Friday, September 30, 2016

The Last Shabbos of 5776

    Its hard to believe another year has passed. So much has been accomplished ,so much more that needs to be done. Wishing everyone a peaceful last Shabbos of 5776.

Rosh Hashannah

http://youtu.be/KBTfGXw69HY. This is one of the smarter Rosh Hashannah videos. Wishing everyone a sweet new 5777!

Sunday, September 25, 2016

A Notable Poke Stop

     For the past few months I have been playing Pokemon Go on my phone. I know  its a silly game , but the good part is that it is helping me  get to know a lot of information about New York City's landmarks that I had not known before.
      I like to go to the Trader Joe's on 23rd Street. There are a lot of good poke stops near there. One of them that keeps popping up is  the poke stops  for the cemetery of Shearith  Israel which is a Spanish -Portuguese Jewish cemetery.
 I had been meaning to photograph it for the past few weeks, but whenever I would walk by it happened to be night. Then  there was the bombing on 23rd Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan last week. I was hoping that I did not miss my chance to photograph this slice of history that Pokemon Go has led me to .
    Alas, all was not lost . I was able to go to 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue,  and behold the Shearith Israel cemetery was still intact in all of its glory. The gate is locked, but that did not stop me from being able to create a montage of photos to remember those Jews who had lived in Manhattan many years ago.
     The cemetery has quite a bit of charm. Perhaps it evokes a charming homage to  those whose bodies were buried there.I would like to think that they appreciate that Pokemon Go has made many remember them who may never had known they existed.
 





Monday, September 19, 2016

FIDF Lone Soldiers Funday 2016

    I have so much respect for lone soldiers in Israel. It is so nice to know that there is an organization that is there to help them.

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Later

    A lifetime ago when I was in college I was hit by a car. I don't want to go into all of the gory details, but one of the results was having to use a cane for several months until I healed.
     Recently a friend of mine fell and started using a cane because she had trouble walking. Her mother had a cane that she sometimes uses , so my friend started using it. Incorrectly. When I was given the cane years ago I was taught how to use it and I could not control myself and instructed my friend on how to use her cane. After she used the cane properly she thanked my because she felt better . At the time I told her that I am glad that something good came out of my injury years ago. There is nothing else in my life B"H that would have taught me how to use a cane . Just that.
     I bet that there are so many things in life like this that no one even recognizes. I am sure that this has happened other times in my own life but I never paid attention to it.
     

Rabbi Jacob, y va danser !

     This is really funny. Its strange to think this was filmed in France 40 years ago.

Sunday, September 11, 2016

9-11-2016

    Its 9/11 again.  Its been fifteen years since 9/11/2001 and it still brings tears to my eyes as I watch them reading the never ending list of names of those who lost their lives at  what was the site of the World Trade Center. Its uncanny to see some of the children of those who died on 9/11 who never met their fathers. They are already 14 or 15 years old. Has that much time passed? Is the world any better since then?
      I still remember 9/11/2001 as one of the most frightening days in my life. I was not at the WTC when it happened but I was in Manhattan at the time. I was at work further uptown. When I left work that day I could see the smoke of the attack . It was that thick. For days there was the drone of helicopters protecting New Yorkers . The week after was Rosh Hashanah. It was so strange to celebrate the Jewish Holidays so close to such devastation.
      When I woke up on 9/12/2001 I remember thinking "Now What?" The world was just never going to be the same. America was never going to be the same. They had tried to blow up the WTC  eight years before but they had not succeeded. I hadn't forgotten about that. Apparently neither had the nefarious terrorists. I remember walking through the shops at the WTC  the summer of 2001  and thinking about the failed attempt on the trade center. It felt eerie. I had no idea what was yet to come a few months later.
        It rained heavily in NYC on 9/10/2001. I was on the subway going home that day and one of the poles people hold onto on the  train fell off and someone picked it off the floor and took it home. I had never seen one of those  break.
         9/11/2001 was a beautiful sunny day. It was also very hot. I had plans to do the errands I could not have done on the rainy 9/10/2001. I also had a date planned for that day. Needless to say my plans for that day changed . I left  work early that day but no one could leave the city at first because they had stopped all of the trains until later in case any of the accomplices were trying to escape. In the end I stayed with friends who lived in Manhattan. I did not go home until 9/12/2001.
        I know two people who had brothers who died at the WTC. I found out about the passing of one of them when I saw a note on the "wailing wall" at Grand Central station giving my friend as the person to contact because his brother was one of the missing people. I know a few people who escaped the WTC as it was going down.
         You could not forget that day . For weeks I would see the smoke of the burning WTC as I was on the train from Brooklyn to Manhattan every morning. 9/11 was all anyone could talk about for weeks afterward. Everyone was in mourning. The world as we knew it had changed forever.
The Freedom Tower  in lower Manhattan 2016
      In memory of those who lost their lives so tragically on 9/11/2001. The world is not the same without them.