Prague

Czech Republic

June 15, 2015

They mourn differently. 

I read somewhere that when parents lose a child, the mother and father mourn differently.  In general, Women “speak.”  Men “work.”

So it was in my own family. 

On June 5, 1972, at the age of twenty-eight, my sister Paula Carol Wiesenfeld passed away unexpectedly.  From that day forward my mother Ruth Polatschek spoke lovingly and admiringly and proudly of her only daughter. 

From that day forward my father Otto Polatschek closeted himself and immersed himself in his lifelong devotion to stamp collecting.  He also began a new Project.  I can only guess his motivation; he decided to construct a Polatschek Family Tree.

Athens

Hellenic Republic

Sunday

April 26, 2015

I need a drink every time I visit a place like this.

Housed in a small, lovely building, displaying a variety of secular artifacts and religious icons, the Jewish Museum of Greece carries the appropriate name - a museum - the lifeless panorama of history.

Jews lived in Greece for more than two thousand years.  But in large numbers, Jews arrived in Greece following their expulsion from Spain and Portugal in the late Fifteenth Century.  For more than four hundred years, communities thrived here, especially in the northern city of Thessalonica, known as the “Little Jerusalem.”  In 1940, the Jewish population of Thessalonica exceeded 53,000 children, women and men.

Bangkok

Thailand

March 22, 2018

The Chasids know how to party!

This month I was invited to two celebrations.

Rabbi Moshe Hadad and his wife Elisheva invited me to the Bris of their son Yaakov Yehuda.

The ceremony took place in our* temporary shul.  A new one is under construction across the street.

The Bris itself was part solemn and part joyful.  But the luncheon served later was 100% joyful.

On Sunday March 18, I was invited to attend the Bar Mitzvah of Yaakov Hadad, the son of Rabbi David and Mrs. Nechama Hadad, the brother and sister-in-law of Rabbi Moshe.

The Bar Mitzvah meal was creative and delicious and bountiful.  But the dancing!  Oye, the dancing!  Joyful does not begin to describe this celebration.

Ulm

Baden-Württemberg

Federal Republic of Germany

October 29, 2016

My Cousins and the Stolpersteine

Otto Polatschek is gone but not forgotten.

Lisa Polatschek is gone but not forgotten.

In Ulm, Germany, Otto inherited a retail shoe business from his parents Alois Polatschek (1879-1929) and Paula née Brumlik Polatschek (1883-1932).  But as the Nazi menace in Germany became more threatening, Otto sold his business to the Werdich family and fled with his wife Lisa to Berlin.