Saturday, August 5, 2006

Kosher Deli? Not quite.

Whatever you do, don't click here and read the article. Yes, it's by some idiot blogger who thinks he knows what he's talking about. But by the time I got to "Jews are slow to anger. They were too slow in Germany in the 1930's. Having learned their lesson, they react to atrocities a bit faster in the present decade" I was about ready to lose it. The guy suggests, boldly, that had the Jews been a people more quick to anger, maybe they wouldn't have let themselves be gassed and thrown in the ovens. Brilliant, man. Just brilliant. This coming from a guy who wants to "clear up" things for the world about what Jews are and what they aren't. My day was going so well until this guy came along. Sigh.

[EDIT:] OK, after posting this I had to say something else. It wasn't about Jews being slow to anger during the 30s and 40s. What did they have to be angry about initially? Nothing. New leaders come and go. Anti-Jewishness isn't new. When they started moving Jews into ghettos and shipping them off to camps, perhaps they had a reason to worry, but to be angry? I don't know. When Jews were being gassed and burned in ovens, Jews did get angry. There were uprisings. There were escape plans. There were fighters. There was resistance. But pure anger is not what was the driving force, was it? Was it not the desire to life? A thirst for life? And even still, had the Jews been furiously enraged in the 30s when forced to wear armbands, what would it have done? The world ignored the Jews when they were being gassed, who's to say they would have been ignored when expressing anger at their sufferings? This man is a moron. And I am frustrated. I'll stop now.


I went to shul this morning. It was the first time I've been in about a month, and though it was difficult to haul my arse out of bed this morning, I'm incredibly glad I did. I met up with four other women from a GLBT group at Temple Micah on Wisconsin (though we didn't meet up until after the services) and interestingly the sermon was about GLBT rights. The Torah service made me long for B'nai Jeshurun back home, Elaine's voice and Rabbi Emanuel's ridiculous connections to Star Trek and other Sci Fi treasures. I missed Oneg and little Ben and meeting up with my friends at shul. But I also felt calm and at ease. After Tisha B'av on Thursday and thinking over how the Temple continued to burn well into the 10th of Av, I needed lightness. How perfect a Torah service than reading the section that gives us the Sh'ma -- the words I recite every morning and evening when rising up and laying down. It's the first thing I intend on teaching my children someday. Singing it to them as they fall asleep. It talks of G-d's oneness, and it echoes in my mind all day. The light coming in the windows and listening to the chanting this morning did me well. Very well.

After shul the Jewbians and I went to a deli up on Wisconsin that used to be called "K's New York Deli" and then changed its name and now it's Krupin's Deli (a guy named Morty runs it). It was a busy place and they put pickles on the table in this little tin bowls. The decor is tacky and it feels like you're in Skokie or New York. I passed up cold cuts for a turkey burger and slaw and we all ordered dessert, three of us having poppy seed hamantaschen. Do you know how weird it is to have hamantaschen not on Purim? Very. But it made me think of Alex and his wildly original hamantaschen. This place had knishes, matzo ball soup, Kosher hot dogs, macaroons, kugel ... and ... BLTs. Weird. I definitely plan on going back.

So my resolve now is to do some more shul shopping. I think I may take up a seat in some of the conservative shuls in the area and see what happens. It was interesting to hear the women -- all raised conservative -- talk about Reform services. I'd always had my sentiments about Reform services, but I think in Lincoln we had a good balance and lots of dedicated folks. Right now, though, my concern rests in having a place to go for high holy days ... especially since this is a "reserve a ticket" kind of town -- something very, very foreign to the girl whose shul had problems filling all the seats.