Family Affair / Betty Tchaikovsky By Avner and Reli Avrahami Tel Aviv The cast: Betty Tchaikovsky (57). The home: In the city's old north, a ground-floor apartment, previously an open space area in the building, with one hall and another hall and a large room (dual purpose), plus a small kitchen, bathroom, closed balcony (plastic blinds) and a walk-in closet. All told 50-something creatively used square meters, rented. Advertisement The rent: $500 a month (plus NIS 300 property tax and NIS 40 for the house committee). The design: The building's age (about 50) is apparently in its walls, its infrastructure, its content. Along with the ceramics and the marble that characterize old-time kitchens, there is also a refrigerator that has lost its logo and gloomy-looking gas burners. In the adjacent hall is a brown Formica cupboard next to a rattan bookcase; in the living room, which is used both for sleeping and for hosting people (with a broad bed covered with a yellow bedspread and two blanket-wrapped armchairs), are bookshelves on old-style metal poles. The books: Among others, thick medical tomes and multivolume kabbala volumes ("The Book of Zohar"). We head for the balcony. The balcony: Site of the computer and the dining table. The computer is covered with nylon wrapping ("I do e-mails and that's it"); the table is accompanied by chairs that look like they came from grandpa's generation (their present color is red). Beyond the plastic blinds a green bush is visible. We have a peek and return to the living room. On the walls are posters of art exhibitions held at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Monet, Matisse, Stematsky). We ask about the source of the furniture. The furniture: Apart from what was already in the apartment (cupboards, shelves, refrigerator, gas burners) and aside from the bed, which was bought on Herzl Street in Tel Aviv, Betty likes to find things in the street ("What people throw away") and to buy in the flea market ("a lot of fun"). Livelihoods and occupations: Dr. Betty Tchaikovsky, an internist by profession, works in a clinic in Ramat Aviv as an expert in the removal of body hair with a laser. She works a six-day week, from 8 to 3, and sometimes until 9 P.M. Hair removal by laser: "From every possible place on the body." Most of the work is in the winter months ("It's forbidden to do treatments in the summer"). The treatment is painful. Painful: "If it doesn't hurt, it's not working, because of the burning of the root." According to her, the ideal combination in terms of this treatment is "light skin - dark hair." The laser does not identify light or red hair, she explains, and skin burns can result. "The laser homes in on the pigment, that's its principle - it sees a pigment and burns it." Permanency: "There is no such thing. At a young age, before pregnancy," you can forget it altogether; after the age of 45 it's possible to achieve 80 percent absolute removal ("But that's not certain, either"). Prices: "Two months ago we had a leg special for NIS 3,000." Men: 30 percent of the clients. No girls allowed ("Only from the age of 18"). Work satisfaction: When clients are pleased. Betty: "I had two today who did facials and one of them told me, 'You're tops, you changed my life,' and the second one said, 'I had a forest, now I have nothing, it's a miracle.'" In the course of the treatment (which can last three years) Betty gets to know the personal stories of each client ("I'm like a psychologist"). Bio: Betty Tchaikovsky was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1949 ("I'm a Taurus") to a well-to-do family ("not rich"). Her parents were Holocaust survivors who immigrated from Poland after the war; her father had a clothing store, her mother was a housewife. Betty has a younger brother. She attended the Jewish school in Caracas ("Herzl-Bialik") through 12th grade and also took an interest in everything having to do with beauty, fashion, makeup, jewelry, design and art, read a lot of detective novels (Agatha Christie, Perry Mason), and was a "very independent" girl. At the age of 17 she took part in the Miss Venezuela contest ("I finished third") and afterward was crowned beauty queen of the medical school. During this period, she says, she was also chosen to be the "escort" of Prof. Christian Barnard, the charmer and heart transplant pioneer, who visited the campus. Medicine: She studied seven years at the Central University of Venezuela. At first she thought of becoming a psychiatrist, but then she switched to internal medicine and interned at Gregorio Hernandez Hospital ("the biggest in the city"). After completing her studies she worked at the hospital for 12 years (until 1986). She then opened a private clinic until her immigration to Israel. Amid all this she was married and divorced. The marriage: She was 20. "I don't remember much from that period. It's like somebody else's life." She had two daughters (Susan and Sandra, 35 and 33, both married, one living in the United States, the other in Italy) and got divorced (1985) and has been alone ever since. She met her husband (an architect) at a reception in the Jewish community, dancing salsa with him the