Watery Wednesday / Canals around Bend

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Empty Now but will start flowing again soon.
Established in 1918, the Central Oregon Irrigation District ("COID") is a quasi Municipal Corporation of the State of Oregon.

The system consists of two main canals: the Pilot Butte Canal, which runs north, through Bend, Redmond and Terrebonne; and the Central Oregon Canal, which runs east, through Bend, Alfalfa and Powell Butte. Both canals divert water from the Deschutes River.

The District provides water for about 45,000 acres within an 180,000 acre area in Central Oregon. More than 700 miles of canals provide agricultural and industrial water to the Terrebonne, Redmond, Bend, Alfalfa and Powell Butte areas. In addition, COID provides water to the City of Redmond and numerous subdivisions; in Bend, many parks and schools receive water through the COID system.

In 1989, COID commissioned and completed the Siphon Power Project. Profits from the power plant will be returned to the District to be used for capital improvements to make our distribution system more efficient.

In addition, the COID is the managing partner in the operation of the 55,000 acre foot Crane Prairie Reservoir, located on the east side of the Central Cascades.



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Itineraries: do you use them when you travel? Or do you simply create your own?

Do you use itineraries when you travel? Do you rip out those '48 Hours In...' or '3 Perfect Days in...' pages from travel magazines and newspapers when one catches your eye? Do they end up staying at home lost among your paperwork or do you slip them into your guidebook and take them with you when you go some place? And when you get there, do you actually use them? And what about guidebook itineraries? All travel guidebooks feature them these days; I've just written a bunch myself. They're either organized by duration ("one day in Milan", "weekend at the Lakes" etc) or by theme, with sights and activities suggested by subject or interest, such as "'3 days of food and wine in The Veneto". You get the idea. I'm curious to find out who uses itineraries and how you use them. Or do you simply make up your own? We met a couple of Italian travellers in Australia last year and the woman methodically underlined sights in her guidebook and then wrote out day-to-day itineraries. Her boyfriend was happy for her to do although he didn't seem to mind either way. My interest is partly motivated by comments from readers, in particular Sarah, who in response to my post on casual tourism wrote: "My other half is definitely a casual tourist! Which drives me slightly nuts... I like to plan to ensure I don't miss anything. On our last two holidays, I'm there with the map and the tourist book and he's just like... "can't we just wander around and see where we end up?!" Argh!" I'm interested in hearing from planners like Sarah to find out if you use itineraries and how you use them - what do you do if they're not working for you, say, if you don't like the author's choices, or order of selection, or if there's too much to do on one day? Do you abandon them and create your own? If you're an itinerary user, I'd love to hear from you.

Mellow Yellow Monday

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This is my grandson Hudson, i think he was having fun on that 4 wheeler

I took this photo from my tv screen a few months back.
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Jewish Heritage Travel -- in Hungarian!

I've just found out that a Hungarian translation of Jewish Heritage Travel: A Guide to Eastern Europe will be coming out at the end of the summer, published by the National Geographic affiliate in Hungary.

I met with the translator this morning, at the "BarLadino," one of the trendy new cafes in Bpest's Seventh District Jewish quarter... He tells me that the launch is planned for the annual Jewish Culture Festival held in Budapest at the beginning of September, with maybe further events in the pipeline.

Budapest -- Bob Cohen, Lipot Baumhorn and the Main Jewish Cemetery

A tomb designed by Lipot Baumhorn in the Kozma utca cemetery. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Bob Cohen, whose blog (Dumneazu) I've linked to several times in the past, has a post about his first visit to the main Jewish cemetery in Budapest, the enormously huge cemetery on Kozma utca at the end of the 37 tram.

Bob himself finds it astonishing that in all his years in Bp, he has never visited there before -- in fact, I find it astonishing, too, given all the time in past years that I myself have spent there.

Tomb designed by Odon Lechner and Bela Lajta. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The cemetery figures prominently in two of my books, Jewish Heritage Travel, of course, but also in Upon the Doorposts of Thy House: Jewish Life in East-Central Europe, Yesterday and Today, which came out in 1994.

