Jubilee Edition No.50
NOV. 2006 – DEC. 2006
I Come From the Land DownUnder – A tribute to those who have featured in the past
The
following is a tribute to all those Australians and New Zealanders who
have appeared in our segment I Come From the Land DownUnder. It is my
opinion that this segment can be likened to herbs and spices in a
recipe.
The end result may be good without them, but tastes so much better with
them!
We are constantly looking for people to
be a part of our segment. It is so easy and not at all time-consuming,
so please drop us a line if you are interested. I apologise to anyone
who may have appeared in a past segment and was omitted, however we have
not been able to find all our past editions of the Finger on the Pulse.
We have been unable to find copies of editions 1-6 inclusive. According
to memory, amongst those featured included Andy Michelson, Doron/Darren
Weiss, and Frank Stein. If anyone has copies of those editions we would
greatly appreciate a copy. – Ed.
| Edition 1: | David Hersh, Sydney, 1959, made Aliyah 1983. David was one of the people at the initial meeting with Ron Weiser when the Newsletter was proposed. He later became our webmaster and continues to volunteer in this capacity until today. David resides in Jerusalem with his Israeli-born wife and 6 children and you can visit him in his store The Personal Touch on the corner of Ben Yehuda and King George Sts. |
| Edition 5: |
Sonia Gouttman, Adelaide, 1973, made Aliyah in 1998 to Arad. Sonia then moved to Jerusalem where she was working, part-time for the ZFA Jerusalem office in 1999. |
| Edition 7: | Michael Lourie, Melbourne, 1969, made Aliyah at age 19 in July 1988. Michael married American-born Suzy Ratner in May 1999. |
| Edition 8: | Debbie Pulver, Melbourne, 1963, made Aliyah in 1994. Debbie is a past teacher of Mount Scopus Memorial College. |
| Edition 9: | Wendy Saffer, Melbourne, 1970, made Aliyah in February 1991 at age 20. Wendy now lives with her American-born husband, whom she met on Jdate, and their daughter in Melbourne, after a few years in the United States. |
| Edition 10: | Arthur Stark, Melbourne 1925, made Aliyah February 1975. Arthur was born in the United Kingdom.He and his wife Australian-born wife, Ruth z”l, raised 3 children and 4 grandchildren. Arthur contributed a number of articles to the ZFA Newsletter. |
| Edition 11: | Robyn Gross (nee Saffer), Melbourne, 1962. Robyn made Aliyah alone at age 23. She married South African Oleh Gilad Gross and they have 3 children. Robyn is an experienced teacher. |
| Edition 12: | Dvora Waysman (nee Opas), Melbourne, 1931, made Aliyah in March 1971 together with her husband Harry and four children. Residing in Jerusalem, this award-winning author is a grandmother to 16 Sabra grandchildren. Dvora has contributed numerous articles to the ZFA Newsletter and is a judge in our Jubilee Edition writing competition. |
| Edition 13: | Ilana Cohen (nee Doobov), Canberra, 1967, made Aliyah with her Israeli husband and daughter Maayan in 1996. Ilana is a qualified chef. |
| Edition 14: | Jeremy Stock, Melbourne, 1966, made Aliyah at age 24 in 1990. Jeremy met UK-born Devra Abramson) in Israel in 1999 and they were expecting their first child in July 2000. |
| Edition 15: | Paul Israel, Melbourne, 1969, made Aliyah with his family at age 14 for 7 years before returning to Melbourne. He then returned to Israel in 1997 and currently works for the Australia-Israeli Chamber of Commerce. He is married to Israeli-born Sigal and they have two sons. |
| Edition 16: | Lloyd and Shush Masel, Perth, made Aliyah in the beginning of 2000 and have two married children in Israel. Many are familiar with their son Greg Masel. |
| Edition 17: | Roby Shmerling, Melbourne, 1957, made Aliyah twice; 1984 for half a year and then permanently in 1987. He realized he should be in Israel during his Academy trip to Israel in 1975/6. |
| Edition 18: | Tanya Levy, New Zealand, 1973, made Aliyah in 1998 at age 24. Initially she worked part-time at the ZFA Jerusalem office and freelanced for the KKL/JNF. |
