Beshert | My Great-Aunt and I
I’m named after my great-aunt Lillian, my maternal grandmother’s older sister. She was born in Paris, France, in 1938 and moved to Brooklyn, New York...
Beshert | The Dance of Our Lives
Our first wedding dance was an Argentine Tango. Marrying a dance instructor, the pressure was on. Most grooms just have to avoid stepping on the bride’s feet or dress, twirl her a couple of times and make it through 3-4 minutes without doing the “high school prom sway.” I had to perform.
We chose the tango because once on a trip to New York City, we’d seen the Broadway show “Forever Tango!” and fell in love with the dancing. Learning it was an eight-month project.
Beshert | The Song of Our Lives
Then I saw her. Across the crowded room. Dancing alone in a red dress. It wasn’t just her beauty. It was a spirit emanating from her being. I approached her and we talked a bit. I found out her name was Rusti. Enchanting. But she was swarmed by other boys—she was beautiful, talented and smart.
Nevertheless, when I returned to my fraternity house that night, I told my brothers that I would marry her. It was love at first sight.
Beshert | Once Upon a Time in Montevideo…
I met my husband in a hotel lobby in Montevideo, Uruguay on my 27th birthday. We were browsing the lobby stores because the hotel’s only...
Beshert | He Had Me At Lunch
The man had just eaten the lunch of Jewish champions. There went my heart quandary; he embodied the simplest and best parts of being Jewish. With that one “lunch,” I realized he was the perfect Jew for me.
Beshert | Bestie In My Building
Fast forward six months later. I now lovingly call my neighbor my friend. She is exactly what I was searching for in my little neighborhood. We’ve named each other Lucy and Ethel. We laugh, we talk, we share. We drink coffee and write. We watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Best of all, she lives right below me. And has all along.
Beshert | Bonded by the Bard
“Was that your friend Bill Shakespeare?” my youngest son, Alex, then six, asks after my husband, Steve, hangs up the phone.
If that seems like a crazy question from a child, it was par for the course in my household, because it was words that wooed me, words that won me, and words that keep us – the entire family – in thrall.
From the very beginning, in fact.
Beshert | Really Glad We Didn’t Skip That Party
That we met on February 22, my Grandma Clara’s birthday, my parents’ wedding day and my Bar Mitzvah day on my mom’s and dad’s 22nd anniversary, must be pure coincidence, right? We chose our wedding day, June 10th, randomly; it turned out to be my grandparents’ wedding day nearly 70 years earlier. Another coincidence… unless one accepts that beshert operates in strange and mysterious ways.
Beshert | The Eight Months Of (Well, After) Hanukkah
I met Laurie at a Hanukkah party in Fort Collins, Colorado, a small town that had almost no other single Jews my age. Our mutual...
Beshert | A Real ‘Fun Run’
I moved from Cleveland to the woods of Connecticut in 1981 to start a new job as an engineer for Uniroyal. It was February and...
Beshert | My Daughter, the Career Game Changer
My daughter’s embrace of my jokes once they entered our home, sweet home, made the cycle of birth feel complete. This dreamy crossbreed of Punky Brewster and Lady Gaga makes this crazy good dada feel more blessed than the rest.
Beshert | Open Book Finds Editor
The truth is, we are an odd couple, Gidon and I. He is from the Czech Republic, I am from California, I like cats, him...