Blue Note

Monday, May 25, 2020

Happy Anniversary to Us.

. . .

Throughout most of the United States, religious institutions have been deemed "essential" and allowed to reopen in some form or other.  This is perfectly appropriate, since what is more essential than recognizing ancient differences that continue to breed hostility and conflict?
. . . 

"University of California Will End Use of SAT and ACT in Admissions"  https://nyti.ms/2ZvTqYF  Now, it will come down to doctored résumés and phony claims about excelling at water polo.

. . .

Which country punishes doctors commenting on the coronavirus?

A. China

B. Iran

C. United States

Answer:  All of the above.

A. https://www.thedailybeast.com/china-silenced-doctor-who-first-raised-alarm-about-coronovirus-nyt-reports

B. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/25/the-twilight-of-the-iranian-revolution

C. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/why-are-hospitals-censoring-doctors-and-nurses/609766/

Tuesday, May 26, 2020 

Anti-Zionists skip the following sentimental tribute to Israel.  https://youtu.be/C1BepTwlG9I

Regardless of how much or little you are moved by the performance, it illustrates a challenging development in American non-Orthodox Judaism.  While only women cantors are featured, it would have been hard to assemble a comparable group of men.  The non-Orthodox Jewish clergy is becoming increasingly female.  

We have been members of the anarchic assemblage at West End Synagogue for 16 years.  In that time, two of the three rabbis (plus the newest one beginning July 1st), all three rabbinic interns and two of the three cantors have been women.  Additionally, the majority of applicants for our clergy positions have been women, about two to one.

This is quite a contrast from our multi-millenia history, where Jewish religious leadership has been rigidly male.  Starting with Miriam, Moses's sister, through Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah, and Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister, women have played an important role in Jewish life, in addition to literally giving birth to it.  However, they were excluded from religious leadership until recent decades.  

Now, American Judaism, that is the "progressive" non-Orthodox variety that encompasses most of us, has experienced a dramatic change of face.  Which leads to the immortal question: Is it good for the Jews?

. . .

When a reporter described "bitter days -- full of envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness," he was referring to:

A. The McCarthy Era?

B. Last week?

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Gee, Grandpa Alan, don't you have something nice to say for a change?  Indeed, I recommend the purchase and enjoyment of Trader Joe's Sliced French Brioche ($3.99), a superb packaged white bread.  Its nearly 1" thick slices make excellent French toast, letting them sit for a couple of days before cooking.  Else, freeze the package and take a slice or two at a time to toast while still frozen.  The smell of the toast itself will restore your faith in some of humanity.
. . .

Today's paper has an obituary for Jimmy Cobb, a jazz drummer.  A couple of things stood out in the article: Cobb was the last surviving member of the great Miles Davis sextet that recorded "Kind of Blue," which, in turn, "is widely known as the best-selling album in jazz history," with over 5 million copies sold worldwide.

While I never thought of ranking them, "Kind of Blue" might be my favorite (not just jazz) recording, competing with "Sketches of Spain" and "Miles Ahead," both by Miles Davis and the sound track to "No Sun in Venice" by the Modern Jazz Quartet.  After that would be a jumble of Stephen Sondheim, Thelonious Monk, Beethoven and Richard Stoltzman. 

If you don't know "Kind of Blue" because the planet that you lived on was not wired for sound, here it is (sorry about the commercials, as brief as they are).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylXk1LBvIqU&list=PLrhkpF1bKMG_D2sxTpxG63WGmIxYGB-Jt

I never learned to play a musical instrument, but had I, I think that it's possible that I would have destroyed it after listening to this recording.

. . .

Normally, a headline in the weekly food section of the New York Times may stir up curiosity, desire or reverie.  Today, however, I read what amounted to a declaration of war: "Put Aside the Chocolate Babka." 

Thursday, May 27, 2020

I don't consider my life to have been populated with superlatives.  My highs haven't been sky high and my lows haven't been abysmal.  When I tried to get into the Guinness Book of World Records for eating lunch at Chinese restaurants, I was rejected on technical grounds.  

