March 30^th, 2006 Rachel Zalta & Michal Katz

The children's story Grandmother Why Do You Have a Number on Your Hand? begins with a little girl called Tzipi, who doesn't understand why her grandmother has numbers tattooed on her arm. Tzipi and Grandmother Lilly are both sitting in the grandmother's house in Jerusalem, and Lilly started telling Tzipi about the Holocaust.

Lilly was a little girl who grew up in a town in Czechoslovakia when the German soldiers took over her town. Lilly and her family were sent to concentration camps. Lilly was separated from her father and brother, yet was left with her sister and mother. Lilly's mother died from hard labor work, starvation and the cold weather. Four years later they were liberated by the Russians from the camp, and Lilly and her sister Tova went back to they're old town in search of they're father and brother. They reunited with they're brother who sadly told them about the death of they're father. With tears in they're eyes they together decided to move to the land of Israel, where the Jews were building homes, and protecting themselves against enemies. The story ends with Tzipi thinking "Hitler thought he could destroy us all, but here we are, siting in the state of Israel, the land of the Jews, with my grandmother and family. We proved him wrong!" J

The story The Name is talking about Grandfather Zisskind, who used to live in Europe and came to Israel with his daughter Rachel before the Holocaust. Zisskind's grandson Mendele, and the rest of his family, were murdered cruely in the Holocaust. Every Friday, Rachels daughter Ra'aya comes over to visit Granfather Zisskind. Zisskind tells the story of Mendele and shows pictures of him every single visit. He keeps letters from Mendele and pictures of him in a small broken clock on his wall. Later Ra'aya had a baby boy and Zisskind wants him to be named Mendele, in memory of his beloved grandson. Ra'aya on the other hand has other names in mind, like Ehud, a strong jewish character from the bible. Once the baby is born, Zisskind refuses to acknowledge his new grandson, Ehud.

Although both stories have similarities, they have quite a few differences as well.

Both grandparents have very different personalities. Grandfather Zisskind is always sad and obsessive. He is often in a fight with his children and grandchildren, and is prepared to end a relationship because of his stubbornness. Although Ra'aya comes to visit, it is because she has to; she has no interest in hearing about the suffering and torture that her people have gone through. She doesn’t care about the horrific past in Exile. All she wants to hear is the progress Israel is making by building houses, planting trees and settling the land. In the story Zisskind is described as a pale looking man, old and fragile. He has delicate hands and looks feminine. Although the story takes place in the middle of the summer he is always described wearing a vest and a long sleeved shirt. In the Holocaust the Germans made the Jewish race appear as a weak, old fashioned and cold people. This is how Zisskind is described.

As opposed to Zisskind, Grandma Lilly is always happy and cheerful. She's a healthy looking lady, in her early seventies. She has a big family, who loves her very much and always wants to be around her. She is patient and kind with a warm smile. She explains about her past in the Holocaust but does not obsess about it. When Tzipi asks her about the Holocaust, it's because she's curious and interested. Tzipi really cares about what they’ve been through, and by learning about what has happened she cares even more about her land, and therefore loves it even more. Grandmother Lilly and her family are living proof that the Nazis did not succeed in their plan to destroy the Jews. Lilly is the opposite of Zisskind because she isn't weak or pale like the Germans showed the Jews, but is tanned and beautiful looking.

The grandparents deal with the past differently. Zisskind doesn't really cope at all; his way of dealing is by obsessing over his dead grandson. It's like crying over spilt milk that was spilled years ago, this will not help him or anyone else. On the contrary, it will only upset him more and cause him and his family more pain. The letters that Mendele sent to him, which are kept in the broken clock, metaphorically represent his mind, which isn't willing to continue ticking, and come back to reality. Zisskind continues to live in the past. He wants Mendele to be remebered by all and therefore, wants Ra'ayas son to be named in memory of Mendele. Once Ra'aya doesn’t agree to name her son Mendele, Zisskind's way of dealing with hsis disapointment is to completely ignore and not aknowledge his great grandson. As a result, Ra'aya distances herself from her grandfather and the Holocaust itself.

Lilly copes very differently. She doesn’t forget her past at all, but definitely doesn’t dwell in the past. She continues with her life and establishes a home in Israel. She looks into the future, instead of looking back at the past. Instead of getting affected from the past, she learns from her experiences, and takes what she's gone through and makes the best out of it. By this she improves her life and makes her friends and family appreciate what they have and how lucky and fortunate they are.

Zisskind and Lilly both live in Israel, but for different reasons. Zisskind came to Israel for shelter and security. He foresaw the Holocaust in his mind and came to Israel out of fear, and desire to stay safe and alive. He doesn’t see Exile as a bad and horrible place, but as a place full of life, a happy place with culture and people. In Zisskind's mind Exile is good because his people have been there.

When Lilly decides to come to Israel it was not only for refuge and escape, not because they were scared and hopeless. Lilly comes because she believes in the state, and wants to establish it and build it up. She loves the actual land of Israel and not only the idea of having the ability to defend yourself against enemies. The only reason for remebering the past, is in order to improve the future. Exile was the past, and it was very bad. It is insignificant to remember it if your not going to use it to impove.

In conclusion, we see that Zisskind is dwelling in the past, while Lilly is using the past to improve. Zisskind deals with the Holocaust by obsessing and Lilly by remembering, and making the future better. Both stories have similar themes. They both show how important it is to always remember our past, as the famous hebrew phrase says in Chapters of The Fathers "דע מעין באת ולאן אתה הולך". You shall always know where you came from and where you are heading.

From comparing the stories and the characters, we learned the importance of remembering the past and improving the future. We think this is a very important lesson for all of us to learn. This project has really influenced our way of looking at the past. We always knew about our past, we heard stories about the Holocaust and Exile, and found it very important, and impossible to move on without it. This project has encouraged us to try and improve the future by reminding us how horrible the past was.

Aharon Megged

Aharon Megged was born in Poland in 1920 and came to the pre-state Israel when he was six. He lived on a kibbutz for many years, working and fishing. Later, he became a journalist and literary editor, and was writer-in-residence at Oxford and Haifa universities. He has been a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language since 1980, and was President of the Israeli branch of PEN from 1980 to 1987. Megged has published over 40 books. He has received many literary awards.

Susan Weiss

Susan Weiss wrote the children's book Grandmother Why do You Have a Number on Your Hand? In the year 1999.The story was written about her mother Lilly Moskowitz, and Susan's daughter Tzipi. This is a real story about Lilly’s life during the Holocaust.

Web site: the institute for the translation of Hebrew literature last update: 11/11/2003, 02/03/06 <http://www.ithl.org.il/author_info.asp?id=170>.

Book: Weiss, Susan.סבתא מדוע יש לך מספר על היד?. Published by Weiss, 1999.

Short story : Megged, Aharon. The Name , 1994.

In this project, we have learned only one new skill, patience. The project was very frustrating at times, and we had to compromise between us partners in order for this project to be complete. Throughout the whole project, we had disagreements, but we settled them easily since we're both mature friends.

We don’t think communicating with the Canadian students enhanced or enriched our project in any way, although it was interesting for common knowledge. Personally, we don’t think we'll continue writing to the Canadian students because we didn’t really get to know any of them personally.

It helped us a lot when the teacher corrected our first draft of the project, but except for that we think that most of the project was done by us and we didn’t need a lot of help from the teacher.

In conclusion, we think our topic was one of the more interesting ones, and most of the other topics were boring, but our friends worked really hard, and put a lot of effort into their projects, therefore we are looking forward to reading them.