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When I was a child, my grandmother Shulamit Hearsch used to tell me stories of her childhood and family. We used to have many heart-to-hearts, my grandma and I. Sometimes she used to tell me, "Dana, when I die you'll get me out of the tomb". These words used to annoy me. Why she would ask me such a thing? It wasn't even formulated as a request, rather as a fact, or even an imperative. After she died, these words repeatedly echoed in my mind, and I kept wondering why. For years I couldn't fathom the meaning of what she had said. Only in recent years could I manage to internalize her message and understand it. She hadn't meant it in the physical/material sense but in the spiritual sense. I believe what she had tried to tell me was: "Dana, immortalize me, commemorate me, think about me and share my life story with the next generation".
Grandma, this page is dedicated to you with love.
Your granddaughter,
Dana
I found this photograph and others while rummaging through the old picture box in our home in Ramat Hasharon. I found old pictures of grandma, grandpa, and other relatives and friends, many of whom are no longer with us. These photographs evoke days gone by: immigrants from Europe, pioneers, people living in an agricultural society, the scent of orchards, of orange blossom. I find myself overwhelmed by mixed emotions. On the one hand, I feel a sense of closeness, belonging, and love for these people, who represent my personal history and roots. On the other hand, I feel sad and I miss my beloveds who are no longer among us. Grandpa and grandma seem so young, enamored, and full of life. Daddy also looks young, handsome, and brimming with youth. The photographs represent singular moments in time that will remain forever out of reach.
Shulamit (Livshitz, also Lipschitz) Hearsch was born in Vitebsk, Belarus in 1912, to Bracha and Aaron Lipschitz. In pre-revolutionary Russia, Aaron, the son of Shalom Shachna, was a wealthy timber merchant who owned forests. He even had a special certificate that allowed him free access to the court of Nicholas II Tsar of Russia.
Photograph: Shulamit and Maurice Hearsch, Ramat-Hasharon (1933)
Aaron Livshitz's family that belonged to the Hassidic movement, and he was even distantly related to Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who was later to become the famous Lubavitcher Rebbe. Bracha's family, on the other hand, belonged to the Misnagdim movement and she was even distantly related to Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman Kremer, otherwise known as the Vilna Gaon, who led the struggle against the Hassidic movement in Eastern Europe.
Despite the ideological struggle between the Hassidic and the Misnagdim movements, Bracha and Aaron married and had six children: Benjamin, Abraham, Isaac, Susanne (Shoshana), Shulamit and Miriam. In fact, the couple had another daughter (their eldest daughter), who died of scarlet fever in Russia at the age of five.
As a young man, Aaron Livshitz (born in 1876 in Vitebsk, northeast Belarus) traveled to the Holy Land and bought land there. In 1917, following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Aaron realized that his life was in danger and left Russia in haste and escaped to China, leaving Bracha and their six children behind. On his journey, Aaron left letters for Bracha in synagogues and Jewish communities so that his family members would be able to follow in his footsteps. The family wandered for four years from Russia to China and to India, often suffering severe hunger on the way. At the end of the journey, the family arrived in the Holy Land in 1921. Benjamin, the couple's eldest son immigrated to the United States, while the rest of the family immigrated to the Land of Israel together.
Photograph: The Livshitz family and friends (1927). Their pioneering spirit is evident.
Photograph: A 50-Ruble debenture (redemption date – 1920).
Photograph: The house on Yavne Street in Tel Aviv at the time it was built. At the main entrance (on the right side of the building's front door) you can see Aaron, Bracha and Shlomit Liivshitz.
Family photo: Aaron Livshitz (on the right), Bracha Livshitz (in the center), and Shmuel Kartun (on the left), Bracha's brother who emigrated from Russia to the United States, in a family reunion in the Land of Israel.
In 1932 Shulamit Livshitz met Maurice Hearsch, who immigrated to Israel in the same year. Maurice (Moshe) Hearsch was born in Australia in 1911 to Jacob and Lea Hearsch. The couple had six children and Morris was the eldest. When Morris was a child, the family moved to India. His father Jacob owned railways in India, but he eventually lost all his property and died of heart failure at a relatively young age.
