It's a little early for April fools day, but take a look at the name of the airline in this photo taken in Israel. Is that Mayoff Airlines? Maybe we're more famous than we know?
Bunya's descendants living in Germany visit
family in the US for the first time
by Art Mayoff
Zelig's great-great granddaughter, Margarita (Rita) Gindin Sokolins-kaia, a resident of Munich, Germany arrived in St. Louis, MO on September 10, 1997 for a month long visit with relatives. Accompanied by her year old daughter, Michele, Rita stayed with sister Mila and mother Zina. Rita had an opportunity to spend time visiting some of her cousins on her mother's side, some of whom she hadn't seen in years. While in St. Louis, they were surprised by a visit from Leah Bergen - A reunion of Bunya's descendants almost 100 years in the making. What a wonderful experience.
Photo above Left to right: Zina Gindina,
Leah Bergen, Mila El'perin, Rita Sokolinskaia holding Michele and Ann
El'perin.
The dog's name is Voucher and he barks in Russian.
On the 24th of September, Zina, Rita and Michele arrived in San Francisco for a week-long visit with Sue & Art Mayoff. Their visit was very educational for them, and for us. I had the opportunity to learn a tremendous amount from Zina about her professional and personal life, in both pre and post Glastnos. Zina is quite a stalwart woman. She has overcome tremendous challenges, including losing her husband, and raised two most loving and "bubbly" daughters. In broken English, with the help of an electronic dictionary and by often comical vote between mother and daughter for the proper English word, we had a most memorable week. On their first day, they got to see the bay from a very unique perspective - a trip by boat to San Francisco from Benicia. On a separate trip, this time by touring van, we visited the many popular San Francisco attractions.
Rita Sokolinskaia in San Francisco
(Above photo) Fifth generation descendants of Zelig, 1 year old cousins Matthew Kaplan and Michele Sokolinskaia play together for the first time.
Among other week-long fun things, often joined by our daughter Debbie and grandson Matthew, we went splashing in the surf of the Pacific ocean, watched toddler cousins play in the sand at Ocean Beach, visited some early Californian historic missions, attended a wine festival in Napa, held a California Barbecue, etc. But more than anything, we watched the 1 year old cousins play together for the first time and we spent hours sharing, talking, learning and enjoying each other's company. It was a very heartwarming week.
Photo above: Cousins Debbie Mayoff Kaplan & Rita Sokolinskaia.
Zina and Michele in Benicia, California
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