Personal

2016: A dark year globally - wars, terror, disasters. But personally? Fantastic. We spend the summer in Tel Aviv and Berlin, then get married in sunny (!) Vancouver. The celebration at Bridges Restaurant on Granville Island is magical. Oh, and we move into a house on my all-time favourite street in Toronto.

2017: After joining Rachel in Ann Arbor for a semester and a short stay in Tel Aviv, we return to Toronto in June – just in time for the arrival of our son, Rafi. The house is still under renovation, but by late October, one year after getting the keys, we finally move in. Later that year, we introduce Rafi to his families in Germany and Israel.

2018: The year begins in New York, where Rachel teaches at Columbia. May takes us to Tel Aviv, August to Berlin, and then Vermont to celebrate Rachel’s dad’s 80th. We spend the rest of the summer at home in Toronto. From October to December, Ruben joins us, giving the brothers some serious bonding time.

2019: In January, our little pack gains a new member: Chai, a goldendoodle puppy. In May, we take a fantastic trip to Japan. I teach in Berlin over the summer, while Rachel starts commuting to Harvard once a week - never a dull moment. December brings reunions with old friends in San Francisco and family time in Vancouver.

2020: Just before the world shuts down, I manage a quick visit to Germany. Then: lockdown. Rachel’s parents “camp” with us for ten weeks - just in time for the birth of son number two, Leo. It’s a home birth, and I unexpectedly end up playing lead midwife when the actual one gets stuck in traffic and misses the big moment by twenty minutes. I take parental leave in the fall and, whenever time allows, return to my fantasy novel.

2021: I finish a first complete version of the manuscript in March, though it still needs work. A sabbatical semester helps. We stay grounded, hoping the vaccine rollout will save the summer - but our plans fall through. Leo starts daycare, Rafi heads to kindergarten, and the pandemic just … lingers.

2022: After another long pandemic winter, we feel a little like survivors. We finally travel again: Germany in the summer, Israel in December. Good to feel alive. I stage The Struwwel, my adaptation of Struwwelpeter, in what turns out to be my final student theatre production course. And the year ends on a high note: my academic book, Die Geschichte des türkisch-deutschen Theaters und Kabaretts, is published by transcript Verlag.

2023: After a pandemic-induced break, I teach my last U of T summer course in Berlin. Time to move on. And move we do: I travel to Turkey with my father, my eldest son Ruben, and my brother Atilla. His wife, Belgin, joins us for the Cappadocia leg. As if that weren’t enough Turks for one year, we top it off with a family trip to Turks & Caicos in December.

2024: January is all about rehab - I finally deal with the rotator cuff I tore two winters earlier while lifting weights in a sub-zero garage. Recovery includes a stint in Mexico. Summer takes us to Germany and, for the first time, Ireland. In late August, we buy a cottage near Gravenhurst. A game changer: our own little escape hatch from the city.

2025: We spend a magical sabbatical semester in Freiburg - kids in school and kindergarten, me deep in revisions of my fantasy novel, which, after more years than I care to count, is finally complete. We even squeeze in a week of skiing in France. In July, we return to Canada and finally get to enjoy the cottage we bought on the very last day of the previous summer. Then it’s on to Vancouver with Rachel’s parents, while the kids go to camp.

2026: Recovering from surgery (yet another rotator cuff tear - fortunately, I don’t have three shoulders!), I find myself in the midst of an extraordinary writing spurt. It culminates in the publication of my essay Mein jüdisches Paradox in MERKUR, the completion of my manuscript Der Unsichtbare Schnurrbart: Autofiktionen, and work on Zwischen zwei Ufern, a new theatre project to be performed in Toronto in November. We also revisit Freiburg, spend a delightful spell in Austria, and, inevitably, return to Vancouver, a city we can never seem to get enough of.