Tonight is the second night of Chanukah – we light two candles. It’s been a long time since I put up a review. Hurricane Sandy came and went, cardinals visited when I filled my bird feeder, and I painted a teacup watercolor.
The post that stood out in my mind last week was this one on the United Nations. I don’t think this is what Woodrow Wilson had in mind when he proposed that nations get together for discussions.
Congregation Sons of Israel in Asbury Park, now a church
Congregation Sons of Israel in Asbury Park, an Orthodox Jewish congregation, was founded in 1904. The congregation has since moved away from Asbury Park, but for several decades it was housed in this building in Asbury Park. A few weeks ago we rented a four wheel cycle (pedal car) from Brielle Cyclery on the Asbury Park boardwalk and cycled past the building, which now belongs to a church (First French Speaking Baptist Church).
The building now has two large crosses in the front: one has to look carefully to see signs that it was built as a synagogue. Details to notice are the stained glass windows.
What do you see in those windows? I see a Torah, menorah, ner tamid, a book, a dove, and possibly someone praying in a prayer shawl on the right.
Also, if you look carefully at the carvings in the front you will see the Hebrew date of 5709 and the corresponding Gregorian date of 1949, the year the building was built for Congregation Sons of Israel.
The 1920’s saw a lot of development in Asbury Park, including this casino. Unfortunately, unlike other buildings that were redeveloped in the past decade, the casino still seems to be just a frame of a building now.
The decline of the prominence of Asbury Park began in the Depression, and competition from shopping and amusements in other parts of New Jersey continued its decline. When my husband first took me on a tour of Asbury Park in the early 1990’s, it looked quite decrepit. In the past decade, however, buildings such as the Paramount Theater below were redeveloped. I posted another shot of the Asbury Park theatre in 2010, with a bit of its history. You can visit some cool shops like this one inside the convention hall and beside the boardwalk.
Pictured above is the Berkeley Carteret hotel, with the famous Tillie face in the foreground on the Wonder Bar. The hotel has a bit of personal history for me: when I was pregnant with my first child in the 1990’s, my brother-in-law knew the caterer who was working at the hotel during Passover. So he invited us to come and enjoy the bountiful buffet at the hotel. Unfortunately, I had morning sickness and could only eat the cucumber salad.
One of the amusements near the Asbury Park beach is this gigantic chess set.
Asbury Park Jewish history is one of the synagogue Sons of Israel: in 1904 the Orthodox Jewish community in Asbury Park incorporated as the Sons of Israel. My husband’s family belonged to this synagogue; sadly, it needed to sell the synagogue building and move out of Asbury Park in the 1980’s.
Interview with Iola Caplan: Iola Caplan is a friend of mine who now lives in Highland Park, New Jersey. In this interview, she talks about living in Asbury Park in the 1950’s and 60’s, including living through riots in 1967. She relates that the Hillel School also got its start in Asbury Park.
Lavan, Yaakov, Leah or Rachel
My daughter and her friend worked very hard on this diorama for her school’s Torah Fair. It’s sort of like a science fair, explained my husband, except the subject matter was all from the book of Breishit. My daughter’s project depicted the wedding of Yaakov and Leah. Or was it Yaakov and Rachel? In any case, for those of you who don’t know the story, Yaakov first had to work seven years to marry Leah. He thought he was marrying Rachel, but Lavan, Leah and Rachel’s father, tricked him into marrying Leah. After seven more years, he got to marry Rachel. Poor Leah – I once did a painting of Leah crying.
In other news, my eldest son graduated from high school, which emotionally is charged for me – how could my first baby be a high school graduate? We discussed in the car on the way home what is the meaning of “real life” – does being a high school graduate mean one has entered the real world? According to my niece who just finished her first year of college, college is not real life.
Have any leftover matza? See any matza for sale and wonder what one might do with it? Here’s an easy dessert I made with my daughter during Passover.
