Blossoms on Trees in Highland Park, New Jersey
Those of us recovering? re-emerging? from having celebrated Pesach (no noodles, no bread, no pretzels, no oatmeal, no breakfast cereal except for ones that should be outlawed, no rice if Ashkenazi, no beans if Ashkenazi, no corn chips if Ashkenazi, no peanut butter if Ashkenazi, no popcorn if Ashkenazi and lots of cooking and food and meals) may be experiencing difficulty in reconnecting with the planet. I think a good night sleep tonight for me will help do the trick. More importantly, my kids finally return to school tomorrow, though my eldest sighs it was too short a break.
Any Pesach recuperators having a hard time looking at a potato?
I’m reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman. I finished Harriet Reisen’s Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. It left me with great admiration for Louisa May Alcott – she worked hard to support her family (never married – she supported parents and sisters), volunteered as a nurse in the Civil War, and in an era when women had few choices of livelihood, became rich and famous. She unfortunately became ill in her middle years and died at age 55 probably of complications from lupus.
Feel free to talk about whatever you like, as long as it’s not rude. (the people who comment on this blog make the world seem like remarkably polite folks – what a group of mensches, that is, good, polite folks).
Ilana-Davita posted a recipe for chicken with red peppers, which I made on Friday. I grilled it and then baked it a bit in the oven right before Shabbat. Tasty, though I think next time I should add more garlic.
A disturbing post on Jews Leaving Sweden – talks about Malmo, which I read about in Caldwell’s book (see below).
Books I’m reading: I read most of the stories in The Jew of Home Depot and Other Stories by Max Apple. I would like to write a post on the story called “Stabbing an Elephant.” Can anyone guess what the story about stabbing an elephant is about? Hint: which Jewish holiday?
I started reading My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq by Ariel Sabar, a birthday present from a dear friend (thank you). It is a captivating book; Ariel Sabar tells his story and the story of his father with great flourish and engaging description.
I finished Reflections on the Revolution In Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West by Christopher Caldwell – I highly recommend it, though the topic is a disturbing one.
Robin has been hosting Summer Stock Sunday all summer, and this week is the closing week. I couldn’t decide what to post, so I went with the 44th photo of the 44th album of my 2009 directory of photos. And here is a striking yellow and orange flowery umbrella from Sandy Hook Beach. Bye, bye summer.
I read a graphic novel called Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi today. It is a young girl’s tale about living through the Iranian Revolution. I would like to write more about the book, in another post; but I’ll first ask: have any of you ever read the book? Or seen the movie? I relate the book a bit to going to the beach, because at the beach I often find people wear less than my comfort level, and in the book, the women and girls are obligated to wear the veil (two extremes). Her story reminded me of my grandmother’s own story, of living through the Russian Revolution. Marjane, however, had it easier: at least her family had food to eat. During the starvation period, my grandmother used to tell me, she had to walk many miles in the cold Russian winter just to get a frozen potato that was often black inside. One ate what one could find.
There is an upcoming Jewish Bloggers Convention in Israel on September 13, 2009. I would like to nominate two bloggers for the convention: Soccer Dad and Baila.
I am nominating Soccer Dad for many of the reasons Batya wrote on this post. Besides founding Haveil Havalim, he has participated in the other two Jewish blog carnivals, JPIX and Kosher Cooking Carnival (which he has also hosted). I see from this post many others agree with this nomination.
As to Baila, she writes it well herself: “Two years ago my family and I arrived in Israel on the same NBN flight–the last one of the summer. I was in shell-shock. We had just come off a really tough time with Liat being so ill that year. I was numb throughout the flight and have since said, I wish I could do it again without all the “baggage”–so to speak. This would be my chance.” Who else of the Jewish women bloggers has this kind of energy and enthusiasm to help others with their aliyah experience? Besides, I think she would be best at breaking it gently to all those new families that they will not be able to purchase baby carrots in their local supermarket.
Today and yesterday I started and finished reading Roommates: My Grandfather’s Story by Max Apple. Great book, it was written prior to I Love Gootie about his grandmother, which I previously reviewed. Max lived with his grandfather (Rocky, shortened from Yerachmiel) when he was in graduate school. After he gets married and has two kids, his wife becomes terminally ill, and his grandfather, by then over 100, steps in to help. A bittersweet tale of closeness between the generations, the grandfather is at the same time tough and stubborn and caring and fun. Here’s what Max hears about Rocky’s trip to Jerusalem in 1968:
Rocky didn’t find any synagogue that satisfied him, but there were so many that he complained about a different one each day.
