Holocaust survivors who were best friends in Germany were reunited more than 80 years after they last saw each other.
Betty Grebenschikoff from St. Petersburg, Florida, and Ana María Wahrenberg from Santiago, Chile, both 91, were reunited in November thanks to the work of a researcher at the USC Shoah Foundation — a nonprofit organization founded by Steven Spielberg, theWashington Post reported Tuesday. Both thought the other had perished.
The researcher, Ita Gordon, attended a webinar in which Wahrenberg recalled surviving the 1938 Kristallnacht pogroms in Germany and Austria. She searched for more information about Wahrenberg in the foundation’s archives.
That search led Gordon to the life story of Grebenschikoff, who attended the same Jewish day school as Wahrenberg. Gordon watched a 1997 filmed testimony by Grebenschikoff in which Grebenschikoff mentioned her friend Wahrenberg, and added she often wonders whether Wahrenberg had survived the Holocaust.
The women met at the age of 6, also went to the same synagogue, took ballet lessons and played dress-up, according to the Post article.
Although both women had changed their names after the Holocaust, Gordon was able to trace them and bring them in contact. They chat weekly over the phone.
“For 82 years, I thought my best friend from Germany was dead,” Grebenschikoff told the Post. “I’d been looking for her for all those years and I never found her.”
Grebenschikoff’s family fled to Shanghai, China, in 1939 and moved to the United States after 1948. Wahrenberg’s family settled in Chile.
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I sure hope that this letter was written as satire!
Dear Yeshiva World News,
I didn’t think that I would be writing this, but the meshigas has been going on now for almost two weeks now and no one else has written anything, so I have to!
I am a normal person who moved from Brooklyn to Toms River. I have a few children, some married, and some in seminary and yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel. We don’t do hotels for Pesach, but we do go to Florida every year as a family. This past year has been very hard for all of us. We were not together last year Pesach or summer because of COVID. We were moser nefesh to send our kids to E”Y this past year. My daughter had to give birth without her mother, husband or any other family in Yerushalayim. The seminary year for my daughter has been a far cry from the year we imagined. My son is shteiging in yeshiva, but locked up in plastic bubbles. Every other day there seems to be a lockdown. its been insane for everyone. We didn’t go to be oleh regel for sukkos as we normally do. Our kids didn’t come home for Chanukah and we and they missed many family simchas on both sides. Zoom is great but only goes that far.
When they announced that they were finally opening the skies to let people fly a few weeks ago, we were all thrilled! We have been looking forward to being together as a family for a whole year now! We booked tickets for everyone to come home for a well needed yom tov break. Then one ticket cancelled, and another rebooked. Its been two weeks of constant PCR tests, ever changing regulations, crazy schedules – imagine running to the airport, packing to fly, only to find out your flight is no more. Again and again. Everyone is blaming everyone else. The askonim are saying don’t leave, because otherwise you don’t know if or when you can go back.
It seems to have become a political game, and we are the pawns before elections. And the guilt that everyone is giving us that we don’t want the zechus for our children of being Eretz Hakodesh for Pesach, of why is everyone trying to run away from Israel? Let me tell you, we love E”Y as much as the next person, which by the way as a collective frum yidden in America pour a TON into the economy in Israel when we go. Does the government really think that after this massive failure we will be in a rush to come back and visit? Enough is enough already! And to all the people faking corona tests – stop it’s ruining it for everyone else! Yes, I know that priority should go to to medical cases and worse situations, but just open more flights – we also have a right want to spend time as a family together. To all the government people reading this now:
Dayenu! Let us go
Sorry. While you seem to be serious and well intentioned you come off as privileged and spoiled. Life can be hard but those in charge should not make their decisions based on what an occasional tourist wants. Their responsibility is the safety of their citizens and only that. They owe you nothing. Any interest in opening Israel to non citizens is a financial decision that has to be considered risk relative to benefit to their citizens. For the record, I hope I can call myself frum. My daughter was in Seminary and no, she did not have to go home to see mommy and Daddy during that year. My wife had our children in the USA without parents being present, it worked out BH. By the way, frum families do not add as much to the Israeli economy as you think. The new mode of using apartments instead of Hotels is part of that. Most Seminaries get some funding from the Israeli Government (yes, we still pay a lot!!!) and there are many that get monthly checks for each child born in Israel. Friends have found it is cheaper to support their married children in Israel than in the USA.
