Roza Zawels, popularly known as Rose, was born in Vilna and immigrated to South Africa in 1935. She married South African born Hymie Segall who has been a constant support in all her voluntary efforts. They have a large family of four children and thirteen grandchildren. The children all made aliyah immediately on finishing their education in South Africa and settled well in Israel. The grandchildren are all born in Israel: sabras. Like most South African parents, the Segalls visited Israel many times before their retirement in 1981, when they, too, were able to make aliyah.  

They settled in Herzliya and were soon recruited by their neighbors to volunteer for Esra’s Meals on Wheels, a joint project with the Herzliya Social Welfare Department, which had been started by Roz Brodie. The meals are provided at a nominal price to those in need. The municipality delivered the food in bulk together with a list of orders and addresses, which was then handled by Roz’s eight to ten volunteers. At the time of the Segall's move to Beth Protea Retirement Home in December 1992, Rose suggested that the base for operations be moved to Beth Protea.

The “not-so-young” resident volunteers loyally gathered once a week at six o'clock in the morning to make up the parcels so that the drivers could collect and deliver on their way to work. Mention must also be made of those outstanding driver volunteers, Henry Blank and Inge Davis, as well as Jack Dash with different partners who, rain and shine, have made regular deliveries for twelve years.

Now that Rose has felt the need to step down, her place has been taken by a volunteer who has been part of the group almost since its inception. Helga Meyerson was born in Germany but lived all her life in Johannesburg, SA, before making aliyah in 1977. A Hebrew teacher who worked most of her life in banking, she is an extremely capable, efficient and punctilious person. She has undertaken this onerous task despite her numerous other responsibilities which include chairmanship of the Beth Protea House Committee. We hope that she will be able to carry on the tradition of Meals on Wheels for many years to come.