MY COUSINS MET IN JERUSALEM WITHOUT MY INTRODUCTION
On December 28, 2024, I received a message from a cousin in Florida. She sent a picture of her daughter with another young woman and wrote, “Lauren ran into a friend from Gainesville at the shuk in Jerusalem today.”
Questioning Lauren’s mom Kim about why Lauren was in Israel now since she’s a college student in New York, she responded that she is “in a fellowship with Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Only there for one week but back in NY she is active with this fellowship program.”
Then, on New Year’s morning, I awoke to an email from Kim and a picture of Lauren with another young woman. The message said, “Lauren Met Rebecca (your cousin) on Same Program.”
While I knew my cousin’s daughter was heading to Israel, it didn’t dawn on me that Rebecca from Allentown, who studies at Emory, would meet up with Lauren. Lauren is studying in a dual program at Columbia University and List College at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and while in Jerusalem for one week, she met Rebecca, who is enrolled in the same fellowship program.
The most amazing part is that Rebecca (pictured on the left on the cover page) and Lauren, determined they’re both related to me (Rebecca from my father’s side of the family and Lauren from my father-in-law’s side of our family)! Coming from different states, with popular names like Wilson and Cohen, that was a long shot.
When I forwarded Kim's picture of Rebecca and Lauren to Rebecca’s parents, they called me soon after. They had just gotten off the phone with Rebecca calling from Israel and asked her about the picture they received from me.
As the story was relayed to me, Rebecca spoke with someone in the program who announced that he was from South Orange, New Jersey. Hearing South Orange, Rebecca laughed, saying there was only one person she knew in South Orange. Within earshot of Lauren, she mentioned Sharon and Arnee Cohen. Lauren quickly chimed in, “Arnee Cohen?” And that is how our cousins met in Jerusalem on winter break!
In all my years of tracking down family members, it still thrills me when a find is made. In this case, I can’t wait to see where these gorgeous and brilliant young women leaders take their talents. They’ve already been around the world and using the phrase coined by Shakespeare, “The world is their oyster.” Stay tuned.
Cousin Lauren Cohen shown with a friend she met up with from Gainesville, Florida while in Jerusalem in December 2024; the picture on the cover page shows my cousins Rebecca and Lauren in Jerusalem on January 1, 2025