Stories of Return

I had never seen such a strong bond and commitment in my life. The mere mention of his name would make their eyes sparkle. I never thought that I would be able to admire and respect someone so much...

From the Rebbe's own personal example, I learned that there was nothing in the world a Jew need fear; that every place and every action and every moment called for a Jew to bring G-dliness into the world...

I turned to my husband and said, "I am ready to look for a house and move into the Jewish community." My husband's stunned face said it all...

They were carrying branches and fruit. They wanted me to wave them in the air, to shake them in all directions. For G-d. For world peace. For unity...

My very own roommate, Jen, the Japanese-American, looked at me and said, loud and clear, "Bad Jew… off to the showers with you!"

On Shabbat morning I would sit beside my grandmother in synagogue, and the exhaustion of the week would melt as we prayed. But as soon as Shabbat ended I would go back to my struggle to create a picture perfect life instead of a real one...

I do not believe the many Germans who say that they knew nothing of the concentration camps. I was there in Germany and I knew about them. I remember feeling that it was terrible, but I had no special feelings for the Jews, because I did not know even one...

If only I understood back then what I'm beginning to understand now, I would have saved myself many fights and arguments. If only I knew that the biggest fear my mother had, or has, is of losing me to some unknown...

I think that I've had the ebbs and flows of this feeling throughout my life. Sometimes I feel so close to G‑d that I can almost touch Him; other times I feel like more of an empty shell rather than someone with a G‑dly soul...

It had been more than half my lifetime since my first visit to Israel in 1978, and I was overcome with palpable excitement and curiosity...

There are more than six billion people living on this planet, and most of them have their own opinions about G‑d. They also have a story behind their opinion…

One night, as I come home from school, I open the front door and hear strange noises coming from the living room, a mixture of radio static and a voice speaking in a foreign language...

We have traversed three continents. Twenty-five hours of flight, and twenty-five hundred years of yearning. We have arrived home with our family. Jet lagged and disoriented but so grateful to have arrived safely in the Land of our forefathers...

I had just come home from having a painful medical procedure when the phone rang. To my astonishment, it was a woman from a local radio station telling me I just won tickets...

Week after week, year after year, decade after decade, I watched this enchanting ceremony, never allowing myself to imagine my mother not being there to kindle the lights. How quickly the years passed. What I thought would never end was ending...