Ski season ending is always a difficult time for me. I've mentioned how the transition seasons are tougher for me. This Spring was similar to others in that sense, however with some foreign travels on the horizon this spring was easier. The light at the end of the tunnel was getting closer and closer. I was wondering when the next shoe would drop: and then it did.
Yiddish is a dying language and I've always felt blessed to learn some here and there from my grandparents, Bubbe and Zayde or BubbeZayde as we said as kids. Zayde was a strong and angry man but full of so much love. He always wanted to make sure we were taken care of and has done so even since his passing. My Bubbe has always been so full of love and you could always tell the Brooklyn in her shaped her personality. This Spring, spring 2023, she fell ill. It was very hard for me when I lost my Zayde and hearing this news was heartbreaking and devastating for a couple reasons. I was sad she was sick, but also sad as this put the trip to Israel on the back burner. This trip was a big deal for me as I needed something good in my life and it was a trip for me, my mom and my bubbe, 3 generations. A trip for the matriarchs!
Family can be tough. Especially loud Jewish families. I have noticed many of those with backgrounds from the Mediterranean region have loud rambunctious families that are so full of love. My Bubbe and Zayde have helped me immensely to get to where I am now, which is why its been so hard and long for me to write this post.
Bubbe would always call me and my sisters her "bubalas". In Yiddish this is a term of endearment. It's something I still cherish hearing. As I write this now, my Bubbe is fighting. Fighting a battle that started after our Israel trip. Though it was so sad to go without her I am so grateful to have shared that time with my mom!
Jews have been moving in and out of Israel for thousands of years, mainly due to ethnic cleansing. Then the Holocaust occurred and those that could immigrated to Israel and the United States. As well, many Jews were ethnically cleansed from Northern African countries and truly all over the world countries expelled "the Jews". Judaism is an ethnicity and a religion. Jews are indigenous to Israel and that is a fact I am very proud to say. I could ramble on forever, though I'll digress for now.
There is one person I know of that is like family that is like a 10th generation Israeli, although we are not related. My dads family arrived to the United States in the late 1800s. I am fully Eastern European Jew, Ashkenazi Jew. So yay for stomach problems and frizzy hair! Stereotypes aside, both sides of my family immigrated from Poland and a little bit of Russia. I would love to do an ancestry test one day as we do not have much knowledge on my dads mom's side of the family.
My moms side of the family is a much longer story. My Bubbe was born first generation American in the early 1900s. My Bubbe's cousins from her mom's side have somehow become the family I am closest to and love seeing. The family on this level of the tree went to different places post holocaust. Many of them wound up in South America, as this was a place many fled other than the US. After South America, they went to Israel. Some of them are still in Uruguay to this day. So I have family in Israel, Uruguay, Amsterdam, and Germany all from my moms moms side of the family. I'm probably missing some countries in all honesty.
So why did I go through all that? Well I have about 60 cousins in Israel. I do not know the exact number, however I have family from both my Bubbe and Zayde's side that reside there. My first time in Israel was 2008, for me and my middle sisters Bat Mitzvah. Fifteen years ago, I met most of my Israeli family for the first time. Since then, some have come and have visited us in the states! As well, many have since gotten married and had children. Kids grow up so fast and being so far made me realize how much I want to get to know them. This trip was a chance to meet all the kids. To see family. I was so excited to breathe in the Mediterranean air and fall more in love with this country.
It was difficult to make a decision about going. We wanted to make sure my Bubbe was taken care of before we left. I think about a week before the flight we decided we would go and make the most of our time in Israel.
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