A Rumanian born, Spanish Jew (ie, Sefardi / Sephardi), practicing as a professional engineer in North America, though (perhaps) more of a writer, historian and linguist at heart. Have all sorts of "traditions", some that may have cost quite a bit at one point or another in my life:

- my political stupidity: while living during the Ceausescu years in Rumania, refused to join the Communist Party and when pressured, resigned from the Youth Organization of the Communist Party. Talk about living dangerously...

- I come from a family that had open "issues" with the party appointed head of both Jewish religious and Jewish cultural life in Rumania, Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen, formerly agent of Joseph Stalin (via Emil Bodnaras), then of various Rumanian Communist leaders (Gheorghiu-Dej, Ceausescu).

- 7 of my relatives were killed during the Holocaust, countless others suffered, were tortured, beaten, sent to slave labor...

- had an uncle that was excluded from the Communist Party during the mostly anti-Semitic witch-hunts of the late 40's and 50's. Later this uncle was actually sentenced to death. All this facts marked my Securitate file for many years.

- was openly Jewish and pro-Israel in a country that had Zionism singled out as a crime against the State in its 1st Article of the Constitution.

- an expert in Quality Science, something that runs in the family... I guess: one my maternal grandfather's first cousin was Iosif / Joseph Juran.

- an expert in waterproofing / water penetration / coatings / restoration / materials, another... something that runs in the family...: inherited from Avram Tichel [tsikel], a great contractor and my maternal grandfather, in whose home I spent my early childhood.