It’s my dad’s 96th birthday today. As a teen in Holocaust-ravaged Europe, he crawled on his hands and knees into the Polish forest in the middle of winter, where he survived, alone, for months before joining the Partisans, fighting the Nazis, and eventually getting on a boat to America, where he arrived—having lost his entire family—with no English, and almost no money. By the time I showed up, he had built himself into one of Northern California’s most successful real estate developers. For our purposes, it’s worth noting that everything I know about consuming and analyzing politics and world events comes from him. Even with all of his trials and triumphs, he still ranks getting on our family Zoom call this morning as one of his greatest challenges. He’s my hero. He’ll be yours too if you read his amazing story. Taking Risks: A Jewish Youth in the Soviet Partisans and His Unlikely Life in California.