Ma'ayan's Bat Mitzvah
In October (2007) we celebrated Ma'ayan's Bat Mizvah at the chapel at Ramstein, in Germany as she chose. It must be difficult to be the daughter of the rabbi; of course her 'performance' was subject to the critical scrutiny of the community. The good news is that she acquitted herself quite well!
Ma'ayan and me leading the service. Can you tell she's a 'Daddy's Girl'?
Singing "Shehechayanu" and meaning every word! (Oops! I left my guitar in the clothes dryer too long...)
Although Eyal had had His Moment several months earlier, being Eyal he had to get into the act! By the way, these photos show the Ark, Ner Tamid and reading table that I designed myself for the new Jewish chapel at Ramstein. We built the chapel, and the adjoining Muslim prayer room, thanks to $550K given us by General 'Doc' Fogelsong, now retired, who was Commander, US Air Forces in Europe at the time.
Ma'ayan didn't seem to mind sharing the limelight...in fact, by the time she'd read the Torah, she was happy to sit down with her friends!
Clara and her friends Esther and Tali put on a nice little spread of Israeli and Sephardic salads. My contribution was a big pot of 'killer' lentil soup.
Oy! They grow so fast...
...but, at times, fatherhood can be sweet!
At the end of December, we travelled to Israel again and made a party for our Israeli family. We held it at Ganei Shimshon (Samson's Gardens), the small hotel in Ashqelon where we had earlier held Eyal's party.
Before the party started, we posed for pictures.
We sang as a family. This time, I remembered to take my guitar out of the dryer before it shrunk.
This is a picture of Eyal and Ma'ayan with all their Israeli first cousins - Clara's nephews and nieces. We think we got all of them in the picture!