Let them eat cupcakes!

 For what's going on in the JBlogsphere see Batya's Haveil Havalim.

So everyone is in New York where Kadaffi and Ahmedinijad mock the unity that the 'united' in United Nations was supposed to be about. Nothing is what it was anymore. In other developments from New York, Barak Obama is implementing a new tough policy in which he tells us that it's time to DO something serious. Now. Or else.

But never fear the great New York Times 

has an angle to show you how progress in the piece peace process is a piece of cake. Or cupcake anyway.
It seems a fellow by the name of Fadi Jabar  who was "student at the multinational Aramco school in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia" and a "son of Palestinian refugees"  discovered chocolate chip cookies.One thing led to another and today he runs a successful cupcake emporium 'Sugar Daddy' in Aman, Jordan.

Well, guess what? There are  at least three (count 'em, 3) online cupcake companies in Tel Aviv!!! All this leads the venerable New York Times reporter Anna Louie Sussman to write this piece of wisdom: 

"Cupcakes have also bridged the most contentious divide of the Middle East."

Well then Bibi Netanyahu could have just stayed home and not bothered with his amazing speech today. He could have been out sampling New York cupcakes instead. 

______
Shabbat Shalom, have a meaningful fast.

כתיבה וחתימה טובה

Shana Tova! So many ways to say it!

 בס"ד

Happy New Year 5770 

לשנה טובה תכתבו ותחתמו תש"ע

Friday afternoon as sun begins to set Jews all over th world will be ushering in Rosh Hashana, the beginning of the Jewish new year 5770. For two days we celebrate our commitment to God as creator and king of the universe and contemplate our place in the world. These are ther first two days of the ten days of repentance. The kick-off conference, so to speak. Although we don't recount our sins on Rosh Hashana, we do blow the Shofar in order to 'wake us up' and get us thinking about our deeds, repent and remember God's place in our lives. Although the ritual blowing of the shofar has strict rules I found an interesting modern 'take' on the shofar and I'm sharing it here.





And here's a clip combining the new with the old! Enjoy!

No innovations at the Haveil Havalim posted on a reform blog

Haveil Havalim has been posted at the Reform Shuckle. He says he did it because the carnival seems to lean to the right. Be that as it may, part of the fun of the carnival is checking out the blogs that you wouldn't normally read. This blog presents an American world of which I have absolutely no firsthand experience. I felt a little like a tourist. Anyway enjoy the selection.

Ronald John Hemenway

2010 Tribute to Margaret Ruth Echtermann here
This post is part of a memorial project called Project 2,996

Read more about it here.
JBloggers I"ll Call Baila, SuperRaizy and Westbankmama are also participating in this September 11 memorial Project.

A detailed biography courtesy of the Hemenway family is posted at the Arlington Memorial Cemetary website here. I have summarized it below.

Ronald Hemenway was born July 25, 1964 in Cordova, Alaska, the third of Robert and Shirley Hemenway’s seven children. He attended grade school in Fairbanks, Alaska,and attended Wasilla Baptist Christian School in Palmer for four years; he graduated from Wasilla High School in Wasilla, Alaska and attended the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, where he took photography and chemistry classes. The family moved to Atlanta in 1984 seeking warmer weather, and after one year at the University, Ronald followed the family south. He worked and then took an interest in horses and their training which took him to Colorado and then moved to Kansas when the rest of his family moved there.
When Ronald turned 30, he was concerned about not having a degree and one day left his mother a note saying “I’ll be home when I find a job with a career.” He returned home later that evening saying he was joining the Navy.
The decision to join the Navy eventually led him to Italy where he met and married Marinell in March 1977.
Ronald and Marinella’s first child, Stefan, was born on November 6, 1998 and for the first time in his Navy career Ronald was sent out to sea for six months to refurbish the US La Salle. His previous sea duty was no longer than  five weeks. He decided to seek a position that wouldn’t take him from his new family, and went to work at the Pentagon in March 2000 assigned to the Office of the Chief of Navy Operations. Ronald and Marinella’s second child, a daughter, Desiree was born on November 12, 2000.
On September 11, 2001, a Tuesday morning just before 10:00 a.m., a commercial jetliner struck the west side of the Pentagon. Ronald was officially declared missing. On September 17, 2001 a flag was flown over the United States Capitol at the request of Senator Sam Brownback in memory of Petty Officer Ronald J. Hemenway for his dedicated service in the United States Armed Forces. Ronald was honored with others lost at the Pentagon in a Memorial Service attended by President George W. Bush, held on October 11, 2001 at the Pentagon River Parade Field. A Christian Memorial Service in memory of Ronald was held at Hope Lutheran Church in Shawnee, Kansas, on January 12, 2002. The flag that was flown at the Capitol building was presented to the Hemenway family and raised at a ceremony on Bob and Shirley’s property in Shawnee.

