BIRTHDAY OF AN AISHES CHAYIL

The very special (80^th!) birthday of a very special person, Bryna Franklin, was celebrated at AACI on January 11, 2012.

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A Master’s level college graduate from back in the 50s – when it wasn’t so common for a woman even to go to college – she became the lady of a manor and continued to demonstrate her creative flair in politics. However, much of her wisdom also comes from the School of Hard Knocks. What she likes to do more than anything else is to reach out and touch others.

Bryna chose AACI as the venue for her celebration because of her many friends in the AACI community: her fellow seniors and bridge club buddies.

One hundred and fifteen guests attended the party. Many more had to be turned away.

Bryna was toasted by Rabbi Moe from Ascent in Safed and Rebbetzin Gila Rosen, on behalf of herself and her husband, the late Rabbi Mickey Rosen z’l, Rosh Hayeshiva of Yakar inJerusalem.

Sara Peters led all the guests in singing “You Are My Sunshine” to Bryna and then read her a wonderful poem about turning 80, reminding us that Sara herself was 80 once, 14 years ago.

Entertainment was provided by a husband-wife dance team, Jill and Amnon Damti, whose outstanding credentials including performing at the White House. They involved the audience, who loved it. Amnon’s work as a dancer choreographer is all the more remarkable because he has been deaf since birth.

A notable attendee was Rabbi Robert Weiner, author of 9 1/2 Mystics: the Kabbala Today and a personal friend of Bryna’s.

Bryna asked that donations be made to the Anne Scully Williams Scholarship Fund, which she has just established through ESRA (English-Speaking Residents’ Association) in memory of a dear friend.

As a highlight of the event, Bryna’s close friend, Yehudit Chava, read her updated and personalized version of “Aishes Chayil,” the description of a valorous woman traditionally sung on Friday night.

Aishes Chayil – Bryna

January 11, 2012

A woman of valor who can find?

Her price is far above rubies; she shares her wealth like fairy dust.

Hashem’s heart trusts in her; she starts every day with her morning prayers.

She works willingly with her hands; she blesses those with hand massages!

She visits the sick and walks the elderly home. Her community calls her happy.

She is like the merchant-ships; she brings food when it’s needed; either from her own kitchen or by spending her last agarot. She has traveled the world and delights in sharing with other cultures.

She stretches out her hand out to the poor, and puts forth her hand out to the needy (that’s all of us folks, you and me). She truly believes that through tzedaka and mitzvot everyone gets a little tug on the heart and then that tug continues to get passed down to the next generations. She even established a Scholarship Fund for young adults through ESRA, in memory of her dearest friend and inspiration, Anne Scully Williams.

Her lamp does not go out by night; she contemplates the next 10 things she can do for others, and also remembers those who will never know of her kindness.

She took her place in theHoly Landby making aliyah some 30 years ago. She shuns no responsibility; she is still paying off her college loan!

She plants vineyards everywhere she goes, and then speaks to the plants so they grow well and don’t get lonely.

She girds her loins with strength and makes strong her arms at the gym, pool or tai chi class. Her diet is healthy. She walks all over town after a hip replacement, still always balancing packages and bags with no hand left to use her cane.

She is fearless, not afraid of hard times for her household, for all of her household are clothed with scarlet. Strength and majesty are her clothing. She hosts many gatherings, always with elegance, style, and perfect social grace. This includes sending out the old fashioned “bread and butter invitations and thank you notes” — she hand makes her own cards, each stuffed with personalized love. Then she addresses them all by hand to people all over the world, especially on their birthdays. Want to be added to her mailing list?!

She also has kept up with modern technology. She emails from her laptop, SMS’s messages from her cell phone, attends many classes and events, AND she still plays bridge like a wiz.

Favor is false and beauty is vain but a woman that fears the Lord, she shall be praised. She does only good and not evil all the days of her life.

