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Last update - 00:00 01/03/2007
Family Affair / The Raziel-Yanitski family
By Avner Avrahami and Reli Avrahami
Givatayim
The cast: Ronit Yanitski (48) and Osnat Raziel (43).
The home: Apartment building, first floor, 70 square meters (living room, two rooms), clean, well kept, softly lit, with subtle incense wafting along with music by Dido (an English singer). They have rented the place for two years, paying the shekel equivalent of $475 a month. On the walls are works by Ronit, on the table are dried fruits and a pecan pie from He'achim ("The Brothers") - "our bakery."
Tour and observation: In the darkish living room, opposite the CD stand (featuring Tal Gordon, Corinne Elal, Meir Banai), are a mattress-sofa (designed by Osnat's architect brother), an exercise bicycle and a Swedish ladder (a gift from a girlfriend). Adjacent is a dining area (with a black table) and behind it is an old mini-sized kitchen, well maintained, with red-handled white cupboards, where all is washed and everything is shiny. We make our way into the depths of the apartment.
The depths: Osnat has a study with a computer and bookshelves; Ronit has a studio on the balcony, where there are fabrics, paints and paintbrushes. Together they have a bedroom with a broad bed on an MDF construction, below pencil sketches and oil paintings by Daphna Arod ("a poet, painter and friend").
Livelihoods and occupations: Ronit, who paints, works from the morning ("Let's say from 8-9 A.M.") until Osnat returns ("about 4-5 P.M."). Her colorful works are done in acrylics with the addition of "lots of stuff" (glass, shells, metals, plastic bags). She has already had eight exhibitions - six of them in the United States - one of which is now on at the Tapuah Payis Center in Givatayim. She describes herself as a "new artist" and says "I always sell." Her prices range from NIS 1,500-2,000.
Osnat's livelihood: Dr. Osnat Raziel, a surgeon, runs a center that treats obesity in Assouta Medical Center in Tel Aviv. She is part of a team of surgeons ("group practice") who work in partnership ("Like at a lawyer's office") in different fields. She reduces the stomachs of patients who weigh more than 100 kilograms ("I had one who weighed 230 kilos") using a minimally invasive surgical procedure. There are some half a million "overweight" people in Israel, she says, of whom about 200,000 meet the Health Ministry criteria for surgery.
The criteria: 1. Body Mass Index (BMI) above 40 (divide weight in kilograms by height in meters squared). 2. The candidate for surgery made sincere (and "innumerable") efforts to reduce his/her weight by means of diets and physical activity, but failed. In no case are these "aesthetic" operations.
Osnat's livelihood (cont.): She works seven days a week ("I visit hospitalized patients on weekends, too") and describes her work as optimistic ("Yesterday in the cafeteria I met a patient of mine who lost 40 kilos"). She gets to work and back in the couple's 2007 Mitsubishi Lancer ("red"). Ronit always drives.
Ronit's bio: Born in Kibbutz Gan Shmuel, 1958. With her father, a poultry farmer who got a job with an Italian company that sold eggs, she went to Rome, where she spent her early childhood ("in a Catholic kindergarten and a Jewish school"). Returning to Israel at age eight, she attended elementary school in Netanya, followed by high school split between Ramat Gan and Yahud, and then she was drafted. Her family endured many ordeals.
Many ordeals: Her parents were divorced, her father was killed in a road accident and her sister (Osnat) died of cancer. Ronit did her army service as a clerk at the Wingate Institute - a job which in 1976 was reserved for outstanding athletes.
Outstanding athlete: Ronit played basketball as a pro from 1974 to 1994. The clubs she starred on ("I was the pivot") include Maccabi Ramat Chen, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ramat Hasharon ("with Orna Ostfeld"). She also played for the Israeli national team ("with Anat Draigor and Debora Frishberg"). Osnat: "She was the 'top of the top.'" In 1985 she started to work as a lighting designer as well ("I was the first lighting designer in the country for rock concerts") and as a manager of concerts as well. Among other shows, she managed Corinne Elal's "Antarctica" show. "Art," she says, "I have done my whole life." In the past four years this has been her major occupation.
