A Few Odds and Ends

the old Ner Tamid

I just tossed today's episode; it was dreadfully boring. Ergo, I don't have much to say at the moment. Which is not surprising because this is already a very busy week for me. Let's just say there's a lot of creamed herring involved. And a honey cake. And a new Ner Tamid...Eternal Light...for the Saide Chapel where we have minyan every weekday morning. Somehow, commissioning the new Ner Tamid was an almost Talmudic counterpoint to my work on THE DARKEST LIGHT.

A blog post for The Times of Israel had to get out today. Of course, I'm writing about the documentary, but this time, I'm sharing some of my feelings about the process itself. To be honest, I'm still grappling with some of the issues because I'd never really dealt with them before. 

Knowing Carlebach’s music was not an if; it was everywhere. There was something unsettling about the rhapsodic joy in his niggunim or the soulfulness of his slower tunes. Psalms, sacred words to be sung at sacred moments, set to his music left me with an unsettled sense I could not fully articulate. A space at the center of me recognized what happened but did not dwell on it. I became viscerally angered every time I heard him regaled as a saint, a tzaddik, or a sage. He was none of those things; he was a pedophile and serial molester of women.

Instead, he was revered, celebrated, and idolized.  ...

...The #MeToo movement was already in full swing when the filmmaker Simon Mendes found me through some of my writing. I had long hoped Carlebach would be included in the famous offenders hall of shame. He was not. Finally, a chance to tell the whole story. I was hesitant at first, but oh, so relieved someone was gonna shine a light into that dark, elusive hole.

I am constantly asked if I want the music to go completely away? Not really. It’s really too late for that.  It’s catchy, it’s well-known, even my grandson sings Carlebach songs not knowing they set my teeth on edge…and I’m not mentioning that to an 8-year-old. Let him sing AM YISROEL CHAI to his heart’s content. Yeah, there’s a dichotomy there, but that’s a me problem.

When all of us who were molested are gone, I’m pretty sure the tunes will still be heard in shuls everywhere.

Simon Beychok-Mendes

I really think that at the end of it all, that's how I feel. The music will go one whether we want it to or not. The film is getting great reviews, we are getting lots of invitations to show at film festivals. Simon, our terrific director, is getting singled out for lots of kudos. Never having done the documentary thing before, I am blown away by all of this, yet none of it is really a surprise. The film is just that good, and Simon is an incredibly gifted storyteller. 

And this is not the end of the road for me with this team. I've signed on to research another documentary with them and right now, I am completely buried in research...and loving every minute of it. I suppose it's a bit odd starting a new career at my advanced age. But not really; at least not for me. I want to reinvent myself every chance I get between now and the grave. I want to keep doing. Keep learning. Keep pushing my own envelope. The really funny thing? If Ziggy was here, he'd be rooting me on. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

I solemnly promise to let you all know where and when 

THE DARKEST LIGHT will be shown in your area

as soon as the calendar firms up. 

It's all very exciting. 

I AM A ZIONIST JEW

The flag and the Kotel

I ran into an old colleague in the grocery store last week. The conversation was pleasantly generic enough until  she asked, "Are you still a Zionist?" I looked at her as if she had just stepped off the looney bus, but that didn't stop her. "I mean, you were always such a social activist. I cannot believe you're still pro-Israel after everything they've done." 

A zillion answers raced through my mind, most of them flip and dismissive, but as she kept rambling, digging her hole deeper and deeper, I realized flip wasn't the right way to go. When she finally stopped blaming Israel for everything wrong in the Middle East, I said, "I am deeply committed to Israel and its continued existence the same way you, as a progressive Democratic Socialist are deeply committed to the continued existence of the United States." 

