TRAVEL STORIES

As I prepared to leave my campsite in Kiev, I went to the office to retrieve my passport and approached a woman working with others behind a counter. She thumbed through the passport and found that I had visited Israel. Then she asked if was Jewish. When I replied “yes,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone, “Well, I am Jewish, too. My mother was Jewish; therefore, my identity papers state that my nationality is Jewish -- not Lithuanian, which is where I was born. But I don’t know anything about Judaism, and I really don’t understand what it means to be Jewish.” As I was about to leave the office, the woman offered to accompany me to my car. When we were out of earshot of others, she stopped me and grabbed both of my hands. The matter-of-fact voice she had used just minutes before suddenly shifted to one of heartfelt emotion. She squeezed my hands and said, “Please give my regards to all Jews in America. You know, we Jews must stick together.” Then she abruptly turned around and headed back to the office. Her words, the emotion in her voice, and the expression on her face revealed that her ties to Judaism were much stronger than she dared to disclose in the confines of the camp’s office. I will never forget that poignant moment. The Jewish heritage we shared was a subject she would not openly discuss.

I was a guest in a private home in a small Japanese village. As such, I was invited to take the first bath in the home's only tub. Not yet knowing the intricacies of Japanese bathing customs, upon concluding the bath, I opened the drain and released all of the precious hot water that was to be used by the rest of the family. The entire house quickly filled with steam from the tub's jets, and my host family freaked out. But in true Japanese style, they were very gracious about explaining to me the facts of life as relate to Japanese baths.

I visited South Vietnam for a week, leaving just days before the beginning of first Tet Offensive. While there, I spent an afternoon at the swimming pool of the French Country Club in Saigon. During the Tet Offensive, that facility was the site of a massive Viet Cong attack in which many lives were lost. My decision to leave the country when I did was one of the best I've ever made.