All it Took was 58%
That’s right. Sixty years ago yesterday, 58% of the member states of the United Nations voted in favour of the UN Partition Resolution in a vote of 33-13.
The breakdown was as follows:
The 33 countries ( 58% ) that voted in favour of the partition were: Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Byelorussian SSR, Canada, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, Liberia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, South Africa, Ukrainian SSR, United States of America, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Uruguay, Venezuela.
The 13 countries ( 23% ) that voted against resolution were: Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen.
The 10 countries ( 17% ) that abstained were: Argentina, Chile, Republic of China, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mexico, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
One state ( 2% )was absent: Thailand
It was an imperfect solution for us. TThe Jewish State was to be in three segments, and was to exclude Tel Aviv-Jaffa (to become an Arab enclave) as well as the areas surrounding Jerusalem. Jerrusalem itself was to be establsiehd as an international zone. We accepted Statehood. We accepted it because we were dreamers. We had been dreamed for the reestablishment of a sovereign state for two thousand years and as imperfect as this solution was, it was better than nothing. And so we accepted it. Unfortunately, the proposed Arab state was unanimously rejected. Any land for the Jews was too much and so we were condemned to a future replete with attacks, conflict, violence, and hatred.
There are no coincidences. Everything happens at its appointed time and sometimes we see the connections and sometimes we do not. And when we do, we often name them as “fate” or “coincidental.” As Jews, we say it’s b’shert. It’s meant to be.
So it was meant to be that the Annapolis Summit took place 60 years to the week after the UN Partition Vote. And it was meant to be that it would be 20 years since my first visit to Israel.
Twenty years later, it still amazes me that my parents were willing to send me to Israel for eight weeks during the school year. Twenty years ago today, I flew to New York with a girl that I had met just a handful of times where we met up with the rest of the group. On December 1, 1987, we arrived at Ben Gurion in Lod. And our “8 week academic adventure” began!
The Alexander Muss High School in Israel was one of the most formative experiences of my life. My love affair with Israel was realized after walking the land, TaNaKh in hand, and viewing Israel through the historical, policitcal, and theological lenses. It was to be the first of many trips throughout these twenty years.
I have been corresponding with a number of my quinn mates this week … How I love the internet!
For All These Things…
So here I am, finally back amongst the living. I am still coughing, but am feeling substantially better. Peach, unfortunately, has been plagued with a double ear infection that is resistent to antibitiocs.
In any event, these are the things for which the two older kids are thankful —
Beernut: I am thankful for video games.
[yes, of course you are, my little Asperger’s son!]
And I’m thankful for my home. And for money so that I can give Tzedakah.
[Well, that just makes my heart sing!]
And I’m thankful that I have parents who love me. And for my temple. And for God.
Frume Sarah: Hey Beernut, I notice that you didn’t say that you were thankful for your sister.
Beernut (thinking for a moment): OK. I’m going to say that I’m thankful for my family and friends and just leave it there.
********************************
Poppyseed: I’m thankful for my mommy and daddy, my Bubbe and Zayde, for Beernut and Peach…and for my jewelry!!
Happy belated Chag HaHoda’ah!!
M’chayei HaMeiteem*
*part of the traditional statement one says when one has not seen someone in quite some time.
I know that you’ll never believe my excuse for being away for two weeks. But I could not have invented this.
Kids and I are fine. And the car should be back in the next week — I hope. We were not at fault, but that doesn’t make it any less scary to have your children in the car with you. It was on the 405 and luckily we were not moving when the car behind us didn’t stop in time. Thank God the cars sustained the worst damage.
I was really sore for a couple of days and then…
bronchitis.
Yes. Again. I know….I know.
I am, thankfully, on the road to recovery.
In happy Frume Sarah news, I was quoted in a news release about a really cool new dreidel game called No Limit Texes Dreidel.
More Precious than a Kodak Moment
There are so many wonderful moments in life…..
Two very sweet young men in our congregation saved some of their chapter books until they felt that our son Beernut was old enough to appreciate them. When I recently presented them to Beernut, his eyes widened. “That was really nice of them,” he murmured. “Yes,” I agreed. And that was that. Or so I thought.
