Marriage & Work in Germany
After the wedding we moved to Bonn since Michael meant that there, in the former German capital, we would be able to open an art school and teach children of all nations.He rented for us a one room apartment in the center of town and began to study political sciences at the university. I found work as an operator at the South-Korean embassy, right across the street from the synagogue we went to for Sabbath services.
Eventually we moved to a newer and larger apartment in Bad-Godesberg, one of Bonn’s nicer neighborhoods; I started a new job at a company that produced aerial photos and I also gave art lessons at the children’s forum in town.
Nonetheless, by the time we had been in Bonn two years I couldn’t stand living in Germany any longer and returned to Israel alone, hoping that Michael would soon follow.
Uncle Walter had his apartment on Mount Carmel, and invited me to stay with him; for a short period I worked in one of Steimatzky’s bookstores and later I found a full-time job teaching art in various schools in town. I called Michael in Bonn regularly hoping that he would change his mind, but he refused to join me. Since I definitely did not want to harm our relationship after only two years of marriage, and Michael wasn’t yet sure what he wanted to do about his conversion, I decided to give us both another chance and returned to Bonn.
![]() Bonn, Germany |
Our Jewish wedding ceremony took place on the 17th of September 1978 in the synagogue of the Jewish Community in Bonn, two months after Michael’s completed conversion.
In the meantime we had moved to a bigger apartment and on December 7th, 1979 our daughter Rebekka was born. In our new home, where we would remain together for the next sixteen years, we lead a Jewish life; we kept Kashrut (Jewish dietary Laws), observed all Jewish festivals and regularly attended prayers at our synagogue.
Our community would often ask Michael to address school classes after Sabbath services on a variety of Jewish issues and they elected him to join the congregation’s representation.
We were both very actively involved in community life; we entertained and were invited by many people as well. Michael would teach me all he knew about Judaism and every Friday evening I would read the weekly Torah portion, an experience I cherish and observe to this day.
Still, I kept hoping that my husband would change his mind and agree to return with me and our daughter to live in Israel. With the help of my friends there and material I got from the Israeli embassy, I tried to keep in touch with the country and to learn and better my knowledge of Hebrew as best as I could. Michael would periodically even start making plans for our move to Israel, but in 1993 I had to realize and finally accept the fact that he would never go with me, his attachment to Germany was much too strong for that.
This time I had no doubts anymore, I had given Michael enough time to make up his mind, I had waited long enough and now I had to make my own decisions.
On March 21st, 1994 shortly before Passover, just the two of us, fourteen year old Rebekka and I, arrived in Israel. Michael did neither keep his promise to join us here later and since I had nothing left for some kind of postal marriage arrangement I wrote to Germany and asked him for a divorce in June of 1994. The procedure took three long years and made adjusting to our new life even harder, especially for Rebekka who had never been here before.
Michael joined the green movement in Germany in 1979 and became very active in the organization’s offices in Bonn while I chose to stay home and take care of our daughter. After the Tschernobyl catastrophe I joined a group of women within the Bonn Anti-Atom and Peace movement. Like me, these women were mothers and we were all deeply concerned about the environmental conditions our children were growing in.
![]() |
In 1992 Michael decided to start training as a geriatrics nurse and has been working at the geronto psychiatric ward of the Rhein Clinic in Bonn ever since.
With Michael’s consent Rebekka and I took between 1981 and 1989 a yearly trip to Petropolis to visit my parents. When Rebekka was still a little girl we would sometimes fly over and stay in my parents beautiful country house for five long months, when she grew older and had to go to school we would stay for four to six weeks. Only once, in 1981 did Michael come over for a visit.
During the year I worked in Rio de Janeiro in 1989, Rebekka and I stayed the first six months in my former atelier in Petropolis, the rest of the time we moved to Rio; while there poor Rebekka broke a leg and since she wished to return home, in July of 1990 we flew back to Germany. The same year in September my parents came for a visit to Bonn and in October my mother passed away. My father moved to a nursing home in Sao Paulo where I would visit him regularly from Bonn and take Rebekka with me, later I would fly from Israel to see him. When he passed away in July of 1997, I was in the hospital standing by his bed, since then I only returned to Brazil only once.
![]() |
![]() |