We were blessed with beautiful weather the whole weekend and Saturday was
no different. In the morning, some people played tennis, golfed, swam,
shopped, went to Tanglewood to hear music, or just hung out with whoever was
around. In the afternoon, another group went on a hike and there were a
couple of fiercely competitive games of Trivial Pursuit. Grandparents were
kept very busy enjoying grandchildren and trying to give young parents a
break. At 5:00, it was party time once again at Sheila and Michael's room and
then, at 7:00, we went down to the dining room for Sophia's baby naming.

The Heitzners [Grandma Heitzner and Jasmine in matching dresses] joined
Richie and the Harrises on the dais for a beautiful, very meaningful baby
naming ceremony. In Ilise's words, "Al's Uncle Mike spoke about the name
Beila, for Bella, his Mom, who perished in the Holocaust. My Mom, for my
Dad's Uncle Bennie, Benjamina...and myself, sharing my own middle name in a
very long winded speech [Ed. comment: it was not long winded.] on the merits
of the name Joy...Simcha." Meanwhile, the subject of all this attention
clowned around with her sister and the other kids and mugged in the lovely
lace cap brought to America by her great-grandmother so many years ago. The
rest of us felt honored to have shared this celebration with the
Heitzner-Harrises.

After dinner, it was time for the "Talent" [a loose and rather generous
description of our gifts] Jesse and Alan were our very capable Masters of Ceremony.

The opening act was a rousing game of "Simon Says" led by Sharone,
Harriet, and Tali, with lots of help from Jasmine, Danielle, Joseph and the
younger children. Everyone was on their feet in obedience to "Simon's"
commands. Alas, some failed to note when it was not Simon telling them what
to do and just did it anyway! They lost and one by one were forced to leave
the game. And the winner was….[does anyone remember?]

Poems were read by Ruth, Sylvia, and Ellie.
Michael, Sheila, Eddie, Beth, Trudy, Mort and Judy sang [they called it
that] 2 songs, presented here for your pleasure:

[ tune: Dayenu]

Hoffman Gandler Lustig Harris
Agler Berger Klein Ben Shlomo
Spieler Lerner Heitzner Ravit, DAYENU Day-Dayenu, Day-Dayenu,
Day-Dayenu
Dayenu Day en u

Stein Picarsky Spiegel Kestin
Holtzer Benjamin Tischler Schleifer
Kaminer Davis Kissen Faucett, DAYENU! [Chorus]

Grinstein Gottleib Brill Ohana
Yaeger Shani Tanenbaum Dror
Did we leave any body out? DAYENU [Chorus]

Reunion Songs II

[tune: The Brady Bunch]

"This is the story
Of a man named Moses
He was raising a son on his own
They were 2 men living together
But they were all alone

Here's the story
Of our great-grandma
And her name was Golda Goldenberg
She lived in a little shtetl
Of which you've never heard

It was Jasina
In the last century
And someone back then had a hunch
So they made a shidduch with Goldie and Moses
And we became the Halm-Goldenberg Bunch!

The Halm-Goldenberg Bunch
The Halm-Goldenberg Bunch
We became the Halm-Goldenberg Bunch!"

Racquel told us a story of a ring her father Eli concealed throughout his stay in
a concentration camp and managed to save as a gift for Sharone.

We ended our show with Racquel translating the words of "Hatikvah", the
Israeli national anthem, into English and leading us all in singing it
together.

Now it was time for the inspiring Havdalah ceremony. Richie called the
children around him and explained the meaning of the special braided candle
that is only used for this purpose. The prayers were said, the candle lit, we
held our hands to the light, palms up, watching the play of light on our
nails. We shared the wine and smelled the spices. Richie extinguished the
flame, as is the practice, in the spilled wine to commemorate the end of
Shabbat. Then we our linked arms around each other's waists and sang Eliyahu Ha-Navi and Shavua Tov.

Sunday was spent at Gene and Sylvia's home in Leisure Lee, mostly engaged
in those two favorite family activities, eating and schmoozing. People
wandered down to the lake for swimming and canoeing, others played tennis,
kids ran around chased by parents and grandparents, and we had our early
surprise celebration of Gene's 80th birthday. It was a wonderful relaxed time
spent catching up and enjoying one another's company. Too soon, it was time
to leave.

Monday: Goodbye Aunt Blanche

Due to some glitch in the phone system [or was it Divine Providence?],
the phone call to Murray and Marsha reporting Aunt Blanche's death Saturday
night was somehow routed to the wrong number. It was not until Eddie went to
visit his mother Monday on the way back from the reunion that anyone in the
family learned of her death. We had missed Aunt Blanche at the reunion; many
of us had noted with great regret that it was exactly the kind of family
event that she cherished and wished that she had been able to be with us.
She, of all people, would never have wanted to detract from the reunion. So,
it seems in keeping with the loving, kind way Blanche lived her life that
even her death did not disrupt the reunion.

Now, we experienced the wisdom of the old Yiddish saying "Man plans and
G-d laughs!" Many carefully synchronized plans were turned upside down.
Murray had to return home immediately. Marsha was unable to go to Florida to
look after her parents. Gene and Sylvia were in the midst of preparing for a
trip and readying their house for rental. They came down to New York from the
Berkshires with Stan and Racquel who interrupted their vacation. Mort and I
took Sara and Moshe to the Yiddish Book Center instead of Murray. They then
stayed with Yelena and Joel instead of with the Gandlers but were still on
hand to go with Joel to Murray's for minyan. Mort and I cut our vacation
short to come home for the funeral. People did whatever needed to be done to
accommodate the changed situation. The feelings that we shared during the
lovely moments of the reunion were now kindled by a very different kind of
event as we united to support our cousins and say goodbye to a much beloved
woman, Blanche [Bleema] Halm Gandler, my grandmother's "baby" sister, the
last of her generation, the last of Moses Halm's and Golda Goldenberg's
children.

In Conclusion [at last!]….

Our grandparents and great-grandparents were somehow able to sustain family
ties though separated by oceans and in times of war when letters were the
only form of communication and the predictability of mail was often worse
than uncertain. Despite all the marvels of new forms of communication, too
few families in this modern era are able to support a sense of warmth and
unity. At our reunion, we knew that we had shared something special and
precious.

To echo the sentiments of Garrison Keillor reporting the "News from Lake
Wobegon" [in Yiddish that would be Lake "Tsouris"] on the radio. He said
that he had made many wrong choices in his life, many errors, but when it
came to choosing his forebears, he had chosen very wisely. I have to say that
not only did I choose my forebears wisely, I have been exceptionally
fortunate with the rest of my family. I think Yossi Ben-Shlomo said it best in his
letter, "…we are a united family in which every one of us thinks a lot of his
relatives and …is willing to help if it will be needed."