| Edition 19: | Dani Wassner, Sydney, 1971, made Aliyah at age 24. Dani is now married to Western Australian (Perth) Danielle Leib and they have a child. He was Chair of HaMa’avak B’Tabak (anti-smoking organization). |
| Edition 20: | Greer Fay Cashman, Melbourne, 1940, made Aliyah at age 32 to Jerusalem. A journalist for the Jerusalem Post, Greer met her husband, press photographer Dan Landau z”l, in Yitzchak Rabin’s campaign office in Jerusalem. |
| Edition 21: | Daniel Luria (ne Lurie), Melbourne, 1959, made Aliyah in 1995 at age 36 with his wife Kitty and 2 children. They then gave birth to 3 sabras, making it a total of 5. Daniel still works as a Jerusalem tour guide and resides in Maale Adumim. |
| Edition 22: | Tamara Grynberg (nee Leibler), Melbourne, 1959. Tamara made Aliyah in 1995 together with Harry and their four children. This editor was on their flight! |
| Edition 23: | David Samuell, Perth, 1968, made Aliyah in 1990 as a single to Kibbutz Kadarim. He resides in Hadera with his American-born wife, Atalyah, who made Aliyah at age 2. |
| Edition 24: | Ken Symonds z”l, Sydney, 1920, made Aliyah at the ripe age of 71 to Jerusalem, following in the footsteps of his children. He is survived by his 2 Australian-born children and 7 grandchildren. Ken passed away in Jerusalem on the 13th of March 2003. |
| Edition 25: | Peter Adler, Melbourne, 1958, made Aliyah in 1983 with his gorgeous wife Julie. Peter and Julie have 5 sabras and are residents of Neve Daniel. |
| Edition 26: | Lisa Segelov, Sydney, 1964, made Aliyah in 1988 as a single 23 year-old. Now practicing as a successful advocate, she is married to South African born Natie Shevel and has three sabras. Natie may be familiar to many through his long involvement with the UJIA. |
| Edition 27: | Dr. Harvey Belik, Melbourne, 1960, made Aliyah with his wife Loretta (nee Starr) in 1988, when Harvey was 28 years old and Loretta 26. At the time of publication, Harvey and Loretta had three sabras and his goal was to ensure his kids ‘stayed Jewish, stayed Zionists, stayed here [in Israel], contributed and took their fluoride tablets at night.’ |
| Edition 28: | To our dismay, we were unable to find anyone willing to be a part of our segment. |
| Edition 29: | Nafti (Naftali) Peter Steg, Melbourne, 1972, made Aliyah in January 2001 as a single. He met his Israeli-born wife in Kibbutz Palmachim and they have just welcomed their first child in November 2006. |
| Edition 30: |
Ilse Ben Chanoch
(nee Meyer),
Sydney, 1927, made Aliyah around 1951. Born in Germany,
she arrived in Sydney in 1939 and her personal history tells of
pre and post-holocaust and living through the celebrations and
declaration of the State of Israel during her Machon
year in Israel. Avi (Abe) Rozenbes, Melbourne, 1947, made Aliyah as a single at age 27. Born in Shanghai, China, Avi was a baby when he left with his family for Melbourne in 1947. A retired policeman, after 19 years of service, he is father to 3 sabra children. |
| Edition 31: | Nechama Wydra, Melbourne, 1928, made Aliyah in 1951 to Kibbutz Hatzerim. She arrived in Australia at age 10 from Poland and was one of the first three participants from Australia in the youth leaders course in Israel in 1948. She was outside the old museum building in Tel Aviv when Ben Gurion declared the Jewish State. |
| Edition 32: | Rachelle Lavi (nee Goldberg), Melbourne, 1973, made Aliyah in 1999 after being here for almost three years. A physiotherapist, Rachelle met and married Reuven Lavi in Israel and the twins born in November 2006 make a total of four little “Lavis”. |
| Edition 33: | Hannah Baum (nee Laisman), Melbourne, 1949, made Aliyah 1972 at age 22. Hannah participated on the Machon programme in 1967. Hannah met her husband, Harris, a South African Oleh, in Israel. |
| Edition 34: | Motty Hasofer, Hobart, Tasmania, 1956, made Aliyah August 1998 from Melbourne. Motty is married to Devorah (nee Dyce) of Sydney and was involved in the beginning of the Hineni movement in Sydney together with Frank Stein, our ZFA Israel Director. Motty and Devorah have eight Aussie–born children. |