When I first visited, some 20 years ago, the cemetery was pretty much a wilderness -- most of it was overgrown with ivy, saplings, weeds, bushes. Only the very front part was cleared.

My most memorable experience came when I was researching "Doorposts" -- and Ed Serotta accompanied me there to try to find the grave of Lipot Baumhorn, the great synagogue architect, who died in 1932.

I recount the full story in "Doorposts" -- going to the office of the cemetery, having the man there riffle through endless index cards (nowadays the records are computerized) to find the plot. Then following him around the cemetery (first going in the wrong direction) until we found the proper plot -- but no stone, just a huge clump of trees. Then I looked closer and saw that the trees were actually a thick mass of ivy, covering one stone, and I made out a few letters -- it was, in fact Baumhorn's gravestone.

Ed and I ripped away the ivy, uncovering the stone: it was a very emotional experience. On the stone's face was a list of synagogues that Baumhorn had designed or remodeled... at the top was a bas relief of his masterpiece, the dome of the synagogue in Szeged. Then, there was an epitaph written in highly complex, poetic language by the great Rabbi of Szeged, Immanuel Löw, about how he sought synagogues in heaven.... I took the Hungarian original to a series of friends around the city who put together different translations of the difficult lines.

This is the way that the architect and architectural historian Janos Gerle rendered the poem:

Our inspired artist: His inspiration and heart gave birth
To the lines of synagogues that look toward heaven and awaken piety.
Above his peaceful home hovered devotion;
The soul of a father and husband gave birth of heaven-seeking consolation.

In Szolnok, outside the LB synagogue, 2006

Camera Critters/ New Babies

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Todays Flower is posted below this

As i posted last week i said i was going to add photos of the new babies that were brought to me last week, so here are the 4 cuties that i have.
As some of you may have read, we lost our 23 yr old TC on Friday, I want to thank all that left there condolences. After i got back home from the vets with having to deal with her, i came home to one of the black babies laying totally still, she was not doing well at all. It scared the heck out of me as she was fine when i left. To make a long story short, when CRAFT was contacted about these kitties they had no idea how long the babies had been without food and there momma as she was run over. The people didn't know how to raise baby kittens..... so they gave them cold milk, also they didn't know that you have to wipe there little bottoms to make them potty. Well we weren't sure what the problem was, but she also ended up having a convulsion, so i gave her Karo syrup to get some sugar in her system. All i kept thinking is i can't loose two cats in one day. Anyway baby kittens can dehydrate very quickly, so i gave her sugar water every 30 minutes just to keep the fluids in her. Laurel came by and brought me different milk as we also thought maybe the can dry food may be tainted as it was a milk product, and the gal that had brought it to feed Sammy's babies had it for a while. Anyway we both didn't think she would make it thru the night. But as i continued to feed every 30 minutes i went back out to feed at 2 am and by golly that little girl was sitting up and giving me the water for and wanting food.I could not believe that she made it, what a little fighter she was. She also is the smallest of them all,which is why she was effected first, as now the others have taken there turn in being sick although now we sort of know what to treat, so they are on antibiotics hopefully will get better. Boy they sure have gone through a rough time. And i was in real need of some sleep last night. This little orange cat was the second to come down with it. But last night she finally came around and wanted to eat.



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Viewmate search tool

I want to draw attention to the Viewmate search tool on the JewishGen.org site. It's more related to genealogy and family history research than to travel, but those interested in Jewish heritage in general may find it worth looking at (or using).

Users can upload photos, documents and other material to ask other users to help with translations, photo identification and other queries.

I didn't upload anything (though I'm tempted to upload some tombstone epitaphs to ask for help with translations), and you have to register to get replies or reply. But there are some fascinating images just to browse.

Today Flower / Yucca Plant


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This is my sick looking Yucca Plant, i really need to move it, It needs sun and not so much water, I don't remember if it bloomed last yr or not, for one it was overgrown with all that Ivy and also branches from the tree.

