Fall 2012 @ OASIS Abq

Great Courses @ OASIS:  You know about OASIS, right?  Abq Jew has featured OASIS Albuquerque on several occasions, and lists OASIS Abq courses of Jewish interest on his Learn/FiftyPlus page.

OASIS (as stated on the organization's website) is

... a unique educational program for adults age 50-plus who want to learn, grow and explore new ideas. We promote successful aging through lifelong learning, health programs and volunteer engagement.

OASIS Albuquerque has just announced their Fall 2012 line-up of classes.

Registration is now open.

As usual, Executive Director Michael Nutkiewicz has made sure there are plenty of courses of Jewish interest.  This session's courses and instructors include:

         Women, Sexuality & the Old Testament
         Tue 18 Sep 2012 Rosh HaShanah Day 2! @ 10:30 am - #75

Instructor:  Hilary Lipka

What It Is:  How is women's sexuality treated in the Old Testament, and what can it tell us about women's sexual lives in ancient Israel? We will explore this question by considering biblical texts that address women's premarital and marital sexual behavior. We will discuss what these texts reveal about ancient Israelite expectations of women and how much sexual freedom women may have had at various stages of their lives. 

Beth Cohen & Goddess of Arno Balkan Band

Fri 12 Oct 2012 @ 10:30 am - #65

 Instructor:  Beth Cohen

 What It Is:  This musical tour of the Balkans presents an overview of traditional music from Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia, and the music of the Rom (Gypsy) people. Beth will share photos, video footage, and recordings from her travels as well as professional materials. Music will be shared in an historical/cultural perspective as well as with live demonstrations on traditional instruments by Beth and members of Goddess of Arno. 

Aesthetic Empathy: Friedl Dicker-Brandeis in Terezin
Thu 18 Oct 2012 @ 1:00 pm - #5

 Instructor:  Linney Wix

 What It Is:  This presentation documents the unique life of artist-teacher Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. She studied at the Bauhaus school of design, and adapted its approach to teaching children. Core to her teaching was "aesthetic empathy," a practice of caring for children by caring for their art and for them as artists. She was deported to Terezin, the Nazi's "model" ghetto. During her imprisonment, she taught secret art classes to children in the camp. 

Religious Diversity in America
Mon 29 Oct 2012 @ 1:00 pm - #36

 Instructor:  George Ovitt

 What It Is:  Recent events have conspired to create the impression that the US is not a nation uniquely tolerant of a great range of religious convictions. From the Virginia Declaration of Rights -- defending religious belief from government interference -- to Robert Bellah's description of America's "civil religion," the nation has encouraged religious diversity as a key component of the republican ideal. This talk will outline American religious history and the threats posed to it in today's society.

  
    The Presidency of Harry S Truman
    Wed 07 & 17 Nov 2012 @ 10:30 am - #37

 Instructor:  Noel Pugach

 What It Is:  Harry S. Truman, the thirty-third President, has become one of our most highly regarded chief executives. How did he become president, and what were his major successes and failures in domestic and foreign affairs? Truman guided the country through the strains of postwar economic conversion, labor strife and civil rights, the dropping of the atomic bomb, the Cold War, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the Korean War. 

   
    Osteoperosis: Definition, Diagnosis & Prevention
    Mon 12 Nov 2012 @ 1:00 pm - #31

 Instructor:  Keith Harvie

 What It Is:  Osteoporosis is a disease which leads to the thinning of bone tissue and loss of bone density over time. This presentation is designed to inform and educate people about the risks of developing osteoporosis. We will focus on ways to help prevent osteoporosis and improve your quality of life with exercise, vitamins, medication, and diet.

Shakespeare's Greatest Sonnets
Thu 15 Nov 2012 @ 10:30 am - #49

 Instructor:  Norma Libman

 What It Is:  When asked to describe himself, William Shakespeare said he was a poet - and with good reason. Not only is much of the dialogue in his plays excellent poetry, but he also produced at least 154 sonnets and two narrative poems. We will look at some of his best sonnets and see what they may - or may not - be able to tell us about the man himself and how he viewed his world.  

