My father, who was born in Vienna but grew up in Israel, was the first in many generations of his family who did not become a Rabbi. In a way, he was continuing what his own father had started by breaking a long line of heads of local Rabbinic councils (batey din) in Poland. His father (my great-grandfather) was a follower of the Belz Chassidim. My lineage on that side of the family can be traced back many generations, and includes the only ever Jewish King of Poland, who was king for one night. Partly owing to my grandfather's Zionism, which finally brought him to Israel in 1945, my father was fortunate to survive the Holocaust. I have few close living relatives on my father's side of the family, because most were not so fortunate.

My mother's side of the family comes from many different countries, although all sides have their roots in fifteenth century Spain. My mother was born and raised in Ra'anana, Israel. Her father is the first born son of Rav Chaim Nachmany of Casablanca, who was responsible for sending thousands of Moroccan Jews to Israel. Her mother was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to a prosperous family that had come from Turkey, and Greece before that. She came to Israel voluntarily, but her parents stayed until the Egyptian government confiscated all their property and kicked them out, along with the few other Jews remaining there.

My mother's parents have sixteen siblings between them. Almost all of them, their children, and their grandchildren, live in Israel. This fact has led me to visit Israel several times and tour all over the country without ever staying in a hotel, except in Eilat. I am eager to go back and visit them again!

After all that, what am I doing in the US? My father came to New York in 1960, after his service in the Israeli Air Force, to study at the NYU School of Engineering, which has since moved from the Bronx and become part of Polytechnic University. In the summer of 1966, he married my mother in Tel Aviv, and brought her with him to begin her own studies at NYU. By 1973, they had moved to Teaneck, New Jersey, and I came along, and the rest, as they say, is history.

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