In searching around on the Internet I was able to find out that his wife Marinella moved to Kansas where she continues to raise their two lovely children. I was able to track her down on Facebook and she was gracious enough to befriend me there. I have seen pictures of Stefan and Desiree who look like they are growing and prospering in the loving family environment in Kansas. 

I was also able to find some tributes to Ronald Hemenway on various sites and I quote them below:

From the Washington Post here.

“Horses were Ronald’s passion. He loved to train and care for them and even had the opportunity to watch the birth of his stallion BarNone, known as ‘Barney.’ Ronald kept his horses at his parents’ home in Kansas. But we shared a dream together, to have a home with land to raise horses and our children. He was looking for property in Virginia when September 11th happened. His parents, Bob and Shirley, still treasure his horses.” -Marinella Hemenway

And from September 11 last year in the Washington Post here.

ET1 Ron Hemenway was the kind of sailor you wanted close at hand when important things needed doing. He was tireless, humorous, and stubbornly creative -- in short, the type of shipmate everyone wanted to know, and should want to be themselves. I am humbled to have known him, and proud to have served with him. The most difficult task of my own career was to stand on a hillside in Arlington and say farewell to this exceptional shipmate. Fair winds always.
Posted by: CAPT David Aland, USN(Ret)

May his memory bring a blessing to us all.  

 

The 'crest' of Project 2,996

"The Yard" A documentary film about a Jerusalem neighborhood by Yochai Rosenberg

KCC is here.JPix is here. Haveil Hevalim is here. 
Yochai Rosenberg made a film about the neighborhood he grew up in. Yochai tells a very personal story about The Yard overlooked by the apartment where his parents raised him and his six brothers and sisters. Yochai brought his bride Reut to live there after their marriage seven years ago.

The film juxtaposes Yochai's memories of the yard as a happy mix of Jewish kids from many religious and cultural backgrounds. But the yard has changed. The neighbors are mostly cut from the same cloth nowadays and that cloth is the black and white of the charedi (ultra-orthodox as it is sometimes translated) world. This is a world that doesn't like mixtures.

The film is a mix of observations of the current residents whose windows overlook the yard. Daniel, like Yochai, remembers the yesteryear of the yard. But unlike Yochai, Daniel yearns to leave the yard far behind and start over again in Paris. There is Yisrael a charedi boy struggling to grow up in a world that hugs him and holds him very close, too close for him sometimes. Then there's Reut who is talented and artistic and makes every effort to make her corner of the world colorful. Reut paints her window frames blue and has plants on her window sills. Clearly she doesn't share the sense of belonging to the yard.
The film brings us into the personal lives of the people who inhabit Yochai's yard while skillfully leading us to reflect on our own childhood 'yards' and our own attitudes toward change.
We all have stories to tell and I'm glad that Yochai was able to tell his so artfully. I'm sure the exposure was not easy for him (or for Reut). I think the film was well done and I hope that more people will get to see it. I am told that it will be shown some time on television here in Israel and I hope it is soon.