Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

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.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join 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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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 editorial@forward.com, 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.

Exit mobile version