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Family affair / Miki and Yehudit By Avner Avrahami and Reli Avrahami W The cast: Miki Rinat (67) and Yehudit Levy (66). W The story in a nutshell: Miki and Yehudit are sisters; both are retired. Miki lives in Hod Hasharon; Yehudit lives on Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv, but most of the time they are together at Miki's place ("At least 50 percent"). Advertisement W Miki's place: In a central location, above the Arnon and Tamar deli-cafe and across from Angelina (a restaurant), in a building with a gray plaster finish and no illusions. Inside, the visitor gets a surprise. "The exterior is misleading," Miki says. It's obvious straightaway that she knows something about arranging a home. W Arranging a home: Miki is not afraid of a surfeit of objects; she simply knows where to put them. The dark wood floor, softly lit, stretches into a furniture-heavy living room and a dining area that joins a well-equipped kitchen, adorned with candles and old family photos. In the living room, which ends in bamboo blinds, is a low sideboard ("made to order") with silver items, a crystal chess set and a vase with anemones. Around the coffee table are armchairs, some with carved wood frames, the latter purchased in Nahariya ("from the estate of an Austrian yekke" [German-speaking Jew]). W Onward: A short, parqueted hall leads to the other rooms. To the left is a multi-niched room containing neatly arranged suitcases, to the right a neat bathroom with a trendy stone countertop and a sunken sink. "Everything was designed by Asaf and Rahel," Miki says (referring to her son and daughter-in-law). Directly ahead is a pastel bedroom - Miki's - which looks like a place for reading love letters. On the wall next to the bed, which is covered in sky-blue, is an old, oval-shaped portrait of a girl. "It's mother," Miki says. Her name was Jeanne and she was three when the photo was taken, in 1914. On the nightstand are books. Miki recommends "The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years" by Chingiz Aitmatov. The next room, where Yehudit stays, contains a big bed and a worn wooden wardrobe. There is one more room - for the grandchildren. We peek in (sofa, kindergarten drawings). Back to the living room. W Summary so far: The total area is between 130 and140 square meters, for which Miki paid $180,000 in 1998. "The location is just right," she says. "It has everything." W Personal status: Yehudit is single ("my whole life"); Miki is a widow. Her husband, Amos, was killed in a road accident in 1978 at the entrance to Nahariya ("A few drops of rain fell"). She never remarried and raised her four children alone. W Her children: Guy, 45, married with a son and a daughter, lives in Amsterdam, where he manages the local branch of Agrexco, Israel's agricultural export company; Asaf, 44, married with four daughters, owns a company that supplies fresh produce to restaurants; Roi, 38 and single, works with Asaf; Hila, 35 and single, is in high-tech. W Occupations: Miki retired a year and a half ago but never sits still. Twice a week she volunteers with first-graders in Hod Hasharon (helping them with English and Hebrew), once a week she volunteers at the local branch of the Welfare Ministry, once a week she does storytelling at a local kindergarten ("The Giving Tree"), twice a week she plays bridge and she always makes food. Cooking is her thing ("In one hour I can prepare a meal for 20"). Until her retirement she worked for the Golden Pages business directories company and for HOT, the cable and phone company ("My sister got me the job"). Yehudit: "There never was and never will be a company like Golden Pages. All the rest are kiosks." W Yehudit: Retired three months ago after 18 years at HOT in its various incarnations ("I was one of the pioneers"). Her last position was in customer service ("regarding programming"). She describes herself as a film buff. These days she is mostly idle. She hangs out at Mitahat Le'Etz, a cafe on Ben Yehuda Street, and is enjoying every minute. She is about to start two film courses: "The Great Directors" and "War through the Eyes of the Cinema." W Cooperation: A few months ago the sisters adopted an Ethiopian family together. They collect clothing and food for them - "Whatever is needed." "I am the driver and Miki is the cook," Yehudit says. "You can't find friendship like this," Miki says. On Fridays they seek out exotic breakfasts ("The latest was at the Turkish place in the Carmel Market"). W Miki and Yehudit's bios: Miki was born in 1940 in Scheveningen, Holland, three months before the Nazi invasion; Yehudit was born a year after her. Their father, Alfred Levy, a German-born Jew with a doctor of jurisprudence degree, had fled to Holland and was waiting for a visa to Argentina when he met Jeanne, their mother, who was not considered a Jew (only her father was Jewish). Until 1944, the family hid in Amsterdam and in Tilburg, in the south of the country. At this point Miki was sent into hiding in Deurne, a village in the south, where she stayed until 1945 with a childless farmer and his wife (Nelly and Jef Jansen). There she was known as Mientje ("They made me swear never to tell my real name, Miriam"). Yehudit