The Early 1900's in Color

I found this post just recently. My love of history is overwhelming but as I told a friend today, I always had an issue picturing the past in color. With all the images being in black and white, my young brain couldn't fill in the colors. Well dear French-Jewish capitalist Albert Khan did that for me! He set out to capture images of the world. Ending up in 1929, at the time of the stock market crash with 180,000 meters of black and white film and 72,000 autochrome plates of color pictures from all over the world.This blog has many of Kahn's images on it - Early 1900s in ColourAnd here are a few links to sites devoted to his work -Albert Kahn Musee et JardinsThe Wonderful World of Albert KahnAnd for your viewing pleasure... I have included a few images here. A very special thank you to The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn for the images.

Feeling Financially Nauseous

I just had to spend a lot of money... a lot of money I don't totally have right now. I just bought my plane ticket to Israel. All $1400 of it. I feel like for $1400, I should get a sleeping pod with my own television and a maid... That was a lot of money.Add into that, that I am leaving my job to pursue more education overseas and well, I am having financial nausea. But there is a bright side here... I have found that my community, the people I call friends and family and family-like-friends have stepped up to help me out. I have been receiving incredibly generous donations from so many people. People I haven't seen in 12 years, people who knew me as a 2 year old, friends I had coffee with last week, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even one very kind pastor's wife who I have never met.It has always been hard for me to ask for help, especially financially. But I have realized that sometimes we all have to break down that ego and ask for the help that we need.  I am still wary of asking for money or help but I know that I intend to pay it forward and that if it were them, I would be happy to help out.If you want to donate to my cause, you can email me at taliashewrote@gmail.com.

So. Excited. Mad Men, Season 4 starts Sunday!

I just can't wait. I love the time period. I love the clothes. I love the ad agency. I love it all! I am a total Maddict!AdAge had a great article about the new season. A nice little preview that does NOTHING to satiate my curiosity, intentionally. Which just makes me more curious. AHH!Read it here - 'Mad Men' Returns, Smoke Clears, and Things Still Aren't What They Seem (Maybe)He has some seriously astute comments about the deconstruction at the end of season 3 and the reconstruction that may or may not happen in season 4.I. Can't. Wait.

How do you Jew? What is your #ish?

In my family, we like to play with words. My dad is the undefeated MASTER of this. Alliteration, puns, obscure words, rhetorical fun, but of late, his favorite is to turn nouns into verbs.How do you Jew?How are you Jewing?Just Jew it!The Jewish Federation, nationwide, has started a campaign to ask: "What is your #ish?" Essentially, how are you Jewing in your life? What make you Jew#ish?So? What makes you Jew#ish? Tell me and tweet it with the hastag #ish or go to the Federation website and log it there. For every #ish response, JFNA will credit 25 cents to a $50,000 #ish fund for charity. Funds will go to programs and organizations that focus on poverty, elder care, Jewish identity, Israel solidarity and more.

The Saddest Day in Jewish History

Today marks the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. It is Tisha B'Av.File:NinthAvStonesWesternWall.JPGTisha B'Av means literally, the 9th (tisha) day of the month of Av. There were many tragedies that happened on this day in Jewish history and commemorate them and remember the sadness, today is a fasting day. We began fasting last night around 8:20 (well, that is Denver time) and the fast will end 25 hours later at 9pm (again, Denver time).The fast of Tisha B'Av commemorates 5 tragedies that befell the Jewish people on that date:

  • Moses sent 12 spies into Israel to look at the land. Ten came back with horrible reports but two, Joshua & Caleb, brought a positive report. The people Israel believed the bad & not the good, getting themselves 40 years in the desert.
  • The first Bet Hamikdash (Holy Temple), built by King Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonians led by Nebuchadnezzar on the ninth of Av almost 2,500 years ago.
  • The second Bet Hamikdash (Holy Temple), built by Ezra and Nehemiah, was destroyed by the Romans on the ninth of Av about 1950 years ago. This scattered the Judean empire and began our exile from Israel.
  • The failure of Bar Kochba's revolt against the Roman Empire and the destruction of the city of Betar left 100,000 Jews dead in 132 C.E.
  • Jerusalem was destroyed in 133 C.E. after the Roman siege of Jerusalem and the site of the Holy Temple was plowed under by Roman commander Turnus Rufus who renamed it Aelia Capitolina.

Since these tragedies occurred on the ninth of Av, it was decreed as a day of fasting and mourningSource: Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 121:5Other tragedies that happened on 9 of Av:

  • The First Crusade was declared by Pope Urban II in 1095 C.E. which killed 10,000 Jews in the first month and permanently destroyed renowned Jewish communities in France and the Rhineland.
  • 4,000 Jews were expelled from England by King Edward I in the year 1290.
  • 300,000 Jews were expelled from Spain by Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon in the year 1492 (which interestingly, led to the first Jew in the Americas... a Ladino Jew who was Columbus' translator... who didn't speak any of the Americas' languages but needed to escape the expulsion).
  • Word War 1 started on 1 August 1914 - with Germany declaring war on Russia causing devastation in Europe, German financial depression, increased anti-semitism and setting the stage for WWII and the Holocaust.
  • The mass deportation from the Warsaw Ghetto of Jews to the concentration camp Treblinka happened on the eve of Tisha B'Av, 1942.
  • The Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires was bombed, killing 86 and wounding 300 others on the ninth of Av in 1994.(thanks to Halocha a Day on Facebook and Wikipedia for some of these details)