She doesn’t fear the time to come and opens her mouth with wisdom and the law of loving-kindness is on her tongue. No lashon hara there!

She does not eat the bread of idleness … at any given time, even while standing in line or on a bus, you will see her meditating, and nurturing her energy, while maybe squeezing a ball or standing on one leg to reinforce her strength and stability for one more day.

She is true to her word. She cherishes life and shows deep affection to her friends. She shows a high level of respect to all. She qualifies her words with “I don’t mean to be unkind.” She thanks taxi drivers for their kindness and tells waiters that they made her day.

She walks the talk. She is the friend who comes in when all others have gone out. Hashem rewards her. Her sweet partner, of blessed memory, Elchanon, was known at the gate when he sat among the elders of the land. He praised her, saying: Many women have done worthily but thou excellest them all.

May this modern-day aishes chayil continue to be an inspiration to all of us until 120 plus!

Reflections — Four Artists View Their Worlds

by guest contributor Laura Firszt

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Entering AACI’s new offices is a pleasant surprise – the premises feel bright and functional but not sterile. The walls are enhanced with the colorful works of four exciting Israeli artists. The impression is of visiting different areas of our country; the widely varied styles of the artists seem to reflect the variety of landscapes and people in Israel.

Shoshana Meerkin’s watercolors delicately depict light and shade. Many of her paintings embody a theme of Israeli doors and windows, often partly open, inviting the viewer to imagine what lies beyond. Similarly, in “Let’s Go There,” two elderly women sit on a seaside bench, backs to the viewer. Despite their relaxed pose, their attention to the sun-dappled boats in front of them creates a sense of forward motion and thought.

The rich bright colors of Ruth Gesser’s oil paintings portray the almost jungle-like exuberance of Israeli gardens. Her watercolors seem drenched in the intense sunlight that is so characteristic of summer in this country. A versatile artist, she also combines watercolors and watercolor pastels to create intriguing semi-abstract works.

Ruth Keusch uses oils to create paintings of human figures or flowers with strong, almost harsh lines. In true Israeli fashion, she is rigorously honest, yet sympathetic, in her interaction with her subjects. As well, she produces earthy sculptures. In the words of one of the viewers of her exhibit: “Exciting!”

Esther Weiser Kreisman combines her traditional art school background with modern technology to produce big bold “urban landscapes.” Photographs of a scene at various times of day are melded to create paintings that are alive with motion and energy, from the lighthearted, bright “Coca Cola Beach Tel Aviv,” to the fluid familiar/unfamiliar feeling given by “Jerusalem 2008.”

Many of the original paintings, as well as posters and giclee reproductions, are for sale. A percentage of all sales will be donated to the AACI.

The works will be on display until February 15, 2012 and are open to the public free of charge during AACI’s opening hours: Sunday-Thursday 8:30 am – 5:30 pm and some evenings.

A gallery talk from 6-8 pm this Sunday, January 22nd, will allow art lovers to hear the artists discuss their works and their creative process, followed by a question period.

Phone 02-5661181 for hours and directions or check our website: www.aaci.org.il.
A new exhibit is presented approximately every six weeks, making the works of contemporary Israeli artists easily accessible to the general public.

Welcome to our newest guest Blogger, Laura Firszt. We hope to be reading lots more from Laura on a regular basis.

Distribution of Gas Masks

January 9, 2012 – Thanks to Alan Schleider for this updated information:

“I now have better information.  *171 is indeed out of service but *2237 is working but it is a very long wait.  You might have better luck trying the web site, http://www.israelpost.co.il/oref-calls.nsf/callme3?openform“

originally published in the September-October 2011 edition of AACI’s VOICE

The Home Front Command (Pikud HaOref) had announced that you can get your masks delivered via The Israel Postal Courier Service to a convenient address.  

 

Orders can be made by telephone to the distribution center between 07:00-22:00 and on Friday between 7:00-14:00. Dial *171 or *2237 for someone to contact you.

