During my childhood years in pre-war Romania, sleigh riding in the snow with my mother and sister, or spending summers in the beautiful Dorna Vatra mountains, I never imagined that my productive, adult years would be spent in the Middle East. It never even occurred to me that I would go to live in Palestine. I was living a comfortable, happy life, as the daughter of an observant Jewish Zionist family in my native town of Czernowitz. My father was a respected banker who mingled freely with both Jews and non-Jews, and we had never experienced any anti-Semitism. So when it came, it was a total shock. A hard-to-get "immigration certificate" from the British Mandatory authorities in 1939 enabled me to register at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Who could have known that this was one of the last opportunities to get out of what was soon-to-be Nazi dominated Europe? While the Holocaust decimated one third of our people, I was able to strike new roots in Zion. I soon met and married my husband Josef. While pregnant with my son Elan, I first encountered WIZO, the Women's International Zionist Organization. After active service in the Haganah during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, I was later to serve as Treasurer, as Chairman of the World WIZO Executive, and for 25 years as WIZO's President, thanks to Rebecca Sieff, the founder of our movement. During the past 60 years I have been blessed with an extraordinary opportunity to serve my people. I was instrumental in constructing countless educational institutions, women's centers, and immigrants' facilities throughout the country, experienced first-hand the stirring stories of the Holocaust survivors, suffered through Israel's many wars and fought to 'Let My People Go' from the Soviet Union. I met and had face-to-face dealings with many of the movers and shakers of 20th century Jewish and Zionist history: David Ben Gurion, Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Chaim and Vera Weizmann, Rebecca Sieff, Moshe Sharett, Menachem Begin, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Shamir, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Ezer Weizman, Anatoly Natan Scharansky, Dr. Nachum Goldmann, Mr. Edgar Bronfman, both the Paris and the Geneva Rothschilds, Simone Veil and countless others. On the international scene I met, among others: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, French Presidents Mitterand and Chirac, Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, and American President Bill Clinton. My responsibilities also took me to most of the active Jewish communities around the world. I was privileged to witness and participate in the making of history. I encountered the wondrous mosaic of the Jewish people and the rebirth of modern Israel. This is the story I want to tell.
About the Author: During my childhood years in pre-war Romania, sleigh riding in the snow with my mother and sister, or spending summers in the beautiful Dorna Vatra mountains, I never imagined that my productive, adult years would be spent in the Middle East. It never even occurred to me that I would go to live in Palestine. I was living a comfortable, happy life, as the daughter of an observant Jewish Zionist family in my native town of Czernowitz. My father was a respected banker who mingled freely with both Jews and non-Jews, and we had never experienced any anti-Semitism. So when it came, it was a total shock. A hard-to-get "immigration certificate" from the British Mandatory authorities in 1939 enabled me to register at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Who could have known that this was one of the last opportunities to get out of what was soon-to-be Nazi dominated Europe? While the Holocaust decimated one third of our people, I was able to strike new roots in Zion. I soon met and married my husband Josef. While pregnant with my son Elan, I first encountered WIZO, the Women's International Zionist Organization. After active service in the Haganah during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, I was later to serve as Treasurer, as Chairman of the World WIZO Executive, and for 25 years as WIZO's President, thanks to Rebecca Sieff, the founder of our movement. During the past 60 years I have been blessed with an extraordinary opportunity to serve my people. I was instrumental in constructing countless educational institutions, women's centers, and immigrants' facilities throughout the country, experienced first-hand the stirring stories of the Holocaust survivors, suffered through Israel's many wars and fought to 'Let My People Go' from the Soviet Union. I met and had face-to-face dealings with many of the movers and shakers of 20th century Jewish and Zionist history: David Ben Gurion, Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky, David Ben Gurion, Chaim and Vera Weizmann, Rebecca Sieff, Moshe Sharett, Menachem Begin, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Shamir, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Ezer Weizman, Anatoly Natan Scharansky, Dr. Nachum Goldmann, Mr. Edgar Bronfman, both the Paris and the Geneva Rothschilds, Simone Veil and countless others.