Meet the Gruzman family, who have not one, not two, but a whopping four sets of twins!

“WEfirst moved to Castro Valley to open our Chabad Center ten years ago, just after our first set of twins were born,” says Mrs. Gruzman. Castro Valley is located in Northern California, not far from the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and a six-hour drive from the bustling city of Los Angeles. The Gruzmans settled there on the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s shlichus to bring Yidden closer to Yiddishkeit, and their community is a mix of Yidden of all stripes and kinds.

The addition of their fourth set of twins definitely made their family the talk of the community. Even the local newspapers caught wind of their exciting news! Before they were born, their friends were all betting on whether it would be a single baby, another set of twins, or maybe even triplets!

Twins have been the catalyst for lots of laughter in their lives, says Mrs. Gruzman, as she shares some anecdotes. “On a recent trip to Israel, a security officer couldn’t help but tease my husband by saying he should change his name to Lavan after waving Rochele and Leah’le through….” Only in Israel, right?

On a different trip, before their third set of twins were born, a pilot saw their family and the double twin set of girls they had at the time, and decided to give them a unique brachah — that their next set be a pair of boys! Little Mendel, who was born right after that, is still waiting (not so patiently at this point). He’s the only boy with seven sisters, and would love for more brothers to follow!

“Mendel’s bris sticks out in my mind,” says Mrs. Gruzman. Towards the end of his bris, she was holding his twin sister when someone walked over to her and said, “This isn’t your baby, right? You had a boy!” Apparently, she was one of the few who hadn’t realized that this was yet another set of twins!