Who Am I? May 2023
I was born in Cairo (Egypt, not Illinois!) to Leon and Edith. Dad had arrived in Egypt from Syria as a child at the dawn of the 20th century. He became a debonair businessman who sold clothing. Cairo was relatively multi-cultural in the late 1940’s and it seemed that the different ethnicities got along pretty well. Circumstances changed for the Jewish population after the establishment of the State of Israel and especially after Nasser and the Free Officers ousted the monarchy of King Farouk. Our family immigrated, first to France and then to Brooklyn.
I attended P.S.205 in Bensonhurst. As a teenager I battled cancer. After graduating Vassar I chose to be a reporter. I interned with no less of an investigative reporter than Jack Anderson. I also worked at a com unity paper in Brooklyn, the Village Voice and the Forward before finding a home at the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps because of my own health problems I covered the health care industry with a focus on nursing homes and hospitals. I wrote of health care for the poor and uninsured and new treatments for cancer. My personal history gave me a vantage point to also write of the immigrant experience, often from a Jewish perspective.
I took time off from my day job to write the memoirs of my family which were published to wide acclaim. I strove for accuracy and “bullet-proofing” all of my work because of my background as an investigative reporter.
In September 2016 I came to the library in Hoboken to interview Affinity Konar, the author of the historical novel, “Mischling,” whose setting is Auschwitz. For those who may not know, “mischling” was the legal term the Nazis used to denote someone of mixed Jewish and Aryan blood. Were any members of the JHSNJ there in the audience that day?
That’s a photo of me and my dad below.
(1a)Who Am I? (1b)As a child in Cairo I remember a wonderful bakery that specialized in pastries and cakes that is still is business. Why was the name of that establishment? (1c)What was the name of my pet cat in Cairo? (2a)My dapper, man-about-town dad, allegedly had a fling with a legendary Egyptian torch singer. What was her name? (2b)In the photo with my dad the license plate reads 30702 on the left in ‘Western Arabic’ Numbers. To the right of those numbers, 3 digits (٣ ٧ ٢) appear in ‘Eastern Arabic’ numbers. Provide the ‘Western Arabic’ equivalent of those 3 digits that we, in the U.S., are more familiar with. (2c)On what ship did our family arrive on when we immigrated to the U.S.? (3a) As a teenager I credited the support of my doctor for his support and help in restoring my health. What was his name? (3b) While confined to my bed as a teenager I was inspired by a fearless female British secret agent. Who was that agent and who portrayed her on a TV series? (4a)I seemed to have had a penchant for long titles for my books. Name just one of the 2 titles I have written of my family memoirs. (4b) My paternal uncle, Salomon, converted to Catholicism and moved to Jerusalem. What order did he join and in what monastery did he live in there? (5)Where have I been laid to rest?