Let me take a moment to make my position crystal clear:

• I am a Zionist
• I believe that Jews are the indigenous people of that land and have a right to be there. 
• Israel as a cultural entity on its own is first mentioned in the stele of Egyptian Pharaoh Merenptah c.1213-1203 B.C.E.
• By 1080 B.C.E. a kingdom was established. Around 930 BCE the kingdom split into two parts, Israel in the north and Judah in the south.
• Hebrew has been our spoken AND written language for over 3000 years.
• Our name is Yehudi. It means a person from Judah/Judea. A Jew from that place named for us, not the other way around. 
• Our literature and our liturgy have been in Hebrew for over 3000 years. 
• Mount of Olives is a Jerusalem cemetery in continual use over 3000 years containing 150,000 graves...and growing.
• The heart of our religion was the Temple in Jerusalem until the destruction of the Second Temple on the 9th of Av, 70 C.E. That day is still observed as a fast day for us.
• The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is revered by the three Abrahamic religion. Christianity begins in the first century C.E. and Islam begins in the 7th century C.E. 
• Jews have been exiled, persecuted, and abused by a litany of conquerors since then, but we have never completely abandoned the land. Jerusalem remains central to our liturgy. We end the Passover seder saying, Next year in Jerusalem.
• Since Israel was declared a modern state in 1948, its neighbors have continually attacked. And lost. In 1948, 1956, 1697, 1973, 1982, 2008. 
• Offered their own state many times, Hamas has never accepted nor ceased rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.
• We have an obligation to defend ourselves from those attacks whether they are from soldiers or suicide bombers on buses. 
• In 2005 Israel didn't just pull out of Gaza, it removed every Jewish person who had been living there since 1967, turning everything over to the Palestinians to begin their own journey to independence.
• Since 2007, when Hamas took control, over 30,000 rockets and mortars have been fired into Israel, aimed mostly at civilian targets like the town of Sderot. Approximately 1 in 5 launches misfire and land in Gaza.
• 
  October 7th, 2023 was not an attack on a military target, it was an attack on a music festival and people asleep in their beds. Rape, murder, torture are all documented for examination, including the videos taken by the attackers to show off their acts of violence. 
• If you have a strong stomach, this is a visual compilation of October 7th. Maybe you are one of the ones who needs to see this to understand what happened that day.

End of history section. On to today.

• Do I believe Israel has waged a long term war of genocide on Gaza? No. Populations experiencing genocide do not increase in size. Between 2000 and 2023 the population has almost doubled from 1.1 million to 2.2 million. They have one of the highest birthrates in the world.
• Do I believe the end result in Gaza is a humanitarian crisis and tragedy? Yes, but I believe the onus is on Hamas and its treatment of its own people. Had they built an economy instead of tunnels, industries instead of rocket launchers, Gaza would be much different. The Palestinians would be on the road to economic prosperity.
• Do I believe Israel wants to take Gaza back? No. Most Israelis would like an independent state with a burgeoning economy focused on the betterment of its population. 
• Do I agree with Bibi Netanyahu and his government?  No. Like most Israelis, I want him gone. According to Times of Israel, 55% to 61% believe he should be retired.
• I am also a voting American who believes the very fabric of our democracy is under attack. Did I vote in the primary? Absolutely. 
• I am not a supporter of Democratic socialism, but I do support a more socialist democracy that provides safety nets for its vulnerable citizens. [See last month's Junior High Cit Ed Refresher Course if you don't understand the difference.]
• I certainly am not a supporter of our current kleptocracy. President Feckless Felon's continued policies that enrich himself are anti-American at best and should be stopped. If only we had a congress that cared about Americans. 

There you have it. I dislike both governments equally. The bottom line? 

 

 I AN A ZIONIST JEW. I AM AN AMERICAN.

There is no conflict of interest here.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

Can someone explain who the hell Natalie Harp is and why the Coward of the Country took her on the catering truck for the ol' jet switcheroo while leaving cabinet members on the decoy plane in case Iran took a shot at him? I've heard her called a number of very interesting sobriquets ... including the human printer, the human binky, and diaper nurse (because of the claim she carries backpack of adult diapers for her boss. President Coward's dependency on Depends has been long speculated. 

Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia raised some interesting points on this topic. From The Independent:

While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings... He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar.

