* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin ([email protected])
“Shalom Sivan,
I am married to the great-grandson of a dear woman by the name of Greta Monk. The photograph below is the first picture of her and our son, her great-great-grandson. His name is Ivri Menahem. Between the two of them is an age difference of 101 (!) years.
Greta fled with her family from Germany to England when Hitler rose to power. She spent Word War II in England, married, and moved to Canada. After many decades, she made aliyah after her children had come to live in Israel. A year and a half ago, her husband passed away.
She is still sharp and we were just laughing this evening about her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.
One of her many descendants fell in battle on October 7th. The woman in the picture is the grandmother of the Nahal Brigade commander Yoni Steniberg, may his memory be a blessing, who went to war on Simchat Torah and did not return.
Ten days after his death, Ivri Menahem was born. We called him this (an Ivri is a Hebrew/Jew and Menachem means consolation) to symbolize the continuity and consolation he brought to our family of five living generations at a time of tragedy.
Neta Nitzan
