October 4, 2002
Hi!
Hope all is well!
Latest news:
Scott Coleman is getting married to Heather next week!
Robin Sternfield is engaged!
Laura Ilko's son and daughter and Lisa Foster's daughter are my students this year!
Danny Rozansky and wife and Sarah Pappelbaum and husband are expecting twins!
Shabbat Shalom!
Love,
Eemah
Hiya Eemah,
just a quick note to pass on the good news. me and my husband will be
welcoming our first child in April 2003!!
{:
keep positive thoughts, get positive results,
Marci Quintanilla (Thomas)
hi helene, mom said you were looking for my email address, and here it is. i hope you had an easy fast and that you have a wonderful year!
best, diane
Diane N. Solomon
1525 SW Pendleton
Portland, OR 97239-2617
503.245.9777
dnsolomon@attbi.com
Hi Eemah!
I hope to be seeing you around the Temple more. We have 2 children in religous school now, Allison in K with Robbie(Turner) and Zachary in 3rd with Deborah Geary and Dana Jacobs( Zack's class includes both Lee Finkel's and David Gross'(Steve and Marty's dad) daughter). It's a small world out there!
. I hope all is well with you and your family.
Love, Suzanne (Katleman)
HI Eemah,
Sounds like it(Mad reunion) should be a lot of fun. I think I'll be home just in between those dates :). I don't think the army, my residency or my pocketbook
will let me stay on vacation for 2 whole weekends!
Perhaps next time.
I'm loving Hawaii and my peds internship far more
than I ever could have imagined. I think of you and your family often here as everything is "lani" something or other....I'm still trying to get the
names of the streets and cities straight :).
Hope all is well.
Take care,
becky (Barth)
I'm on Oahu. Living in Kailua on the windward side of
the island. It's beautiful. I live walking distance
to the beach and I'm surrounded by beautiful, green
mountains. I have a minor commute to/from work, but
it's gorgeous so I don't mind it.
Hope all is well. I'd love to have you all visit!
Take care,
becky(Barth)
Marline Gendelman sent this to me......
This is a beautiful article written by Marla's very good Hindu friend, Dipti, from Berkeley. And I wanted to share.
Hey guys. I wrote this about my friend Marla, especially for those who did not know her.
About Marla
I write this because I want you to know that Marla Bennett was not just a 24-year old woman. Not just a 24 year-old San Diego woman. Not just a 24-year old San Diego woman killed in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Not just one of the 5 Americans plucked from the earth needlessly, senselessly, during their lunch hour at college; not just one of the 7 people, one of the 7 human beings whose very human-ness was stolen from us. I want to tell you about my beautiful Marla because I am afraid of forgetting. I am afraid of time and how it washes over memory like waves and makes the details fade and so I need to tell you about Marla today, about the details, so that I won't forget.
I need to remember her curly wavy brown hair, peppered with those beautiful streaks of silver gray hairs here and there, which made her look like magic. I need to remember her chameleon camouflage eyes, which looked brown or gray or green or any color in the sea depending on what shirt or blouse she put on that day. And I need to remember her nails and the way she would softly scratch circles and tickle your skin lightly in affection, and hold your hands when you walked through Sproul with her. I need to remember her zeal for the black bean veggie burrito from Fabuloso on Telegraph, the way lunch plans were decided by Marla saying, "Wednesday, Noon." The place was always implicit.
And I need to remember how much she loved the CAL Men's Octet Wednesday afternoons. How she would be there, rain or shine, midterm or final, out by Sather Gate to hear her beloved Men's Octet, and crush on the very boys who would end up breaking our hearts when we found out they were gay---but we would stalk them anyhow and happily sing along to "Loves me like a Rock" and "I Get Around." That girl had every Men's Octet CD ever made, and knew every song and all of the choreography as well. It was a bit ridiculous, but we were partners in crime, and we loved Ed and the twins and the rest of the Octet so much that our fanaticism seemed mitigated since it was mutual. We were Men's Octet groupies and proud.
And Marla loved the Daily Cal. Though we thought its support for Prop 209 was unconscionable, we loved the Daily Cal, in spite of ourselves, because of our favorite columnist, Joe Eskenazi. Marla would meet me and the first thing she would say was, "Did you catch Joe's column on Monday? He was hilarious! He wrote all about the drive down the 5 to LA!" And we would laugh and talk about how cool Joe was and what a good writer he was and how we wanted go to Eshelmann and hang out on the fifth floor so we could maybe catch him coming out of the Daily Cal office. And she was so intimately connected to the campus, that there was always an article about something she had planned, or someone she knew, or some ASUC controversy she had the inside scoop on, that she had to read the Daily Cal every day.