Ingredients:
1 bag chocolate chips
1 sheet of matza, broken into pieces
1/2 cup of your favorite nuts (walnuts, almonds or pecans) broken into pieces
Paper plates, a large spoon and wax paper
If you want, you can soak the nuts for a few hours to make them more chewable. Melt the chocolate chips in a saucepan. Add broken matza and nuts and mix with the chocolate. Put a sheet of wax paper on a paper plate (the flat white kind that one puts in the microwave work best). Put a spoonful of the chocolate mixture unto the wax paper. Repeat until you have filled the wax paper (you can probably fit about 5 or 6 of these on a paper plate). Repeat on another paper plate (our mixture made two platefuls). Place flat in the freezer. Serve straight from the freezer.
Before Pesach we have a custom of burning chametz (bread, crackers, cereal, pasta, anything made of five grains: wheat, barley, rye, oats and spelt). When I was a kid, I remember burning chametz in our backyard. Now there are laws about creating fires, so observant Jews get special permission to burn chametz. This burning took place in Edison, New Jersey.
A tradition we have in our family (and others do as well) is to burn the lulav, the palm branch left over from Sukkot, the fall holiday in which we sit in a booth outside for a week.
In this photo you can see both lulavim (plural of lulav) and real bread. It got quite smokey – my husband doesn’t remember it being so smokey in the past. Maybe this is because the regular Edison staff were on vacation for Good Friday and a nice person was left in charge who didn’t quite manage the smoke? I don’t know, but I left there sniffing my clothes, wondering if I smelt like someone who had walked into a smokey bar.
I had enough time to attend biur chametz (burning of the chametz) this year because I managed to get all the cooking I had planned the day before and early in the morning. One of the most popular dishes among my sister-in-law’s family that I made was mushroom paté; personally, my favorite was the marinated beets with ginger and garlic. Planning to make both of those again tomorrow.
Shabbat watercolor with challot, candles, and kiddush cup; watercolor by Leora Wenger, 2012
Every week traditional Jews around the world celebrate a holiday. As one of my friends said, we prepare Thanksgiving dinner every week! Well, maybe not turkey. In the painting are two challot (plural of challah, the traditional braided bread), two candles (we are not allowed to light new flames on Shabbat, so we light candles before the day begins; I actually light five, one candle for each family member) and 1 kiddush cup (filled with wine or grape juice). The two loaves of bread symbolize the fact that when the Children of Israel were in the desert, they would pick double the bread (actually, it was manna) the day before and rest on Shabbat. Kiddush means “sanctification” – it’s the special prayer said at the beginning of the Friday night and Shabbat lunch meals. We also say a version of kiddush on Jewish holidays like Passover or Sukkot.
I asked a few of my blogger friends to tell me some of their Shabbat favorites. Enjoy the responses!
My favorite zemer is Mizmor L’David.
My favorite things to eat on Shabbos are freshly baked challah and potato kugel (which always tastes best at the shul kiddush).
A favorite pastime on Shabbos is reading, but I also really enjoy spending time with family and friends (without the usual distractions of telephones, television, etc.).
Least favorite part of Shabbos? When it ends of course! (and we have to clean up and go back to the usual routine).
“In New York there were laws that forbade opening stores on Sunday so in order to keep Shabbat an orthodox Jew had the choice of keeping his store closed two days every week or to open on Sunday and if a policeman passed by pay a fine. My grandfather did a little of both. So what was only a marginally profitable business in the dark days of the Great Depression became even more marginal.”
And in this post From Generation to Generation Risa talks about her mother and shares how she is one of a long chain of women who have lit candles for Shabbat.
Batya talks about how she and her husband eat on Shabbat: lots of vegetables! Her Shabbat every week also has Torah – she regularly attends a women’s class called Shiur Nashim (class for women).
Ilana-Davita enjoys planning her Shabbat menus in advance of the day and reading and napping on Shabbat. Traveling back in time to 2008, she posted Quick Shabbat Dishes with Asian Touch.
Mirj of Miriyummy writes:
Favorite zemer: Dror Yikra, sung in an authentic as possible Yemenite accent.
Favorite Shabbat food: my husband makes these amazing roast potatoes. He parboils them and then roasts them in a hot oven in shmaltz!
Favorite parsha: I love parshat Beshalach because of Shirat Hayam.
