I thought I saw you just the other dayFor the merest fraction of a moment, I forgot that you were goneMy heart swelled and I almost called your nameBut suddenly…I remembered… Learning how to find my way has not been easyEven now, when time has dulled the deepest, darkest painMuting an ache that gently echoesEspecially…When I remember… I see you on the edges of my dreamsI find...
It is astonishing to me that there are people who are surprised by the Capitol attack. It was more than four years in the making, as we repeatedly watched Trump pander to the lowest common denominator from the earliest days of his candidacy, inciting against Mexicans and other minorities, mocking a disabled journalist, bullying, disrespecting members of the military and their...
The sun is beginning to dip towards the horizon on Yom Kippur Eve. As we finish our dinner at an outdoor cafe in Verona’s Piazza Erbe, a heavyset gentleman with thinning brown hair that curls just below his ears walks through the tables and approaches one of the waitstaff. “Maestro!”, exclaims the waiter with a flourish, bowing low before greeting him warmly and guiding him to...
I’m not ashamed to say that I love the Eurovision Song Contest, so when my editor at Haaretz asked if I wanted to try to set up an interview with Itzik Fishely, the president of OGAE Israel (the Israeli chapter of the official Eurovision fan club network), and write an article about the Israeli connection to the contest, I waited four minutes before responding, so as not...
The summer before Danny and I got married in America, we had an engagement party in Israel. My parents came, of course, as did my brother. When Josh and his friend arrived at my parents’ hotel, they were given a note that my father had written. It said, “If we are not in the room, we are at the pool. I am in disguise. I’m 6-foot-4 with a long blond ponytail, and I answer to...
I remember: My first kiss. His name. What he looked like. Where he was from. Which room we were in. The occasion. What grade I was in. How great it felt. I don’t remember: The date. The city. The address. What I was wearing. What he was wearing. Who else was there. What the room looked like. Whose house it was. I remember: Classmates who teased me. Boys in my neighborhood who...
The text from my brother was brief. “I’m going to be at Disney World with Hannah and a few of her friends from April 1-5. You’re going there too, right?” I was delighted by his unexpected news. Two months earlier, I had booked a three-day vacation in Disney World for my son and me, with plans to be there from April 4-6. It would fall during our first visit to see my father in...
“God is good”, you hear people say when things go their way, as though this mythological entity of questionable existence has allegedly made the decision to intervene and bestow moments of goodness in the lives of a blessed, chosen few. I don’t believe that God exists, but if I did, I would probably agree with my late mother, who – robbed by ALS of her ability to speak or eat...
I believe in magic. Not those trippy, sleight-of-hand illusions that tap into your inner child and leave your eyes feeling scrambled with wonder. I believe in the magic that happens when you get together with an assortment of individuals from your past, and a collective joy emerges that is so much greater than anything you imagined it could be – especially when the emotions...
On February 29th, my mother passed away following a brief battle with ovarian cancer. This is the eulogy I wrote, which was read during the memorial service by my parents’ rabbi. ******** There is something surreal in preparing for a journey whose sole purpose revolves around saying goodbye to one’s parent. My father and Josh called, and Dad prefaced our discussion by...