Morris was sent by his mother to Israel in order to find a Jewish bride. Shortly after, he met Shulamit and they fell in love at first sight. They married in June 1932 and had two children – Shalom (born in 1935), the owner of Eitanim gym in Ramat Hasharon, and Miki (Lotker) Hearsch (born in December 1938), a microbiologist by profession. Morris bought a bus and joined as an associate in the Egged transportation cooperative. Shulamit and Maurice loved each other until the day Shulamit died in March 1984. Maurice Hearsch died a year later in December 1985.
Photograph: Grandma Shulamit (Livshitz) Hearsch as a young woman.
Photograph: Shulamit and Maurice Hearsch at the beach in Tel-Aviv (1932).
Photograph: Grandma's South-African cousins in 1924 – reminiscent of a silent movie.
Aaron and Bracha Lifshitz in a joint photo with their son Yitzhak and his wife Yehudit.
Photograph: Grandma Shulamit (Livshitz) Hearsch as a young woman.
Photograph: Shulamit Lifshitz with Simcha and Shoshana Gafni strolling in Tel Aviv.
Photograph: Grandpa Maurice Hearsch as a young man.
Photograph: Lea Hearsch (Morris's mother) with one of her six children.
Photograph: Shulamit and Maurice Hearsch with their son Shalom Hearsch, Ramat Hasharon (1932).
Photograph: Shoshana Gafni in front of the picture and behind her Grandma Shulamit.
Miryam Livshitz, the beloved and beautiful youngest daughter of Bracha and Aaron, was born in 1915. Miryam was a talented athlete, who participated in the first Maccabiah of the State of Israel, which took place in March 1932.
On Saturday, 7 Elul 1938, Miryam Livshitz traveled with a number of friends to a football competition in Rehovot. As their car passed through the Abu Kabir neighborhood on the border of Tel Aviv-Yafo, pistol bullets were fired at the car. Miryam struggled for her life suffering from severe pain and in September 3, 1938 she passed away at the age of only 22. Bracha Livshitz never recovered from the heavy disaster of Miryam's death.
Photograph: Miryam Lifshitz (Granny Shulamit's younger sister), who was killed in a shooting attack at the age of 22.
Photograph: Invitation to Grandma and Grandpa's wedding in 1932. It amazed me that Aaron Livshitz and his wife were listed in the invitation and her name was not mentioned.
Photograph: Miryam Lifshitz's participation card in the Gymnastics and Sports Association.
Photograph: Miryam Lifshitz's participation card in the first Maccabiah of the State of Israel.
Photograph: Miryam Lifshitz and friends.
Family photograph: Simcha and Shoshana Gafni (left), Miryam Lifshitz, Maurice Hearsch, Shulamit Hearsch (center), and Avraham and Shoshana Lifshitz (right).
Photograph: Miryam Lifshitz with Maurice and Shulamit Hearsch.
Family photograph: The photo was taken in the 1950s at the Workers' Council (later Gil Cinema and today Kochav Cinema) in Ramat Hasharon.
Family photograph: The Lifshitz and the Hearsch family.
Photograph: Ze'ev (Wolf) Zauberman from Gedera, one of the first guards in Israel and the husband of Miryam Zauberman Weinberg (Simcha Gafni's sister), with his daughter Ora Argov Zauberman, riders on the donkey. Miryam and Ze'ev Zauberman were good friends of Isaac and Judith Livshitz family.
Photograph: Grandmother Bracha Livshitz with baby Miki (Miryam Hearsch) Lotker.
Photograph: 1944 documentation of the Aharon Livshitz' real estate - The house at 1 Tahon Street, Tel Aviv.
Photograph: Shulamit and Shoshana in Maurice and Shulamit Hearsch courtyard in Ramat Hasharon.
Photograph: Ora Raphaeli (momma Miki's cousin) as a soldier next to Bracha Livshitz.
Photograph: Bracha Livshitz, grandma Shulamit's mother - free bus identity document (1958).
Photograph: Miki (Miryam Hearsch) Lotker in her youth in a joint photo with her cousin Zvi Livshitz in the Workers' Council building in Ramat Hasharon (1957).
Photograph: Miki Lotker (Hearsch) as a young woman.
Photograph: Daddy Oded Lotker as a young IDF officer (1956).
Photograph: Maurice Hearsch with son Shalom, next to Maurice's bus.
Photograph: Shalom and Bella Hearsch ride their motorcycle, near the Workers' Council building in Ramat Hasharon.
