A first-grade class’s playground at recess. Two children stand face-to-face, feet apart, hands at their sides in a good old Western showdown. Yet instead of gunslingers, the crowd chanting in high-pitched voices through gap-toothed sneers cheer on professional insult traders. The boy hurls an insult towards the girl at a roaring velocity; she takes the …
Anti-Semitism Through the Eyes of a Survivor On the night of November 9, 1938, the Nazi regime began their reign of terror and violence over the Jews of Germany. Referred to as Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, many consider it the beginning of the Holocaust. On that night, the Nazis plundered thousands of …
How a Holocaust Survivor Still Holds Steadfastly to His Jewish Pride On Friday, November 23, I drove from my house in West Windsor, New Jersey, to the suburban retirement community, the Village Grande, seven minutes away. My brother Ari accompanied me, bringing along two sets of challah and grape juice. One of the two pairs …
Elizabeth/Esther Schwimmer is a petite elderly woman, silver-haired and kind-faced. Her speech is seasoned with a thick Hungarian accent, and her smile radiates the warmth of an authentic Jewish bubby. My brother and I meet her and daughter Deirdre in their New Jersey home. At first glance, when taking in her bright eyes and gentle …