Today, however, in spite of my normal impatience, I stayed on hold with a credit card company for 2 hours and 43 minutes, a wretched sort of distinction, no doubt.  I hung up without speaking to anyone, proving myself a damn fool and possibly a world record-holder.

Friday, May 29, 2020

Thanks to Jitterbug Jon for sharing this headline from The Onion: "Protestors Criticized For Looting Businesses Without Forming Private Equity Firm First."

On the Couch

Monday, May 18, 2020

I'm not the first person to seek distraction while in a synagogue, but on Saturday, Zoom allowed me to attend Shabbos services while resting on my sofa doing the crossword puzzle.  Admittedly, I did not keep up with all the standing up and sitting down that notoriously characterizes most Jewish services.  However, I alertly caught the key part of our rabbi's d'var Torah (sermon).  She repeated something that she had recently read: "We are all in the same storm, but not in the same boat."  I thought that this brilliantly captures the health emergency we face and the disproportionate toll that it has taken on racial minorities and the elderly.  According to the New York City Health Department, "race and income have proven to be the largest factors in determining who lives and who dies."    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/nyregion/coronavirus-deaths-nyc.html

It's not that Covid-19 has the uncanny ability to identify and seek out the more vulnerable; some people have the wherewithal to remove themselves from harm's way.  "The Richest Neighborhoods Emptied Out Most as Coronavirus Hit New York City."  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/15/upshot/who-left-new-york-coronavirus.html  

Another article graphically illustrates the destinations sought by those with sufficient mobility and the second or third homes that only some of us can afford.   https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/16/nyregion/nyc-coronavirus-moving-leaving.html

By the way, I was so taken by the adage that the rabbi offered, rejecting the usual cliché, that I went hunting for its source, which the rabbi did not have at hand.  It seems to be of recent vintage and one commentary seemed to explain its origin.  "How my north Texas students taught me ‘we’re all in the same boat’ is a lie."

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/how-my-north-texas-students-taught-me-were-all-in-the-same-boat-is-a-lie/ 

Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Each day, the New York Times publishes obituaries of people who have died as a result of the coronavirus.  They are usually a cross section of people from everywhere, in a variety of fields and endeavors, more "democratic" than the standard obituaries.  Today, for instance, it reports on the deaths and lives of a British rapper, 47; a Brooklyn baker, 81; a Tibetan woman who founded an orphanage, 69; a Brooklyn man who operated a Nigerian restaurant, 57; and, identical twins who worked at a major ski resort in Vermont, 64.  

After first naively wondering why the disease has cut such a wide swath, I thought about those clamoring for the reopening of public and private enterprises.  Even if they don't read the New York Times, they likely know some one or more of the 1.54 million Americans reported infected, as of today (https://g.co/kgs/drPgQc), or even one of the 90,694 people who have died. 

We know that some folks are more than willing to put other people's lives at risk (pick the next Republican state governor popping up on Fox News), but what of the gun-toting, flag-waving, unmasked crowds seeking "liberation" from home confinement and possibly from the Earth itself.

Which will arrive first, understanding or illness?

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

I thought that I knew it all, but this morning I belatedly learned that Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association, was a volunteer in George McGovern's ill-fated 1972 presidential campaign.   https://www.ajc.com/news/national/who-nra-head-wayne-lapierre-and-what-did-say-the-cpac-meeting/zSLqKKI4Uc1k4Uf4JrXhcI/
. . .

Fareed Zakaria effectively connects the political/economic views of white, non-college educated Americans with their disregard for warnings about Covid-19.  "They see the [credentialled] overclass as enacting [trade and immigration] policies that are presented as good for the whole country but really mostly benefit people from the rulingclass, whose lives have gotten better over the past few decades while the rest are left behind. . . . [They] turn on the television and hear medical experts, academics, technocrats and journalists explain that we must keep the economy closed — in other words, keep[ing them] unemployed — because public health is important. . . . Is it so hard to understand why people like this might be skeptical of the experts?"

