When he was a teenager in Holocaust-ravaged Poland, Yosel Epelbaum hid in a barn while soldiers searched for him a few feet away. A few hours later, he was the only member of his family to escape his ghetto and make it to the blustery winter of a Polish forest where he hid, alone, for months. He then joined the Partisans and spent years fighting against the Nazis. He came to America with a few dollars and a few words of English, and with the help of just the right wife, he managed to make himself into one of Northern California’s most successful real estate developers. And today is my dad’s 90th birthday.