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Saturday 20 December 2014

Does it sound like I’m boycotting Christmas? Getting Over Holiday Envy

The following two essays are reflections by two Jewish women

Top 10 Reasons Why It's Easier to be Jewish at Christmas

Getting Over Holiday Envy

 by: Judy Carter 

There was never an official diagnosis, but I knew my seasonal, winter depression was a case of serious HOLIDAY caused by being Jewish at Christmas.  Oh sure, we had Chanukah. It’s billed as “the festival of light” but it’s really Christmas-light. “Dreidel” isn’t even in MS spellcheck. You won’t find a latkeh with Judah Maccabee’s face on E-bay.

Growing up, my family tried to put on a festive face. We’d stick a tarnished menorah in the window, our way of saying “us too” in the neighborhood’s winter wonderland of sleighs, reindeers and elves, each house giving off more light than a shuttle launch. We had those blue and white streamers attached to banisters and we spun plastic Dreidels, but what I was lusting for was Santa, the first unavailable man in my life. I yearned to sit in his oversized lap and whisper what I wanted. Unlike my mother, he wouldn’t have scoffed, “You don’t need a training bra!” He would have, I knew, found me adorable and “ho ho ho’ed” at my jokes, making sure I got not only the training bra, but a cocker spaniel puppy as a bonus.

If I was caught moping, I’d be reminded, “We have our own holiday.” Uncle Norman never tired of telling us about the victory of the Jews over the Hellenistic Syrians in the battle of the Maccabees – hardly your warm-hearted, Hallmark moment. Christmas and Chanukah are apples and oranges. The story of Jesus born in a manger to a virgin is a guaranteed ratings win over a forgotten tribe, even with the long-lasting oil miracle thrown in as a B-story. If there’s a miracle, it’s that anyone converts to Judaism when it means giving up chocolate Easter bunnies and eating bitter herbs! Christian holidays have been “Disneyfied,” escalating in proportion and visibility. Christmas has the longest shelf life of any holiday, which is why my holiday depression extended to spring, when the last of the Christmas decorations would finally wilt from the heat


You’d think eight days of gift giving might make up for something, but not when your family is “practical”. They didn’t want to “spoil” us. On the first day of Chanukah, I’d get one glove. On the second day, I’d get the other one. And we lived in LA, where nobody wore gloves. By day three we were out of brisket and the fun of trying to shove candles into slots filled with last year’s wax had worn off. I wanted to be part of the ritual of holiday shopping, but the only presents I needed were for were the newspaper delivery guy and my hairdresser, people whose last names I didn’t know. Everyone would be saying, “Merry Christmas” and I, who thought of myself as quick-witted, would be stumped for a response. This was no piece of honey cake.

Never mind how many scientific theories or vaccines our people have come up with, in December, we’re not a main event. Try looking for Chanukah wrapping paper in the Rite-Aid in North Dakota. Even in Manhattan, where Hispanics speak fluent Yiddish, a supermarket had put out matzo for Chanukah. And don’t think I was the only Christmas wannabe; Jewish superstar Barbra Streisand made a Christmas album. That’s right, our Yentl! You don’t get Taylor Swift singing “Chillin’ in the Gefillen.”
I’m not sure when things were recast for me, maybe when I heard “Put on your yalmuka. Here comes Chanukah”. As unlikely a guru as Adam Sandler got me out of my funk, getting me to see there is, in fact, a bright side to celebrating the holiday of lights. I had time off and didn’t have to go to church. Christmas Eve I’d gotten into a first-run movie without dialing Fandango. Their holidays get more press, but that’s all they get; we get theirs and ours. And if we want to take a day off, we can make up a holiday. “I can’t come in tomorrow because it’s the first day of “Cha…anything”. I started counting the perks.

Here are 10 REASONS why we Jewish people should be happy at Christmas:
1. We’ll never end up in an emergency room because we fell off a roof putting up reindeer.
2. We’re not traveling during black-out periods to see family. Because of the quirky timing of Chanukah, we can actually use frequent flyer miles.
3. There’s none of that lying to our kids about Santa Claus or pretending the toys are made by elves, not by children in China.
4. We’re not pressured to be happy, which is why it’s not such a Jewish thing to commit suicide during Christmas.
5. Nobody will ever knit us a red wool sweater with reindeer on it.
6. We don’t have to climb a ladder and hang tinsel on a tree with most of it ending up clinging to our clothes.
7. We’re not spending most of January standing on long lines, without receipts yet, to return a fondue set.
8. We can send cards, such as a New Years or Passover card won’t get lost in a huge stack of Christmas cards.
9. Less cholesterol in Potato Latkes than ham.
10. And if this were the only perk, it would be enough. We get jelly doughnuts for dessert, not a Christmas fruitcake with dried maraschino cherries on top.



