Hi all,
Just wanted to take a moment to wish a happy, healthy and sweet new year to all of the Mamapedia members who are Jewish or who have Jewish relatives!
This has been a tough year for many of us, with the rise of anti-Jewish, anti-semitic haters, from the Charlottesville synagogue to many other communities. I know we don't like to get political here, but those of us who are members of a targeted group could use some support.
I'm so gratified to live in an increasingly diverse neighborhood. A lot of homes are turning over, with families with young kids buying the homes of those whose kids are grown and gone. I'm in the latter category, but can't face the purging and packing involved, so we're still here. I manage the network/email list of our neighbors so I get all the info on the new folks. I'm so happy to add the first Muslim family to our 4 Hindu families, 2 Chinese families, 8 Jewish families, and 1 black family joining the many white Christian families in our neighborhood.
I'm trying to keep a balance in the Jewish high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, getting my recipes together and planning synagogue attendance, with my work of prepping the music for high holiday services at a local Jewish nursing home and assisted living residence. I love the community, and I am trying to work with a rabbi chaplain from a different Jewish tradition so we provide music/prayer to a wide variety of people. I'm Reform (liberal) and he's Conservative (with some leanings toward Orthodox), and the population we serve is diverse as well. Our melodies and prayers differ so we have to compromise. Good message for all of us, huh? The greatest challenge for me - because I'm detail-oriented but also a procrastinator - is to match what I know to what he expects, and put together a cohesive program for the very mixed congregation of nursing home residents (some with dementia, some half-comatose, others just getting rehab) and the assisted living people (who have all or most of their mental faculties) and the offspring who join them. I truly love to sing and am honored they have chosen me for the 2nd year in a row, but you know, I obsess....
Okay, so I know I have to ask a question:
1) What are your favorite and unique recipes that I and others might not have seen?
2) What are your unique traditions that we should consider?
3) What does this year mean to you in light of current events, the rise in hatred and divisiveness? And what concrete steps have you taken or have you seen in your town/neighborhood to combat isolation and division? I'm looking for something more pithy than "Why can't we all just get along?" and "Accept people for who they are."
Thanks for all of your input, and for your support over the past year. Happy New Year and L'shanah tovah to all who celebrate!
Edited to add: Hey folks, can we leave the politics out of it? There's one response about me being anti-Trump, which you in no way could infer from my post. I've not made a political comment at all. Jews are being attacked and threatened in Jewish centers, synagogues and even our dead in cemeteries. I leave it to you to figure out why. I took no position on it and only said it's been really hard. Now there's a new response saying that no Jewish person could be opposed to Trump. I bitterly resent the assumption that all Jews think alike. Also, one can be pro-Israel and either pro or con on the current government, just as one can be pro-American and pro or con any given President. In a democracy (US or Israel), patriotism is unrelated to which party won the last election. Thanks to all those who DID support me and come up with some great ideas and suggestions.
Doris – how wonderful that you took the time to look up the Hebrew! Your support means so much. Yes, it’s been a very hard year with bomb threats at Jewish centers - and the campus where I sing has had several. There’s a nursing home, rehab center, assisted living residence, and a community center that includes day care, preschool and kids’ classes/programs. It’s not easy to move wheelchairs, cribs, children or people connected to medical equipment out into a parking lot or field while the bomb squad and the explosive-sniffing dogs come in to clear the area. It’s upsetting for the older children, scary for the babies crammed into an evacuation crib, and bewildering for nursing home residents who already have issues with confusion. Going to high holiday services through police protection is difficult – and expensive – for congregations. Anti-semitism has been on the rise for the past 2 decades, and our cemeteries have been desecrated at a much higher rate. Even our dead can’t rest in peace.
Elena – I just LOVE that you took the time to share that recipe! Of course it’s appropriate, but you are so sweet to ask. I have copied it to my recipe file. Charoset is typically a Passover food, but it’s also common to have sweet foods at Rosh Hashanah. My Israeli neighbor has a fig tree and he usually loads me up with fruit at this time of year, so I’m going to try them out. The lime juice seems particularly Caribbean so I think I’ll use that. I find all of your posts and answers to be so thoughtful and compassionate, and your world travels are so interesting! I knew about the synagogue but did not know about the floors – thank you for that tidbit.
