Sabbath diner by Chabbad

 

 

diner was not what I expected. I think I was the only outsider there. At first when I came at 5pm I was dragged in a man only room filled about 12 davening men for about an hour of constant prayer in Hebrew rapid chanting. We had a smaller dining area. There was a huge thing going in the vast ballroom probably an Italian affair.

we did have some small hors d’oeuvres like olive pates pickle etc....to munch with more prayers that dragged on for another hour....finally kids brought out oily chicken soup with tiny matzoh balls and then the only thing that resembled Moroccan food was couscous with undercooked carrots....and then on going story teller, more singing and even dancing. A real hassidic night,

I left around 8 pm exhausted and wanting to eat something normal. At home I had pea soup with kielbasa.

 

charles

Chabbad Sabbath DINER

diner was not what I expected. I think I was the only outsider there. At first when I came at 5pm I was dragged in a man only room filled about 12 davening men for about an hour of constant prayer in hebrew rapid chanting. We had a smaller dining area. There was a huge thing going in the vast ballroom probably an Italian affair.

we did have some small hors d’oeuvres like olive pates pickle etc....to munch with more prayers that dragged on for another hour....finally kids brought out oily chicken soup with tiny matzoh balls and then the only thing that resembled Moroccan food was couscous with undercooked carrots....and then on going story teller, more singing and even dancing. A real hassidic night,

I left around 8 pm exhausted and wanting to eat something normal. I went home and had pea soup with kielbasa.

 

charles

go to realitystudio.org and under my name or on the front page...go read stories I am posting on there. It is connected to William Burroughs and my stories relate to those times....
 

soups

when I had my cold recently along with millions of others, I had chicken soup by the truckload. it is a shift of focus but it was a life and death situation and I wanted a cure, Jewish Penicillin.
I went about making my own and tried different onces. I went to Whole Food, Trader Joe, and Hannaford. All of them have their own stuff that I buy from.
The best one so far is Imagine free range chicken Broth lowfar and no added msg. What ? msg? I did not know that some people still use it. and Organic.
It had a richer taste, more like chicken soup. I add some chicken breast cut into small pieces, about two tablespoons, and celeri and carrots and cook them in the broth for about 10 minutes. The Whole Food brand was not as rich, in fact a bit bland. The low sodium is also low taste and I end up having to add salt.
I also tried the old standby of canned broth by College Inn and that  is also tasty, but may have msg in it.
The fact is it helped with my cold, gave me nutrition I needed, as well as hydration.
I am finally able to go back to my write bits of my life which are posted on the Realitystudio.com website. They asked me at first in an interview about the life on the East Side in New York during the fifties and sixties and the Cedar Bar scene. And my days as a photographer and assistant photographer and finally my adventures in going out west, meeting with Henry Miller, and then taking off for Mexico. Finally I returned to New York City and faced the music of my impeding divorce.

death in the family

this June 16, it will be a year that my brother Bernard, died. After suffering two strokes, pneumonia ended it all. I could not believe it. That death was the closest I had ever experienced. Now it is me on that sinking ship, alone to face the world. We went throught WWII together. He is the one who went to find Father Bruno Reynders, who came over to get me and snatch me to a safe haven, from the hands of the Nazis.
Bernard's wife died a month later after being taken to the hospital.
Still processing all this.

I started again to write a book, an autobiography, a set of anecdotes and I am thinking of perhaps serializing it here....not sure what to do ....yet

Israel and Palestine, what is going on?

a friend of mine, Monique Weston, still in Israel explains it her way in the following passage. I will reply afterwards.:

Charles: Yes. I never once felt afraid. But I was lucky. A few days after visiting contacts in Nablus someone murdered an Israeli settler family. Of course it was immediately assumed to have been committed by a Palestinian. In reaction settlers attacked Palestinians in various areas. The eternal cycle of revenge. Israel then imposed a lock down. I suppose if I had been in Nablus when this occurred, I would have been delayed in getting hoe,The last I read, the killer may have been a man from Thailand who worked for the Israeli settlers. The Palestinians with whom I met in Nablus (who had studied at McGill) are committed to human rights and non-violence and to listening to concerns of Israelis. The Israelis I met with - who studied at McGill with the Palestinians are also committed to human rights and to non-violence and to listening to the concerns of Palestinians. Sadly, incidents such as I mentioned, make it hard for the human rights, no-violence advocates. I also visited a formr student of mine from the University of Maryland. She married an Israeli. She takes the position that Israel has every right to take over th West Bank, or at least a good part of it. This is probably a very common view in Israel--at least on the right. The left has been demoralized since the second intifada.

I went to the Central bus station in Jerusalem many times. That's where a bomb went off killing a British tourist. One of the things I learned about was the growing tension within Israel between Orthodox Jews and non-orthodox. The orthodox have many children and are a fast growing percent of the population. They are subsidized by the government and live in public housing. Most of the men do not work. They do not serve in the army, and they do not interact with other Israelis. (A sub-group does not even believe in the state of ISrael They study the Torah and pray. )The original idea, under Ben Gurian, was to recreate a corps of true talmud scholars. to replace those killed in he Holocaust. But matters developed far beyond that original idea re subsidies.

Now non-orthodox University students are protesting subsidies to Yeshivas when they do not get support. There are projections that Israel with be 29% orthodox by 2025. As their percentage grows there will no doubt be major disputes over what kind of state Israel is to be. Reportedly ultra orthodox openly plan to have the Halachic Republic of Israel when majority of voters are Orthodox Jews. SO, not surprisingly there is growing awareness that Israel cannot subsidize such a large segment of the population that does not work. It is a demographic time bomb. Also of interest is that the Arab population has pretty much stabilized--contrary to what I heard in 2005.

Monique

P.S. I also went to Yad Vashem. Forever mind bloggling.

my reply so far:

This conflict is very complicated. You mention the bus station explosion and you did not mention the injured, about 30 I believed some very serious. What does this mean? Losing a hand, an eye, limping for the rest of  you life. It is always a cowardly act to kill innocent people like that. Even though settlements may be wrong at this time, it is not murder. It does not deserve such an act. Did  you ever read Hamas or Hetzbollah statements? It does not want Israel to exist. What has that community contributed in the last 60 years except violence?
as far as the Rabbis are concerned, as Hitchens once said, Religion poisons everything. Even the first Zionist knew better than those Rabbis who believe that no one should go to Israel until the Messiah comes. Good luck with that.

this country is also founded on Christianity, it pervades everything, and the extremist are even worse, calling doctors murderers if they perform an abortion even to save a woman's life. Watching C-span and the Congress at work, it is all Christian movitvated right up to our Presidents.

Is there such a thing as a secular Christian? and can they run for president here?

Violence has to stop and to take just one side is not good enough. Both are guilty of violence.

Solution is talk. But how can you talk to Hamas when they take such extreme official stands?

that is all I have to say so far...

charles