Born in Durban South Africa in 1951 and graduated from Carmel College, the Jewish day school. Very active in Habonim from grade school until finishing university.
Married in 1974.
After graduating from Natal University in Durban with a BA in English and Hebrew and Jewish History and qualifying as a teacher at the University of Cape Town in 1973, Norman worked as a Hebrew teacher in Durban before making aliyah in 1976.
Following the evacuation of the Sinai in 1982, where he was a founding member of Moshav Talmei Yosef, he moved to Jerusalem for five years and later to Kfar Saba.
At the age of forty, Norman returned to university to study translation and interpretation at Bar Ilan and has since worked as a translator. For most of the time he worked as a translator for a US government agency until retiring. Says Norman: For the past 20+ years I have enjoyed organizing annual, long-weekend trips for a big group of friends, to share with them as much as possible of the Israel I love.
Norman has children all born in Israel.
Norman Silbert