Category Archives: Personal Reflections
A little bit about where I came from
Found some interesting articles worth sharing about my hometown in Ukraine.
http://articles.latimes.com/1997/nov/09/news/mn-51918
http://ukrainianheritagefound.com/bar.html
http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Shargorod
Filed under Personal Reflections
One of the neatest things happened today.
I’ve lost several favorite local stores here in the great East Bay. And let’s just put it mildly, it made me quite sad and always on the prowl for another new place to love. As an avid reader, I support the public library. In fact, I support it so much that I belong to two different libraries, and subsequently am a member of two different Friends of the Public Library associations. Well, that latter thing? It just helped me hit the freaking blog motherload.
After having a lovely lunch with my friend Stephanie, we decided to FINALLY on my suggestion go to check out the local bookstore run by the “you guessed it” Friends of the Public Library. Walking into that store, on the corner of Channing Way and Telegraph, was like hitting a proverbial reading jackpot. Not only were the books insanely cheap, $2 or less, but the variety of books was astounding and for a local smallish association, there were enough recent bestsellers on the shelves (trust me, for a lot of people it’s a thing, and it’s hard to compare this Friends of the Library to the other large urban one I belong to, but really, not the point). At any rate, everything I was doing there was all going to support the organization itself and its many literary programs so I was happy to spend my money, boy was I ever. I roamed around the various sections like a merry child, lost in my own literary happy land. And then….I saw a sign for Judaica section and walked in front of six fully stock shelves in this wonderful store. Let me put this in context, guys. I’ve seen less Judaica on shelves in many a Barnes & Noble. So this was a veritable goldmine especially when I got to peruse what was there. Oh, the usual volumes about Holocaust and such and nary a book on Israel which was in an entirely different though appropriate section of Middle East. But the thing that impressed me the most was the quantity of volumes on arts, literature, crafts and photography of Jews. These books were none that I’ve ever seen anywhere else. From the stamps inside some, I saw that they were discards from the local university library’s. And how can one calling oneself a reader leave behind books stamped Discard? Duh, of course I couldn’t. At one point I was torn between TWO books depicting Jewish life from 19th century to WWII. TWO!!!! What a choice! I can’t tell you how having this chance to discover a new place to love made me happy. And not just happy. Ecstatic because this place of wonder has such Jewish treasures to discover.
And all I will say is that I bought three treasures that I would really love to share with you soon.
Filed under Personal Reflections
The Jewish cemetery grows.
Today is the Jewish yahrzeit, first anniversary of my mother’s passing. Only dad and I were there today, my husband being sick at home, the rest of the family elsewhere today. To be fair, it was fine to just be there together because the collective family had already gathered on the calendar anniversary of her passing last month, in Father’s Day, with much more souls than I anticipated at any rate. What’s interesting today vs last month is the fact that today the headstone was covered, something we were told would happen last month when we all gathered for the official unveiling but apparently the cemetery follows the Jewish anniversary rather than calendar.
I felt fine, anxious to get it over with even today. We had chores to do, and I wanted to be home with Ken. And then a few hours later, when I was wandering through my dad’s (it’s still half my parents’, half my dad’s when I refer to it) house, it hit me how desperately I still need my mother. Yahrzeits are supposed to be days to light the candle in remembrance of the departed ones and all I remember today is the heartache of not hearing her voice, not playing with her hair, not telling her about the silly thing my dad told me earlier. The light does not burn just one day and night, the light is ever burning.
Filed under Personal Reflections, Uncategorized
Reading about the Romanovs
So this is slightly off topic or you know, maybe not. I’ve been slowly making my way through the last few weeks and getting my bearings again after the 1st yahrzeit of my mother’s passing and my dad’s two days spent in the hospital. So I’ve been reading and though nothing review worthy has come up, shades of things I want to express have been bubbling up in other topics. Last week or so I’ve been plowing through a history of the Romanovs written incidentally by a Jewish author, Simon Sebag Montefiore. I didn’t find this authorship significant until he began outlining how virulently anti-Semitic the tsars were. From Nicholas I and his enforced 25 army sentences for Jewish boys to Alexander III forcing Jews out of Moscow and encouraging pogroms that forced so many to come to America in the 1880s. And his blessed successor, the executed Nicholas II? Same exact shit with encouraging and overlooking pogroms in 1905 and beyond. I am at the point of he story where I am impatiently waiting for him to be killed. And I am not that Kind of angry person! It boggles my modern mind that educated, intelligent, Westerners a mere hundred years ago were OK with murder and rape of the minority they hated. History just tends to repeat itself, doesn’t it?
The significance of a Jew writing this history isn’t lost on me. I’ve read several histories of the tsars and yet this feels like the first one where anti-Semitism isn’t given more than a two sentence address in hundreds of published pages.
I feel weird reading it at this point. I do. But the end is nigh so to it I go and take mental notes as I carry through.
Filed under Midread thoughts, Personal Reflections, Uncategorized
Guess what guys?
Tomorrow is my wedding day!!! All of the energy that I’ve been channeling for the last year is hopefully going to culminate in something awesome for everyone to enjoy. For me, I am just enjoying the notion of marrying my soulmate. He is by far the best person ever.
We are off for our honeymoon next week and I promise to be back to full reading shape after. So excited!!!!!
Filed under Personal Reflections
“The newly independent all-female Rana Choir of Jaffa, a rare example of a successful coexistence project, sings in Arabic and Hebrew, as well as in Ladino and Yiddish” (By Judy Maltz, from Haaretz, April 10th 2016)
Filed under Personal Reflections
What’s in my head
I’ve had a sort of a review pondering through my head lately. It’s been quite some time since the inspiration has struck, I’ve said that before haven’t I? And I’ve been on a quiet reading streak for months now. For as long as I have commuted to work, I’ve been reading. I am one of those rather lucky people who can read in any moving vehicle ( I know that not everyone can do that!) But lately I’ve been watching a lot of shows on my phone. Maybe I’ve just been super worn out from work or wedding planning or dealing with the many unexpected needs of my grieving dad who can’t always find his way. So it’s been a lot of Netflix and Amazon Prime. Funny thing is that it initially started with a thought to read Jane Eyre which instead turned me to watching various versions of it and then I was just too busy watching whatever sounded interesting. For weeks I’d been watching. I picked up a few books trying to read them but nothing seemed to keep my attention so back to watching I did go. And then a few days ago I think things began to thaw a bit. I am not sure what changed really, I certainly still want to watch things but now I feel interested in books again and with that, I picked up a book that I’ve had for years and something about it touched me. So in a few days I hope to give you some thoughts on this amazing book.
Filed under Personal Reflections
Trying to find my way back
Been reading much less lately, all that wedding stress. Currently re-reading:
But mostly I’ve been binge watching a lot of Netflix whenever I have free time. Currently this:
Filed under Personal Reflections
Jewish Books Are Awesome 