The two met at a party and "fell in love right away," according to Michelle. Yet she knew that a relationship with David would only mean trouble, as she would have to leave her life in Israel behind.

"I didn't want to get involved with this guy," she recalls.

But the next day, David came to her house and asked her to teach him Hebrew. The couple was married three years later. They now live in Alameda with their three children, Christopher, 6; Steven, 5; and Amber, 3, who attend religious school at Oakland's Temple Beth Jacob.

Green Sunday is the Jewish National Fund's daylong phone-a-thon, when community members are called and asked to plant trees in Israel. This year the focus is on planting trees in memory of Yitzhak Rabin in the Jerusalem Corridor, liberated by Rabin and the Harel Brigade in the 1948 War of Independence. The Corridor was devastated by last summer's forest fires, which destroyed over 2 million trees.

"Green Sunday this year has a special significance in light of the 1995 fire," says JNF regional president John Rothmann.

"By replanting this area, we are not only performing much needed environmental work, we are also paying tribute to a great man. The need is unprecedented and the time is now."

Green Sunday takes place March 24 at Pacific Genesis Group, 1 Sansome St., S.F. Volunteers are needed to make phone calls for two half-hour shifts between 10:30 a.m. and 9 p.m. Information or to volunteer: JNF, (415) 788-3300.