By Donna Gordon Blankinship, Editor, JTNews
Anna Rachel Jaffe seemed determined to be the first Jewish baby of 2001 in Washington state. She arrived 11 days early and beat her next closest competitor by about an hour.
“She wanted to be the first Jewish baby. She was jumping out,” says Anna’s mom. Aly and David Jaffe of Sammamish became parents for the first time at 1:40 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 2, at Overlake Hospital. “She’s a little peanut. She’s only 5 pounds, 3 ounces,” Aly says.
Anna Rachel’s Hebrew name is Fridka, after one of her paternal great-grandmothers, Florence Borock. “Fridka means “˜joy’ in Yiddish. She brings us lots of joy,” David said.
Anna Rachel is named for four great-grandparents, two on each side of the family: her maternal great-grandparents Rena and Albert Klausner and paternal great-grandmothers Ann Jaffe and Florence Borock. Aly and David remember their grandparents with great fondness and were enthusiastic about naming their daughter after them.
“We just think she’s a lucky girl to have such special people to be named for,” Aly said. “We wish they could have met her. They would go crazy.” She is the first grandchild on Aly’s side and the first granddaughter on David’s side and is lucky enough to have six grandparents: Brenda and Ira Jaffe of Farmington Hills, Mich.; Gail and Ed Weintraub of Chagrin Falls, Ohio; and Stan and Sandy Schwartz, also of Chagrin Falls.
David works for Microsoft as a product manager for Microsoft Office. Aly is a social worker at Medina Children’s Services in the infant adoption program. They have lived in the Seattle area for three and a half years and have no family here but have made lots of friends through the Young Leadership Division of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Aly was on the YLD board for two years.
The Jaffes have been going to services at Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue and say they will probably join that congregation.
The Jewish community experienced a little baby boomlet right around the secular new year. The first three Jewish babies of 2001 were all born within a day of each other at Overlake Hospital.
Kathy and Steve Berman of Mercer Island had their daughter, Abby Hannah, one hour after the Jaffes on Jan. 2. And good friends of the Jaffes, Kerry and Kara Moscovitz, who celebrated with the Jaffes on New Year’s Eve, had their daughter, Libby Rose, on Jan. 3. “She already has a best friend,” says Aly about Anna Rachel.