Miss Iv (1 of 3)

[Jake Rosenblum]

Hi there folks, I'm hopping on a train tomorrow morning to go to Portland via
San Francisco. Will arrive in Portland on the 23rd, if all goes smoothly (Oly
same day?).

AND NOW For Something Completely Different

I scrapped my scruples for a toupee in Brussels
I pumped my muscles for a groupie who drooples
I slept half the night 'neath a window-blind
And now all I've got is half a mind

To report. That. I will only write to this list three times, before I continue
my writing career in blog form. A friend of mine pointed out that it is indeed
much less invasive to simply write on a website, and people can decide
whether/when to read it! Although this probably means that less people will
read my writing, that is okay.

Over Rosh Hashana, I had the wonderful opportunity to hang out with my friend
Abby Weinberg, who let me crash at her place over months in Jerusalem. She
helped lead services at Elat Chayyim, in Accord, New York. The services had a
lot of personality; people used different names for G-d than just "Adonai", the
standard Jewish interpretation of YHVH. A lot of "Yah"s in there (As in,
Hallelu-yah).

My favorite parts of the entire festival were two: Danny, a six-year-old boy
from Westchester county who absolutely attached himself to me (I did child care
in order to pay less for staying there), and JEWISH HIP-HOP on the second
evening. Elat Chayyim has a vibrant group of young people who live there in
exchange for work on the Elat Chayyim project. Folks between 20 and 35. Very
interested in their model, and thinking about how it's possible to sustain
communities in this country that have a cultural focus.

I'm getting the feeling that this is an incredibly boring piece of writing, but
hopefully someone has enjoyed this for some reason, even if it's just being
distracted from paperwork or whatever.

Okay, enough for tonight. Calls always appreciated. So much happens in my life!
Every day. Over the last couple weeks I've broken down, broken up, broken out,
and broken in, in all kinds of ways, besides being just plain broke.

Okay, much love and peace to everyone in this time of transition to the colder,
wetter season.

Peace,
jake

Fun fact of the day:
Nabisco was purchased by Phillip Morris from R.J. Reynolds a couple years back,
which means that when you buy Ritz crackers, Altoids or Philadelphia cream
cheese, you are supporting a company that sells cancer to children in India and
China. Nabisco < Kraft < Phillip Morris < Altria. Altria is Phillip Morris' new
super-name.

Promotion:
My favorite Jewish hip-hopper of Elat Chayyim is Shir Ya'akov, whose website is
SixThirteen.org.