I'll be off-line for the next 24 hours, observing the fast of Yom Kippur. If you've always wondered what the heck it was all about - or if you're Jewish and dislike YK because you think it's all about guilt and suffering, I humbly invite you to go here:

http://www.wgbh.org/programs/programDetail.cfm?programid=226

and listen to the program that is currenly featured (and will be archived alphabetically in the complete list of shows) called THE DOOR IS OPENED.

I think it's some of the best work I've done. It explains how I feel about the high holiday traditions this time of year, as a time of contemplation and an opportunity for connection and renewal.

May you & yours have a sweet and a healthy & a happy new year! Even if you're not Jewish, there's something about the fall that always seems to say New Beginnings . . . . Enjoy, and be well.

Skip the jokes, OK? I'm really sick of them. My mother never tells me to "Eat a little something" - indeed, she looks askance when I announce that I'm hungry - which I am every couple of hours, and as a result can't believe everyone else isn't, too, which is why I'm always offering people food. My mother does not "guilt" me when I don't call her often enough; indeed, when I do call her, she gets antsy after about 10 minutes and says, "Well, that's enough for now." My mother keeps a kosher kitchen and reads fluent Hebrew. When she was 17, her parents caught her packing her bags to run away to fight for Israeli independence, and grounded her. All 3 of her children have Biblical middle names. She's a Jewish mother.

The Jewish Women's Archive, a terrific organization I worked with some in Boston, invites us to post your own photos of our Jewish Mothers on their Flickr page.

In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month and in celebration of Mother's Day, the Jewish Women's Archive is creating a special photo collection about "Jewish Mothers."

Photos can show a Jewish mother, now or in the past, in any context -- mothers at home or at work; mothers in the family and in the community; mothers of different generations and family constellations; formal portraits or candid snapshots.

How would you like to represent Jewish mothers?

Just watched "At Home in Utopia" on PBS' "Independent Lens" & was really blown away! More than just a documentary about workers' housing in the Bronx, it's a perfect bite of 20c American history: immigrants, their children, their dreams, the Depression, the War - which united Americans as one people at a time of fragmentation - the Commie witch hunt, and race relations. (Plus, the footage of the guy's mom in her Bronx kitchen looked exactly like my Gramma Rose in hers - same body language, same stuff on the wall....)

It's airing this week (probably repeating tonight) on your public TV station. Record it! Watch it!
You can check local listings & see a preview here.

The filmmaker, Michal Goldman, I knew slightly in Boston, and I really admire her work. Among her other documentaries is Umm Kulthum, A Voice Like Egypt, "about the diva of Arabic song and her country." I made the mistake of taking Delia to see it, and she bonded with Kulthum's dictum "never be late for something that won't wait for you" with the result that I have no leg to stand on when I don't want to leave for the aiport *quite* so early . . . .

Here's a photo!

Also, did you see the NTimes profile on Michelle O's cousin the Rabbi? Capers Funnye is in the "Hebrew Israelite" movement - a fascinating chapter of African-American history & culture all by itself - and also studied at a mainstream Jewish Spertus Institute. He leads a Hebrew Israelite congregation in Chicago. My favorite bit from the terrific article by Zev Chafets:
On one of the days I was there, in early February, I was the only white Jew in the shul, and an old guy in front of me kept turning around and showing me the right page. There’s a nudnik like him in every shul I’ve ever been to.

I forgave him, though, during the Torah service, when a young man faltered over the blessings and looked mortified. “Not your fault, young man,” the nudnik said. “The fire of the Torah burns so hot to where sometimes it just confuses your mind.”

Oh, yeah!

Delia & I are home now, and realizing we were so focused on getting my Mom's house Pesadikhe, we totally forgot to make sure we had any food when we got home! Shopping lists have now been made, and recipes dug out. We are doing half-measures (don't ask, Mom!) but trying to be strict about what we're eating for the remaining 6 days. It's an annual Spiritual and Physical Discipline I like to practice. Almost everything has to be prepared from scratch, from a limited set of ingredients. If I lived like this year-round, I'd surely weigh less and be healthier, too. I always watch what I eat (and don't have much of a sweet tooth), but I'm a big Grazer, and my Passover snacking options are limited to Fruit & Nuts.... Every year I think I should at least make a stab at it. But it's Work, and I never can. At least this is an 8-day period when I am supremely Conscious of what I eat, and that carries a little.

It also means I get to tell my favorite Matzah joke again! (Just consider me the annoying uncle who asks each year if you've heard this one, and ignores you if you say, YES!):

So (famous blind musician) Ray Charles goes to a Passover Seder, and they hand him a big square piece of matzah. He holds onto it for a moment . . . .
. . . and then exclaims,
"Who wrote this shit?"

Written yesterday:

Bright sun on melting snow of Cleveland
Six hours to Seder
Better scrub!

When I posted my lame little effort on, ehrm, my Facebook page, stardragonca was kind enough to reply: Seasonal reference? Check.
Juxtaposition of two thoughts half independent of each other? Check.
Sincerity of heart? Check.
Yes, we have haikai!
though someone else said it made him think I was gearing up for a surgical procedure at the Cleveland Clinic. Maybe should change the last line to:

Back to work!

