The obvious dizziness was gone, and the slow-but-steady hearing loss was easy to miss.
Despite Michal Horowitz’s severe bilateral hearing loss, a spontaneous shiur she gave as a merit for a sick family member became a full-time calling. Today, she teaches Torah to people around the world
I began life with normal hearing. I was born in Toronto in 1976, 30 years after the Holocaust ended. All four of my grandparents were survivors, and I was the eldest grandchild on both sides of the family. The Toronto community was mostly founded by Holocaust survivors, and I grew up in a world created by those who’d rebuilt from the ashes of Europe.
My childhood was unremarkable, with loving parents — an attorney father and a stay-at-home mother — and three younger siblings. I went to Eitz Chaim, the community school, and then to Bais Yaakov High School.
In ninth grade, during the 1990-1991 school year, my parents took a sabbatical, and we lived in Yerushalayim. It was a wonderful year of connecting to Eretz Yisrael, new experiences, and growth. But it was also the year a seemingly mild medical event affected me in ways no one would understand for a decade.
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