Favorite dvar torah: My husband has a dvar torah for parshat Noach where he compares Noach to Avraham and Moshe. I never get bored or tired hearing that one (every year!).
Favorite Shabbat past time: kiddush hopping! Some whisky, some kugel, lots of friends!
Favorite Shabbat blog: my own post: The Story of Noah — Good Friends in High Places — where friends of ours helped us when God and the weather made it uncertain that we would get Shabbat on the table in time.
Favorite Shabbat image: my challot after they come out of the oven.
Least favorite part of Shabbat: clearing the table. I don’t mind washing dishes, I just hate the whole clearing up after a good meal. I just want to sit at the table and savor the meal, instead of getting busy clearing everything away.
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If you keep Shabbat/Shabbos, what are your favorites? Songs, food, parsha? Anything else?
Dates in Front of Palm Tree, watercolor on paper, 2011
Tuesday night and Wednesday this week is the Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shvat, the fifteenth of the month of Shvat. I like to refer to the day as a birthday party for the trees. One might think of Tu BeShevat as a Jewish Arbor Day. As it a much bigger deal in Israel than outside of Israel, I asked some of my blogger friends in Israel to tell a bit about the holiday. Here are the responses:
Hannah of A Mother in Israel wrote in an email two weeks ago: “It’s pouring here. Tu Beshevat is often wet and muddy, and the worst time of the year for planting trees!” She suggested I share this post she wrote for Green Prophet about this New Year for Trees. “The rabbis wanted to set a specific date during the agricultural season to begin counting the age of the tree. They chose one in the middle of the rainy season, when no one was likely to be planting. That way it would be easier to know whether the fruit, which almost always buds after Tu B’shvat, belonged to this year or to the previous one.” But the modern version does indeed include tree planting.
Julie of Israel Inspirations Art sent me a photo from her son’s nursery school Tu B’Shevat program. This is a cropped detail of one her son’s craft projects:
Mrs. S. of Our Shiputzim added (edited a bit on my part, apologies to Mrs. S. if I edited too much):
“According to the Talmud, it marks the beginning of the new agricultural year – which has halachic and practical significance for those of us who are fortunate to have fruit trees in our backyards – and in many schools, it marks the beginning of the spring semester.
Tu B’Shvat is also the day when kids across the country head outdoors and plant trees, and it’s the day when many families celebrate lovely Tu B’Shvat Seders.
But mainly, Tu B’Shvat is a time to appreciate Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) and its myriad incredible blessings. Tu B’Shvat is a wonderful opportunity to stop and recognize all the amazing wonders which surround us here in Israel. “
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And this one is for the search engines: how many different ways can one spell Tu B’Shvat • Tu Beshevat • Tu Be Shevat • Tu B’Shevat •Too Be Shevat • Tu B’Shevat • Tu BiShevat • Tu BiShvat • Tu BShvat • Too Bi Shevat • Too B’Shvat
Interpretation of Jerusalem with figures and pomegranate, painting by Anna Abramzon
I “met” the artist Anna Abramzon when she followed me on Twitter recently. I took one look at her Twitter background (good reason to spend time on one’s Twitter background, especially if you are in a design/graphic/visual profession), and I thought, oh, this is lovely line work and color! So I clicked on her website, enjoyed her portfolio, and here she is, agreeing to an interview on my blog.
1) When did you realize you wanted to be an artist?
I don’t really remember a time before wanting to be an artist, it was always just kind of a given. My earliest childhood memories are of turning on my parents’ record player (that’s what we had in the Soviet Union in the 80’s!) and spending every morning listening to records and drawing for hours before the rest of the family woke up. Throughout my childhood my parents really encouraged and fostered my love for art. They saw that this was definitely my calling, so they sent me to classes, found me private tutors and exposed me to amazing artists from a young age. It was a natural progression from that to where I am now. When I was graduating high school I didn’t even apply to regular universities, only art schools, there was no doubt in my mind.
2) How have you used social media (Facebook, blog, Twitter) to promote your art?
