THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
11th March 2023
Borough Market - London Bridge
We are enjoying a short vacation in London. We've visited London
many times but this was the first time we went to the Borough Market,
in London Bridge. We've also seen many markets in various places in the
world, and this one is on a par with the best of them. The variety at the market is amazing and
I recommend anyone going to London to take a morning to visit.
The market, and also London, is almost entirely "cashless" - even
a bottle of water can only be bought using a credit card. At
Tesco we paid 54 cents for 2 bananas - by credit card!
- Of course when in London a visit to a pub is mandatory, so we
were happy to meet our friend Peter
Hassenson at the Dogget Coat and
Badge Pub.
- We saw two operas in London, both set in ancient times but
completely different from each
other, and both were exceptional. At the Royal Opera House (ROH) we saw
an outstanding production of Puccini's Turandot, set in legendary
China. The
production,
singing, costumes, acting - everything was perfect. I think this is the
best opera production I have ever seen.
- The second opera was a 'modern' opera at the English
National Opera (ENO) - Philip Glass's Ahknaten, set in ancient
Egypt. The production
was amazing and highly original. The action was like a slow motion
movie and merged well with the seemingly endless repetitive minimalist
music. The opera was also visually stunning with various actions
(including juggling) in different tableaux taking place at the same
time.
- There are pictures of last week's Purim costumes on the pages
of grandchildren Maayan and
Zoe.
THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
4th
March 2023
Doreen as a Pirate, a British Lady, an Astronaut
Eitan, as
a Viking, a Renaissance Scholar, a Greek Warrior
PURIM
2023
This
week we celebrate the happy festival of Purim, commemorating the saving
from death of Jews in the 5th Century BCE as described in the Book of
Esther. The festival is marked by Purim parties and dressing up in
fancy dress and costumes and during Purim the streets are filled with a
variety of people in a variety of costume. Years ago the main
Purim attraction was an Adloyada Parade through the streets of
Tel Aviv, and this tradition is still retained in some locations, for
example in Midreshet Ben Gurion where the Segolis live. We usually
attend this parade (see here for
example) but this year we are giving it a pass.
Instead of finding or arranging special costumes this year we took the
easy way by utilizingf the "Time Machine" app of My Heritage
to show how we might have been and might have looked in the past. And
while we were about it we asked the app to show how we might have
looked if van Gogh had painted us.
THIS
WEEK'S NEWS
- Doreen was thrilled to meet up with Hilary (Diner) Kahn, one of
her best friends from school days. See
more and picture here.
- We are going through troubling times in Israel. both of us are
alarmed at the anti-democratic path that the new government is taking. Here's a picture of Doreen
demonstrating against the proposed legislation.
- Granddaughter Danielle Ron is in India where she intends to spend
a few months. Have a great trip!
- In a few days time we will fly to London for a week's holiday .
THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
25th
February 2023
28th
Family Reunion
This
weekend we celebrated Moran's 50th birthday and our 28th Family Reunion
at Selina Glamping in Mizpe Ramon. It was a most successful gathering
enjoyed by the whole family. Unfortunately Limor and Ilay were
not well
and couldn't join us.
There is a description of the Reunion with pictures and links on the
28th Reunion page.
THIS
WEEK'S NEWS
- We had lunch this week with cousin Shirley Kansky and
second cousin Joel and Beryl Klotnick. Last week we saw the Geffens and
Sydney Losin, so it's been a family week for us.
THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
18th
February 2023
Israel
Robotics Champion!
Congratulations to granddaughter Lotem
Segoli on leading her school team to 1st place in the
FIRST Israel Robotics
Championships. Lotem and her team will go to Houston, Texas in
April to compete in the
FIRST
International Robotics Championships.
See more on this week's Miscellaneous
page and on Lotem's page.
THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
11th
February 2023
Anthony
and Doreen are engaged!
Melly
Braverman, Gertie Glazer, Louise Braverman, Hayman Levy, Ray Brower
Levy, Me, Maurice Glazer, Doreen, Dave Zolty (best man), Fern Levy
This coming Tuesday is Valentine's Day. I don't remember celebrating
Valentine's Day when we were young but the above picture shows that
despite no cards we did celebrate our love.
Although originally a religious holy day today Valentine's Day has
become an important commercial event with billions of greeting cards
actual or digital. In Israel secular Jews celebrate both Valentine's
Day and the Jewish version "Tu B'av" as a holiday of love.
THIS
WEEK'S NEWS
- I was very sad to hear of the passing of my second cousin Jeffrey
Geffen. Jeff stayed in our home while studying as a pharmacist in
Durban. He was about 13 years older than me and I looked upon him as a
big brother. I have many fond memories of him and his keen sense of
humour. He was a keen sportsman until tubercolosis curtailed most of
his sport activities. Jeff and his wife
Doreen (Altshuler) made aliyah to Israel and lived in Ashdod. He
founded and developed the sport of Badminton in
Israel. Click here for a picture
in badminton outfit. See
Levy family tree.
- My cousin Sharon (Levy) Leibowitz in Australia is not
well. We
all wish her a speedy recovery and a return to her active life.
THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
4th
February 2023
Moran
on his way to 50
Congratulations
to our youngest child Moran on his 50th birthday this week. We'll be
celebrating it with Family Reunion #28 in a few week's time.
Here are some pictures of his younger days.
