The alarm woke us up at 4AM and Dave and I sleepily made our way to the Manchester Airport in 23 degree weather. It was colder than expected for an April morning in NH, but not entirely surprising. After a full day of travel we arrived in Austin, TX to a hot and humid 80Continue reading “IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards 2018”
Category Archives: Connections
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
When I arrived at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on July 19, 2017 I took a minute to wander. I said ‘hello’ to the Holocaust survivor who was sitting at a desk greeting visitors and I noted the sign on the information kiosk which advertised a book signing that afternoon. Then I headed upContinue reading “The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum”
Actions Speak Louder
I went to two Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) events in April and I noticed that different communities handle this important day in different ways. Each has a different tone and audience but essentially accomplishes the same thing. I watched University of New Haven students do a short performance of Pavel Friedmann’s poem Butterfly. IContinue reading “Actions Speak Louder”
3…2….1…Launch!
I arrived at the Mandell JCC at 5pm with my husband. We brought all my books, posters, artifacts, etc. upstairs to the room where the launch was to take place in two hours. The room was hot. There were a lot of chairs. And I was nervous. We met Kathy, the coordinator for Voices ofContinue reading “3…2….1…Launch!”
A Teacher, a Student, and a Lesson Plan
A few weeks ago my husband handed me a book. He told me I should read it before I finished writing all the discussion questions for Tutti’s Promise. He has been working in schools his entire professional life and knows something about education. The title is Understanding by Design and it is written by GrantContinue reading “A Teacher, a Student, and a Lesson Plan”
Tutti’s Promise is here!
The Hotel Bristol – Berlin
Tutti’s Promise contains a scene in which a concentration camp guard lets my grandfather smuggle vegetables out of a root cellar to his wife and children. This really happened and my mother remembers it well. She has told me that my grandfather even said that he would have testified for leniency for this particularContinue reading “The Hotel Bristol – Berlin”
Spiersfelde
A few years ago I was looking through my grandmother’s photo album. One of the most striking pictures shows thirty-one people in a group portrait. They are nicely dressed and posed in a purposeful composition with the family patriarch and his wife, my great-great-grandparents, sitting in the center. My grandmother stands slightly to one sideContinue reading “Spiersfelde”
Stumbling on the Stumbling Stones
Gunter Demning is a German artist who has made a name for himself installing stolpersteine (translation – stumbling stones) in front of the final residences of Holocaust victims. I was lucky enough to be invited to help set the stolpersteine for my great uncle and his wife in Tilburg in January 2014. This past weekendContinue reading “Stumbling on the Stumbling Stones”
Lucky Star
My mother kept the yellow star she had to wear during the war. She never showed it to me. It must have been in the back of a drawer in a dusty envelope. At some point in the mid 70’s she donated it to the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford (JHSGH). What she remembersContinue reading “Lucky Star”
K Heidi Fishman (Popje and Me) 