By Shifra Epstein In memory of my grandparents, Shifra Epstein (1879–1925) and Israel Epstein (1872–1932), who moved in 1919 with their four children from Bialystock (Russia) to Jaffa. My grandparents are buried in the Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv, not far from Zina and Meir Dizengoff. A Jewish city An Odessan was asked one day,…
Two years ago, my company offered my family and me an opportunity to move from Ann Arbor to the French-speaking part of Switzerland for a four-year assignment. It was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when travel still felt like a distant dream. Our family had moved around a lot, but we’d been in Ann Arbor for seven years and had finally settled down. We had recently bought and started fixing up a charming old home, and our two children were very happy at school. We also had never felt more connected Jewishly, having found an extended family with the Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation (AARC) and also being able to connect virtually with a wonderful Jewish Renewal synagogue near our old home in California. The idea of blowing up our lives was completely unnerving, but it felt like an opportunity of a lifetime that we couldn’t pass up.
By Shifra Epstein (originally published August 2022) Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, I have been visiting festivals, shops, and events in Ann Arbor speaking with individuals about the war. This June, my interest in how the war in Ukraine impacts Ann Arborites led me to the Top of the Park, the popular…
By Shifra Epstein Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, it had taken my partner Miriam and me more than sixteen months to venture into downtown Ann Arbor on a Saturday night. During our first venture in on May 10, we enjoyed the closure to traffic of the downtown streets, which made strolling very pleasant. The first…