This Week's Picture honors Cindy Berman (see Levy/Hershovitz tree) whose birthday falls on May 21 (Monday).  Cindy started charting the Levy/Hershovitz family long before I did. When I got interested in genealogy I came across a handwritten chart of the Levy tree which was of great help to me. I tried to find out who had prepared this tree but although many in the family had it, no one could remember, or even knew, who had drawm it up. Then, in 1998, while I was visiting Chloe and Joyce Bernstein in Cape Town. Joyce produced the hand-drawn tree.  "Do you know who did this?" I asked. "Of course", she replied, "Cindy in California." I contacted Cindy, visited her in California the same year (that's when the picture above was taken), and we shared the information we had about our families. Cindy and I have maintained contact since then, we keep each other informed of family changes and she has been of great help in charting details of her branch of the tree. For details, and pictures, of  Cindy and Ken's family click here.

• Hazel Gurland (see Levy/Hershovitz tree) is a co-producer of programs on the PBS Television series "Finding Your Roots". Her debut as co-producer was last week's program  featuring singer John Legend and comedian Wanda Sykes. You can watch the program here. On Sunday May 20 PBS airs the final episode of this series, also co-produced by Hazel, so those in the USA can tune in and watch the program. You can see clips of this program on the PBS website here (Adam Grenier) and here (Michelle Rodriquez.). Congratulations Hazel and good luck for your TV career.  (Thanks to Cindy Berman for bringing this to my attention.)
• I had a great visit this week with my 2nd cousin, Jeff Geffen (see Levy/Hershovitz tree), whom I haven't seen for far too many years. I was saddened to hear that his wife Doreen (Devora) passed away 3 mnonths ago. More on the Geffens with pictures next week..
• Doreen is in Davis, California enjoying the grandchildren, including the new addition, Zoe.
  
• Vered Ron has returned from Germany where she attended the Drupa printing trade fair.
  
• Click here  for Cindy Bermans review of the Berman family in 2011. We're sure a lot has happened during the last year or so. We have certainly experienced many significant changes. Family members are invited to write a short summary of their activities and highlights, including but not limited to, celebrations, births, deaths, during the last year. We will publish these summaries as we receive them. See  Doreen's review of Eitan and Doreen's past year, Moran Segoli's summary of his family's year, and Vered's summary of the Ron family.
• May anniversaries and birthdays are listed below.
  

This is a call for pictures and announcements! If you have a picture suitable for inclusion in this site, please send it to me. Also, send me current items suitable for this column ("news"). And while you're at it, check your information in your family tree and send me updates (especially birthdays and anniversaries) to my email, levy.eitan@gmail.com

• May Birthdays: (not sure how and if you're related? Then go to the family trees section) Happy birthdays to Brian Galgut, Ariel Stennard (1),  Amit Nickel, Russel Glasser (2); Gail Nickel, Miriam Santhaus (3); Debora Lazarus, Yael Segoli (4); Jason Lewis, Jackie Marks, Marion Bloede (5), Oren Gordon, Noga Poupko, Jacqueline Lampert (6);  Rona Nickel (7); Raphael Klotnick,  Talya Klotnick (8); Matar Nickel, Joshua Meyerov,  Roni Karlsbad, Edward Cleaver (9);  Steven Klotnick (10); Paul Bacher; Tessa Marks (12),   Cinzia Tarazza, Gene Glick (13);  Yael Gilad, Michal Gilad, Tamara Braverman (14); Alana Stern, Colin Cohen (15);  Shuli Haberman, Michaela Leibowitz (16);  Bruce Cleaver,  Lauren Stern (17); Uri Haberman (20); Michael Shochat,  Thelma (Cindy) Berman,  Steven Beckman (21), Julianna Glick (22); Sarah Olkienitski (23); Thomas O'Dwyer, Alec Blotnick, Ali Bacher (24); Ophira Sadeh (26); Yonatan Zagnoev, Shira Zagnoev, Susan Glogauer (27);  Noam Haiman, Daphne Lewis (28); Hylton Ezra,  Adam Braverman (29); Joanne Zagnoev (30), Andrea Neiman, Selwyn Kahn, Stephanie Hoppen,William Thiele, Alma Pashas; Lauren Meyerov (31).
• Happy birthday to family friend, Caroline Livne on the 9th.

•  May Anniversaries: Happy Anniversary  to Maytal and Adam Tal (3); Shimona and Avraham Tzukernik (21)