"I didn't find the world desolate; and just as my fathers planted for me, so do I plant for my children." (Talmud Tractate Ta'anit 23A) “We scientists have found that doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested.” From: Flourish by Dr. Martin Seligman
A life in a few sentences
After graduating Germantown H.S. in Philadelphia, I went to Penn State University and graduated in philosophy in June 1967. During those years I worked part-time as Houseman at the Golden 8 Ball. Then I spent some months in Belgium at the Catholic U. of Leuven. With the Vietnam War draft on my back I beat it to Europe, and began to hitch-hike. I started out in Luxemborg and thumbed rides to southern Italy, crossed the Adriatic by boat, got rides until Greece and then took a ship to Israel. I had no original intentions to come to Israel. But the One Above certainly had. Israel was very exciting to this traveler. Israelis were very buoyant after the victory of the June 1967, Six Days War. They had been faced with extinction and felt tremendous relief. The atmosphere was still electric when I arrived in November 1968. After a few months volunteering on Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz near Haifa, I took a job as an English teacher in Afula, and married an Israeli in 1969. I spent the summer of 1969 back in Philly selling ice-cream for Jack and Jill and dealing with the draft board. I managed an exemption and returned to Israel. In the Summer of 1970 we went to the US where I got a job as BBYO (remember AZA and BBG?) regional director in N.J. My 1st son was born in Elizabeth N.J. We returned to Afula in 1972. In 1974 (after the Yom Kippur war) we started to take our Jewishness seriously and took the road that eventually brought us to a Chassidic way of life. We then moved to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem I taught English in high school and learned in a yeshiva (Rabbinical Academy) in my free time. It was at this time that I began to study the pioneering history of Jerusalem's old neighborhoods resulting in my becoming a popular local tour guide.
Concurrently I began to present talks in Israel and abroad about important Jewish historical personalities. I also began to publish and edit a magazine called Yiddishkeit and managed to put out 27 issues over a ten year period which were well received.
I became the administrative director of a yeshiva in 1978. I was also involved in community service projects in one of Jerusalem's poorer neighborhoods and eventually helped establish a dental and eye clinic (Health and Community Service Center- HCS) for the needy which I continued to direct after leaving the yeshiva. We have two clinics with seven dental surgeries serving 4500 patient visits monthly.
I divorced in 1991and married Judy Albert Taylor who had also divorced after 20 years. Judy came into our marriage with 7 of her own children. I had 5 from my first wife. Between us we had another son,Yehuda, who is now 23 years old and married. Meanwhile all of my other children married. I have 22 grandchildren and five great grandchildren. My wife has 17 grandchildren of her own. Judy is a very talented musician and sings in various ensembles. Judy is also a certified doula (birthing coach). All of our children live in Israel.
I have always been prone to "clown around" and fortunately I have found a way to use that for others as a Medical Clown for which I was certified in 2012. (Moshe Kahan Medical Clown)
About a year after we married, Judy convinced me to move with her and family to the territories. We moved several times as "settlers" and today live in Biblical Beit El where our Patriarch Jacob had his famous dream. Beit El is in the mountains of the Benjamin region in Samaria, the Biblical heartland of the patriarchs and the prophets, about 18 miles north of Jerusalem. From one of our hills you can see the Mediterranean and Tel Aviv to the East as well as the Hermon Mountain on the Syrian border in the north and also can see beyond Bethlehem in the south. Israel is a compact country.
So that's much of my life in a few sentences. Ah! What is life but a few sentences!
I hope you enjoy your visit to my website and welcome your comments.
Click to comment
A life in a few sentences
After graduating Germantown H.S. in Philadelphia, I went to Penn State University and graduated in philosophy in June 1967. During those years I worked part-time as Houseman at the Golden 8 Ball. Then I spent some months in Belgium at the Catholic U. of Leuven. With the Vietnam War draft on my back I beat it to Europe, and began to hitch-hike. I started out in Luxemborg and thumbed rides to southern Italy, crossed the Adriatic by boat, got rides until Greece and then took a ship to Israel. I had no original intentions to come to Israel. But the One Above certainly had. Israel was very exciting to this traveler. Israelis were very buoyant after the victory of the June 1967, Six Days War. They had been faced with extinction and felt tremendous relief. The atmosphere was still electric when I arrived in November 1968. After a few months volunteering on Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz near Haifa, I took a job as an English teacher in Afula, and married an Israeli in 1969. I spent the summer of 1969 back in Philly selling ice-cream for Jack and Jill and dealing with the draft board. I managed an exemption and returned to Israel. In the Summer of 1970 we went to the US where I got a job as BBYO (remember AZA and BBG?) regional director in N.J. My 1st son was born in Elizabeth N.J. We returned to Afula in 1972. In 1974 (after the Yom Kippur war) we started to take our Jewishness seriously and took the road that eventually brought us to a Chassidic way of life. We then moved to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem I taught English in high school and learned in a yeshiva (Rabbinical Academy) in my free time. It was at this time that I began to study the pioneering history of Jerusalem's old neighborhoods resulting in my becoming a popular local tour guide.
Concurrently I began to present talks in Israel and abroad about important Jewish historical personalities. I also began to publish and edit a magazine called Yiddishkeit and managed to put out 27 issues over a ten year period which were well received.
I became the administrative director of a yeshiva in 1978. I was also involved in community service projects in one of Jerusalem's poorer neighborhoods and eventually helped establish a dental and eye clinic (Health and Community Service Center- HCS) for the needy which I continued to direct after leaving the yeshiva. We have two clinics with seven dental surgeries serving 4500 patient visits monthly.
I divorced in 1991and married Judy Albert Taylor who had also divorced after 20 years. Judy came into our marriage with 7 of her own children. I had 5 from my first wife. Between us we had another son,Yehuda, who is now 23 years old and married. Meanwhile all of my other children married. I have 22 grandchildren and five great grandchildren. My wife has 17 grandchildren of her own. Judy is a very talented musician and sings in various ensembles. Judy is also a certified doula (birthing coach). All of our children live in Israel.
I have always been prone to "clown around" and fortunately I have found a way to use that for others as a Medical Clown for which I was certified in 2012. (Moshe Kahan Medical Clown)
About a year after we married, Judy convinced me to move with her and family to the territories. We moved several times as "settlers" and today live in Biblical Beit El where our Patriarch Jacob had his famous dream. Beit El is in the mountains of the Benjamin region in Samaria, the Biblical heartland of the patriarchs and the prophets, about 18 miles north of Jerusalem. From one of our hills you can see the Mediterranean and Tel Aviv to the East as well as the Hermon Mountain on the Syrian border in the north and also can see beyond Bethlehem in the south. Israel is a compact country.
So that's much of my life in a few sentences. Ah! What is life but a few sentences!
I hope you enjoy your visit to my website and welcome your comments.
Click to comment