"Let G-d nobody see it again"

I have always been secretly jealous of the Americans. They all have such interesting backgrounds. Nearly everyone can list that their grandfather was Irish or grandmother was Italian, or how they are part Cherokee Indian, part Swedish, part German, or how their ancestors arrived in the new land on Mayflower.

The TV show "Who do you think you are" is an interesting deep-dive to the family roots of certain American celebrities. The episode I picked to write about here is the one of Lisa Kudrow and her great grandmother's fate in Belarus during the WWII.

I didn't even realize she was part Jewish. Somehow, it was Ross Geller (or David Schwimmer) and not Phoebe Buffay in the TV show Friends who stole the part of being Jewish :-).

The heading of this article is a direct, translated quote from the episode. It was said by an old Belarussian woman in the village of Ilya, how she testified the destiny of the Jews in the village. Trying to escape death at a human bonfire, a little girl tried to hide under the bed. A German officer spotted her and dragged her by force, only to shoot the child. "Let G-d nobody see it again", said the witness.

View the episode in full at the link below:
http://vimeo.com/21724326

Writer's block

Well, you finally did it. You were able to silence me. I have not updated this blog for a while since I have simply run out of things to write about!

My Hebrew classes are over for now, I haven't read any Judaism/WWII books lately, nor seen related movies, you know the story of Fafa's already, I visit the same foreign cities with the same Jewish museums (so no point in writing about them again), I haven't visited Israel for a whole year and I unfortunately missed anything "Jewish" going on in Helsinki - so I can't write about that either.

You probably are not interested in hearing about the miserable success both Israel and Finland had in the Eurovision Song Contest (although on behalf of the whole country I'd like to thank the Israeli voters for being one of the very few that even granted us points).

Someone once said no news is good news - so let's go with that. But I'm sure my inner typist will be triggered by some article or happening, sooner or later... Enjoy the spring! <3

Access denied

Marion Rung is a Finnish-Jewish singer (and therefore a celebrity here), and today an incident at the Jewish cemetary made headlines at a local tabloid. Marion's husband was denied access to the cemetary since he refused to put on a kippah.

It was the one year anniversary of Marion's mothers' death, and the tombstone was being revealed at the cemetary. Marion's husband Kalle Munck had worn a kippah at the funeral itself a year ago, but refused to put it on this time around. Therefore the Rabbi asked him not to join the others at the cemetary but to wait outside. Mr. Munck was offended and sad that he couldn't attend the ceremony and is going to make an official complaint about the incident to the ombudsman. Munck states he, as a atheist, refuses to wear any religious garments. He sees the wearing of the kippah only as a recommendation and the cemetary being maintained with tax payer's money - so wearing the tiny hat should be optional.

Needless to say, this guy was labeled as a jerk, idiot, childish etc. by the readers of the article in the comments section. I have to agree, he wears a kippah one year earlier and now refuses? How disrespectful for his wife and late mother-in-law, not to mention to make this kind of an issue a matter of law and publicity...

I was once denied access to the Vatican because the sleeves of my t-shirt were too short. For goodness sake, a Christian institution bans the visit of a fellow Christian because of clothes! Should I have pressed charges, too? Or what about Mt. Athos in Greece where no women are allowed to enter? That is discrimination, but you don't see any lawsuits around. What a jerk indeed. The Rabbi was right.

(Picture from wikimedia.org)

Read the article here in Finnish.

The Bar fan strikes again

"An endearing moment - ladybug lands on Bar Refaeli's freckled nose". Yes, this is a word-to-word translation of the Finnish tabloid headline found at IltaSanomat. Totally not news-worthy, and yet again on Bar.

My suspicion about an anonymous Bar Refaeli fan being nestled among the writer's team for this tabloid got yet again wind below its wings. The articles rarely have a named author. He (she?) simply writes about the fabulousness of this Israeli model and in the end encourages you "not to fall in despair even though this ultimate dream girl is in a far away land. Be lucky in search of a valentine in May Day parties".

Seriously? :D

See for yourself by clicking here.