was sent to Burum, a village in the north ("in Friesland"), where she, too, lived with farmers (the Ruwesmas); her name was changed to Oeta. The Levy family fell apart. Their parents were sent to Auschwitz ("someone informed on them"); Alfred did not return, Jeanne survived ("She managed to escape from the death march"). W The meeting: Grandma ("Oma") Helen brought Miki home. She stayed in touch with the Jansens until their death. A month later, her mother also returned ("She was a shell of a person," she recalls. "I understood that it was mother because I was told that she would arrive, and I immediately clung to her"). Yehudit was brought back by her uncle, a soldier who showed up in an army truck. She remembers screaming and not wanting to go with him. When she got home, her mother and sister were already waiting for her. She remains in touch with the members of the family who rescued her. W To Israel: Jeanne had sworn that if she ever came out of Auschwitz alive she would go to Palestine. As a mother she was dysfunctional: She sent her two daughters (and their little brother, Danny, who lives in Holland) to an orphanage. Afterward the children were brought to Israel through the Youth Aliyah organization and lived in a number of institutions. W Orphanhood: In the orphanages in Holland they often suffered beatings as well as sexual harassment ("better not to talk about it"). In Israel, they also had their share of humiliations and loneliness in various institutions ("with a lot of tears"). At first they lived in Karkur, then in Jerusalem at a religious institution, and finally in Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan. Their mother immigrated to Israel afterward, but was incapable of assuming responsibility for them. Miki went to Kibbutz Ayelet Hashahar, Yehudit stayed at Ramat Yohanan until the reparations from Germany arrived and the family was reunited in a small apartment in Kiryat Yam, a Haifa suburb. W Adolescence: Miki attended a boarding school in Petah Tikva. During this period ("a happy time") she met Amos, a paratrooper three years older than she ("He parachuted into the Mitla Pass" in 1956). She was 20 when they wed ("It was a great love"). The wedding was held in her mother's house ("under the clotheslines"). At the time of Amos's death they were living in Nahariya; she was 38. She never considered remarrying ("I had my fill of ups and downs - it's a story for a psychologist, I suppose"). And raising four children? "I got used to it." Yehudit: "In case you hadn't noticed, my sister is a real personality." W Yehudit's adolescence: She went from the kibbutz to her mother's home in Kiryat Yam at the age of 13 ("Mother wasn't exactly the Yiddishe mama"). School didn't really interest her ("But I did a B.A. at the age of 45"). After military service (drafted in 1959), she attended the Tadmor Hotel School, worked in the plush Dan Accadia Hotel in Herzliya, went abroad (to the Amsterdam Hilton), returned in 1969 to work as a ground stewardess for KLM, switched to Golden Pages, went to the United States, and upon returning (1989) started her cable career, until her retirement. "My sister is a waste, intellectually" (Miki). W The single life: "I received a lot of attention," Yehudit says, "but I think the reason I never formed an attachment was a fear of abandonment." She goes regularly for therapy to Amcha, which aids Holocaust survivors ("I'm a first-generation survivor"). W Daily routine: Miki rises between 7:30 and 8 A.M., Yehudit at 9 ("after 18 years at 5:30"). Miki showers, puts on sunscreen, lipstick, eye shadow, perfume ("mandatory") and goes out. She has her first coffee ("instant, no sugar") out of the house, sometimes in the teachers' room of the school where she volunteers. She eats lunch at home ("I heat up something I made earlier"). Yehudit, meanwhile, relaxes at home. For lunch she dines on Miki's creations ("Whatever my nice sister provides"). Toward evening, Miki watches Rafi Reshef's current events program while nibbling on a piece of cake; at a quarter to eight she has a small salad. She goes to sleep early (by 11:15). Yehudit carries on into the night, surfing the Web or watching television ("Mad Men" - "wonderful"). They try to watch "Betipul" ("In Treatment") and Gil Riva's interview program together. W Nostalgia: Miki recalls a scene from childhood: "I'm on the sofa with Yehudit. Dad is sitting and feeding us hutspot [a traditional Dutch mashed-potato dish] and Mom is shouting from the kitchen - 'Is it good?'" Yehudit is not nostalgic. "It's dangerous to be nostalgic," she says. W Missed opportunities: "I never envied Miki," Yehudit says. "I was a woman of the world, I had my loves." W Dream: Miki - "To travel the world"; Yehudit - "To live with Miki in a beautiful apartment, each in her own corner." She put a note in the Western Wall, she says, "asking to go before Miki." W Happiness quotient (scale of 1-10): Miki - 9, Yehudit - 8 ("because of the Israeli summer - torture"). Bookmark to del.icio.us   Halimi, relived A Jewish teen is tortured where Ilan Halimi died in similar circumstances. Bus-bomb capital Four buses designed to thwart suicide bombings are tested in J'lem.

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