Date of delivery will be determined in coordination with the client. Delivery cost is NIS 25 per household. To leave contact details use this link:

Gas Masks will be provided at no cost for all eligible residents.

Residents who have not returned their old gas masks will be required during the distribution period to return them, or if lost, will be required to pay.

There are plans for a free program for those who are homebound, living in special institutions for health reasons defined by the Home Front Command in cooperation with relevant ministries. 

 

Note to the Public: The above is a service notice and by no means should be taken as a sign of imminent danger and to cause alarm to the residents of Israel

IICC – Israel Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center

With special thanks to our newest contributor, Jack Cohen of AACI’s Netanya branch.

Jack has many talents and interests, and among them, he has a blog called Isblog at http://commentfromisraelblog.blogspot.com/. This is from his December 8, 2011 post. Posted with permission.

    On Tuesday we went on a trip (tiyul) with AACI to the IICC. AACI is the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, our English-speaking club in Netanya and IICC is the Israel Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center. I have lived in Israel for 15 years and had never before heard of this organization, that was established in 1985 to commemorate the Israeli heroes who died in the service of the State while carrying out intelligence operations.

    The IICC was formed by the three arms of Israel’s intelligence services; the Shin Bet (responsible for internal security), the Mossad (responsible for foreign intelligence gathering and analysis) and Aman the Intelligence Corps of the IDF. More than that, the IICC sits in an obscure location on a small side street, which I used as a short cut going home from work and passed it many times without realizing that it was there. It would indeed require information and intelligence to find it.

(click here for video)

    It was founded by former intelligence officers to commemorate their fallen colleagues. The memorial consists of a stone maze with the names of the deceased carved on the walls.

    There is also a small synagogue containing a 120 year old Syrian Torah scroll that was one of over 100 rescued by the Mossad during the rescue of Syrian Jewry, and adjacent is a library containing a file on each individual, that contains official letters as well as material added by family members and friends. It should be emphasized that all this information is now public, although some individuals still cannot be named.

    Part of the Center includes the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center that has a large library on intelligence and terrorism information as well as a tiny museum on terrorism (see www.terrorism-info.org.il) . This is a private organization that has ties to the formal State intelligence organizations and produces reports on various topics that contain only publicly available information. For example they produced the Report that was submitted as the official Israeli reaction to the Goldstone Report.

    We were shown an introductory video on the Center, then a video about one of the successful operations carried out in 1953, soon after the State was founded, in order to rescue Jewish children from Morocco, under the aegis of “Nativ” that was a part of the Mossad given the responsibility to rescue endangered Jews from anywhere in the world.

    For this operation the Mossad recruited a young British Jew named David Littman, code-named “Mural,” who was living in Switzerland with his wife and child. David was anxious to help Jews who were endangered, partly because as a historian he had studied the Holocaust. He was asked by the Jewish Agency to go to Morocco and see if he could rescue 500 Jewish children, but he was unaware that he had been recruited by the Mossad.

    He took his family with him and posed as a British Christian under a false identity. He set up an office in Casablanca that was a charity offering free holidays in Switzerland to children under stress. He made contacts with the Swiss and British diplomats and Moroccan authorities. He was accepted as genuine by them and he then signed up children for the holidays, all of whom incidentally were Jewish. The Moroccan authorities granted him mass visas for 100 children at a time, and he successfully rescued 530, some by boat and some by plane. From Switzerland, from a genuine holiday villa, the children were then transported to Israel. Neither the children nor their parents actually knew that Israel was their destination, although many suspected this. After the success of Operation Mural, the Moroccan authorities, maybe partly out of embarrassment and partly out of the realization that they could not prevent the Jews from leaving, allowed 100,000 Jews to be transported by sea via France and Italy to Israel. The parents of the rescued children joined them in Israel.