| Edition 35: | Danny Brill, Melbourne, 1979, made Aliyah in 2002 “for the shwarma”. Danny made Aliyah with his spouse Carmi, a South African who made Aliyah from Canada in 1998. |
| Edition 36: | Eddy Nemenoff, Melbourne, 1929, made Aliyah November 1950 as a single man at age 20. Eddy was born in Turkey, left Turkey for Germany at age 1, lived in Germany until 1932 until his family emigrated to Palestine, lived in Tel Aviv until 1940 and then emigrated – again – with his family to Australia! His Aliyah in 1950 was made on a small cargo boat over a period of 5 weeks! |
| Edition 37: | Gary Weisinger, Sydney, 1957, made Aliyah in 1992 after living and studying in Israel for many years. Gary married his Jerusalem-born fellow PhD student, Yehudit, and they have 6 children, 3 born in Israel and 3 in the USA. |
| Edition 38: | Vered Samuel, Melbourne, 1979, made Aliyah in 2002 after serving as Chairperson of the Australian Zionist Youth Council (2001) and graduating in Geography and Environmental Studies. |
| Edition 39: | Aviva Levy (nee Belfer), Melbourne via Canberra, 1966, made Aliyah in June 1992. Daughter of the well-known Rabbi Belfer, Aviva is a Jerusalem-based manicurist and pedicurist. She met her Israeli spouse, Amit, a journalist for a computer magazine, on Jdate.co.il. Their first date lasted 16 hours! |
| Edition 40: | Hannah Wende (nee Spittell), Perth, 1937, made Aliyah 1979 with five of her six children. Hannah is married to Australian-born Les. They built up ‘Hannah’s Esra Nursery’, located in Ein Vered, 4 kms from Even Yehuda. Run by volunteers, all proceeds go to ESRA (English Speaker’s Resident Association) |
| Edition 41: | Ashley (Asher) Biber, Sydney, 1962, made Aliyah in 1987 and resides in Nof Ayalon. Having made Aliyah as a single, he was set up with his wife by his great aunt living in London. Danielle, his wife and mother of their four children, made Aliyah from England in the same year as Ashley. |
| Edition 42: | Sara Stein (nee Wiseman), Sydney, 1972, made Aliyah to Jerusalem as a single at age 19. Her love affair with Israel started on a family trip at age 13 and she met her Belgian husband at Bar Ilan Uni. Sara is a working mother to four children and was involved in the ‘Raanana Beautification Project’. |
| Edition 43: | Perry Zamek, Melbourne, 1958, made Aliyah in 1987 to Jerusalem where he still resides. Married to Esther, who made Aliyah in 1996 from the USA, they were set up by friends and married in 1998. They have four children. |
| Edition 44: | Natalie Wiener, Melbourne, 1977, made Aliyah as a single in August 1999, met her husband Shuki Taylor in Israel and was married in 2005. Natalie works for the Zionist Seminars in the Jewish Agency’s Education Department. |
| Edition 45: | Guy Spigelman, Sydney, 1972, made Aliyah in 1994. His name may sound familiar because of his political ambitions. Husband to Sydney-born Naomi (nee Benjamin) and father to 3 Israeli-born daughters, Guy ran for a seat in the Labour Party and his goal is to become the first Australian-born Knesset member. |
| Edition 46: | Jonathan Edelstein, Melbourne, 1966, made Aliyah in 1991. Born in Afula, Jonathan’s family left to Melbourne when he was 2 years old. Jonathan is married to Israeli-born Dganit and has two sons. He is a local and international lawyer with his own Tel Aviv law firm. |
| Edition 47: | Lior Salomon, Melbourne, 1976, made Aliyah 2000 and works for the Education Department of the Jewish Agency. Lior resides in Neve Daniel with his Israeli wife Tzila whom he met while she was on Sherut Leumi in Melbourne. |
| Edition 48: | Ronen Goldman, Melbourne, 1981, made Aliyah 2004 at age 23. The new UJIA Jerusalem counselor, Ronen married his USA-born wife, Elisheva Cohen, in August 2006. |
| Edition 49: | Paul and Esther Vardin (nee Rosenkranz), Melbourne, approximately 1925, made Aliyah February 1950, 57 years ago, by boat with three children. They helped found Kibbutz Kfar HaNassi and led a fascinating life living in various places, including Liberia, before settling down in Beer Sheva. |
* All information was true at the time the original segment went to print in The Finger on the Pulse.