These Israelis will never forget last week's municipal elections. A 50-year-old woman and a man in his 40s won the first and second prizes in the lottery draw held on Election Day evening. They have both come to the lottery headquarters to claim their prizes.
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The first-place winner, who lives in central Israel, won at least NIS 30 million ($8.4 million), before taxes. She arrived at lottery headquarters on Wednesday, shortly after she found out that her life had changed and that she was the only winner of the first prize.
"I didn't plan to fill out a form at all," she said excitedly. "I came to vote on the day of the local elections and saw that there was a very long line. I decided to return to the polling station later and went shopping. On the way to the grocery store, I passed by the lottery booth and bought a Lottomat form. I only buy a lottery ticket when there are big prizes and then I buy a double lottery ticket for 66 shekels."
"This time, inexplicably, I had a good feeling," she says. "Like every evening, I opened a book of Psalms and prayed that I would win. The day after the lottery, I shared with my daughter that I had a good feeling and asked her to check the results. She checked the application and immediately got very excited. At first, she thought I had won 3 million, then she realized that she was confused by the number of zeros and it was 30 million. We immediately got organized and went to the lottery headquarters."
The winner added "at the moment, the word about winning is known only to me and my daughter and I don't plan to share it with anyone. My plans are to use it to write a Torah scroll in the name of my late parents."
The winner also shared that she worked for many years in the medical field in a physically demanding job, which resulted in damaging her health; she recently retired.
"We are a family that is happy with what it has and we are used to conducting ourselves modestly. I plan for my family to continue to live modestly and use the money wisely and measuredly. I don't feel that we lack anything. We are simple people who are happy with our lot," she said.
The winner of the second prize of 6 million shekels from the same lottery is in his 40s and is also from central Israel. He, together with his wife, took advantage of Election Day for shopping and errands. After shopping, they stopped at the lottery booth and saw the eye-popping prize.
"The morning after the lottery, I scanned the form. I didn't have a special feeling and I didn't even think that I had won," he said. "Immediately after scanning the form when the winning amount appeared I jumped with excitement and woke up my wife saying to her: 'We have a house'!"