Comments:
"My Family or How I came to make “Aliyah” to the Holy Land."
After graduating from MBHS I enrolled at Auburn University where I began studying Secondary Ed as well as NROTC. Looking back at that period of time I was very immature. Due to my lack of direction I was (putzing) playing around I finally received academic suspension from the University.
In October 1973 the "Yom Kippur War" which began when Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack, war, against the State of Israel. Many young Israel soldiers were killed and maimed and almost every family in Israel lost at least one male member, a father, a brother a cousin and sometimes all.
I decided to help, by volunteering for the Kibbutz program in Israel in September of 1974. My parents grudging said yes. So I joined a volunteer plan offered by the "Kibbutz Aliyah desk" and I was off to visit the "Holy Land". I packed a duffle bag and a backpack kissed my Mom and shook my Dad’s hand and told them, “See you in six months.”
When I arrived I was your typical volunteer on Kibbutz at Ashdot Yakov Meuchad in the Beit Shean Valley. I was assigned to work in the banana orchards located in a triangular area between the Yarmuck and Jordan Rivers across from northern Jordan.
As a totally spoiled America, and a city boy at that it was a rude awakening to me that this was no day camp!
It was at the memorial for the fallen soldiers of kibbutz during the Yom Kippur War that I ' became aware'. I realized that these kids of the kibbutz that died in the war were our own age. That it was just by the chance of fate my family had chosen to go to the United States and not "Palestine." As an impressionable youth I decided to stay and I ended up as a ' Single Soldier' with an apartment in Ma'alot in 1976. I served two years in the IDF artillery corps. I finished my regular military service in Sept 1978 and went into the active reserves for the next 25 years.
Near the end of my military service I met my future wife Rena when she was a new single immigrant to Ma'alot. My wife Rena, is from Far Rockaway, New York and her father was Harold Brownstein z”l and her mother Esther Blick Brownstein.
Rena’s family has strong Zionist roots. Her maternal grandmother was born in Jaffa in 1890! Her maternal grandfather was a Jewish volunteer for a special all Jewish unit of the British Army- the 39th Royal Fusiliers in World War I. His unit fought under General Lord Allenby in the liberation of the Southern "Sojern" Coastal Province of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. This is the area that in the Treaty Of Versailles in 1919 became a Mandated Territory under British rule known in infamy as "Palestine".
In order for Rena's grandfather to be mustered out of the British Army in 1919 her grandparents were required to leave "Palestine" for England by "Her Majesty's Government". As Jews they were refused reentry to "Palestine" under the British "White Paper" policy that was enforced to limit Jewish immigration. Therefore they went to America where Rena's mother was born.
Rena and I were married here in Ma’a lot in January of 1979.
My wife Rena is a retired Registered Nurse from Kupat Cholim Clalit-the General Sick Fund Clinic in Ma'alot where she worked since 1978. Due to the war with the fanatical Palestinian terrorists of Hamas and the Iranian Proxies that began in October 2023. The wife moved to an apartment in Tel Aviv to help care for our youngest grandson Tom
We have six children,
Our oldest son David born 13/06/1980 a veteran of the Givatti Brigade of the IDF-Israeli Defense Forces -recently finished serving in 2 tours of duty in Iraq with the US Army and is a MD at the University of South Alabama Medical Center in Mobile
Our oldest daughter Elisheva 16/04/1983- 'Ellie" resides on Moshav Sde Eliahua in the "Emek Hula" region She is married to Ori Smaja a professional photographer. And they have a daughter Noga.
Our second son Eitan 02/03/1986- completed three years in the Kfir Brigade of the IDF as a combat medic. He currently resides in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv and graduated with a MA fromTel Aviv University. He works for an Israeli "Unicorn" that has a revolutionized international banking.
Our third son Natanel 29/03/1989 finished his military service in the Israeli Navy Special Forces. He is an Middle School Homeroom and English teacher. He is married to Soli Martziaunu and they have three children, our grand children; Ori Meir (OMi) 1st April 2012 our first grandson, his sister Tehilah born 06 March 2014 and Shirah Rachel born November 16th,2015.
My daughter-in-law is from a Jewish Moroccan family that were refugees expelled from their home in 1957 by Islamic hatred and forced to flee for their lives. Instead of living on UNWRA handouts in a refugee camp they were settled in Ma'alot and have been absorbed as full citizens of our homeland.
Our youngest daughter Rachel 09/03/1993 recently completed her service as an officer in the IDF and has a MA from BenGurion University. Rachel is the VP of HR at a highly successful Israeli Startup ("Unicorn") Endigo. She is married to her high school sweetheart Yoav Epstein and their first born a precious baby boy Tom was born on January 31st 2023.
and our youngest son Chaim 25/05/1997- recently finished his three years in the IDF (the Israeli army) and finished his BS in BioGenetic Engineering at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and recently entered the University of Medicine ay the University of Tel Aviv. He lives in Tel Aviv and works in Ichilov Hospital in their labratory.