    Incidentally, Littman’s wife, Gisele, who was expelled from Egypt with her parents in 1957, writes under the nom-de-plume of Bat Yeor and authored a famous book entitled “Dhimmi,” the Arabic for protected minorities.

     After lunch we also heard a lecture by Prof. Yoram Kahati on “Radical Islam”, in which he described the modern origins of radical Islam from Hassan al Banna who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928 and Said Kuttub (Sayid Qutb) in Egypt in the 1940′s to Yussuf Qaradawi, the Muslim cleric who has justified under Islam much of the current terror used against Israel and the West. He also explained the symbolism that is used by the terrorist groups such as Hizbollah and Hamas in their flags and slogans and described their world-view. Altogether not a pleasant subject but very interesting and informative.

(You can expect to hear more from Jack who was born in London, UK, lived in suburban Washington DC area for 30 years, moved to Israel in 1996. A retired Professor. Thanks again, Jack!)

Women, Wisdom, and Wealth

Part II

Originally published in the September-October edition of AACI’s VOICE

In the last issue of the Voice we discussed how women frequently lack confidence and feel insecure and when it comes to financial planning and investments. We also identified five key risks that women face as they move through their retirement years, including (i) Outliving Assets due to longevity, (ii) Loss of Spouse, (iii) Decline in Functional Status, (iv) Rising Healthcare and Medical Expenses, and (v) Inflation.

Against this background, I strongly urge women to become active participants in their financial lives in order to increase their chances of having a comfortable retirement. Here are five steps you can take:

1. Educate yourself. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of reading books and articles, attending seminars and speaking with knowledgeable professionals in order to increase your financial aptitude and confidence.
2. Identify your goals. If you are like most women, you have goals, but haven’t really thought about what it would take to achieve them. Think them through and write them down. The more concrete your financial goals, in terms of magnitude (how much money you need) and timing, the more likely you are to achieve them.
3. Develop and implement a long-term financial and investment plan. No rational traveler would take a trip to a far-off location without a road map and directions. Similarly, no rational investor should jump in without spending time and effort developing a plan to meet her financial goals. The plan provides you with a framework, discipline and accountability. If you are married and your spouse hasn’t taken the lead in formulating your family plan, run with it yourself and involve him as much as possible. The plan should be tailored to your life expectancy, your standard of living, your risk profile and your unique financial goals.
4. Understand the risks. Women tend to err on the side of caution when investing, preferring to avoid short-term loss rather than achieve long-term gain. The erosion of purchasing power due to inflation is one of the major financial risks faced by women. Conservative bank deposits, which will not keep up with inflation, can often be more damaging to your financial well-being than the partial (and often temporary) loss of your investment values due to market volatility. Currency risk, especially for those individuals with income and/or assets in more than one country, must also be considered.
5. Reassess, Rebalance, Reallocate. Even the best financial plan needs to be revisited once a year to ensure that you are still on track to meet your goals. Adjustments should be made and the plan should be tweaked as necessary. And if you have experienced a major life change – the death of a spouse, a divorce, the loss of a job, an inheritance – your plan should be re-worked to reflect your new situation. Planning is not a one-time exercise. As your priorities and goals evolve with time, your financial plan should evolve along with you.

Women are different from men, and historically, have been less exposed to the financial world. But that’s no excuse!  Educate and empower yourself to take control of your financial life. Financial security is not something that just happens – it is something you work toward. And with HaShem’s help, you can succeed.

Debbie Sassen is an independent Financial Planner and Licensed Investment Advisor (US) with the Investment Advisor Alliance, RIA. With over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, Debbie uses her broad background to help people, in particular women, to organize their financial lives, identify their financial goals, and implement strategies to achieve financial freedom. She can be reached at Debbie.Sassen@yahoo.com or 054 842 7638.

Note: The above article is not, nor should it be a substitute for, financial advice relating to any individual’s specific needs.

Jewish Art – But Probably Not What You’d Expect!

