Pesach April 6, 2012

Welcome to spring in Netanya. Sunny, 23 C, light breeze, the ocean beckons…sounds nice, doesn’t it? Come and join us on our next adventure that we can entitle “Passover on the Beach". Actually, we will celebrate the first night of Passover in our apartment, not far from the beach, and the weather has been lovely, but not lying on the beach weather yet. There is really a fine line between just right and too hot. I think this is just right, not humid, perfect for walks or running after the kids in the park. So, we prepare for Passover in Israel once again.

We arrived on Monday of this week, and have been organizing, cleaning, shopping and in the last 24 hours or so, we have been cooking, all in preparation for the upcoming holiday. One thing is clear; we are very much looking forward to our Passover Seder tonight, the festive Passover meal when we recount the story of the Exodus from Egypt. This is to be made even more special by the fact that our whole family is together. All our boys, daughter-in laws, grandchildren…we have not had all the boys together since 2005!! This is really special and will be greatly appreciated (B"H).

In all honesty this has been a week with pretty routine stuff going on. We arrived Monday afternoon, set up in the apartment, and organized to see the family. Tuesday, after waiting a couple of hours for Hertz to come fix our battery (car didn’t start….but they don’t give boosts, they just change the battery!), we set off for Jerusalem to see Elan, Nomi, Shoshana and Shlomo. We took advantage of one of the huge Passover Supermarkets and the half a million other shoppers to load up on Passover food. We picked up Ariel on the way home and had a great dinner by the sea.

Wednesday was Market day, picking up fruits and vegetables in the City Market in Netanya. Then it was off to Haifa, to spend time with Monty, Daniella and Tali and pick up the roasts, chickens and other meat from the Vishnitz Hassidic Butcher in Haifa (Delivered at 1 AM Wednesday night!). Thursday was cooking day, which was a bit of a marathon (menu available on request) but that is what getting ready for the holiday is all about.

I will leave you with a scene of Israel that cannot be duplicated elsewhere. As Passover arrives, we clean our homes of all products that contain Chametz, leavened flour (bread, cakes, cereal, etc). The prohibition about owning leavened products is very important and taken very seriously.

On the morning before Pesach, we customarily burn any leftover Chametz, which is a rather definitive way of removing something from existence. In most communities, the synagogue or community center will set up a bar-b-q or fire pit and everyone will come and throw in the leftovers. In Israel, it is very much a do it your self project. There are fire pits everywhere…any open field, any synagogue….everywhere. Last year I drove to a park where a few people made fires. This year, out our back door is a field, and at least 5 bonfires going on! We didn’t even get to visit the nearby Hasidic community of Sanz, where I figure the fires were burning bright all morning!

We wish everyone a wonderful holiday, whatever you be celebrating!

Chag KasherV’sameach!

Have a Happy Easter

And stay tuned for installment 2 next week, when we share the fun of the holiday!!

Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom,

Barbara and Bruce

We wish a very Happy Birthday to our son Elan!
Happy Birthday to our niece Jessica and nephew Joshua (no, they are not twins!)!!

Welcome to Talia

Dec 25-Jan 8^th

Dateline, Netanya, Israel : We w

ould like to introduce you to the newest member of our cast! Welcome to Talia Beila, born on December 9, 2011, daughter of Daniella and Monty Mazer, currently of Haifa! Talia is a gorgeous young lady, a real night owl, who, like many of her generation, prefers to sleep away the days and party all night. Of course, her parents would prefer that she kept more normal hours, but, you can’t be too choosy! Seriously, she is an adorable addition to the Mazer clan, and we wish Talia all the best in this (admittedly sometimes crazy) world, and lots of Naches, pride and joy for Monty and Daniella. Of course, all the grandparents, Bruce and Barbara, and Chuck and Rochel Wagner of Toronto (first timers!), and the super proud great grandmother Phyllis Mazer are super thrilled with the new member of the crew.

