Five years ago, on the eve of Memorial Day, I posted my personal memorial story that had this photo of my grandfather's family, taken in Jerusalem more than a decade ago.
The post tells the story of my Aunt Esther who lost both her only son Yossi, and her husband Nissim (the boy in the photo). But It is also a story about survivability and hope.
Since it was posted, the story evolved into some interesting twists...
2012 - Shortly after the first publication of the post, the Haaretz newspaper supplement "Galleria" published a praising article about a joint exhibition of illustrations for Wikipedia, created by Galia Ofri and Mushon, my eldest son, and his wife.
An interesting coincidence appeared in the printed version of "Galleria", and on the back of that same page was an article by my younger son Uri who was a music correspondent for the magazine. As a proud Mom I sent my family a bragging e-mail, followed by a weird response from Prof. Oded Meyuhas, (son of Simcha, the girl with braids in the photo).
Oded: Great-grandfather Yosef and great-grandmother Rivka would have been very proud to see three of their great grand sons all on the same page.
Me: What do you mean by three?
Oded: Well, Below Uri's article is an article by Ben Shalev, the senior music critic of Haaretz.
Me: I still don't get it.
Oded: Ben is none other than the great-grandson of uncle Bechor (pictured sitting first on the right)
WHAT???
Uri worked with Ben, who was his most valued music expert, and was also the one that gave him the first opportunity to write for Haaretz. I informed Uri that his great-grandfather and Ben's great-grandfather were brothers, and attached a link to the post about Aunt Esther with the picture showing the two grandparents. Uri could't believe it. He forwarded my message to Ben (and "accused" him of subliminal nepotism). Ben, no less surprised, passed on the message to his mother, who burst into tears with excitement. So this was how Miri and I got together again after years of loosing touch.
2013 - A year later, I received an e-mail from someone representing the American writer Philip Taubman who wrote a biography of George Schultz and was very interested in interviewing everyone who knew the late Joseph Levy. Naturally I referred her to Oded who is the expert regaring the levy family. A year ago something really interesting happened.
2016 - I received a call from the Israel Democracy Institute, telling me that 95-year-old George Schultz is coming to Israel and more than anything he wanted to meet with Nadav.
Searching for his contact they came across my post of Aunt Esther - Nadav's grandmother.
The connection was created and Tzvia, Nadav and Thalma were invited to the exciting event in Jerusalem where George Schultz opened his speech describing his relationship with Yossi and how it affected his feeling about Israel.
In addition, a private meeting was held between the Levy family and the Schultz family. At Schultz's request they went together to the monument in memnory of those died defending Jerusalem where Yossi's name is inscribed.
Nadav told me about the wonderful experience he had at this meeting. See also article in Maarive below.
Click here for an article by Moshe Arens on the visit of
Then came another twist to the plot.
Nadav told me that at the event in honor of George Schultz, journalist Haggai Segal approached him and asked if he was a relative of Uri Levy's (my Dad), and told him he was a friend of our family and knew all of us well.
What a tiny world.
What Hagai told Nadav is true, of course. Hagai's father Shalom Segal, was a friend of my father (and responsible for the fact that my father became religious). We spent a lot of time together as children with Hagai, his brothers and sisters. A few hours later I got an e-mail from Hagai, who was also amused by the way
the connection had been renewed after so many years. The article below is the personal and moving part of Hagai's article in the weekend issue of Makor Rishon (19/2/16).
2017 - Since then there have been several exciting family gatherings in which Nadav turned out to be a devoted music lover (see Ben and Uri), he is a Professor at the Interdisciplinary Center (where Uri studied as well), and ... Thama's father owns a well-known culinary school In Tel Aviv .