How To Visit Bavaria

Do you like to visit Bavaria? What is it?

"is a region located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest state of Germany by area" (Wikipedia)

I would like to visit this Land and this is one of my dreams. Why? Look at the pictures here:

улица в Партенкирхене
«улица в Партенкирхене» на Яндекс.Фотках

Нюрнберг
«Нюрнберг» на Яндекс.Фотках

Замок Хоэншвангау
«Замок Хоэншвангау» на Яндекс.Фотках

But you don't need to go too far if you want it very much. It will be enough to visit Bastia Umbra where we were yesterday and partecipate on the presentation of the Bavarese beer. There were different and very pictorial groups of Bavarians and even a band of musucists. And everybody could buy real Bavarese beer and drink it (testimonial on the left of the second photo).

Now you know what have you do to visit Bavaria.

Ukraine -- On the Road and Off the Beaten Track

My latest travel column for centropa.org recounts a road trip in western Ukraine in November with Sergey Kravtsov and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett... I posted bits and piece about this on this blog at the time.

by Ruth Ellen Gruber

On an overcast afternoon not long ago, two friends and I found ourselves plodding to and fro amid a forest of crooked gravestones in the centuries-old Jewish cemetery in Bolekhiv, a small town in western Ukraine south of L'viv.We were on a sort of pilgrimage, methodically pushing through weeds and peering closely at eroding epitaphs, trying to find the tomb of a man we knew had been buried there more than 200 years earlier.Dov Ber Birkenthal, an intrepid wine merchant and Jewish community leader, had been born in Bolekhiv -- known in Polish as Bolechow -- in 1723 and died there in 1805.His tombstone, I knew, bore an epitaph that paid tribute to a long, busy and eventful life -- it summed him up as "the learned, the renowned leader, the open-handed, the aged."

Birkenthal, generally referred to as Ber of Bolechow, has been one of my heroes since I was introduced to him through his remarkable autobiography more than 15 years ago. Ber is believed to have written his memoirs in 1799 or 1800, five years or so before his death. He described everything from local political and religious intrigue to how he drove hard business deals and suffered on the road during arduous wine-buying journeys to Hungary. He wrote of customs duties, currency fraud, and drunken wagon drivers; of icy rivers, double-dealing business partners, flea-ridden inns, and occasional attacks by roving bandits. One long, dramatic passage describes how bandits attacked Bolechow itself in 1759, robbing and looting, killing several people, and setting homes on fire. Some local residents gave as good as they got -- the town's wealthiest Jew, a man called Nachman, held off the attackers with a blazing firearm in each fist. Business was Ber's primary concern. But he also touched on his failed first marriage and the love he found with his second wife, Leah; the pride he felt in his children; his friendships with other Jews and non-Jews; and his passion for books and prowess in half a dozen languages. Ber, "was a remarkable man," wrote Daniel Mendelsohn in his best-selling 2006 book The Lost: a Search for Six of the Six Million, which describes Mendelsohn's quest to learn the fate of his own relatives from Bolekhiv who were killed in the Holocaust. "Ber was the son of a forward-thinking, broad-minded wine merchant who encouraged his son's precocious intellectual appetites from his earliest childhood -- even allowing the boy to study Greek and Latin with the local Catholic priests, an unheard of thing," he wrote. The precocious boy, Mendelsohn went on, "grew up to be a precocious man: a successful wine merchant but also a scholar of enormous breadth and depth, a man who could read easily in Polish and German and Italian, as well as in Hebrew and Greek and Latin." He was, he concluded, "a man who exemplified the liberal, worldly energies that helped to create the Haskalah, the great Jewish Enlightenment movement." I had been to Bolekhiv once before, in 2006, when I was researching the latest edition of my book, National Geographic Jewish Heritage Travel: A Guide to Eastern Europe.

