Welcome to Bluenose Jewess @60

“Thank you for this holy work,” my Rabbi said, grinning his friendly grin from behind thick glasses. I’d never thought of cataloguing...

What to make of the broken bits of the year, crumbling fast away like the broken bread we scatter on the rushing Narrows? A gull’s cry...

I fantasized about starting a hora in the middle of the street – would they drop their signs and join hands with us?

I could no longer find the piece of NS tartan I'd saved since this trip was supposed to happen, three years ago. A tartan garbed teddy...

It’s the Tuesday before our Monday departure on the “trip of a lifetime.” I am madly juggling work, pre-packing, cleaning and five...

Earlier this week I received a notice from a colleague about the name change of a ballet organization; it will no longer be called the...

Head of the Year Every year, I tell myself it’ll be different. The house will sparkle. The books will be housed. Broken things repaired,...

The soundtrack of this summer is construction noise: welding, sawing, grinding, yelling, ladders banging against houses, paint slapping...

We didn’t know much about my husband Shimon’s family when I started digging around the Internet. His mother Bela said her Aunt Nechama...

It’s the head of the year, which is what Rosh Ha-Shanah literally means. A time for dipping apples in honey, new year’s resolutions,...

For most of his life my husband could count his small post-Holocaust family on the fingers of one hand: “We were five. My brother and...

Not too many letters home this year, what with everything from Jewish camps to soccer drills cancelled or having moved online into the...

It’s raining outside our cottage; the day is grey and quiet. It’s high tide. Small whitecaps smack the rocks buttressing the cliff-edge....

It’s the 1990’s and I’ve been asked to be the guest speaker at a dinner for the Multicultural Association of Nova Scotia as the new...

Portapique, Nova Scotia. April 18-19, 2020. We won’t forget the place or the date, where the worst mass murder in Canada’s history took...

You know things are bad when the bilingual wrapper from your Halls extra strength cough drop provides the daily inspiration: “Keep your...

We’re getting new neighbours behind our house. It looks like they’re preparing to move in any day now. I realize that’s not big news in...

We should be heading out the door tonight for the Beethoven Eroica concert. A short walk down our snow-covered street, turn left to the...

There is nothing else to write about, or talk about and no-one wants to hear or read anything more about “It.” I am going to challenge...

2020 was supposed to be the Year of Travel for the Walts, Senior and Junior. Guess what? Plans change. Well, plans get postponed. ...