What do blooming garden flowers and the shocker I used for a title have in common?
In S. Y. Agnon’s short story “The Sign” the main character learns that all the Jews in his hometown in Europe have been killed by the Nazis. He learns this at the same time his house in the Land of Israel has been decorated for Shavuot in the traditional way, with flowers and plants:
The sun shone down on the outside of the house; inside, on the walls, we had hung cypress, pine, and laurel branches, and flowers. Each beautiful flower and everything with a sweet smell and been brought in to decorate the house for the holiday of Shavuot. In all the days I had lived in the Land of Israel, our house had never been decorated so nicely as it was that day. All the flaws in the house had vanished, and not a crack was to be seen, either in the ceiling or in the walls. From the places where the cracks in the house used to gape with open mouths and laugh at the builders, there came instead the pleasant smell of branches and shrubs, and especially of the flowers we had brought from our garden. These humble creatures, which because of their great modesty don’t raise themselves high above the ground except to give off their good smell, made the eye rejoice because of the many colors with which the Holy One, blessed be He, has decorated them, to glorify His land, which, in His loving-kindness, He has given to us.
A little later in the story Agnon teaches us a little of the halachot (laws) of Shavuot:
Although on the Sabbath and festivals one says the evening prayers early, on Shavuot we wait to say Maariv until the stars are out.
For if we were to pray early and recieve the holiness of the festival, we would be shortening the days of the Omer, and the Torah said, “There shall be seven full weeks.”
Later, the main character is standing in the synagogue, facing the six memorial candles shining among the roses and the wildflowers and the garden flowers that have been used to decorate the sanctuary. “Is it possible that a city full of Torah and life is suddenly uprooted from the world, and all its people—old and young; men, women and children—are killed, that now the city is silent, with not a soul of Israel left in it?”
Who is S. Y. Agnon? Shmuel Yosef Agnon was born Shmuel Yosef Czaczkes in Buczacz, Galicia. In 1908 he immigrated to Israel and in 1913 he went to Germany, where he married his wife. He returned to Israel in 1924. If you have heard of Saul Bellow or Isaac Bashevis Singer, S. Y. Agnon won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966, years before Saul Bellow and Isaac Bashevis Singer won their Nobel Prizes. Agnon wrote his stories in Hebrew, one of the first modern writers to do so. I hope one day to read his stories in Hebrew, as one loses a lot in translation.
Many thanks to Lorri (Rayna Elianna) for recommending A Book That Was Lost: Thirty Five Stories (Hebrew Classics),a lovely book of short stories. The holiday of Shavuot, which is a major Jewish holiday (as opposed to say, Chanukah, which is only a minor holiday) begins on Thursday night, May 28th. It is traditional to decorate one’s home with flowers, to stay up all night learning Torah, and to eat dairy dishes (we’ll be having ice cream for dessert).
Thursday Challenge theme for this week is “MANY” (Lots of People, Lots of Space, Lots of Things: Buildings/Candy/Toys/Animals, Countless,…).
I took many photos of the books in our living room and dining room before choosing these children’s books that were hanging around on a shelf of a bookshelf that badly needs replacing. See anything familiar?
I don’t read much fiction any more. Perhaps because much of the fiction I’ve read recently seems so…fake.
I can’t say that at all about the fiction of Aharon Appelfeld. Maybe because each of his stories is really his own, with the characters changed in some way to make it easier for him to tell the tale. For example, Tzili is about a girl slightly older than he was at the time of the Holocaust and a different gender.
I was introduced to Aharon Appelfeld by my high school Hebrew teacher. I believe we read Cold Spring, one of his early stories. Our teacher explained how Appelfeld writes about characters before or after the Holocaust. If you are looking for the horrible details of the concentration camps, it’s not in his writings.
I am currently reading All Whom I Have Loved, a novel about nine-year-old Paul, a boy with divorced parents in the late 1930’s. I am going to give you a taste of his writing with three quotes:
Father sits and plays chess with an elderly acquaintance. The man touches the chess piece and his hand trembles. When the game is most intense, I hear Father humming to himself. A game of chess can last an hour, sometimes two. Father plays and drinks coffee. I get a hot chocolate and a poppy seed cake. Father’s fingers are long, his fingertips stained with tobacco. He moves the piece, dragging it slowly as if to say, that’s it, no need to hurry, the enemy may be threatening, but he’s not all that strong. It’s easier for Father to talk to himself than to others. When he speaks to himself, entire sentences flow from his mouth. When he wins, he doesn’t boast. With his back hunched over, he tries to appease his opponent.
