New to Nelson, Shalom and his wife Sally have recently been granted their Permanent Residency. They are not strangers to Nelson as they have been visiting their younger son and his family  from their previous home in Hongkong for the 12 years leading up to their immigration here in 2017.

Shalom was born in Alexandria in Egypt but left there aged 17 after his family was expelled as a result of retaliatory action against British Citizens because of the 1956 Suez Crisis and despite his family having lived in Egypt for 3 generations as a tolerated minority. Accordingly, he embarked for England as part of the British commitment to resettle those affected.

“It was in a way a repeat of our family history, which traced back to Spain and the Spanish Inquisition when my family chose to leave there rather than convert to the Catholic religion”.

In England he embarked on his career as an electrical engineer. He then moved to Nassau in the Bahamas in 1964 where he met Sally, his wife who became a doctor and general practitioner. They have two sons .

Shalom has now lived in 7 countries, is fluent in 5 languages (Arabic, French, English, Spanish and Hebrew plus peaks moderate Italian and Cantonese) and through his extensive travels could aptly be described as being a “world citizen”.

In Hong Kong he set up a consulting business and was joined by his younger son. He also joined Rotary, was a member for 30 years and as International Service Director became involved in projects in Tibet and Nepal.

“My membership of Rotary, first in Hong Kong and now in Nelson has been a great way to learn to become part of the community and to build friendships. Rotary is like an extended family and through the meetings, speaker programme, and projects it has provided a better understanding of Nelson.  

We love living in Nelson and it’s great to be able to give back as part of Rotary.

My older son worked with me on my property interests that I invested in and worked on in Spain where he remains living. Though he is a long way away from us now he does in a sense provide a link for the family back to its historic origin.”