Magill, Alan

For the hundred Jews or so, the only recognition of the holiday of Chanukah was this one small electric menorah...

Sara no doubt felt the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her fate, and that of her family, had hung in the balance; now, very hot and tired, she had to make the long trip home with nothing to show for it...

The kind deed he had done was able to reach him forty-five years later, and breathe a renewed enthusiasm in him to enjoy his activities of daily living . . .

All I could think of in that funeral home was how my father had given so very much to me, and in my deep sadness, with his coffin a few feet away, I struggled to figure out what I had given him in return.

As weeks turned into months, it seemed that my relationship with Yetta was over. I was soon proven wrong. One day, I received an official envelope in the mail from the city hospital Yetta lived in. The letter was headed, "Dear Family Member of Yetta G."

He was falling into an abyss with nothing to hold on to, nothing to anchor him. One day, which seemed like every other day of listlessness and sadness, Steven was told he had a visitor

The decision seemed like a no-brainer, but I didn't go with my brain on this one. I went with my gut. If I was truly to "put Judaism first," I needed to be with my mother; I needed to honor her. For the first time in my life, I made all the seder preparat...