 

This corresponds to the insights about the 2016 presidential election by Joan C. Williams, University of California law professor, written 3-1/2 years ago.  "[M]ost blue-collar workers have little direct contact with the rich outside of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.  But professionals order them around every day.  Hillary Clinton . . . epitomizes the dorky arrogance and smugness of the professional elite."  https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-people-dont-get-about-the-u-s-working-class?referral=00134

Thursday, May 21, 2020

I walked to my bank branch 4 blocks away, only to learn that transferring $106 to a merchant in Nairobi, Kenya would cost $50.  On the other hand, I walked 4 blocks and back.

Friday, May 22, 2020

A member of my household, who wishes to go unnamed, referred me to this observation by a marriage counselor.  “Instead of listening to their partner, digesting the information and caring about why they feel bad, I’ve found that guys invest their energy in one of three ways.  They dispute the facts of the story their partner just told; agree with the facts, but believe their partner is overreacting; or defend their actions by explaining why they did it.  In all three cases, his partner’s feelings are invalid.”  Hmm.

Good Golly Miss Molly

Monday, May 11, 2020

When I learned that Little Richard died this weekend, I sent a message to Jitterbug Jon headed "Little Richard R.I.P."  He promptly responded, "Whop bop a looah, whop bam boom!  It's hard to imagine him resting at all."  https://nyti.ms/2SSdQqB

. . .

Joe Biden has announced that he intends to choose a woman as his running mate for vice president.  Many names have been bandied about, but I suggest that he seek inspiration from abroad.  "Taiwan’s Weapon Against Coronavirus: An Epidemiologist as Vice President."  https://nyti.ms/2LdgbZ1

Now, I don’t want to name names, but I can think of one person who fits both categories nicely.

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

I wrote last week that the motto for many of those urging an aggressive reopening of the American economy is “My money or your life,” twisting Jack Benny’s immortal dilemma.  Many of the haves are suddenly expressing concern about the fate of the have-nots, losing income and opportunity.  But, as the economist John Kenneth Galbraith observed, our plutocrats and their apologists are engaged in “one of man’s oldest, best financed, most applauded, and, on the whole, least successful exercises in moral philosophy.  That is, the search for a truly superior moral justification for selfishness.”

Since other people’s lives are being considered for sacrifice, there is some attention to what is really at stake.  I’m talking where Lincoln and Jackson shake hands, in the cash register, America’s common denominator.  There is no federal government standard on the value of human life, needed for legal settlements.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission uses $8.7 million; the Environmental Protection Agency, $7.4 million; the Department of Transportation, $9.6 million.    https://nyti.ms/3cnXFJg

For a biblical perspective, we can look to Leviticus 27:1-5. 

“God told Moses to instruct the Israelites that when anyone vows to offer God the value of a human being, the following scale would apply:

for a man from 20 to 60 years of age, 50 shekels of silver;

for a woman 20 to 60 years of age, 30 shekels;

for a boy from 5 to 20 years, 20 shekels;

for a girl from 5 to 20 years, 10 shekels;

for a boy 1 month to 5 years, 5 shekels;

for a girl 1 month to 5 years, 3 shekels;

for a man 60 years or over, 15 shekels;

for a woman 60 years or over, 10 shekels.”

Today, a New Israeli Shekel is worth $.28.  The exact value of a biblical shekel, however, is almost impossible to determine.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekel

A shekel was originally a measure of weight applied to agricultural products as well as precious metals.  “Mister, do you want your change in silver or barley?”  A half shekel coin dating from the 2nd Century B.C.E., excavated in Israel 20 years ago, had 6.87 grams of silver, today worth $3.30, making 1 shekel worth $6.60.  More important than the precious metal content of a coin might be its purchasing power or the effort needed to earn it in those days before rock 'n' roll.  I got dizzy trying to calculate those values.

