4 | MAY 30 • 2024 
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srael and I both marked 
our 76th birthdays this year. 
My mother, Jennie Levin 
Kent, an ardent Zionist, linked 
our birthdays each year. “You 
and Israel will 
be (whatever 
age we were).
” 
For her, we were 
both special 
post-World War 
II gifts. 
I was born 
after my father 
survived near-fatal war inju-
ries. The excitement of Israel’s 
birth came shortly thereafter, 
with further elation when 
Israel survived the War of 
Independence.
Growing up, I viewed Israel 
as a rogue young country 
located way across the world 
— but the country that drew 
my mother’s attention, passion 
and love. My personal attach-
ment to Israel didn’t begin until 
my post-university graduation 
visit to see and experience my 
mysterious birthday twin. I will 
never forget the awe of seeing 
for myself the land and places 
that I had learned and heard 
about. 
My ties to Israel were further 
strengthened by marriage. In 
1976, at the Yom HaAtzmaut 

(Israel Independence Day) 
celebration at the Jewish 
Community Center in sub-
urban Detroit, I met Mickey 
Goldenberg, an Israeli sabra (a 
native Israeli, so called because, 
like their namesake, the cactus 
fruit, native Israelis are said to 
be prickly on the outside, but 
sweet on the inside). 
Mickey and I married in 
1978 and we became a bicul-
tural, bilingual family. I then 
added another way for me to 
view Israel: through his and his 
family’s eyes. As I became an 
integral part of Mickey's loving, 
supportive extended family, 
my connection to the land and 
people of Israel expanded and 
deepened. 
Their family home in the 
“Hatzar” (courtyard) in Ramat 

Gan became my home in 
Israel and the core of family 
visits and celebrations. It has 
been the Goldenberg home in 
Ramat Yizhock, Ramat Gan 
since 1934. Mickey’s family 
came to Palestine from Egypt 
when Mickey’s father, Shmuel 
Goldenberg, was 13 years old. 
He and his six siblings were 
raised in one of the small 
homes surrounding the court-
yard. 
Over the years, many aunts, 
uncles and cousins have lived 
together in several small homes 
erected around the courtyard. 
Everyone in the extended 
family has grown up, visited 
or lived in this magical yard of 
family love. Delicious meals, 
weddings, holiday and bar/bat 
mitzvah celebrations as well as 
just plain family fun take place 
there. 
Today, the fifth generation 
of Goldenbergs are the current 
residents in their family home. 
Here, at the Hatzar, our family 
celebrates Israel Independence 
Day, Yom HaAtzmaut.
Israel and I marked our 
76th birthdays together in the 
Hatzar. May we be able to cel-
ebrate the return of the hostag-
es, the healing of our soldiers 
and the end of warfare with the 
enemies that surround us.
May we both live on in good 
health, peace and safety. 

Beverly Kent Goldenberg is a life 

member of Hadassah Greater Detroit.

essay

Israel and Me Forever

PURELY COMMENTARY

Ode to the Hatzar – 
 
A tribute to the 
Goldenberg 
family home

By Beverly Kent Goldenberg

An oasis amidst urban sprawl, 
surrounded by concrete reach-
ing the sky,
bustling sidewalks,
crammed vehicles 
sounding their horns. 

Open the gate, 
follow the flat paver stones
to a garden,
trees and flowers 
adorning a small house.

This home on a hill 
once surrounded
by sand and orange groves,
from seeds to trees, 
from generation to generation.

The Hatzar, like its name,
is a royal courtyard.
The Queen of the Night pops
its elegant white blooms,
encircling all
into its fragrant splendor.

Once you open the gate, 
cross its threshold, 
it wraps you into its
sweet embrace. 
Like this land of milk and 
honey, 
from its blossoms 
love’s sweetness flows. 

Though the heat may swelter,
water and drink pour,
delectable delicacies 
quench your appetite
even when no hunger looms.

The Hatzar’s beauty,
calm, unconditional love
embrace me,
as do its residents
who now call me their own.

“Ode to the Hatzar” was originally 

published in the Michigan Historical 

Society Journal, Creative Section, 

2023.

Beverly Kent 
 
Goldenberg

The Queen of 
the Night in 
the Hatzar

Entrance to 
the Hatzar

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