And Marla Bennett was a Cal Planner freak, and life didn't start until they had passed out the free planners during the first week of school. And then it was ON. She would have entire pages of days and weeks and months filled up with lunches and dinners with her friends, Shabbat at the Bayit, Hillel meetings for freshman retreat planning, ASUC elections committee meetings, and then there were always birthdays. She never forgot birthdays. And she always had the most lovely, most thoughtful gifts. And though she had a million friends and though her planner was always overflowing with things to do and people to meet, she would find a slot for you because you two HAD to hang out, and she would make sure it happened. Marla had friends in every state, and she was always flying somewhere to visit someone. She made you feel so loved, and so special, and so remembered, that every once in a while, when you realized she was like that to like a million people in her life, you felt like you were just another cog in the vast machinery of the Marla friendship machine---but then she would remember to gift you the Berkeley Hillel shirt that you wanted so badly, and you felt special again!
Marla introduced me to the Jews. To the beauty of the Jewish faith, and the strength of the Jewish people. I had grown up in Orange County, and didn't even know I knew Jews cuz most of them were in the closet, and so when I came to Berkeley and met Marla my first week of school, she instantly opened up the world of the Jews and the Hillel and the Bayit and Shabbat, taking the time to make sure I knew what a schiska was, teaching me about what it means to keep Kosher. She made me sign up for Jewish Folk Singing up at the Hillel, because she said I would have the best time, and she wanted to share this with me. And so I went. And I loved it. And I was this Hindu, sitting up in Hillel, Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu-ing with the best of them. With Marla at my side, holding my hand, squeezing my palm, and smiling her Marla smile, so big that her eyes would crinkle real small, almost swallowed up by the sheer force of that grin. And though she wanted me to take Israeli Folk Dance with her the next semester, I stuck with Jewish Folk Songs. And one day this guy in class had turned to me and asked me, "So what's your deal---are you half Jewish or something?" And when I told Marla this she tossed her head and laughed and gave me a high-five: I was officially an honorary Jew now. And she was overjoyed.
And so we grew together over the years, and she became more dedicated to her faith, and I was along for the ride, fasting with her for Pesach, going up to the Bayit when it was burrito night, and so time went. And when she visited Israel she was convinced she wanted to study there, for she felt happiest and whole there. She felt it was home. So one day, over lunch at Fabuloso, we began to go into the politics of the mid-east, and as we made maps in our plates of the Gaza and the West Bank out of rice and refried beans, we tried to teach and learn and understand each other. And when she came back last year, finally deciding that she wanted to get her masters at Hebrew University, I pummeled her with a barrage of questions. I had grown in my own consciousness about the Palestinian perspective, and I wanted to know from Marla how she saw her role in all of this. And I asked her why. Why you and why Israel and why now. And thus we talked. And it was difficult. But there was love and there was trust and nobody got up from the table and we talked and asked questions and pondered the meaning of home and homeland and politics and peace. And we were just two kids, trying to make sense of this crazy world that was handed down to us by our parents. And what I will cherish most is that space that Marla and I had; the space of being able to talk about and disagree about things that make other people kill each other. And be able to talk and agree that everyone should have a homeland, and disagree about how, and still be able to get up from that conversation and embrace and say I love you. And I know that if there were more Marlas in this world, there would be more spaces like those in this world, and this world would be less of a mess than it is right now.
I need to remember these things about Marla because Marla represented my generation's most precious hopes. And I am anguished that we are bereft of her now. And I mourn for Israel, and I mourn for Palestine, and I mourn for this world, this world without Marla Bennett.
And I take comfort knowing that she died where she felt most alive.
October 25, 2002
Hi and Shabbat Shalom!
We just returned from a wonderful wedding weekend in San Francisco!
Mazal Tov to Greg Goldman and his new bride, Stacey!
T'was so much fun to celebrate with lots of Madrichim families: Goldman\Katz, Goldman, Graff, Sandweiss, Polokoff, Sincoff-Yedid,Jacobs, Malkus, Fram, etc.(Finkels were ill).