Am i the only one who has an issue with this letter? It starts off by saying “I am a normal person who moved from Brooklyn to Toms River.”
But then goes on to say: “but we do go to Florida every year as a family.” “We didn’t go to be oleh regel for sukkos as we normally do. Our kids didn’t come home for Chanukah”
What a normal family!! If these are the standards for normal then we have other issues, worse then no flights to Israel. If i remember correctly last year there was a massive push to convince the chassanim and kallos to have smaller chassunas, because who needs gashmiyus. So only gashmiyus for chassanim and kallos on the most momentums day of their lives needs to be cut. But family trips to Florida and “Oleh Regal” for Sukkas doesnt. The hypocrisy is disgusting!! Correct me if im wrong, but most people dont fly home for Chanukah. Your poor son and daughter in Israel, who went to grow there, are stuck learning in school instead of having camp in Israel. Terrible!! You should probably ask for a refund. Also, they left to Israel in middle of a pandemic. So you should’ve expected things to not be smooth sailing.
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Rav Gershon Edelstein, who just returned to delivering shiurim in person after a year of staying at home due to the pandemic, was accosted by an anti-vaxxer on Wednesday afternoon.
As the Rosh Yeshivah was returning to his home after delivering a shiur, a young man approached him and began screaming about coronavirus vaccines, the “decree” on army enlistment, and voting in the elections.
“The man was insane, he shamelessly screamed at the Rosh Yeshivah,” a witness to the scene told Kikar H’Shabbos. “We managed to overcome him only through a neis. At the last minute, we prevented him from physically attacking the Rosh Yeshivah.”
Someone called the police and officers quickly arrived at the scene. They arrested the man and he was taken to the police station for interrogation.
Just two weeks ago, a similar incident occurred at the home of Rav Chaim Kanievsky when a man with a knife tried to enter the Gadol’s home.
The man later told the police that “it bothers me that the Rav calls for people to be vaccinated against the coronavirus” and that the Rav “doesn’t support Binyamin Netanyahu in the elections,” and therefore, he came “to convey a message to him.”
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The Regavim Movement on Tuesday filed a petition in the Jerusalem District Court against the Jerusalem Municipality, which has been concealing the existence of an underground tunnel dug by the Church of the Dormition, one of the largest and most recognizable Catholic churches in Jerusalem.
The Dormition, located just outside the Zion Gate, on the highest point in ancient Jerusalem, is included in the historic preservation compound known as “The Sovev Homot [Jerusalem Ramparts] National Park.”
As a result of Regavim’s legal pressure over the past two years, the Jerusalem Municipality was forced to measure and document the tunnel, which encroaches on public property in an area dense with archaeological remains. Since the completion of the mapping project, the municipality has ignored Regavim’s continued requests for documentation of the tunnel and law enforcement at the site.
Mount Zion, one of the gateways to the Old City of Jerusalem, is well known for its unparalleled historic and archaeological importance to the three monotheistic faiths. The section of the mountain that is protected by the “Sovev Homot (Ancient Jerusalem Ramparts) National Park” contains numerous archaeological sites, including the site identified as King David’s tomb, the Hasmonean-era city walls, and the First Temple-era city wall.
Despite the national, religious, scientific and historical importance of the area as a whole, the Dormition Church dug an underground tunnel, more than 100 meters long, to connect the Church with “Beit Josef,” a dormitory/guest house it built nearby decades ago.
For years, the existence of the tunnel was nothing more than a rumor shared among local residents and Jewish institutions active on Mount Zion, until Regavim sent an official request to the Jerusalem Municipality in 2019 for confirmation of its existence and precise details of the tunnel’s location, in order to determine the extent to which it encroaches on public land as well as the extent to which priceless antiquities may have been harmed by the unsupervised digging.
Last year, as a result of Regavim’s demand and after the Jerusalem Municipality was forced to admit that the there is, in fact, an “old tunnel” at Beit Josef, official documentation was carried out on behalf of the Jerusalem Municipality; the illegal underground passage, measuring some 150 meters, was documented at last.
