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Breaking the Silence
I’ve been telling other people’s stories in writing for more than 40 years. Telling my own in person… I wasn’t sure about that at all. “You can write it and read it,” I told myself, having already signed up for Teach the Shoah’s class. That was before I realised what...
In Front of a Live Audience
I have certainly done my share of live performances. I minored in theater in college, back in the day. I even flirted with the idea of going into acting. Nothing could have prepared me for what it was like to present a Holocaust story in person for the first time. I...
Living in the Site of a Remembrance
Every day, I watch as people pause to look at the four enormous white pillars in the street in front of my apartment building. These pillars represent the original pillars of the Leopoldstädter Temple, once the largest synagogue in Vienna with the capacity to hold...
Breaking the Silence
I’ve been telling other people’s stories in writing for more than 40 years. Telling my own in person… I wasn’t sure about that at all. “You can write it and read it,” I told myself, having already signed up for Teach the Shoah’s class. That was before I realised what...
In Front of a Live Audience
I have certainly done my share of live performances. I minored in theater in college, back in the day. I even flirted with the idea of going into acting. Nothing could have prepared me for what it was like to present a Holocaust story in person for the first time. I...
Living in the Site of a Remembrance
Every day, I watch as people pause to look at the four enormous white pillars in the street in front of my apartment building. These pillars represent the original pillars of the Leopoldstädter Temple, once the largest synagogue in Vienna with the capacity to hold...
To be Treated as an Equal
My father was born in Essen, Germany in 1926. He moved to Czechoslovakia in 1933 with his parents and sister to escape Nazi rule. Unfortunately, the "escape" only lasted until 1939 when Germans invaded Czechoslovakia. Luckily, my grandfather was on a business trip to...
An Audience of One
Hospitals are not usually known for being ideal performance venues. Yet, there I was, waiting to be taken to surgery, telling one of my Holocaust stories. The oddest part, though, was the reaction I received; it was perhaps the best one I have ever gotten. As I lay...
Lessons from the Kausenberger Rebbe
The Klausenberger Rebbe, the leader of a Hasidic Jewish community in Poland, was separated from his wife and 11 children upon arrival in Auschwitz Birkenau. Left alone in the world, the Rebbe sat in the barrack, and for the first time in his life, he cried. He had...
Ester Koyfman – a Last of Kin
On Thursday the 13th of May 1948, the day before Israel declared its independence, seven brave women fell defending the village of Kfar Etzion. They were Holocaust survivors, and they were the sole survivors of their families. They were Last of Kin. The previous...
Tying the Threads of Compassion
Through the alchemy of storytelling, the ashes of despair in the hallowed pages of survivor testimonies are transformed into flames of remembrance, illuminating the path towards a more compassionate and interconnected world. [redirects to the Times of Israel]
An Audience of One
Hospitals are not usually known for being ideal performance venues. Yet, there I was, waiting to be taken to surgery, telling one of my Holocaust stories. The oddest part, though, was the reaction I received; it was perhaps the best one I have ever gotten. As I lay...
Candle and Chronicle Newsletter October 2025
L’Shanah Tovah! Happy New Year to you all! We could not be prouder of what we have accomplished this year or more excited about what we have planned for the next year. We are so grateful for the support and appreciations we have received from you throughout the year. Thank you for joining us on this journey. [Redirects to Mailchimp]
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