With the new plot lines of the Talia saga being written, the other members of the cast congregated in Israel to celebrate. Barbara arrived on December 15^th and Bruce and his Mom arrived on Dec 27^th. The weeks have been super busy, and super fun. We have travelled up and down the coast, with our base apartment in Netanya, going to Haifa to visit Monty and Daniella and the new baby several times. We have travelled down the coast to Givat Shmuel, where Ariel is living, having started Law School at Bar Ilan University. And of course, we travelled across the country to Jerusalem to spend time with Elan, Nomi, Shoshana and Shlomo. Shlomo is celebrating his first birthday! He walks, babbles, plays, and smiles A LOT!

Shoshana is 3 ½ and basically can run the house by herself. There is nothing that gets by her and she keeps all of us smiling.

We have been fortunate enough to attend other peoples smachot (celebrations), with Barbara going to Tali Wasser’s wedding in Tel Aviv, and both of us attending Gabe and Miri Homa’s marriage in Jerusalem on Dec 28. They were beautiful weddings. The night after (Dec 29^th) was a large Toronto wedding, hosted by the Winter Family, at which Monty and Daniella and Daniella’s parents Chuck and Roche

l Wagner attened. That led to us all spending Shabbat last week in Jerusalem, with great meals at Elan and Nomi’s house and lunch at the Inbal Hotel with the entire cast! Talia of course, slept through lunch and almost all other daytime activities when everyone was around!

So, what is going on at home in Netanya? Since we were her in October, we have painted and fixed things up, and added some housewares and furniture. The apartment is very nice, and the location, less than a block from the boardwalk, is superb. We are organized enough to have a large crew for Shabbat this week, including all of our family, the Wagner’s and our cousins Lynda and Allan Zysblatt from Jerusalem. When I have more time, maybe I can tell you the saga of getting a dining room table, but the bottom line is that through some sort of divine intervention (the name of the store was Salvatto and Divana!) we had a dining room set delivered yesterday in time for all of our guests!

There are lots going on in Israel too; crazy stories of tensions between a fringe group of ultra orthodox Jews and more modern orthodox Jews, with a little 8 year old girl appearing on National television to talk about the abuse she receives walking to school. These types of actions really make one ill. There was a wonderful response to all this which I read on the Aish Hatorah Web site. The Torah teaches us to love our neighbors as one’s self. All people are different, and we need to be able to celebrate our differences and teach mutual respect and love. Tensions need to be met with firm but direct communication, teaching tolerance and understanding. To create a better world, we need to take those values that are important and help them guide our behavior, setting positive, constructive examples. That is the type of world we want for Shoshana, Shlomo, Talia and all our children and grandchildren

Shabbat Shalom,

Barbara and Bruce

Mazel Tov to Yaacov and Ryla Fruchter, new grandparents Sylvia and Haim Fruchter, and Aunts Bilha and Orly Fruchter on the birth of Sheelo Netta. May she only bring naches!

Mazel to to Albert and Sari Arazi and new grandparents Rochelle and Jeff Rein on the birth of Olivia Devora. May she bring you lots of joy and light!

Mazel tov to Susan and Allan Mattarasso, on the birth of a new grandson!

Happy 1st birthday to Shlomo Yehuda!

We wish Ariel a Happy Birthday!

We wish our great friend Sylvia Fruchter a Happy Birthday!

Yom Kippur-Sukkot October 15, 2011

It’s been a while since I sentout one of these blog docs (a new word I just made up) so let’s start off properly. As you know, we are in the time of the Jewish New Year period, with Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur just behind us, and the holiday of Sukkot having just begun. On behalf of Barbara and the whole Mazer family, we would like to wish all our friends and family health, success and sweetness for the forthcoming year and many more!

Now for the News (appropriate background music)……We are in Israel (which should be no surprise, since that is the theme of this blog). What some of you may not know is that over this summer we recently purchased a small apartment in Netanya to allow us to be a little closer to our kids and give them and us a place of refuge. As we have said before, Netanya is a small city near the Mediterranean. We have a really nice location and there is enough room for our children to visit.

We arrived in Israel on the day before Yom Kippur, with lots of luggage in tow, including “stuff” for the new apartment and a car seat for Monty and Daniella, who are expecting a baby (not the one in the picutre!) this December. After a very rapid blurry eyed stop at the apartment (we left all the lights on when we left), we took off for Haifa, where we would be spending

Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is a solemn day of fasting, prayer and introspection, but we had the privilege of joining Monty’s synagogue, where he led Shacharit, the Morning service on Yom Kippur. He is really great at this, and the congregation was full of praise and congratulated us on his awesome performance. Of course, we did not have much to do with it, but the praise and pride of hearing him do so well was great.

