For many years I have worked hard, and struggled with mastering virtuous. Now, in addition, I’m working on becoming more virtual. This is an expression of that effort.
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השיבנו ה‘ אליך ונשובה חדש ימינו כעוד לא היו * * * * * * *
ומביא גאלה…
לצאצאיהם
All photographs are by Mark Hurvitz unless they are obviously not (or credit otherwise is given).
The photos in the banner at the top (only a shallow sliver of a much larger photo) are either from our home or our travels and are offered for their beauty alone (though a brain-teaser for me: “Where was that?”).
Shabbat Shirah usually marks the beginning of Jewish Music Month. However, I’ve not seen any reference to it this year. Nonetheless, it is appropriate that this week marks the celebration of a significant anniversary in American Jewish music.
from חזן to opera star
The family in which I grew up was (to put it mildly) not particularly committed to Jewish ritual life. My father was an atheist who attended “Red Seders” (odd, I can find no reference to these on the Web) in his youth. My mother was an agnostic whose favorite “proof for the possible existence of God” was that people were able to create beautiful suspension bridges. While we attended Sunday School wherever our father taught adult education courses, we were not members of a synagogue until our father’s army buddy convinced him that I should have a Jewish education that would lead to celebrating becoming bar mitzvah. [“You never know, it might prove valuable.”] On Rosh haShannah we would attend services at a hall in Hollywood where Arno Tanney sang; I think our mother had a “crush” on him. After services we’d drive out to Venice Beach and spend the late afternoon watching to near equinoctial sun set in the Pacific ocean.
In later years we would skip services completely and listen to cantorial music. Among our favorites, even though it did not have High Holiday music was Richard Tucker singing Cantorial Jewels.
richard tucker sings cantorial jewels
While Tucker was not the only Jewish vocalist who moved between opera and chazzanut (Jan Peerce immediately comes to mind), he is by far the most famous. He even has a “square” (actually a tiny triangle) named after him across from Lincoln Center in Manhattan with his bust.
lincoln square business improvement district free concert at richard tucker park
In 2011 I noticed a couple of lapel buttons that referred to the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. I had never heard of it before. The year 2013 marked the 100th anniversary of his birth. The Foundation celebrated with a number of events. In particular a gala at Lincoln Center: Richard Tucker at 100: An Opera Celebration which will be broadcast on PBS Friday evening January 10, 2014 at 9:00 PM (check your local listings).
tucker power
Date:
1980s?
Size:
7.62
Pin Form:
clasp
Print Method:
celluloid
Text
Tucker Power
The Richard Tucker Music Foundation
your lapel buttons
Many people have lapel buttons. They may be attached to a favorite hat or jacket you no longer wear, or poked into a cork-board on your wall. If you have any laying around that you do not feel emotionally attached to, please let me know. I preserve these for the Jewish people. At some point they will all go to an appropriate museum. You can see all the buttons shared to date.
Briefly put. Support Women of the Wall (and the New Israel Fund).
Be sure you can…hearwomen’svoices!
women of the wall members blow the shofar at the back of the western wall plaza during its monthly rosh chodesh service, aug. 7, 2013. (miriam alster)
Especially since September 11, 2001, we’ve heard a great deal about the common bonds among the Abrahamic religions. It is a lovely idea, and something worth working towards. However, even a simple glance at one of the most iconic stories of Abraham illustrates how different the three major “Abrahamic” religions are (the fourth is the Bahá‘í faith).
Maimondes’ “Hilchot Teshuva” (The Rules of Repentance) is available at Mechon Mamre: הלכות תשובה. It was translated from the Hebrew and posted at scribd by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman.
You can read an excerpt and introduction at My Jewish Learning:
If a man transgresses, wittingly or unwittingly, any precept of the […]
How will you act to make your Judaism real in the world? Consider becoming involved with one of these:
American Jewish World Service
The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Uri l’Tzedek — Orthodox Social Justice
Bend the Arc; a Jewish Partnership for Justice
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps
Jewish Community Action
Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater […]
I began creating a Web site in my head as early as August 1995 when I drafted the following
For a project I’m pursuing regarding Jewish involvement on the internet and the World Wide Web in particular, I’m interested in learning about any sites about which you may know. For example, do any rabbis have Home pages? Which synagogues or synagogue organizations have Web sites? Does Marge Piercy have a site at which you can read portions of “He She and It”? Does Howard Rheingold have a site where you can learn more about creating a Virtual [Jewish] Community? Is there a Web Camera at the Kotel? In the Wilderness of Zin?
This site remains under considerable reconstruction.
Most pages should still be available in their original location. However, I will be moving the vast majority of the old site (static html pages) into the Web 2.0 (blog) site. If you experience any “link rot”, please let me know.
When I initially created this site I organized the material into what seemed to be meaningful categories (in the days before “tags”). But the time came when, it was hard to figure out which link to click if you wanted to know about Sammy Levinger’s (“who”?) death (“what”?) while fighting during the Spanish Civil War (“when”?), though we had visited Belchite the site (“where?”) of the battle where he sustained his mortal wounds. The new tools should make this process easier.
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