Ya'el Na'ama is beautiful

I found out the name your parents gave you when I entered shul this morning and your father whispered it in my ear.  It is so appropriate for such a beautiful baby to have such beautiful names.

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Only three days old and you have already filled our hearts.  I visited you and your mother again today after Shabbat morning service, and it was such pleasure to ‘put a name to a face’. 

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My dear Ya’el Na’ama, I know that you are going to be a huge source of much pride and joy. 

You are the most perfect baby

It was wonderful to kiss you and hold you today for the first time.  Rachel and I flew to Israel from the Czech Republic this morning to see you.  You clearly have a fine head of beautiful black hair and very strong lungs.  I can honestly say that you are the most perfect baby.

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Day two of your life is of particular importance because it was on 6th August 1945, exactly 65 years ago, when the world’s first atomic bomb was released, incinerating the Japanese city of Hiroshima under a towering mushroom cloud and killing more than 200,000 people.  Last year, the newly elected U.S. President Barak Obama came to Prague where I live to give a speech calling for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.  It is my profound hope that this will happen during the course of your lifetime and that the atom bomb will never fall anywhere again.

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Tomorrow, on Shabbat, we will find out your name when it is announced in synagogue.  I can’t wait!

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Grandpa Jonathan (Jerusalem, Israel)

Welcome to the world

It is such a joy to welcome you to the world as my first grandchild.  Even though we have yet to know your name, we have seen such beautiful photos.  On this momentous occasion, it is my privilege to  start a blog which will include regular observations from me.  It is my hope that when you are old enough, this blog will give you some interesting insights about the direction the world during the formative years of your life.

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You share your birthday with Neil Armstrong, who was the first man to step on to the moon on 20^th June 1969.  I was twelve years old, sitting closely to our black and white television, witnessing him emerge from his Apollo 11 spacecraft to say the words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.  Armstrong became 80 today, as you took your first breaths on Planet Earth.

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Israel was only 21 years old when man first landed on the moon.  The great country into which you are so lucky to be born, will be in its 123^rd year by the time you reach the age of 80, as Armstrong has today.

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May you live far longer than that, in health and happiness, in a land that will by then be long free of conflict.

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Grandpa Jonathan (Prague, Czech Republic)