About Halina, the Ruthenian girl who takes care of Paul while his mother goes to teach:
Halina was lively and amusing but a chatterbox. After seven hours with her, my head was full of noise and I fled to the bedroom and curled up under the blanket so as to get away from it.
About how Jewish Paul learns about Rosh Hashana from his non-Jewish nanny:
Suddenly the sun came out, and in the yard next to us the bearded Jews were wearing white.
“What’s going on?” I asked Halina.
“It’s the Jewish New Year today, didn’t you know?”
“No.”
Halina had worked for religious Jews, and she knew lots about them; she was always telling me interesting details.
“On Rosh Hashanah they dip an apple in honey so it’ll be a sweet new year.”
“And why do they wear white clothes?”
“To look like angels.”
“You’re teasing me.”
“No.”
Finally, a quote from the New York Times Book Review about his book Katerina:
Applelfeld reimagines the place of his own origins through a perspective that in its generosity of feeling recalls Tolstoy and Chekhov.
This is where I was for about two hours this morning, at the Friends of the Highland Park Library Book Sale. I volunteered for a little over an hour taking the money from the sales, and then I came back with my daughter to buy some books. Despite the pouring rain, patrons were coming in and buying books. Those running the sale told me that the sale has been a success (they have made over $3000). In the middle of the photo is Mort, who spent a lot of his time this past week putting together the sale, and on the right is George, another sale organizer.
So, what did we buy? I bought a biography of the Rema, the story of Rabbi Moshe Isserles. It says in the introduction that certain liberties where made with re-creating his life, but I think I will get a feel for what life was like in 16th century Cracow. My daughter selected a Mother Goose book (we already own one, but this one has different illustrations), a Berenstains Bears book, and Meet Samantha, an American Girl book. I also threw in a copy of the Princess and the Goblin, thinking at some point my daughter will enjoy this classic.
I’m currently reading Mary Poppins, the original book by P.L. Travers. It is delightful, and one can see how it inspired the producers of the more famous movie. I hope to post excerpts from the book in the next week. But now I need to get back to my holiday preparations.
Children’s books are often a great way to learn a new topic. For example, when I was learning needlepoint about twelve years ago (I was pregnant with my second child and wanted to do something creative that required little clean up and one could sit), I found some nice books in the children’s section of the library.
Meanwhile, I am struggling over a carrot. Did you know that carrots’ leaves, the frilly part anyway, are far from the carrot top? carrot with piece on top, greenery is broken off top and placed on the carrot
carrot leaves winding around the carrot
My plan is to do a watercolor of the carrot. I have the paper set up, and the watercolor nearby. But first I need to decide on a composition. I’d like to have some greenery with my carrot, but I can’t decide on where to place it. I don’t want it on top, as in the first photo.
Note to pomegranate lovers: Not yet in season here. So I either have to work from a Google photo or copy this stamp. Not my ideal choice.
In between working on intriguing posts for your enjoyment and taking care of my family, I do website work for a number of Central New Jersey businesses and organizations. Sometimes it takes a while before my work becomes public, but recently I edited a number of web pages that I can share with you:
Yesterday, I put the Rutgers Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life’s Fall 2008 Public Events. Note that in December Dara Horn, author of The World to Come, a book recommended by Mother in Israel, will be speaking at Rutgers.
The Highland Park Public Library has a bug poster to advertise summer programming for children. The bug poster, by children’s book illustrator Harry Bliss, is part of a national program called Collaborative Summer Library Program, so you may see a similar one on another library site. I just added some text to make it unique to our library.
New Jersey School of Dental Assisting had me add their newest schedule, information about tuition and financing, and a new field on their contact form.
I did some edits for Wilkin & Guttenplan, an accounting firm in East Brunswick, New Jersey, including an animated gif of Best Places to Work award logos that you can see on the bottom right of the Careers page.
I will soon be working on a new online course for the Rutgers Bildner Center. The courses are free; so if you have some time to do a course, go to the Jewish Studies Online Studies page to take the Bible & History or the Israeli Political System. Also, I’ve been working a site for a local firm that is not yet public.
Today and yesterday I started and finished reading Roommates: My Grandfather’s Story by Max Apple. Great book, it was written prior to I Love Gootie about his grandmother, which 
