As I began to be sad that we’re posponing our plans for Ezi’s birthday because our visiting kids are sick, Ezi reminded me that he celebrated his birthday in ’67 in the air raid shelter.  And later in the day the Jordanians dropped a bomb a few blocks away.  Maybe that’s why I’ve never managed to have a proper birthday party for him.  The more I think about it, the more we mark events by war or  incidents of terror.  

So last night we had a get together with some of our friends, and they too count back to historical events.  A few, like Ezi, are more than 4 generations back in Israel, a few are children of holocaust survivors, or themselves survivors – not a representative sample of the population of Israel, but a comfortable group, like an old shoe.  Sometimes it’s nice to be with people with the same experiences.