Of course, according to Matthew 26:15 in the New Testament, Judas Iscariot infamously sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, possibly shekels, but maybe other coinage.  https://www.grandrapidscoins.com/blogs/entry/how-much-were-judas-iscariot-s-30-pieces-of-silver-worth

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

I am sure that we all mourn the loss of coronavirus victims, whether we knew them personally or not.  Jerry Stiller falls somewhat in between for me.  We never met, but as fellow residents of the Upper West Side, our paths crossed, usually at or near Zabar's.  I felt that we could have conversed; he seemed open and friendly, quite unlike Frank Costanza.  But, I was too cool to bother him, a legacy of my New York upbringing.

. . .

We can't predict if we will be stronger individually and/or collectively once (if) we survive this pandemic.  When practical, my first oasis is likely to be Chinatown, that is if there is still a Chinatown.  “'It is not dramatic to say that we don’t know if Chinatown is going to be here when we come out of this,' said Jan Lee, 54, who owns two mixed-use buildings in the neighborhood, including one that his grandfather bought in 1924." 

Mr. Lee and I are both referring to the original Chinatown in Lower Manhattan, where real estate has dramatically appreciated over the last several decades.  At present, his rental income is threatened, a situation faced by landlords almost everywhere.  While I have no way of reviewing Mr. Lee's financial management and the conduct of his affairs, I would prefer to own a building that has been in my family since 1924, awaiting rent checks from stressed tenants, rather than being one of the stressed tenants.

In any case, I hope that Mr. Lee and I will be able to see what street compares to Mott Street in July. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJsa0OfWcGA

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Earlier this week, Elon Musk defied the cautionary health measures in effect in Alameda County, California in order to reopen his Tesla automobile factory.  He said, “If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”  I only wish that he had said that in Brooklyn, where the police have been beating the crap out of perceived violators of the current social distancing rules.  In case the police would hesitate, they should be reminded that he was born in South Africa.

. . .

A staff writer for The New Yorker made this brilliantly obvious observation: "We can be so moved by the way people come together to overcome hardship that we lose sight of the fact that many of these hardships should not exist at all."
. . .

In spite of being soundly chided by Sharon Slodki, who has Microsoft on her side, I continue to double space after a period at the end of sentences.  Somehow, I came to believe that it was the proper, more dignified, thing to do.  I realize that the same faux propriety has influenced my spelling, particularly in always choosing forego over forgo, foregone over forgone.  There is a meaningful difference, but I have ignored it, snobbishly imagining that spelling judgment correctly allowed me to forego forgo.    https://writingexplained.org/forgo-or-forego-difference#Summary

Friday, May 15, 2020
We have to be careful that the sense of deprivation and loss that we are experiencing during the Trump Virus doesn't lead to romanticizing the good old days of 2019.  Many of us led lives of relative comfort and ease, but others faced chronic challenges in providing the basic necessities, with the national government actively pushing wealth and privilege upwards.  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/13/opinion/inequali
ty-cities-life-expectancy.html 
. . .

Here's a simple way to spread joy in the world.  Make ice cream at home in a few easy steps.   https://nyti.ms/2Wlc2bT
Then, tell other people how easy it is to make ice cream at home in a few easy steps.

[Expletive Inserted]

Monday, May 4, 2020

Unlike my private life, this literary exercise has remained essentially free of profanity.  I've lived through a period when euphemism and coyness in media finally succumbed to the bolder nouns and verbs in our vocabulary.  Basic human functions in the bathroom and the bedroom are now often called by their (im)proper names in print and on big and small screens.

Of course, time, place and manner still influence the appearance of "dirty words" in public channels.  What's fit for the New York Review of Books may not fit to be printed in the New York Times.  But, even the Times has relaxed its approach to profanity, slang and vulgarity, although almost always when quoting a politician or a popular entertainer.  It is less common today to see [expletive deleted] than in the days of Richard Nixon.  For instance, when Trump spoke of his acquittal by the U.S. Senate, the Times quoted him saying “It was all bullshit,” commenting, however, that it was "the first time he or any president has been known to use that profanity in a formal event on camera in the East Room."

