Jewish Musings, Sunday, September 11, 2016

[peachymom1]

What’s on your mind – how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Angelika
Beryl
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

[peachymom1]

Good morning and shavua tov! First, I would like to take a moment to just be silent and remember the victims of the terrible attacks on our country 15 years ago today. I remember one thing that gave me heart at the time was the outpouring of support from other countries. In Austria, they rang church bells. In Finland, Sweden and Norway, they stopped the buses and trams. In London, they played the American national anthem at the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, and traffic stopped in respect. Hungarian firefighters tied black ribbons to their trucks. In Bulgaria, people gathered in town squares to light candles and pray. Even hostile countries like Iran and North Korea condemned the attacks. And 11 Muslim-American organizations issued a joint statement to condemn the terrorist acts. It didn’t change the fact that something horrible had happened to us, but the support made a big difference to me.

I have a question about tolerance. Do you think we Jews tend to be more tolerant of others, since we have faced so much oppression and unfair judgment ourselves? Or are we just like others in that area, some tolerant, some ignorant, some apathetic, some proactive? What was your family like, growing up, and are you the same as them or did you take another path? Why or why not?

My mother said black people were stupid and Mexicans were all on welfare. But Jennifer, a black girl who lived up the street, was the smartest kid on the block. And my Mexican friend Miguel, who had ten siblings, took me for a ride on his horse (“Apollo”) once, and dressed more nicely than most kids my age, so I don’t think they were on welfare. Every racist, sexist or homophobic thing Mom ever said was negated by my own experience. So I learned the opposite of what she intended: to judge people on their own merits and not by stereotypes.

How about you?

[lee058]

Hi Peachy and everyone who reads this later. I can't believe that the attacks were 15 years ago. I still remember vividly exactly where I was and what I was doing. It had been such a perfectly beautiful day that the attacks didn't seem real except that they were so shocking.

I'll be back later. Have a peaceful rest of the night, Lee

[gazelle18]

I also will never forget 9/11, or my feeling surrounding that horrible day.

My family, which of course lived in the Deep South, was very civil rights minded. My dad preached the importance of tolerance of all people, and my brother and I came to understand that this was part of our Jewish heritage.

And yet, I admit to feeling a little skittish for a few days after each terrorist attack. I remember that after one of the French terrorist attacks, I got a little panicked at a large outdoor event for the local Jewish community. I know this is understandable, but I didn't like the feeling at all.

I will be out of town for a few days, so my posting might be s little spotty this week.

[savtele]

Boker Tov & Shavua Tov All! 15 years is a long time - and in one sense, it's just like it happened yesterday. The world changed for us forever! I think, as Jews, we lean more toward tolerance and understanding, but like everyone else, personal experience, teaching & the example of our parents weave a tapestry of background for us. And I also get a little panicky at large outdoor functions of the Jewish Community - and I also don't like that feeling. I also get a little panicky waiting for the Transit train after a parade or concert. Large crowds, at an unusual time, all packed together. I'm not sure if it's a bit of claustrophobia, agoraphobia, or fear of attack. All of the attacks that have happened all over the world in the meantime - certainly makes it understandable.

And yes, the world-wide outpouring of support on 9/11 made an enormous difference to me also. At a time when we felt alone and extremely vulnerable, it was heartening to have the world show that they stood by us.

My family has always tended toward tolerance, and we also were very civil-rights/equal-rights minded. That being said, my father spoke of African Americans as "Schvartza" - and he said it with no malice intended. It was not an insult to him, it was just the word he used.

We went for a long hike on the new logging road yesterday. The road is still quite chewed up & dusty, not easy to walk on. One or 2 rainy days & a lot more trucks will pack that down nicely & make walking easier. Right now I feel like I've walked for miles on soft sand. We came home looking like little dust balls, with pitch on our butts from sitting on a log to eat our lunch.

Have a good day ladies - I'll bbl to read.

[hollygail]

My family of origin was very conscious of unfair treatment of "groups" of people. I didn't know the word "tolerant" as a child; all I knew was everyone was human. When I was 11 years old, and my parents left my sister and me in the car (on Long Island, immediately next to NYC) in a parking lot when they had to go into one particular store for a business reason, and it was during the summer, my sister and I decided to walk from where the car was to the stores to go get an ice cream. As we approached Woolworth's, I said to my 17-year-old sister, "before we go inside, we have to remember that if we were Negro and in the south, they wouldn't serve us at their lunch counters." She looked at me, and didn't hesitate before telling me I was right, and we walked to some other store for ice cream. I marched with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington, DC several times. I could go on. My parents and sister were very aware of Jim Crow laws, prejudice (against Jews, against people not white, against nationalities, you name it) and I learned from them. I think I raised my own son the same way, and his actions bear this out. I still fight for the underdog, "the orphan and the widow," as Torah puts it, the disenfranchised. I know it to be a Jewish teaching, yet I also know not all Jews take it to heart.

[louise]

As I mentioned, today was Mitzvah Day at our synagogue. Over 100 people participated and good works were done (including the torah silver being polished and the repair of our humashim). Attended a 9/11 memorial service. It takes place at a park on the Hudson River directly opposite where the WTC stood so the vista has been changing over the last 15 years. The new Freedom Tower takes up a very important and much needed space in our skyline. Sang America the Beautiful with the synagogue choir.

I grew up in an atmosphere where everyone is considered equal but that said, I also grew up in neighborhoods that were largely white and Jewish, so pretty sheltered from discrimination on both sides.