14th Workshop – Other Things
From Allan Pinkus (Pinky): I guess someone should start this, so here goes. I returned to Israel for one year in 1968 (I was in Jerusalem where there were actually quite a few of us 14th workshoppers). In 1970 I returned again to Israel as a graduate student in mathematics at the Weizmann Institute. Got my doctorate, was in the States for 3 years, and since 1977 I have been in the math department at the Technion. I am married to Rachel and we have 4 children ages 22 to 31. Live in Haifa, and you are invited to visit.
From Jeremy (Libby) Miransky Tucker:
What a blast from the past!
This is Libby (Miransky), since I’m not sure anyone is going to know who Jeremy is.
To bring you up to date: Lived in Israel until 1970 and returned to Canada following a death in the family. Living in New York since 1972, where I went to graduate school and wound up staying. Got PhD in social psychology, and have been working in outcomes research and performance improvement at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center since 1982. Married Allan Tucker in 1985 and have two teenagers, one of whom is about to go off to college in a couple of months. (I always was delayed.) With my usual sense of superb timing, I became an American citizen in May (just in time to vote in this election!!!)
Love to hear from all re what’s going on with you.
From Susie Harold Sever: what a surprise! thanks for the e-mail. Here i am…59 going on 18…three grown kids (more or less) living in toronto and hating it. my husband passed away 4 years ago…i’m still teaching…been back to israel twice in all these years, but i managed to spend some real quality time with libby the summer before she died. that’s it in a nutshell. keep me posted.
the reunion is a great idea and i’ld love to come but Pesach or Hanukka aren’t really feasible. love to all……susie
From Marion Lindauer: Shalom!! I was so excited to get this information. I am living in NYC, on the fringe of the East Village/ I received my masters in social work from NYU and have been “practicing”” for many years. I have a small private practice in pyschotherapy after MANY years of post graduate work and also work part time with people with developmental disabilities, within walking distance from my apartment. I have a 15 year old daughter, Madi, who will be in 10th grade at a relatively new hs in the city.. Bard High School Early College.. she attended Habonim camp for a few summers but stopped.. I will be home alone the month of July as she will be traveling in Spain so I would love to renew friendships. Keep in touch! 212-533-3517. Marion Lindauer
From Laurie Melrood (Orli): Hello, everyone, this is Laurie Melrood (Orli) from Tucson Arizona where I have been living since 1992. I am a social worker and currently running a center for grandparents and relatives taking care of their children. My husband and I have been involved in various types of social action work, much involved currently with a project teaching acupuncture to indigenous health workers. In fact, I just came back today from Guatemala, where our project is located. How good to see the stirrings of a possible reunion! Though much life has come and gone since the heady days at Gesher ha-Ziv, I have many memories of those times and years in Israel, where I lived from 1967 through 1969 after Workshop. I would call those my formative years. Now I’m living out the formation, I guess one could say.
Over the years I have thought of many of you and heard from some, and look forward to reading these narratives as they appear.
Be well, be careful.
From Arie (Lewis) Levin: Almost forty years have passed since we left New York to become the Fourteenth Workshop. That year has become one of the highlights of my life. After Workshop I joined the USAF, during that time I served one and half years in the Philippines. For the past thirty-four years I have been living in Israel (mostly in Holon) and working at Elta Electronics Industries in Ashdod. I have also been a member of various dance tropes for the past thirteen years. I am married and have three children, two boys (27 and 30) and one girl (25, married last February).
Arie (Lewis)
From Trudy Litt Greener: In my senior year of college I went to a Habonim winter seminar – mainly to see friends over New Year’s!. There was a seminar at the same time, same place for people interested in joining Sha’al, the urban kibbutz in Carmiel, and that’s where I met my husband! We made aliya in 1971, moved to Jerusalem in 1976. We have three sons, the youngest of whom is a medic in the army, next up is studying archaeology and oldest has an MA in environmental policy. I’ve been working in administration in the non-profit sector for close to 20 years – present job as assistant to the Director of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. I worked up enough nerve, based on my love of Shira at camp, to join a choir and am now de facto chairman of the choir committee. We’ve actually sung some of the 4-part harmonies that we learned back in camp!!
