A Trip, A Dance, and Finally, A Job
The summer after my college graduation sped by. Papa Cohen gave me a very generous gift: he paid for me to go along with my mother and Aunt Eleanor to the Soviet Union to visit my great-aunt Rosa and her family. Rosa was the only sister of Nana Cohen, my late grandmother who had bravely sailed from her family and homeland at the age of sixteen. Nana would [...]
My Papa’s Legacy—Professional and Personal
One Friday night during the holiday of Sukkot, I went to synagogue with my maternal grandfather. After the service everyone went outside to the large sukkah for the kiddush and refreshments. Papa, a well-connected local rabbi, was happily schmoozing with friends and acquaintances while I chatted with someone at the other end of the sukkah. Suddenly, in an act that I found profoundly out of character, Papa appeared at my side, placed a [...]
With Ink-Stained Hands
By the end of my summer internship, I had learned to love the red ink that my editor had slathered on my first stories with his editing comments. It felt like a victory as the flow of red ink receded to light accents by the time I turned in my final articles. My stories were getting picked up, and I was invited to become a student member of the board of directors of [...]
Rookie Errors
(12 minute read) I learned my first hard-won lesson about the world of journalism when I was eighteen, an enthusiastic UCLA freshman hell-bent on a writing career. I had barged into the little office that housed the staff of the Jewish student paper on campus, Ha’Am (“the nation”) and offered to write a short feature for them. I was thrilled when the editor gave me the go-ahead. I turned in my story, feeling [...]
