Snapshot of today

Jordie, Judy, Amalia, Adam, Abby, Lynne. In front, Matthew and Megan, Amalia's college friend, now teaching in Chicago.














Moshe Avraham, the jeweler. He looks like a person I would like to have known.

















I've realized that I haven't blogged in quite awhile, so am pasting a copy of a letter I wrote to our cousin Zohar today...

Adam is coming over in a while, to help me understand how to use our grill. We have some tuna steaks and some chicken. He’s at a meeting at the library right now; he took three classes in summer school so that he can graduate on time next year. He will be gone the fall semester, doing an internship with the General Accounting Office in Washington, D.C. It’s through the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, where he is majoring in Public Policy. Adam lives in a house near campus, with two other boys, and we don’t see him often enough!

I hear Jordie’s car outside the window. He’s sitting, listening to something on NPR before he comes in.

I went over to Red Bud Hills this afternoon; that’s a retirement residence where my mom lives now, just a mile away from our house. Lou and Lenny Newman were playing piano and accordian, which they do every month. They retired to Bloomington a long time ago, and they are very involved with the School of Music. But the songs they played today were not classical – they were sweet old songs that my mom and I (and others) sang along to, like “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do – I’m half crazy, all for the love of you…” and selections from Fiddler on the Roof and Mary Poppins and ragtime and polka music and finally, the IU fight song! I know them from Beth Shalom, and I think I’m going to make a contribution in their honor, so it’ll say in the bulletin “To Lenny and Lou, for the beautiful music they make!”

I had a column in the paper on Saturday; I write occasional columns for the religion page. I will paste it below.

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Thinking about Religion

By our silence, do we betray our faith?

By Lynne Foster Shifriss

June 9, 2007

I hope that the way I behave in my daily life is in tune with my religious beliefs.

I hope that.

Sometimes, though, I wonder just how far I am from that ideal.

I recently let a comment go by when I should have said something.

Someone asked me if I could believe that anyone would say that Jesus loves gays.

I stood, frozen. I pretended I hadn’t heard. I said something inane and steered the talk in another direction.

In my silence, I felt terrible.

Because, in my religion, being gay is just fine.

I am a liberal Jew, a member of a Reform congregation.

From the Reform Judaism Web site:
We believe that all human beings are created in the image of God, and that we are God’s partners in improving the world. Tikkun olam — repairing the world — is a hallmark of Reform Judaism as we strive to bring peace, freedom, and justice to all people.

And more:
Reform Jews are also committed to the full participation of gays and lesbians in synagogue life as well as society at large.

I believe that. So how could I be silent?

Just as important, I have three really good friends who are in long-term same-sex relationships. Each of those relationships would be envied by many heterosexuals — I’ve never seen more loving and kind partnerships.

By my silence, did I betray friendship?

Uncomfortably, I thought later of what I wished I could have said: “Oh, I thought Jesus loved everybody, but then I guess I wouldn’t know, because I’m Jewish.”

Later that weekend, in the New York Times, I read how a young man had started to wear his kippah (a skullcap, worn by many Jews as a sign of respect for God) all the time: He explained that he started wearing a skullcap while teaching a class on prejudice. His students had pointed out that Jews can usually hide their minority status, but African-Americans cannot. “Jews can pass,” he said, “so I took away the option of passing.”

I thought — that’s what I had done. I had passed.

Because it was easier, I had let that person think that what was said was OK with me.

After I read about the young man wearing his kippah all the time, I thought that if I had only been wearing my kippah or a Star of David, perhaps that person who dared to speak for Jesus would not have assumed that we shared common beliefs.

Lynne Foster Shifriss is assistant to the editor at The Herald-Times.
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Did Jordie tell you that I discovered, on the Internet a second cousin of his? Her name is Judy, and she lives in Chicago with her husband Shlomo. She is a nurse and he is an allergist. They met in the med school at Hebrew University. They have three daughters, all married with children. Her father was Shoshana’s first cousin. Her grandfather was the jeweler who made exquisite pieces, some for royalty. I will paste a picture we took in Chicago last summer of our family with Judy and her grandson, Matthew. You can see how tall Adam is now! Also I will paste a picture of Judy’s grandfather, the jeweler. The inscription says “Work is the joy of life.”

We are driving to Colorado next week to stay with friends. One of my dearest friends from college died suddenly in January (of a heart attack) and we will stay at their house and take some day trips into the beautiful mountains…Phil, her husband, was my boyfriend for a year in college. We broke up, and later they got together. (OK, I had to have some counseling about that! But I treasured her friendship, so I got over it and we’ve all seen each other many times over the years.) They have a 21-year-old daughter and 16-year-old twins. One twin, Maddie, plays the harp and I’ve been trying to get her to come back with us – there is a Harp Festival at the School of Music in July.

After we get back from Colorado, I’m going to hop on a plane and visit Amalia in Los Angeles for a few days…I want to walk on the beach and fix dinner together and just hang out with our girl…

Abby has been saying to Jordie that he needs to take her to Israel, that she was too young to remember all the relatives from our last trip… Abby is at camp in Brown County this week, and the house is quiet. I think I will go and have a cup of tea and ask my sweet husband how his day went…and I will paste those pictures in.