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AUGUST 19, 2021 | The Jewish Home AUGUST 19, 2021 | The Jewish Home
The Wandering
Jew
What About the Kids? By Hershel Lieber
My son Mechel making a chess move at the Lauder Retreat in Poland in 1992
M
any people ask me questions about my travels during the years that my children were young. Where did your children stay when you were traveling? Did your children join you on those journeys? Did Pesi always accompany me on all my trips? There really is no single answer that covers all the years, because personal circumstances changed over the years. During our four-year delayed “honeymoon trip” to Israel in December of 1972, with stops in Rome and Munich, our only child was our daughter, Itty. She was well cared for during those three weeks by my mother and my mother-in-law, whom she took turns staying by. The same was true in April of 1979 when Pesi and I traveled to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary for two weeks. At that time, our mothers had to contend with all of our three daughters, Itty, Faigy and Chavi. The next time we asked our mothers to care for our children was in January
of 1982. On that journey we traveled to the Soviet Union for two weeks as the first shlichim for the Vaad L’Hatzolas Nidchei Yisroel. The final time we imposed ourselves was only on my mother. This happened in May of
My daughter Chavi (center) with students of the Bais Yakov of Kishinev in 1996
my main objectives were projects that I was involved in, either in the U.S.S.R. or Poland. On these trips, I went alone, and Pesi remained with the children. In 1989, I went alone to organize the first Ronald Lauder
Having our children with us during our kiruv activities in Poland and Moldova gave them an everlasting awareness of the importance of connecting with our brothers and sisters
1986 when we again went to Israel for two weeks which included a stopover in Paris for a few days. By this time, our family included our three-yearold son, Mechel. Between 1979 and 1989, I made another ten trips abroad where
Summer Retreat, but in subsequent summers, Pesi joined me both physically and by participating in the outreach activities. During those summer months, all of our children were in summer camps, and the timing worked out perfectly for us to be
overseas. In addition to our summer activities in Poland, I would travel almost every year before the Yomim Noraim to be the baal tefillah at the Nozyk Shul in Warsaw. During most of the 1990s I was there alone, while Pesi tended to our family at home. They would go for some seudos to our mothers, but she managed mostly on her own, with the help of our daughters. As our daughters got married and Mechel was learning in Israel, Pesi started to join me every year for the Yomim Noraim period as well. From 1996 and until 2006, I was involved with a yeshiva and a bais Yaakov that was formed in Kishinev, Moldova, in the former Soviet Union. During those ten years, I traveled to Moldova twenty-eight times, and Pesi joined me for four of those journeys. What about the kids? Well, let me see if I remember. My oldest daughter, Itty, once joined me on Chanukah at a Lauder Winter Retreat in Poland. Faigy, her husband Moishy, and their children joined us for two consecutive
