A well-deserved nomination – 2008 weblog awards

I thought I should let anyone who doesn’t already know that the blog ‘Jew Wishes’ is a finalist in the 2008 weblog awards, in the category of ‘Best Religious Blog’ – take a look here for the information!

In my opinion, it is a beautiful, beautiful blog and Lorri spends a lot of time and effort on it.  She has brought to my attention any number of books and websites that I would have had no knowledge of if it wasn’t for her blog.

Of course, I am biased. but if you have the time, please go and take a look.  And vote for Jew Wishes, if you agree!  Voting should begin on 5th January 2009 – see here!

My first Chanukah

So, it is over for another year.  I loved lighting the candles each night, reciting the Hebrew, holding hands with my BH whilst we watched over the flickering flames.

We had placed the menorah on the dining table.  For anyone passing by on the top deck of the buses in and out of our town, they would have been able to see the light of the candles grow night by night, if they cared to look.  We never have our curtains closed as we are raised up and set back from the pavement and street.  We get the sunlight filtering through the leaves on the branches of the trees in the summer and the mist on the park in the autumn and winter.  We have huge windows as we live in what used to be a college, built in the 1880s.  The room is open to, yet secluded from, the world.

I hope some passengers on the buses saw our menorah as they travelled by and enjoyed the beauty of the candlelight in our darkened room.

I can’t wait to do it again next year.

I hope you all had a wonderful Chanukah.

Shabbat Shalom

It’s been quiet here on Shavua Tov this week.  In fact, it’s been quiet generally.  I’m winding down for the next 10 days or so whilst I have some time off, to spend by the beach, with my BH and with my friends.

My chanukiah/menorah is ready and waiting for the first candle lighting on 21st – I am really looking forward to that.  So, all I have to say to you, kind visitor is this…

Family ties

 

I was feeling pretty flat yesterday.  Until I remembered an article I read in the Jewish Chronicle about a tie-up between the Ancestry website, JewishGen and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.  This means that historical records will be made available free on the Ancestry site, including data from the Holocaust database, Schindler’s List, memorial books, register of births, marriages and deaths from 14 countries ans information from the ShtetlSeeker website, plus 150,000 from the American JDC never previously published.

I took a look.

Progress has been made!

Yay!

It’s not easy being green

 

I popped over to IlanaDavita’s blog earlier to see this post which included a link to an article about environmental awareness in Orthodox Judaism.  It makes very interesting reading and is close to my heart – firstly as a person who was brought up to try to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible and secondly as a (soon to be) Liberal Jew.  The firstly and secondly aspect don’t reflect their order of importance to me as influences, but do reflect the fact that I was aware of these types of issues long before officially stepping into the Jewish arena.

The Liberal Judaism movement in the UK has produced three value and practice leaflets connected with these types of issues, on Ethical Eating, on Animal Welfare and on The Environment. 

Thank you, IlanaDavita for your post.  It’s always useful to look at an issue from a different viewpoint.

Conflict resolution

 

IlanaDavita poses an interesting question here, following last week’s parshah ‘Toldot’ and this week’s parshah ‘Vayishlach’. 

The subject of conflict resolution is unfortunately a little too relevant to me at the moment and I must admit, I’m not particularly good at dealing with conflict when it relates to people close to me.

I tend to do this:

I was brought up in a household where people didn’t fight at all.  A bit of a handicap for later on in life.  I’m fine getting issues dealt with in my professional life and when it involves protecting our rights (listen up, shopkeepers!), but on a personal level, I leave a lot to be desired.  I’m working on it.  In the meantime, I fully admit to losing my temper too easily – although it’s over in an instant.

Kindertransport

The above image is of the Kindertransport sculpture at Liverpool Street Station, London.  I found it at the Association of Jewish Refugees website, which you can see here.

I visit this station at least once a week and the bronze sculpture is beautiful.  Ten thousand Jewish and other children fled to the UK in 1938-39 on the Kindertransport.  The area outside the station is known as Hope Square – I didn’t know this until today.

