Pauline Schwarcz, at The Blogs

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Mar 25, 2024, 3:16 AM

Looking Through the Glass

As I listened to the radio one evening while I was in the kitchen, there was a discussion about the benefits of looking through a window for a few minutes first thing each morning. I could do that! The following morning, I seat myself at...

Dec 21, 2023, 7:35 AM

Light Reflections

As we follow the terrible situation in Israel, closer to home there is the ongoing worry about anti-Semitism, as our family grapples with the demands of ageing and illness in our midst. We live in a state of angst and sadness, a bleakness. Darkness is...

Nov 20, 2023, 2:15 AM

While the Sun Shines in Melbourne …

After two days of wet, wintry weather in late October, Friday morning dawns crisp and clear. My sister is visiting from Sydney, and she has taken my car to do a few messages. I need to do some shopping for Shabbat, but I am happy...

Sep 11, 2023, 7:26 AM

White of Many Colours

I have never been to the spectacular cherry blossom festival in Japan, but around the corner from our place, we have our local flourish of blossoms: for about two weeks that usually coincide with the Jewish month of Ellul, two parallel streets lined with trees...

Aug 7, 2023, 3:17 AM

Some feel they must travel abroad to see historical landmarks and picture-postcard views. I have found both relatively close to home. A few weeks ago, I spent six days in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, with my sister, daughter, and grandchildren. Each day...

Jun 26, 2023, 7:48 AM

Gongs for the Unsung

With the recent public holiday for the birthday of the new monarch of the Commonwealth came the King’s Birthday Honours List, and many worthy Australians received medals for their services to the community or their field. Twice a year, in January after the Australia Day...

May 22, 2023, 9:39 AM

An Inappropriate Apron

A couple of weeks before Pesach I was cleaning out a small cupboard in my kitchen where I store tea towels, oven mitts and aprons. There, amongst a pile of folded napery, was a canary yellow apron with white cotton strings at the waist and...

Apr 25, 2023, 5:59 AM

Remembering the Unforgettable

Seven weeks of Sefirat Haomer. Forty-nine days of which the majority is devoted to communal mourning in memory of Rabbi Akiva’s twenty-four thousand students who perished from plague. And from our recent experience of Covid, the immense calamity of an epidemic should resonate with us....

Mar 27, 2023, 11:52 AM

He was fifteen years old, but tall for his age, and given a gruelling task too hard even for a grown man. He carried heavy loads from one place to another, from morning till evening; it was back and forth, day after day, in the...

Mar 6, 2023, 9:14 AM

It’s Purim and we’re in stitches

Hamantaschen. (Anne Gordon/The Times of Israel)

Apart from the time when my son asked me to buy a bee costume for my Sydney granddaughter, I don’t think I have ever bought or hired a Purim costume for my family. When my kids were young, Purim was a time to get creative:...

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About Me

Pauline Schwarcz is a freelance writer with a background in genealogy. Formerly a health professional, she enjoys writing about family history and her reflections on life. Pauline was born and lives in Melbourne and is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor.