This quarterly rabbi message is dedicated to the Jews of Brooklyn (and Beverly and I do own a copy of the book of that name edited by Ilana Abramovitch and Sean Galvin). Sadly, Beverly’s mother, Justine Flora Post, passed away in mid-December, and on very short notice, we flew back to New York where I conducted the funeral service and where Beverly sat shiva with her sister. The New Mexico community provided comfort to Beverly at a service I led on the day marking the end of sheloshim, the next phase in the traditional Jewish grieving process. Both shiva (7) and sheloshim (30) are counted from the day of burial, and partial days contribute as full, so both periods conclude after the morning service.
Beverly inherited a love of people and a passion for making the world a better place from her mom, though she did manage to shake the thick Brooklyn accent that Justine possessed until her speech was curtailed by aphasia. My mother was also a Brooklyn girl, and the end of my eleven months of saying kaddish for Shirley practically coincided with Beverly’s end of sheloshim. In 2016 Beverly and I lost the two Brooklyn-born women who gave birth to us and shaped our lives. May their memories serve as blessings.
On my last visit to New York prior to Justine’s death, Beverly and I davened at the Menorah Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Care in Brooklyn, and that experience awakened a deep sense of gratitude in me. After my aliyah, the rabbi had to wheel everyone else up to the bima for aliyot, help them recite blessings (often word-by-word), hold books for people, wheel people back to their spots, call an aide when someone had a serious coughing fit, and keep everyone on the right page. My rabbinic life has been remarkably easy by comparison.
In addition to leading services at the Los Alamos Jewish Center and HaMakom in Santa Fe and chanting Haftarah at a shul in Seattle while visiting Dov, I gave a few talks this quarter on Jewish topics in various venues. At the Episcopal church in Los Alamos, I lectured on Jewish Scriptural Interpretation with a focus on parashat Noach, and at the annual New Mexico Jewish Historical Society meeting, I spoke on PaRDeS Applied to Jewish Home Rituals while also leading those who were interested in a semi-impromptu Havdalah service at the conclusion of Shabbat in the lobby of the hotel. Recently I delivered a talk at a Santa Fe Jewish Book Council event entitled “Ahead of Their Time: Else Lasker-Schuler, Dvora Baron, and Esther Kreitman.” As a follow-up to a connection made in Beijing, I was interviewed by phone for a Jerusalem radio program in December, though no one I know has mentioned hearing the broadcast.
Among the books I’ve read this quarter, Brooklyn again plays a role, notably in the title of a recently translated collection of Yiddish short stories and in the birthplace of the subject in another interpretive biography in the Yale Jewish Lives series. I suspect you can pick those out of the list without any trouble. Next quarter – Queens?
B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack
The Tale of the 1002nd Night – Joseph Roth*
All Breathing Life Adores Your Name – Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
1492: The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile – Homero Aridjis
The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages: An Anthology of Documents from the Cairo Geniza – Mark Cohen*
The Peace Process – Bruce Jay Friedman
Best-Kept Secrets of Judaism – Reuven Bulka
Oedipus in Brooklyn and Other Stories – Blume Lempel*
Vilna My Vilna – Stories by Abraham Karpinowitz**
Tough Questions Jews Ask – Edward Feinstein
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics – Carlo Rovelli (see p. 40 for an interesting rabbinic anecdote)
Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power – Neal Gabler**
Quantum Man: Richard Feynman’s Life in Science – Lawrence Krauss (my favorite physicist – but Queens, not Brooklyn)
Why Be Jewish? A Testament – Edgar Bronfman
A Best-Selling Hebrew Book of the Modern Era: The Book of the Covenant of Pinhas Hurwitz and its Remarkable Legacy – David Ruderman
My Heart – Else Lasker-Schuler
Until the Dawn’s Light – Aharon Appelfeld
From Foe to Friend and Other Stories: A graphic novel by Shay Charka – by S.Y. Agnon
Reimagined: 45 Years of Jewish Art – Mark Podwal
The Internet Revolution and Jewish Law – ed. Walter Jacob
* one asterisk means make sure to put this on your list
** two asterisks means run out and get this now