The story I am about to tell is well known. It is hardly worth repeating. And that’s nice, since it involves my family. I am speaking of the house at Walowa 19 in Radom, Poland. You have all heard of it. My father was raised there before the Nazis invaded. It was a large house. Only three of his 11 siblings survived the Holocaust — one only because he fortuitously moved to Israel in 1933. Scores of my father’s nieces and nephews were murdered, too.

Well, that time of the year has finally arrived. Spring is in the air. But are we allowed to trust that air, or is taking a deep breath — especially nearby an exhaling passerby — still a health hazard?