November 2001, Haifa.

Including today's meeting the Lodge had worked under the W.M. David Castel 12 times including the installation ceremony in December 2000.

During the year we initiated three new brethren in three different meetings:

Bro. Eitan Israeli, Bro. Ofer Carmi, and Bro. Hanan Altman.

The lodge had four joint meetings with sister lodges, Yaakov Caspi lodge No. 56 on February 13^th, Kind Solomon lodge No. 48 on April 22^nd, Cramim lodge No. 76 on June 12^th and Menora lodge No. 19 on July 10^th.

On February 13^th, the lodge affiliated a new Bro. Michael Even Zur from Menora lodge No. 19.

On April 3^rd, the destined Grand Master R.W. Bro. Haim Gehl received an honorary brotherhood in the lodge.

On March 13^th we had a memorial service meeting in honor of our late brother Menashe Shapira.

The lodge had a very festive "CHAG HAREAYA VEHAPERACH" ceremony, as is done each and every year .

In general we had many events with the spouses in addition to the social events.

The lodge had Masonic lectures and following them debates &conversations regarding the issue.

With no doubt, the jewel in the crown was the festive meeting to celebrate the lodge's 70^th anniversary of activity. It was held at the Noff hotel in Haifa with about 300 guests from all over the country and from abroad. The festive "White table" that evening was very special both .

In the same festive evening the Grand Master of the Grand lodge of the State of Israel, the M.W. Bro. Arthur Mark, was awarded an honorary Master of our lodge.

The social events this year were many and as said before, the spouses took active part in most of them, here is a list of some events:

A splendor WM Installation celebrated on December 2000 at the Dan Carmel hotel in Haifa.

A few days later we celebrated new years eve at Bela and David Castel's home.

The traditional Purim party was held again at Dvora and Gabi Ezra's home, and as usual at these celebrations the brethren danced till the wee hours of the night.

Our lodge has a tradition to celebrate Lag Baomer, and since many brethren were in London at the time, the WM and his wife entertained the brethren at their home at a later date for food and drinks.

On Independence Day, we danced and ate again at Bela and David Castel's home.

Sarah and Joseph Osmo hosted all the brethren at their home in the end of June.

Also Shoshi and Ori Israeli invited some brethren to their new house in Barak Estate.

Both Hassidoff and Even Zur families competed which one will sweeten for us the Mimuna. The “winners” were Ruty and Miri who crossed the finishing line very tired but contented.

On Saturday November 11^th, Elyakim & Miri, invited all the brethren and spouses to an evening of greetings and thanks to David Castel for his great contribution to our lodge and to Freemasonry.

The best event was of course the trip to Scotland and England. About 20 brethren and spouses joined the special trip which included visits to the Grand Lodge of Scotland and sister lodges both in Scotland and England. All who joined had real great time and it's a pity that not all brethren could or wanted to come. In spite of that, the response was good and respectable. The trip gave a lot to the brethren Masonic wise and taught us all a lot.

Erecting an Internet Web site on January put Reuven Lodge on the World Wide Web map. The site brings us news of what goes on in our lodge, it is visited by many brethren in Israel and all over the world.

Just recently we were contacted through the Web site by an Australian brethren who is working on twinning our lodge with one of the Australian sister lodges, and there will be more to tell on this subject.

I don't forget the 12 or more gatherings of the "Matmedet" Committee which were always culinary events conducted by Bela Castel in her home.

Due to the vast number of activities this year and the special events I had very much to do.

The preparations for the trip to Scotland and England required many hours of work. The FAX machine was utilized to saturation and E-Mail was very helpful with worldwide correspondence.

The preparations for the 70^th anniversary celebrations took days.

With the leadership of the WM we succeeded in all.

Working side by side to the WM David Castel was very interesting even thrilling, and in spite of the hard work and hardships it was real fun doing the job this year. (I held the secretary job before, but this time it was significantly more fun and interesting)

I would like to thank W Bro. David Halfon, for his help throughout the year. David helped me with the work of printing and sending the invitations for every meeting and especially for the special 70^th anniversary event. For his help I thank him again.

I would like to give special thanks to our new Bro. Eitan Israeli for helping type invitations and greetings for the brethren. Without his help, the expenses of the lodge would have been a lot higher.

To those who don't know, Eitan built and maintains the Internet Web site. Well Done Eitan for his blessed work at his first year in the lodge.

And last but not least I would like to thank Bro. Moti Kameo for his help and guidance throughout the whole year. I wish there were more brethren like Moti who care and do every day of the year to develop and advance the lodge and Freemasonry.

Moti, if no one told you this before, I do now and in public "You are a real asset to this lodge. Keep up the good work, always and in good health".

To sum it all up, and in spite of this being a specially hard year, I was happy to receive the chance to work side by side with David "the bulldozer" Castel who pushed all the time.

Ilan Reisner - Reuven Lodge No. 1 Secretary, Haifa 2001