I met Paulina in 2010 when my husband Rabbi Allen Maller and I went to help the Reform Jewish Congregation in Warsaw. She was a slender, blue eyed, young woman in her late twenties. Allen asked Paulina to write a paper about why she wanted to convert to Judaism. I have edited what Paulina wrote, […]
Szira
I met Szira in Warsaw at Beit Warszawa. She was the temple librarian. The congregation had worked out an agreement with Alex Lauderback our neighbor in Encino, California. He is a man in his late 80’s, a Polish Holocaust survivor. Alex found Jewish books from synagogues and temples that had surplus Jewish books. He would […]
Darius’s Story on the Bus
My husband, Rabbi Allen Maller, and I had been invited by Severyn Ashkenazy the patron of the Reform Jewish Congregation in Warsaw to come to Poland for two months, to help the Beit Warshazva Congregation. Before we left Poland to return to Los Angeles, Darius gave me a kiss and handed me a large picture […]
Margosha’s Story
One sabbath, I noticed Margosha, she had come by herself to the reform synagogue in Warsaw for Friday night services. She was in her late twenties a thin, tall woman with short brown hair and glasses. Margosha’s clothes were in brown tones, a tweedy blazer, a dark chocolate brown skirt with a white shirt and […]