Category: Faith and Such

Yom Kippur went surprisingly well. Wrote my letter to G-D, read a book, took a long walk through Golden Gate Park and lit a candle at the AIDS Memorial Grove and broke fast with friends at the Mission Minyan.

For the last 11 years, I’ve spent Yom Kippur alone, reading, writing thinking. I started this tradition in 1995, where, as a miserable junior reporter for the Baltimore Jewish Times, I didn’t want to spend the day of attonement doing anything but thinking about how miserable I was. I’ve spent the day in that mold since.

But that was a long time ago. I’m developing a Jewish community here in San Francisco. I have places to go on holidays. And really, what good is having a Jewish community if I spend the holiest day of the year away from it?

At the end of the Passover service it’s customary to say “Next year in Jerusalem.” At the end of this Yom Kippur service, I’m saying “Next year in public. With friends.”

As we remember th San Francisco Earthquake of 1906…

“History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.”

—Maya Angelou

I listen (ugh) religiously to the Nextbook podcast, which is all about contemporary Jewish literature and culture. Recently they had an episode about Allan Sherman, a former television producer who later made his name writing song parodies by giving european standards Jewish American themes. His version of Frere Jacques went like this…

Sarah Jackman,
Sarah Jackman,
How’s by you? How’s by you?
How’s by you the family? How’s your sister Emily?
Still a Jew?

This was the early 1960s where you could still get away with advertising a job or an apartment as “Gentiles Only.” How to assimilate, how not to appear “too Jewish” weighed heavily on the minds of Allan Sherman and his contemporaries. Most of songs reflected the awkwardness and humor in these situations.

His most famous creation “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” has become a campfire classic. I always thought it was a Downey detergent commercial but I didn’t spend a lot of time at summer camp.

Sherman didn’t have a very happy life: failed marraiges, alcoholism, classic success gone-to-your-head story. But did create a few doopy little tunes that endure.

The whole story is here. Listen. It’s thrilling.

Did you know Mark Spitz was Jewish? Found that out to day via Nextbook. Didn’t have any idea.

No rabbis did not discuss oral sex in schul when I was a boy. But I lived in simpler times (via Jewschool).

A little about the Jewish holidays.

MP3 File

Oy, Jesus even gets a cake on his birthday. But does anybody bake for Judah Macabee? Even a nice plate of scones? Newwwwoooooooo.

Happy Holidays ya’ll. See ya on Sunday for da shards.

Just wrapping things up here before I dive under for the big fast tomorrow. See you on Sunday and may your Yom Kippur be an enlightening one.