Yom Kippur ended with a great meal at Monty and Daniella’s with a group of their friends (it began with the same group at another of their friends) and then we were back to Netanya. The next four days were run at breakneck speed, as we made the first inroads into setting up the apartment. Meetings with people to do some basic repairs, painting, electrical, shopping for essentials, looking at furniture….thank goodness for our kids here. They’ve been a huge help with lots of practical advice. Thanks to Monty and Daniella’s shopping, we equipped the place with beds before we arrived. In addition, kudos to Ariel who came to Netanya from Jerusalem to allow the bed installers into the apartment. We ran around and learned more about this new community in a very short time than we thought possible. The finishing touches included the building of our Sukkah, a temporary dwelling outdoors for

the holiday of Sukkot. This holiday was made for Israeli weather (and most certainly not for rainy, chilly Canadian weather). We have a very small balcony but it is sufficient, and with Ariel’s considerable help we put up the sukkah in record time.

We began the holiday of Sukkot back in Haifa (a 1 hour drive), where Monty had proudly put up a Sukkah about 3 times the size of ours on his balcony. He and Daniella were again great hosts, and we contributed by shopping in the Hasidic district of Netanya (called the Sanz quarter or Kiryat Sanz, after the group that lives there). We learned the best places to shop there for great home style food (if you are a Hungarian Hasid, that is) including amazing chopped liver, herring and potato kugel. Rib sticking stuff! Monty and Daniella hosted friends at each meal and we had a great time. Then back down the highway and we began to prepare for Elan, Nomi, Shoshana and Shlomo to come for Shabbat. We spent Friday with all the family together; in fact the Haifa group joined us for a walk along the boardwalk, and a lunch on Independence square. We aren’t quite set up to sleep more than 6 yet, but we plan to have enough accommodation so we can have everyone together in the same space for many years to come.

Shabbat here was great, with nice meals, going to synagogue, walks to the park and lots of time chatting with Ariel, Elan and Nomi and playing with the kids. Shoshana, age 3 is a real big girl, very happy, great precocious language skills and an excellent big sister. Shlomo, age 10 months, is into everything (as he should be) and keeps everyone on their toes.

After Shabbat, we went for a walk back to the town square, and received a surprise phone call. Our friends Ronen and Michal Sela, who

lived in Montreal over 10 years ago, said they were in the car and how would we like visitors? Of course we would like visitors! So with almost their entire family in tow (5/6 kids and their eldest daughter’s boyfriend) they arrived for a tour of our apartment, a walk on the beach and a tour of the neighborhood. It was great catching up, seeing the kids

What else is going on in Israel? Well the big news of course is the prisoner exchange for the Israeli Soldier Gilad Shalit who was kidnapped in 2006. There will be approximately 1000 prisoners released to Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank when Gilad is liberated. There are, of course, mixed feelings about this. On one hand, no one debates that it is wonderful for the family of Gilad Shalit that they will get their son back. The question is, what price does one pay for this? Among those who will be released from prison are terrorists who planned the operation that blew up the Park Hotel during a Passover Seder and murdered over 30 people, and those that planned the explosion in the Dolphinarium dance club that killed teenagers. Does this mean that there will be more kidnappings since the ultimate settlement is so generous? Only time will tell. The prisoner exchanges should begin by Tuesday.and strolling in the clear cool air.

This was really a packed 10 days and this little summary does not really do it justice, but I don’t want to bore you with too many details. One thing for certain; the people we have met here are very warm and welcoming. Neighbors have knocked on our door, people in synagogue have been very helpful, and we have really felt like this home away from home will be a lot of fun. Come join us!

Wishing you all a great week and Chag Sameach/ Happy Sukkot

Barbara and Bruce

We would like to wish a great friend Chaim Fruchter a very Happy Birthday!

Also very very very happy birthday wishes to our two daughter’s in law, Nomi and Daniella, whose birthdays fall in the next two weeks. We could not have picked better people for our sons to marry!