From Grace Shawn Robin: What a delight to hear from you and congrats on taking the initiative to reconnect us. It was a real pleasure to get an update on everyone on the website – could we 40 years ago have ever imagined that today we would be communicating by email!! Anyhow about me…. I am living in Vancouver, returned in 1971 after about 4 years in Israel – Jerusalem, Tel Aviv. Returned to Jerusalem for two sabbatical visits – visited with a few workshoppers then. I am the happy mother of three daughters – Freda, Sarah and Mira (30, 26,23). I studied business administration at university and have an involvement in rental property management. My real passion is the visual arts – I am a docent at the Vancouver Art Gallery (Museum for the Americans), a trustee and now am serving as president of VCAM – Volunteer Committees of Art Museums (Canada & U.S). It would be great to reconnect in Israel at some future date. I’m loving hearing about everyone and send my warmest wishes to a group of friends that shared a very important time in our lives together!!
From Judy Schonebaum: …. I have been living in Los Angeles for the last 25 years, after some time in Vermont and the Maryland environs. I miss the East, but love California. I co-own (amicably with second ex-hub) a little house in the mountains near L.A., where I hope to move after our daughter, Hannah, goes off to college in two years. (It was interesting to note that many of us became mothers untraditionally late-ish.)
The main thing about all the time in between then and now is that my life has stayed strongly connected to visual art and music…still my passions and still my pursuits. I haven’t yet learned to be sharp in business, but I can say that I feel successful as an artist.
I’m also politically active on the left hand side…still working for peace, labor, justice – feeling very worried about the creeping oppressing in the U.S.
Have run into Jablow a few times around town (he looks great!!)…had a drink with Grace when she was visiting her sister a few years back – that was great too!…actually live less than a mile from Tzippy, and have intermittent periods over the years of connecting more and less…must call Tzippy….
From Danny Kransdorf: Shalom to all,
It was really great to hear from you. A real brief update of the last 40 years, that sounds like a lifetime. I’m married, trying to be Orthodox have 2 sons, 14 & 16 live in Israel in a small Yishuv called Maale Levona, have a business called Heartland Tours which brings groups to Israel, not too long ago saw Ezra Harris and a bunch of other Habonim people at a kumzitz with Steve Hancoff. Keep in touch.
From Elayne Slomovitz Ben-Bassat: Hi to everyone! Just to bring you up to date – I live in Delaware, am
happily divorced (after 28 years of marriage to an Israeli Ph.D. scientist) Daniella, 19 is at RISD, Oren 28 is a doctoral student in Math at Penn, I have two master’s degrees and a licensed realator in PA and DE, and also now a paralegal. I love this area, was so glad to see everyone’s email address – I remember our days at Gesher HaZiv with brilliant color and clarity – Ezra whistling and “feeding” the plant outside his tzrif, Judie and Jackie singing, Tzipi cutting her hair, getting up at 3:30 AM to catch 50 lb turkeys, the week at Masada and the one at a religious kibbutz with the banyan trees, etc. It is a funny coincidence that my sister’s boyfriend is Amnon Hadari’s stepson so I am kept up to date on that front! Elayne
From Sharon Goller Weissbach: I have not lived in Israel since Workshop but have visited often. My husband, Lee Shai, has a brother with five children and eight grandchildren who we just visited at Yodfat. We also had some mini-reunions with Avi and Sandy Barak at Yodfat, Trudy and Doug Greener in Jerusalem and Allan and Rachel Pinkus in Haifa. It is always a good feeling when old friends show up with terrific spouses so that new encounters are enhanced (… one is silver and the other gold). My history since Workshop includes two children, Maya aged 22 and Cobi aged 26. Cobi just got married in December – so now we can say we have a third child, Shira. We have lived in Louisville, Kentucky for 26 years after nine years of graduate school and working in Boston. I am a statistician working at a bank, which I know doesn’t sound exciting to most people, but I really like it. Over the years we have kept in close contact with Phyllis Safer and Malka Turteltaub Kutnick and recently reconnected with Laurie Melrood. We also had the chance to see Aviva Tauman and Elayne Ben-Bassat at some reunions so I have not been totally out of touch with the Workshop component of my past.