The following is a post a friend posted on her blog. And I thought I'd like to share it with my readers.


By: Erris Langer Klapper 


Years ago a new neighbor asked me where we would be purchasing our tree

“We’re Jewish.” I said, assuming that no further explanation was necessary.


"So?" She pressed


“So we don’t celebrate Christmas,” I said.
“Why?” She insisted.
Why? Because we’re Jewish. But I didn’t say that. I was stumped and instead I stammered, “We celebrate Hanukkah.”
“But won’t you put up a Christmas tree?” She insisted.
“Will you be celebrating Passover this year?” I tried a different tack.
“No! We’re not Jewish.” She was taken aback.
“It’s the same thing,” I continued. “We celebrate Hanukkah instead.” And just like that I perpetuated the common misconception that I so desperately seek to avoid. Hanukkah is not instead of Christmas, should not be compared with Christmas and is not the Jewish answer to Christmas. Hanukkah is Hanukkah.
The following year the same neighbor took a different approach: “Are you boycotting Christmas again this year?” Boycotting?! There was nothing left to do but laugh and change the subject.
I am not offended by the concept of a “Christmas break,” nor am I comforted that it’s called “Winter Break.” I am fully aware that if Christmas didn’t fall on December 25, our winter break may very well have occurred in mid January, when it’s especially cold and dreary, and an urgent trip to the Caribbean is in order. I will also continue wishing a “Merry Christmas” and not just “happy holidays,” because I respect the tradition and joy of those who celebrate. And I get a huge kick out of receiving L’Shana Tova cards from my Christian friends. I don’t see what the fuss is about – as long as mutual respect continues to guide us.
Christmas is Christmas and Hanukkah is Hanukkah. The High Holidays are far holier than Hanukkah, but logistically speaking, they lack the strategic proximity to Christmas. Therefore, in the diaspora, Hanukkah enjoys an elevated status. The Festival of Lights has become the Festival of Gifts, and I am just as guilty for literally buying in to that shtick. I rationalize that I’m doing my part to stimulate the economy, but the truth is, I’m competing with Christmas and I need a miracle.
Let’s face it, Christmas is a tough contender. The music, the lights, the trees, the colors, Santa, the reindeer… Gelt and dreidels, and latkes on a blue and white platter just can’t compete. And they’re not meant to. But they occur closely together and the comparisons become inevitable, sending parents into a tailspin designed to prove to their kids that missing out on Christmas is no big deal. We have Hanukkah…
Last week I attended a “holiday party.” As I stood around the spectacular room, impeccably decked out in Christmas cheer with the band playing Christmas favorites in the background, I rhetorically wondered why the invite didn’t just call it what it is? A Christmas party. I was happy to participate, but there was nothing Hanukkah or Kwanzaa about it. My musing was interrupted by a question from an acquaintance: “Do you ever miss it?”
“Miss what?” I answered, distracted by a passing hors d’oeuvre tray covered in bacon wrapped scallops.
“Miss decorating your house, putting up lights, the tree… It’s all so pretty and festive. Don’t you want to do it?”
I conceded that while lights would complement the architecture of my house and landscaping, it’s not something we do. That seemed to quell this line of questioning, but refueled my exasperation: How can you miss participating in a tradition that was never yours?
I wanted to ask if she missed fasting this past Yom Kippur.
Maybe we need a miracle. Oh, wait. We had one! So let’s celebrate and embrace it. Even if it’s easier said than done.


Read more: Does it sound like I'm boycotting Christmas?! | Erris Langer Klapper | The Blogs | The Times of Israel http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/does-it-sound-like-im-boycotting-christmas/#ixzz3MTpN5QnS
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Monday 15 December 2014

Another Hidden story about an Armenian Woman.

Hidden Kitchens by: The Kitchen Sisters
Producers
The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva) are producers of the duPont-Columbia Award-winning, NPR series, Hidden Kitchens, and two Peabody Award-winning NPR series, Lost & Found Sound and The Sonic Memorial Project

Hidden Kitchens, explores the world of secret, unexpected, below-the-radar cooking across America—how communities come together through food. The series inspired Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes, and More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year that was also nominated for a James Beard Award for Best Writing on Food. The Hidden Kitchens audio book, narrated by Academy Award winner, Frances McDormand, received a 2006 Audie Award.

