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Barbara Zweig,
Bracha and
Menachem
Rosenberg and
Eugene Zweig
at the Shabbat
dinner table in
Tel Aviv.

SHELLI DORFMAN

Editorial Assistant

F

or Eugene and Barbara
Zweig of West
Bloomfield, the April 27
end to a wonderful, his-
torical trip with Michigan Miracle
Mission III was just the start of an
adventure that Mr. Zweig calls a
unique journey into family history.
After 10 days of traveling and
touring with friends and their
daughter Susan, the Zweigs were
ready for a much-anticipated meet-
ing with their Israeli family. For
three emotional days, the Zweigs
were reunited with relatives not seen
in nearly 40 years and others met for
the very first time.

Eugene Zweig
is reunited
with brother-
in-law Shlomo
Sinclair at
Kibbutz
Gesher Haziv.

West Bloomfield couple connects
with Israeli relatives.

On April 28, the Zweigs set out
for Kibbutz Gesher Haziv, near the
Lebanese border, for a long-awaited
reunion with their brother-in-law,
Shlomo Sinclair, who was once mar-
ried to Mr. Zweig's late sister, Tzyvia.
The Sinclairs had been among a
group of Detroiters who founded
the kibbutz in 1948.
Following Tzyvia's death in 1960,
Shlomo remarried and he and his
wife Naomi remained on the kib-
butz, raising their children there.
This being hisfirst trip to Israel, Mr.
Zweig met Shlomo's family for the

first time, and was able to finally
visit his sister's grave.
After a traditional Israeli dinner
and a viewing of a scrapbook of pho-
tos of Tzyvia, prepared by Naomi,
the Zweigs were on their way.
On the second day of their excur-
sion, they had a reunion with Mr.
Zweig's first cousin Miriam, who
made aliya in 1935 and whom he
had not seen since she was in the
United States in 1982. Visiting her
•
home on Kibbutz Afikim in the
Galilee, they were reunited with her
son, Elyakim, whom they met once

before, and were introduced to his
two daughters.
The next day, the Zweigs met
cousin Bracha, who moved from
Russia to Givatayim, a suburb of Tel
Aviv. Language barriers were bridged
by her son Tzvi's English and the
Zweigs and Bracha's Yiddish.
They shared Shabbat dinner
together, which Tzvi said 81-year-old
Bracha "had been cooking for a
week." The meal was highlighted by
the Shehecheyanu blessing said in
honor of the family's meeting.
Bracha presented Mr. Zweig with
a menorah that had belonged to his
sister, Tzyvia. The gift now sits in the
Zweig home as a reminder of a new
relationship made with a country
and with its people.

5/14

1999

Detroit Jewish News 37