Certainly, this is not the happiest day in Jewish history and there are a lot of ritual surrounding the observance. Not only is there no eating or drinking, people don't wash or bathe, no applying creams or oils, no wearing leather shoes or having "marital relations." In addition to all that, since this is a day of mourning mourning customs apply. This means that people don't sit on comfortable chairs but rather low stools or the floor, some refrain from work or greeting other people or sending gifts. Some people also will alter their sleeping routine and sleep on the floor or without a pillow to be uncomfortable. Of course there are some exceptions. Unlike Yom Kippur, if someone is ill they can eat bread or drink water (whereas on Yom Kippur only life-threatening situations will get you off the hook). Also, you can ritually wash your hands but only to the knuckles and you can clean dirt or mud off your body. But it doesn't stop there. Studying Torah is forbidden on Tisha B'Av... I know, it sounds weird, wouldn't you want to study Torah at a time like this? Well it is considered an enjoyable activity so... no go on that one. Except the Book of Lamentations, Job, and portions of Jeremiah that are considered distressing. Lastly, old prayerbooks or Torahs are buried on this day in a geniza. A geniza is a cemetary for holy books. Since they contain G-d's name, we cannot just toss them out. Therefore, we bury them in a special place.Even after the fast is over and we move into the 10th day of Av, the sadness isn't finished. Tradition tells us that our Holy Temple burned all night and most of the day on the 10 of Av and so many people will refrain from eating meat or drinking wine until midday on the 10th.It is a very intense time for us. Even as I sit at work and write this, I have found myself shaky with hunger and overwhelmed with sadness. But there is hope. Some people believe that the Moshiach (messiah) will be born on Tisha B'Av.Some interesting reading -What Happened on the Ninth of Av?Dozens Commemorate Tisha B'Av with the Family of Gilad ShalitDestruction of the Second Holy TempleEicha- Tisha B'AvStones with a SoulWe want Moshiach NOW!(This blog was first posted at the Modern Midrash Blog of the Jewish Portal at Patheos)

Hi. My name is Talia. And I have road rage.

Seriously. It's bad. I get very angry when people go way too slow in the left lane or cut people off to get in the far left lane for no reason or when people make stupid choices that risk other people's lives. All valid concerns... not worth rage though.Today, driving into work, the traffic was gross. There was a 5 car pile up and it was nasty. I was trying to merge from the HOV/toll lane onto the highway and get to the right because the accident was in the left lane. This nice guy in a bright blue pickup truck saw me trying to get over. He had been sitting in the mess longer than I (short cut through the HOV/toll lane) but he said to me (our windows were down), "Do you want to get over?" And I said yes. So he didn't blaze forward, he waited patiently for me to be able to drive forward and get in front of him. He wasn't obsessed with beating the other drivers on the road or totally in his own world. It made a huge impact on me.My carpool buddy, Chad, always laughs at me when I drive. Well, he laughs at me even when I am just the passenger. I get mad when people cut us off or do things that could cause an accident or are just stupid. He just drives along without strong emotion, just trying to get home safely to his family. And I wonder, why can't I be like that?"What's your rush? We will get there." OH! So annoying! My dad still lectures me on driving. In the past year we had a few opportunities to travel together where I drove. Don't tailgate, don't pass so crazy, you are going to fast... Didn't he see that I had somewhere to go and these people were in my way? He told me, "Some drivers are like children, they want to play games with you. Slam on their brakes, cut you off, speed up. Some drivers are like parents thinking, you cut me off and I need to teach you a lesson. And they bait the drivers." Okay fine, dad... then what kind of driver am I supposed to be?!"A safe one. I just want you to get home safely and in one piece. And I don't care if you are late. You are with me."Thanks dad.Thanks Mr. blue pick up truck driver.The road rage isn't cured but I think I am on the right path.

I FOUND A FREE REDIRECT FROM BLOG TO BLOG!

Okay, sorry for shouting but this is awesome!!If you are on Blogspot and you need to redirect your blog to a new location (website or other blog url) here is ALL you have to do!On Blogger:1. Go to your Dashboard2. Click on the Design tab3. Click Edit HTML4. At the top of your template, find where it says <head>5. Insert this code after <head> -<meta HTTP-EQUIV='REFRESH' content='0; url=http://YOURNEWWEBSITE/'></meta>6. Click save and test it!How do you test? Well, silly, just type in the OLD URL and see if you were redirected to the NEW URL.Couple things... you HAVE to have the close tag - </meta> to make it work. And the number after content='0 is how long you want it to take to redirect. In this case, 0 (zero) seconds.Questions? I will try to help ... leave me a comment.

Dancing Brings Joy... Even in the Face of Sorrow

A new Portal Manager and contributor to the Catholic Portal at Patheos, Elizabeth Scalia, writes over at the First Things site on the blog The Anchoress.Recently she wrote a post about a Holocaust survivor who danced at Auschwitz and several other locations of horror in Europe with his daughter and three grandchildren.There have been some broad criticisms of him as well as of his daughter, mainly accusing her of exploiting him and making claims that he "appears" to have dementia (which is false, according to his daughter). I don't feel that he is ill or sick for wanting to celebrate his life, especially in a place that knew so much death. I don't feel it is disrespectful, and frankly, I think it is wrong for us to judge this man. He lived through it, we have only read about it. If he chose to spit on the grounds or dance or cry or laugh... he has certainly earned the right to do so without the armchair critics attacking him or his family.He seems like an incredible man who is intensely loved by his sweet family. I wish him a long and happy life, G-d willing. There are actually three videos in this series. I recommend them all. In the third, he goes back to the time in his mind and recalls the conversations they had with passing villagers while piled into the box cars, conveying them to their death.Here are the videos:Part 1[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUvo5OHH6o8&rel=0&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]Part 2[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Np3aZh6sU&hl=en_US&fs=1]Part 3[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpfID7pLe7M&hl=en_US&fs=1]