However, when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called his boss "a [gerund] moron," the newspaper of record wrote, "Mr. Tillerson was reported to have called his boss 'a moron.'"  Still, I must admit surprise when an article this weekend about cows said that "a Swiss company called Mootral, is studying whether an altered diet can make cattle burp and fart less methane."    https://nyti.ms/2WfqMHJ 

 . . .

One does not have to live in or near a barn to be concerned about passing gas.  Even when access to the outdoors is again unfettered, much of the day will be spent indoors at home.  It may be helpful then to have a list of the amount of personal space provided to renters in larger buildings (50+ units) in the 100 biggest U.S. cities.

https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/rental-market/market-snapshots/apartment-space/

Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan were among the tightest fits, while Louisville, Kentucky, Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Omaha, Nebraska gave you the most room to swing a cat or whatever one does in those places.

. . .

Today is the 50th anniversary of Kent State.  Whether this sends chills up your spine or not, I recommend that you read Jill Lepore’s essay about it.    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/04/kent-state-and-the-war-that-never-ended

She places the event in historic context.  While 4 white students were shot to death at Kent State on May 4, 1970 by National Guardsmen, 2 black students were shot to death by police officers at Jackson State College (Mississippi) on May 15, 1970.  One day earlier, 6 unarmed black men were shot to death by police officers in an African-American neighborhood in Augusta, Georgia.  

Campuses and neighborhoods throughout the country were in turmoil, some responding to the Vietnam War and the newly-launched invasion of Cambodia, others to the ever-present burden of racism.  This activism was not widely appreciated, however.  Long-haired youth, matriculated or not, were frequently set upon by construction workers in New York City and other places.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Hat_Riot   

A delegation of 22 union leaders was quickly invited to the White House in appreciation after a huge rally supporting Nixon’s Vietnam policy was held in lower Manhattan on May 20, 1970.  

Almost 10,000 American soldiers died in Vietnam from 1970 to the end of the conflict and, even in the absence of precise data, no one doubts that working class kids predominantly filled the body bags, losing the fight in the jungles of Vietnam that they might have won on big city streets.

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

When I consider the agitation surrounding the shelter in place and social distancing guidelines we have been living with, Jack Benny comes to mind.  https://youtu.be/yYtfejT4QgM

These days, however, I hear politicians and others saying "My money or your life?"

. . .

Today's most unnecessary headline:

"Carnival Plans to Sail Again in August, Maybe"

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Today's most satisfying sub-headline: "Big private equity firms have had scant success lobbying for virus relief"

. . .

Deferring to the need to practice social distancing, a small group of us has been Zooming in on each other to disagree remotely rather than in person, as we have been previously accustomed.  Yesterday, the subject was the origin(s) of the Holocaust, prompted by a review of the book Europe Against the Jews 1880-1945 by Gotz Aly, a German historian.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/books/review/europe-against-the-jews-gotz-aly.html 

Inevitably, our opinionated crew found fault with the book and the book review, as we would have with someone who claimed that the sun rose in the East.  I responded to the range of theories offered on the origin(s) of the Holocaust by essentially agreeing with all, based on my view of anti-Semitism.  It may not approach Heinz's 57 varieties, but I believe that anti-Semitism comes in several forms.  

Ethno-nationalistic AS: Jews are not our people

Christian AS: Jews reject Jesus and his path to salvation

Muslim AS: Jews = Israel 

Marxist geopolitical AS: Israel is an imperial power, Israel = Jews

Marxist economic AS: Jews are capitalists

Classic conservative AS version 1: Jews control the capitalist system

Classic conservative AS version 2: Jews are cosmopolitans, radicals, Communists destructive of the social order

Some of these are clearly at odds with each other, although they share one enemy.  It's nice to be needed.

Thursday, May 7, 2020

We are just six weeks into not playing the 2020 baseball season.  It's still early to predict the outcome; a lot of decisions remain to be made with the fate of teams and players in the balance.  However, even though every moment of a baseball game has its own drama, one beauty of the game is the long flow of history behind it.  

