Liev and Naomi’s Israeli vacation

June 16, 2009 - 2:46 PM by Jessica · 5 Comments
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Movies, Pop Culture

Liev, Sacha, Naomi and baby Samuel under a diaper

The Jewish National Fund (or KKL as its known in Israel) has some fun guests this week. Hollywood stars Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts are in Israel with their two young children, Sacha and Samuel, for the first time. According to KKL, the family is in Israel for several days, seeing Christian and Jewish sites as well as enjoying Tel Aviv’s beaches, restaurants, and, of course, planting some trees.

The itinerary was planned by KKL-JNF, “caretakers of the land of Israel for more than 107 years,” and the family’s first official stop was planting a tree up north in the Galilee. According to the JNF spokesperson, Naomi read the tree planting blessing, while Liev looked to place the pistachio sapling in the ground but first had to remove his two-year-old son Sacha who had placed himself in the hole.

Schreiber said his grandfather was a strong Zionist who had always begged him to go to Israel. His grandfather died before he could make that happen, so this trip resonates for him. It may also have additional meaning following his most recent role as Zus Bielski in “Defiance,” the Holocaust movie recounting the Bielski brothers, Jewish partisans who lived and rebelled against the Nazis from a Bellarussian forest with a band of fellow refugees.

I grew up in the Lower East Side of New York, and I’m half-Jewish. Anything that has resonance for me about my family history, because I don’t know much about it, I’m drawn to. That’s part of why I think I choose projects like this. Less because I’m right for them, but because I want to know if I’m right for them.”

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