Sunday, April 29, 2007

My latest feature story

This one's on the cover of the new issue of the World Jewish Digest.

It's about how families are using the internet to find relations they thought were lost in the Holocaust, or descendents of those relations. It was fascinating (and emotionally difficult) to research. I'm pretty proud of the way it came out.

Meanwhile, I did my own internet searches using the databases I learned about in the course of the research, and learned new information about my great-grandparents and great-uncle. I also may have found distant cousins with whom my family has been out of touch for several decades. More info if anything materializes!

P.S. As you can see, I survived 48 hours of babysitting! (Just barely.)

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Hello, hello

And welcome to the Sarah show.

Since I last blogged, several things have happened:

1) This blog was nominated for a JIB Award in the category of Best Personal Blog. Thank you SO MUCH to whomever nominated me. Get out the vote!

2) I got up at 3 am to meet a friend, who was returning from a long trip in the States, at the airport. Am I a good friend, or what?

3) I've been sort of low-level sick, not really productive, sleeping odd--and long-- hours. Blah.

4) I made it a point to be on Emek Refaim Street when the Memorial Day siren went off, so I could finally see everyone standing still, getting out of their cars to stand, etc, for myself. In the past I've always been home working. Not this time! It was somber but in a funny way also reminded me of the game "Freeze," you know, where everyone is dancing to music, and when the music stops everyone must freeze in place until it goes on again. That's exactly what Emek Refaim Street looked like.

5) I agreed to babysit my friends' five-year-old daughter for three days! She's due to arrive in about 30 minutes. So, I'll be playing "single mom" for a while. Should be interesting!

6) The Jerusalem Post published several articles that I hope to comment on soon. If I become productive again.

7) I've been playing a bit with my new camera. I can set it to take black and white photos! That is so awesome!

9) One of my students said she doesn't understand why Shakespeare is considered so great. I told her a) that it is not a class requirement to enjoy Shakespeare, and that I myself did not enjoy it until deep into college, and b) why I now appreciate Shakespeare and think his work is terrific.

But I turn to you, my dear readers. Assuming that you do, in fact, enjoy reading or watching Shakespeare's plays, why do you like them? What's good or interesting about them?

Sunday, April 15, 2007

As Miss Piggy Would Say . . .

Moi has published another story in Hadassah magazine.

To see it, click here, then go to "Current Issue" (April 2007) and then to "Try to Remember."

It's about the current state of the scattered Egyptian-Jewish community.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Things My Shaliach Never Told Me: On the Road Again

I returned on Thursday from a 2-week visit to the States. I had a wonderful time. First I spent a weekend at the Bergenfield, NJ home of my dear friends Rivka and Moshe, taking advantage of their location in the tri-state area to see also Judah and Carolyn, Jess, Lisa, and Roseanne -- and, of course, to do a major shopping at Talbots and to soak in the sights, sounds, and smells of Manhattan. God do I love Manhattan.

Then I spent a week and a half in my parents' new house near Cleveland. My sister was there too, with her husband and three sons, for Passover. It was my first time meeting my newest nephew, David, who is one year old. These three boys are so adorable and affectionate and fun. It was fantastic to see my family. Most of my time in Cleveland it was snowing heavily, so I didn't get out much, but that was fine since I was having a great time playing my role of Best Doda Ever.

On the way home I had to switch airports, with a few hours to kill in between. My former roommate Shoshana picked me up from LaGuardia and we went out for lunch in Queens, before I headed to JFK. Despite the fact that Shoshana was stuck in traffic on the way, making her an hour late, and then the pasta restaurant we wanted to go to was out of pasta, and the pizza place was full, and the other pizza place was full, so we ended up at the Chinese place with horrible service and an abusive man at the next table insulting his girlfriend and her child . . . it was terrific to see Shoshana!

All my flights were uneventful. Swiss Air is a very good airline.

But the best part of the trip was exiting Ben Gurion airport when I got back, breathing in the warm air of Israel, and thinking "I'm so incredibly happy to be home."