Osnat's bio: Born in Ramat Gan, 1963. Her father (from Romania) was an economist for Israel Aircraft Industries; her mother (from Poland), a lawyer who owned a law firm in Tel Aviv. After high school she was accepted to the army's officer candidate academic studies program, in the course of which she studied medicine at Tel Aviv University, then served in the Israel Air Force as an airborne medic and as a physician at the flight school. She remembers dramatic rescues from Gaza during the first intifada ("when the grandmothers threw Molotov cocktails from the rooftops"). She became infected with the "flying bug" and now has a civilian pilot's permit ("I am licensed for a Cessna 172"). After her army service (1992) she specialized in general surgery at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, and at Wolfson Medical Center, Holon, before going for advanced study to the medical center of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis ("the leader in weight-loss surgery"). Ronit accompanied her ("I was the doctor's wife"). After returning to Israel in 2005, she established the center at Assouta where she now works. "Overweight people are good people," she sums up.
The meeting: 1995. Ronit was producing rock evenings at the Beit Lessin Theater, Osnat was in residence at Wolfson in Holon. A mutual friend brought them together at Osnat's place ("The bell rang, I opened the door and I fell in love" - Osnat). Two days later they moved in together and have been with each other "to this very day." Ronit had already had a number of relationships ("relatively long"), all with women, Osnat had had fewer. "Ronit was my first true love," she says.
Consolidating the relationship: "A ceremony has no meaning for us today. We feel married in every respect." They have no intention of bringing a child into the world.
A child: They say they are satisfied "to be the aunts" of their friends' children. Osnat: "We don't want any more than that."
Gender history: Ronit understood that she preferred women from the age of 18, at the end of high school, and says she never hid the fact ("I was always out [of the closet]"). Everyone knew in the army, she says, and her mother also learned to live with it. "I have a gay brother, and my mom says she is a 'modern mother.'" In Osnat's case it happened in the army.
Being lesbian: It's not only an emotional thing, they say, but also a social-political worldview, which includes affiliation with the left as part of the struggle for equality, freedom, mutual assistance and universal values, such as preserving the planet. "There are right-wing lesbians," Ronit says, "but I can't figure them out." The two reject the recently prevailing view that lesbians are humorless. Ronit: "You need a great sense of humor to be a lesbian."
God: Ronit is a total atheist; Osnat says she is very rational but believes in "good energies."
Daily routine: They get up together at 5:30 A.M. ("We sleep wonderfully well"). Ronit prepares a lunchbox for Osnat with fruits and vegetables ("including peeled tangerines"). They shower and dress, don't put on makeup, and Ronit drives the family Mitsubishi to Assouta. On the way they stop at a branch of the Aroma espresso bar chain. Osnat brings coffee, which they sip as they continue to the hospital, with the Israeli music station playing in the background ("For example, a song about a girl on Kibbutz Gadot who comes out of the bomb shelter and there are no more flowers around"). At 6:30 Osnat is already in the clinic and Ronit heads home to paint and cook. At lunchtime she will grab a bite to eat, while Osnat concentrates on the contents of her plastic lunchbox, in the courtyard of the cafeteria. At about 5 P.M. Ronit picks her up and later they will go walking - in Givatayim or on the Tel Aviv boardwalk ("From Banana Beach to the Atarim Square"). They get home about 7 for the main meal of the day, which Ronit has prepared (grilled chicken, schnitzels, baked salmon). Afterward - "It depends."
It depends: If it's Monday or Thursday, they will go to a game of the Ramat Hasharon women's basketball team; if not, they turn to the TV (Ronit) and the computer (Osnat). Ronit is addicted to sports broadcasts, "London & Kirschenbaum" (a current events program) and the Channel 10 news. Osnat prepares lectures or logs on to her forum (www.hashmana.com - Hebrew only). Sometimes they entertain friends ("Most of them are gays. That's how it worked out" - Ronit).
Quarrels: They have none, they say. "The moment we identify tension, we talk about it."
Haim Ramon: "He deserves what he got."
Cigarettes: Dr. Osnat Raziel goes through a pack a day, Ronit Yanitski even two ("I smoked when I was an athlete, too").
Death: Both have signed up with the organization of organ donors. "If it will save lives, let them take what they need" - Ronit.
Dream: "We're living it."
Happiness quotient (scale of 1-10): 10. Both of them.
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