“Hello, I’ve never met you before, so it really is a pleasure. I hope the feeling is mutual.” So begins my grandmother’s ...

Discover the evolution of journals from ancient Mesopotamian records to personal diaries like Samuel Pepys and Anne Frank's, ...

From hospital stays to Shabbat dinners, a few lines a day became a Jewish way of reckoning with memory, loss — and the comfort of routine. In January 2011, I wrote my first entry in a five-year diary.