Warsaw Jewish Cemetery video

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Ben Harris, the "Wandering Jew" of JTA, has posted a wonderful little video about the three-year project to document the main Jewish cemetery in Warsaw. The comments of the young people he interviews are moving and apt.

Today's Flower/ Flowering Cactus

Click on the side bar and join others from all over the world for there beuatiful flowers, i bet there is going to be a lot of Roses today.

I took this photo back in O7 on our trip to Arizona, I think i have posted this one before, but i have no new flowers to share, till spring.

And look what i found the other day in my flower bed. Sure hope they survive this cold weather we got back, yup there is hope for spring now.

Germany -- Photos by Julian Voloj

Zeek/The Forward present pictures of German Jewish built heritage, by Julian Voloj. Click HERE

Camera Critters

Happy Valentines Day to All

Please click on side bar and Join Misty and all the others for there favorite critters of the week

This week has been hard for us as we have lost 3 of our babie kitties to there forever homes. But i think that they found good homes. We miss them.
Ivey was the first to go, On Sunday her new family came to get her, she went to a nice family that lives in Culver. I got an email from them and this is what they had to say.

(Ivey was a little scared the first day but she is getting comfortable with her surroundings and wants to run and explore the rest of the house. We have been keeping her in Maries bedroom the first couple of days till she gets settled in. She is eating well and has quite the purr box. I will try to get some pictures to you in the next couple of weeks.)

Then on Tues Morris (Orange Tabby ) went to his forever home with an older couple that live in Sunriver, they got Morris to be a companion with there other cat.I got an email from them yesterday and this is what they had to say,

Hi,

Thanks very much for the photos. Buddy (his new name I think) is doing just fine. The first day was a bit stressful for him, what with the new surroundings and our other cat, and of course us, but he slept that first night through and now today is running around and playing like crazy. He's going to fit in just perfectly. When he's awake, he meows constantly!! He also sits on our laps, especially in the evening while we're watching the tube, for extended periods, and even takes naps. Thanks again. Don't hesitate to check in on us whenever you like!

Regards,

Dick & Diane.....and Buddy & Missy!!

And then on Friday Haley went to her new forever home, She was being purchased for his wife as they had no animals and his wife wanted a kittie, so she was a Valentine Present to her. Have not heard anything yet but i am sure i will.
They are truly missed buy us, but so happy that they have a good home.

So i captured all these birds in my tree .Hope everyone has a good Valentine Day

Lithuania -- More on Kalvarija Cemetery Project

More information has been posted about Ralph Salinger's project to record the information on the tombstones in the Jewish cemetery in Kalvarija, Lithuania. You can find it by clicking HERE.

Romania -- My Travel Piece in NYTimes online explore painted monasteries and Jewish cemeteries

The International Herald Tribune and NYTimes online runs my travel piece on the Bucovina region of northern Romania -- in which I write about both the painted monasteries and the Jewish cemeteries. The headline writer and photo caption writer unaccounably attributed everything to Gura Humorului, but that is just one of the places I mention in the story -- chosen as the dateline as it is the hub for two monasteries (Voronet and Humor) as well as the historic Jewish cemetery -- I posted a video of the cemetery in September.

November 7, 2009
Where Art and Faith Embrace in Gura Humorului, Romania
 
By RUTH ELLEN GRUBER

GURA HUMORULUI, ROMANIA — The Bucovina region in the far north of the country, wrote the Romanian scholar Silviu Sanie, is “one of those blessed realms where sacred and secular monuments have enriched the enchanting natural landscape. [...]”

Here are Romania’s famous painted monasteries, built in the 15th and 16th centuries when the region, a stronghold of Orthodox Christianity, was threatened by Ottoman invaders.
The vividly colored frescoes on their exterior walls, masterpieces of Byzantine painting, tell the tales of saints and heroes, and portray in epic imagery the cataclysmic struggle between good and evil at the end of days. [...]



Here, too, however, are religious sites far less known and rarely visited that also form important components of the region’s deeply rooted spiritual patrimony. These are the centuries-old Jewish cemeteries, whose weathered tombstones bear extraordinary carvings that meld folk motifs and religious iconography into evocative examples of faith expressed through art.

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Sky Watch Friday

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