'They fled in the middle of the night with nothing"...

 “I am sephardic on my grandmothers side, and I absolutely love sharing her story as much as possible! She was born in Spanish Morocco as the youngest of 7 in the late 1940s. her family owned a store there, and her father was a merchant (selling between spain and morrocco). when she was 4, her family received threats for being Jews (ppl sending notes that they’d burn their house down...etc) they fled in the middle of the night with nothing. She & her family spent a year in a refugee camp in France before making it to Israel. When she was 13, her father died, and the cost/work of raising so many children was too much for her mother alone, so she and her siblings went to live/work/learn on a kibbutz. post-high school. She fought in the 6 day war where she ended up on essentially the front lines. during the war, she was in a tank when a bomb went off near her, she was hit with shrapnel. ...she spent 3 months in the hospital (and made a full recovery!). eventually she met my grandfather (an ashkenazi holocaust survivor with an equally interesting/inspiring story!) and came to the US with him. We still have lots of family in israel, and i feel very connected to the land because of it! I am so thankful for her and my Jewish heritage, and think her story really helps me understand the importance of my Judaism!”

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