Danny Zohar
Danny Zohar (Speranza’s grandson) and his wife, Drora Zohar
It was nearing the start of Shabbat (the Sabbath) as Sammy and I drove up a leafy, quiet street to the home of our cousin, Danny Zohar (see Exhibit 5), in a town north of Tel Aviv. When we arrived at Danny’s house, Danny and Drora greeted us at their door. At the time Danny heard we were coming to Israel, he immediately opened his home to us, despite the stresses of the pandemic. We were warmly invited in to stow our bags in their upstairs room and stay overnight for Shabbat. Danny and Drora are retired and have a large family all of whom live nearby in their neighborhood. They live in Even Yehuda, a small, quiet town to the east of Netanya, and have lived there for decades.
Danny explaining how he and his parents left Romania
(Julia is listening)
Danny and Drora set out a fabulous Friday night dinner. It was a lovely banquet starting with traditional Israeli salads and Romanian salads as well. I had to warn Sammy that these were just appetizers as there was more dinner to follow (brisket, in fact, which is usually saved for special holidays in my house). It was so comfortable to be welcomed in this way, to a Friday night dinner. Danny’s mannerisms reminded me of my grandparents (although he is not so far in age from me) somehow. It was the friendliness and warmth and how they embraced our family connection that I so appreciated.
During the course of the visit, Danny’s children and grandchildren stopped by to visit and chat. Sammy always travels with his violin, as he was preparing to play a challenging piece, the first movement of the Bruch concerto, for his final recital. After dinner, Sammy brought out his violin and played classical and klezmer music. The grandchildren were fascinated, and to their delight, Sammy proceeded to give them their first violin lesson.
Before dinner, we sat on the comfortable couch together. Danny was dressed in a blue tracksuit with the sound of Drora preparing dinner in the background. I set up my camera to record a video of Danny talking about his family, the war, the communists, and the move to Israel. They lost everything to the communists, Danny explained. Uncle Fabian had convinced Danny’s grandmother Speranza to buy a factory in 1948. Speranza was a “dominant” woman, Danny said (meaning assertive), and his grandfather, Osias was more easy going. The decision to invest in the factory was an economic disaster for the family because one year after they invested all of his grandfather’s business earnings into the factory it was confiscated by the communists. The factory, Danny explained, still exists today in Romania. The family left for Israel as they did not want to live in a totalitarian regime, Danny clarified, they wanted their freedom. It was very difficult for his family in Israel, with nothing, starting over without language and without resources.
Danny’s family did not have much contact with the Weismans, Danny advised. His grandmother Speranza lived with them in their apartment in Israel, but Danny was very young while Speranza was still alive, and she was ill most of the time. Danny reminded me that travel was very difficult at that time, it took 2-3 weeks to travel from Israel to New York, and that was only for the very rich. Danny knew his cousins, the children of Benedictina and of Bernard. Danny grew up living next door to his cousin Rachel, the granddaughter of Bernard, Speranza’s brother, but he was not aware of Benedictina’s grandchildren living in Beersheva and in Florida, nor did he know anything of my great-grandmother Pauline or the extended family in New York.
Photo of the Seigler family bottom right: Danny identified himself as the young child sitting in front with his arms around his knees. Speranza and Osias are sitting in the second row--Osias with a small child on his lap.