Photograph: Maurice and Tamir Hearsch (early 1960s).
Photograph: Maurice Hearsch returns from fishing, Ramat Hasharon (1970s).
Zvi Lotker (Oded's father), son of Jacob (Yaakov) and Hanna, was born in July 1901 in Nizhyn, Ukraine. Zvi studied in the local gymnasium and then went on to study in the Kyiv and Leningrad Polytechnic Universities. From a very young age, he was an avid Zionist. Zvi's mother, Hanna, was the cousin of, Haim-Nahman Bialik. She was a disobedient girl, and in her grandfather's house, she once cut her cousin Bialik's sideburns just for the fun of it. The future national poet held a grudge against her for years. Later on, when they all immigrated to Palestine, Haim-Nahman and Mania Bialik became close friends with Zvi and Ra'ya Lotker.
In 1922, Zvi Lotker was sent as a town representative to the Youth of Zion convention in Kyiv. On account of his Zionist activism, the Soviet authorities arrested and sentenced him to one year in prison, and he was eventually deported from the Soviet Union. In 1925 he immigrated to Israel and started working as a clerk in the Strauss Medical Center in Tel Aviv. In 1926 he became a member of the Haganah paramilitary organization and was active during the Arab insurgencies of 1929 and 1936-1929. Zvi was a very literate man, and a fanatic promoter of the Hebrew language; among other things, he translated military texts from Russian to Hebrew. In 1936, he underwent a self-defense instructor course and began training volunteers throughout the country. During the Israeli War of Independence (1948) he participated in defending strongholds although he was already past the draft age, and took part in the conquest of Jaffa, Lod, and Ramla. Later on, he was wounded by shrapnel in the bloody battles of Latrun against the Jordanian Arab Legion. On March 21, 1949, Zvi Lotker was killed in action.
Zvi (Grisha) Lotker July 17, 1901 - March 21, 1949.
A postcard sent by Zvi Lotker to his son Oded from the Stamp Exhibition, Tel Aviv (1946).
A postcard sent by Zvi Lotker to his son Oded from the Stamp Exhibition, Tel Aviv (1946).
Ra'ya, Oded Lotker's mother, daughter of Homma and Moshe Kaplinsky, was born in Poland and immigrated to Israel on her own when she was just 16. During the Holocaust, Homma, Moshe, and six of their children jointly committed suicide using poison obtained by Moshe, who was a pharmacist. Ra'ya and her brother Isaac, who were in Israel at the time, were the only survivors.
Oded Lotker, big brother of Neta, was born in Tel Aviv in 1935 to Ra'ya and Zvi. From a very young age, Oded liked to paint and was considered an accomplished draftsman. His father Zvi died when he was only 12 years old, an event that impacted his life tremendously. As a teenager, he studied in the Mikve Israel Agricultural Boarding School. His friends of that time remember him as a handsome and stalwart lad, full of humor and endless knowledge, who loved reading and painting boats and seascapes.
Oded served in the military for six years and went on to study Agronomy in Jerusalem and Business Administration at Tel Aviv University. In 1964 he married Miki Hearsch. They had three children – Dana, Zvi and Ido. When Oded completed his studies, he began working as a project manager in Tahal (a leading water resource development company). Oded drew throughout his life, and his style is rich and varied. In January 2007, he passed away at the age of 71.
Miki Lotker (Hearsch) was born on December 21, 1938, to Shulamit and Maurice Hearsch, a little sister to Shalom. She was named after Miryam Lifshitz, Shulamit's younger sister, who was killed in a shooting attack at the age of 22. Miki attended the old Herzliya Gymnasium High School in Tel Aviv. In 1964, Miki married Oded Lotker, and the couple had three children: Dana (Ashkenazi), Zvika, and Ido Lotker. Miki was a microbiologist by profession who worked at Hasharon and Beilinson Hospitals.
Miki Lotker loved to cook, she was interested in technology, nature, and animals. After retiring, she engaged in art. She did glasswork, created glass beads, engaged in silversmithing and beadwork, sculpted, painted, and volunteered for community television in Ramat Hasharon. She died on June 5, 2020, at the age of 81 unexpectedly at her home in Ramat Hasharon. Until her death, she was active, curious, and young in her spirit.
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