I saw this painted on a storefront window.
Community, United We Stand.
With all the polarization these days, is this still true?
Unity is literally built into Comm-unity.
Divided, we tear each other apart.
Instead, we could accomplish so much together. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
There is too much violence in the world.
Physical violence.
Verbal violence.
Emotional violence.
When there aren’t body sores.
There are emotional and mental ones.
So much suffering.
The silent masses.
Their doors close.
But behind them.
And outside.
In the chaos of the streets and on the subways.
You can see it in the eyes.
And hear it in their voices.
Maybe they are black and blue.
The people are troubled.
The world is insane.
The children are especially innocent.
The weak at the hands of the strong.
Anarchy reigns where G-dliness is absent.
Why? Why? Why?
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
This picture about sums where we are in having to protest the same things we’ve been fighting for since the beginning of time:
I can not believe I still have to protest this crap!!
Just went you thought humanity (at least Western civilization) had mostly evolved past all the discrimination, biases, bigotry, prejudice, and racisms.
We arrive in time only to find out that HATE is still brewing in our societies and people’s evil hearts.
What a shame–that we misinterpret what divides us as taking precedence over what unites us!
What a pity–that we misjudge people by the color of their skin, their race, their religion, etc. instead of by the worthiness of their deeds.
What a disgrace–that we mistreat our fellow man simply because they are different from us and in the most superficial of ways.
With all our scientific advances and technological progress, we are still in stone ages of the evolution of our humanity. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Just a self-reflection today…
Important to me.
It’s about who I thought I was and…
Who I became.
Truly, I went full circle from a child’s hate to an adult’s love relationship with:
– Reading
– Writing
– Swimming
– Hebrew
As a kid, I tried to avoid these like the plague, and as an adult I like to practice these every single day of my life.
I wonder to myself is it that I strove to become good (or decent) at what I have previously been bad at or was somehow afraid of.
Yet now, they are integral to my life, learning, and growth.
Like the hands of a clock that circle and tick the hours and minutes.
My life takes me full circle and brings me home to who I am and what I really love spending time at. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Does anyone get this sign from the Pro-Life rally last week?
Pro-Life is Pro-Hate
But equating Pro-Life with hate doesn’t add up.
It actually seems the opposite that if you want to sanctify and protect life that you are loving people, not hating.
Sometimes to make a point, people will just say anything.
It’s related to “gaslighting” where they want to manipulate you into questioning your own beliefs, values, and sanity.
Perhaps, throwing around terms like hate just dilutes the real meaning of it similar to making other false accusations against people.
We need to argue the issues, and not attack each other. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Uncut Gems Cuts Deep.”
Yesterday, we went to see the new Adam Sandler movie, Uncut Gems….Ratner’s life is full of shlemazel of his own making. While he has a good wife, kids, and extended family (maybe with the exception of his loan shark uncle), a fancy-schmancy home in the suburbs with a newly renovated pool, his own jewelry business that even caters to some big-league sports players, and a shiksa girlfriend on the side (who seems to love him), Ratner is never satisfied or happy and is always pushing for more!
In the movie, Howard Ratner was driven by greed and made bad life choices, and to me, it was a shame that the he was portrayed as a Jew, which can feed the vicious cycle of discrimination and hatred that has often been anchored around money. With the vicious machete attack on Chanukah at a Rabbi’s house in Monsey this week (after a slew of other anti-Semitic incidents, including an attack on a student for wearing a yalmulke on the NYC Subway to beatings and tire slashings of Jews in Brooklyn), we are reminded that there is once again a resurgence of prejudice and hate against Jews, but also that it’s the light of Chanukah that “drives out the darkness,” and that money and materialism are a mere shabby substitute to finding true security and success whether you work in the dense NYC Diamond District or live in the sprawling suburbs of America.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Celebrating With Security.”
Take a look around you at the new security measures and people risking their lives for yours and your family. Take a moment to thank them. But also, recognize that the security isn’t there just for show, it’s there because the hatred and threats have tangibly increased along with the ever present means to carry them out. It is critical that we continue our vigilance and the strengthening of our security measures, because those that hate us for who we are and for our faith are not going away, and unfortunately, they may even continue to grow in numbers and resolve. However, none of us should live in fear and be forced to stay away from our religious institutions, our Torah study, and prayer, but rather to the contrary, we need to stand up strongly–in defiance and in faith!
While I don’t know what specific security measures we will see next Rosh Hashanah, I can say with almost absolute certainty that it will be more and not less and that you should definitely be taking notice.
(Image by Robert-Owen-Wahl from Pixabay)
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “I Pray For The Day.”
While I am a staunch supporter for the security of Israel, I pray for the day (a miracle) when Jews and Arabs can be brothers again–shoulder to shoulder–that embrace and help each other, rather than enemies “at each others’ throats.”
In my mind and heart, there has got to come a time when the hatred and violence ends, and when instead peace can and will prevail. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Thought this was a pretty scary mannequin.
Aside from the disheveled hair covering her head and half her face.
You can see that her mouth and nose is taped over with clear masking tape!
Clearly she looks like she has been abused or worse, and the image is that she can’t even scream for help.
Why anyone would advertise women’s fashion in this misogynist way should be beyond all of us.
There are a lot of crazy nuts out there.
This photo is a small reminder of what we face in terms of ugliness in this world.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
In Remembrance of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Observance) today:
This is a beautiful Hebrew song about Anne Frank who at age 13 went into hiding in Amsterdam from the Nazis.
For two years, they stayed in the attic…not being able to make a sound or open a window.
But she kept an amazing diary that preserves for us the life and suffering they went through.
After 761 days, they were discovered and Anne Frank was was sent to Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
Anne and her sister Margot died in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.
This child was beautiful and her story lives to remind us of the evil that we face and the survival that we all must. 😉
___
Song:
Anne Frank’s Diary
Lyrics:
A book hides me.
And what, what a fear.
My father, my mother and my sister,
With the neighbors together.
We are all in silence and quiet,
With only the heart whispering whispers.
Here they hide from the soldiers,
Which our soul seeks.
My diary, my precious,
Oh Kitty, my friend.
Will I ever see a sunrise?
Will I find my death?
In the tiny rooms, From a suffocating feeling.
Cold days and clouds.
Nights of terror and silence.
It’s not true, it’s not right,
I want to laugh out loud.
Dance, sing and play,
I’m a child, all in all.
My diary, my precious …
There are terrible moments,
In our relations.
So crowded here in the apartment, Everything is closing in on us.
Food is also very lacking, The war within the city.
Will I live? Will I survive?
Do you still love and sing?
My diary, my precious …
andyblumenthal