My Story My Identity

Family to me/ Chen Dror

My mom always tells me –

Family is everything.

If you are

Down

Your Family cheers you up.

Wherever you go,

Your Family will be there

Don’t let controversies control your mind,

Stay faithful to your family –

After all

It’s what makes you who you are

Generosity

My grandpa was rich back then in Morocco and my grandma was like a queen and the house was her kingdom. They had 12 children and she took care of them all. She had several housemaids that helped with the house work; one cleaned, one did the laundry and one cooked.

When they came to Israel my grandma stayed in the house, only then she didn’t have housemaids. My grandpa was the owner of the neighborhood grocery. They weren’t so rich like before but they had everything they needed. The children were very involved and helped in the grocery and with the house work.

One beautiful thing about them was their generosity, they were good people and they always cared for others.

Today my mother represents everything she told me about them. She is trying to do good things for others every time she can. When a person knocks on the door, asking for charity, she never says no.  Every Friday she cooks more than what is needed and sends some to a friend or to the neighbor.

It is really something to admire and I see that the rest of my family is also like that, we try to help and give others if we can.

Modesty

My grandparents came from Kurdistan. After coming to Israel, my grandfather wanted to build a synagogue in the neighborhood for the whole community.

He and his cousin started off with the building, it took a while. After all the hard work, the synagogue was finally complete. But one thing according to my grandfather’s cousin was missing, a sign with their names at the entrance saying that they invested in building the synagogue.

My grandfather disagreed to have that kind of sign, but his cousin wanted one, so he had someone put it up.

The reason my grandfather didn’t want his name written is because he didn’t want to “show off” what he did. As long as people went to shul and prayed, he was happy with it and didn’t need the credit.

Until today there’s a sign with my grandfather’s cousin’s name on it, but everyone knows that my grandpa was part of it.

My father always tells my brothers and me to be modest and humble, just like his father was.