Overall, a good week
Despite having pissed off some people, I've had a pretty good week.
On Monday, with the help of a nice Machon Gold girl, I completely
cleaned my apartment, something that hadn't happened since before UYO.
All the dust is gone, the dishes are not only clean but also
reorganized in the cabinets so that I can find them more easily, I
gave the bathroom a deep scrubbing, and I am so relieved! Having
everything clean at once is such a great feeling.
Monday night was the follow-up meeting for UYO, and almost everyone
from the course came, and almost everyone had really positive things
to say about constructive changes they'd made in the past week in
their lives as a result of the course. It feels good to know that I
provided a program that helped not only the participants, but many of
those with whom they interact.
Tuesday night, I went out to dinner with my friend and former roommate
Rivka K, who was in Israel this week scoping out various girls'
seminaries as part of her job as Israel Guidance Counselor at a girls'
high school in the States. It was very special, talking and laughing
with her. I learn so much from her. Rivka K is my hero!
Wednesday night, three soon-to-be-new friends came over to watch
Galaxy Quest. These are three geek friends I recently met, people with
deep interests in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and none of them had
ever seen this comedic classic, which pokes fun, brilliantly, at Star
Trek fans! I couldn't believe it! So, they came bearing pizza, and we
rectified this glaring hole in their education. I've seen the film,
like, six times, but I still caught new jokes . . . and it was such a
pleasure listening to the other three laughing hysterically.
And last night, I started cooking for Shabbat. I'm making Thanksgiving
dinner tonight. Yeah, a week late, I know. Basically, I didn't make
Thanksgiving last week because, what with UYO and all, I hadn't had
time to think about it. But last Thursday I felt sad about missing it.
So I'm serving Thanksgiving favorites tonight for a few friends. On
the menu:
1) Beth's pumpkin and carrot soup, made with the immersion blender I
just bought! It came out delicious!
2) Eight pounds of turkey, which I specially ordered at my local
supermarket . . . and had the guy cut the bird in half for me, since I
can't fit a whole turkey into my counter-top oven. It is baking as I
write this. MMmmmmm . . . . .
3) Stuffing. Mmmmm . . . .
4) Cranberry relish. Mmmmmm . . . .
5) A guest is bringing a sweet-potato dish
6) Corn on the cob
7) A guest is bringing Apple Crisp for dessert. Mmmmm . . . .
Starchy, but so good!
AND, Michael Gibson finally finished the last episode of "Ambition,"
this interactive Mystery Game, so we finally found out who really
killed Angie! Finally! Now I can sleep!
Have a Shabbat Shalom.
posted by Sarah @ 2:19 PM |
No Applause Necessary
Wow. It's amazing when I am faced with physical evidence that my
journalism work results in actual change.
Especially as the result of an article about weddings styles in The
Jewish Week's "Catered Events" supplement.
Less than three weeks after the appearance of this article, with the
accompanying photo which I myself took, Claire's has taken down the
posters advertising the skeazy dresses from outside their store. Where
the skeazy dresses used to be, are now empty metal frames. I never
called the dresses "skeazy" in the article, I just quoted wedding
planners as pointing out that, compared to what American brides like,
Israeli wedding dresses tend to be "full full full of glitter" and
"unbelievably revealing, so revealing there is nothing left to glitz
on." But it's easy to put 2 and 2 together.
It will be interesting to see what they replace the old posters with.
Who knows? Maybe they didn't see my story at all, and they took the
posters down for cleaning or something.
Or maybe they realized that their location in "Little America"
necessitates some lessons in American wedding aesthetics. (Which are
not "better" than Israeli ones, just different . . . and yes,
Americans often find Israeli wedding dresses to be skeazy. Probably
the Israelis think we are quite Puritan and boring.)
Anyway, now I'm afraid to go in there to get a manicure or whatever.
If I say my name, will they be all "Oh, you're the woman who called
our posters 'skeazy'"?
Really, they should thank me for saving them. They are located in an
Anglo enclave. And to American tastes, those posters were awful. The
next time you are on Emek Refaim Street, if you are American, you can
thank me for the absence of those posters, which would otherwise burn
holes in your eyes.
posted by Sarah @ 3:23 AM |
Soooo not in the mood for this . . . and an apology
My commenter Ilan of 3:57 explained it best. My post (two down) was
NOT about Bnei Akiva, it was about the National Religious movement in
GENERAL, of which Bnei Akiva is one piece and I was using a small
piece of a small piece as an EXAMPLE. My example was a bad one (more
about that later), but I stand by the main thrust of my post.
