Election Photos

As I train for the Arava Institute bike ride in May (300+ miles) (http://arava.kintera.org/2006israelride/jasonglasgow) I've had a great chance to snap pictures of my favorite elections photos. I've posted them at Phanfare. My favorite ones are the spoofs. Elite chocolate has been running adds on the radio (which I have not heard), and put up hundreds of billboards (which I have seen) showing their cow logo and pretending as if there is a Cow party. With 31 different parties including one called "Green Leaf" whose platform is to legalize marijuana, one could easily believe that there could be a cow party that wants the government to subsidize chocolate. In this country anything could happen. Today after biking around Park Ra'anana on my new (used) road bike, I stopped at the Sushi restaurant to pick up take-out dinner. Guess what, they too have gotten into the act with an election style poster asking you to vote "SameSame". There has been lots of talk about how this has been one of the more boring elections. I'm not sure if I agree. The various polls have come up with wildly varying numbers, and Kadima has been slipping in the pools just about every week. It looks like there could be some surprises tomorrow. Certainly the original numbers from November 2005 of 42 seats for Kadima -- which would have given it a huge amount of power in forming a coalition do not look like they will materialize. If Kadima only gets 32 seats it will have to work very hard to form a coalition.

I've taken a few cabs lately, and I never miss the opportunity to ask the drivers about the election. Yesterday's driver says he's voting Lieberman -- the "Fat Russian" (his words, not mine). According to the driver, the Russians have fought the Muslims in Chechnya, and know that force is the only way. The day before the driver insisted he wasn't voting. What's the point, the politicians are all corrupt. I tried to convince him to vote, using the public service announcement argument -- "don't let anybody else decide for you", but I don't think I was very convincing. It's amazing -- with 31 parties -- including at least 1 campaigning for clean government (see election posters), there is no excuse not to vote.

8 or 11?

Rabbi Resnick went on a trip to Mexico for a Conservative Rabbi's conference, and in his place, he asked me to read torah at today's morning minyan.  After verifying that the kriah was only about 12 psukim, I happily accepted.  It turns out that recently some women have been coming to morning minyan and wearing Talitot and Tefiilin.  This does not sit so well with some the regulars, and so one of them, a regular Torah reader, has more or less stopped coming.

After a short 10 minute walk in the quiet early morning, appreciating the sun and the smell of fresh bread from the bakeries, I arrived early to minyan.  At that point there was one other member distributing the siddurim and tanachim.  Slowly the others filed in until there were 7 men and one woman.  There were a couple whispers as she put on Tifilin, and then an open discussion about the Rabanit.  Which really means Rabbi Ilana who regular attends the Shul.  Apparently the 'correct' word is Rabbi.  There is no such things as Rabanit.  In hebrew it might be Rav, or Raba, but not Rabanit.  Eventually the woman with her Tefilin walked over the men's side to explain that the word is "Rabbi" and yes it can apply to a woman!  There is no need to invent fictious words.

The numbers slowly increased until we had 9 men and three women.  Depending on how you count, we might have reached a minyan -- in this case the counting was 9.  Tfilot started, without Kaddish.  Finally, somebody ran downstairs to drag in a guy, who stood around without Tefilin or Talit obvioiusly not partipating, until Yossi arrived just in time for the Torah service.

I had to suppress my desire to run out of the room as Yossi arrived -- because honestly, I find it hard to count myself as part of a minyan that does not count women.  Clearly that is what some of the men have done -- to the detriment of all.  Being that I had agreed to read torah, it really wasn't an option.

If it were for the fact that others share my egalitarian views, I might feel like I was from Mars.

Miriam blogs

Jason: Miriam, its your turn to write for the blog.
Miriam: Why?
Jason: Because I want Grandma, Grandpa, Savta and all your friends and relatives to know what you're doing. What should we write about?
Miriam: I don't know.
Jason: Let's write about Purim. What did you do for Purim?
Miriam: Dress up and eat Mishloah Manot.
What did you dress up as?
Miriam: A princess.
Jason: Really, tell me about it.
Miriam: Pink, pretty, pouffy and it has a crown. Ronit got a dress, and I wanted one too, so I went to the store with Mama. Ronit got it in Purple and I got it in Pink.
Jason: When did you wear the dress?
Miriam: On Purim to shul, to school, for a play. On Purim we went to a shouk (Purim Carnival). We went on blow-up things, rock climbing, jumping, slides, ate pizza with Racheli. I also went to a birthday party for Arielle and Aaron (Ronit's friends).
Jason: What did you like about Purim this year?
Miriam: I don't know. You dress up. We got a lot of Mishloach Manot.
Jason: Tell me about English class.
Miriam: The teacher is Racheli's Grandmother, and we turn the corner of the street and we don't need to cross any streets to get to her house. She lives next to the Mirchin's house. I'm going to learn how to read there. She gave us a little book to read and a hoveret (workbook). I've already done one and a half lessions. They're already on chapter 4, and I skipped the first hoveret (workbook).
Jason: What are you looking forward to now that Purim is over?
Miriam: Aunt Yale to come. We can see Baby Tal and Aaron.
Miriam: When are we going to make Jello?

Not again :-(

Yes, Miriam has lice again.  I just pulled out 15 live ones.  Her response?  Smiles.  "That means I get a party when we get rid of them again!"  That sure is a good way to look at it.  I wish I could be so positive.

Adar Again

I've posted some more pictures from Adar and some movies too.  Check them out at http://jasonglasgow.phanfare.com/album/41216

Adar Movie -- Shouk Purim

Adar movie available at http://jasonglasgow.phanfare.com/album/41216. The last image is a movie.

Ra'anana Conservative Shul Tests the Egal Waters

Just back from a historic meeting of the Ra'anana conservative shul.  I'm not sure if I've written about our shul before, but it is the only conservative shul that I know that isn't egalitarian.  After hours (literally) of arguing, including the president threatening to walk out, the shul finally voted to allow the executive committee to continue to experiment with an egalitarian services, "but not to ever have less than 2 egalitarian and 2 conservadox shabbat morning services per month".  This is actually a HUGE change.  Since we came, the shul has been running an additional egalitarian services once a month after the conservadox minyan.  The new resolution now pretty much guarantees that the shul will move to alternating between conservadox and egalitarian minyans, instead of running two a week.

There are certainly a few members who didn't like the resolution, but in general, I think even most of the members who prefer a conservadox services were happy that they got a guaranatee that the shul will not totally change overnight. 
A few members, perhaps more who weren't present, are not happy at all with the change, but I think it is pretty hard to please everybody.  It was great to hear the members who have been at the shul for 20+ years, speak about how long they've waited for this decision.  Of course, this now ups the ante.  I feel like the 'egal' supporters really need to show up regularly and bring friends to show that the change was worthwhile.

Blogger Widget

I've just installed the Google Blogger widget for Mac OS X. Maybe this will make it easier to just sit down and write a few sentences here and there. In any event, it is a pretty neat little widget. Simplicity at its best. Type away then press "Publish Post" and magically it appears on the blog.

I've recently started uploading my pictures to phanfare (http://jasonglasgow.phanfare.com/) It seems like a pretty good website for publishing lots of photos and even little movies. Check it out.

I also grabbed a Sudoko widget so I can waste time. So many widgets, so little time.