Shabbat April 29-30

How was Passover in Israel, you ask? Well, even if you didn’t ask, I’m going to tell you. The weather is measurably better than what the great North East had this year. Warm and sunny days, cool dry evenings, really perfect. That is very typical for April in Israel. For us, of course, the highlight was the ability to spend the holiday with family and extended family. We celebrated the Passover Seders with Elan, Nomi, Shoshana and Shlomo, Ariel and with the Goldberger family, Nomi’s parents. It was great; lots of lively discussion, singing, more discussion, and terrific food. The Goldbergers hosted all the big meals and we returned the favor on our second night.

We also were able to do a bit of touring; we went to the coast off the Mediterranean, towards Haifa, called Chof Dor. Here is our Bible lesson for today; as you know Jews are commanded to wear Tzitsit, fringed garments. There is a biblical commandment to dye at least one of the fringes Tchelet, or blue. The only problem is, the source of the blue dye that was used is not known. Scientific research and comparison with ancient texts seems to point to the source being a snail, M. trunculus, found off the cost of Israel stretching from Dor to the Lebanese border. This area is home to an ancient sea port, a fortress, a Christian Church and Crusader stronghold, and even the place where Napolean tried to invade when he moved into the middle East. But today the focus is the snail and we went Scuba diving to catch some (and throw them back) and to learn about how the dye is made from them. We then went south to Netanya, where we went out for lunch on Passover to a beautiful restaurant on the cliff above the sea. Israel is packed with restaurants all open on Passover. In North America, Passover is the time most restaurants take holiday. In Israel it seems that this is the hottest time of year for people to go out! You gotta try it.

We spent another lovely Shabbat in Modiin, as well as the last days of the Passover holiday. We were joined by Gail Jaffe and Ashie, as well has his new bride to be Dassy (they are getting married on May 22nd). It was fun to host them, and also to get to know Dassy (wishing the new couple many happy years together!). Passover ended for us on Tuesday evening and since we were not at home, the post Passover clean-up was pretty fast.

We then left Modiin for a few days away on the coast in Netanya. Barbara and I spent a few day s here last year, and it is really a great place to get away from it all. We stayed at the King Solomon Hotel, right on the boardwalk overlooking the Mediterranean. This is the ideal place for long walks, seaside dining, and, when the weather is hot (which is all relative, but right now it is in the low 20’s) it’s great for lying on the beach. Thursday was raining, so we drove around, did some indoor touring and then welcomed Monty and Daniella back from spending Passover in Toronto (Netanya is on the way from the airport to where they live in Haifa). In the evening, we met Rabbi Ronen and Michal Sela, ex-Montrealers. Israel was hit with a whole run of huge thunderstorms, which started in the late evening and continued through till about 5 AM. The lightning was pretty amazing (sorry, no pictures) and is a very unusual weather pattern for this time of year.

Our trip is coming to an end; back to reality tomorrow night. The final Shabbat will be spent in Netanya, and we’ve been joined on the beach by Elan, Nomi and family and Monty and Daniella. The nearby synagogue is the Young Israel of North Netanya, which is an Anglo bastion which would be easy to transplant to Montreal, London or New York! The people are very friendly and so it is a nice place overall to spend Shabbat.

Amazing, actually, if you think about it. When our children are young, we anticipate what it will be like when they grow up. When they do grow up and the nuclear family starts to move out in many directions, we miss the times that we were only one unit. It makes times like these, when we are all together, especially across all these miles, extremely precious. There is no taking for granted the importance of family being together. We wish you all a tremendous and meaningful Shabbat!

Barbara and Bruce

We wish Chuck Wagner, Jessica Samuel and Bilha Fruchter a very Happy Birthday!

