Friends
I thought it would be a good idea if I listed the friends I made throughout the years… I presume that I will forget a few… and I apologise if I forgot you…
To start from the beginning… my oldest friend is Steve S… previously known as Stelio (in school) and Lucky before that… we were going to the same park, called Oscar Finley Park, when we were two or three years old. The park was in the Mazarita district in Alexandria… I still vividly remember the statue/fountain depicting a boy riding on a dolphin… what it meant… I ignore it… another common point between us was Labiba… Labiba was a cook who was working three days in my grandma Wanda’s house… and three days at Lucky’s mother’s house… It is strange how our families stayed friends… my nonna with his mother in Egypt… my mother with his sister Marina in Greece… and Steve and myself in the USA… quite a few generations… except that Steve lives in Alexandria, Virginia and me in Santa Clara, California…
Bouli K. or Dimitry K… was in school with me in Alexandria, we were also Boy Scouts together… Bouli lives in Athens and the last time I saw him was in the late eighties… thanks to the internet we communicate from time to time…
Alec A was also in school together…he lives in New Jersy…. The last time I saw him was in 1964 when he was vacationing in Greece….
Aram M was another friend from BBS… I tracked him down around 1997 and stopped by his house in New Jersey during one of my trips to Poughkeepsee…
Robi O is next in list, we were in school together in Milano, at the ORT… I saw him again in 1967 when he came to volunteer in Israel… he took a job in Elbit, the same company I was with… he also was instrumental in my taking Orit with me from the beaches of Eilat in 1968… Again through his intervention, I received a call from him where he was offering me a job when I finished college at the Hebrew University in 1971… Robi still lives in Haifa in the same house and his wife Helen is a darling, as usual…
Sallie and Avi T Sallie and I worked together in Elbit… I lost touch with Sallie until last year… when, with Robi, we went for lunch at their house… Avi is into making wine… excellent wine I should say…
Marcello H is the only other ORT alumnus I am sometimes in contact with… he lives in Rome and I had dinner with him some four or five years ago… we email each other sporadically…
Daniel O was a classmate at the Hebrew U… being both Italian and studying Economics we became good friends, doing our exercises together… I had lost touch with Daniel… I was surprised to receive an invite for his wedding, to Silvia, some three months too late… what was surprising was that he got my address in Paris… he was in Cambridge, England working on a PhD…
It so happened that one of my neighbors was heading the Latin Desk at the OECD, and he wanted to convince me to join him… and work at the Italian desk…So I thought of Daniel and told him about my friend…
He said OK so I tracked his phone number in England and called him… “Daniel, how about a real job… interested…” He got to Paris a few days later… got the job at the OECD and moved to France… A few years later he moved to Luxembourg where he is working for La Banque Europeenne des Investissement… as chief economist… I saw him about a year ago during my Eurotour…
Yaacov and Daniela N They were our neighbors in Jerusalem… in all these years we stayed in touch with each other… They moved from Jerusalem to Ranana… when I was in Israel last year we spent a week-end with them, Gal and Dahlia, accompanied me… and of course their children Lior and Ramy with families came over on Sabbath… one of my fondest memories… I wish I will be able to see them again… one day…
Ilan and Ziva B… Ilan is my pillar of strength… Whenever I am distressed, or depressed… I think of Ilan… and I feel better… When asked How do you do… he always answers… Every Day Better… and he means it… He lives in Givataim and if I happen to be in Israel… look him up… because that is my home base in Israel….
Alain (Ilan) P He joined the kibbutz about the sam time I did… he is the type of friend with whom I would sit with for hours… discussing our latest problem… or politics… or share any joy we may think of… he is the friend whom I last saw in the seventies… but he was available when I tracked him down in Israel last year…
I thought it would be a good idea if I listed the friends I made throughout the years… I presume that I will forget a few… and I apologise if I forgot you…
To start from the beginning… my oldest friend is Steve S… previously known as Stelio (in school) and Lucky before that… we were going to the same park, called Oscar Finley Park, when we were two or three years old. The park was in the Mazarita district in Alexandria… I still vividly remember the statue/fountain depicting a boy riding on a dolphin… what it meant… I ignore it… another common point between us was Labiba… Labiba was a cook who was working three days in my grandma Wanda’s house… and three days at Lucky’s mother’s house… It is strange how our families stayed friends… my nonna with his mother in Egypt… my mother with his sister Marina in Greece… and Steve and myself in the USA… quite a few generations… except that Steve lives in Alexandria, Virginia and me in Santa Clara, California…
Bouli K. or Dimitry K… was in school with me in Alexandria, we were also Boy Scouts together… Bouli lives in Athens and the last time I saw him was in the late eighties… thanks to the internet we communicate from time to time…
Alec A was also in school together…he lives in New Jersy…. The last time I saw him was in 1964 when he was vacationing in Greece….
Aram M was another friend from BBS… I tracked him down around 1997 and stopped by his house in New Jersey during one of my trips to Poughkeepsee…
Robi O is next in list, we were in school together in Milano, at the ORT… I saw him again in 1967 when he came to volunteer in Israel… he took a job in Elbit, the same company I was with… he also was instrumental in my taking Orit with me from the beaches of Eilat in 1968… Again through his intervention, I received a call from him where he was offering me a job when I finished college at the Hebrew University in 1971… Robi still lives in Haifa in the same house and his wife Helen is a darling, as usual…
Sallie and Avi T Sallie and I worked together in Elbit… I lost touch with Sallie until last year… when, with Robi, we went for lunch at their house… Avi is into making wine… excellent wine I should say…
Marcello H is the only other ORT alumnus I am sometimes in contact with… he lives in Rome and I had dinner with him some four or five years ago… we email each other sporadically…
Daniel O was a classmate at the Hebrew U… being both Italian and studying Economics we became good friends, doing our exercises together… I had lost touch with Daniel… I was surprised to receive an invite for his wedding, to Silvia, some three months too late… what was surprising was that he got my address in Paris… he was in Cambridge, England working on a PhD…
It so happened that one of my neighbors was heading the Latin Desk at the OECD, and he wanted to convince me to join him… and work at the Italian desk…So I thought of Daniel and told him about my friend…
He said OK so I tracked his phone number in England and called him… “Daniel, how about a real job… interested…” He got to Paris a few days later… got the job at the OECD and moved to France… A few years later he moved to Luxembourg where he is working for La Banque Europeenne des Investissement… as chief economist… I saw him about a year ago during my Eurotour…
Yaacov and Daniela N They were our neighbors in Jerusalem… in all these years we stayed in touch with each other… They moved from Jerusalem to Ranana… when I was in Israel last year we spent a week-end with them, Gal and Dahlia, accompanied me… and of course their children Lior and Ramy with families came over on Sabbath… one of my fondest memories… I wish I will be able to see them again… one day…
Ilan and Ziva B… Ilan is my pillar of strength… Whenever I am distressed, or depressed… I think of Ilan… and I feel better… When asked How do you do… he always answers… Every Day Better… and he means it… He lives in Givataim and if I happen to be in Israel… look him up… because that is my home base in Israel….
Alain (Ilan) P He joined the kibbutz about the sam time I did… he is the type of friend with whom I would sit with for hours… discussing our latest problem… or politics… or share any joy we may think of… he is the friend whom I last saw in the seventies… but he was available when I tracked him down in Israel last year…
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