ANT KATZ

Pictured at left: Josh Goldberg 

The “My Family Story” competition – of which two global winners were King David School pupils – was judged on content and creativity. Those who didn’t actually win, still felt like winners because of their familial finds. In many cases, they found family members they didn’t even know existed.

One of the two winners, Leah Meyerowitz of Sandton, says that it was exciting to discover “some new branches to the family tree – even ones that her grandfather never knew about.” Her project, called “My Grand Family” helped them to trace previously unknown relations to Israel.

Leah and her mom, Pam, are going to Israel next month as part of their prize – and they plan to connect with some of their long-lost relations when they are there. “It will be my first time in Israel,” says an elated Leah.

RIGHT: Leah (inset) and her project – each key of the pizza-box piano represents a branch of the family tree

In all, over 200 Jewish families from the two King David campuses and Yeshiva College embarked on the exciting journey of exploration into their family’s Jewish roots – in collaboration with Partnership2gether (P2G) and the Israel Centre SA. The global educational programme is sponsored by Beit Hatfutsot – The Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.

The second of the 50 global Diaspora winners is Josh Goldberg of King David Linksfield. His mom, Tarryn, who will be accompanying him to Israel in June, said his success in the data mining of Bet Hatfutsot’s database really helped the family follow their roots. Some of the names were known to them, but not how they all fitted in.

“It was sad to find out things like information on my father’s close family members who didn’t survive the holocaust,” Tarryn said, adding it had still been a great experience for the whole family in finding find both roots and branches of their family tree.

The whole family had been enthralled and got involved, says Tarryn.

Linksfield runner’s-up were twins Judd and Tyler Sandler. Their mom, Lauren, said that the twins had a good foundation to work on as her parents “had started putting together family trees.” Her dad had gone back six generations.

LEFT: Linksfield runners-up Judd and Tyler Sandler with their old suitcase and tags for each family branch

Despite these, says Lauren, having the Jewish database helped find a lot that the grandparents had not known about. Lauren found out there had been other twins in the family. The project lived on the family’s dining room table over an extended period of time and, after a party, they named remaining helium-filled balloons for each new patriarch they found.

My maternal grandmother was one of ten siblings, says Lauren. “I don’t think my mother knew that” because her mom died when she was very young and the family was split up, she says. Lauren’s mom had been brought up by an aunt.

P2G coordinator at the Israel Centre, Taryn Gingell, told Jewish Report: “Every child was enriched by the experience of exploring their roots and we are hoping that other Jewish day schools from around the country will participate next year.” 

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The “My Family Story” competition

Two winners were selected from each participating school. They were each videoed showing their projects and the six videos sent to Israel to participate in the 2017 international contest.

Leah and Joshua, accompanied by their mothers, will now join the other 48 winners to take part in the two-day celebration to be held at Beit Hatfutsot in June. There, Leah and Joshua will unveil their winning entries to thousands at the museum as well as a global audience.

The My Family Story competition was introduced to SA in 2016. Sarah Rosenthal was a South African winner then. She says the competition captivated the Jewish world. She was among 155 institutions and over 20 000 Jewish students from 28 countries who participated in it last year.

Israel Centre Shaliach Aviad Sela sums it up: “It’s a project that connects thousands of people around the world.” Every single parent and child said that they saw it as meaningful, says Sela.