Today seems ridiculously easy by contrast: all the dishes are changed over, shelves scrubbed - all we have to do is cook Dinner #2. It is completely fercackt to have to do all that changeover all day *and* be expected to host a giant meal at sunset. But every year, women all over the world manage to pull it off, and have for thousands (of years. And guests).

There has thus arisen a certain bravura bravado:
- OMG, I've got 22 people coming the first night!
- Oh, our first night is just the 4 of us, plus the in-laws. But then we've got - waitaminute, is Sam coming? - 18 . . . .

What's your best score ever? Or just this year?

Have you noticed that no one in my books ever eats bacon or ham? No hard feelings; it's just not a part of my world view, and therefore doesn't show up in my worlds! (I only realized this recently when someone in a novel I was enjoying tucked into some....)

I was raised in the branch of Judaism called "Conservative" - less rule-bound than the Orthodox, but with a lot more Hebrew and tradition than Reform Judaism. It was founded partly in reaction to the Jews being allowed to join the modern world about 100 years ago. What to give up, and what to keep? As Wiki explains, it's "a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s."

I drifted away, but am proud to see that it is continuing to evolve in response to changes in society. My mom handed me their new quarterly magazine last month, "The Freedom Issue: Looking at Passover, Liberty and Identity." Imagine my surprise to find a ton of articles about GLBT Conservative Jews - including rabbis! Because in a landmark decision in 2006, the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (yes, it's complicated. There is no Central Authority in Judaism. Think of it as . . . oh, different schools of Kung Fu which you can choose to adhere to?) voted to allow out gay men and lesbians to be ordained as rabbis and to allow rabbis to perform same-sex commitment ceremonies. I learned a lot and was very moved by the articles. They're all online for you to read at will. Here are some of my favorite excerpts from longer articles:
( Read more... )

* * *

And finally, there's a swell article on the origins of the Seder: a Greco-Roman Symposium of the 2nd century! It's short, so I won't excerpt it, and just urge you to read it if you've always wondered why the emphasis on reclining, hand-washing, and arguing philosophy around the meaning of food. Not to mention Why Four Cups of Wine? It just makes my cultural syncretism heart go pitta-pat.

* * *

Tonight was the first Seder. Smallish, for various reasons. My mom, Delia & I worked hard, and it was good. Another tomorrow night.

May your parsley be springy & green, and your Liberation joyous!

I thought it was just a joke - but I"m finding out in NYC how many of my Jewish friends take the ritual of going out for a movie & Chinese food on Christmas Day very seriously . . . . My cousin Paul, who's going to visit his son on his Junior (H.S.) year abroad in a small town in northern France (where young Jon has been living with the only Jewish family in town, and whooping it up as the Cool American Kid who plays drums) seems deeply distressed at the prospect (Eurovision + Foie Gras = just not the same, eh?) . . . . So for everyone who can't make it to the flix, or who just needs a little Holiday Cheer, I recommend the Simien Mountain Fox production of Elizabeth Wein's beautiful and twisted novel The Winter Prince (stills from the someday-to-be-made, ah, blockbuster).

We just watched the movie Casanova (2005) and found it utterly charming: fabulous costumes, sexist University lecturers, con games with multiple identities, girl with occasional sword, big keystone scene of Venetian masked ball with fireworks (and Georgette Heyer-like chase scene in which someone says, "We can escape on my barge!" and the director actually left in the bit where the horse-drawn actress mutters, "This is the last time I travel coach" . . . what's not to like? (And could I have that green dressing gown, please?)

Oh, and Geoff Ryman has a new short story up on Tor.com, "The Film-makers of Mars." Gorgeous.

And, behind my back, deliasherman has just posted a "review" of my Klezmer Nutcracker, and some stellar Advice to Young Writers.

Tonight is the first night of Chanukah.

I'd like to "regift" you with a post I wrote last year at this time, entitled "Storytelling, Candles & Prayer."

More gift suggestions for the holidays:

For the Medieval Music Enthusiast who wants the perfect Holiday Music to put on as background for parties & cookie-baking:
CAROLS FOR DANCING
I did the narration on a radio special based on this one (check your local listings to see if it's airing this year!) - and I must have listened to these tracks a million times . . . and I could listen a million more without being bored! Music by Renaissonics, "an improvisatory Renaissance dance band" that will make you tap your feet.


For the Obscure Klezmer Enthusiast who thinks s/he has it all (and also for people getting married this summer who want some musical roots inspiration!) :
DAVE TARRAS: MUSIC FOR THE TRADITIONAL JEWISH WEDDING
From my pals at Center for Traditional Music & Dance:
"Legendary klezmer clarinetist Dave Tarras (1897-1989) returns to the repertoire he had learned as a young man in Europe. . . . The recording is structured according to the sequence of a traditional wedding and will offer the listener a deeply emotional memory of life as it was lived then, transmitted by one of the most creative men who lived it. Available for the first time on CD...Tarras's last studio recording."