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Many people relegate art with a strong Jewish connotation to a niche of works dealing with usually old-fashioned portraits of rabbis, the Kotel or texts involving the Hebrew scribal letters. But there are artists who have different intentions and aspirations. Among them are Dov Lederberg and his wife Yael Avi-Yonah who have been creating for over three decades in Jerusalem innovative, even cutting-edge, art works with a deep spiritual and meditational impact.

Each of the artists with his/her unique style attempts to render with their art an interactive and even surprisingly mystic experience.

Avi-Yonah uses metal plates as a base upon which she constructs hologramic collages and airbrush paintings which render a sensation of “movement” when the viewer passes by. Her paintings on canvas in combination with 3-D anaglypic glasses create outbursts of visual energy or enable the eye to discover different pictures (multiplexing) hidden in the painting, according to right brain or left brain configurations.

Lederberg’s work is influenced by modern “gestalt” theory in psychology and his airbrushed paintings invite the viewer to find images and forms “emerging” from the chaos. As an option he enables the viewer to use 3-D Avatar polaroid glasses to achieve an unusual sensation of depth.

Avi-Yonah, born in Jerusalem, is a graduate of Bezalel Art College. She is the Israeli representative of the World Kinetic Art association. Lederberg, originally an underground film-maker and video art creator, studied at Haverford College and Columbia University. Both are members of the Israel Artists Association and have made many exhibitions in galleries and museums in Israel and abroad.

The couple are currently exhibiting until the end of December their new work:

“3-D ART INSPIRED BY KABBALAH & SCIENCE“ 

at the AACI (Association of Americans & Canadians in Israel) Max & Gianna Glassman Center at 37 Pierre Koenig, Talpiot.

Women, Wisdom, and Wealth

originally published in the July-August edition of AACI’s VOICE

Part I
I recently presented a seminar with this title to a group of more than 20 women at AACI in Jerusalem. The following day, the husband of one of the participants approached me saying, “My wife told me everything you discussed and there was nothing that I couldn’t hear. Why was the seminar for women only?”

The simple answer is that women think, talk and relate to money differently from men. The uncomfortable truth, however, is that most women are likely to find themselves dealing alone with complex or vulnerable financial situations. And they may be ill-prepared to do so.

Women today are better educated and hold more executive and professional positions than ever before. They manage the household, maintain the monthly budget and are smart shoppers. Nevertheless, when it comes to financial planning and investing – women, including women who feel confident and secure in most areas of their lives, report a lack of confidence. Many feel intimidated by or unwelcome in the financial world, a domain traditionally dominated by men.

For a woman experiencing widowhood or divorce, these feelings are often intensified – she may be totally unsure of how she’s going to manage the longer-term financial issues alone.

According to a new report by the Society of Actuaries, women today face five key risks as they approach and move through their retirement years:

i. Outliving Assets – Women typically earn less than men – 24% less, on average, according to the latest annual survey from Oketz Systems. Moreover, women tend to take more time out from their careers to raise children and care for aging parents. The time a woman spends out of the work force reduces her pension accumulation. Due to her life expectancy, which is longer than a man’s, and lower retirement reserves, there is a greater chance that a woman’s financial resources will be insufficient for her needs.

ii. Loss of Spouse – Because women have longer life expectancies than men and traditionally are younger than their husbands, periods of widowhood of 15 years or more are not uncommon. For many women, the death of a spouse is accompanied by a decline in her standard of living.

iii. Decline in Functional Status – Women are more likely than men to have longer periods of chronic disabilities and, as a result, are more likely to need long-term care.

iv. Healthcare and Medical Expenses – While a healthy 30-year old will spend an average of NIS 100 per month on health care, the average 70-year old will spend NIS 1000 per month. These costs continue rising with age.

v. Inflation – Inflation can greatly impact women as a result of their long life expectancy. Money saved for retirement will lose its buying power if it is invested too conservatively – a problem plaguing many more women than men.