Natalie, backpack, & boss

I'm not so naive as to think men of power don't have their side pieces. Think Anne Boleyn (Henry VIII,) Madame de Pompadour (Louis XV,) Nan Britton (Warren Harding,) Lucy Mercer (FDR,) Monica Lewinsky (Bill Clinton) and while no one mistress has been assigned for President Felon, he's extra-marital assignations are well known since he also marries them. Natalie seems to be the current sycophant-in-residence. Let's see how long she lasts...before Melania puts a stop to her. Or not. Maybe Natalie keeping him busy and his butt clean is a load off Melly's plate. Stay tuned. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

For a really interesting read 

on our government's spending habits, try this: 

The Hartmann Report: Republicans Rigged America’s Debt: 

Now We’re Paying the Billionaires Forever

I thought it was fascinating.

A Million and Counting

A remarkable event happened over the weekend. While few may have noticed, I did. On Saturday evening, around 6:30 CST, this blog, THE WIFELY PERSON SPEAKS, logged its one millionth visitor. Honestly, I have no idea why. I'm guessing some of those hits are bots, but my stats guy tells me not all that many are. He assures me, based on the patterns and the traffic and the randomness of what people seem to be reading, I have a lot of readers out there. I used to be thrilled if on any given day I had 10 hits. Then 20. Then 50. Then I settled in at 100 hits a day meant I was "making my numbers."

There was the teacher in Ukraine who used The WP to teach English, and the emails from the kids were adorable. But all that stopped when Ukraine went to war. All my emails to them bounced. I was, in so many ways, heartbroken. Sometimes, I could tell when the firewall went down in places like China or Iran because you could watch the stats from those countries spin....until they stopped. A Chinese reader who had left China once wrote to tell me how they used me as a test for getting through to bloggers in the west, and that he and his friends loved me. I was a real American....whatever that means. Personally, I think it means I was innocuous enough not to upset any censors. I have steady readers in strange places....Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Malta. I hear from them every so often, and have, over the last 16 years, actually corresponded regularly with a few. 

Then, during COVID, the numbers began to spiral upward. I could see where the hits were coming from, sorta, and I just sat back and watched. I was mesmerized by the number of countries that had readers who found their way to me. Comments gave way to emails, and most of my direct communication happened that way. [You know who you are...and I'm sure you're guffawing out there.]

Unless a comment was total spam...like the plumber from Thailand who offered to come to Minnesota to fix HVAC units....or personally threatening, I published just about every comment. Occasionally, one came through that was clearly not for publication and wherever possible, I answered them directly. 

Of course, there were the haters, too. Not much you can do about them because they are trapped in their bubble and unable to cope with anything outside their sphere. As Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan used to say...quite often, actually, 

You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.

And so I will leave you with that thought. I am celebrating my dubious celebrity by giving myself the night off. I do want to thank everyone who has slogged through my endless ramblings, and be assured, if you write, I will answer.  I truly appreciate you, gentle readers, and will endeavor to keep you all reasonably entertained. 

See you all back here next week. Same Bat-time. Same Bat-channel.  

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Remember, most of the political ads you will see on TV going forward

are utter bull-hockey.

They are paid for by people who want to believe you are sheeple. 

Fool them.

Learn about the candidates and vote accordingly.

Normal Is Nice

Little Miss at the Guthrie

Toward the end of the last school year, Little Miss did a project on how the events of 9/11 have impacted our daily lives. To practice her presentation, she did it for me and I was impressed with the depth and organization of her work. This is pretty much typical her. At the end of her talk, I reminded Little Miss that 9/11 isn't abstract for our family. Two of my cousins died in the North Tower, Arthur and Kenny...father and son. I had a friend on AA 11 that crashed into that same North Tower. That the Cantor of Cantor Fitzgerald was my dad's first cousin, Bernie, and she is named for his mother, our very beloved great-aunt. Thank G-d they did not live to see this. And we talked about my working for the corporate travel division of Carlson Wagonlit Travel and how we had to handle the closed air space and stranded travelers. 

A few days after the conversation, I saw that the Guthrie was doing COME FROM AWAY...the musical about the passengers stranded in Gander. I asked if she wanted to go and Little Miss jumped at the chance. So I set the wheels in motion and found excellent seats at a Sunday matinee right after she got home from camp.

