Sky Watch Friday

Last weekend we went on our camping trip with my Rv 'ers Yahoo group and we had a wonderful time. Had some rain here and there but then ended up with some beautiful sky watch photos. There were 12 of us all together. The first night we had 7 of us and had to have dinner in our motor home as it was pouring down rain. Will be posting more photos
This was taken on Sat night on our dinner trip to the Cowboy Dinner Tree

And this was our steak and baked potatoes along with salad, soup, and that yummy lemonade.
Please click on photos for better viewing

Me on Czech Radio (in English)

When I was in Prague last week, I was interviewed by Jan Richter for the English language service of Czech Radio -- on subjects ranging from Jewish heritage to European country music. I tried to keep my answered pegged a bit to the Czech experience, so I discussed positive developments in the preservation of Jewish heritage sites in CZ, and (in the country music segments) the collaboration between CZ country star Michal Tucny with the American Rattlesnake Annie, as well as the American reception of the group Druha Trava.

“These interests come together in a funny way. One of the processes, one of the things I have been quite interested in and explored quite a bit in the Jewish sphere is the way that non-Jewish people in Europe, in a place where very few – if any – Jews live today become interested in appropriating or viewing Jewish culture and traditions for their own purposes, either to form their own identities, or out of interest. And then I also became interested in how Europeans are fascinated by the American Wild West and all its trappings, and sort of feel at home in that mythology, and often use it to enrich their own culture. And part of this is country music.”

If you go to the site, you can click a button to listen to the full interview.

Project Blue #3

For those that came to the 1st project blue i posted i will tell you now what it was.
He had taken an old school desk and a old wheele barrel and put them together.
Join Anna in her project Blue

Czech Republic -- Ustek

My latest photo and comment (in Italian) are up at the moked.it site -- a Golem guarding the recently restored synagogue in Ustek, CZ.

Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

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• Un Golem fa la guardia davanti alla sinagoga restaurata di Ustek, un villaggio nella Repubblica Ceca dove non ci sono più ebrei. Nella tradizione ebraica, il Golem e' un uomo artificiale, creato, e poi magicamente portato a vita, per proteggere gli ebrei contro i loro persecutori. Nella leggenda più famosa, il Golem fu creato dall'argilla e gli diede vita il mitico (e mistico) Rabbi Loew di Praga, che utilizzò una parola segreta per compiere la trasformazione. Ma il Golem - che è il prototipo di Frankenstein - sfuggì al suo controllo. Distruggeva invece di proteggere. Fino a quando il Rabbi Loew non fu costretto a spegnerlo, nascondendo poi il corpo inerte nel soffitto della sinagoga medioevale Alt-Neu di Praga. La Comunità ebraica di Ustek, come quella di più di 150 città e cittadine ceche, fu distrutta durante la Shoah. Non c'è stato un Golem a proteggerle. O forse, si dice, la parola mistica che l'avrebbe riportato a vita era stata dimenticata. Dopo la guerra la sinagoga di Ustek è caduta in rovina. Era rimasto uno scheletro di pietra, senza tetto, quasi dimenticato. Alcuni anni fa, però, grazie a un progetto di cooperazione fra le autorità locali, la Comunità ebraica di Praga, e alcune organizzazioni internazionali, la sinagoga è stata restaurata con cura. Adesso all'edificio è stato assegnato un ruolo culturale, un ruolo di memoria, un ruolo di storia. E' come un museo, un monumento, un luogo di ricordo. E accanto, silenziosa, forse anche un po' minacciosa mentre fa la guardia, è tornata l'immagine del Golem.
  

Blue Jay /baby Project Blue #2

I wasn't really sure why this Blue Jay kept diving at me and carrying on like it was but with further investigation i soon leart why.

Click on photo for better viewing

So here is baby Blue Jay i guess he was in school learning how to fly. Join Anna in her project Blue

I Receive HBI Research Award

Images of Candles being Blessed, on Tombstones in Radauti, 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

I have been awarded the Michael Hammer Tribute Research Grant by the Hadassah Brandeis Institute for a project called “(Candle)sticks on Stone: Representing the Woman in Jewish Tombstone Art”.

Each year the HBI awards 20 to 30 grants to support academic and artistic projects about Jews and gender. Debby Olins, the program director, told me that my project was selected by the HBI board as "an exceptional research award" to be dedicated to the memory of Michael Hammer, the husband of one of the board members, who died last year.

It centers around the richly decorated tombstones of women in the Jewish cemetery in Radauti, Romania, where my own great-grandmother, Ettel Gruber, is buried.

Radauti, 2006

The aim of my project is to provide a photographic documentation of the often elaborate tombstones of women Radauti and (probably) several other nearby towns in northern Romania (such as Siret, Botosani, Gura Humorului, Suceava), focusing on the representation of candlesticks.

I then want to integrate these photographs with research, personal reflections and memoir to create an on-line gallery/exhibition, which will also include anecdotes, literary references, personal stories, etc. I also hope to write a broader photographic and literary essay (and/or other articles) for publication. And I plan to set up a separate blog -- linked to this blog -- on which I will report my progress and reflections during the research and writing process.

Sabbath candles are a common symbol on the tombstones of Jewish women. This is because lighting the Sabbath candles is one of the three so-called "women's commandments" carried out by female Jews: these also include observing the laws of Niddah separating men from women during their menstrual periods, and that of Challah, or burning a piece of dough when making bread.

The first time I saw a Jewish woman's tombstone bearing a representation of candles was in 1978, when I visited Radauti for the first time and found the tombstone of my great-grandmother, who died in 1946 and in whose honor I received my middle name.

Radauti, 1991

I have been back to Radauti twice since then, and in the meantime I've also visited hundreds of other Jewish cemeteries as part of my documentation, research and writing for my book National Geographic Jewish Heritage Travel: A Guide to Eastern Europe, and other publications.