Anne – yes, we had KKK literature distributed 2 towns over, and there was a white supremacist/anti-Jew march in Boston which was dwarfed by the thousands of people who showed up at an alternative rally at City Hall. It was gratifying to see so many turn out for this, but it’s still hard, as you know, to wonder when the next onslaught is coming from. The fact that the Charlottesville synagogue had to remove and hide the Torah scrolls for safety – last done during the Holocaust in Europe – while armed thugs walked around the building and paced the streets saying, “Where’s the synagogue?” and “Jews will not replace us” makes us all wary going to services. People who don’t think that’s a problem should imagine their churches surrounded on Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday by people with assault rifles.
To the others who sent good thoughts and sincere warm wishes, thank you! I'll check back when there are additional replies.
Have a wonderful celebration!
ETA: Geez JC, how does being worried and sad about the recent rise of anti semitic behavior in this country automatically make D. "anti Trump?"
This stuff is happening whether you blame Trump or not, which she never did.
Well, I'm not Jewish but I hope you will allow me to share this. We were assigned to the tiny island of Curacao for nearly 3 years when my husband was the military liaison to the Dutch Navy. Curacao is the home to the oldest synagogue in the western hemisphere (it dates back to the 1650's) and we were privileged to be able to visit the synagogue on a couple of occasions. The floors are covered in sand, as a tribute to the Jews who had to muffle their footsteps to avoid detection when fleeing persecution. It is a magnificent place.
Curacao has a lot of great Jewish food and cookbooks and they make these delicious little treats (called something like Charoset in Hebrew, but Garoza in Papiamento which is the dialect of Curacao).
Ingredients:
1 lb shelled unsalted peanuts
1/2 lb shelled cashews
1 lb dark brown sugar
1/2 lb dates
1/2 lb prunes
1/2 lb raisins
1/2 lb dried figs
1/4 cup candied fruits (like you use in fruit cake)
2 shot glasses of Kosher wine
1/4 cup of orange juice or lime juice
1/2 cup honey
Grind the fruits and nuts in a food processor to a fine pulp. Add the liquids, and roll the mixture into small balls. Dust with cinnamon. This obviously makes a lot (like 5 dozen or so) so it could be cut in half.
We tried a lot of wonderful Jewish food on our little Dutch island, so there's my Caribbean contribution, if you don't mind! Hope it's not inappropriate for me to share that with you. My apologies if it is.
I love your posts and messages on this site, and I appreciate your insight, generosity of spirit, and kindness.
I wish you a very blessed New Year as you observe Rosh Hashanah!
J.C.: Just have to say that D.'s comments seem to me to be about the rise in racially- and prejudice-motivated violence which is showing up in everyone's newsfeed; it has nothing to do with whom one voted for. The most pro-Trump people in my synagogue definitely felt anxious when neo-Nazi and KKKers came to march in our town a couple years ago, and they were equally anxious when Neo-Nazis and KKKers marched in Charlottesville last month.
To answer D.'s post... L'Shana Tovah! As for what I do, I don't necessarily participate in community groups, however I do think that my job teaching anthropology at a college hopefully contributes in some measure to healing the divisions between people. My good wishes to everyone, and may the coming months bring kindness and goodness to all.
JC, how do you conclude that D. is "clearly anti-Trump"? Oh, you mean because she is opposed to hatred/divisiveness/isolation/division? Well, I see how you could put that together.
D., enjoy your holidays!!
I am not Jewish but I'm aware of the challenges of my Jewish friends. Their synagogues and schools have been targeted with vandalism and threats.
Even the non-hateful issues can be a PITA, such as having to jump through hoops with public schools to convince them that Jewish holidays and observances are valid and equal treatment is not unreasonable.
I hope the New Year is full of blessings and joy for you.
I will have to think a bit more on your questions - but just have to say I love that you are doing that for a nursing home/assisted living residence. Having had a close relative in one up until recently - I know how appreciated your efforts must be to them. I think that is very special and must be very rewarding. That's awesome D.. Will think more on your questions :)
Clearly you are anti-Trump. It saddens me that there are not many places to go (including mamapedia) to escape thinly veiled political posts.
Happy New Year though!
It HAS been a hard year. People may not even realize how hard. Happy New Year and L'shanah tovah to you too. I'm not Jewish and had to copy and paste that to say back to you, but I appreciate your sentiment very much. I admit that with the hatred coming from up top normalizing the hate in racist and sexist minds, I don't know what it's going to take to combat it other than getting rid of those up top, and demanding that the brazen lies stop. How these people can look at themselves in the mirror every day, I will never understand.
I don't see how anyone who is Jewish would be against someone who is the most pro-Israel President we have seen in a long time and I didn't see anything derogatory regarding Trump in D.'s statements.