The investigation revealed that along the path of the tunnel there are underground rooms containing ancient artifacts, and the tunnel itself encroaches to a significant extent on public property. This illegal passageway was dug without a permit, violating existing planning codes and Israel’s Archeological Protection Law, without any oversight by engineers or archaeologists, as required by law, and may have damaged antiquities and other artifacts.
Despite its findings, the Municipality has not charged the Church municipal land taxes for the illegal tunnel, while all other residents of the city are expected to pay these and other taxes and tariffs or face heavy penalties.
“When the details began to come into focus, we demanded over and over that the Jerusalem Municipality publicize the documentation of its findings, as required by the Freedom of Information Law. We further demanded that oversight, inspection and law enforcement procedures be taken immediately, to restore the site to its previous condition either by sealing off or demolishing the tunnel,” said Attorneys Avi Segal and Yael Cinnamon of the Regavim Movement. “We filed this petition only when our repeated requests to the Jerusalem Municipality were not answered.”
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Aspirin is an established, safe, and low-cost medication in long-standing common use in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, and, in the past, pain relief and fever-reducing medication. The use of aspirin was very popular during the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic, several decades before in-vitro confirmation of its activity against RNA viruses. Studies showed that aspirin, in addition to its well-known anti-inflammatory effects, could modulate the innate and adaptive immune responses helping the human immune system battle some viral infections.
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When is a Palestinian terrorist not a Palestinian terrorist? When The New York Times covers up her past and hopes nobody will notice.
I’m referring to a deeply troubling allegation contained in a major article in the Times on March 6, authored by its new Jerusalem bureau chief, Patrick Kingsley.
The article focused on a Palestinian disc jockey, Sama Abdulhadi, who was recently arrested by the Palestinian Authority for performing a concert near a mosque. Incredibly, Kingsley quoted Abdulhadi and others blaming “the Israeli occupation” for the mistreatment of Palestinian Arab dissidents by their own Palestinian Authority. I’m going to leave that absurdity aside because of an even more disturbing part of the article.
In an apparent attempt to show the continuity of alleged Israeli misbehavior from generation to generation, Kingsley wrote that in 1969, “the Israeli authorities expelled her grandmother, Issam Abdulhadi, a leading women’s rights activist.”
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A Louisiana man trying to sell a dirt bike on social media was fatally shot after meeting up with a potential buyer over the weekend, authorities said Monday.
Joseph Vindel, 29, left his New Orleans home around 10 a.m. Sunday to meet up with Jalen Harvey in the town of Harvey, where he planned to sell the bike, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto said at a press conference.
“Mr. Vindel never returned from that transaction,” the sheriff said.
Vindel listed his bike on Facebook Marketplace for $2,700.
Vindel’s family contacted police after not hearing from him for hours. Detectives found messages between Vindel and Harvey talking about the bike sale, Lopinto said.
The text messages led police to an apartment complex in Harvey, where they found Vindel’s dirt bike in one of the patios, he said.
During their search, cops came in contact with Harvey, 20, who admitted to shooting Vindel multiple times in his car, according to the sheriff.
Police say Harvey then drove the vehicle and abandoned it with Vindel’s body in the backseat. Afterward, Harvey drove the dirt bike back to the apartment complex, cops said.
Harvey was arrested Monday and he faces a first-degree murder charge.
Lindsey Vindel couldn’t believe his son — who recently got his real estate license and was starting his career as a realtor — was killed over a dirt bike.
“He was loved by everyone and didn’t deserve this,” the distraught father told WWL-TV.
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R’ Moshe Dovid Kish Z”L, a longtime Boro Park Hatzolah Paramedic, died this morning.
The Niftar, known in Hatzolah as “B-219”, suffered from an illness the past 10 years. Despite his Yesurim, he continued responding to emergencies and saving lives until he was physically unable to do so any longer.
Sadly, he was Niftar on Tuesday morning.
He leaves behind a wife and eight children, four of whom are unmarried, his parents, and his hundreds of grieving friends in Hatzolah.
The Levaya will be held on Tuesday at Yeshiva Chasan Sofer, 1876 50th Street in Boro Park. The Kevura will be held in the Monsey Bais Hachayim, next to his brother.
THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN BY A BORO PARK HATZOLAH PARAMEDIC:
I don’t post often and I don’t put out “BDE’s”when there is that terrible post of tragedy because I don’t think it does justice to a lost life, but today I think it’s imperative that on this forum a man such as Moshe Duvid A”H get more than just an emojy.
