Moshe Lederman gives himself a special 100th birthday present -- aliyah from Brazil • “I have met many thousands of new immigrants and one thing is common to all of them -- whether you are 10 or 100, aliyah makes you younger.”
Yori Yalon
New Israeli immigrant: 100-year-old Moshe Lederman. | Photo credit: Eliezer Lederman |
Moshe Lederman is one of the oldest new immigrants in Israel. The former Brazilian celebrated his 100th birthday last month together with his family and friends, and then left them to fulfill his life-long dream of making aliyah to Israel.
“I am optimistic, full of energy and have a lot of plans for the future. I have always wanted to emigrate to Israel. I have happily fulfilled that dream and have been united with my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who are living in Israel,” the new immigrant told Israel Hayom on Saturday.
Lederman arrived in Israel on Friday from Brazil with the help of the Jewish Agency. “Even though I am an elderly person, I am sure I can still start a new life in Israel,” he said excitedly.
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky congratulated Lederman and said, “I have met many thousands of new immigrants and one thing is common to all of them -- whether you are 10 or 100, aliyah makes you younger.”
Moishe, as his family calls him, was born on Feb. 15, 1912, in Chelmno, Poland. He was the youngest child of Yakov and Leah Lederman and the brother of Fanny, Mayer and Paula. In 1930, at the age of 18, Lederman emigrated to Brazil and settled down in the northern city of Recife, Brazil’s fifth-largest city. The city was home to a small community of Jews from Poland, Russia, Romania and Serbia, including some of Lederman’s relatives.
Lederman worked as a merchant and in 1942 married Miriam Alkalay, from a local Spanish Jewish family, who passed away last year. The couple had three children: George, now deceased, Eliezer, 65, who also intends to make aliyah, and Leah, 57, who made aliyah in 1983. Lederman also has seven grandchildren, three of whom live in Israel, and five great-grandchildren, two of whom live in Israel.
“It’s a great joy that he decided to fulfill his dream and emigrate to Israel. My father is a good man, charismatic and full of energy,” Lederman’s daughter, Leah, said. “He likes to read books and newspapers in Portuguese and Yiddish and has always participated in events held by the Chabad house in Recife. He instilled in our family Jewish customs and culture, and the principles of Zionism.”
Lederman is not the only centenarian to become a new Israeli immigrant recently. In August 2011, Golda Goberman, a 100-year-old unabashed communist from Ukraine, arrived and officially became Israeli as well. Goberman, who never hid her Jewishness in Ukraine, was an active member of the Communist Party for more than 70 years, and said upon her arrival, “If Israel became communist, everyone would have equal opportunity. It would be a great thing for the Jewish state.”
