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Family affair / Tzila Wilbushevitz-Paletz By Avner Avrahami and Reli Avrahami Haifa Advertisement W The cast: Tzila, 77, Wilbushevitz (maiden name), Paletz (from her marriage to Dov-Ber, who died in 1970); and Canaan the cat, who likes lounging in paradise (the roof), where he feels like a tiger (against all the birds). W The home: Hadar Hacarmel area, three stories. She was born and raised in this house, built in 1927 by her grandfather. W Her grandfather: Gedalyahu Wilbushevitz, an engineer who built the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa, planned and built Jerusalem Boulevard in Jaffa, was the city engineer of Damascus, a personal friend of Jamal Pasha (the Turkish governor of Palestine) and the older brother of Manya Wilbushevitz-Shochat, the cofounder (with her husband Yisrael Shochat) of the Hashomer defense organization in the early 20th century. W The home (cont.): In front is a deteriorating balcony and a blue sign (with the house number), on the right an exterior staircase in need of repair. Tzila lives on the second and third floors. One enters through a shaded yard covered with pine needles that is no longer maintained. Tzila effectively has a bi-level home with 120 square meters of floor space that is evocative of the classic Yishuv style and overlooks "Pevzner Strasse" and Haim's grocery. W Evocative: The entry level, with its decorative "Marseilles" tiling, has a living room and two bedrooms laden with furniture, pictures and books. Adjacent is an "old-time" kitchen and a dining area with a china cabinet that is home to a set of De Havilland pattern Limoges china. We inquire as to the origins of the furniture. W The furniture: In the living room is an "Abdul Hamid" bookcase (named for the Turkish sultan), purchased in 1903 by a relative, Shoshana Feinberg (sister of Avshalom, famed member of the anti-Ottoman Nili underground resistance in World War I). In the center of the room is a Damascene table (copper and wood, with philodendron), a gift for the dedication of the house (81 years ago), and the dining area contains a small hexagonal table, a gift from Jamal Pasha, sent from Damascus ("Grandfather built the main avenue for him"). W Genealogy: Tzila is the daughter of Emanuel Wilbushevitz and Lili (nee Werman) and the younger sister of Alexandra, who died in 1982. Her father, who was born in Jaffa in 1893, had a Ph.D in political economy from the University of Zurich, but preferred selling hydraulic pumps on Kings Road (today's Ha'atzma'ut Street) in Haifa. His father, Gedalyahu, an ardent Zionist, was born in 1865 on an estate near Grodno (then in Russia, now in Belarus) to a wealthy family of lumber merchants. He earned his engineering diploma from Charlottenburg University in Berlin (a "very highly regarded" institution). The family immigrated to Palestine (for the first time) in 1892. Gedalyahu's wife, Tzila (nee Bordo), unimpressed by the country, hustled the family back to Russia. But the yearning for Zion grew, and in 1903 the family returned, only to have Gedalyahu go bankrupt with a pump factory ("the first Jewish factory") but thrive as a city engineer. Still, Tzila thinks the most fascinating member of the family was Moshe. W Moshe Wilbushevitz: Grandfather Gedalyahu's younger brother, he invented Lehem Hai sprouted-wheat bread and wrote a book called "Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone." And Manya? W Manya Wilbushevitz: Tzila remembers her as a "warm-hearted woman" with short hair in a black pinafore dress over a white blouse, who used to come to visit and chat a bit in German. W Livelihoods and occupations: Tzila is retired, after working as a medical secretary for Maccabi Healthcare Services for 26 years. She lives off her pension and National Insurance old-age allowance. No capital remains from her family, she says. ("The Wilbushevitzes were good only at wasting money.") W Tzila's bio: Born in Haifa, 1931, in Auerbuch Hospital, located in the home of the Zionist leader Menachem Ussishkin (on Jerusalem Street). "There was a terrible economic crisis at the time," she relates, "and just between us, we are approaching it again." (Her comments came before the big Wall Street decline.) As an undiagnosed dyslexic, Tzila suffered greatly at the prestigious Reali School. ("I was considered stupid.") The humiliating treatment prompted her mother ("who believed in me") to put her in a private school. Subsequently, toward the end of the British Mandate, she attended Gymnasia Bialik high school and secretarial school. W End of the Mandate: "The Union Jack still charms me," she says, "and the language, too." Still, she felt spiritually uplifted when the British left. Tzila: "Anyone who wasn't here in 1948 will never understand the feeling." W Bio (cont.): She was drafted in 1950 ("in the first unit of the Women's Corps"), wore a below-the-knee khaki skirt, served in the Signal Corps on Mount Carmel, and after her discharge worked as a secretary in Haifa Port. W Haifa: "Small and