On that visit, too, I had prowled through the cemetery trying to find Ber's grave. "Dov" (in Hebrew) and "Ber" (in Yiddish) both mean "Bear," and I did indeed discover a tombstone of someone named Dov Ber that was decorated with a particularly vivid carving of a bear and bunches of grapes, indicating involvement of the deceased in the wine trade.

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In Loving Memory of our Beloved TC

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster. You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...

1986 - 2009

 
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She loved to travel with us in our motor home, and always thought that top bunk was hers, She will be missed so much.But she had one terrific long life, and she fought for every day she had left.

RUTHLESS COSMOPOLITAN at the Bratislava seminar

Synagogue in Sarmorin, the At Home Gallery, 2009. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

My latest Ruthless Cosmopolitan column is from the milestone Bratislava seminar on the care, conservation and maintenance of historic Jewish property.

March 26, 2009

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (JTA) – The restitution of Jewish communal property in Central and Eastern Europe has been a hot-button issue since the Iron Curtain fell nearly 20 years ago.

But often forgotten amid the slow and painful legal battles to get back historic Jewish properties that were seized by the Nazis or nationalized by postwar Communist regimes is the practical and urgent need to care for, conserve and maintain the properties once they’ve been recovered.

For two decades and more, I've documented, written about and photographed these sites, which include many yeshivas and synagogues.

Many are huge. Many are dilapidated. Some are recognized as historic monuments. Most stand in towns where few, if any, Jews now live. Even basic maintenance can stretch already strapped communal resources.

In March, I joined Jewish community representatives from 15 countries who gathered to address these concerns at a seminar held in the Slovak capital, Bratislava.

The aim of the meeting was to foster networking and cross-border consultation and spark creative strategic thinking. Many participants had never met before and had little awareness of how colleagues in other countries were confronting similar challenges. Some knew little about the variety of Jewish heritage sites in other countries.

The meeting dealt with issues ranging from fundraising to roof repair to what Jewish law says about synagogue re-use.

During the seminar, which was organized by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the International Survey of Jewish Monuments and the Slovak Jewish Heritage Center, we visited several sites in the Bratislava area to see how some best-practice solutions had been implemented.

One was the former synagogue in Samorin, a small town southeast of Bratislava, built in 1912.

Back in the early 1990s, it was a derelict shell standing silent and empty on the outskirts of the shabby city center. Its lonely position and crumbling façade underscored its poignancy as a surviving relic of the devastated past.

Since then, it has undergone a dramatic transformation.

Owned by the Union of Slovak Jewish Communities, it is now held on a long-term lease by a couple who took over the building in 1995, restored it and transformed it into the At Home Gallery, a center for contemporary art.

The synagogue is used for cultural purposes aimed at the public at large. It even once hosted the Dalai Lama.

It also now forms part of a new tourism and educational trail called the Slovak Route of Jewish Heritage, which links about 20 historic Jewish sites around the country.

In restoring the building, Csaba Kiss and his Canadian-born wife, Suzanne, deliberately chose to retain evidence that the interior had been desecrated. The walls still bear painted decoration, but the paintings are faded and patchy; they have not been retouched or prettied up.

"Our idea was not to touch the walls," Kiss once told me. "They have memories; we can see them. It's special."

At the seminar's conclusion, participants agreed on a set of pragmatic guidelines with best-practice principles and procedures for the Jewish properties.

Jewish heritage, the guidelines state, "is the legacy of all aspects of Jewish history – religious and secular." At the same time, "Jewish history and art are part of every nation’s history and art. Jewish heritage is part of national heritage, too."

These assertions may appear to state the obvious, but given contentious internal Jewish politics and the taboos and prejudice that historically applied to Jewish culture in Europe, they actually articulate crucial basic concepts. And the guidelines as a whole, while non-binding, represent a milestone when it comes to restituted Jewish properties.

Addressing a frequently heard criticism of Jewish communal management style, the guidelines state, "Honesty and transparency are Jewish values and should be especially apparent in the handling of all matters concerning Jewish property." The guidelines urge detailed documentation of Jewish communal properties and heritage sites and underscore the need for openness and collaboration among Jewish and non-Jewish institutions.

