Grapevine: Heeding the first commandment: Be fruitful and multiply

Elul was a great month for bringing babies into the world.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
ELUL WAS a great month for bringing babies into the world; for some, it also saved on sending out New Year greeting cards. Case in point were Hila and Ilan Yeshayahu of Modiin, who celebrated the birth of their son Ido at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. On each of the tables was a greeting card with a photograph of their small daughter Maya holding the new baby with the message "A year of love, joy and new beginnings," signed by the Yeshayahu family. Prior to the circumcision ceremony, Hila Yeshayahu took the baby for a medical check-up to ensure that he did not have jaundice. Because he did not yet have a name, the printed report that gave him the green light referred to him as "Hamudi," the Hebrew equivalent for Sweetie Pie. And that's exactly what he looks like. Among the female guests in the peer generation of Ido's parents, perhaps 60 per cent were pregnant, which bodes well for Jewish demography. There were also a lot of tiny tots running around, and the oldest guest was the baby's great grandmother, 92 year-old Bess Glaster, who came in from Herzliya. But she wasn't the only walking history at the event. Seated by sheer coincidence at the same table were veterans of Etzel, Lehi and the Hagana. ACCORDING TO Rabbi Avigdor Burstein, there had never been a Brit Mila on Rosh Hashana at Jerusalem's Hazvi Yisrael synagogue in the 38 years in which he has been associated with the congregation. It was charming that the exception to the norm that took place this year on the second day of Rosh Hashana involved the family of the synagogue beadle Menachem Levinsky and his wife Chani who the previous Friday night had celebrated the birth of their first grandchild with a Shalom Zachar, at which the feasting went on till nearly midnight. On the second day of Rosh Hashana, when the Bible reading is about the binding of Isaac, Levinsky as Sandek sat stoically through the circumcision ceremony with the baby on his lap. The parents Shira and Yoni Da-El chose to name the infant Shiloh, after the city which in Biblical times housed the Ark of the Covenant, and which in the period of the Judges was the religious capital of the Children of Israel. After being subjected to a series of conquests over the centuries, Shiloh was revived as a Jewish settlement in the 1970s when a group of people affiliated with Gush Emunim took up residence there. The community has since grown to include a Hesder yeshiva, along with several educational facilities and religious institutions. AT LEAST two people whose wives were in an advanced stage of pregnancy hoped that their babies would not arrive before the conclusion of the Kadima primaries. One was Kadima spokesman Shmulik Dahan, whose wife Dana presented him with a daughter several days after the result was announced; and the other was Jerusalem Post political correspondent Gil Hoffman, whose wife Netanya presented him with a son just over a week prior to Rosh Hashana. When the Hoffmans had a Simchat Bat a couple of years back to celebrate the birth of their super cute daughter Eliana, they had a big party. The arrival of a son to carry on the Hoffman name, considering that all of Hoffman's siblings are girls, would have called for an even bigger celebration, but for the fact that Hoffman, who is religiously observant, had no way of notifying relatives, friends and colleagues that the circumcision ceremony was taking place. The baby was due to be circumcised on the second day of Rosh Hashana, but it wasn't a hundred per cent certain that he was fit to undergo the ritual. That could only be determined on the first day of Rosh Hashana. Netanya Hoffman got a special dispensation from Rabbi Benny Lau to take the baby by cab to Hadassah Hospital on the proviso that the cab driver was not Jewish. The baby was pronounced perfectly healthy and the circumcision was duly carried out at Jerusalem's Ramban Synagogue. Hoffman was delighted to be able to induct his son into the faith on the day when Jews remember the testing of Abraham's loyalty to God through his willingness to sacrifice his son. The infant was named Amichai Moshe. The first name, meaning "My people lives," was to signify the Hoffmans' faith in the future of the Jewish people. The second name, Moshe, was in memory of Hoffman's grandfather, a Holocaust survivor who lost most of his relatives in the war. Ironically, considering the Rosh Hashana Bible reading, Hoffman's father is called Yitzhak. He was unable to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the birth of his grandson because he had a commitment to serve as a cantor for his congregation in Chicago. Hoffman's mother likewise did not make the trip, but his wife's parents' Stuart and Helene Weiss of Michigan, were on hand to coo over their grandson - just as they had been on hand when Hoffman popped the question to Netanya Weiss. He had not only requested their permission to marry her, but had also arranged for them to walk into the restaurant just after he'd proposed. It was just as well that her response was affirmative. NEARLY ALL the people who were part of Israel's founding diplomatic mission in Egypt in February, 1980, have remained in touch with each other and are often seen at each other's family