Bolshevik." Her father, she says, felt the absence of the Arabs, and her mother loathed the Mapainiks. (The ruling Mapai Party was the forerunner of today's Labor). Mayor Abba Hushi, to her taste, began the destruction of the city's history, and Yosef Almogi, broke the stevedores strike in the port. She met her future husband through a work colleague. Dov-Ber Paletz was a cook who became a chef, a U.S. citizen who grew up in Jerusalem's Mea She'arim. They were married in 1953, in her parents' home ("We bought a little meat on the black market") and sailed to America. W America: Five years in Baltimore, where their daughter Naomi (who now lives in Hadera) was born. Dov worked as a restaurant chef, Ed Sullivan was king of TV, Marlon Brando starred in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and Tzila adored Montgomery Clift. They moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s and returned to Israel in 1969, upon the death of Emanuel (her father) and the birth of Emanuel (her son, now living in New York). In Israel they lived with Lili (her mother). Dov died a year later ("I loved him"). For the past nine years, since her children left, she has been alone. W Being alone: "It doesn't bother me, I like it." W Daily routine: Tzila rises at 7 after a poor night's sleep ("I take 0.25 milligrams of Bondormin") and feeds the cats in the yard. She returns to make breakfast. W Breakfast: Jacobs freeze-dried instant coffee ("one sugar and a little milk") and a slice of whole-wheat bread ("only Lehem Erez"), halved: half a slice with salty cheese (5 percent fat), the other with her own apricot or plum jam. ("Mother taught me.") With the Israel Radio morning newsmagazine in the background, she straightens up the house and goes on errands at about 9 (bank, Talpiot Market), returning at 11 to prepare lunch. W Lunch: Between 12 and 1: fresh salad, cooked vegetables and pasta (Barilla) in tomato sauce with olive oil. After a two-hour schlafstunde (nap) she does the dishes (no dishwasher), waters the plants (on the balcony) and sits in her easy chair (in the living room). Time for television. W Television: Tzila likes Channel 8 (documentary/nature), BBC World News ("so I know what's going on in the world and not only in our swamp") and Channel 1, for the "New Evening" current events program ("I like Ronen Bergman"). She has supper (slice of bread, cheese, cup of tea) between 6 and 7, against the background of "EastEnders" (BBC Prime), before switching to "London and Kirshenbaum" ("one of my favorites"). At 8 she goes to Viva to watch Argentine telenovelas ("quite sophisticated") and around midnight glances at the news from Britain and at Channel 1 for "From Today to Tomorrow" ("not too establishment"). Then it's time to turn in. W Dreams: "A knight who looks like James Mason and will take me, you know where." W Death: She is "not afraid of it." W God: "I don't believe and don't pray." W Writing her will: "I have an emotional block that stops me." W Assisted living facility: "I don't think about it. Worse comes to worse, I'll take a Filipina" [caregiver]. W Selling her home: "I'm not selling." (The property also belongs to her two nieces.) "I'll live here until I'm carried out on a stretcher." W Books: She usually reads in the morning ("If I have no errands"). Recommends Orhan Pamuk ("that Turk"), who writes about Istanbul and received the Nobel Prize. ("It really is not just any city.") W Going out: Movies. Tzila: "Thank God there is a multiplex in Lev Hamifratz," a mall. She goes with girlfriends. The last movie she saw ("and it depressed me") was the Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men." ("Excellent, but the main motif is death.") W Second Lebanon War: "You have no idea what a hell it was here. No one cared about us." She could have found shelter in Tel Aviv but preferred to stay. "I said, if I have to die, let it be in this house." W Longings: "For the relationships that used to exist between people. People used to be more willing to help one another without self-interest." W Missed opportunities: "That is the essence of life. What is great literature or great music if not about missed opportunities? Personally, I regret that I wasn't born in the right generation. I would have been glad to have been born in my children's generation. As a woman, at least, they have more freedom." W Israel: "At the end of 'One Hundred Years of Solitude,' Marquez writes: '... everything written on them [the parchments] was unrepeatable since time immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth.' We wasted our opportunity. When there was a dream there was glue [to hold us together]; when the dream faded, the glue disappeared with it." W Happiness quotient (scale of 1-10): 6 ("But sadness is part of life"). Bookmark to del.icio.us   Israel policy Obama camp dismisses Jesse Jackson's remarks on ridding the U.S. of 'Zionist control.' Welcome to AqsaTube The Palestinian militant group Hamas launches its own version of YouTube.

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