From Judy Weinberg Git: How do I sum up 40 years? Not easy. I have been married since December of 1969. My husband and I have two daughters, the older is just now turning 31. Actually, by the Jewish calendar, today is her birthday. My “baby” will be 21 in about a month. My older daughter words for CBS radio news in New York, and the younger one is going into her senior year at USC in LA. I’ve been working in Jewish education for most of my life and recently also in market research. My husband is a sabra. His parents came to Israel in the 30’s.
From Frank Sanders: I served in the Israeli Army and after that found a job at a Tel Aviv based import company. When my relationship with Shoshana broke up I felt nothing kept me in Israel and I returned to Holland. I studied and worked first for a packaging company, then for a coffee company (subs. of Hershey!), then for a diary group and then as Exec. VP for a juice and softdrink manufacturer. In 1989 I started my own business; we make a line of tropical fruit drinks, which are being marketed in Europe, parts of the U.S., West Africa and the Carribean. Please log in at www.maaza.nl to learn about the products and www.infrafoodbrands.nl to learn something about the company.
In 1974 I met Marianne, who gave me two great sons Michael (born in 1978) and Daniel (born 1981); Michael studied (business administration and European business and law) in Amsterdam and France, graduated 3 years ago, now works for Dell Computers and lives with his (French) girlfriend in Amsterdam. Daan just concluded his studies, but has to redo a few of his exams and still has to write his paper. He did an internship at Ebay Benelux, where he has been offered a job as soon as he is done, but he is not sure yet if that is what he wants.
After a turbulent period preceding it Marianne and I divorced in 1994 and unfortunately neither of the three (relatively short) relationships I have had since then turned into something permanent.
That’s almost 40 years in almost 250 words…so much more to tell. Although I was not a “native Habonimer” our time together had a crucial impact on the rest of my life and I felt (and still feel) very connected to it.
A reunion sounds attractive. BBQ at the beach in Gesher Haziv?
From Joel Mandel: I returned from Workshop and went to UCLA for two years and then returned to
Kibbutz Urim in the Negev. I had decided that living on a kibbutz was the life for me. School and making a living seemed to scary. I stayed on Urim for a year, working in the orchards, taking on the job of spraying herbicides, pesticides, and other chemical treatments. It was a responsible job. Then I read Silent Spring and realized that all the chemicals I was spraying were not healthy for children or other living things and asked for a different job. I was refused and decided that I really needed to grow up and realized that the best place to that was home.
I returned to California, finished school and married. I have a son and a daughter (now 26 and 21). My daughter went to Israel last year with the Birthright Israel. Not sure what will come of that.
I divorced and have remarried, very happily. I started meditating in 1982 and am part of a Tibetan Buddhist community (www.shambhala.org , if anyone is interested). Meditation practice, study, teaching and related service is the primary focus of my life. Other things just don’t seem very meaningful.
I was involved in a serious motor vehicle accident 14 months ago (concussion, sternum trauma, and 2 fractured spinal vertebrae) and have not recovered my stamina and still am not able to work full time. This makes extensive travel problematic. That is about it.
I do want to thank everyone for this opportunity to connect again.
From Phyllis Safer: I am really enjoying catching up. I moved to NYC from Milwaukee in 1969 when I married (not currently married, no children); I am an attorney in the corporate law department of Merrill Lynch (physically located across from the site of the former World Trade Center—VERY tough time); I spend my weekends hiking (the tsaada remains a highlight of our year together) and recently started practicing yoga(effective stress control). This past winter I tracked mountain gorillas in Uganda and when the leaves start to change this fall, I will be hiking on Mt. Desert Island in Maine. I have remained in contact with Sharon all these years, enjoyed reconnecting with Malka at Sharons sons wedding and recently indulged in lots of laughs with Jeremy. I hope you are all finding our exchanges a fascinating as I am: we have taken many different paths from our shared youth. Warmly, Phyllis
From Elinore Liebersohn Konigsfeld: After Workshop, I returned to Washington DC to study art and art education at American U. Met Uri (Israeli) and married in my junior year. After graduating, worked for awhile at AIPAC (Uri with Rabin at the Embassy) returned to Israel in late 69. We have two children: Noam (now 32), married with 3 sons, 5, 3, and one month, about to go to CA with Intel, just got his PhD in Physics, and Tamar (28), finishing her BS in Biology at the TAU after 5 years in the army, married and her first on the way.
