ABSTRACT
I stood over the sink washing dishes by hand, the way my father had taught me: rinse the dishes clean, then fill up the sink with soapy water and let them soak, taking them up one at a time to scrub, front and back. Drain the sink, then rinse each dish one by one, front and back again, and place on the drain to dry. The warm water and rhythm of the movements helped clear my mind. There was something my father said that stuck with me. He had never before revealed it, mentioning it almost in passing. I had been pushing and probing for details, for things I had not heard before. There it was! A little jewel of information: before World War I, the Wasersztejns were “comfortable” enough to have had a servant—a Polish maid for a Jewish family in Jedwabne.
