Two weeks ago, I attended my Zayde’s funeral. I’ve written about him before, but Zayde was a simple and pious man. He was notorious for his fiery personality, witty one-liners, and an impeccable attention to detail which he incorporated into his life stories. Snippets from those last few months of stories are now branded family folklore: fighting for his right to be a Sabbath-observant hospital orderly; the possibility that we may have a long-lost relative in Argentina; the time he punched out a ranking army officer for saying Hitler should have “finished the job.” And then there’s the one that I was around for: At a recent family bar mitzvah, Zayde, a cantor for many years, was getting irritated. During the mussaf service, a pretty standard revue of centuries-old Shabbat prayer melodies, Zayde, hard of hearing in his old age, angrily turned to us and shouted, “Who chose these nigunim [melodies]? It sounds like an Irish wake!” Turns out it was our cousin, the bar mitzvah boy. Classic :~)
In memory of Zayde, who loved Jewish music, here’s a Jewish-Yemenite melody for havdalah that actually does sound a little like an Irish wake. Yehi Zichro Baruch.
Juicy Jews & sports news. Last week was Jewish Heritage night at the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game. This week, the 18th Maccabiah Games , a.k.a. the Jewish Olympics, are underway in Israel. Hard to keep track of scores, as the official website isn’t particularly user friendly. There is live video feed plus a Twitter feed that is really under-tweeting, in my opinion, for an event of this magnitude (The Cyclones, in contrast, are awesome tweeters). From what I’ve gathered:
- BREAKING NEWS: USA men’s basketball, led by University of Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl, just wrapped up a 112-13 potching of Mexico. On Sunday, USA youth Basketball beat Germany 96-18, including a 21-0 second quarter. Reminds me of a nasty 100-0 high school victory that caused a lot of controversy earlier this year. Should there be a mercy rule in Jewish Olympic competition? Talk amongst yourselves. Also, what was the story behind Azerbaijan’s technical forfeit to Argentina? Read More »