I was determined to make her first visit to the Guthrie a memorable.  I even booked us a table for brunch at Indigena by Owamni which is attached to the theater. This gave us a chance to catch up on many things, and to experience Native American cuisine. Let me just say we ordered a bunch of small plates so we could taste lots of very different things. I saw crickets were on the menu...but alas, crickets are not a kosher insect. If we had to pick our favorite, it would be the Marichou....a corn salad that was outrageously wonderful...and Tepary Bean and Smoked Whitefish. I will admit, she picked all the plates and she was the one who did the ordering. I just sat there and grinned. The conversation never lagged, and got a great dose of her thought process. She is a delightful brunch companion. 

Once we headed up that very long, steep escalator to the theaters (there are actually 2 up there, a proscenium and a thrust) we took a walk out onto the endless bridge and she talked about how Minneapolis was a "flour town" highlighted by the huge GOLD MEDAL FLOUR sign on the west bank of the Mississippi and the PILLSBURY'S BEST FLOUR sign east bank. She was happy to fill me in on the history of the city since, as she mimicked, I live in Saint Pawl. She also teases me about how I say cawfee. She is merciless and I love it.

Shortly after we dissected the differences between a/ proscenium and a thrust stage, we went into the proscenium theater to take our seats. I had told her about working on a show at the old Guthrie and how Di and Jann had been stage managers there. We discussed the merits of the program and what a director actually does...and they wear so many hats that you need a whole staff to get a show up and running. 

COME FROM AWAY

Then the questions about Gander started. I could talk about Gander and what happened in the hours after the planes struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. As someone who worked with business travelers, we were suddenly dealing with stranded clients all over the globe, made even more terrifying because I had family and very close friends who worked in and around the twin towers. I tried to give her some context for the world as it was the morning of 9/11 and how it collapsed with the crashes. I hadn't anticipated the depth of her questions, but thrilled she was asking them. 

Once the play began, we were both entranced and enthralled. It is a wonderful show. There were moments I got a bit teary-eyed and I got a sympathetic pat each time I sniveled. At the end, we cheered! We clapped and stomped with the band! In short we loved it. While this was not the first play we attended together, I think it will be the most memorable; I wasn't with a kid at a play...I was with a poised, lovely young lady...who just happens to be my granddaughter.

And in case your wondering why I'm giving you a detailed evaluation of my time with Little Miss...it's because I needed to write about something normal,  something not filled with hate or loathing. Something to remind me that there is space for humanity in our world. COME FROM AWAY reminds us that kindness can exist in the face of crisis, and not everything requires vitriol and hate. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

I just have a question I keep turning over and over: how crazy/deranged/unstable does a president have to be before some part of the government attempts to pull the plug...figuratively or literally?  

Some tidbits from today: 

But I do want to give them every last chance before decapitation. Very tough to do what we have planned, still planned. We'll see what happens. I'm very proud of the fact that I'll give people a chance. This is a big move to do an attack that big on a country. Hopefully they'll come to their senses...So they called me, and they said, 'Please don't attack. We'll make a deal.' That's the real truth. And everyone knows it. 

Except, perhaps, Iran. They insist there are no new negotiations with the US and they are in conversations about Hormuz with Oman. 

Then, of course, there's the Truth Social version:

Iranian Leadership is unbelievably duplicitous! They ask for a meeting, some would say 'beg,' talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly, that they're not having any discussions, that nothing is being talked about, and they're only dealing with 'Oman.'

Nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through, unless a Deal, or Total Surrender, is accomplished. Whether Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused, for decades. It is very simple, IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!"

Since the Iranian thing has started, President Felon has insisted over 40 time he has won this war. What part of delusional isn't this country getting? 

I really have my doubts about the midterms. Will they happen at all? Will areas that poll away from the Maga-machine have their ballot boxes taken away from "examination?" The bottom line is that I have no confidence that the elections, even if they happen, will be untampered.

And apparently, I'm not alone. Overheard in the fruit section (next to the Italian plums... huzzah) at Cub in West Saint Pawl, two ladies appearing to be significantly older than me:

Lady #1: You know that tangerine is gonna try to rig the vote, right? 

Lady #2: Screw that. I’m worried he’s gonna force a 3^rd term and declare himself dictator.

Lady #1: Like he already hasn’t?

I felt, for a moment, infinitely less crazy.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Whenever possible, discreetly listen to little old ladies 

talking politics at the grocery store.

They are the most reliable source for what your district is really thinking.