Full article from the post – click here: https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Summer-lovin-598599
‘It was like we had never been apart’
They reconnected on Facebook in 2013 when Paul Serkin was 56 and Susan Frankel Rubin was 53. What’s the moral of their story? Susan replies: “There’s always hope.”
Paul and Susan originally met in 1972 at a Shabbaton of the Orthodox youth group NCSY. Paul was then a university student and an NCSY adviser and Susan was a high school student in Trevose, Pennsylvania. What do they remember from these early years?
Paul: “I actually had a crush on Susan, but I didn’t think it right for an adviser to cross boundaries.”
Susan: “As a teenager, I once wrote down the alphabet and next to each letter I wrote the names of guys I could potentially date. There were some 25-30 names. Paul’s name was on that list.”
Over the years, they moved in different directions and lost contact with each other. Each married, had children and divorced. In 2009, Paul, whose roots are in Binghamton, New York, moved to Israel, where one child was living and two others arrived within a short time.
In June 2013, he told an interviewer: “At the moment I’m in no rush to remarry.” One month later, Susan friended Paul on Facebook. It was the perfect social media platform for reaching out to all her friends living in Israel and telling them about her plans to visit her son, who was then studying in Israel. She posted: “I’m going to be at the Inbal Hotel in January. Stop by to say hello.”
Paul stopped by and stayed for about three hours. He reflects: “As we sat together in the hotel lobby, we were both so comfortable with each other. It was like we had never been apart; like we were soulmates.”
For over four years, they maintained a long-distance relationship. Paul, a Yeshiva University graduate, was busy developing a business called Paul the PCGuy and became known in Jerusalem’s Anglo community for his solutions to both hardware and software problems. Before making aliyah, he had been director of technology at Bellevue Hospital in New York.
Susan, a graduate of Stern College for Women, was living in Staten Island and was busy taking care of four children and working as director of therapeutic recreation at the Atrium Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing.
Paul recalls: “During those years, I’d spend a week or two in New York and Susan would spend a week or two in Jerusalem. After a while, it was obvious that we were headed in the direction of marriage. Actually, I always had a thing for redheads. In retrospect, it was silly for us to wait for so long to get married.”
Susan: “On one of my visits, Paul and I went to visit a mekubelet, a woman kabbalist. She demonstrated powers which were almost unbelievable. When I told her that I’d like to get married again and asked her who I should marry, she turned to Paul and said: ‘Him!’”
They were officially engaged in the fall of 2018 when Susan came to Jerusalem for Rosh Hashana. What works for them as a couple? They both agree: Compromise. She asked him to forgo sandals on Shabbat and wear shoes and socks. What did he ask her? “To give up her entire life and move 6,000 miles away.”
Paul and Susan were married on June 30 in Bergenfield, New Jersey, in the backyard of Susan’s daughter’s house. Rabbi Chaim Noson (Nate) Segal officiated. Mazal tov.