My maternal grandfather has been through a lot in his life and bloodline, from the Holocaust and Russian pogroms to 2 wars and the hardships of America. His parents worked to get to Israel and help build it, and with the newly formed country constantly being attacked, he had no choice but to fight. Eytan (I call him Saba - which means grandpa in Hebrew) was born in Israel on July 17, 1950, and this is his story.

Eytan's father, Zvi was born in Latvia, which was part of the Russian Empire in the early 1900s. Zvi’s father, Jacob, was a carpenter in Latvia but had a hard life because of the anti-Semitism and fear during that time. Zvi moved to Palestine in the early 1920s at 16, with his brother to help build up the new Jewish nation. His brother moved back to Latvia because he couldn't stand the heat, but Zvi stayed because he was a Zionist. He owned the first beauty salon in Tel Aviv, Israel, and was successful from it. He was previously married with a son before he met my great-grandmother.

Eytan's mother, Sara-Lea (who went by Lilly), was born in Berlin in 1920 before the Nazis took over. Her father owned a Deli, and they had a very nice life in Germany pre-holocaust. She told my mom many stories of how glorious life was in Germany in the 1920s, and she, like many other German Jews, felt very tied to German culture. She was only 13 when Hitler came to power and began to impose restrictions on Jews in Germany. Some of these restrictions included medical and law licenses revoked, preventing them from earning a living, and limiting the Jewish population in schools and universities. Some soldiers warned Lilly's family and told them to leave before the Nazis came to Berlin. Lilly's mother did not want to leave because they had a fine house and business and didn't want to risk losing it. But her father agreed to move to Belgium first so that he could settle there and get a house and job before moving the whole family over. He moved to Belgium in 1936.

Lilly's father reported back that he had a nice job and house and the rest of the family moved to Belgium to escape the Nazis. When they arrived, however, they saw that he did not tell the truth: it was very hard for him to find good work, and their accommodations were minimal for a family of 5. He lied for the safety of his family, even though they would not be as successful in Belgium. Right before World War II broke out in 1939, Lilly and her family moved to Israel with an exodus of Jewish people to escape the impending death and destruction of the war. In Israel, Lilly married and had a son before she met my great-grandfather, Zvi, 

Lilly and Zvi married in Israel in the 1940s and had Eytan in July 1950. He grew up with his two half-brothers in the heart of Tel Aviv, just a few blocks from the Mediterranean Sea. In 1968, he was drafted into the Israeli army at the age of 18. Because of the constant conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors, military service was and still is mandatory for most Israeli citizens. Eytan fought for Israel during the conflicts from 1968-1973, including the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War. 

Eytan fought for Israel in the War of Attrition. When he turned 18, he was drafted into the Israeli army like every other citizen, as required by law. He spent three years in the army's tank division, and after his mandatory service ended, he was in the military reserves. The Yom Kippur War required him to go back to the army a month after meeting my grandmother. 

Eytan and Ilana (my Sephardic grandmother) met after college at an Israeli folk dance. After the Iraqi Pogroms and Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, The Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews were treated very differently. Ashkenazi Jews are Eastern European Jews and Sephardic Jews are from the Middle East and North Africa. Sephardic were thought of by the Ashkenazis as disgusting and lazy. Given that my grandfather was Ashkenazi and my grandmother was Sephardic, their story is similar to the movie West Side Story. Eytan's parents despised Ilana so his mother sent him to Europe to forget about her. This did not work and they wedded in August 1973. A little over a month later, Eytan was called back into the reserves to fight in the Yom Kippur War. All former soldiers of the Israeli army were called back because of the military emergency.

Eytan was in the tank division. He remembers getting the military orders to meet in Be’er Sheba to pick up his tank so that he could drive it to the Sinai Peninsula. They had little tank ammunition and all they were equipped with was a Uzi and a few hand grenades per soldier. The tanks had to drive 200 kilometers (about 125 miles) to get to the Suez Canal. About 10 miles out from the Canal, they were swarmed by Egyptian soldiers on foot. Without any tank shells, their only way of getting through was running them over and shooting them down. Eytan had to spin the tank turret to prevent the Egyptians from climbing on and taking over the tanks. He doesn't feel much guilt in the deaths because, unlike other wars in history, he did not see death from inside the tank. At one point, a nearby tank exploded and the heavy tank door slammed shut on his finger. This gave him a minor injury that resulted in his ring finger being slightly bent for the rest of his life. Luckily, this was the only injury he suffered during his time as a soldier. 

My grandfather was in the fifth tank to cross the Suez Canal on the eighth day of the war. The enemies awaited him on mountains with high ground, however, they made an unwise decision by stationing themselves on the slope of the hill instead of the peak. In two minutes, my grandfather managed to shoot down 5 tanks because their positioning was like target practice. He remained in the army for 7 months after the war ended.

Eytan told me an interesting story that happened in the 1980s, long after the wars and after he had been living in Los Angeles for some time. My aunt brought an Egyptian friend home to play, and when her dad picked her up, he and my grandfather started talking about where they were from and discovered that they fought directly across from each other during the Yom Kippur War. They had a good talk and my grandfather said it was interesting to hear his side of the conflict, and there was no tension between them. This makes me think about how soldiers were being forced to fight their country’s enemy, but many of them had friends on the other side.  

My great-grandmother Lilly was sick of worrying Eytan when he was fighting in one war after another. So in 1974, after the Yom Kippur war and my grandfather’s reserve duty ended, she encouraged him and my Ilana to try moving to Los Angeles, where Eytan’s brother had moved. Eytan and Ilana weren't sure if they wanted to live in Los Angeles permanently, so they bought a house in Israel just in case. In LA, Ilana became an elementary school teacher at a Jewish day school and Eytan delivered pizzas. He then became the manager of a discount clothing store chain, and throughout the 1980s, he took ownership of those stores. That became successful but the recession in the 1990s caused many of those stores to close. He is an entrepreneur, and over time owned a carwash and a gas station on Tujunga and Moorpark. He eventually invested in a fireplace company and became very successful. He is now retired. Ilana is still teaching at a Jewish elementary school in the Valley.

My mother, Leemore, was born in 1977 during the clothing store era and was raised in Northridge and Calabasas. She studied Economics at UC San Diego and then went to law school at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. She is an employment lawyer for a cold storage warehouse and logistics company.