Wednesday, December 16, 2020
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To my dear friend and amazing mentor, co-adviser to my dissertation, David. My love and support go to his family, especially my friend Gregg Drinkwater and their daughter Sasha. Like my fellow former grad students, and so many who crossed David's path, I wouldn’t be the scholar I am now without David. I feel like an orphaned researcher. After I met David, I chose to take a seminar with him although it was really not in my Ph.D. field. This course pushed me out of my comfort zone, the cold approach of diplomatic archives, and made me realized I needed to work on people as well. The topics in David's class made me happy or angry, or sad, and everytime, David encouraged us to feel, and not just to think and analyze. To integrate this approach in my own research and to keep working with David, I transformed my dissertation topic and he became co-advisor to my new topic. I am honored that David delivered my graduation speech and presented me and my work on my graduation day in May 2019. I am sharing here a couple of pics of this very important day, and another pic of the last time I saw David, before Covid-19 blocked us from traveling and meeting with friends all around the world: in Nov-Dec 2019, Gregg and David came to Israel for a Yad Vashem conference and some research, but took time off work for warm and fun friend time as well, like a day at the beach and a shabbat dinner with my sister and some other exiled friends. I already miss you David.
