To anyone else passing by, I was a strange white girl staring up at a random house. But for me, this meant that my journey was complete (at least for the moment). This was the place where Hana began the next chapter in life, the one which brought my mother as well as two other children into this world. Just a generation later, Hana’s strength resulted in seven joyous grandchildren around her dining room table...
Along the California Zephyr
“I took the California Zephyr. It was the most magnificent thing. It was a train with two floors. And it has all glass enclosure so you can see the whole countryside. I had never seen such a big countryside. I stopped in Chicago… I then took the train to Denver, Colorado and I decided that this is where I wanted to stay because it was so beautiful… I then thought, maybe I should see San Francisco first.”
Unfamiliar America
It is another world over here – a world where I know the language and am comfortable with the currency, a world where the recent federal court ruling regarding gay marriage is celebrated with incredible enthusiasm, and the hurt of the horrible June 17th shooting in Charleston stings the soul. I am back in America...
Know Thy History and Love Thy Neighbor
In my opinion, there are two ways to travel – one requires boarding a magnificent, metal flying machine that takes you around the world, dropping you in an unfamiliar landscape that will hopefully expand your perspective and challenge our adaptable egos. The other way to travel is through a story. Hearing the experiences, struggles, lingering questions, and imagery of others can bring you to an alternative time and place, usually one that is inaccessible in real time...
Our Shared History : The Spirit of Saving a Stranger
As a child, we often times hear our grandparent’s stories with little interest or empathy. We don’t understand just how significant their life experiences are in the creation of our own moral fabric. But, if we are lucky enough, we will grow to become adults, and have the space and time to explore the ways in which these intimate influences have come to define us...
Stockholm : My Feet Hurt
The Most Cherished Strangers : My Life on a Danish Farm
You can not imagine how important is place, where people live, how much influence it give, how is it transforming. Here I am walking every day and singing and I do not miss anything. Of course it is not perfect, but when I came here I felt like “home“. It is so fine like “at home,“ so fine, so trustful and open. I don’t have any other word than “home."
Denmark : Finding Meaning in the Unexpected
I arrived in Denmark a bit over two weeks ago. My time in Scandinavia is the nucleus of this journey; Denmark is the country that saved my grandmother, not just once, but twice, and here resides the people who gave her not only a home, but a purpose during a dark time in history. It was in October 1939 that she arrived in Copenhagen as a naive child eager for an adventure. She was brought to safety here through an initiative with the Woman’s International League for Peace and Freedom, whom in collaboration with the Danish government, agreed to take in 150 Czech Jewish teenagers and place them with foster families on farms. Their goal was to learn agricultural skills and eventually make their way to Palestine, which only a few ever succeeded in doing...