So what is a woman to do?
In short, a woman needs to educate herself about money matters, develop a long-term financial plan and then implement it. In the next issue of the Voice (watch the AACI blog for part II of this article), we will discuss in greater detail some financial planning tools that can help you take charge of your financial life.

Debbie Sassen is an independent Financial Planner and Licensed Investment Advisor (US) with the Investment Advisor Alliance, RIA. With over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, Debbie uses her broad background to help people, in particular women, to organize their financial lives, identify their financial goals, and implement strategies to achieve financial freedom. She can be reached at Debbie.Sassen@yahoo.com or 054 842 7638.

Note: The above article is not, nor should it be a substitute for, financial advice relating to any individual’s specific needs.

Sheila’s Klitah Corner

Thanks to AACI Life Member Tzvi Torem for sharing this information, from the press on August 9, 2011 previously published in the November-December edition of the VOICE:

No exit fees for TV, internet, phone, & international calling

By Mr. Matzliach

Exit fees are going extinct.  Soon there will be no fees to leave your TV, internet, phone, and international calling providers!

 

A new law was passed which will help both new and existing customers of a variety of services.  In addition to the reduced fines for breaking your cellular phone contract, you’ll soon be able to quit many other contracts without overwhelming penalties.

Affected industries

• Cable / satellite
• Internet suppliers
• Landline phone
• International phone

 

New customers

• Takes effect: As soon as the law is officially published (targeted for early September) it will effect new customers.
• Exit fees: There will be no exit fees whatsoever.
• Equipment: Any equipment purchased through the provider can be paid out over the previously agreed period; full payment cannot be demanded immediately.

 

Existing customers

• Takes effect: Three months after the law takes effect, existing customers will also benefit.
• Exit fees: There will be a significant reduction. Fees will be limited to the average of your monthly bills x 8% x the number of months left in your contract. (This is the same formula used by all customers to break mobile phone contracts.)
• Equipment: Any equipment purchased through the provider can be paid out over the previously period; full payment cannot be demanded immediately.

 

This change potentially puts power in the hands of consumers.  So, use your new consumer rights to shop around and make sure you’re getting the best deal!

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And thanks to member Shimon Arbel for this website (Hebrew only) that allows you to disconnect from these services on-line:  http://netek.co.il

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Egged invites its passengers to benefit from the Rav- Kav Card

Courtesy of the EGGED WEBSITE

Residents of Jerusalem, Gush Dan, Karmi’el, Sharon Region, Rehovot and North Region can ride all buses using a Rav-Kav card.

The Rav- Kav card, electronic reloadable smart ticket for continuous usage, bears a photograph and name of its owner, is intended to replace all the different types of public transportation tickets and cards. The Rav-Kav can be charged with due account of any discounts that its owner is entitled to.
Passengers who apply for the card should produce the application form (which can be downloaded along with photograph, ID card and discount certificate (e.g. that of a senior citizen, student) if available. In order to provide you with a better and more efficient customer service, we recommend you arrive at the service stand with all above documents.

Upon issuing, the Rav – Kav can be recharged on board quickly and easily with the amount corresponding to the price of the free passage monthly ticket card (Khofshi Khodshi) bearing the appropriate code or regular multiple ticket card (kartisiya).

In addition, an “anonymous” Rav – Kav card without a picture of the owner can be received from a driver and then can be charged with the price of a regular ticket

In case of loss, theft or damage, fill out the application form and bring it along with the ID card and discount certificate (if available) to the Rav – Kav service stand. Your details will be entered into our database and transferred to the Public Appeals Department, whereupon a new card will be issued. The new card issuing fee is NIS 10

Rav Kav Service Points:

Service Points in Jerusalem	Opening  Hours
Jerusalem CBS (opposite to platform No.22)	Sun – Thu 07:00- 20:00 | Fri 07:00 – 14:00
Jerusalem, Rav Shefa Mall (2nd floor)	Sun – Thu 14:00- 21:00 | Fri 09:00 – 14:00
Jerusalem, Ramot Community Center (Matnas)	Sun – Thu 12:00- 21:00 | Fri 08:00 – 13:00
Jerusalem, Giv’at Masu’a	Sun – Thu 12:00- 21:00 | Fri 09:00 – 13:00

AACI has been “Welcoming Us Home” for many years… Remembering Lynn Davison z”l

As we celebrate AACI’s 60 year anniversary, we give tribute to the memory of a special woman who epitomized the activist, volunteer spirit of AACI’s founders  – Lynn Davison z”l.  Many of our members, including Executive Director David London, remember Lynn greeting them at the airport upon aliyah, with a warm “welcome home,” and assisting them in their first steps.

AACI was saddened by the death of Lynn Davison, who passed away on Oct 12, 2010, shortly before her 90^th birthday.

Lynn grew up in New York at a time when ideologies were discussed, debated and argued with great intensity.  Lynn was a feminist long before it became fashionable, and was not afraid to speak up and fight for what she believed in.  In the US Lynn worked for the ILGWU, the dressmaker’s union, and she stood up to bosses who wanted to pay their workers as little as possible.  She picketed the White House when the Rosenbergs were sentenced to die in 1953.

Lynn made aliyah in 1970, even though the Shaliach told her to send her children, because Israel didn’t need people her age (she was a very sprightly 50 at the time).  She came anyway.  She worked for the Machon L’piriya V’Yitsur for a number of years and traveled around the country to help improve efficiency and working conditions in many garment industry factories.  When she sat down at the sewing machine and showed young workers how to do something, they immediately recognized that this woman was not a high and mighty manager, but one of them, who understood what it meant to sit bent over a machine without enough light to see what they were doing.

From 1980, Lynn was an active volunteer at AACI.  She was a board member of the Central Region (now Branch), Chairperson of the AACI Seniors and National Vice President for Klitah.  Her pet project however, was meeting new olim at the airport, helping them through all the paperwork and sending them and their luggage off to their destinations in their new home.  She loved to greet them with a big smile and a “Welcome home.”  For 13 years Lynn trained and organized the team of AACI volunteers, taking up the slack when no one else could meet a late flight, even in the middle of the night.  It was not unusual for Lynn to go to the airport up to three times the same day.  She was fierce in her conviction that this was THE most important service AACI offers, and it must be done properly!

On January 28, 2001 Lynn Davison was honored with a Volunteer Award by the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption.  Then-Minister of Klitah, Yuli Tamir, awarded the recognition, and Lynn was invited to the President’s house with other American immigrants who had made extraordinary contributions to Israel.

When she moved to Ra’anana and retired from those activities, she volunteered to tutor students in English, both for the bagrut (matriculation exams) at Ostrovsky High School and Bar Tov elementary school.

Lynn is survived by her daughter Judy Himmelfarb and son Michael Davison and 2 granddaughters.

As we witness the nation taking to the streets to fight for social justice, all of us at AACI who knew Lynn can imagine how she would approve.  This feisty, strong, determined, articulate, intelligent woman strongly believed in “social justice” and that government is obligated to take care of all its citizens equally.

Lynn’s daughter Judy said at the end of shiva: “I admired your courage, your integrity, your intelligence…I am thankful that you were the kind of person who deserves to be described with these adjectives.”

AACI thanks Judy Himmelfarb for sharing Lynn’s history and her memories with us.

Iceland!

10 glorious days of traveling in Iceland to places with unpronounceable names yet breathtaking beauty.

Sheer bliss in experiencing the natural elements and formations of different landscapes with a group of AACI members sharing their warmth, congeniality and spirit of camaraderie.  Enjoy our pictures on AACI’s facebook. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2207320349644.2132908.1446505548