Moshe Duvid Kish was not only a Hatzalah Member he was an amazing husband, father, grandfather, amazing friend and the symbol of Tzidkus. He was a man that even after his terrible diagnosis and prognosis spent countless hours, days, weeks and years counseling others on how to overcome THEIR pain and misery. I would hear him on the phone with these people and think to myself how can a person be so strong. Then I realized that his strength came from a place that is way deeper than one can explain. It came from a level of Emuna that we often hear stories about, but seldom see in real life. I saw it by Moshe Duvid! He did things for people without wanting anything in return and without fanfare or publicity. He loved helping people with anything that he could.
When he got very sick and he needed help in return none of the people that helped him were able to even come close to his level of help. We failed to even reach a fraction of his devotion to others because reaching his level was a life’s work. For that we daven that he forgives us and in his honor I think he is worthy, as I’m sure many others that have been posted on this chat were, that we spend the day thinking on how we can grow in our mesiras nefesh to help other people in the way the Moshe Duvid did every day of his short life.
May he be a Mailitz Yosher for all of us and all of klal Yisrael and may this chat post only simchas until the coming of Meshiach some time very soon.
Boruch Dayan HaEmmes…
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On Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," host Maria Bartiromo and Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz made some keen observations about the Biden administration that has some people questioning who's really in charge over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Bartiromo asked the Florida Republican whether a transition may be already underway, given President Biden's avoidance of the press while Vice President Kamala Harris meets with international leaders such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Emmanuel Macron.
"What is going on?" Bartiromo asked. "Are we getting ready for some kind of a transition?"
"You have to wonder whether or not the transition to Harris has already begun," said Gaetz. "Joe Biden’s had more nap time than he's had questions from reporters. And you're right. While the Middle Kingdom grows more ambitious in their goals, we are still toiling away in the Middle East. Joe Biden has had more attacks on Syria than he’s had press conferences."
Gaetz also questioned whether progressive voters are having buyer's remorse when it comes to the new president.
"Is this what you wanted, a warmonger president like Joe Biden, when Donald Trump did so much to bring peace to the world and to actually confront the real threat, China, not to be trying to build democracies out of blood and sand and Arab militias in some desert far away?" asked Gaetz.
Biden is the first president in 40 years not to hold a press conference at this point in his administration. Biden is set to deliver his first address before a joint session of Congress near the end of March, and it's been reported that Biden is expected to hold a full press conference in coming weeks. But we'll believe it when we see it.
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Kenny Rozenberg, the American billionaire father of Eli Rozenberg, who became controlling shareholder in El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) six months ago, has immigrated to Israel. He touched down at Ben Gurion airport this afternoon on an El Al flight from New York and was greeted by the airline's management and received his ID papers and citizenship.
Kenny Rozenberg financed the El Al deal for his son and has so far Rosenberg's parent company Kanfei Nesharim has invested $160 million in the airline in two rounds of public offerings on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). That amount is expected to grow to $200 million after El Al receives an upfront payment of NIS 1 billion from the Ministry of Finance for fees for aircraft security over the next year. According to the package, the payment will be contingent on the controlling shareholder injecting more money into the company.
Kenny Rozenberg was not able to himself become the controlling shareholder in El Al because he did not hold Israeli citizenship. Today he received his Israeli ID papers and can now in theory become the controlling shareholder in the airline together with his son.
Kenny Rozenberg, a US citizen, submitted a request to immigrate to Israel several weeks ago and he plans living in Jerusalem. He arrived in Israel today accompanied by an entourage, which included senior executives from his US company, as well as other new immigrants.
Sources inform "Globes" that Kenny Rozenberg received special permission from the exemptions committee to fly to Israel and has asked to relinquish his rights to financial support as an immigrant.
Kenny Rozenberg is the founder, owner and CEO of Centers Health Care, which owns and operates dozens of nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and care facilities in North America. His son Eli Rozenberg immigrated to Israel several years ago and lives in Jerusalem.
The Ministry of Aliyah and Integration said, "We cannot provide information about immigrants that do not allow information about them to be provided. But if the report is true then we welcome all immigration and certainly by a person of his status who has contributed to Israel in this difficult time."