celebrations. Such was the case on the last Friday before Rosh Hashana when Zvi and Michelle Mazel hosted a "Simhat Bat" on the balcony of their penthouse apartment in Jerusalem to celebrate the birth of their youngest grandchild Abigail, who was born to their daughter Iris. Most of the former diplomats present knew Iris from the time she was a small child, and came to rejoice with her and her parents. "The birth of a child is always a joy to a family and a joy to the world," said the proud grandfather, whose genes are a dominant factor in the appearance of nearly all his grandchildren, who like him are carrot-tops, even when their parents are not. Abigail is no exception, but she is different from her cousins in that she was born to a single mother, whose courage was praised by Mazel. It's never easy raising a child, he said, especially for a single mother, but Iris Mazel has the support of her parents and her siblings, and several of her friends who went ga-ga over the infant. The Mazels, after completing their first tour of duty in Egypt, returned towards the end of 1996 with a somewhat higher rank than the first time around. On his second tour of duty, Zvi Mazel was Israel's ambassador. His expertise on Egypt in particular, and the Middle East in general, has made him a much sought-after commentator by various media outlets, in addition to writing a weekly column for Makor Rishon. n MOST JEWS in their fifties and sixties who are of European descent did not know their grandparents, who were victims of Hitler's final solution. Today, the Jewish world boasts tens of thousands of three-generation families, slightly fewer four-generation families - and even a few five-generation families. The most recent male addition to the Kupietzky and Guedilia families of Jerusalem (formerly of New York) has a great great grandmother, Els Bendheim in Jerusalem, and a great great grandfather, Rabbi Jacob Schroit in the United States. n IN RELIGIOUS circles, where a wedding is followed by a week of feasting, generally referred to as Sheva Brachot - Seven Blessings - the families of the bride and groom get together with greater frequency in the immediate aftermath of the marriage than do most secular families. However, in the case of the Gugenheim family of Mexico and Jerusalem and the Jaffe family of Jerusalem, the get-togethers lasted longer than a week because sisters Gizelle and Batya Gugenheim married brothers Zeev Natan and Moshe Jaffe. The two weddings took place within less than two weeks of each other in completely different settings and venues in Jerusalem. What they had in common was the participation of the Great Synagogue choir and that prior to the ceremony, while the bride and groom and members of their respective families were gathered under the wedding canopy, all the guests were asked to join in a prayer for the safe return of abducted soldier Gilad Schalit. In fact, the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, with which three generations of the bridegrooms' family are actively and intensively associated, in its weekly newsletter, unfailingly calls on congregants to pray for the safe return of Gilad Schalit. The wedding of Zeev Natan and Giselle Jaffe has already been reported in this column, with a factual error. When the couple was blessed in front of the Holy Ark, it was by the groom's maternal grandfather Avraham Stein, and not by the bride's maternal grandfather Marcos Katz, who was unable to come from Mexico. Incidentally, between the two weddings, Katz and his wfe Adina celebrated the birth of a great granddaughter, whose parents, Leora and Aaron Katz, and grandparents, Tzippy and Zvi Katz, the aunt and uncle of the brides, all live in Israel. Because the weatherman had predicted rain, the second wedding, which was held at Teddy Hall in Jerusalem, was conducted indoors instead of in the courtyard as is customary. Although it could have been conducted in the huge reception area in which the hundreds of guests mingled prior to the ceremony, one of the larger halls at the Jerusalem International Convention Center was turned into a wedding chapel with rows of white covered chairs - women on one side of the aisle and men on the other - extending almost from wall-to-wall. The bridal canopy was almost majestic in its beauty with four white pillars instead of posts or poles holding up the filmy white canopy. The pillars were crowned with flowers. The bride carried a large bouquet of pale pink rosebuds, and the matron of honor, her sister Giselle, the bridesmaids and flower girls all wore pink gowns. The bridegroom is a paramedic active in Hatzola, which was well represented among the guests. Immediately after the formal part of the ceremony was over, his friends danced under the canopy. The bride is the daughter of Elie and Ariela Gugenheim and the granddaughter of Rabbanit Claude Annie Gugenheim and Marcos and Adina Katz. The groom is the son of Elli and Jacqueline Jaffe and the grandson of Avraham and Jane Stein and of Ella Jaffe. At the wedding, Elli Jaffe referred to what had been lost in the Holocaust and noted the tremendous growth of yeshivot and the revival in Jewish learning. There have never been so many yeshivot and so many yeshiva students, he said. Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who was one of many distinguished rabbis in attendance, also referred to Jewish learning and noted that a wedding is not only a celebration but a mitzvah, and as such has a special holiness. VETERAN BROADCASTER Michael Friedson, who is the executive editor and director of media services for the multi-media network The Media Line, did some fancy shofar blowing at the Hazvi Yisrael Synagogue on Rosh Hashana, but some congregants arrived too late to hear the shofar during the services. So Friedson's extremely personable and multi-talented son Gavy, who was on leave from the army, did the honors while his father took a break from blowing. Other congregants were so impressed that they stopped to listen. But what was even more impressive less than an hour later was Gideon Leibler's prowess on the shofar when he blew it for his two great grandmothers, centenarian Bertha Porush and nonagenarian Rachel Leibler, who had not attended synagogue services. Gideon, grandson of Post op-ed columnist Isi Leibler, still has a few years to go to his Bar Mitzva, but his command of the shofar was little short of professional. Incidentally, Isi Leibler this week celebrates his 74th birthday, which this year falls on Yom Kippur, just a week and a day before his mother-in-law celebrates her 105th birthday. WINNING AN international poetry contest is a joy in itself. Better still when it comes with a monetary prize of $2,000, even if the dollar is devaluating. But the true balm to the ego of Jerusalemite Reena Ribalow (Ben Ephraim) was the note by John H. Reid, the chief judge of the sixth annual Margaret Reid poetry contest sponsored by Tom Howard Books, notifying her that her entry "Jerusalem of Heaven, Jerusalem of Earth" was the best of all those submitted. "You'll be glad to know that both Professor Konrad and I never had any doubt that your magnificent poem would win first prize," he wrote. "You aimed high and succeeded brilliantly. Not one word is out of place. Not one word could be improved, not one word could be added, not one subtracted. It is indeed a perfect poem." The poem describes aspects of Jerusalem familiar to almost everyone who lives in Israel's capital - but it is the language which is captivating. Born in New York City and at least a third generation writer in her family, Ribalow is the daughter of Anglo American critic, editor and anthologist Harold U. Ribalow, and the granddaughter of Menachem Ribalow, a famous essayist, Hebraist and founder and editor of Hadoar, the first Hebrew weekly in America. Prior to settling in Israel, Ribalow traveled widely in Africa and Europe. She has won several short story and poetry prizes and is also involved in giving prizes to other writers. For the past 20 years she has been the chief screener for the Harold U. Ribalow Prize for Jewish fiction, named in honor of her father, and administered by Hadassah magazine. WHILE ON the subject of prizes, husband and wife team Gideon Remez and Isabella Ginor have been awarded the second prize of a silver medal and $15,000 in the inaugural contest of the Washington Institute's Book Prize for their controversial, well-received and highly publicized book "Foxbats over Dimona." The book casts a new light on the origins of the 1967 Six Day War and points to a carefully calculated Soviet plot to attack Israel's nuclear facility in Dimona. AMONG THE 12 recipients last month of Lifetime Achievement Awards for Environmental Protection was Azaria Alon, a resident for the past 70 years of Kibbutz Beit Hashita. Alon, who was born in Ukraine, immigrated to Eretz Israel in 1925. Selected from among 62 candidates by a committee headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Jacob Turkel, Alon, who will celebrate his 90th birthday on November 15, is worthy of particular mention because he is the oldest regular broadcaster in Israel. One of the founders of the Nature Reserves Authority and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, he is the editor of the Encyclopedia of Plant and Animal Life in Israel and has authored numerous books and articles on the protection of flora and fauna. He broadcasts a program, "The Landscape of our Country," twice a week on Israel Radio and has been doing so since 1959. He is also a senior lecturer on landscape at the Haifa Technion. The Lifetime Achievement Award is one of many prizes that he has earned over the years. Alon looks nowhere near his age, and continues to be an ever-active hiker. IT'S JUST as well that the time period, including extension, for Tzipi Livni to form a government concludes at the end of the first week of November, taking Jewish religious holidays into account. If she does not succeed, the Knesset will not be disbanded until she reports to President Peres that she was unable to fulfill the mission with which he had tasked her. Until and unless that happens, opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu does not have to worry about mounting an election campaign and will be free to be one of the keynote speakers at the annual Balfour Dinner hosted by the Israel, Britain and the Commonwealth Association. The British keynote speaker will be Shadow Foreign Secretary the Rt. Hon. William Hague MP. This year's Balfour Dinner' at the Tel Aviv Hilton on November 3, will be in celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary. Last year's dinner, which was the best that anyone in IBCA could remember, was in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, and it will definitely be a hard act to follow.