Will these guidelines be followed? Probably not to the letter. Financial considerations, legal obstacles, local conditions and human nature, among other things, prevent adherence to ideals.

Still, they form a framework that can influence practice and, perhaps, finally bring these sites the maintenance and preservation they – and the Jewish people – need.

Belarus -- Kobrin Synagogue in Danger

Sam Gruber has begun posting material from the Bratislava Jewish heritage seminar, and probably will provide more detail -- or at least different detail -- than I am posting... after all, he was one of the organizers of the meeting.

At the seminar, he was able to speak at length with Bella Velikovskaja, of the Jewish Heritage Research Group in Belarus (and the Union of Jewish Religious Communities) about the serious threats to the former synagogue in Kobrin, a monumental structure built in 1868 which was restituted back to the Jewish commuity in 2004. The building was used for grain storage and a beverage-production plant after World War II. The government threatens to take back the building unless restoration work begins -- and funds are short.

Sam writes:
The situation at Kobrin is now urgent, because the government which returned the large 19th-century masonry synagogue to the Jewish community in 2004 threatens to take it back unless restoration work begins. This is a situation that is also becoming common in Poland. After holding Jewish properties for a half century or more and letting them deteriorate into near-ruins, they are returned to communities - but without any financial assistance to restore them. Communities must not only quickly find a use for the building, but also the funds to make them work. Sometimes years pass and nothing happens. Sometimes governments demand quick action. I frequently say the situation is similar to being asked to make soup. One is given the carrots and potatoes, but not pot to cook them in, and sometimes not even a fire. Consequently communities are overburdened. In Belarus, there is a real plan for Kobrin. But there is not enough money. And the government threatens to take the building back if nothing happens soon.

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PL and CZ -- Useful Travel Web Sites

Pilsen synagogue. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The number of web sites with Jewish-related travel information is growing and impossible to keep up with (at least for me).

I keep adding links to my lists here on this blog, but I also want to flag some web sites in posts.

Two useful sites are the Krakow-based Polin Travel and Jewish Route in the Czech Republic's Pilsen Region.

Polin Travel is the site of a private guide and genealogy service, but the web site provides a lot of background and other information, including links -- but I do wish the photographs had captions.

Jewish Route in the Pilsen Region provides background information and photogalleries on a number of sites, as well as hotel and restaurant lists and other material.

Are you a casual tourist? Or traveller. The key word being 'casual'.

Leaving the traveller versus tourist debate aside, what kind of tourist/traveller are you? Would you consider yourself to be a 'casual tourist'? Or a 'casual traveller' if you object to being called a tourist at all? While my husband Terry was cooking dinner one evening in the big country kitchen my uncle and aunt have here in Bendigo, Australia, where we're staying while we write some books, we were dissecting a couple of trips they recently did to Spain last year and Mexico a couple of months ago. I'd asked Uncle George if they went to the Frida Kahlo museum in Mexico City as I'd suggested. They have a gorgeous garden here - a wild wonderful garden that's a cross between a romantic 'English cottage'-inspired gardens and something you'd see at a Russian dacha in a Tarkovsky film (there's a mini Birch forest) - plus my uncle's an artist and my aunt's very creative when it comes to interior design so I thought they might appreciate Frida Kahlo's garden and house. But they didn't go. In fact they didn't go to a lot of places I'd recommended. But they assured me they still had a great time. Flabbergasted, I asked: "But what did you actually *do*?" "Well, we just walked," my uncle replied, with a shrug of his shoulders and roll of his eyes, "We did a bit of this, a bit of that... we like to walk." I'm guessing the look on my face must have been one of dismay, but still somewhat enquiring, because then he declared - after swallowing a glass of wine (not that I'm suggesting he needed guts to tell me this - but maybe he did!) - "I think I'm a casual tourist..." "Uh-hah!" and I quickly splashed some more wine in my own glass. And so, over a bottle of wine, and Terry's preparation of another very fine meal, we developed a theory... my uncle's idea of travel can be described as 'casual tourism'. The way he likes to travel is very low key and laidback. He likes to explore, but he doesn't like to do much planning or preparation, and certainly doesn't want his day crammed with sightseeing. In fact, when he arrives he doesn't like to *do* much at all. But he's not the kind to lie on a beach and do completely nothing. He wants to experience a place, and the more atmospheric it is the better. For instance, Jerusalem is a favorite. But he and my aunt like to wander around a bit, see a sight perhaps, maybe do a short tour, eat some lunch some place, but it doesn't have to be very spectacular at all - they certainly don't feel obliged to base their choice on reviews. Then they'll do some more walking, perhaps browse in a shop, stop for a drink and a nibble at a cafe... and so it goes. They don't have tremendous expectations, and so they're not terribly disappointed either. They just seem to appreciate a place for what it is. Wandering around, walking the streets, taking in the vibe... that's their idea of a good time. And actually, when I'm not working on a travel book, that's mine too. Oh, except the bit about the restaurants of course. So, what do you think? Are you a casual tourist? Or casual traveller?

