There are people we know for years who gradually disappear from our lives, and then there are people we know only briefly who somehow never leave us. A few months, a handful of conversations, a particular afternoon can make an impression that lasts a lifetime. Perhaps the brevity itself becomes part of what stays with us. We are left staring at that small piece of time, wondering what became of the person who occupied it and who they became after our lives went in different directions. Sometimes we wonder for the rest of our lives. Daniela Herz was such a person for me.

I wrote the following letter after learning that Daniela had died in Tel Aviv in 2019. I decided to publish it because it breaks my heart that she died and has so little online presence. I found only a few scattered traces of her. So I am publishing this here to give Daniela a small place on the internet, where someone searching for her years from now might........

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