8 | FEBRUARY 22 • 2024 J
N

PURELY COMMENTARY

essay

Celebrating My Son’s Birthday in Israel 
— Just Before the Gaza War Began

M

om, I decided I 
want to celebrate 
my 40th birthday 
in Israel, at the Hatzar,” our 
second child, Oren, informed 
us.
The Hatzar is 
the courtyard 
of my husband, 
Mickey’s, family 
home. It’s been 
the Goldenberg 
family home 
in Ramat Gan, 
Israel, since 1934. Mickey’s 
family immigrated to 
Palestine from Egypt when 
Mickey’s father, Shmuel, was 
13 years old. Shmuel and his 
seven siblings were raised in 
that home. 
Over the years, many 
aunts, uncles and cousins 
have lived together in 
several small houses erected 
around the courtyard. 
Today, the fifth generation of 
Goldenbergs are the residents 
of the family home: our niece 
Hadar (Mickey’s sister Haya’s 
youngest daughter), her 
husband, Nitzan, and their 
newborn baby girl Yael.
Everyone in the extended 
family has grown up, 
visited or lived in this 
magical residential 
complex of family love. 
Delicious meals, holidays, 
weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, 
Israel Independence Day 
celebrations, as well as just 
plain family fun have taken 
place in this oasis away from 
the hustle and bustle of city 
life outside its gate.
Oren was blessed to spend 

many summers during his 
childhood with his paternal 
grandparents, Saba Shmuel 
and Savta Ester. He swung 
on the glider that Saba had 
built, sat on the doorstep of 
their house eating popsicles 
with his cousins, and gained 
independence going alone to 
the makolet, a small market 
at the end of the street, 
a staple of many Israeli 
neighborhoods. 
Numerous visits to Israel, 
as a family or independently, 
were sprinkled throughout 
Oren’s life — for holidays, 
weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, 
Chetz V’Keshet (a summer 
program for high-schoolers), 
his own bar mitzvah, as well 
as living independently in 
Tel Aviv, post college, and, 
sadly, for his grandparents’ 
funerals. Although the 
Hatzar is thousands of miles 
away, in a different country, 

far from Oren’s home in 
Detroit, his love for it has 
extended across the ocean. 
So, celebrate Oren’s 40th 
birthday in the Hatzar, we 
did.
We returned from this 
wonderful celebration just 
before the horrific attack of 
Oct. 7. Joy turned to anguish 
and fear. Sirens, running to 
safe rooms and army call-
ups took over the lives of 
our Israeli family. We were 
fortunate that none of our 
relatives were at the Nova 
Music Festival or living in 
southern Israel. Worry and 
anxiety took over for all 
the families in our Jewish 
homeland. We became glued 
to the Israeli news, constantly 
calling our family, day and 
night.
On yet another Shabbat 
in October, more anguish 
invaded our lives — this 

time in Detroit. On Oct. 
21, Samantha Woll, Oren’s 
childhood classmate, 
president and comrade in 
running the Isaac Agree 
Downtown Synagogue in 
Detroit, was stabbed to 
death. She was found in a 
pool of blood in front of her 
Detroit apartment. 
We were in shock. I 
cannot stop visualizing her 
death and wondering why 
this happened. Our life of 
peace, joy and celebration in 
Israel and our native Detroit 
has been turned upside 
down. 
It’s now well over 120 days 
since Oct. 7. The remaining 
hostages have not been 
brought home. Soldiers 
are dying daily. Evacuated 
families in the north and 
south are still not living in 
their homes. Sirens, rocket 
fire and soldiers dying 
continue.
May all of the hostages 
be returned home. May the 
wounded be healed. May 
the carnage cease. May 
soldiers return home alive 
and uninjured. May Hamas’ 
rule be destroyed and 
overturned. May we find 
a solution to war. May we 
discover why Samantha was 
murdered. 
We hope and pray that 
the future will bring peace 
and security to both of our 
homes.
Am Yisroel Chai. 

Beverly Kent Goldenberg is a life 

member of Hadassah Greater Detroit.

Beverly Kent 
Goldenberg

The entrance to the Hatzar, the Goldenberg family home in Ramat 
Gan. 