Furthermore, the entire point of my post is that Religious Zionists
(if not Religious Zionism) DO IN FACT have so much more to us than
just issues pertaining to settlement, and therefore the movement could
be so much more powerful and influential and impressive than it is.
I'm not saying that Religious Zionists are bad. I'm saying that the
movement of Religious Zionism is not representing itself as all it
COULD be and is SUPPOSED to be. The people who identify with Religious
Zionism (such as myself) value Torah and social justice and all sorts
of good things, things which the secular-left would love to hear about
more from us, if we bothered talking about them more AS A MOVEMENT.
WestBankMama- You said that in the paintings at your local sniff, the
war in Lebanon and Gaza "took precedence," so I went with what you
wrote. If the theme was overwhelmingly about chessed and ahavat
yisrael, why didn't you say that? Indeed, your comment to my post
proves my point: That, when having to choose just ONE way to help
Israel, tens of thousands of Religious Zionists, goaded on by 30 years
of investment by the Religious Zionist organizations, have chosen
settlement over being involved in other issues -- and, though you
didn't say it, tens of thousands more are spending their money and
political clout on that one issue as well. Not all their time and
thoughts, but their political clout and PR opportunities. That's not
an invalid choice, but then you have to accept the ramifications of
it. In the larger sense-- NOT just about you, but about the movement
IN GENERAL -- if the National Religious movement (a movement with
which, remember, I closely identify) chooses to focus on settlement as
their main national policy issue, then there are going to be negative
consequences in the minds of Israelis who otherwise have no way of
understanding what Judaism has to say about education or health care
or anything else.
(By the way, West Bank Mama really is one of my favorite bloggers, and
you should read her response to me.)
I care not a whit how many secular Israelis isolate themselves from
other secular Israelis, nor am I talking about what Torah Judaism IS,
but rather about the terrible PR problem that Judaism suffers from in
this country. The fact is, the two issues most equated with Religious
Zionism are settlement and the army, NOT chessed and NOT mitzvot.
If that statement insults you, then you have our politicians and the
PR people for our organizations to blame, not me. I never said that we
don't do chessed or mitzvot. My point is that we're not investing
whatever clout we have on making this country a better place, only on
keeping it a bigger place. And therefore, the secular community knows
much less about our chessed and about Torah than they could know.
Jameel has posted beautiful photos of Bnei Akiva walls from HIS local
sniff, showing that in fact the kids there overwhelmingly chose to
depict their concern for their fellow human beings and for a wide
variety of religious and national issues. When I have time I'll bli
neder more fully translate the text painted on those walls, because it
is even more beautiful than Jameel's notes indicate. These kids did a
tear-jerkingly beautiful job.
So, I admit that the EXAMPLE I chose is a bad example. I should have
focused exclusively on political issues, rather than use an example
from an individual community. I'm sorry that, by choosing this shoddy
example, I created a reason for people to think that I am ignorant of
what good people they are. I do think that people read more into my
post than what was there, but I can see how that could happen,
especially since the example veered so far from my actual point, and I
am truly sorry.
But I stand by my criticism that Religious Zionism at the political
level has become a one-issue movement, and that by allowing that to
continue -- by keeping our concern for social justice on sniff walls
and not promoting it in ways that actually effect widespread social
change -- we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Secular Israelis
increasingly have absolutely no way to know just how generous and
caring we religious Jews are, because increasingly we move away from
them, and increasingly we make our public face about nothing but Yesha
and (our ideas about how to maintain) security. The statement coming
from our communities, loud and clear -- whether this is how we live
our private lives or not -- is that we care more about the land than
we do about our fellow Israelis.
If you think that message is wrong, then stop wasting time pointing
fingers at me, and start making phone calls to the heads of the
organizations you belong to, and tell them that public safety and the
environment and education and the economy are just as important to you
as any decisions about the future of Yehuda and Shomron. And, while
you are at it, you can ask some of the kids who made the beautiful
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