Limmud Toronto 2016

“Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater”. George Washington Carver

I was almost destroyed. I was lost. I was angry. I was filled with hate and intolerance in my life. There was so much I didn’t understand and couldn’t know at the time. But along this path I was able to develop through introspection, by meeting some extraordinary modern “enemies” and in the process the hate and the intolerance I held for too long began to come down. And just as the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, so too did my own walls. East Berlin holds a special place for me ever since my momentous visit there in 1983 – the genesis of my story. Who knew, that personal liberation would have remarkable life changing consequences – including an unfathomable and unforeseen end to a bitter 42-year estrangement from my father.