As we follow a team and cheer its accomplishments, we also remember the defeats, the insults, the embarrassments that we have endured.  While many wounds were strictly self-inflicted, there is often an external human embodiment of our misery, the guy you love to hate.  Here is a more or less contemporary list.

https://www.mlb.com/news/players-who-fans-love-to-hate

. . .

Jesus and the Jews is not a rock band working its way through the music venues of the Bible Belt.  Rather, it was the title of a lecture that I Zoomed into this evening, delivered by Amy-Jill Levine, Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.  She's Jewish, which, at first, made me think of pastrami on white bread with mayonnaise. 

However, I allowed my closed mind on religious matters to open slightly to what she had to say and, boy, was I thrilled and delighted.  She offered a rich, detailed view of Jesus as a Jew, free of the embroidery of Christianity which succeeds him.  Indeed, one of her major works is The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus.  She’s worth our attention, whichever side of the aisle we come from, and definitely deserves to be upgraded to a pastrami/corned beef combo on a soft roll with mustard.  She may well rise to seeded rye bread upon further exposure.

Here's the page containing the link to her fascinating presentation.  https://www.emanuelnyc.org/streickercenter/virtual/#may-6 

Good Old Days?

Monday, April 27, 2020

Saturday's puzzle: 16 DOWN - Flight simulator
. . .

I have been watching the television series The Plot Against America, based on Philip Roth's novel.  The book is a brilliant example of counterfiction, or what Kellyanne Conway calls fact.  Much of it takes place around the time that I was born, in a family and neighborhood similar to mine back then.  Maybe I liked the book too much, but I struggle with the television show.  The word flat keeps popping into mind.  None of the characters seems genuine; none stands out from the washed out palette of the cinematography.  Actually, the embedded black and white historic newsreel footage seems more alive than the scripted drama.  

The biggest irritant is the Southern accent affected by John Turturro as the Lindbergh sycophant Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf.  While the rabbi is supposed to be a native of Charleston, South Carolina transplanted to Newark, New Jersey, he sounds like he has been cast as Blanche DuBois in a gender-bending version of A Streetcar Named Desire.
. . .

Tom Stoppard, the British playwright, commented the other day, “This is the life I’ve always wanted — social distancing without social disapproval."  

. . .

Speaking of social disapproval, Abby Stein invited a massive amount, when, as the eldest son in a Hasidic rabbi's family of 13 children, ordained as a rabbi, she decided to trans into a woman.  https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-51928077

She has been shunned subsequently by most of her family, the Hasidic community generally and her ex-wife, although able to get weekly visits, joint custody, split holidays, joint decision-making on major life events and every second weekend with his son through a civil proceeding.  By contrast, in Manchester, England, the court prevented a trans woman from the ultra-orthodox community from being "sensitively reintroduced" to her 5 children.  https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/transgender-charedi-dad-of-five-abandons-legal-fight-to-see-children/  

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

With the calendar as a victim of coronavirus, I am trying to remember the last time I went outside and crossed a street.  Last week, I went to Rite Aid, 210 Amsterdam Avenue twice, because it had a 2-for-1 sale on Häagen-Dazs.  While the exact distance door-to-door is more than one block, I only had to cross a driveway to get to the store.  Otherwise, the compost bin immediately behind our building was the furthest that I ventured from home in the last month.

Today, Stony Brook Steve invited me to join him on a walk outdoors and we crossed and recrossed West End Avenue in the 18 minutes that we walked before plopping down on adjoining benches.  It was an interesting feel standing upright for so long.

. . .

Microsoft has authoritatively ruled that two spaces after a period ending a sentence is unacceptable.  

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/27/tech/microsoft-word-two-spaces-trnd/index.html 

I always thought that, on the contrary, it was the height of responsible (type)writing and have acted accordingly.  Actually, it was when the typewriter replaced the quill that this convention arose, but those days are long gone.  Now, the Modern Language Association Style Manual, among others, prescribes the single space.    https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/01/why-you-should-never-ever-use-two-spaces-between-sentences/69579/

I guess, like other important changes in my life, it can wait until next week.