I love social media! It has really changed my day to day life in an amazing way. I am totally fascinated by the new dialogues and relationships that social media opens and I am constantly discovering new sources of inspiration online. There are all these new channels open to artists now, it’s such an exciting time. I post new art on my facebook page (facebook.com/AnnaAbramzonStudio) and I share things on twitter (@AAartStudio) and my website (www.AnnaAbramzon.com) all the time. I also occasionally have free art giveaways and special discounts for my FB fans and Twitter followers.
3) When did you start doing Jewish art? Ketubot?
I was always an artist and a very proud, active Jew, but I had a hard time merging the two identities. As an artist I longed to paint about my passions, including my love for Israel and my Jewish identity, but painting scenes of Tel Aviv or Jews praying at the kotel just didn’t excite me. I struggled a lot with this in art school. While I wanted my art to speak honestly about who I am, I was also wary of becoming cliché or cheesy. After college I moved to Israel where I lived for four years. In Israel I found myself drenched in “Jewishness” every single day. In Israel being a Jew is so easy and inherent that you no longer really have to think about it. Ironically it was this immersion which finally allowed me to gain enough distance and perspective to be able to paint about being Jewish while staying away from overplayed, obvious imagery. It was also there in Israel that I met and married my husband. We had one of those uber intense, passionate love stories that would have made cynical art student Anna gag a few years prior. Naturally I wanted to channel all these new found lovey dovey romantic feelings into art as well. That’s how I got the idea to paint our ketubah, our wedding invitation and pretty much everything else that could possibly be painted for a wedding. After our wedding, other people started asking me to create ketubot for them. I found that people were coming to me specifically because I was not a typical ketubah artist. My work always was and remains quite figurative, which is not what people usually expect from Judaica and I think that was the appeal… that I came from a different background with a different vision, which allows me to create a contemporary, modern twist while maintaining the beauty, colors and and symbolism of traditional of Judaica. Be sure to visit Anna’s new site of ketubot.
4) What is your favorite part of being an artist?
I am never bored.
5) Where do you look for inspiration?
I have so many artists who inspire me! Some of my favorites are: Egon Schiele, Lucian Freud, Francesco Clemente, Goya, and Noshitomo Nara and I am often inspired by my favorite authors as well, I am a huge book nerd.
6) What are the hard parts of being an artist?
It never stops… it’s a job you can’t leave at the studio. Sometimes I’ll be having coffee with a girlfriend and I’ll think “Oh man, if I could just focus on this moment and stop drawing her in my head!!!!”
7) Can you talk a little about Valley of the Ghosts – it seems to be a comic strip about life in the Ukraine for a Jew. Is this autobiographical?
Valley of the Ghosts is a work in progress… it’s a very long term project that I have been coming back to for a few years now. It’s a graphic novel about a group of new immigrants in Israel. It’s a compilation of stories based on actual people I knew, and it is partly autobiographical as well. The title “Valley of the Ghosts” is a translation of “Emek Refaim” in Hebrew, which is the name of the street I lived on in Jerusalem.
8) You do a variety of artwork, from comics to caricatures to paintings – what is your favorite medium or style?
That’s a hard question… it would definitely be between figure/portrait painting in watercolor and comics. They are just so different… figure paintings and portraits allow me to express emotions really organically, while comics allow me to articulate thoughts in a much more tangent way. It’s really two different languages but there is quite a bit of overlap as well, because it’s two parallel ways of creating a narrative… I think I need to keep mixing things up and developing all my different styles in order to grow as an artist.
Thank you so much, Anna, for this wonderful interview.
If you liked this interview, perhaps you will enjoy one of these related posts:
lighting a candle at Dunkin Donuts for Chanukah, a Rutgers Hillel event
On Tuesday night, the first night of Chanukah, the daughter, her friend and I wandered over to our local Highland Park Dunkin’ Donuts for a Rutgers Hillel candle lighting. We just went because it was a convenient time while we were waiting for the rest of the family to come home. The guitar playing and singing were quite nice, and thank you to Rabbi Esther Reed of Rutgers Hillel for the role she played in organizing the event. It was a fun way to start Chanukah.
