Number 90: Asleep, I still hear my mother’s very early morning footsteps shuffling in slippers and pink gown, through the passages of my childhood, preparing for the day ahead. My parents arriving home from work in their green Opel.  Oma and Opa arising from the green cane chairs on their stoep in Cape Town – welcoming us arriving from Port Elizabeth. Smell of lifebuoy soap in their bathroom. Peppermint crisps my grandfather gave me from his grocery store in Wellington. These precious memories I of course don’t have of my great grandparents and the generations before them – direct ancestors that I never met. I can only imagine the stories of their lives and daily experience. 

I do know that my great-grandmother, Rachel Katzef worked hard running the only Kosher Guesthouse in Wellington while my great-grandfather Michiel with horse and cart,  “smoused” for a living. But what did my other direct ancestor “mothers” through the generations do during their lifetimes – outside of their vital roles of raising children and running their households? Netherlands archives reflect some of their occupations: “Koopvrou”; “Koffieschenkster” and “Naaister”

Many of my direct ancestor “fathers” were Rabbis:

Rabbi Isaac Aboab, 18th generation, was  “The last Gaon of Castile”, born 1433, Toledo, Spain. In 1492 he negotiated the escape of his Jewish Community from Spain to the newest Jewish Quarter, “Judiaria do Olival”, in Porto, Portugal.

Rabbi Jekuthiel ben Isaac Blitz, born 1634, Witmund, Germany, 13th generation, made the first whole Hebrew Bible translation into Yiddish in 1678.

Salomon Eliazar van Embden, born 1740, Embden, Germany, 9th Generation, became “Opperrabijn” (Chief Rabbi) of Hoorn, The Netherlands.

Rav Shlomo Shkolnik spelt שקאלניק in Hebrew, great grandfather of my father “Shlomo”, was Rabbi of Plottel, Lithuania for fifty years. A “Mithnaged”, known as the “Plottele Rebbe” he wrote “Teshuvat Shlomo”. Rav Shlomo’s father was Rav Eliezer Shkolnik from Veksnor and father in law: Rav Eliyahu Margaliyot from Salant.

It is clear that our forebears included Activists, Pioneers, Leaders and Scholars who sustained their contributions over many years. May we emulate these qualities in our lives, in our generation!