"Rye bread, sour milk, and maybe some herring — for a poor #Jew, these were the makings of a meal. The #Jews I have in mind were residents of the small market towns, or #shtetls, once strewn across Eastern #Europe. Shtetls had their token elites, the grain and lumber brokers who ate white bread with butter. For the vast majority, however, the bread was black and there was no butter.

I’ve spent the last few years reading about these towns for Once There Was a Town, a #book I’ve written about #yizkorbooks and the world they portray. But my interest is more than academic; my father was born in one of these towns, and I’ve been hearing its stories since I was a kid.

The word #yizkor is a form of the #Hebrew verb “to remember.” Literally translated, it means “may he remember.” A #yizkorbook is a book of remembrance.

https://forward.com/culture/794263/yizkor-books-jewish-shtetls-holocaust-remembrance/

Was poking around on genealogy sites this morning filling out the bio of a minor research subject of mine (Frank Reiff, NY klezmer born in Zolkiew (Жовква), Galicia, performed for Zolkiewer landsmanshaft in NY circa 1930). Came across this fascinating chapter from a translated Yizkor book from Zolkiew, about a klezmer and a badkhn who were killed in the holocaust (do ctrl+F 'klezmer'):
https://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/Zhovkva1/files/Zolkiew.pdf

#Galicia #klezmer #Yiddish #Yizkor

Don’t think of mourning as the opposite of joy, by Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein July 31, 2024

"...The month of Av begins with deep mourning, particularly during the first nine days when we put joyous occasions on hold. The grief peaks on Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month, a day that gathers all our collective sorrows into one heavy moment. We remember...many other heartaches. The weight of our history presses down on us, demanding that we face our pain head-on.

...Joy, he says, is not merely the absence of sorrow, but the presence of a deeper connection that transcends our immediate circumstances. And in Jewish tradition, our joy is inherently collective. “The festivals as described in Deuteronomy are days of joy, precisely because they are occasions of collective celebration,” he writes. In our shared connection with God and each other, we discover a communal joy that carries us through even the toughest times..."

https://www.jta.org/2024/07/31/ideas/dont-think-of-mourning-as-the-opposite-of-joy

#Mazeldon #Jewniverse #Jewish #Yahrzeit #Yizkor