Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Join thousands of readers who support our workDONATE NOW
Fast Forward

In Jerusalem, identical twins give birth to boys on the same day

Just as they did 31 years ago, Yael went first, followed by Avital.

(JTA) — When they were born, Yael came first, and then came her twin sister, Avital.

The twins preserved that sequence 31 years later when they gave birth on the same day on Monday to boys at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital.

That’s not where the coincidences stopped, according to a hospital news release and an interview the twins gave to Kikar HaShabbat, a religious news outlet. The sisters Yael Yishai and Avital Segel, who live in the Gush Etzion bloc in the West Bank, were each bearing a fourth child, and each had two girls and a boy already.

The nursing staff made sure the sisters shared a room, which they appreciated. “It was so much fun to be in the same room, with newborns,” Avital said.

The hospital noted that a similar event occurred in 1997.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief

You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.

And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.