I’m trying to think of a word or a phrase or a way to describe the arc of a certain kind of relationship, a relationship a person has with a place. I want to describe what it is like to be in a place where I didn’t grow up. It’s a verb that I’m looking …
From my tiny rooftop apartment in the colonia Coyoacuán I see the sun rise blood-orange red fading into hot orange and then silvery white and blue. On the horizon the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl come into focus. I see the stunning main library on the UNAM campus. I am fascinated with this building designed by painter …
The klaf (scroll) is the mezuzah. I make mezuzah cases but the mezuzah is actually the scroll inside the case. It has beautiful prayers that are central to Judaism. Many Jews believe that the mezuzah should not be used by Gentiles. After all it contains our most important prayer, the Shema. Furthermore, it is used …
Eucalyptus Eucalyptus globulus When I was attending woodworking school in Northern California in the mid 1980’s I’d pass a grove of eucalyptus trees on my way to class each day. I still remember the trees’ wonderful aroma in the fog and rain and the way they shed their blueish bark in long strips. Recently my …
The Living Room My father wore suits his father had made on a treadle sewing machine. His first language was Yiddish. My mother was born on the run, her parents fleeing the overthrowing of the Ottoman Empire and the ensuing anti-Jewish oppression. Her father was a coppersmith. She typed seventy words a minute on her …