About twenty-four hours passed when Beernut burst into my room. “I finished the book!” he exclaimed. “What book?” “You know, one of the books that my friends gave to me. I read one chapter last night and then I woke up early and finished the rest of it.”
Sweet music to the ears of this voracious reader. My son. My little son. Waking up early just to discover what lies between the covers of a current read. I can so relate!
But this was special for it was the first chapter book that Beernut had read on his own.
“Hey B,” I gently asked, “You know what this calls for?” A slow grin stretched from ear to ear. “A prayer. Right, Mom?”
Yes. A prayer. A prayer to turn this secular, seemingly ordinary moment into something special. Something holy. Something wonderful.
Life is fraught with difficulties and frustrations. It is too easy to perceive experiences as negative and dissatisfying. This approach, in turn, leaves us feeling pessimistic. Disillusioned. Perhaps even regretful.
How radically different our outlook might be if we were to regard life’s experiences as sacred opportunities. To complete a book for the first time should give a child a real sense of accomplishment. And to mark the occasion in a uniquely Jewish way sends a strong message that one’s growth is a wonderful thing. As a parent, making a blessing over the milestone of one’s child helps acknowledge the ongoing development for which we are grateful.
Baruch Ata Adonai eloheinu melekh ha-olam shehecheyanu v’ki-y’manu v’higi-anu laz’man hazeh.
Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the Universe, for giving us life, for sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this moment.
And Beernut said, “Amen.”
The Curse of Dyscalculia
To say that I am not good at math might give the impression that I’m a little ditzy when it comes to numbers. Or that I don’t like math and therefore avoid it. Or pretend not to understand anything mathematical.
These statements could not be further from the truth. I am not ditzy and it isn’t that I don’t like math in-and-of-itself. And there is no pretending involved!
Some years ago, I was diagnosed with a legitimate cognitive learning disability known as Dyscalculia. Coming from the Greek and Latin, dyscalculia means: “counting badly”. Boy, does this describe me in a nutshell!! Not only am I stumped by the simplest arthmetic exercsies, but things go really downhill when math moves beyond the tangible apple/orange questions and moves to the inevitably abstract conceptual aspects.
With Beernut in second grade, I am finding that he is starting to move past me in the math area. As I “assist” him with his homework, I am assaulted by memories of elementary school and the overwhelming feeling that everyone else was light-years ahead of me and that I just didn’t “get” what seemed to come so easily to my peers.
Beernut recently explained a shortcut that seemed to make sense to me and I actually was able (for the first time ever!) to mutiply two multi-digit numbers in my head!! Feeling rather cocky, therefore, I made a complete fool of myself at a party on Motz’ei Shabbat when someone told me that 4% of the people in his office were Jewish — and I said, “wow, there are only 10 people in your office!” Met with a blank stare, I was all too aware of the sinking feeling from my childhood.
Apparently, there are 100 people in the office. At least, that is what I was later told…
Nanny Update — Part Deux
I actually did fly Ace into town to act as our Manny. Given that he was the youngest (and therefore had NO experience) kid in our family, he did an admirable job keeping up with our three kidlets.
PC arrived safely home from the Orient…and promptly left for NYC.
Meanwhile, I interviewed several candidates. One was really terrific. However, there was no way we could afford her salary expectations…or the health insurance…or provide her with living quarters. I do not begrudge her any of these perqs, BTW, as this is her career and she has the right to expect certain things. We are just not in the position to meet her needs.
We did end up finding a lovely young woman who has passed the first test. We are week two and she hasn’t left us yet!!
The kids seem happy and healthy with her…
I’ll keep you posted!
My Favourite Word – Take One
I have long been a lover of language. Ironically, or pathetically I suppose, I do not have a tremendous propensity for linguistics thanks to an auditory processing issue. In any event, I have had a special affinity for the word ‘segue‘ since I was a kid. The dichotomy between the spelling and pronounciation just enthralled me! There’s no ‘w’! Sounds as though there should be one … and there isn’t!