. . .

Gee, I thought that all I needed was a test for coronavirus, when the government sent me 12 supersonic fighter jets instead. 

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

"The U.S. surpasses 1 million known coronavirus cases."  We're #1!

. . .

For years, the Holy Land has seen a pair of strange bedfellows, left-wing Mayor Bill de Blasio and the local Hasidic community.  He courted the collection of ultra-Orthodox Jewish sects, sometimes at war with each other, throughout his political career, resulting in their financial support and large majorities in contested elections for him.  As mayor, de Blasio turned a blind eye to some Hasidic practices that other citizens, including less dogmatic Jews, regarded as illegal and even dangerous, notably regarding education (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/nyregion/yeshivas-education-report-new-york.html) and ritual circumcision (https://nypost.com/2017/03/08/new-case-of-neonatal-herpes-caused-by-jewish-circumcision/). 

This alliance has apparently broken down under the pressure of our pandemic, with both sides acting badly.  Hasidic religious and social practices are extremely communal.  While religious services require a minyan, a gathering of at least ten adult men, Hasidic weddings and funerals typically draw hundreds even thousands of guests.    https://youtu.be/2pxfZpWocxk    Not surprisingly, Hasidic neighborhoods have seen elevated rates of COVID-19 infection and death.    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/nyregion/coronavirus-jews-hasidic-ny.html

Also predictable has been the continuing stubborn defiance of some Hasidim to the public health threat.  Last week, a wedding in Chicago drew crowds that had to be broken up by police.  https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-chicago-jewish-wedding-west-ridge-1500617   Yesterday in Brooklyn, the funeral of a Hasidic rabbi filled streets with approximately 2,500 men and drew the mayor's wrath.  

https://nyti.ms/2Yh6MaC

While I believe that de Blasio's outrage was justified, he, as is often the case, put his worst foot forward, admonishing "the Jewish community" (along with the general public) that "what I saw WILL NOT be tolerated so long as we are fighting the Coronavirus.”  He has "instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups."

This pushed the hypersensitivity button that so many of us Jews always keep close at hand.  One Jewish publication came out this morning with the headline "The Blood on de Blasio’s Hands," claiming that he aims at "this small and already-targeted minority" and "[i]n singling out the [Hasidic] Jews for spreading the virus, the mayor was targeting all of us, making us all less safe."  Meanwhile, goyische joggers saturate Central Park unmolested.    https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/new-york-mayor-deblasio-coronavirus

Okay.  Can you all shut up for awhile?

. . .

This walking business isn’t so bad.  This afternoon, I stood upright for 55 minutes, although some of the time was spent shuffling through the aisles of Fairway Market, 2131 Broadway.  It reminded me of the 20th Century.

Thursday, April 30, 2020   

Last night, I Zoomed into a talk about the Jews who fled to Shanghai during WWII.  About 20,000 Jews, predominantly from Berlin and Vienna and environs, went to Shanghai from 1938 to 1941, an extremely daring move considering that the sea voyage was 10,000 miles or more to a destination that was completely unknown to them. 

It wasn't that Shanghai was welcoming.  It was ruled by the Japanese after 1937, but they were essentially distracted from regulating this inflow of Europeans by massive numbers of Chinese fleeing active war zones within China.  The Jews aimed for Shanghai simply because no visa or passport was required for entry, while the rest of the world closed its doors to them, with the exception of Britain's Kindertransport program.  However, Jewish adults who managed to escape continental Europe were initially interned as enemy aliens, along with other Germans, Austrians and Italians. 

   

My Original Wife was born in Shanghai to a couple who left Vienna shortly after Kristallnacht.  The parents never spoke of the experience, although my wife, her younger brother and I later learned some terrible details from family friends and deduced others. 

Friday, May 1, 2020

Answer - Stairmaster