Sky Watch Friday/Moon Hanging

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Looks like the moon is hanging from the electrical line.
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Watery Wednesday/ More babies

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And so last night i got another call from CRAFT the no kill cattery shelter. And Laurel said i hate to ask you this BUT, we have 4 babies that need fostering because momma cat got run over. Of course i can't refuse, so here are the cute little ones. I will be posting there cute faces on Sat for Camera Critters that Misty Hosts, Click on the side bar and join her fun group if you like to share your cute furry kids, Or not so furry critters.

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Romania -- Agreement to Restore Zion Synagogue

Zion Synagogue, 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Livia Chereches, whom I met at the recent seminar on managing historic Jewish property in Bratislava, has written with exciting news. The landmark Zion synagogue in Oradea, Romania, is going to (finally) undergo restoration.

A grandiose Neolog temple with a soaring dome, the synagogue is a city landmark that towers over the Cris river. Built in 1878, it was designed by David Busch, the town's chief municipal architect. Its interior features columns, arches, and vaulting decorated by geometric designs (painted by Mor Horovitz from Kosice). The Ark is framed by an elaborate arch and surmounted by a pipe organ.

Interior of Zion Synagogue, 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Livia writes that under an agreement signed by the President of the Jewish Community Oradea, Felix Koppelmann, and the mayor of Oradea, the town will assume control of the synagogue and use it for exhibitions and other cultural purposes, but on occasion it will also be used by the Jewish community for religious purposes.

This year the municipality will renovate the exterior of the building, and meanwhile European Union funding will be sought for the interior. What's more, a planned high-rise parking lot, that developers wanted to build in front of the synagogue, will now be built underground so that the striking view of the synagogue will be left free.

"This seems to be a happy end to a long story with unsuccessful attempts to save the Jewel of the town of Oradea," writes Livia.

Oradea, which has a Jewish community today numbering about 500 members, has about four other synagogues. Two are in the Jewish community compound (one in use and one closed for hoped-for renovation) and two have been converted for other use.

Poland -- What to do with Auschwitz

Auschwitz Gate, 2005. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The directors of the museum/memorial at Auschwitz and the Polish government have issued urgent calls recently for aid to conserve the crumbling infrastructure of the most notorious Nazi death camp. Auschwitz attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, but its buildings, exhibitions and archives are -- literally -- falling to pieces.

The National Post runs an article dealing with the architecture of Auschwitz and the architecture of tourism there. It is a interview with Robert Jan van Pelt, a professor at Ontario's University of Waterloo who has studied the architecture of the death camp, and particularly that of its cremetoria.

Given the lack of resources and the inevitable decay, Prof. van Pelt said one solution quickly emerges. What he says next is stripped of sentimentality but not of respect.

