Gone West   

Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Years: Early 2000s

That relaxing stillness of vacation — the pre-dawn hikes, the lazy Phoenix afternoons — followed us everywhere. Nothing had to get done, no homework, no friend drama, none of the pressures of a budding teenager.

Today was too long — too many slipups with my kids and too much drama in my work life and too many meals to cook and serve and clean. I need a break. I need a disconnect. I need my sister.

My fingers work from muscle memory — how many times did I go down this route as a teenager and then as a young adult?!  — and “Flights to Phoenix” shows up in the search bar, as if of its own volition.

Maybe you’ve heard of Phoenix? But I’m not talking about extravagant Pesach hotels. I’m not talking about the cute vacation destination where you stay so you’re a short drive from the Grand Canyon or Sedona’s famous red rocks, or where you pay to ride a camel and take a picture next to a cactus. I’m talking about my second home.

My sister Cindy and her husband Rabbi Raphael Landesman moved to Phoenix in May of 2000 as kiruv pioneers, to build an oasis of Torah in the literal desert. I was just starting middle school, and what this meant for my family in Woodmere, New York, was that we now had a reason to go west.