THIS
WEEK'S NEWS
THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
28th
January 2023

From Zelig Goldberg to Isaac Shapiro
Belopolye, 26 January 1915
8 February1
Dear
children
We
are
all in good health
thank God and
thank God it is quiet here. Mother is good health thank God too, also
in
Zeimelis
the children are all in good health.
Your letter of December we have
received,
thank God you are in good health. Unfortunately I have lost my job due
to the
closure of the brewing factory and I still
have no other job. Send a
bow2 to
your children.
Father Goldberg.
This is one of the 11 postcards written in the Ukraine by my great
grandfather Zelig Goldberg to my grandfather Isaac Shapiro in Kimberley
South Africa. I received them from my mother's cousin Sarah
(Goldberg) Olkienitski. (see
more here.).
Four of the postcards mention money sent from South Africa through
Wissotsky. During this time the Jewish owned tea company Wissotsky was
the largest tea company in the worfld. (see Wikipedia article).
Apparently Isaac gave money to Wissotsky representatives in South
Africa and Wissotsky Russia paid Zelig the equivalent amount. Wissotsky
is Israel's largest tea company and I told them about the postcards.
They were thrilled to see this example of the Wissotsky family's
help to Jews during this difficult period, and asked whether they could
have the 4 postcards for their Historic Archive Collection. Zelig's
three
living great grandchildren (Shula Haberman, Racheli Gilad and I) agreed
and this week I met with the Curator of the Archives and donated
the 4 postcards together with some background notes.
There is a page about these postcards on
this site. It includes
pictures of all the 11 postcards, the translations, some notes on the
backround of the postcards, and the letter of thanks from Wissotsky.
See also a note on the family in the
Jewish Genealogy site.
Translator
notes:
1.
On many documents of the Russian Empire from the late 19th
Century both the Julian and Gregorian calenders appear.
2. send a bow: Russian expression meaning 'send my
greetings'
THIS
WEEK'S NEWS
- We had lunch this week with Archie
Ogden, from our
days in St Thomas in the Virgin Islands. We were very friendly with
Archie and Ella and had many happy times with them.
- We also had lunch with Maxine
(Konigsfest) Freed, sister of good
friend Maureen Fain. We have not seen Maxine for about 60 years (!) but
but we see Maureen regulary (for
example)
and she has kept us updated. By chance Maxine mentored daughter
Vered and husband Aviv
during their orientation period at Columbus University.
- Happy
Birthday this week to: Merle Lewenson, Ilai
Levy, Merle Lewenson (28th), Rafael
Braverman
Dvir, Mandy Gordon,
Alex
Hock (29th), Moran
Segoli , Aharon
Klotnick (30th), Eitan
Haberman
, Shai Geffen (31st), Anna Korbel, Jonathan Stern, Stella Kahn, Kyle Kahn (1st Feb), Shira Bortz,
Ann
Weisz, Erin Gordon, Andrea Minto (2nd Feb)
THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
21st
January 2023
Gertie, Louise, Maurice and Doreen
Glazer
This January marks 50 years since the
passing of Doreen's father Maurice on 16th January 1973.
See Doreen's column.
THIS
WEEK'S NEWS
- Daughter Vered Ron returned this week from USA and now all our
children and grandchildren are in Israel
- We were saddened this week by the passing of Tirza Naor whom Doreen had befriended for a number of years.
- Tiina Drui (see Schank family tree)
is a very talented artist.
Her painting of her husband Heini acurately depicts him. This painting
and some more of
Tiina's artwork can be seen here.
- Last week we saw pictures of the Segolis
in Tromso viewing the
Northern Lights. It looks like an amazing sight. That's something
we've never experienced or even come
close to. Our visits to the far north were all in summer. At least we
did see
the midnight sun in Tromso and had
lunch and bought a tee shirt at
the Northern Lights Inn in
Labrador!
- Granddughter Lotem Segoli's robotics team took first place in the
Israel Robotic Competition preliminaries. We're proud of her team and
of Lotem who
was also nominated for the FIRST Dean's
List for excellence. FIRST
is an international not-for-profit organisation that sponsors
mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology
skills for high school students.
- Like father like son: About 50 years ago the Chief Rabbi of
Israel Ovadia Yosef visited Coral World and I showed him around the
site. This year his son, Chief Rabbi Yitschak Yosef visited Coral World
and my son showed him around the site.
Click for pictures
THIS WEEK'S PICTURE
14th
January 2023

Moran
and Mikhal Segoli view the
Northern Lights
Son
Moran writes:
For my 50th birthday, we
went to see the Northern Lights in Tromso, Norway
We climbed a mountain to see the ‘almost’ sunrise (the
first sunrise this winter is on the 21/1), went on snow-shoe hike with
a sledge dog puppy, warmed up with a fire on the ice, went whale
watching and saw Killer whales and Humpback whales.
The weather wasn’t good – cloudy and snowing but on our
last day we managed to see the Northern Lights in the one hour that the
clouds cleared up.
See Wikipedia article on the
Northern Lights
We're in New York, and thanks to
Daughter Vered's friend Meaghan Coffey, we had a bird's eye view of the
pre-midnight festivities and a direct ground level view of the
tradional ball drop signalling the beginning of the year. Click on the
picture or
here to see the
final 5 second countdown. To see more pictures and Doreen's account of
the occasion
click here..