We spent time with Lani and Erin and saw Debbie Sandweiss, Erin Graff, Ali Graff
and Scott Goldman....also a former camper at CBI, Allison Paige.
Don't forget to check out our Mad website:
Madrichim.homestead.com (Thanks Rick!)
and...watch for a Hershey's TV ad with Jennifer Berton and her adorable son, Charles...It was produced by Amy Hill!
and.... remember to watch Ali Adler's new show "Still Standing."
Have a restful, peaceful Shabbat!
Love,
Eemah
Enjoy the following!
Hello Eemah!
It was so nice to hear from you. The only person I keep in touch with from Beth Israel is Julie Hill. She lives in Seattle and is doing very well and keeps very busy! I'll let her know your email address.
I was in the confirmation class of 1984 (10th grade, right?), so I don't know what that means for my years in Mad. (it's been too long, was that 9th grade?)
Anyway, here is my bio:
I got married to Steven Strong in 2000 and we bought a house in Lakeside where we live with our 3 cats who are our only children right now (we're working on it!). I am Director of Assistance Programs for a Non-Profit Credit and Debt Counseling organization. I am in charge of the educational programs, consumer services, and we work with HUD in assisting low and middle income people in obtaining homeownership. My husband is a Parole Agent for the State of California. We enjoy working on our house, travelling (we're going to London and Paris in December!)and I love to cook. I'm looking forward to getting back in touch with the Beth Israel alumni!
I hope you're doing well, I often think of you turning your ring around high up in the air so we could all see, and us getting wild and cheering and getting the place pumped up!
Thanks for reaching out!
Susannah Strong (Susannah Forman)
Dear Helene, What wonderful tributes to you when you hear from your kids. You made great imprints on hundreds and more children. thanks for sharing the news. I'm sure that Marlene send a copy of the Hindi letter to Linda and Michael Bennett. They would certainly kvell with it.
I have also had dividends when kids I Bar/bat mitzvahed and/or confirmed call me to officiate at their weddings. Just did Steve Fram's wedding up in Westlake V illage. It was a blast!
Warmest good wishes to you, Dave and the family. The party for Lani was wonderful. Thanks for including us in your family simcha.
Love, Shelly
Hi,
Thanks for the emails.
We visited Rabbi Goor and Lucille in NYC. My cousin,
who is a native New Yorker and very active in Jewish
charities, knows them (and was surprised that we knew
them!) and said they are very active and very well
respected.
They have a sensational apartment overlooking the East
River and seem to be very happy. We met Berry their
daughter who is a lovely young lady and an animal
lover. Their place has a lot of cats.
Rabbi Goor has been interviewed on New York radio
several times and played us tapes of two of them. On
one he plays recordings of Kol Nidre as sung around
the world. On the other he plays "Jazz shofar!"
When I heard the term "Jazz shofar," I must have made
a face, because he told me immediately that it was not
his idea originally, and he had doubts about it. I
heard the tape and was impressed with how beautiful it
was. He blows the shofar and a jazz saxaphonist plays
along with him in a marvelous duet.
Family news
Stuart, our son, and his wife, Barbara, have a
gorgeous (pooh pooh pooh) baby girl, Sarah, and they
are living in Pleasant Hill in the East Bay area of
San Francisco and are members of a local temple there.
He is a family practice surgeon/physician at the
local county hospital. Susannah and her husband Steve
have a beautiful rustic house in Emerald Hills. She
is working an administrator for a non-profit credit
counseling firm. Pauline and I are pretty much
retired. I teach only one lecture class in film
history at San Diego City College and Pauline is the
lead faculty administrator of a computer at the learning center at SDCC.
Sid Forman (father of Susannah and Stuart, teacher in the Religious School and photographer at all the Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies for many many years)
Hi Eemah!
I hope to be seeing you around the Temple more. We have 2 children in religous school now, Allison in K with Robbie and Zachary in 3rd with Deborah Geary ( Zack's class includes both Lee Finkel's and David Gross' daughter). It's a small world out there!
Here are my sisters e-mail adresses: stephschroder@cox.net
BKatleman@AOL. I hope all is well with you and your family.
Love, Suzanne
Dear Eemah,
Amy (Hill) Riess's e-mail is: snappo@aol.com . She and Chris have a beautiful daughter, Ruby (will be 2 in January) and are expecting baby number 2.
Love,
Jennifer (Pickle) her social secretary
