Chad Sameach, and Shabbat shalom one and all!
Passover is my favorite Jewish holiday for a variety of reasons, among them the themes of freedom, redemption and the telling and retelling of a great story for generations to come (L’dor v’dor!). And bringing family and friends together for a great meal aint so shabby either! Add to that the many hopeful signs of recovery on many fronts, and I had a really great feeling heading into the weekend. And then came Georgia. And I just can’t get the image of 6 old white guys in the Governor’s office signing a voter suppression law under a portrait of a slave plantation out of my head. So, on this beautiful Saturday Passover morning, I have mixed emotions as I spin Randy Newman’s “Redneck” album on the turntable, but I am hopeful that in the end, the theme of freedom (and some gefilte fish with Davora’s home made “purple chrain”), so inherent in the Passover celebration, will carry the day and my mood to a better place.
As you can imagine, the news of the Jews this week has been dominated by Passover as well as the Israeli elections. I am not a close follower of Israeli politics, but it seems they are stuck in a spiral of “Bibi, rinse and repeat”, without a clear majority to remove him. The risk is that Bibi will continue to embrace even more radical right wingers in his bid to form a coalition and those radical fringe groups will gain strength. Sound familiar? Anyway, here is the news of the week, courtesy of The Forward:
- Was “The Last Supper” a Seder? Were Jews really slaves in Egypt? For answers to these and two other offbeat questions, this is a must read!
- RGB’s influence lives on – The story of how RGB inspired and influenced one of the newest members of New Jersey’s Supreme Court
- The impact of Covid on the grandparent-grandchild relationship – Read all about the need to “honor thy father and mother” during this difficult time, or at any time for that matter!
- Boulder’s Jews dealing with the mass shooting – More than holding vigil, they have also reached out to the islamic community
- How macaroons became a must for Passover – Not for me. Give my Ruth’s chocolate covered matzah any day of the week! But if you are interested in the origins of this traditional Passover treat, read on!
- Jewish publications on Substack? What the hell is Substack anyway? – Read about one person’s Jewish publication she launched on this user-friendly newsletter publishing platform. Sounds like a new platform for the JNR? Probably not, as I am now investigating creating a Non Fungible Token (NFT) on the Ethereum platform to monetize the JNR. More on this in future blogs!
All for now, and hey, let’s keep being careful out there, vaccine or no vaccine.
Brad out. https://assets.forward.com/pdfs/shabbat-0326.pdf
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