The Kitchen sisters on July 31, 2008 posted an entry about the birth of Rice-A-Roni which is known as "The San Francisco treat." But there is another story behind it which links it to an Armenian woman

Rice-A-Roni advertised as the "The San Francisco Treat” on the city’s iconic cable car.
The story begins when the Kitchen Sisters followed Lois, a philanthropist and widow of Tom DeDomenico, one of the founders of Golden Grain Macaroni Co., to her home in Oakland, Calif., to chronicle this hidden kitchen.
Lois had long ago lost touch with Pailadzo Captanian, the woman who in the 1940s had taught her to make Armenian rice pilaf — the recipe that would inspire her husband's family to create a side dish that gave Kraft Macaroni & Cheese a run for its money in the 1950s, when rice was rarely found on the American dinner table.
Enjoy the story: click on the link
http://www.npr.org/2008/07/31/93067862/birth-of-rice-a-roni-the-armenian-italian-treat

Sunday 7 December 2014

The Epidemic of Police Brutality. What should we do?




Watching the Eric Garner Video Tape and listening to the police justify the killing of a man who at most should have been ticketed for selling cigarettes was much more than a travesty of justice:

The Brown/Garner Killings are about a Larger State of Official Terror




"These un-prosecuted killings of African-American men go way beyond racial prejudice. They are the calling card of an Orwellian state.


First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me

Pastor Martin Niemoller, speaking about Nazi Germany

First, they've come for the people of color.


America's police forces increasingly serve as a private corporate army, beyond the reach of the law.


But our nation is distracted by race. And millions of white Americans are under the illusion that what was done to Michael Brown and Eric Garner can't happen to them.

These un-prosecuted killings of African-American men go way beyond racial prejudice.Unless we rise up to secure social justice and our basic legal rights, we're all just a single cop away from being as dead as the very latest victim of official violence... at any time, for no reason, with no recourse. 

Harvey Wasserman edits  www.nukefree.org . His SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH is at  www.solartopia.org . The Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Show airs at  www.progressiveradionetwork.com .

Petitioning UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL - ERIC HOLDER
This petition will be delivered to:
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL - ERIC HOLDER

NATIONAL ACTION AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY!


WE HAVE WITNESSED THE CONFESSIONS OF POLICE THEMSELVES WHO HAVE TESTIFIED THAT THEY WERE "MADE TO ISSUE SUMMONSES" AND "MAKE ARRESTS" WITHOUT CAUSE - AND THE SUBSEQUENT "HARASSMENT" WHICH FOLLOWED "IMMEDIATELY AFTER" THEIR REFUSAL. WE HAVE HEARD TESTIMONY IN COURT HOW THEY INDEED "PLANTED NARCOTICS" ON "INNOCENT VICTIMS" - SIMPLY TO MEET THE "QUOTA REQUIRED" CONCERNING AN ARREST. YET, THOSE INDIVIDUALS REMAIN INCARCERATED FOR THE CRIME ACCUSED.
AS THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, THE OCCUPIER OF OFFICE IS THE "CHIEF LAW ENFORCER" HAVING JURISDICTION OVER BOTH "STATE" AND "GOVERNMENT" IN ISSUES CONCERNING "LAW". AND WHEN VIOLATIONS OF LAW ARE "RAMPANT" "UN-CHECKED" AND "UNABATED" - HE HAS A "SWORN DUTY" TO RESPOND THOSE VIOLATIONS.
LAW ENFORCEMENT ACROSS THE UNITED STATES HAS "ABUSED THE AUTHORITY" VESTED IN THEM, AND HAVE VIOLATED ON A "CONTINUAL BASIS" THE LAW ITSELF. BUT NO ACTION HAS BEEN TAKEN, EITHER BY THEIR DEPARTMENT OR ATTORNEY GENERALS WITHIN THEIR STATE.
THEREFORE, PETITION IS MADE BEFORE THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES TO NOT ONLY "ACT" ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, BUT TO FULFILL THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE OFFICE - FOR WHICH HE HAS "SWORN AN OATH" TO FULFILL UPON HIS OCCUPANCY!
LET IT BE UNDERSTOOD: THAT A "FAILURE" OR REFUSAL TO "ACT" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE OBLIGATIONS CONCERNING THOSE DUTIES, SIGNIFIES AN "INABILITY" TO HOLD THE OFFICE - WHICH IS "NOW" BEING HELD.
You may petition: https://www.change.org/p/national-action-against-police-brutality