As we enter Fall, I’m reflecting on how much fun I had at the Mango Writers Conference.
Thanks Ricki and Jeff and the committee for all your hard work.
I’m also looking forward to sitting in the SFWA booth at the Miami Book Fair.

Where I’m hoping to sell a few books and make a few new friends.
And since I’m in a reflecting mood, I decided to scan my 207 blogs in the Times of Israel.Now that’s one hellava lot of blogs. And as I scanned, I realized that I wear many writer hats as a blogger.
I’m a poet, satirist, historian, humorist, book reviewer, short story writer, and an author of children’s stories.
Please don’t ask me how good am I at any of those genres.
Only my readers know.
But I do try.
So here’s my Fall message:
Don’t hold yourself back as a writer.
Try different genres.
Don’t restrict yourself to one flavor of ice cream. 
Taste a few different flavors.
Dive into unknown writing waters and swim onto unknown novelistic beaches.
Be brave!

Experiment.

Flex the muscles on the writer’s side of your brain
What is the worse that can happen?
No one has ever died of writing a bad poem.
Have fun!
Be all you can be. 
Trite but I still love it.
Life is too short not to try a few new genres.
So please remember: keep writing, keep publishing, try something new and most importantly be creative.

I studied the photograph with great curiosity.

“Why is this photo different than all those other anti-Semitic Auschwitz pictures?” I asked.

There was the wrought iron gate, topped with the words “Arbeit Macht Frie.”

Arguably, the most infamous gate in the world;

Arguably, the three blackest words in the German language;

Literally, Earth’s “Gate to Hell.”

And I thought, “A more appropriate sign would read, “You’ve Just Passed through the Gates to Hades.”

A gate, I photographed ten years ago.

A gate, I walked under and through as a tourist ten years ago.

A gate my parents marched through as slaves in the 1940’s.

How many times did my mom or dad see that gate?

How many times did they walk under those three words?

Since my mom did not speak German, did she even know or learn the meaning of those three words?

“Work Shall Set You Free”

Only G-d knows.

I never asked her.

But I bet you, she knew those three words were a cruel, sarcastic Nazi joke.

Of course, those two scumbags holding up anti-Semitic signs at the gate to Auschwitz was different.

But what was really different were the words on their signs:

SHOAH THE ADL;

GREENBLATT SUCK [sic} 6 Million Dicks.

These two American neo-Nazis dickheads were attacking the Anti Defamation League (ADL) and its leader.

Voila, I figured it out.

I had never seen neo-Nazis attacking a specific Jewish Organization and its CEO before,

And then it hit me, the ADL had destroyed these to guys lives and they wanted revenge.

Had they lost their jobs, when the ADL exposed them as Neo-Nazis?

Had they been driven paranoid thinking ADL agents were constantly doing surveillance on them?

Well, whatever or who ever caused these clowns to write and color those signs and to be photographed holding those signs up in front of those gates deserves kudos.

I often wondered, “By sending a check to the ADL, am I making a wise investment in the fight against Jew hatred?”

And now I got my answer.

Thanks JDL and Greenblatt, for making a difference.

Dear G‑d, I am sorry for the sin I did in Your presence by not donating more funds in support of democracy, liberty and freedom.

Dear G-d, I am sorry for the sin I did in Your presence for failing to get my children to understand the gravity of the situation.

Dear G‑d, I am sorry for the sin I did in Your presence by not realizing that freedom isn’t free and that in every generation your faithful are called upon to defend your blessings.

Dear G‑d, I am sorry for the sin I did in Your presence by not convincing some of my readers to stand up to Jew-hating and Jew-baiting bullies.

Dear G-d, I am sorry for the sin I did in Your presence by not teaching enough of my readers that QAnon, MAGA, The Proud Boys, The Oath Keepers and silent Republicans are cut from the same cloth.

Dear G-d, I am sorry for the sin I did in Your presence by not writing more blogs fighting fascism.

Dear G-d, I am sorry for the sin I did in Your presence by not convincing more of your people that Trump and his sycophants are racists, antisemites, homophobes, and misogynistic nationalists.

Dear G-d, I feel remorse, contrition and self-reproach for all of my failures or sins in not doing more to repair this broken world.

Therefore, and I beg your forgiveness.

I promise to continue to strive for Tikkum Olam in the coming year.

And as I reflect, repent, and seek renewal I say:

AMEN.