I've known Joe Kessler since he was a longhaired teenager playing an electric blue fiddle in Harvard Square, busking for change. And keyboardist Michael McLaughlin is one of the guys who arranged the original "KlezNut" music for Shirim - and helped me write The Golden Dreydl - we had so much fun working together that I invited him to be the music director (and pianist/accordionist) of my Esther show - where he started working with Joe when we brought him in for fiddle . . . . and now they're in a band together (with some other great improv guys)! Listing their influences as "John Zorn, Don Byron, Frank London, John Mclaughlin, Shlomo Carlebach, Eric Dolphy, Ivo Papasov etc." KLEZWOODS has samples of their "Emo / Roots Music / Nu-Jazz " on their MySpace page, and are doing a FREE show on Dec. 22nd in Cambridge at Atwoods Tavern - wish I could be there - they're great to experience live - So you go, and give them my love!

Well! Now we've got that non-commercial eating holiday over, we can get back to the serious business of getting ready for ChristmasAndaVeryWarmHolidayGreetingtoAllOurJewishFriends.

Much love for last night's Stephen Colbert Christmas Special, especially this:



And here are the lyrics, if you want to sing along. But best to let the professionals handle it.

Small Beer Press, Gavin Grant & Kelly Link's glorious enterprise - the publisher who brought you the stunning limited edition hardcover of The Privilege of the Sword - are having a
huge sale of all their books
- including TPOTS hc for a mere $17!! . . . the amazing new Geoff Ryman novel, formerly unavailable in the U.S.! . . . and Interfictions: the first anthology of Interstitial writing . . . .free downloads of Kelly Link stories . . . .and . . . wait for it . . . The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories by Joan Aiken!

If the fabulous books on fabulous sale were not enough, SBP adds:
20% of the proceeds of this sale will be donated to Barack Obama's campaign for President of the United States of America. Next month in the USA we get to show the world that the mistakes of the last eight long years will not be repeated . . . .

And it is thanks to their fine blog that I found Chris Rowe's link to hear Ralph Stanley's fine take on Barack , as well. That voice, that voice, that voice! -- oh, and also Ben Rosenbaum's exegesis on Maurice Sendak and the True Meaning of Rosh Hashanah.

• The elegant and affordable paperback edition of Delia Sherman's Changeling will be released on July 17th!

• We've sold Finnish rights to Thomas the Rhymer (to Vaskikirjat). I'm so happy. The translator, Johanna Vainikainen-Uusitalo, I met at the Dutch Worldcon shortly after the book came out, and she says she's been dreaming of translating it ever since - we've already had some great discussions about the (non-)intersection of British & Finnish mythic material . . . and she's a friend of author Johanna Sinisalo, whose wonderful Troll won the Tiptree. Is there a trip to Finland in our future? One can only dream. . . .

• A friend of a friend sent word of her new book, Surprised by God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion (Beacon Press, August); author & rabbi Danya Ruttenberg wrote me: It's part-memoir, part cultural criticism, about the personal and political implications of taking on a religious discipline. It's the story of my own post-dotcom, punk rock Third Wave move from atheism into traditional (feminist) Judaism... ( Read more... )

Clearly, someone should write a novel about this woman - or at least give her a walk-on in as many period pieces as possible:

"When Annie Cohen Kopchovsky (who adopted the decidedly less ethnic name of "Annie Londonderry") left Boston in June 1894, she was a young woman with a 42-pound bicycle, one change of underwear, a revolver, and a dream of adventure and financial independence. Her epic journey around the world by bicycle turned this Jewish immigrant and mother of three into an international celebrity. In Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary Ride, author Peter Zheutlin vividly recounts the story of this audacious woman in a highly readable blend of social history and travel narrative."

Gakked from the Jewish Women's Archives, who are sponsoring a Lunch Talk with the author in Boston on March 18th. They are also collecting stories, photos, interviews, etc. that document the experiences of Jewish American women during the Second World War. You can help, no matter where you live.

You know how your pals are always sending you links to things they found while they were supposed to be doing other things - or, in some cases, because they actually keep up with online journals it gives you a headache to read?

My very dear old friend (we met at summer camp), culture maven & dance critic Debra Cash, sent me this link to an interview she found with the author of a new novel - headed: boy loves boy, except that they're frum (her heading, not the interview's). The author, Evan Fallenberg, like me grew up in Cleveland. Coincidence? Or is it something in the (Cuyahoga) water...?

The Jewish Women's Archive (jwa.org) has posted a fine and interesting tribute (by novelist Cathleen Schine) to the late Madeleine Stern, an antiquarian bookseller who, with her lifelong Best Friend, Leona Rostenberg, rediscovered the missing thrillers of Louisa May ("Jo") Alcott. If you didn't know about these women, you should! There are links to other amazing women on this terrific site, including journalist/rock critic Ellen Willis (dammit! I didn't know she'd died!), Grace Paley, and scholar & "ritual innovator" Savina Teubal, who created the women's Simchat Hochmah ["Joy of Wisdom"] ritual for becoming an elder.