Recently, I remarked to Beernut that ‘segue’ was my favourite word.
“Um…you’re a mom. Don’t you think your favourite word should be ‘family’?”
Do kids just sit around and come up with knives to plunge into the hearts of their guilt-ridden working mothers??
Moadim L’simcha (seasons for joy!)
I just love this time of year!! Holidays, holidays, and more holidays. Sukkot begins in just a few hours and I’m not ready.
Actually, I’m not going to be ready in the way I would want to be ready — and I have determined that it is OK.
I want so much to provide my kids with a rich and celebratory Jewish home life. Sukkot is such an easy way to do this…unless..
one is a Jewish professional with three kids, no nanny, and a husband somewhere in the Far East for a fortnight (love this word. topic of future entry!!).
So I am packing us up for the night so we can hang in Bubbe and Zayde’s sukkah. It so happens that my kiddies LOVE this holiday and were initially unsympathetic in their response to the news that there was no way on God’s green earth that we were going to get a sukkah up in time for the chag. The news that we would be in Bubbe’s sukkah, however, was met with happy relief!
So moadim l’simcha, chag sameach, a guten moied — happy holiday!!
Nanny Update
Where to begin???
Some of you may recall our disasterous au pair experiement last Fall. In fact, it was just about a year ago (erev Simchat Torah 5767) that it all began…
(read here and here for the gory details)
I never wrote about the rest of the saga because it was too darn upsetting. So now the time has come to share…the rest of the story.
We kept the au pair in our home until her last day…at which point PC drove her up to Glendale. She felt that we should have paid her for her final two weeks. PC pointed out that given we had given her free room and board during her final two weeks and we did not dock her for the damage done to our car, we had been rather generous and no, there would be no more money forthcoming.
And then we started receiving applications. One after another…of completely incompatible matches. A slew of girls whose English skills were minimal. Followed by a girl with better language capacity — but no driver’s license!! A major problem given the amount of driving the job requires. One who wouldn’t live with a family that has dietary restrictions (we keep kosher) and several who wouldn’t work with special needs kids (like our kid with Asperger’s!). My favourite mismatch was one girl who had stated flat out that she was not willing to work with a special needs kid and I was advised to interview her anyway because our son is just “a mild case.” Turns out that she didn’t want to work with a special needs child because her brother has Down’s. The interesting part — she stated on her app that she was an only child! We had applicants put into our account that then suddenly disappeared for odd reasons. Our “match counselor” kept changing.
And then…we made a match..
Or so we thought.
Less than twelve hours after it had been settled, the girl reneged. Decided that upon further reflection, three children was not what she wanted.
This was in June, BTW. A good six months without an au pair. The company then sent us an email saying that in order to continue with them, we would need to pay a registration fee as we were going into a second year with them.
SO — no more au pairs for us!!
In the meantime, we had hired a nanny in January. She lasted one day.
Yep, that’s what I said. One day.
Family crisis and that was the last we heard from her.
Then we hired a lovely girl with tons of experience with autistic kids. She lasted 5 months. Then her school schedule made it impossible for her to continue with us. We started the process again and ended up hiring her friend.
Who lasted 3 and 1/2 weeks…until she sent a “Dear John” letter.
No notice, no nothing.
PC left for Asia this morning and returns in an eternity (two weeks).
Short-term solution: Fly Ace out to assist with the driving and childcare while PC is country-hopping in the Far East. That buys me a little time to find Mary Poppins while the kidlets get quality-time with their uncle.
Elul is National Preparedness Month
Not really. Or should I say, not exactly.
September is National Preparedness Month, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
We Jews are always so trend-forward.
Frume Sarah is Shabbos-observant -- in a Reform way, that is. Please note that from Friday afternoons until one hour after sundown on Saturday evenings, Frume Sarah will be unavailable, in observance of the Jewish Sabbath.
Comments made during this time will be held in a queue, to be moderated afterwards.
Thank you for your understanding...and gut Shabbos!!! 
Frume Sarah's World 