By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
The story of Charlie Auzzie Feuer’s birth has really been more than 20 years in the making. That’s because Charlie’s mother and father, who on September 13 became the parents of the first Jewish baby of 5768, have known each other most of their lives.
Charlie is the first child of Zev and Rebecca Feuer, both lifelong residents of Seward Park. He was born in Swedish Hospital on First Hill at 3:29 a.m. on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, weighing 8 lbs., 5 oz. He measured 21 inches long.
According to father Zev, everyone’s doing fine.
“Fortunately, Rebecca’s doing well and the baby’s doing well,” he said.
Zev Feuer and Rebecca Angel have known each other since childhood. Born about a year apart — Rebecca’s the older of the two — they both attended the Seattle Hebrew Academy and after that the Northwest Yeshiva High School.
“We were best friends in high school, but we were never dating,” Zev said.
After they graduated high school, Zev took a year and a half to study at a yeshiva in Israel before returning to the states to attend university in New York. Rebecca spent two years at the University of Washington. All the while, the two remained in contact, though just as friends. When Rebecca transferred to New York to finish school, they began to date each other.
“Not quite high school sweethearts,” Zev said, but that didn’t really matter. “We dated about three months, until we got engaged.”
They married in August 2002.
Their lives in Seward Park are certainly a family affair: both sets of parents live in the neighborhood, as do grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. One set of Zev’s grandparents even celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary recently.
Charlie, whose Hebrew name is Elan Azriel, is the first grandchild for Rebecca’s parents, Albert and Sandy Angel. Zev’s parents, Moshe and Sherry Feuer, have a 4-year-old grandson in New Jersey.
Ever since the Feuers were informed of Rebecca’s due date — September 13, the day Charlie was actually born — they had been excited about the possibility of having the first baby of the New Year.
“It immediately crossed our minds that it might be the first baby born on Rosh Hashanah, not even in the state, but anywhere,” Zev said. “We thought it would be a little interesting to see how we would be spending the holidays, because we were at Swedish the entire time.”
When they went to the hospital on Wednesday morning, “[Rebecca] said we should push it off until sunset,” Zev told JTNews, but that ended up not being necessary. “He came just after the holiday started.”
The Feuers are members of the Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath congregation, but they were of course nowhere to be seen at shul this Rosh Hashanah. But because he wanted “just to get a taste of the Rosh Hashanah service,” Zev made the short walk from the hospital to the Summit at First Hill to pray on the first day. The rest of the time, he said, was spent with Rebecca and the baby.
Zev, who works in marketing, is already back doing some work. Rebecca, who teaches 5th and 6th grades at her alma mater, Seattle Hebrew Academy, is taking 12 weeks off and will return to the classroom afterward.
The Feuers are excited about having eight-and-a-half pounds of baby boy in their home, but that he emerged just as the New Year began something they think will be a special part of this child’s life.
“It’s fantastic, it’s the best way to start our year,” Zev said. “You can’t get any better than that.”