Bangkok
Thailand
Monday, March 12, 2012
Sunny and Warm
Hello,
I’ve got about a million items on my To Do list. Regardless, I decided to be a one-man, unofficial member of the TAT – the Tourist Authority of Thailand.
Are you considering a visit to Thailand?
Have you been here before and you are thinking about a return trip?
Montevideo
Uruguay
El 2 de Mayo de 2012
My Dear Family and Friends,
Forty years ago, in 1972, my father Otto decided to draw a Polatschek Family Tree. He wrote to his sister Ida Kiewe in London and to his cousins around the world to gather information.
Eventually, with pen and paper, Otto drew a chart. He included the names and dates of his relatives, past and present. In addition, he added as much information as possible about his many uncles, aunts and cousins who had “disappeared” during the Holocaust in Europe in the 1940’s.
When the large chart was complete, Otto mailed copies to his relatives in Europe, Canada, California, South America, South Africa and Israel.
Over the years, my father and I discussed our Family Tree. I was curious about where his (my) relatives had lived in Europe and where their descendants were now living.
Salta
Argentina
May 21, 2012
Dear Family and Friends,
The plaque on the wall reads “Estudio Contable, Ema Jaffi de Kohan, Contadora Publica National.
After almost two weeks in the “deep freeze” of Patagonia, I wander about this lovely city with its spring-like weather (actually, right now it’s late fall). This city of about 500,000 is known as “Salta la Linda” – Salta the Beautiful.
I find the Cathedral, the Church of Saint Francis, and the Monastery. Orange trees line the residential streets. I photograph the preserved colonial homes and offices with their ornaments and pastel walls. I stroll through the Plaza of the Ninth of July where the kids are enjoying the mild temperatures. And by accident, I find that brass plaque affixed to the wall of a narrow street.
I normally think of the surname Jaffe as a possible Jewish name. But, Kohan? A possibility.
Bangkok
Thailand
10 February 2010
Dear Family and Friends,
Along with the photographs he neatly pasted into my Baby Album (photos, I may note, of a very cute infant boy) my father Otto also affixed a small white envelope. The envelope is clearly marked, "Jan's First Haircut." Inside the envelope to this very day is a shock of fine, light-brown baby hair. Cute?
Ten years ago in Miami I noticed that the hair of my neighbor's young son grew longer and longer, almost to his shoulders. My neighbor, Levi explained that his son Baruch-David will have his first haircut at three years of age - a Jewish tradition.
Three years ago my friends in Mumbai, Sushma and Paawan invited me to Mundan Sanskar, the traditional Hindu hair cutting ceremony for their one and a half year old son Agastya. *
Last year, our Rabbi here in Bangkok announced that his three year old son Ephraim would soon undergo the traditional haircut ceremony or Upsherin. Rabbi Kantor explained: "In Judaism we recognize three cuts. The first is the umbilical cut. The second is the circumcision. The third, the cutting of the hair, takes place at the moment the young son is ready to begin study of Torah, the sacred books of Jewish learning.
Most recently, my friends Mai and Mark invited me to the Buddhist haircut ceremony, Kornphomfai, for their daughter Molly, now about eight months old. Also participating were Molly's infant cousin, Prairwar, and her parents and grandparents and great-grandfather.
Binyamina
Israel
22 November 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
The town of Binyamina is the final destination of my trip to the Middle East. After five weeks of intense travel in Egypt, Turkey, Rhodes and Turkey again, I am trying to relax with my cousins Miryam and Moshe Lauer.
Miryam is a marvelous cook. Even after a minor surgery on her eyelids yesterday, she is back in the kitchen today preparing all my favorite German-Jewish dishes. So I am relaxing and eating too much. But Moshe! No relaxing with Moshe. Moshe, 81, is an energetic and irrepressible tour guide.
Kıyıköy
Turkey
15 November 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
The Black Sea. I have never been here before. I’ve been to Romania three times but I never went to Constanţa, the popular beach resort. I’ve been to Bulgaria but I avoided Varna. I guess I avoid the noisy, popular beach resorts now. Too much...I don’t know…too much of the stuff I don’t do anymore.
Anyway, here I am in tiny Kıyıköy (pop 2500). From my hotel balcony, the view is the wonderfully blue waters of the Black Sea.*
