L'Shana Tovah/Happy New Year

9/14/2023

Everybody needs a happy new year.
Rosh Hashanah arrives Friday, with fallish weather -- at least, that is the New York tradition.
I remember one Rosh Hashanah, we had visitors, a couple we love from "out west," and we went out for dinner to a Greek restaurant, a couple of towns over from us.
The weather was so early fallish that the restaurant had opened some windows up front, to let the crisp air enter.
A group of celebrants from a nearby temple was passing the restaurant. They were in a bouyant mood, and spotted the four of us at the window.
One celebrant asked the question you often hear on city streets from the faithful seeking to expand the flock:
"You Jewish?" (Pronounced "Joosh?")
Three of us pointed at the fourth, a Jamaica High grad a few years younger than me. The Judge.
That made the roving band happy and they began serenading us through the open window, shofar blaring. That made the four of us happy. We were home. In New York.
* * *
There's a lot of bad stuff these days. War. Floods. Earthquakes. And to employ the generalization, "politics."
But I'm taking the blue sky and bright sun as a Rosh Hashanah sign that things are okay, at least as I type this.
I'm sending out greetings to friends and to family, including my Australian second cousin Jen and her New York husband Sam, undoubtedly celebrating in their way in their lovely little village in Southwest France.
And to my New York-born friends, some of whom pop up in Comments on this page, who have made Aliyah, that is, moved to Israel -- Mordechai, Hillel and Mendel, and his NYC dad Ahron, seen dancing with quick feet at family celebrations.
L'Shana Tovah.
***
And then there is this. Back in the day, Jean W and Jean R were friends at PS 131, not far from Jamaica High. They did stuff together, right through high school, went to separate colleges, and then Jean R made aliyah, to a kibbutz. After a time, Jean W visited Jean R in her kibbutz, and then showed us photos in a luncheonette along Union Turnpike.

The other day, a bunch of us from the Class of 1956. living not far from Cunningham Park in Queens, gathered for an informal BYO picnic, under trees that must have been growing when my mother and my Irish Nana were swinging me in the nearby kiddie park, still standing. Familiar park. Familiar faces.
As 20 or so gathered, we talked of others ("Good friends we had/ Good friends we lost/ Along the way" -- Bob Marley, "No Woman No Cry.")
And in the center of the group was Jean W, sitting alongside Jean R, back in New York for a family visit.
It made me immensely happy to see these two friends, as if it were 1950.
***
L'Shana Tovah. Happy New Year. It's universal, at least where I'm from.

The two Jeans, together again. Courtesy of Jean W.

Familiar park. Familiar faces. (another bench not shown), Walter Schwartz MC. Jean W in blue. Jean R to her left. Together again.

21 Comments

ahron horowitz

9/14/2023 10:51:12 am

george-you are a dear friend of our family.you are an honorary MOT.best wishes to your extended family.may it be a happy new year for all.ahron

Randolph

9/14/2023 11:48:35 am

George,
You are full of joy!
Thanks for sending it out to the rest of us.
What a gift to have such good friends.
Happy new year
R

Steve Jellinek

9/14/2023 12:05:18 pm

Thanks, George. And a happy, healthy, sweet 5784 to you and yours from Bobbie and me.

Alan D. Levine

9/14/2023 12:18:39 pm

George--Happiest of Years to you and your family. You failed to complete your account of the first of the year, however. Almost every year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, during which no intake of food or liquid is permitted, is unseasonably warm here in New York.

Mendel Horowitz link

9/14/2023 01:39:26 pm

George: Without getting too Talmudic, Rosh Hashanah celebrates the creation of Man and not the creation of the world. Each year on that day, we stand humbly in judgment, recognizing the awesome potential of mankind to live better lives and hopeful for more "good stuff." As the blessing goes: A Sweet New Year to all.

Marcia Kramer Gitelman

9/14/2023 01:43:52 pm

George…you are so thoughtful. Thank you for the New Years wishes. You have brought me back to my JHS roots as well. I did not think about it much from my “perch” in Upstate NY. Now I appreciate those high school days more and more

Marcia Kramer Gitelman

9/14/2023 01:51:56 pm

I believe that all religions should work together to have peace and harmony in the world.

Randolph

9/14/2023 02:05:40 pm

Marcia,
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Yes I am in full agreement with you.
Years ago, I was able to hear the Dalai Lama give a talk. He told A wonderful story about a Jewish friend of his, a Roman Catholic friend, A Muslim friend and then he said something that has stuck with me.
He said that our first “ responsibility is to take care of all humans. Yes we must take care of all humans.”
He then went on to say that “ religion is secondary.” Sometimes when we think about religion, we exclude other groups.
All humans first.
I liked that.
R

Altenir Silva

9/14/2023 02:08:01 pm

George,
L'Shana Tovah!
Altenir, Célia and Neo.

