Long Story Short
When my daughter was born, my mother gave me a comb that my grandmother Ella (born Esther) had given her. That comb, it turned out, had great history attached to it. My mother first found the comb in my grandmother’s jewelry box Continue reading A Simple Family Heirloom Unlocked a Dark Family Secret (Featured in various Hearst Publications)
The X-Ray tech assigned to the two-minute task of filming my elbow, asked me about the origin of my name, sparking a barrage of questions regarding the Middle East. No, I didn’t ride a camel to a tented schoolhouse in Continue reading 5 Pervasive Myths Perpetuated Against Israel (Published In The Times of Israel)
The Nazis didn’t discriminate at Buchenwald. They forcibly “welcomed” Jews, Poles, homosexuals, people with disabilities, the mentally ill, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Poles, Slavs, POWs, people born with birth defects… the list goes on. Prisoners worked mostly as forced labor in armament Continue reading What Would My Grandfather Say About the New Use of Buchenwald? (Published In The Times of Israel)
Tatiana De Rosnay’s Sarah’s Key spent two years on the New York Times Bestseller List, and even longer than that on my nightstand before I finally read it. I regret not reading it sooner, as it would’ve drastically transformed my family’s Continue reading In Memory of the July 1942 Roundup of Paris’s Jews (Published in The Times of Israel and Huffington Post)
My mom was born in Bamberg, Germany on May 20, 1946. Her parents met right after the War. Saba Joe survived Buchenwald and Savta Ella survived forced labor at HASAG Munitions Factory. Savta never spoke about the War, so this Continue reading My Mother’s Return to Germany after 68 Years (Published by The Times of Israel)