Over the years, I have visited three Holocaust concentration camps: Bergen-Belsen in Germany and Auschwitz and its partner death camp Birkenau in Poland.

For me, Judaism means standing up for the underdog, it means fighting oppression, it means appreciating freedom and means seeking peace.

In Israel, the secular New Year is called Sylvester after St. Sylvester, a notorious 4th century anti-Semitic whose saint day falls on December 31.