Farryl Hadari

My second encounter with Dick Israel was in 1986, when I had come to Boston with my family - my husband, Avi , Asaf - 7 years old, Itamar - 4 years old, and Eliana- one year old. We were spending our sabbatical year in Boston, and Dick was instrumental in arranging this for us. We arrived from the airport at the Israel house. After we put our suitcases away, we came downstairs. I noticed that Dick was looking at my two sons, Asaf and Itamar, as if measuring them. He finally gave a nod toward Asaf and said that he would do. Where upon, he opened up the grating by on the floor by the telephone. He directed Asaf over to the hole in the floor and obviously wanted to lower him into it. This seemed like a very unusual request from some one he had just met. Dick explained to Asaf that he wanted him to go down the hole and pick up all of the loose change that had fallen there. When he finished, Dick lifted him out of the hole and his face glowed from the discovery of the fortune he had brought up. However, his newly found riches did not stay with him too long, as Dick brought out the tzedakah box and told Asaf to put the coins in it. I think he caught a glimmer of something in my son's eye, as he immediately added "you can keep a quarter" - which , of course was a good deal for Asaf.

Another time during our stay, we were at the Israel house and Dick told me that he had something important to ask from me. This sounded serious. He took ou a small stand or four finger puppets. Giggles, the dog, had taken a bite out of the pink finger puppet, and Dick asked if I could fix it. I took it home and added papier mache, painted it pink and fixed the puppet's smile. I brought him his repaired puppet and he gave me a smile so full of fun and appreciation. It was the kind of smile that I don't forget; it's kind of stayed inside of me somewhere.