship between TDs and the differences in country, culture, food  and religion are unimportant.  I have made friends from all over the world and we are always delighted to see each other again. I maintain contact and friendships with many of them even when we are not at competitions. 

• We returned early this morning from the European Bridge Championships in Madeira. We still need to organize and choose the many pictures we took and next week we will write and add pictures about our visit there.
• The Championships were well organized and the venue excellent. 30 countries participated in 4 categories: Open, Women, Seniors and Mixed. The Israel Women's team was the youngest team there and won the Bronze Medal for 3rd place.  The first 8 teams in each category qualify for the next World Championships in 2023 in Morocco. Only two countries qualified in all four categories, Poland (who won 2 gold medals) and Israel. A fine performance!
  
• Limor Levy, Vered and Aviv Ron and we are all back in Israel following trips overseas. The family's overseas representative now is granddaughter Lotem Segoli is taking part in an international Robotics Competition in USA. The competition starts today and we all wish Lotem and her team good luck. Pictures here.
  
• Skipper daughter Vered went sailing with daughter Danielle and her friend Oz. See pictures.

• Grandson Maayan Segoli has finished high school and begins a new phase in his life. Pictures here.
• A big event for granddaughter Zoe Segoli. Her pet chinchilla, Daisy, gave birth to little Misty. Everyone wanted to know the gender of the new addition, so Zoe had a 'sex revelation' party to reveal the sex.
• Limor, son Aviv's wife, has joined the Egged bus company family and enjoyed an Egged employees' holiday in Georgia, which was most interesting.
• Granddaughter update: Amit Levy will spend the school holiday working at a dress shop in Eilat; Lotem Segoli is flying to a robotics competition with her group while Lior Ron continues to expand her delicious vegan relishes.

•  I'm happy to report that daughter Vered Ron has fully recovered from Corona.
• The Segolis spent the night with us after Shavuot  and the next morning granddaughter Zoe helped Doreen make a cheese cake, a traditional cake for Shavuot.
• Denise "d'niece" Braverman (Glazer family tree) is in Girona in Catalonia Spain for a triathlon summer camp.
  
• This coming weekend we are flying to Madeira where I will be involved with the European Bridge Championships for about 2 weeks. Next week's page will probably be a little late.

• Patisa Rasmussen was our daughter Vered's best friend when we lived in the Virgin Islands, and we consider her part of our family. Vered and Patisa have kept up contact during the years: Patisa came to Vered's wedding and they regularly see each other, in Denmark or in Israel. See also here when Patisa and her daughter Sophia visted Israel and here when we met them in Denmark.
• I spent most of this week fixing up our garden, front and back. Seeds planted, water system re-installed and working, my back aching.
  
• We have seen the opera The Marriage of Figaro, with its twists and turns, about 3 or 4 times. We saw it again this week and this time we more or less understood what was going on!
  
• The Segolis are on vacation and spending time with Mikhal's sister Ofi in Miami, USA. 

• This week the Rons celebrated the birthday of Dad Aviv and even baked him a cake. See picture.
• Daughter Vered Ron and family are skiing in Europe and having a good time. See picture
• Click here for some pictures and an account of our trip to Cyprus.