October 7th, 2023 was a devastating wake up call to many US Jews, including myself.  In the spirit of Tikkun Olam, I'm resolved to make a difference to help the survivors of the Oct. 7th massacre, Oct. 7th and Iran Wars and other recent horrific antisemitic and antizionist attacks and hope you will join us in helping to provide community support and the opportunity for much needed relief, recovery and spiritual renewal for them here in the US.

 

I had a bat mitzvah with a long torah reading as a kid and 50 years ago at 17 first visited Kibbutz Revivim in the Negev for 3 months where I met Golda Meir's daughter Sarah, who taught Hebrew to my Ulpan class.  A year later I returned to visit, then continued on to Kibbutz Ma'abarot in Netanya where I spent 2.5 months as a volunteer before leaving for a brief trip to Europe and then back home to NJ.  My birth father (I was adopted In New York by a 'Conservative Jewish' couple in 1958) was born in Miedzyrzecz, Poland in 1919.  'Jimmy' Chaim, moved to Israel with his parents in 1924, as a young man fought with the Irgun for Israel's independence and then moved to the US in1956.  My birth mother's grandparents emigrated to New York after the pogroms in Russia and I remember hearing a story at our family reunion about my great grandmother chasing a Cossack on her roof with a metal pipe in her hand, so I think I have good genes. 

 

I was more than halfway through completing an Aliyah application when I developed long Covid in Oct. 2022 (which lasted over 2 years), so decided to hold off on Aliyah.  My housemate has been visiting Israel 2 times a year for many years to visit family and was at a resort in Sharm El-Sheikh the day of the attack.  Her family returned to Tel Aviv the next day and Adrian flew back to the US by way of Turkey.  That weekend a friend from LA came to visit me and as we discussed the horrific events of Oct. 7th, I felt profoundly shaken and deeply connected in real time to the consciousness of Israel. 

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In addition to 25+ years working in various industries including financial services, real estate, tech and fine arts, as a prior FINRA Registered Rep, senior sales consultant and fine art gallery director, Suzanne has significant experience in operations and administrative management, developing and managing projects and new business initiatives in real estate and finance.  She earned a graduate level Paralegal Certificate from UCLA, a Masters in Art Education from Tufts University and a BFA from Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, and is also a Certified Reiki Master having first studied under Evelyn Padma Morel in Cambridge, MA in 2007.​​