I was born in the USA, a part of the second generation of Holocaust survivors. One of the youngest amongst them. Surrounded by Yiddish speaking survivors on one side and Germanglish on the other, not only was I unaware until my B.A. at Brandeis University that not everyone else was, from a very young age of seven I had decided that I was making aliyah. You see from around that age, my zeide, Chaim Bank, took me with as his travel companion to visit his two surviving brothers who were living in Israel. At that time he took me on Egged tours and I recall an Israel Bonds dinner in which we sat directly in front of the late Menachem Begin, (my grandfather was a Revisionist). This family dynamic coupled with my own parents love for Israel and the wonderful elementary school I attended, SAR Academy, in which everything was taught Ivrit b’Ivrit, and love for the land and Torah pervaded, provided the atmosphere that cleared the way for my later aliyah. I felt in my neshama as far back as I can recall that my place was here.
Years later, having studied at the department of Near Eastern and Judaic studies at Brandeis University and going on once making aliyah for an master’s degree in the department of Jewish history at the Hebrew University, I had not foreseen that my path would take me down the fashion route and that for that too I could develop a passion. Actually, HydroChic, the company I co-founded with Daniella Teutsch, was born 12 years ago out of a need of our own, for a swim solution we would feel comfortable in. I did not dream of being a fashion designer, but as feedback kept coming from one woman at a time of how we were changing her life by providing modest swimwear that literally got women back in the water, they no longer felt self-conscious but rather self-confident, my gratification grew a passion for fashion.
Fast forward to 2017, I completed the Israeli Ministry of Tourism’s two and a half year course at Yad Ben Zvi, and I became a licensed Israeli tour guide. Then, last week, completely unexpected these two worlds of mine converged as I orchestrated a fashion shoot—two photographers, videographer, drones and all—overlooking the biblical city of Gezer first identified at the end of the 19th century by Charles Clermont-Ganneau, French adventurer and scholar of the Holy Land, who after reading about a site called Tel ej-Jazar, reminded him of the name of Biblical Gezer.
The ancient site of Tel Gezer guards the junction of the Via Maris with the Ayalon Valley. The site has a long history dating back to the Canaanites right up to the modern era. Gezer is a site of great Biblical significance that is mentioned as a Levite city in the Book of Joshua and a city fortified by King Solomon (I Kings 10:15-16). It houses remarkable archaeological discoveries: the Gezer calendar which describes the annual cycle of agricultural activities and dates to the 10th century BCE and an Early Middle Bronze Age monumental water system.
My heart was beating quickly at the realization that the very Tel I had guided and was guided on, now stood perched across from me. The ancient water system that was in hidden down below, now dry, juxtaposed to the water filled pool we were making a splash in just up above. Here this city stood over important crossroads between ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. I am unusually cognizant in my daily routine of how fortunate a generation we are to be able to “go up” to Jerusalem as business as usual, I know what came before me and the sacrifices made for us to be able to do so. There are some moments that leave their impression in ones psyche- shira betzibur on erev Yom HaZikaron, standing at the sirens together with the nation, last year’s 50th year of a United Jerusalem outside the Old City walls uniting in song and dance and sharing the exuberance with complete strangers who are not strangers after all and of course my sons’ swearing in ceremonies to the IDF, to name but a few. But here, at this point in time, the convergence of two careers, in so symbolic a place was and is a special moment since my aliyah in 1994.
By Sara Wolf
Sara Wolf, a graduate of The Frisch School, holds a BA in Near Eastern Judaic Studies and Political Science from Brandeis University and an MA from the Department of Jewish History at the Hebrew University. Wolf is co-founder of HydroChic modest swimwear co., a licensed Israeli tour guide (reachable at [email protected]), and a social activist on behalf of the Israeli non-profit, Together- Vouch for Each Other.
