The downside of that was that the nursing homes…
The downside of that was that the nursing homes were not located near a Jewish community. And therefore I did not have many friends. Neither did my siblings. The only advantage that they had was that since they were born after me, and we moved to a Jewish neighborhood later on, they were able to benefit more from being in that neighborhood.
— from Friends, Community & Society (Relationships/Community/Society)
In the book
[Here is the place for my own turbulence — write in, or let me tell you, about the loneliness of my early years. I grew up in a nursing home far from any Jewish community, with very few friends, and I think the hunger for connection that began there shaped how much I came to value it.] Here is why all of this matters more than the bank balance or the title. […] More than anything else, the relationships. I learned the value of connection, I think, partly from its absence — I spent my early years rather lonely, in a nursing home with few friends nearby, and I have spent the decades since deliberately building and guarding the bonds I once lacked. And I learned how to be with people from my parents, who taught me honesty, common decency, and generosity toward others above almost everything else. — Friends, Community & Society (Relationships/Community/Society)