A play entitled ‘Suitcase’ was put on in the station last week, to mark the 70th anniversary.  I wish I had seen it.  Here’s a link to a YouTube promotion for it.

History

 

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time at all, you are likely to have noticed that I am a little obsessed with history.  To be more precise, family history, or lack thereof, in my case.  Not that I don’t have one, just that I don’t know in any great detail what it actually is yet. 

So this story on The Jewish Writing Project really caught my eye.  A short recounting of family history and tales passed from one generation to the next.  Short, yet very moving for me.  To say I’m a little jealous is probably true, but that isn’t a very attractive character trait, so forget I wrote it!  I’m not desperate to find out that there are links to landed gentry, royalty, or infamous scoundrels.  My BH can trace back through a long line of steel workers and coal miners – to my mind that is something our country was built upon and therefore something to be proud of, without a doubt. 

So, back to my perennial moan – not having any personal family resources to draw upon to provide a sense of the type of people my ancestors were.  You know, the recipe book, the insurance policy, the brooch or the tie-pin.  Maybe this is why, in complete contradiction to myself, I like both owning things and also not owning things.  Objects that have a sentimental value are worth more to me than all the money in the world, whereas a home full of status symbols of success and wealth don’t really mean that much.

Amsterdam Holocaust Memorial

[Post edited to correct manifest error.]

I found this information on the website The Museum of Family History.

“The Hollandsche Schouwburg (the Dutch Theatre) was a collecting point and deportation centre for Jews. The theatre was situated in the old Jewish quarter of Amsterdam. The unfortunate people were transported to Westerbork camp in Holland, and from there to death camps.”

In 1962 this site was designated as a war memorial, in remembrance of the Jews who perished under the Nazi regime.

The theatre auditorium has been replaced by an open courtyard with an obelisk where the theatre stage once stood. The entrance hall leads into a memorial chapel where an eternal flame burns. Engraved on the Wall of Remembrance you can read the names of more than 100,000 victims who never return.

And thanks to IlanaDavita, I have found the correct images of this memorial – which you can see on the Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust website.

The quick Shabbat service

 

It still amuses me that in Judaism, it does not have to be the Rabbi that leads the service.  Every month, I receive a calendar of events, a magazine and a schedule of services for the next month.  This schedule sets out who is doing what at each Erev Shabbat and Shabbat service, including who will be the officiant, wh0 will read the parashah, who will read the haftarah and who is providing the challah and wine for kiddush afterwards.  So far, I’ve been at services where the Rabbi is the officiant, plus various other long-standing members of the community.  They each have their strengths and weaknesses – some are very clear on which page to turn to in the siddur, some have wonderfully clear voices, some sing so beautifully it makes your heart sing.  One person does all of these things (I leave you to decide who that might be!).

This week, I experienced yet another new (to me) officiant.  A lovely man, he clearly revelled in the chance to lead the service and made it very clear that reading from the Torah scroll was a challenge that he was glad to meet, but he was even more pleased when it was over!  He also recounted a very funny story about a second flood, Noah failing to build his ark in time and explaining to G-d all the planning rules that were required before he could even lift a hammer.  He also romped through the service.  Not that he missed anything out or gave the impression that it was under sufferance – it was just that his Hebrew was as if it was his mother tongue – and his mother tongue as if he had entered a speed-reading contest!

Still, it’s just occurred to me that maybe this was a good thing, this rapid devotion experience.  For one of my new friends who was born Jewish but didn’t learn any decent amount of Hebrew has suggested that we get together and practice, practice, practice.  Other than at the service, I don’t get any chance to speak it out and neither does he.  Being a couple of words behind (at minimum!) whilst reading from the siddur is frustrating, to say the least.  I imagine it must be even more so for someone born Jewish, who feels like they should know it!

Having written all of the above, I do not mean to criticise.  I would love to think that one day, I would be able to lead a service.  Whether I can live up to all of the qualities of the current officiants, I have no idea!  I’d better get on with the Hebrew learning!

I also handed in my essay to the Rabbi after class.  Now to start work on the proper ones for the Rabbinic Board.  I like to be prepared.