I continue to be active as an artist and have done many shows, in recent years at the National Jewish Museum in Washington, the Washington area (Rockville) and here at Bet Gabriel; the newest works are installations. I’ve also been teaching art all along and usually love it. Did my Master’s five years ago at Clark U.’s program here.
Am a little active in politics and agonized by the `situation’ here.
From Aviva Tauman: Shalom to all near and far from Aviva Tauman! I’m living in a suburb of Chicago and working as a high school special education director in a nearby suburb. I’m beginning to think about retiement, probably 3-5 years away. I have two children: my son, Noah, is 27 and lives and works for Young Judaea in New York City; my 21 year old daughter, Talia, is a junior at a Wisconsin school and recently returned from a “Birthright” trip. In 1996, I took my daughter to visit her brother who was on Year Course, and we spent some time with Libby Bresalier Cohen at Gesher Haziv. Libby had stayed at my house some years earlier, and we had maintained my closest connection from the group. Others of us have met up at camp reunions. I hope that you’ll all join this effort to reconnect.
From Michael Jablow: Sorry you could not reach me by e-mail. You might have been blocked by my spam blocker. You should be able to reach me at jabhi@earthlink.net.
I have seen a number of Workshopers over the years; Ezra Haris, Brian Streett, Ruthie, Judy S., and even David Rossoff.
I currently live in California where I have worked in the movie business as a Feature Film Editor for the last thirty years. The last two and a half Nadav Street, Brian and Ruthie’s son has worked on two pictures with me.
Time is a bit short now as my director is on his way in to work. Keep in touch. I haven’t been in Israel since to end of workshop. You just might get me over if the timing is right.
Till soon.
Michael Jablow
From Ilana Coven Attia: The year after I roomed with Elaine Slomowitz and Judy Schottenfeld on workshop, Elaine wrote a freshman English composition entitled “Introvert and Extrovert,” analyzing her two roommates. Reading it made me furious. What, who, me, an introvert? Now that I read the life stories of my fellow workshoppers, who all sound like such wonderful people, I can’t understand why I didn’t get to know you better. Maybe I was too busy being disillusioned in Israel and kibbutz. Maybe I really
am an introvert! After workshop I did a BA in literature at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. In 1970 I followed the rest of my family who had made aliya. I went straight to Jerusalem and am still here. For over thirty years I have been working with Professor Herman Branover on various conferences and publications, and for the past twenty years editing a journal with him on Torah and science. I met Branover via Trudy and Doug Greener, who were at the same Merkaz Klita as he was. At age 44 I married Yehuda. I missed out on even the late-age child bearing, but I received a ready-made growing extended family of children, grandchildren, brothers- and sisters-in-law. My journal and family keep me busy all the time, and I love it. Together with shmirat mitsvot, learning, and yoga, they fill the vacuum that troubled me in Gesher Haziv.
From Malka Turteltaub Kutnick: It’s been great reading what people have been doing these last 40 years. I
graduated from Wayne State U. with a BFA and an MA in painting. Bruce and I married on September 8, 1968, the same day as Sharon and Leeshai Weissbach. I taught art and became an art administrator while we lived in Boston for 14 years. Then I changed professions and became an electrologist and established my own business when we moved to Maryland. Bruce and I are members of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation. We have 2 wonderful children, Aviva, 25, who is on the Peace Corps in Uzbekistan and Aaron, 18 who is on Workshop 54. Aviva had been on Workshop 47 and had studied at Tel Aviv U. during her junior year.
We will be visiting Aaron this Pesach from April 22-May 2, 2005. Bruce has 2 siblings living in Israel and they each have 3 children so we visit once in awhile.