Stephanie was born in London on August 6th 1953. She was the only child of her parents: Pearl and Henry Levison.
Since childhood, she showed artistic inclination and loved to draw people’s faces and figures, as well as clothes and other dress items she saw in her mother’s fashion magazines.
In 1960 she moved with her parents from London to Southend-on-Sea on the east coast of England.
She also showed interest and curiosity in the wider world when she got a little older.
Her interest in fashion grew in her teens: colours, prints, textures and more. Stephanie was influenced during the 60s by all the dramatic changes that occurred in London in fashion, music and other aspects of culture. As a result of these changes she applied, entirely on her own initiative to Marks and Spencer company and was hired to work at its headquarters. After about a year and a half of working as an apprentice in various company departments and studying textile technology, she started working as a fashion buyer (very young and very talented ).
As part of the Jewish community in her city, she began to develop the Zionist dream and participated in various activities for Israel. In 1973 she came to Israel for six months as a volunteer at Kibbutz Maayan Zvi Following the Yom Kippur War, she felt a strong desire to immigrate to Israel, despite being an only child who wassurrounded by a loving family and many friends and was employed in a rewarding job she loved. She was a true Zionist.
Stephanie immigrated to Israel in April 1975. As the fashion industry in Israel was in its infancy, she was accepted to work at the Israel General Bank Tel Aviv branch as an English typist where she met her future husband – Ami
They married on March 29th 1977 and moved to Bat-Yam.
In 1982 they moved to Kfar Saba.
The desire to travel and explore the world grew gradually for both of them as did Stephanie’s photography hobby. At first, they visited her family in England, and then they started to travel across the UK. As years went by, their experience and daring grew, so they began to travel further afield to more remote and exotic destinations. (For more information please see the World Explorer page).
After their wedding in 1977, one of them had to leave work at the bank because of the bank policy that didn’t permit married people to work at the same branch. Therefore, Stephanie started working as a secretary in a company that imported electronic parts. In 1986 she moved to Kleinhendler & Halevi law firm as a secretary. Her job expanded gradually as her bosses recognised her capabilities, and she was promoted to become the office manager (she also dealt with invoicing and bill collection, personal assistant to the managing partner and even did some planning regarding office renovations…)
In 2001 her office merged with Gross Law Firm to become GKH Law Firm and one of Israel’s largest law firms.
Her capabilities were also quickly appreciated in the new office and she was promoted to become the office marketing manager and conference organiser.
Stephanie also managed the volunteering activity in the GKH law office for many years and was a member of the editorial staff of the “GKH News,” a monthly bulletin, where she reported about office volunteering activities and other subjects (For more information, please see the Volunteering page).
Stepanie and Ami continued to travel across the world until the Covid pandemic broke out and until 2021, when she was diagnosed with cancer.
Stephanie passed away on March 6th 2024 after a long and courageous battle with cancer for more than 3 years.
A special photo album (in 3 parts) that tells Stephanie’s life story with photos from her childhood to 2024 is included in this “Life Story” page.