Pre-Pesach April 18th

Welcome to our Passover adventure. Anyone who has ever prepared for Passover knows what it entails; a marathon of shopping, cleaning, more cleaning and cooking. Instead of marching in to the Seder, the festive Passover meal, with enthusiasm and vigor, for many it is just a question of barely surviving, exhausted, when you reach the main event. This year, we thought, it was going to be different! We decided that we were going to join our children in Israel, instead of bringing them home. After all, two tickets had to be cheaper than 4 or 6 or however many we could corral. So we organized to go to Israel. We were graciously invited to Elan’s in law’s, the Goldberger’s , to celebrate the Seder, and we rented an apartment in the city of Moddin, which is known as the home of the ancient Macabees, the heroes of Chanukah (but that is a different holiday!). So this excerpt is the lead up to the Seder, which will be on Monday night. We flew to Israel via Toronto, and our flight was packed full of people doing exactly what we were doing; taking off for a Passover holiday. So there we were, a few Montrealers, and about half of Thornhill taking off. Boarding started with the call for people who need assistance, families with small children, and “priority passengers”; people with enough frequent flyer miles to get early boarding. Usually, it’s a half a dozen, may be 10, maybe 20….but on this flight, it looked like ½ the plane was priority! Even the flight crew commented that they had never seen so many in the so-called priority line. It was actually faster to get on the plane in the regular line! OK, we survived our priority boarding. We knew several people on the plane, including Robert Goldberger and Ashie Stenge, who is getting married in May (Mazel tov!) Once we got on, it was good flight, and we were excited to arrive and see our kids and spend Shabbat with them. We picked up a rental car and arrived in Modiin mid-day Thursday, and dropped off our bags in our apartment. You can picture us travelling light, can’t you? Well, not exactly, as we had a duffle bags full of clothes for Shoshanna and Shlomo, other stuff for Monty, Daniella, Elan and Nomi, and a full bag of home-made Passover baked goods for Ariel (although there are enough to share!). We picked up, went to Jerusalem to visit and have dinner with Elan, Nomi and kids and Ariel, and then back to Modiin for sleep. Fortunately it is only half an hour away, since it appears we will make the trip a few times in the next week or so… Sha bbat was terrific, as we had the whole family together before Monty and Daniella were to take off for Toronto. Now, as Passover was rapidly approaching, who was going to cook for Shabbat? Many of you know about this gem of a takeout place on King George in Jerusalem, Marvad HaK’samim. We have used them before, great food, very reasonable (ask Alvan Small). The one catch is that shopping there is like being in the market. Under normal circumstances it is busy and chaotic….but for the Shabbat before Passover the chaos was ratcheted up a notch! However, we got out before there was no food left, and everyone ate really well. We enjoyed each other’s company, with special time at the park for Shoshana and Shlomo. After Shabbat we took the Toronto bound people to the airport, and went home to sleep and get ready to organize the apartment for Pesach. As I mentioned, usually preparations take days if not weeks. We had Sunday. In truth, the place was pretty clean and Elan had done some shopping before we came, but we still needed to organize the kitchen and pick up some last minute things. Now, in case you think Passover shopping in Israel is simple because “It’s Israel; everything must be Kosher” let me explain that there are two wrinkles to this axiom. Israel is a secular society, and so outside of very religious population centers, supermarket will more or less cater to those keeping Kosher for Passover, and even more complex, there are differences between the customs of Eastern European (Ashkenazic ) vs Sephardic Jewery as to what is considered Chametz, (leavened or unfit for Passover). The eastern European custom is more complex and stringent, and excludes many grains and seeds that are eaten by Sepharadim (for example, corn and rice). Even among sepahridim there are differences. What it boils down to is that in the grocery stores in Modiin, you have to read every label first to make sure the product is Kosher for Passover, then to see if it is made for one custom or the other. Confused? Exhausted? Just be grateful you shop at IGA or Sobeys’! Of course, there are many other great reasons to be in Israel for Passover. The weather is amazing, (for those of you freezing in Canada). Everyone in the streets, religious or not, wishes each other a Chag Sameach (Happy Holiday). But most important, this is where it all began, where our people were born and where we returned after thousands of years of Exile Monday night will be the first Seder, the celebration of the birth of the Jewish nation and the annual rebirth of our people through the recounting of the Exodus from Egypt over 3000 years ago. Yet, for every child from a very young age, the images of the exodus are as real as if it happened in contemporary times. This is the magic of education. Wish everyone a Happy and Kosher Passover. May the holiday of our freedom be an inspiring and (not exhausting) experience, where we are awakened to the marvel of the beauty of our religion, culture and the amazing chain that is built as the Passover Seder is recounted and the concepts passed from generation to generation.

