Image:A Shabbat tablecloth that made its way from pre-Holocaust Budapest to a kibbutz in Israel. The initials AB, for Arenka Binetter, are embroidered on the cloth and visible in the photograph. The number 77, embroidered in red, was assigned to my parents by the communal laundry when the kibbutz was first established — a simple mark of the new life built after loss. From my family archive

A family heirloom carries a story of love, loss, and unanswered questions from wartime Hungary.

This year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked against the backdrop of political change in Hungary, where a struggle over the character of democracy is underway. Amid debates about the present, the memory of the past — especially the fate of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews murdered in the Holocaust — can feel increasingly distant.

Within this tension, I return to a personal story — the journey of a tablecloth.

About ten years ago, during a visit to relatives at a kibbutz in Israel, I noticed a familiar tablecloth placed near the entrance........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)