"Most people talk about the future of Auschwitz very emotionally without actually having any knowledge about it and without actually having any grasp of the incredibly contradictory nature of the site in terms of preservation and management.

"I say they should maybe allow Birkenau to be surrendered to nature - which does not mean putting condos on it but simply seal off the site and we allow nature to take over in a kind of symbolic gesture that humanity failed so terribly there that we now give it over to the cockroaches and grass and whatever. They haven't screwed up as badly as we have."

He adds an important caveat: It should not be done as long as there are survivors who may wish a return visit to the site. (He, himself, had a Jewish uncle who died in Auschwitz; he was named after him.)

"People will have to make choices... let us at least make a distinction between what is critical for us, what is important for us and what is merely significant.

"In Auschwitz they were restoring the sewer works of the camps not because it was the most important but because it was the only thing that was not contested.

"Because whatever you do in Auschwitz someone will say that you made the wrong choice."

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Italy -- Medieval Jewish Cemetery in Terni Remembered

An Italian news source reports that a plaque is going to be unveiled this week marking the site of the medieval Jewish cemetery in Terni, a city in central Italy's Umbria region. Not only that, there will be a little seminar about medieval Jewish history in Umbria. (Typically, the web site running the story illustrates it with a picture of the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague!)

Una lapide in ricordo del cimitero ebraico medievale di Terni sarà scoperta giovedì 26 marzo nel parco Ciaurro, sotto le mura della Passeggiata. Alla cerimonia, che avrà inizio alle ore 16, prenderanno parte il sindaco Paolo Raffaelli, il rabbino capo della comunità ebraica di Roma Riccardo Di Segni, il vescovo di Terni Vincenzo Paglia.

La lapide sarà apposta sulle mura, all'interno del parco nei pressi dell'ingresso dal largo Atleti Azzurri d'Italia ed è stata fatta realizzare a cura dell'ufficio toponomastica del Comune di Terni con la forma delle lapidi dei cimiteri ebraici. Riporterà la scritta: "Qui si trovava il cimitero ebraico che questa terra accolse nel tardo medioevo" in italiano e in caratteri ebraici.

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Umbria -- Terni province in particular -- is where I have a house and spend a good chunk of my time. There may be a few dozen Jews in Terni province today... when my extended family is there, we probably make up the largest "Jewish community." Passover is coming soon, and I'm already thinking of where to scrape up people to come to the seder....

There was never a huge Jewish population in Umbria, which was part of the Papal States -- maybe 500 people at its peak in the 14th to 16th centuries. But in the middle ages, there were a number of active communities, most of which have left no trace -- in Orvieto, Assisi, Todi... Today, there is a tiny Jewish community in Perugia and a few scattered families, but that's about it. (In Perugia, you can see a trace of the old synagogue and Jewish cemetery.)

A wonderful book describes medieval Jewish life in Umbria -- Love, Work and Death: Jewish Life in Medieval Umbria, by Ariel Toaff, translated by Judith Landry (Littman Library, 1996). It reads like a novel.

That's My World Tues here

What happened to the quality of Australia's restaurants - and its restaurant reviewing?

Before we moved overseas a decade ago we thought Australian restaurants were some of the best in the world. And it wasn't that we hadn't travelled much. We had. But a meal at Testuya's, Rockpool or Aria was better than any we'd eaten at overseas - even in New York. Yet since returning to Australia last year to research a couple of books, we've been so disappointed by Australian restaurants. (Admittedly, we've not yet had the chance to return to Tetsuya's, Rockpool or Aria - we'll try those again next month). We spent over four months on the road, eating out at least once (or twice) a day, and, sadly, we can count the truly memorable meals we've had on both hands - ten great meals out of 120 (minimum) is not good at all. In Italy, where we spent three months researching books before returning here, it was the opposite. (I'll share our top Aussie restaurants with you in another post.) On Saturday night, we took my aunt and uncle out to dinner here in Bendigo to thank them for having us stay at their beautiful house for so long. We took them to what The Age's Good Food Guide considers to not only be Bendigo's best restaurant (for four years running!), but one the reviewer would travel far to eat at. We've used the book a lot this trip and have been disappointed so many times with their selections. The quality of their best choices just doesn't compare to some of the world's best restaurants. So either the quality of restaurant offerings around these days is not very high, the Good Food Guide's standards are no longer as high as they once were, they reviewers are not looking very hard, or they simply need to get out (of the country) more. It's very disappointing. Terry has one theory: read his post What is the price of an average meal?

