In the media, my mother was hailed as the 90-year-old grandmother of Knesset Member Rachel Azaria “finally going home” to realize a 77-year-old dream.
which I might never see again. I said goodbye to several people I knew in the dining room. I told them that I was sad that my mother was leaving so suddenly and that I and my two American sisters would feel a great loss. My mother countered this: “I have two daughters in Israel.” Me: “Thanks, Mom.” I felt the hurt and stress as I recalled all the holidays I had made a point to spend with my parents no matter how difficult. Though there are 15 nieces and nephews from my four sisters, only my three sons spent the holidays with their grandparents their entire lives. My mourning process began immediately. Although my oldest son questioned my approach, my middle son understood me completely. I had suffered two losses before when one of my sisters made aliyah and my very dear aunt moved to California. In both of these cases, they gave me ample
time to get used to the idea and to separate. This needed time. I needed sympathy. More of my life began to unroll as I tried to come to peace with this. Part of the fabric of my life as a very young girl growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was a story of how my mother, as an adolescent, wanted to follow her Habonim counselor Lotte to “Eretz” rather than fleeing to the United States from southern Germany in 1938. Her father, a businessman who had traveled extensively, felt that America would offer more opportunity and a more comfortable life than Palestine. Although my father, a geologist, had corresponded with Professor Leo Pickard of the Hebrew University since the 1950s, it was not until 1962 that my parents first went to Israel to visit and begin a close relationship with the geology department of the Hebrew University. I remember this well, because I had entered my Tulsa school’s science fair as usual that year. My project, developed under the supervision of my father, won the school’s grand prize. I was the first fourth grader in the history of the school
Rosen’s family lived in Israel in the early 1960s when her father, Gerald M. Friedman (right), was teaching sedimentology at the Hebrew University.
Sue Friedman with many members of her American family the day before leaving for Israel.
FALL 2015
NA’AMAT WOMAN
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