Here in Highland Park, New Jersey

I’ve been waiting a year to use that photo. Yes, that is the liberty bell, a copy of the one in Philadelphia. I believe the bell and parts of the park were donated by Americans and Canadians, the bell in particular by Americans in 1976. One year ago today we were in that park; on July 4th itself we were on a plane, flying back to New Jersey.

So, what does the United States of America mean to you? I am especially interested to hear if you do not live here.

As I have talked a bit about my mother’s parents (see, for example, Greetings from Mariampole), now I am going to mention my father’s parents. In brief, when my grandmother was a little girl in a shtetl (I always think of a shtetl house as one that had dirt for floors instead of wood or linoleum or marble or whatever – she lived somewhere in the Austro-Hungarian Empire) she had to hide under a bed to protect herself from a pogrom. Soon after that, she and her family came to the United States of America, to New York City. On my grandfather’s side, his family came from Poland (from Głogów or Glogov). He and his siblings were fortunate to come in the early part of the twentieth century; he had cousins, however, that were caught in Europe in World War II. Supposedly, they hid from the Nazis and survived by hiding in the sewers. I feel so fortunate to have escaped these experiences (a pogrom and hiding in a sewer). And to have a beautiful family and home, and to be able to express myself without fear. Well, maybe a little, the general “opening up in public” kind of fear, not the Stalinist lock you up in jail sort. My maternal grandmother once spent the night in jail in the Soviet Union, but that is a topic for another time. I don’t even know that much to tell about it.

Perhaps this is taken in Far Rockaway? They did live there for a while when I was little. Any New Yorkers know?

Your turn.

Fifty years ago Jews could not walk here, along the walls of the Old City. There was a barbed wire fence preventing entrance. In 1967 all this changed, and thus tonight begins Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day. After June 1967 not only were Jews and others allowed into the Old City and to visit the Kotel, the City was once again in Jewish control, as it had not been for 2000 years. Jerusalem has been a holy city for the Jewish People since the time of King David.

From Wikipedia, here is what Moshe Dayan said on that day:

This morning, the Israel Defense Forces liberated Jerusalem. We have united Jerusalem, the divided capital of Israel. We have returned to the holiest of our holy places, never to part from it again. To our Arab neighbors we extend, also at this hour—and with added emphasis at this hour—our hand in peace. And to our Christian and Muslim fellow citizens, we solemnly promise full religious freedom and rights. We did not come to Jerusalem for the sake of other peoples’ holy places, and not to interfere with the adherents of other faiths, but in order to safeguard its entirety, and to live there together with others, in unity.

Posts on Jerusalem Day or about Jerusalem in the news:

• Batya: Jerusalem Day, Middle-Aged
• Daled Amos: The Struggle for Jerusalem: 10 Facts

The Rebbetzin’s Husband has a radiant Haveil Havalim, the blog carnival of the Jewish blogosphere, posted. I thank him for including my Windows of Jerusalem post, which has a detail of the above photo. And for connecting my post to Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, which is at the end of this month of Iyar.

Klara correctly identified the building on Agron Road as the U.S. Consulate:

On Agron Street there is a U.S. consulate building, not THE Embassy, but definitely has an American flag there. I have to agree with Batya that the building (stone) and the windows (and trissim, shutters) are common in many older buildings.

History of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem
Consulate General of the United States: Jerusalem

I was about to go to sleep for the night when I decided to click on Google Reader and visit Robin’s blog. What? Mary has a new meme? I must check this out! It’s called Window Views. This is my first entry.

Two points to anyone who can tell me the name of the street in Jerusalem where this photo was taken. Five points if you can name the building (I can’t do either, but I’m guessing both are important- busy street, U.S. related building).

I just tweeted my first #Torah tweet:

Want to see all the recent #Torah tweets? Go to http://search.twitter.com/ and type in #Torah. Enjoy! (and it’s even easier to access if you use TweetDeck and dedicate a search column to #Torah).

Want to read more about #Torah? Read Rabbi Shai’s post on the JPS site.

If you want to learn more about Judaism via Twitter, the best Twitterer to follow is JewishTweets. You will not be disappointed! If you look at all the folks following or being followed by JewishTweets, you can find many other Jewish twits I mean Tweeps.

It’s cold here in New Jersey, so I thought you would enjoy a trip in time back to last June when my family visited Rosh HaNikra in northern Israel.

It’s a fun place for a family to visit, but beware, there are rumors of a ghost bride.

And then we headed south, down the Mediterranean coast. You can see my daughter’s pink hat peering southward.

For more watery posts, visit Watery Wednesday.