Free H1N1 Vaccine in Flatbush

No cost. No wait. Today. At Cunningham Jr High School on Ave S and East 17th St.

Jr Spells Hummus

Jr is learning is to "site read" in English. It's so cool! It's simply amazing to watch the overnight intellectual transformation of a child from illiterate to (very semi-) literate.

His Hebrew is coming along slower. He has known his aleph bet since nursery, but this year they are learning nekudot. He is struggling with them. I can't say that it has nothing to do with him, but I also think that the whole approach to teaching Hebrew is wrong, compounding his difficulties.

Anyway, the other day I listened as the Mrs helped him spell out hummus.

Mrs: HHHHHu . . .
Jr: Het!
Mrs: MMMMMu . . .
Jr: Mem!
Mrs:
uSSSSSS . . .
Jr: Suf!
Lion: Agh!

My stomach turned upside down.

Not that there haven't been preludes to this. Last year he suddenly started translating "fish" as dug rather than dag. And then in keriat shema he started saying be-shivtekha be-vesekah. And so forth.

The truth is that I'm not as interested whether he learns ashkenazis or sefaradit (although the latter what is how I was taught), but it bothers me that he is not learning Hebrew naturally or grammatically. (My preference for the natural method requires another post. As far as grammar: I can get over be-vesekha, but it bothers me that he now says ve-aHAVta rather than ve-ahavTA.)

MO Schools and Sex Abuse

Dov Bear posted a sad, sad story here. In short, a newlyed groom who had been sexually abused as a student lept to his death from a hotel balcony while his bride was asleep.

Among the comments throwing around the blame (not just here, but after other revelations of abuse as well), some have honed in on the rabbinic establishment and schools for hiding abuse or otherwise not doing enough to prevent it from happening in the first place.

But before the MO criticize the "frummies" for being particulary guilty of enabling this type of abuse, I suggest that said MOers inquire in their own schools regarding what policies are in place to prevent it.

You think just because it's an MO school this mean that employees are fingerprinted and there is a mandatory reporting policy? Take a minute tomorrow to phone the principal and ask him. You just might be (unpleasantly) surprised.*

________

* This was question no. 5 on my list of 10 questions to ask when yeshivah shopping (click here).

Kosher Gas Station in Boro Park

(Hattip: Dr. Stern)

Also see the Post here.

The only thing this gas station is missing is a giant תפילת הדרך sign like they have in Teaneck (click here).

Kosher Chicken on Sale in Brooklyn

I generally try to avoid the kosher groceries, but once in a while they give you a reason to patronize them.

Like today.

The Mrs told me that a store near her work, Buy Right (in Marine Park), has chicken cutlets on sale for $2.99/lb and chicken leg quarters (the larger ones!) for $1.69/lb.

Shabbat Shalom!

Update: Freeze the chicken and remember that this week we eat tongue (click here).

Frum Jews and Black Nationalists: Common Denominator

(This post by ProfK reminded me that I wanted to write this post.)

A black guy I know recently told me that he had been a staunch black nationalist until he visited Africa (Zaire?) a few years ago on a discover-your-heritage tour. The trip was a real eye opener, he told me, but not in the way he had expected. The trip actually inspired a volte face in his attitude toward America and he kissed its soil immediately upon his return.

The story made me think about Jews who wax nostalgic about the Old World, the shtetl, the heim. (You know, the idyllic world that never really existed. )

Imagine if we spent a week without easy access to potable water and indoor plumbing (in both directions); a week of degredation, pillage, rape and other violence by neighborhood anti-Semites, invading armies and rogue outlaws; a week of starvation; a week without vaccinations, antibiotics and anasthetics; etc.

Then again, we wouldn't last even one week.

Ex Lax and the Bible; or Marketing 101 and Hebrew Pioneers

The pioneers of modern Hebrew are known for having relied extensively on Biblical language at the same time that they tried to mold a living language usable in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This reliance extended even to advertising in Hebrew journals, such as this advertisement for Ex-Lax in the weekly ha-Do'ar (13 June 1924), vol. 3, no. 27, p. 16:

Note the alliteration to Exod. 8:19 (למחר יהיה האות הזה).

This is the full page (click on image to enlarge):

As an aside, one the biggest mistakes many libraries have made is to discard the publishers wrappers of books, pamphlets and periodicals, as these wrappers often contain important imprint information about the book, as well as and general historical information unavailable from other sources.

(Update: for more of my posts on potty talk in Hebrew, see here, here and here.)

Happy 100th Birthday Grandma!

This past Sunday we celebrated my grandmother's one hundredth birthday (or one hundred and first, according to one reckoning). About thirty of her relatives gathered in her home to feast and make merry.

My grandmother has certainly seen better days (both physically and mentally), but it's amazing how animated and attentive she became in the weeks leading up to the party. She took great interest in it and made sure that it was planned according to her preferences. She arranged the menu and chose a insisted on the type of cake (chocolate of course, on the inside and the outside);

practiced feigning surprise ("like this?" she repeatedly asked my uncle as she raised her arms and put on a startled face); hinted as to her preference for gifts (clothing); and kept on top of us to ensure that we remember to come ("are you coming to my party?" she asked Jr and me as we left her house last week).

We all had a good time and my grandmother definately enjoyed herself. She especially revelled in her great-grandchildren and she dispensed many, many kisses.

Toward the end of the festivities she started to look drained, especially after we finished taking all the family portraits. Nonethess, she made sure to reserve enough energy to conclude the party with the best part . . . opening the gifts.

My grandparents' wedding, Williamsburg (Brooklyn), 1929

Haven't Cried Yet Today?

Hattip: Rafi G.

Although this blogger here cried out in (halakhic) objection.

Teenage Jewish Hostage of Black September Terrorists: A Must Read

Seventeen-year-old David Raab was on the TWA flight as it was hijacked and was later removed by the terrorists with other Jewish passengers to a safe house in a Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Amman. The following account is based on his forthcoming book, Terror in Black September: The First Eyewitness Account of the Infamous 1970 Hijackings . . .

Click here for full article.

It's a great narrative from personal, historical and interpretive perspectives.

Note the disinterest by world powers--and the whitewashing by the Red Cross--concerning the fate of the Jewish hostages.

Also note the conclusion (plot killer alert!):

At least fifteen of the seventy-eight American Jews who had boarded our plane decided over time to move to Israel [19.2%!]. That includes my mother (and father), two siblings, and me. I have lived essentially a normal and successful life, have been married for thirty-three years, have three married children and six grandchildren, but I think about my experience in Jordan almost every day. It bothered me that no book had ever been written fully documenting the month. I have now written that history. It is said that history is written by the victors.

(15/78 = 19.2%!)