Selected text
We suddenly found ourselves in a strange predicament.
Both our daughters were in Israel, and I have always been someone who finds happiness with my family. That’s why I started disengaging from my work. I always had them on my mind. It wasn’t so easy to connect with the telephone then either. And in 1981, we decided to go there. Unfortunately I broke up with my partner.
We went to Beit-Milman in June of 1981, six months later rented a house in Ramat-Hasharon. My deceased son-in-law Mimi Sarfati was working in a French firm. Because I was with my children, adapting to life there was very easy. There were a lot of Turks around me. I was 57 years old. First I went to a language school for 3 months.
Hebrew is a very different language for us. And I persevered, went for 5 months and learned enough to be able to converse. I started working in the ready-to-wear business for half a day. I worked as a sales person.
Afterwards we were with our children and grandchildren all the time. I had three grandchildren from Viki, one after the other, one boy, and two girls. Eyal was born in 1981, Efrat in 1985, Shira in 1987. We were with them at every birth. Sara gave birth to her second son there.
We had other relatives who made their aliyah. Usually they lived around Batyam. They had also gone either because of their children or because of their jobs.
There were others who made aliyah after us, including young people.
As bad luck would have it, there were conflicts in the business of Sara’s husband, my deceased son-in-law. They offered him a managerial position in Turkey in a zipper factory, and they decided to return to Istanbul. After living there for four years, they returned to Istanbul in 1984. In this situation, Sara’s sons continued their education in Nisantas Boys’ Highschool [15] in Istanbul.
Both of them graduated from there. When my older grandson Roni was about to graduate from middle school, we lost his father, meaning my son-in-law, from a bad illness in the year 1992.
We stayed in Istanbul, on the island in summers for 3-4 months anyways. When Sara was left alone in 1992, we decided to return. Sara continued in the business her husband started. And I started going to work every day to help her. We rented this house in Sisli. Roni went to university in Tel-Aviv when he finished highschool.
And he studied economics there. He had a lot of help from his aunt. Viki left her work at El-Al. And started helping out in her husband’s business and they expanded the business. They have three children. One of them is Eyal [born in 1981], Efrat was born in 1985, and Shira in 1987 [today she is 20 years old and is doing her military service].
Efrat finished his military service and went to South America. Eyal on the other hand is studying economy at university and is in his father’s business. Roni works there too. The business has expanded. My son Yuda is usually on trips.
My family visits with us very often, at different times and on different occasions.
Both our daughters were in Israel, and I have always been someone who finds happiness with my family. That’s why I started disengaging from my work. I always had them on my mind. It wasn’t so easy to connect with the telephone then either. And in 1981, we decided to go there. Unfortunately I broke up with my partner.
We went to Beit-Milman in June of 1981, six months later rented a house in Ramat-Hasharon. My deceased son-in-law Mimi Sarfati was working in a French firm. Because I was with my children, adapting to life there was very easy. There were a lot of Turks around me. I was 57 years old. First I went to a language school for 3 months.
Hebrew is a very different language for us. And I persevered, went for 5 months and learned enough to be able to converse. I started working in the ready-to-wear business for half a day. I worked as a sales person.
Afterwards we were with our children and grandchildren all the time. I had three grandchildren from Viki, one after the other, one boy, and two girls. Eyal was born in 1981, Efrat in 1985, Shira in 1987. We were with them at every birth. Sara gave birth to her second son there.
We had other relatives who made their aliyah. Usually they lived around Batyam. They had also gone either because of their children or because of their jobs.
There were others who made aliyah after us, including young people.
As bad luck would have it, there were conflicts in the business of Sara’s husband, my deceased son-in-law. They offered him a managerial position in Turkey in a zipper factory, and they decided to return to Istanbul. After living there for four years, they returned to Istanbul in 1984. In this situation, Sara’s sons continued their education in Nisantas Boys’ Highschool [15] in Istanbul.
Both of them graduated from there. When my older grandson Roni was about to graduate from middle school, we lost his father, meaning my son-in-law, from a bad illness in the year 1992.
We stayed in Istanbul, on the island in summers for 3-4 months anyways. When Sara was left alone in 1992, we decided to return. Sara continued in the business her husband started. And I started going to work every day to help her. We rented this house in Sisli. Roni went to university in Tel-Aviv when he finished highschool.
And he studied economics there. He had a lot of help from his aunt. Viki left her work at El-Al. And started helping out in her husband’s business and they expanded the business. They have three children. One of them is Eyal [born in 1981], Efrat was born in 1985, and Shira in 1987 [today she is 20 years old and is doing her military service].
Efrat finished his military service and went to South America. Eyal on the other hand is studying economy at university and is in his father’s business. Roni works there too. The business has expanded. My son Yuda is usually on trips.
My family visits with us very often, at different times and on different occasions.
Period
Location
Israel
Interview
Nesim Levi