In a few days we will celebrate the holiday of Pesach, Passover, especially the seder held on the eve of the first day. Apart from the obligatory seder dish of 6 items and the eating of matzo there are many other ethnic based foods. For Jews with origins in Russia, Poland and other Eastern European countries chrain,  made mainly with grated horseradish and beet,  is a must.  It can be overpoweringly strong with "fumes" which clear the nose and water the eyes, or, mainly by adding more beet, a mild condiment to be eaten with gefilte fish.  Many buy the ready made chrain in shops. Dustim Hoffman was the Rainman  but in our family I am the chrain man who prepares both mild and strong versions. Grating or blending the horseradish is overpowering even with a mask and goggles. Either the chrain is stronger or I am weaker but this year I had to take a breather outside in the fresh air while preparing.

While we celebrate the Festival of Freedom we hope that the hostages in Gaza will soon be freed and that peace will come to all of us.

Although she is busy and occupied by writing a Vegan Cookbook Doreen still finds time for volunteering. Every week she spends time with one of the women who need help and ....

Doreen writes: I am a volunteer with the splendid  ESRA Netanya group that has many worthwhile projects. Among them is a cooking class for disadvantaged children at a local community center. Each week  a volunteer cooks something with the 12 children who are signed up. I wanted to make something that didn't contain sugar and remembered a savory sandwich cake I had made years ago. As the date approached so did my misgivings increase, quite sure I was overly ambitious. With the help of Rika, another volunteer, and Maya their madricha it turned out well.

They loved mashing the eggs, although many didn't like the yellow and only wanted the white. Mayo - ugh,  tuna - a teaspoon full, avocado - okay with cream cheese. They all loved cream cheese, prepared the fillings to place between the four layers of bread and then covered the 'cake' with more cream cheese and showed much creativity in decorating their cakes which they proudly took home.

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THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
3rd February 2024

Happy Birthday to Ilay and Moran

This week we celebrate the birthdays of  granddaughter Ilay Levy (17 on the 28th) and son Moran Segoli (51 on the 30th). May the future bring health and happiness. In Hebrew we wish עד מאה עשרים  (May you live to 120!)
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Today I am commemorating a 20th anniversary.
I started this site devoted to the family in 2004, and the very first This Week's Picture was of Doreen with children Vered, Aviv and Moran on January 18 2004.
The picture brings back many happy memories of the time we lived in Eilat.

(The picture has been enhanced and colourized by ACDC and My Heritage).

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Congratulations to Tamir Klaff who was recently appointed Director of Space Robots at Astrobotics, a company that builds moon landers and space rovers.

Earlier this week NASA in conjunction with Astrobotics launched an unmanned vehicle, Peregrine, with a Vulcan rocket. This is the first US rocket to the moon in 50 years and the Peregrine will perform various experiments on the moon.
You can read about the launch and mission here.

The lander separated successfully from the rocket but there was a problem with a fuel leak and the Peregrine mission was in danger as its batteries were not charging (see report here.). Attempts to correct worked but not enough fuel remained and the lander was not able to land on the moon.

Video report on the mission on CNN

(Of interest is that there is much controvesy over the fact that the moonlander carried human remains - the ashes of two persons. see CNN)

Tamir is the son of Frankie and my late cousin Vivian Klaff. (see Goldberg family tree).