The Wit & Wisdom of Tom Lehrer
Thu 29 Nov 2012 @ 1:00 pm - #59

 Instructor:  Jane Ellen

 What It Is:  Singer-songwriter Tom Lehrer (1928- ) gained a national following in the 1950s and 60s as a piano-playing political satirist, poking fun at politicians, academia, Cold War paranoia, organized religion, and anything else that tickled his fancy. In odd non-musical moments he found time to teach at MIT, work as a researcher in Los Alamos, NM, and he supposedly invented the "jello shot." His musical career was brief but influential and his songs continue to be quoted today. 

Adam, Eve & the Garden of Eden: the Misunderstood Myth
Thu 13 Dec 2012 @ 10:30 am - #79

 Instructor:  Paul J Citrin

 What It Is:  Genesis 2 and 3 are influential texts that have shaped Jewish and Christian thinking for centuries. We will explore differences in both secular and religious interpretations, and examine how they relate to people's value systems. 

Establishment & Free Exercise: The Religion Clauses of the First Amendment
Thu 13 Dec 2012 @ 1:00 pm - #23

 Instructor:  Andrew Schultz

 What It Is:  This presentation is an overview of both the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. We will touch on the historical and theoretical underpinnings of the "religious clauses," and will look at several contemporary First Amendment issues.

Labor Day & The Painted Bird

¡Globalquerque! Update:  You may recall that Abq Jew introduced Daniel Kahn and The Painted Bird in July 2011's March of the Jobless Corps. Their music has been described as "a mixture of Klezmer, radical Yiddish song, political cabaret and punk folk."

Well, Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird are among the excellent performers at this year's

¡Globalquerque!

Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird

National Hispanic Cultural Center

Friday September 21 @ 6:00 pm

As Abq Jew points out on his Go Do page: This is not going to be your traditional Shabbos. But it could be entertaining, politically worthwhile, and religiously meaningful.

Oy, politics and religion. By Friday September 21 it will no longer be Labor Day - it will be erev Shabbos Shuvah, the Sabbath of Repentance. How appropriate! But it is Labor Day today, so let's celebrate what labor - unions! - have done for us.

Union! Abq Jew seldom gets political, but his grandfather alav hashalom was a Wobbly. And his great-grandfather zichrono l'bracha (for whom he was named, aka Popsy) was a union organizer. So Abq Jew plans to vote with the Democrats this fall and urges you to do the same.

This is despite the moving story of Republican challenger Mitt Romney's amazing rise from the boulevards - a story that inspires millionaires everywhere. In fact, Move On has produced a poignant video, The Man from Bloomfield Hills, to show just how much Mitt is - hey, just like you & Abq Jew!

Wait a minute! Abq Jew hears you cry. Mitt Romney has an economic plan that will solve all his our problems and get him us back on the road to prosperity!  OK - Mitt hasn't actually presented a plan, but rumor has it that Mitt thinks Paul Ryan's plan (which he borrowed from Ayn Rand) is pretty good!

Not so fast! Robert Reich points out. Here is what Paul Ryan's economic plan actually means. And it's not good for Abq Jew, and it's probably not good for you.

Too serious for an American holiday? OK, then - just thank organized labor and enjoy

March of the Jobless Corps

Original Yiddish song by Mordechai Gebirtig, written ca. 1930 in Krakow
English by Daniel Kahn, 2009. Arrangement by Michael Winograd/Jake Shulman-Ment
Instrumental, "Nifty's Freylakh" by Naftule Brandwein

Rabbi Min on Rodef Shalom

Pursue Peace - Basic Jewish Value #5:  The mission statement of Jewish Family Service of New Mexico reads: “Guided by Jewish values, we offer targeted social services that help preserve and improve the quality of life for New Mexicans.” What are these Jewish values? How do they help guide the day-to-day work that we do at JFS? When new employees join the staff of JFS, they are introduced to eighteen of these basic Jewish values.

The fifth value on the JFS list of Eighteen Basic Jewish Values is "Rodef Shalom," often translated as "Pursue Peace." In the context of helping people in need, the question is "what does 'peace' mean?"