Pictured? One of Terry's recent dishes, a Tortilla Soup, just one course in a five-course authentic Mexican menu (not Tex Mex!) we made for my aunt and uncle who recently returned from a trip to Mexico. We might not get out much while we're in write-up mode, but we certainly eat well. Better than we do when we go out in Australia it seems! So, what do you think? Has the quality of Australian restaurants declined? And the standards of reviewing too? Or are we just too critical?

Vilnius -- Fading Yiddish

My latest photo/comment on the moked.it site regards the faded inscriptions, in Yiddish and Polish, that can be seen on city walls in Vilnius (and also, by the way, in L'viv).


Vilnius 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber
I muri di una città sono palinsesti urbani. Caminando per un centro storico, si può capire la storia leggendo l'architettura, e specialmente leggendo i cambiamenti eseguiti, strato sopra strato, attraverso i secoli. Gli archi di un portico che sono stati chiusi con dei mattoni, per esempio. O vecchie porte bloccate e nuove finestre aperte in muri antichi… A Vilnius si trova un esempio che colpisce in un modo diverso e anche emozionante. Segni pallidi, in polacco e yiddish, che risalgono al periodo fra le due guerre mondiali. Come fantasmi di un passato sia vicino che remoto, parlano di una rivendita (che era forse nel cortile) dove si comprava cherosene e sale, di qualità superiore.

Yellow Mellow Monday

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Ok i cheated nothing yellow in the photo accept the typing, but i just had to share this photo. If you been following me you all know that i have been fostering cats and babies now, with momma's not eating and me having to help bottle feed these little beauties. So just wanted you to have an update on both mom's. Both are now eating on there own. A huge step for all of us. Anyway this is the first momma's babies who are about 2 weeks old . I just got done feeding her, see that little milk around her mouth? Darn they are so cute.

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Office essentials: a beautiful back-up process and a cute cat

A major incident was averted last week when Terry's Mac died. Had we been forced to buy him a new one (it would have been his second in 18 months) to ensure our project workflow wasn't interrupted and a book didn't miss a print deadline, we would not have been very happy. Fortunately Apple came to the rescue, had repairs sped up and the local business Office Everything who did the job gave him a loaner while they fixed his MacBook Pro. The fact that Terry has his (and my) back-ups organized so beautifully meant he could continue working on the borrowed Mac while he waited for his to be repaired. You can read about what happened and how he manages his back-ups here.

Me? I'm not a professional photographer like Terry, I don't shoot for books and magazines (just my little blog, and memory), so I don't have hundreds of thousands of images to manage to deliver to publishers, so my back-up process is a lot more simple. Equally as important is my workspace. Thanks to my uncle and aunt, whose place we're currently holed up at writing these books, we have a big desk, a cosy and comfortable office (their library), and a cute cat curled up next to us.

Today's FLowers

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Look! i have crocus in there. To tell ya the truth i didn't even know i had any planted in that particular bed. So was pleased to see them.

And look a but coming out, i think spring is coming around, almost 60 degrees yesterday and then snow last night and this morning. What's up with that?
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Kandovan A Strange Touristic Village

This is a very special place. It's a tourist village Kandovan in Sahand, Iran. Some of these houses are 700 years old. And it's interesting not only for tourists but for those who wants to heal kidneys with the local mineral water. More interesting photosare here and some of them here

"(Sahand)It is one of the highest mountains in Iranian Azerbaijan, in addition to being an important dormant volcano in the country." (Wikipedia)