The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech SE was able to neutralize a new variant of the coronavirus spreading rapidly in Brazil, according to a laboratory study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Monday and cited byReuters.
Blood taken from people who had been given the vaccine neutralized an engineered version of the virus that contained the same mutations carried on the spike portion of the highly contagious P.1 variant first identified in Brazil, found the study which was conducted by scientists from the companies and the University of Texas Medical Branch found.
The scientists said the neutralizing ability was roughly equivalent the vaccine’s effect on a previous less contagious version of the virus from last year.
In January, it was announced that the Pfizer vaccine is effective against the British coronavirus mutation.
A subsequent study on the new South African coronavirus mutation showed that the Pfizer vaccine is effective against that variant, although the South African variant may reduce protective antibodies elicited by the vaccine.
A new Chabad yeshiva will be opened in Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel,Kikar Hashabbat reported.
The yeshiva will be the neighborhood's first, and will serve the English speakers.
Attending the Sunday night meeting initiated by the community were Rabbi Binyamin Mendelson, Rabbi Chaim Eliyahu Gluckowsky, yeshiva founder Rabbi Chaim Ma'as, yeshiva dean Rabbi Shimon Garboz, and Rabbi Elchanan Cohen.
The yeshiva, which is expected to open soon, will be unique in that it is intended for English speakers and its base will be the children of Chabad emissaries who live abroad.
"This is refreshing news, since the boys who come to study in our developing neighborhood will meet with the community on a daily basis and become part of the outreach community in the neighborhood," Rabbi Mendelson said.
"We are excited and await the opening of the yeshiva and the arrival of the precious students who will come live near us."
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A few weeks ago, 11-year-old Zvi Ben-David from Be’er Sheva was on family trip to Nahal HaBesor when he caught sight of an unusual object.
On picking it up, he saw it was a pottery figurine of a woman. His mother, Miriam Ben-David – a professional tour guide – realized that it was an important ancient find and contacted Oren Shmueli, district archaeologist for the Israel Antiquities Authority in the western Negev.
In compliance with current Covid-19 restrictions, Oren met Zvi and his family in their garden where they handed him the figurine, which will now be researched and kept in the National Treasures collection. Zvi was awarded a certificate of appreciation for good citizenship by the Israel Antiquities Authority.
According to Oren Shmueli and Debbie Ben Ami, curator of the Iron Age and Persian periods in the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The figurine that Zvi discovered is rare and only one such example exists in the National Treasures collection. It was probably used in the sixth–fifth centuries BCE, at the end of the Iron Age or in the Persian period (the late First Temple period, or the return to Zion). The figurine, 7 cm high and 6 cm wide, was made in a mold. It shows a woman with a scarf covering her head and neck, schematic facial features and a prominent nose. The woman is bare-breasted and her hands are folded under her chest.”
Shmueli and Ben-Ami explain, “Pottery figurines of bare-breasted women are known from various periods in Israel, including the First Temple era. They were common in the home and in everyday life, like the hamsa today, and apparently served as amulets to ensure protection, good luck and prosperity. We must bear in mind that in antiquity, medical understanding was rudimentary. Infant mortality was very high and about a third of those born did not survive. There was little understanding of hygiene, and fertility treatment was naturally non-existent. In the absence of advanced medicine, amulets provided hope and an important way of appealing for aid.”
The figurine was delivered to the National Treasures collection and is currently being studied by Oren Shmueli and Debbie Ben-Ami of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in collaboration with Raz Kletter from the University of Helsinki in Finland.
The archaeologists say, “The exemplary citizenship of young Zvi Ben-David will enable us to improve our understanding of cultic practices in biblical times, and man’s inherent need for material human personifications.”
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A bus driver was physically assaulted in Beit Shemesh Monday night, after he refused to allow a passenger to board the bus with an electric bicycle.
The incident occurred on a line 14 bus in Beit Shemesh operated by the Superbus company, when the driver refused to allow the passenger to get on the bus with his bike.
The passenger and several of his friends forced the doors of the bus open and tried to tear them out from the bus.
After the passenger and his friends managed to force the doors open, one of the suspects brought a stick to beat the driver, while his friends made sure the doors remained open.
One of the suspects verbally assaulted the driver and threatened him.
When the driver refused to respond to the threats, he was physically attacked. Thanks to the barrier installed to protect bus drivers, the driver was not injured in the attack.
