The Statue of Liberty Reimagined

     I found this painting at the Jewish Museum on my last visit there. I could not wait until July fourth or Labor day to post this picture. I guess the artist envisioned the statue of liberty as a blond. I love that America is written on her crown in Yiddish. I don't have a lot of snappy commentary. I think that the picture says it all. Would have loved to see a picture of the same five people fifty years later. 

who cares?

all this talk about sara hurwitz the orthodox woman rabba, rabbi, maharat ... and all i just keep thinking who cares? i guess im just apathetic . im not sure why anyone male or female would want to be a pulpit rabbi to begin with. maybe its just that i would never want to be one.

i never gave much thought to the ban on orthodox women rabbis. i guess the maharat or rabbi/rabba thing is more like a degree, much like a masters degree or phd. so to me this isn't the problem. the big problem is sara hurwitz having a larger role in orthodox jewish communal life. in the fifties or in biblical times woman were just in the kitchen so the concept of a woman being a rabbi would be preposterous. in the 2000's women, even orthodox women have prestigious jobs and are leaders in the secular world so they would like to use these talents in the jewish world. beyond apathy the jury of my mind is still in deliberations as to what i really think of the concept of orthodox jewish women as rabbis.

women in general are more spiritual than men which is why men have more mitzvot. they need it to keep them in line. maybe this is why only men are supposed to be rabbis. it keeps them busy, make them feel important and keeps them frum.

though american jewish women have fought to have a bigger role in jewish communal life i think that the joke is on women. in american jewish folklore one always hears about the jewish mother. she may have the stereotype of being overbearing, but she is the one who seems to hold the family together as well as the one who has kept american jews jewish. does anyone ever hear about the jewish father? i know that i don't. in fact all i hear about jewish men is how non-jewish women like to hold out nets for them because they are known not to be wife beaters. i never hear about how they have held together the jewish family. then again maybe this is why an orthodox jewish woman would like to be a rabbbi or hold a more communal role. the jewish woman has been holding together jewish life for decades . she now just wants to make a more public role of it.

cant say that i would want to have that limelight, but i suppose i understand it.

9/11

im embarrassed to say that i almost forgot it was 9/11 yesterday and by the time i remembered it was too late to post about it, so im posting about it today. perhaps its a good thing that i forgot to blog about it. perhaps it means some of the pain has gone away. i dont mean to say that i shouldn't be sad that 9/11 happened or that so many were murdered, but i do think that the memory doesnt need to remain a fresh wound.
i did watch some of the memorial ceremony that was held at the wtc site. it still makes me cry. i think that the rainy weather was appropriate.
9/11 was one of the scariest days of my life . though i was in manhattan at the time, b"h i was not in downtown manhattan when it occurred. one could see the smoke from the upper east side where i was at the time. that was bad enough. watching the footage on the television at work was surreal. at first when i saw the second plane hit it did not even register. when the first tower fell i felt like i was punched in the stomach. when i heard about the plane that hit in washington i felt immobile. and of course the final blow was when some kook told me that they thought it was great because now america knows how israel feels, i was ready to kill them on the spot . here i am reeling from the scariest attack on the united states and someone is happy about it. some people just don't get the point. terror attacks should not happen ANYWHERE EVER. and just because a terror attack happend here it doesn't mean that anti-semites will suddenly identify with the israelis.
may the memory of those who perished during 9/11 be a blessing . peace on earth . shalom .