Is There Somebody Out There?

Monday, October 7, 2019

It's fair to characterize my religious belief as Jewish existentialism, focusing entirely on human behavior here and now.  However, I can't help but notice that Bernie Sanders campaigned on Monday, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the second holiest day on the Jewish calendar, and then he had a heart attack on Tuesday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/us/politics/bernie-sanders-hospital.html

Was somebody or something watching?

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Thanks to the intervention of maître David Goldfarb, we saw the new Metropolitan Opera production of "Porgy & Bess" on Saturday, which the New York Times described as "splendid."  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/arts/music/porgy-bess-met-opera-review.html

I thought that there was too much of a good thing.  There are over 20 identified roles, 6 dancers, several children and a 60-person chorus making the usually vast Metropolitan Opera stage resemble a subway car at rush hour.  The number of voices generated wonderful sound, but I doubt that Catfish Row could actually be that crowded.

Leaving the opera house as the tumultuous cheers and applause faded, I thought of college football -- some college football, at least.  Except for three police officers, all 90 or so members of the cast are "black," a very imprecise term, which I use because "African American" presumes knowledge of nationality.

The audience had almost the exact opposite racial ratio.  Thousands of white people were cheering several dozen black people, just what you see when the frequent national champion University of Alabama football team plays on its home field.
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We ended the first weekend of 5780 in fine fashion.  We had dinner with "cousins" Eli & Hana Gothelf (one consonant away), residents of suburban Tel Aviv, who like to vacation in the Holy Land.  We agreed on Indian food, difficult to find in Israel, proceeded to Sahib, 104 Lexington Avenue, and ate up a storm.  As the only carnivore, I had lamb biryani to myself ($19.95).  Otherwise, we shared aloo tikki chaat ($7.95), a potato latke without grating the potato; bhel puri ($7.95), Indian rice krispies; baigan bhaji ($7.50), pan-fried eggplant; achari mushrooms ($10.95), spicy mushrooms grilled in the tandoor oven; malai kofta ($15.50), vegetable knaidels in a sweet curry sauce; saag paneer ($15.50), cheese cubes in pureed spinach.  There was also naan, mango chutney, peas pulau (rice), and raita (yogurt sauce to cut the heat).  The bonds of American-Israeli-Indian solidarity were substantially advanced.

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Help me.  One of the most galvanizing  stories recently in the news and its accompanying photographs concern the conclusion of the trial of Amber Guyger, the white, off-duty Dallas police officer, who murdered a black man in his apartment when she entered it by mistake.  After sentencing, the victim's brother was allowed, at his request, to hug Guyger, followed by the trial judge, a black woman, responding to Guyger's request for a hug.  

Put aside for a moment the emotional, psychological and jurisprudential issues raised, can you think of any similar display where the colors were reversed?

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Speaking of forgiveness, starting tonight, for the next 26+ hours, Jews are supposed to enter a period of reflection and atonement.  In the days leading up to this, some have approached family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances apologizing for any transgressions in the preceding year. 

I'm not so good in this regard.  Whether due to insensitivity, obtuseness or stubbornness, I don't readily recognize my errors or am unwilling to let them go.  And, sometimes I am waiting for the other guy to go first.  Mostly, I'm too embarrassed to admit that I actually said or did that.

There are other people who are more profoundly engaged in these High Holy Days.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/10/08/768007748/yom-kippur-in-uganda-an-easier-fast-this-year

I am somewhat familiar with Jewish tribes in Africa through the good works of Harriet Bograd, a member of West End Synagogue, president of Kulanu, Inc., an organization that reaches out to isolated, third-world Jewish communities (www.kulanu.org).  I have met several young Abayudaya (Ugandan Jews) as a result. 

While this article offers hope for a vibrant Judaism, it also demonstrates a critical failure in Jewish practice.  The Abayudaya, among others, are "not fully recognized as Jewish by the state of Israel's Orthodox rabbinate," which has a stranglehold on issues of family law and Jewish identity.  Israel willfully abuses its own citizens and Jews around the world by retaining strictures long out of date. 

Thursday, October 10, 2019

It seems that Bernie Sanders was not the only prominent Jew who defied the rules of our road and paid the price.  https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/292472/the-koufax-curse

Three major league baseball playoff games were played during Yom Kippur, and the Jewish ballplayers who chose to play, unlike Sandy Koufax in the past, did not fare well.  Good! 

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Last week, we found that a typical school teacher cannot afford typical urban rents.  Here, we look at how much any of us needs to earn to afford the principal, interest, tax and insurance payments on a median-priced home in the largest American markets.  https://www.hsh.com/finance/mortgage/salary-home-buying-25-cities.html

California has the first 4 of the 7 cities where an income of over $100,000 is needed to finance the median home purchase.  Boston and Seattle then come before New York.  In 12 cities, ascending from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, you can get into the median home with an income of less than $50,000.  I think that this is a healthy reminder that the economic standards of the costal elites are not commonplace.  

. . .

Except for marriage, most things aren't better the second time around.  However, lunch at Miznon North, West 72nd Street, certainly was.  While I thoroughly enjoyed a variety of Mediterranean dips and pita stuffed with chicken on September 18, 2019, I moved around the menu today with superb results.  A choice of appetizer comes with every main course.  I started with a thick slice of very fresh, very crusty bread to be dipped into a dish of crème fraîche with tomato seeds and olive oil, smooth as silk and delicious. 

My main course was originally a problem.  It was called Queen Malka Schnitzel.  My beloved maternal grandmother was Esther Malka, which everyone knows means Queen Esther.  Queen Malka is the redundant Queen Queen.  The genial Israeli host acknowledged this, but explained that it was an example of Mr. Miznon's silly streak.  In the spirit of the new year, I ceased to demur and how well rewarded I was.  I was served a 10" slab of what appeared to be a thick breaded chicken cutlet, a normal schnitzel, but with the first slice I found that a chicken paillard had been folded over creamy mashed potatoes, breaded and fried.  A wonderful invention.

It shared the plate with two different mustards, diced pears, cole slaw and chrein, finely grated horseradish and beets put on earth to go with gefilte fish.  It was even more than Grandpa Alan could finish, but he felt privileged to have been given the opportunity to eat as much as he did.
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Tonight, my young bride and I went over to Fordham University for showing of "Little White Lie," a documentary about and by Lacey Schwartz, a girl from a "nice" Jewish home, who realizes in her middle teen years that her tan skin and very curly hair were more than a genetic throwback.  After her parents divorce, her mother admits to a long-term affair with a black co-worker, the filmmaker's biological father. 

I found two things most interesting: 1) family and friends never spoke of this fact or even hinted at it, although strangers were less inhibited at times; 2) Ms. Schwartz, now in her 30s, got her mother and father to look into the camera and discuss her background, although with varying degrees of candor.  All I can say is it wouldn't have happened on Pitkin Avenue.

Friday, October 11, 2019

David Mervin befriended me when we were in graduate school school together.  He returned to England with his distinguished American bride.  More than 40 years later, their son John married a nice Jewish girl from Long Island and settled in Brooklyn.  Karmic justice, poetic justice, Hebraic justice?

John met me for lunch at Ruchi Indian Cuisine, 120 Cedar Street, a small, crowded joint, adjacent to the World Trade Center memorial site.  We shared chicken tikka masala ($8.99) and lamb saag ($9.49).  While the food came nowhere near the quality of John's company, in all, it was time well spent.