One of the requirements for entering high school, which in Vienna begins at age ten, was the purchase of a Welt Atlas.

I have mine to this day.

Bound in red linen with gold letters and covered in translucent plastic, it was one of my most precious possessions. Today, nearly every page has come loose, yet somehow they remain in the correct sequence.

The atlas taught me geography, but also something more important: how to dream.

Our mother bought us children’s encyclopedias and lexicons, but it was this large red book on my desk that transported me to faraway places.

I did the same at the airport when we went to meet a beloved uncle or my younger brother returning from Torah Vodaas, his Yeshiva, in New York.

A huge black and white board........

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