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Mazel Toy!

A chance encounter in Israel
results in a major family gathering.
**,
CART WALDMAN

Special to the Jewish News

S

itting in shul on Shabbat in Jerusalem, I real-
ized the stranger sitting next to me was a
blood relative. That gave me goose bumps,"
says Dr. Larry Schwartz of Bloomfield Hills.
"We were in Israel last summer celebrating my
in-laws' 55th wedding anniversary with my wife
Sharon's family, and there happened to be an aufruf
(aliyah for a soon-to-be married groom or couple)
taking place at the shul." He realized, "I think that
is my cousin from Canada."
Striking up a conversation with the poeple sitting
next to him, Schwartz discovered the young man get-
ting married was indeed his cousin's son.
After the service, the family reunited briefly. But for
Schwartz it was a sign to plan a family reunion. "Our
family is so big that we don't know who people are
anymore," he said.
Schwartz's grandfather, Arya Leib, was the first of
the three Tobe family siblings to leave Poland in the
1890s. He settled in London, and other family mem-
bers landed in Canada and Detroit. In 1947,
Schwartz's mother took one of the first transatlantic
flights after the war from London to New York. When
she traveled to Detroit to stay with a cousin, she met
Schwartz's father, whom she married.
After returning from Jerusalem last summer, Larry,
an emergency physician at Receiving Hospital and
Wayne State University in Detroit, and Sharon, a
teacher at Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit,
called the cousins in Canada, and traveled to Toronto
to talk about a family reunion.
.
Sending out a survey with names from a family
tree, the Schwartzes chose a chairman from each sec-
tor of the family to spread the news to their closest
aunts, uncles and cousins. "Different parts of the
family came together, and the response was over-
whelming," Larry says.
Two cousins in British Columbia created a family
Web site — vvvvw.tobefamily.com
and more than

—

Clockwise:
Fannie Lewis Tobe, circa 1900-1910.

Dr. Larry Schwartz's chance reunion in Israel led to a
more formal get-together.

Larry Schwartz holds the microphone while Anne Tobe
says the blessing over the Shabbat candles.

100 family members submitted stories, contributed
photographs and used the Web site as a forum to fill in
lost pieces of the family puzzle.
The Schwartzes led 30 Detroit family members to
the reunion in Toronto, Aug. 18-20, where 225 rela-
tives reunited. Anne Tobe, 93, from Toronto, the oldest
living family member, attended, as well as 10 family
members from England and three first cousins and
their families from Israel.
"There were activities for each age bracket so the

family could find commonalties and create bonds,"
Sharon says. Activities included a Shabbat dinner, a
Sunday brunch, and the younger generation made a
film and formed a family band. The family created an
"angel fund" to help members who could not afford
the trip to Toronto.
"People like to feel they are a part of something and
to have a connection," Larry says. He credits the
Internet with helping to bring the family together. ❑

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