Chag Sameach,
Barbara and Bruce

For a real treat, here is a great way to learn your Passover Songs from our granddaughter Shoshana!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVixrlPjg_I&feature=youtube_gdata

We wish our dear Brother in Law David a Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to cousin Karen Mazer and nephew Joshua Samuel
Happy English Birthday, Elan!
And Most of all: Go Habs Go!

Let’s pick up where we left off from last time. Our Shabbat experience was greatly enhanced by the first real outing for baby Shlomo and his parents (after the brit). Nomi, Elan, Shoshana and Shlomo joined us at our ‘current’ apartment at 15 Keren Hayesod for a Shabbat Dinner. Everyone had a great time, the meal was gourmet (at Elan’s request)…OK not really, but it was still very good for a quick put together! Of course, the stars of the show, Shoshana and Shlomo, were the center of attention, Shoshana with her songs and games and Shlomo with his extensive vocabulary of newborn noises. I think the grandparents and great-grandmother had the most fun.
For Shabbat services we split up, with Bruce joining the Wagners at the Yeshurun Synagogue to hear Contor Heinowizc (he asked me to send regards to Cantor Subar at Beth Ora) and Grandma Phyllis attending the Jerusalem Great Synagogue with Cantor Haim Adler and Choir. They put on a tremendous performance. This led us to lunch at the Inbal Hotel with the Wagner clan, which continued on till late afternoon. After Shabbat left us, we joined Elan and Nomi and the kids at their house, brought them onion soup, and then met Monty and Daniella (and her twin Yonati) at the Mamilla Mall for a late night snack before they took off for Haifa. Jerusalem Shabbat is always special, with quiet in the streets (less cars!) and people rushing to and from synagogues and family. Once you’ve done it a few times, the special feeling really stays with you.
The rest of our week was hectic. We spent much of it “Shoshana sitting”, picking her up from daycare, then taking her on various outings. I’m not sure whether we were doing this to keep her busy so Nomi could focus on Shlomo, or for purely selfish reasons, to just hang with Shoshana! Either way, it gave us a really busy week. Sunday included dinner in Mamilla with the Goldbergers, and Monday was a trip to North West past Jerusalem, in the Binyamin region. Thanks to our friend and former Montrealer Rabbi David Tzviel, we saw the Psagot Winery and the Biblical Town of Shilo. That day ended with a lovely dinner in a fancy Italian Restaurant, Gabriella, and a walk in the midtown area. Tuesday we met our cousins, the Zysblatts, and introduced them to the new arrival and Wednesday we visited the Jerusalem Mall and then finished the evening at Café Rimon with Elan and Nomi and Shlomo.
Thursday morning, we set off for Tel Aviv with our ultimate destination to be Haifa later that night. We visited the old Port area of Tel Aviv; newly renovated, with an expanding number of stores, cafes and restaurants along the water. Really beautiful. We then went over to Tel Aviv University, to the Diaspora Museum. This may be my 5th time there, and it never gets old. The story of Jewish Survival never ceases to amaze us. The highlights of family, faith, religion, education and ingathering of exiles show the strength of our common bonds.
After having tea with our friends Sharon (Dalfen) and Rochelle August (both former Montrealers), we picked up Daniella at Tel Aviv U, and then set off for Haifa to pick up Monty and go to dinner. He picked an incredible place called Arnold’s, a country gourmet place which is on a Moshav on the road to Nahariaya. Great steaks, unique salads, terrific atmosphere. After a few brief hours of sleep, we set up for Shabbat and then had brunch with Daniella’s cousin (actually Rochel Wagner’s cousin) Hedvah, who has been like a surrogate mom to Monty and Daniella. This leads us into Shabbat, which unfortunately is our last one here this time. Sunday night we will be heading back to the frozen North. We will say good bye to the expanding family, and plan our next visit here in the near future!

