Aly’s Grandparents ‘Just Thrilled’
Watching your granddaughter perform intricate somersaults and jumps, swinging in the air like a rubber band, landing on the floor from a balance beam after a back jump where her head was only inches away from being hit is not for the faint of heart.
But 71-year-old Susan Faber is simply ecstatic to be Aly Raisman’s savta.
“I’ve always known she was good at gymnastics. I never knew she was this good! I am just thrilled about the whole thing,’’ Faber said in an interview with the Boston Globe.
Faber was watching the all-around women’s gymnastics finals live on her computer, sitting by her twin sister and a dear friend in her hometown of Newton, Mass. Aly, 18, just missed winning an individual bronze medal and finished fourths after helping team U.S.A. win the gold on Tuesday at the London Olympics.
“She’s so smooth under pressure,’’ Faber said. “She seems to inspire them all… She has become a woman I am very proud of.’’
Not far away in Needham, Mass., Marty Raisman, Aly’s paternal grandfather, chose to root in the town auditorium, surrounded by over 400 locals who came together to watch the gymnast perform.
“No matter what … it’s still a great honor,’’ Raisman told the Globe.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
