Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Death of a Hero
Irena Sendler died yesterday at the age of 98. A Polish Catholic, during WWII, she saved over 2500 Jewish children from certain death by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, providing them with counterfeit papers and placing them in convents and orphanages. She and 30 brave volunteers - mostly women - managed to get children and some teens out of the ghetto before it was liquidated and the remainder of the Jewish residents were sent to death camps. In all my research about the Holocaust,...
Sign in to see full entry.
Monday, May 12, 2008
From Generation to Generaton
“My father was the second oldest of four children,” wrote my paternal grandmother in a letter meant to be passed down from one generation to the next. “The oldest, Shmeelic, was a contemporary of Theodore Hertzl and a committed Zionist who emigrated to Jaffa, Palestine. He contracted malaria and had to return to Russia. All contact with this part of the family ended after WWII and we have no knowledge whether any of them survived.” My mother had stuffed this letter in a file marked “Family...
Sign in to see full entry.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Assimilation
My Grandpa Sam was a formidable figure. Just 5 ft. 6” tall, he was the epitome of an “old salt” – presiding over a succession of deep-sea fishing boats throughout his 90 years. He was tough and no-holds barred when it came to defending his family, lifestyle and even his religion. Assimilation, so in vogue among his peers, was for sissies. He was a semi-observant Jew and proud of it. I remember as a teen sitting next to my grandfather – Captain Sam - at the wheel of the Roam (amalgam of Rose and...
Sign in to see full entry.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Virginia Tech Massacre, Holocaust Rememberence Day - I wrote this last year
In the midst of the confusion, while authorities were trying to piece together the events surrounding the horrific massacre in Virginia on April 16th, I received an email from my cousin in Israel. It was a link to a couple of Israeli media websites, citing the death of one Professor Liviu Libresco; a senior researcher, lecturer and 20 year veteran of Virginia Tech who was teaching the morning of the shooting. Though names of the victims had not yet been revealed to the American public, leave it...
Sign in to see full entry.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
God is Purple
G-d is purple. At least that’s what I thought when I was a little girl, standing for what seemed like days, at the very end of the Yom Kippur Service for N’ila - the “Closing of the Gates.” This was the time that we would recite our prayers most fervently - the whole congregation murmuring and chanting in unison - so G-d would seal us in the book of life. We’d been imploring G-d to inscribe us in the Book of Life, and now, as the Gates of Heaven closed, it was our last chance. At this point in...
Sign in to see full entry.