We wish everyone a wonderful Shabbat Shalom

Barbara and Bruce

December 15-31, 2010

Welcome to this special edition of our travel blog. Barbara and my mother Phyllis arrived in Jerusalem on December 16th in anticipation of a new arrival to the Mazer family. After a few days of waiting, hanging out, visiting some of Jerusalem’s great restaurants, and spending a terrific Shabbat in the Old City, it finally happened. On Dec 22nd, Nomi and Elan were blessed with a baby boy, beautiful and healthy! The family celebrated the arrival of their new son, grandson and great-grandson with a spirited Shalom Zachar (welcome to a new boy), a custom celebrated the Friday night after a male child is born. There was lots of singing, Divrey Torah (words of Torah) and visits by friends and family alike, including the Lefkovitches, cousin Danielle from Edmonton, Steven Lerner, the Wagners from Toronto (Monty’s in-laws) and anyone else who would trek to Elan and Nomi’s apartment in the Old City. Of course, Bruce was “stuck” in frozen Montreal, but managed to celebrate on his own with the Lerner’s and other members of Ahavat Yisroel synagogue. The most excited was Big Sister Shoshana, 2 ½, who was very welcoming of Baby Brother (but could not figure out why he wouldn’t pay attention to her “reading” him a book!). From the time that led up to the birth and certainly after, Barbara (Safti) and Phyllis (Grandma) spent lots of Shoshana time, meaning pick-ups from Gan (day care), playing in the park, sleepovers, even time on Shabbat to let her parents sleep a little. This was great re-acquaintance time; after we spent 2 months here this spring, the closest we got to Shoshana was on Skype (although she did try to have Barbara tie her shoe on Skype once, it is not quite like being there!)
Finally on Monday evening, Bruce arrived, having bypassed the storm in Philadelphia, and luckily being routed to Israel via Paris instead of on his scheduled USAir flight. So, more visits to the new baby, more Shoshana outings, like our trip to the zoo, and more time to show grandma around Israel, since her last trip was in 1996. This included a visit to the newly renovated Israel Museum, which was updated and opened for business this fall. It has an enormous collection of treasures that tell the story of the history of Israel and the Jewish people, from early prehistoric artifacts, through the biblical periods and medieval and modern times. A highlight is the reconstruction of 4 synagogues from places like India, South America and Europe, plus the famous Dead Sea Scrolls and the scale model of Ancient Jerusalem during Temple times. Definitely worth a few hours rain or shine.
On Thursday, the big day arrived. The new baby was 8 days old, and we were going to celebrate his bris (circumcision). This is, as you probably know, a very special event in the life of a new-born Jewish male. The brit took place where Elan works and studies (Ariel studies there as well) and is located in the center of the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. The Beit Midrash (study hall) overlooks the Western Wall, and the view is breathtaking and spellbinding. You are steps away from one of the holiest places on Earth, certainly the holiest for Jews. This is an amazing setting for the entry of a new Jewish male into the community of Israel. We were joined by a warm and amazing crowd of family, friends, and well wishers including Elan’s many students and classmates, Nomi’s friends and family, and a great collection of Montrealers and ex-Montrealers (you know who you are!!).
The most auspicious part was the naming of the baby. He is named Shlomo Yehuda, after my late father Sidney (Shlomo Henoch) Mazer. His name is very Regal, reminiscent of King Solomon and Yehuda, Jacob’s fourth son, from whom the great Royal dynasty starting with King David arose . Elan spoke beautifully and eloquently about his family, his amazing wife and partner Nomi, and the reasons behind the names.
As you may know, we have had a very difficult few months, with the passing of my father in August and Barbara’s mother Molly Samuel in November. The amazing continuation of the life cycle with the arrival of Shlomo Yehuda helps carry on the torch of those who gave life to us, who taught us so much and whose legacy we pass on. In fact, Sholomo Yehuda’s name includes the remembrance of Barbara’s mother, whose Hebrew name was Malca or Queen. As Elan intimated, this is a fitting combination of names for a baby with tremendous potential and who will carry forth the Regal traditions of his great grandparents and who, we hope, will always proudly portray his heritage as did those he is named for.
With this, we wish you a wonderful, warm and peaceful Shabbat, with time to reflect on what is really important in life and how important it is for us to be true to the legacy of our parents and families.

Shabbat Shalom
Barbara and Bruce