In the core meaning of the Hebrew, "shalom" refers to wholeness or completion, NOT the absence of war! A peaceful life, for the clients of JFS, implies easing the stresses of life.

For many of our elderly clients, knowing that there is a safe, reliable, and friendly Senior Transportation program eases the stress of getting to the doctor's appointment.

For many of the clients of our Food Pantry clients, the opportunity to get a distribution of food appropriate to their family size and configuration helps decrease the tension of trying to make scarce financial resources stretch to feed the family.

For our Health and Wellness clients, programs like MyCD (Manage Your Chronic Disease) increase their ability to self manage the symptoms of their diseases, resulting in more confidence and fewer symptoms.

Pursuing peace does not mean avoiding war, but improving the quality of the lives of our clients, helping make their lives more whole.

Blue Moon

Of Kentucky and Beyond: The next Blue Moon, the website EarthSky.org informs us, will appear on August 31. Hey - that's tonight!

According to modern folklore, a Blue Moon is the second full moon of a calendar month.

August 2012 is a month with two full moons. And, by popular acclaim, that means it’s a Blue Moon month – but it’s Blue in name only. That’s because a Blue Moon is sometimes defined as the second full moon in a calendar month. The first full moon is August 1. The second full moon is August 31, 2012.

There are two more definitions for Blue Moon. It can be the third of four full moons in a single season. Or, someday, you might see an actual blue-colored moon.

Our old friend Wikipedia tells us way more than we want or need to know:

A blue moon can refer to the third full moon in a season with four full moons. Most years have twelve full moons that occur approximately monthly. In addition to those twelve full lunar cycles, each solar calendar year contains roughly eleven days more than the lunar year of 12 lunations. The extra days accumulate, so every two or three years (7 times in the 19-year Metonic cycle), there is an extra full moon. Lunisolar calendars have rules about when to insert such an intercalary or embolismic ("leap") month, and what name it is given; e.g. in the Hebrew calendar the month Adar is duplicated. The term "blue moon" comes from folklore. Different traditions and conventions place the extra "blue" full moon at different times in the year. In the Hindu calender, this extra month is called 'Adhik(extra) masa (month)'. It is also known as purushottam maas, so as to give it a devotional name.

• In calculating the dates for Lent and Easter, the Clergy identify the Lent Moon. It is thought that historically when the moon's timing was too early, they named an earlier moon as a "betrayer moon" (belewe moon), thus the Lent moon came at its expected time.
• Folklore gave each moon a name according to its time of year. A moon that came too early had no folk name, and was called a blue moon, retaining the correct seasonal timings for future moons.
• The Farmers' Almanac defined blue moon as an extra full moon that occurred in a season; one season was normally three full moons. If a season had four full moons, then the third full moon was named a blue moon.

A "blue moon" is also used colloquially to mean "a rare event", reflected in the phrase "once in a blue moon".

Fascinating, eh what?

Delving further in the annals of folklore - Bill Monroe gave us the High Lonesome version of Blue Moon of Kentucky.

Blue Moon of Kentucky, keep on shining
Shine on the one that's gone and left me blue 
 

Not to be outdone
(Bill Monroe was the Father (of Bluegrass),
but Elvis was and is the King), Elvis produced
his own version of Blue Moon of Kentucky.

Are there, Abq Jew cannot help but wonder, no Blue Moons other than in the state of Kentucky? How about us here in the Land of Enchantment! What are we - chopped liver (which Abq Jew & mishpocha once again enjoyed tremendously at Ben's Kosher Deli)?

But Abq Jew knows with 100% certainty that you, his readers, don't give a fig about Mr Monroe or Elvis or Kentucky. The only song about Blue Moons you care about is the 1961 hit by The Marcels, which begins with the everlastingly eternal lyrics

Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba ba ba ba ba dang a dang dang
Ding a dong ding

So when you go to or come home from shul or wherever tonight, be sure to look up at the sky and enjoy. After all, this only comes around ... well, you know.

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Shabbat Shalom, Albuquerque!

Good Shabbos, New Mexico!