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All I can say–selfish and immature though it sounds–with whom I share a special friendship like Renia shared with her beloved Zygu. For years after her death, Zygu could not part with the diary, keeping a photocopied version of it as a shroud in his basement, writing his notes back to his beloved, Another monthContinue reading “Renia Spiegel’s Diary III”

I had an elderly Jew at my synagogue read his grandson’s bar-mitzvah’s speech to us, telling us how though larger society has now adopted the Jewish notion that a person needs days off from work, it “has yet to recognize the importance of how it keeps its rests.” Though not always a fan of theContinue reading “How to Take a Rest”

I have put down Renia’s Diary, a Holocaust diary, having read to page 220. I read to page 167 yesterday. I am somewhat embarrassed: I pride myself on being able to read 100 pages a day, 50 pages in the morning and 50 pages in the evening. However, I shall finish it tomorrow (the diaryContinue reading “Renia Spiegel’s Diary II”

I have been told that my last version of “The Man I Love” was excessive, fulsome, and too extreme in its expectations. Therefore I shall try again to put together an ideal man who I might acquire. He must, as I said, be brave. A soldier or a man with a soldier’s virtues is whatContinue reading “The Man I Love, A Revision”

I decided for a blog I would do something I always prided myself in NEVER doing. I would write about my perfect man, the kind I hope to marry. I want to believe that it would not matter “if he wasn’t what some girls think of as handsome,” but I want him to be “bigContinue reading “The Man I Love”

I am on page 156 of Renia’s Diary, the diary which Holocaust victim Renia Spiegel kept until she was shot by the Nazis. I hope to read up to page 200 tonight and finish it tomorrow. It is, at heart, a tragic love story. Why? Because in its pages Renia falls in love with ZyguContinue reading “Renia Spiegel’s Diary I”

Right now I am almost finished with my first reading of The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History and 50 pages into Renia’s Diary: A Journal of the Holocaust. This weekend and Monday I shall finish Renia’s Diary, but after I complete The Napoleonic Wars, I shall put it aside and reread it later. Why? BecauseContinue reading “Reading Days”

Raoul Wallenberg is a double enigma. The first enigma is how any man could be so good. The second is how his life’s end could be so tragic. He is both a perfect saint and a perfect martyr. More, he acted in the presence of the evil of Adolf Hitler to save Jews, only toContinue reading “Wallenberg II”

Right now I am 150 pages into the book Wallenberg: The Incredible True Story of the Man Who Saved the Jews of Budapest by Kati Marton. Raoul Wallenberg was the Swedish diplomat who traveled to Hungary during World War II and saved 100,000 Jews before being picked up by the KGB… and I have notContinue reading “Wallenberg, Part I”

Right now Mom and I are having are roof redone. I have not spoken to the roofers, although I will admit that in our neighborhood people who are more social do speak to people who do that kind of work for them as friendly acquaintances. I have, however, invited our handyman, Al, to Christmas dinnerContinue reading “The Common People and Literature”