DESIGNS IN DECORATOR LAMINATES, LTD Holiday

IT DOESN'T HAVE TO COST A FORTUNE...ONLY LOOK LIKE IT!

FEATURING

• Wall Units
• Bedrooms
• Dining
Rooms
• Home
Theatre
• Tables
• Offices

RUTH MASON
Special to The Jewish News

Formica
Woods
Stones
Glass
Lucite

851-6989

LOIS HARON

Allied Member ASID

Zodiac

SwISS
1882
The uttanatc sports watch
!or mere mortals

Cold-Blooded Proof Stainless Steel Case.
Withstands 300 Bone-Crusing lbs. of Presure per sq. inch
Exclusive 3-Year Buckle-To-Buckle T"Warranty.
Retail from $225

C reative Jewelers • Master GolcIsmiiks

Assistance for your
linked one at /tome

Visiting Nurse Association Support Services can help you
or your loved one maintain an independent lifestyle at home.
RN Assessment & Supervision
2 hour to 24 hour care - 7 days a week

•Personal care •Medication reminders •Light housekeeping
•Shopping & transportation •Nursing care
•Sitting service •Wake-up phone calls

Caregioers are fatly insured and bonded.

Call (248) 967-5800

VISITING NURSE ASSOCIATION

■ SUPPORT SERVICES

An affiliate of VNA of Southeast Michigan

Joint Commission

on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations

If you are not wearing it...
sell it!...
or BORROW on it!

You can't enjoy jewelry if it's sitting in your safe
deposit box. Sell or borrow on it for immediate
cash. We deal in jewelry, watches & gemstones.

A Service to Private
Owners, Banks & Estates

Gem/Diamond Specialist

AWARDED CERTIFICATE BY GIA
IN GRADING & EVALUATION

9/26
1997

R2

and they were unable to return. Six
I
years later, when the war ended, they <
already settled into a big Spanish-
t began 32 years ago in a magi-
style house, with a store on
_/
cal summer called the L.A.
Hollywood Boulevard and a life in - -\
Hebrew High School Ulpan in
Los Angeles. As a result, I was raised
Israel. It culminated when my
in California rather than Jerusalem.
husband, three children and I made
But what does it mean to be the
aliyah in 1993.
granddaughter of a rabbi who built a
But it probably really began in
synagogue in Jerusalem?
1885, when my paternal grandfather,
I try to reflect on the connection )
Shlomo Moussaioff, decided he'd had
and the distance between the grand-
enough of traveling back and forth to
father I never met, and me — a 48-
Jerusalem and made
year-old American –/
aliyah from Bukhara
woman shaped in
(now in Uzbekistan).
equal parts by
Family lore has it
Judaism and the `60s;
that this rabbi, kab-
a woman less interest-
balistic scholar and
ed in theocracy than
community leader
in protesting the
had brought a large
Vietnam War, sup- `-\
parcel of land in what
porting Peace Now
was to become down-
and trying to get
town west Jerusalem
American Jewish fed- Z\
and offered to sell
erations to allocate
lots at cost to those
more of their
of his neighbors who
resources to Jewish
were willing to move
education.
to Israel and settle in
The world of side-
Jerusalem. The result
locks and covered
was the Bukharim
heads, of right-wing
Rabbi Moussaikoff
Quarter, one of the
politics and rigid
first neighborhoods
observance is foreign
outside the Old City walls, which,
to me but it must have been the wor1G_L
--/ \
unlike those of east Jerusalem with its
of my grandfather. He was a product
narrow winding streets, had broad
of his time and place; I of mine. Do
boulevards and stately stone buildings
we have anything in common?
built around large courtyards.
Well, my grandfather and I both --
My grandfather built his own home,
packed up our families and made
as well as a house of study and prayer
aliyah to Jerusalem, be it 105 years
and a courtyard for his large family.
apart. While our styles and expres-
Both of my parents grew up around
sions of Judaism are as different as
those courtyards and they figure in my
night and day, we were both motivat-
own fantasies of the ideal way to live
ed by a strong connection to the
--\
with family and community.
Jewish people.
My grandfather took his Zionism
For me, the ulpan I attended in
so. seriously that he found a method
Israel at 15 was a waterwashed,
_/
that would, he though, ensure that
socially, emotionally and in my devel 2)
his descendants remain in the Land
opment as a lover of Zion. We lived L\
of Israel. In his will, he stipulated
three in a room, in a large stone
that any income from his Bukharim
building (around inner courtyards!)
quarter properties would be enjoyed
in the Meir Shefeya Youth Village,
by his male heirs only while they
south of Haifa.
were living in Israel. (His two daugh-
The Israeli pupils at the village —
ters were left other properties outside
many of them immigrants themselves
the Quarter.) It turned out that the
from Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey
promise of money was not enough to
— were fascinated with us and us
keep many of his descendants in
with them. I got my first kiss that
Israel. But something of his spirit
summer and my first taste of espresso <
must have remained because many of
and of close dancing. I also met my
us have been going back and forth all
best friend, who was to remain a
our lives.
close friend for more than a decade,
My own parents left Jerusalem on
and a group of 36 kids with whom I __
what was supposed to be a short
was to spend the next year, feeling
business trip in 1939. While they
righteously alienated from what I
were gone, World War II broke out
saw as materialistic, meaningless

I

SPECIALTIES

•
•
•
•
•

My Grandfather And Me:
A Century-Long Journey

30400 Telegraph Rd. • Suite 134
Bingham Farms 642-5575

Est. 1919
Lawrence M. Allan, President
Daily 'Til 5:30
Sat. 'Ti! 3