whole evening ("We are Caribbeans"). The next day she went to a movie with him and married him six months later ("in a synagogue"). After the divorce she raised the girls by herself and studied "bio-energetic medicine," specializing in reflexology, healing, acupuncture, shiatsu and homeopathy. Around this time she decided to find herself another place on the planet. She didn't consider Israel. Her greatest desire was to leave Venezuela, which was "too slow" for her ("It absolutely did not suit my pace"). After the girls grew up she went to California, Miami and New York, then on to Canada and from there to Spain, but continued to be restless. Deeply troubled, she returned to Venezuela and then met a rabbi from the kabbala movement in America founded by Rabbi Michael Berg and was captivated ("The moment we started to learn about the letters, I started to dream and images of Israel came to me"). Israel: In January 1994 she went to the Jewish Agency office in Caracas ("They told me I was nuts, because I was 42") and three months later she found herself in Tel Aviv ("I wasn't afraid"). She approached WIZO, a women's organization, and was referred to Canada House (an absorption center in East Talpiot in Jerusalem). She felt shivers on the road up from Sha'ar Haggai ("from the stones"). After seven months of studying Hebrew in an intensive course she returned to Tel Aviv, underwent "observation" at Ichilov Hospital ("They watched me"), was certified as a physician in Israel (after half a year) and started to work in the Maccabi health maintenance organization, afterward switching to the Clalit HMO. Since 2001 she has been with Clalit's department of aesthetic medicine. 30 years in the profession: "Everything in life is a placebo," she says. In other words, if you believe in a medicine, everything can be cured. Daily routine: She gets up at 7, brushes her teeth, puts on rouge, lipstick and something for her hair, dresses ("I love to dress well"), adds earrings ("from Castro"), drinks a cup of instant coffee, nibbles a cookie and leaves the house with a sandwich (cheese, tuna or cold cuts) in her bag. It's 7:45 A.M. It takes her 15 minutes to get to the clinic (in a 1997 Hyundai Accent), where she receives the list of patients (between six and 10) and their personal files from the secretary. At about 1 P.M. she eats her sandwich ("We have a small room") and two hours later heads home. She spends the rest of the afternoon at the beach (in the summer) or meets girlfriends in a cafe on Ibn Gvirol Street ("sometimes in Gan Ha'ir," an upscale shopping center). She gets home at 7 ("at the latest") and makes herself a small supper (soup or an egg and salad), and afterward decides among television, a book, the phone (to her daughters) or the computer. Television: "Dancing with Stars," "Young and Restless," movies on satellite TV. What about the news? "Sorry, I don't watch the news." She goes to sleep between 10 and 11 ("I like to get eight hours of sleep"). She sleeps well. Books: Buys in secondhand stores and reads about 20 a month (in Spanish and English). She is especially fond of family sagas and biographies. Music: She is wild about the singer David Broza. Medicines: She carries homeopathic drops in her bag. "When I am tense, that's my placebo. But what do I care - it works." Fridays: After finishing work at 1 P.M. she attends a yoga class and goes home for a three-hour siesta, followed by dinner at her girlfriends'. On Saturday morning she goes to the gym at Go Active, a workout place in the Weizman Mall. Romance: She has not yet found it. "The truth is that at first one of the reasons I came to Israel was because I wanted to meet a Jewish partner." Since then she has had "at least 200 blind dates," from which she understood two things: (1) that Jews and Israelis are not the same thing ("Israelis are very pushy"); and (2) that the singles never look like her girlfriends' husbands, whom she likes very much. Betty: "A lot of people tell me, 'You're pretty, you're a doctor, so why no partner?' And I can't explain it. Maybe it's a matter of luck, maybe it's karma." Dream guy: "More or less my age, knows English, loves life, and if he is also handsome and has money, all the better." In addition, she says, it's very important to her that he not be stingy - and that he be generous with himself, too. Best-looking guy: Javier Bardem (star of the film "The Sea Within"). God: She believes. "But not religiously - cosmically." Every morning next to the door she asks him for a bit of good luck. Regrets: "That I didn't get divorced sooner." Israel: "I no longer have any other passport and I will not live anywhere else." The war: "I cried during the newscasts." She says she did not go out as a sign of identification with the residents of the north. Dream: "Not to grow old." Death: She is not afraid. "I don't want to be buried - I have claustrophobia. I want to be cremated." Loyalty: Always to Avi Padida, a hairdresser (corner of Arlosoroff and Weizmann). Happiness quotient (scale of 1-10): 8 ("If I were with the girls I would be 12").

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1.	betty tchaikovsky	16:49	|	ernesto	17/11/06