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.”
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...
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...
Reflections from Prague
The buildings look tired, worn out from the hundreds of years of history. The graffiti covers the pale paint job that has withered from the weather. The columns, grand gothic structures, peer down, letting me know that my time in this central European city is coming to an end. The ground floor is inhabited by bright lights, loud advertisements, and self absorbed humans, buying plans and products they probably do not need. I can see into the intimate lives of others as the bright bulbs burning in their living rooms illuminate their world. The tram passes by with a loud grunt and all of a sudden the people around me begin to run, exercising their legs and saving them from the cold December weather...
The First Journey : Retracing the Route of 1939
I imagined how she must have felt - from land to sea and from sea to land. From the comfort of home and a loving embrace to strangers and blind faith. From an urban life filled with castles and streetcars to miles of undeveloped countryside. From an education that consisted of three different languages to physical labor that included feeding chickens and milking cows. There was no one there to coddle her and nothing to look forward to...