My Songs of Now and Then

Praise for My Songs of Now and Then This is a smart, moving and unpretentious memoir of a long life lived with vigor and strength. The biographical narrative touches on important 20th century events in Europe but the real story is the author's humanity, her womanhood, and her connection to others as she made a life in America. At a number of points, I stopped reading to shed a tear. When I was done, I wished, most of all, to have the same kind of equanimity and grace in old age. Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Prof. emerita, Cornell University Author of the award winning books: Fasting Girls: The Emergence of Anorexia Nervosa as a Modern Disease, and The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. The essays in this book are fragments of my truth, to share with loved ones, perhaps to make you laugh, or cry, to let you glimpse into my life, my family, my memories, my dreams and my accomplishments. I write of how it all got started, of belonging and not belonging; the journeys of my life, journeys in space and in personal development, growing up and growing old and older yet. I explore my Jewish identity as it evolves through the seasons of life, beginning with family wanderings in pre-war Western Europe, becoming an American Jewish mother and grandmother, embracing a mid-life career in psychotherapy, and examining the joys and challenges of late life, all leading to my Ethical Will. Family recollections and photographs are interspersed with brief poems.