eventually he had his own furniture store. He fell in love with a local girl, married and fathered three daughters who knew his strange habit of crossing a street to greet a newcomer, stranger, a world unto themselves, who had crossed land, sea and time to meet on new terrain.
They were his landsman * from the old country and unafraid, he asked each one,“ Vos Macht a Yid?”** How are you? Have you found your reason to live? They laughed, sometimes hugged, they who had left full lives behind, each branded with erased history, never to see their lost loves and homes.
He drew them near, refugees no more, trembling on the sands of their new life’ s shore.
At different times in her life, poetry was Eillene Leistner ' s primary creative expression; several of her poems were published on the Of the Book website and she was recognized by Writer ' s Digest in 2022 for her poem " Beacon Hill Beach." She attends poetry classes and leads poetry groups and readings at her synagogue, Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck, New Jersey.
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* a fellow Jew from the same country or region in Eastern Europe ** How are you?
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