Not forgotten

This Netanya couple lives on a high floor and spends much of their time assisting others who are not as fortunate.

By GLORIA DEUTSCH
Netanya coastline from apartment 521 (photo credit: Uriel Messa)
Netanya coastline from apartment 521
(photo credit: Uriel Messa)
Anne and David Silverman moved into their apartment a year ago.
It’s on the 23rd floor of a new building on Netanya’s seafront, and for the English-born couple who made aliya in 1990, it’s a new departure.
“I’ve never lived higher than the fourth floor,” says Anne who together with her husband founded and runs the Forgotten People Fund, a registered charity which helps Ethiopian immigrants.
While sitting on their wide balcony and thrilling to the incredible views of the ocean stretched before them, they can also think about new ways to raise money for their cause and what else can be done to ease the path of a group of people whose aliya has not always been smooth and without problems.
The name was dreamed up by Anne one night, as she was dozing and wondering what she could do to help the Ethiopians.
“It’s still a good name because it’s controversial, so people talk about it,” she says. She points out that while several organizations work for the Ethiopians, the FPF volunteers go into the field and see the problems firsthand – whether it’s no food in the fridge, or a plumbing problem the immigrants can’t afford to fix.
“We try to get them to contribute something for their own self-respect, but if they can’t, we pay,” explains Anne. “Over the years, we’ve raised NIS 8 million.”
She and David designed the apartment themselves.
“I know a lot of people hire interior designers and make themselves showpieces, but we wanted a home,” she says. “We wanted to use all the furniture we had brought from England and to create a warm feeling.”
They took away one of the original four bedrooms and used the extra space to enlarge the living room and the master bedroom. The open plan – with the kitchen separated from the lounge by a breakfast bar/island – troubled them at first, and Anne wanted to close the kitchen off.
“In the end I left it open, and I’m glad I did,” she says.
“The whole dividing peninsula is very useful, especially when I entertain, as I use it as a buffet.”
She also admits to becoming much tidier since the kitchen is always visible. With gray Caesarstone and white cabinets, she feels the kitchen has a cloud theme carried on in the shape of the high chairs and the light fixtures.
“When we first saw the stools, we were worried that they would be uncomfortable without backs, but the salesman reassured us that on a stool one doesn’t lean back – and in fact they are very comfortable.”
The lounge is dominated by a very large wooden and glass display cabinet, which had been built for the previous apartment. Because it’s so big, it dictated the dimensions of the living room. The cabinet contains many antiques Anne inherited from her father, including his paperweight collection. In the corner is one of their antiques, a lovely Royal Doulton jardinière.
The dining table is glass-topped with white leather- look chairs. When extra space is needed, the lounge coffee table, made of the same materials, can be raised to the level of the large table and extended at the end.
A David Gerstein butterfly sculpture decorates the table.
With good friends in the textile business in England, they were able to choose a very pretty fabric to make the kitchen curtains and matching cushions in the lounge, and have it sent over. The bright pink of the leaves is emphasized by fresh flowers always on the table and kitchen counter – usually in shades of pink.
The same goes for the master bedroom, which is also dressed in a striped material with fuchsia as the dominant shade. At the foot of the bed is an ottoman they had constructed to store the linen. Glass-fronted walk-in closets are in a small dressing room off the bedroom.
The couple is especially happy with the corner bar, which was also constructed to their specifications.
Looking like a tiny British pub with upturned gin and whiskey bottles delivering measured shots, it’s a convivial spot for entertaining, presided over by a painting Anne did of her late lamented dog, Didi, who left this world at the grand old age of 17¼. In the corner of the picture you can just catch a glimpse of one of the two antique bridge tables.
At the end of a busy day, the Silvermans can sit on their terrace and watch the lights twinkling as far away as Jaffa, and plan what they can do next for the Forgotten People – forgotten no longer.