Autumn Years Fall 2023

creative games with the neighborhood kids in the street till sunset. The milk was delivered from home to home by the milkman, who milked his own cows. Even a big chunk of ice was delivered to homes to be used in our non-electric icebox refrigerator. My parents placed family above all else, as the concept of family is fundamental to Judaism,” Rabbi Ziona says. “My extended family gathered once a week, and I loved this. My parents also passed down in words and in deeds a set of values that serve me well even today, such as kindness, compassion for others and love.” An important part of her young life included duty, which meant mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Force, starting at age 18, in 1969. She was an electronic intelligence sergeant with the highest security clearance and served during the War of Attrition in the Sinai

Rabbi Ziona during her military service in the Sinai, 1970.

knew all along that I was meant to be an educated and a professional woman.” She recalls that everyone knew everyone in the village. “I felt safe, as all my neighbors were like family. I grew up without television or phone. I only listened to a radio with a few local stations. Instead of central air conditioning in the summers and central heat in the winter, we had fans and kerosene heaters. I played

“My husband is my biggest cheerleader,” says the 72-year-old Franklin Lakes resident. She and Ron raised three children and enjoy their six grandchildren. A member of Temple Beth Rishon in Wyckoff, she was 59 when she became a rabbi. She credits Ron for his support as she pursued her lifelong vision of becoming an educated and professional woman. She first achieved a career as an adjunct professor of anthropology at Montclair State University, her paying job as they raised their children. Her childhood in the Israeli village of Nesher, near Haifa, revolved around family, which included parents who survived the Holocaust. “My mother was a homemaker, and my father worked as a fork lift operator. I know what it is to be poor,” she says. “I observed my mom and grandmas cook, clean, do laundry, iron linen and prepare the big daily meals. I was led to believe that this would be my future. Although I participated in the house chores until I got married, I

Rabbi Ziona and friends in the bunker, where they worked and slept during the military service in the Sinai, 1970.

Rabbi Ziona on the Suez Canal. Egypt is in the backdrop.

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AUTUMN YEARS I FALL 2023