Contemporary Stories

I first heard of Sammy Rosenbaum in 1965, when a Mrs. Rawicz from Rabka came into my office in Vienna to testify at a War Crimes trial

We were all looking away; we had not known that he was severely afflicted with Parkinson's disease. Then we heard this big bang on the table: "Gentlemen, look at me, and look at me right now. Who can tell me what the lesson of the Holocaust is?"

The soldier stared at the boy, fighting back tears. "Over these four terrible years, this is the first live Jewish child I have seen..."

At first, I was awed by his courage. But the next day I realized, to my horror, that this man was 'renting out' the siddur to people in exchange for bread...

Fresh snow covers the ground, thinking I’m too young to know. On the other side of the pit four Russians dressed like railroad or construction workers look me up and down. I try not to look back.

His one hand held a wooden cane, the other somehow was suddenly on my shoulder. "Can you davven?" he whispered

I suppose every twenty-year-old should have an eighty-eight-year-old friend

"You see all these men?" The Chief asked. "They are all lost!" Shimon's face dropped. The Chief continued: "They don't know what tribe they come from!"

He was standing by the side of the road speaking through the open window of my car. "From this moment on," I said to him, "every good deed I do will also be credited to your account..."

After years of trying and seeking help from specialists, Anya and Sol confronted the reality of their situation. "Would you want to adopt?" Anya asked one day in a tentative voice

Rose felt like a leaf caught between heavy gusts of wind with no anchoring force to answer her question: To keep her job, or keep the Shabbat?

Her EEG was totally flat, indicating zero brain activity. A pacemaker made her heart beat artificially and a respirator made her lungs breathe artificially...

The warmth and the songs uplifted Marilyn in a way she hadn't expected -- creating a sense of openness inside her to whatever destiny had to offer

Could we possibly forgo the sounding of the shofar, which symbolizes the redemption of Israel? For me, it was unthinkable...

At first, we weren't concerned, knowing how children love to report even the slightest mishap. But when my husband and Rabbi Rosenfeld saw her sock bright red with blood, it was clear that she had to get to a hospital

It was in 1950, after we had completed our army service. At first we lived in tents, in the middle of a barren wilderness. At that time, there were not yet water pipes reaching our moshav. We had to content ourselves with what could be grown in dry rugged fields.