Jean Bartelt (via GV)

9/15/2023 08:25:23 am

Jean Bartelt (via GV)
9/14/2023 05:18:12 pm
(GV: We are blessed with Jeans. Among our Cunningham Park regulars are Jean Bartelt from our class at Jamaica, and her sister Diana, who attended Van Buren HS when it opened. This is from Jean B, and transcribed by me. Jean spells it “Mispah. “ So does the Harlem Boys and Girls Choir performing the song. Often: “Mizpah." Same thing. GV.)

May this year bring health, happiness and all the blessings that God can grant.
Next year in Cunningham Park
We have a Benediction -- the Mispah.
So here it goes:
May the Lord watch between me and thee while we’re absent one from another.
--Jean Bartelt.

Walter Schwartz

9/14/2023 02:27:37 pm

George, Nobody does or says it better. Than you, a person of integrity and honor, a mensch through and through.

Marcia Kramer Gitelman

9/14/2023 02:39:42 pm

Mensch is a good word for George. The gift of writing well is a blessing.

Altenir Silva

9/14/2023 02:41:11 pm

Dear Walter Schwartz, I think you capture the essence of all we feel about this great man. I am always thankful to have met George in my life.
L'Shana Tovah!
Altenir

Ed Martin

9/14/2023 03:59:17 pm

George, Gang. L’Shana Tovah.

Growing up in NYC area, including Nassau County, we all had multi ethnic and multi-faith friends, so we knew a few words in Yiddish, Italian and Sicilian, Catholic, (saint’s days), etc.

Here is a story that seems appropriate. A friend and I went to “The Sparta Family Restaurant” for lunch. He ordered a tuna sandwich, no problem, I ordered a Souvlaki, I saw on a chalk board.

The waitress asked, “A soo-what?” I replied a Souvlaki it’s a Greek Sandwich.

She replied, “What do I know from Greek I’m Jewish!”

“This is a Greek restaurant-you should learn.”

“If I could learn I’d be a Doctor.”

PS. Metropolitan Diary published it.

L’Shana Tovah

Shelley Braunstien

9/14/2023 05:05:17 pm

Dear George,

May your name be inscribed in the book of life. (I'm sure iit is.)

.What does it mean to be inscribed in the Book of Life?
According to the Talmud, God opens three books of destiny on Rosh Hashanah. If our deeds are good, he writes our names in the Book of Life. If our deeds are wicked, he writes our names in the Book of Death – but if our deeds fall somewhere in between, they are written in a third book..

Walter Schwartz

9/14/2023 07:29:22 pm

Ed, Here's one for you (not to "top" you): Guy walks into an Italian restaurant. Waiter comes over wearing a yarmulke. Guy is perplexed, asks the waiter, "What's going on? An Italian restaurant with a Chinese waiter wearing a yarmulka?" Guy replies, "This is a Jewish neighborhood." - Walter

Walter Schwartz

9/14/2023 07:36:07 pm

My bad! It was the waiter who gave the punchline. Not the guy. I should have ended with wishes for a healthy year for all! Hard to remember old jokes at my age. I guess this joke was on me.

9/14/2023 08:38:16 pm

Thanks Walter, my story was real, but here’s a reply to yours.

Fellow visiting Shanghai walks past a building with a Star of David on it, so he enters as the doors are open and sees it is a Synagogue.

A Chinese man comes over and asks if he can help? The man asks, “Is this a synagogue?

The Chinese man answers, “Yes” and asks, “Are you Jewish?”

The visitor replies that he is.

The greeter replies, “That’s funny, you don’t look Jewish.”

Jen Guttenplan

9/15/2023 08:44:36 am

Thanks for this, George. We are indeed celebrating with the only other Jews in the Tarn et Garonne (at any rate for miles around). They are the parents of close friends of our New York nephew—what are the odds? I’m telling you, its the epicentre of the universe around here. Xxx

9/15/2023 09:13:59 am

Jen, well done. Soon you'll have a minyan.
Best to you both, G&M

judy katz

9/19/2023 12:37:23 pm

Thank you George.This is typical of your thoughtfulness.At this time of the year and since we moved my memories, especially of JHS are all the more poignant. Seeing the two Jeans together was a joy! May this year bring good health to you and family.
Judy

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QUOTES

Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

L'Shana Tovah/Happy New Year

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