The driver claimed that one of the assailants tried to take control of the bus, endangering the lives of the passengers.
"Once again we see how bus drivers have become the scapegoats of lawbreakers," said the bus drivers' union in a statement. "This violence will stop only when bus drivers are recognized as public workers. It is unthinkable for us to go back to seeing this kinds of images on a daily basis. Now more than ever we are in danger of having a driver be murdered at the wheel."
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Benny graduated from the Israel Navy’s ship captain’s course last week and will join the crew of a new German-made warship,
Remarkably, the uncle of Gerloff’s grandmother was a German U-boat commander in World War 2, Ynet reported Monday.
Gerloff was born and raised in Israel, however his non-Jewish parents are of German and Czech descent and arrived in the Jewish state 25 years ago. As a permanent resident, Gerloff is required to enlist in the IDF, and his family are no strangers to national service.
His brother served as a platoon commander in the Kfir Brigade and his sister was a combat fighter in the IDF’s Oketz canine unit. Benny himself was drafted into the Navy’s elite Shayete 13 commando unit – the equivalent of the U.S. Navy Seals – but when he washed out in the final rounds he reached back to the distant skipper genes from his family and was accepted to the Navy’s prestigious seamanship course.
“The people of Israel in the Land of Israel have a significant part in our faith,” Gerloff, who is Christian, told Ynet. “My great-grandfather was a priest during World War II, with the Germans who opposed Nazism and was therefore persecuted by the Nazis and imprisoned for it.”
“Great-grandfather on the other side helped his Jewish friend send food parcels to his relatives in the concentration camps, and to this day we have some of the letters of thanks he sent him. From there, from those days, my love for Israel was rooted in my family and my father came here at the age of 18 to volunteer,” he explained.
“In our eyes, the people of Israel and the Land of Israel are part of God’s plan and that is why I serve in the IDF and it is important for me to defend the country,” he said
In the black-and-white photo he and his parents keep to this day, Lieutenant Gerloff’s unique story takes on a fascinating meaning: the photo shows his family at a wedding held in southern Germany in the early 1940s, featuring an officer wearing the black uniform of the German navy. That was his grandmother’s uncle, who had been a doctor by profession, but was drafted into the German navy after the outbreak of the war and commanded a submarine that was eventually sunk, apparently by the British navy.
“I don’t know much about him, other than the fact that he was required to enlist,” Gerloff said. “My grandmother always emphasized that he was not a Nazi.”
Most of Gerloff’s family members still live in the area of the town of Neuenberg in the heart of the Black Forest on the French border.
His relatives watched the graduation ceremony via Zoom where Defense Minister Benny Gantz pinned his new officer’s bars on his shoulders, and he said they were very excited.
“Most of them live in Germany and grandparents in particular were happy to see me with navy uniform and officer’s rank,” he said, adding his 89-year-old grandmother in Germany always prays facing towards Jerusalem.
Lieutenant Gerloff will serve as a shift officer on the command bridge of a new Navy ship Saar 6 warship scheduled to arrive in the coming months from the port of Kiel in northern Germany.
“It can definitely be a personal and meaningful closing of a circle for me,” he admits.
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One more lesson from the Cuomo fallout, and this may just be the most important one of all.
If you ever feel like telling God that you are in control, don’t, it’s a bad idea. God usually finds a way to show you who’s boss and he is never late. pic.twitter.com/0K13bFade1
Sorry. While you seem to be serious and well intentioned you come off as privileged and spoiled. Life can be hard but those in charge should not make their decisions based on what an occasional tourist wants. Their responsibility is the safety of their citizens and only that. They owe you nothing. Any interest in opening Israel to non citizens is a financial decision that has to be considered risk relative to benefit to their citizens.
For the record, I hope I can call myself frum. My daughter was in Seminary and no, she did not have to go home to see mommy and Daddy during that year. My wife had our children in the USA without parents being present, it worked out BH.
By the way, frum families do not add as much to the Israeli economy as you think. The new mode of using apartments instead of Hotels is part of that. Most Seminaries get some funding from the Israeli Government (yes, we still pay a lot!!!) and there are many that get monthly checks for each child born in Israel. Friends have found it is cheaper to support their married children in Israel than in the USA.