Carnegie Hall Report

Ok...Now that Passover (at least the big part) is over, I can write a bit about what's been going on. The time I spent at the Carnegie workshop was amazing. The participants were some of the best musicians I've gotten to work with in quite a while. People who barely even knew what klezmer was were playing with confidence by the end of the week. The instructors were fantastic. I've put links to all of their websites on my website (www.berkowitzmusic.com). If you're even remotely interested in klezmer and aren't aware of the work going on by them you owe it to yourself to find out more. Take a look at some of the pictures from the post-concert reception.

Pesach was great this year. Ilana and I hosted it together for the first time. We went from four people the first night to eighteen the second which was a pretty new experience for me. I'd never really had a seder with so many people before!  In other news I've been reading a few interesting books and listening to some great recordings. If you're interested in graphic novels, check out Joann Sfar. I've read three of his books so far - The Rabbi's Cat 1 and 2 and Klezmer - Book One: Tales of the Wild East. The Rabbi's cat is set in 1930's Morocco and looks at the lives of a Rabbi, his daughter, his cousin Malka of the Lions, and some other great characters. Klezmer is set in 19th Century Russia and is done in the most amazing watercolors. It's going to be part of a series and hopefully more books will be out soon. I've never seen any contemporary stories about klezmorim so it should be interesting to see how it develops.

The Bagel Theory

With Pesach just days away, I really need to be cleaning the kitchen right now. Instead I'll share some thoughts on an email a congregant sent to me today.  First, I must quote a bit from this article in the email, written by Jessica Levine Kupferberg:

The Bagel Theory stands for the principle that we Jews, regardless of how observant or affiliated we are, have a powerful need to connect with one another. To that end, we find ways to "bagel" each other -- basically, to "out" ourselves to fellow Jews.
There are two ways to bagel. The brave or simply unimaginative will tell you straight out that they are Jewish (a plain bagel). But the more creative will concoct subtler and even sublime ways to let you know that they, too, are in the know. (These bagels are often the best; like their doughy counterparts, cultural bagels are more flavorful when there is more to chew on.)............Ultimately, why do we feel this need to bagel? Does it stem from our shared patriarchs, our pedigree of discrimination and isolation, a common love of latkes or just the human predisposition to be cliquey? I maintain it is something more. Our sages say that all Jews were originally one interconnected soul which stood in unison at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah. Now scattered across the Earth, as we encounter each other's Jewish souls, we recognize and reconnect with a piece of our divine selves. The bagel may have a hole, but we bagel in a quest to feel whole.  So the next time a sweaty stranger at the gym says to you, "I haven't been this thirsty since Yom Kippur," smile. You've just been bageled -- adding another link in the Jewish circle of connection.

I can seriously relate to this article because I am bageled ALL the time.  Wherever I go.  It's one thing to run into congregants at the nail salon, the supermarket, and when I'm at the gym.  It's another to meet people in public places who see that I wear a kipah, who then stop me to ask me something about Judaism.  Our recent bagel experience was when Adam and I took a day off in Northampton.  We're walking around the town and a woman pulls over in her car, shares that her daughter attends a Jewish preschool, and asks for advice on whether the girl should be encouraged to wear a kipah. Unbelievable.  Yes, people like to connect. Yes, it's strange to see a woman in a kipah so people like to comment. And perhaps it is like the author said above, there's something in the hole of the bagel that makes us want to search for the whole.  As we prepare for Pesach, perhaps it's also about searching for and preparing for the holy.  That's why we connect.  That's why we are cleaning and cooking and shopping and schlepping - we bagel each other so we can be whole and holy together.  Now if only we could eat bagels this week!

OK, enough of the rabbi stuff. You'd think if I was procrastinating from cleaning the kitchen I'd at least be working on my sermons. But the Red Sox finally scored and that will be the focus of my faith tonight!

Eddie from Ohio and Friends

Catching up a bit on our real lives..............

Adam and I went to Northampton, MA in early March (ok, still working on the current blog thing) to see my favorite band of all time, Eddie From Ohio (www.efohio.com).  There were no seats left in the place by the time we got there after Shabbos, so we worked hard to find a few random chairs for us and our friends. The only place we could put them was right on the side of the stage. Whenever the band walked in or out, we had to pull in our legs! They were so close. I'm in love with them. They are simply the best. Here's a pic of me after the concert with Mike, Julie, and Robbie (Eddie was back on stage taking down the drums).

Then last weekend we hung out with Rachel and Dave and Ray and Craig.  We enjoyed lots of different foods and even watched Craig's bar mitzvah video (because he knew Ray back then!) and their wedding video (all in the same room). Such fun, such good friends. And of course, Rachel enjoyed kissing Izzy, the dog!

That's all for now. Been a quiet week, albeit very busy, with Adam away - he performs tonight at Carnegie Hall! Practice, practice, practice - and he did it! :)

San Francisco

We ended our honeymoon with 36 hours in San Francisco - most of those were spent in cabs, at the hotel and airport, and sleeping off the jet lag, but we did some great touring, cable car riding, chocolate eating, and saw friends, Sara Houghteling and Alison Joseph.  Lots of fun.

Hawaii highlights

Now that we've figured out how to do this......here are the rest of our Hawaii highlights. We have 200+ pictures from our 10 days there, but these are some of our favs. We're ziplining, flying in a helicopter, and eating and drinking a lot.  Also sunrise when we hiked up Diamond Head Crater on Oahu.  Dolphins are in our hotel. Aquarium was a fun place to play (in Maui), and the whale watch was fun, but we never got a good picture of a whale!  Also the oldest banyan tree - but that's all we liked in Lahaina.  Anyway,  all of our pics will be in a real life album one day, but here's a taste!

First pics in Hawaii

I'm still learning how to do this - and realizing that I can't share all of the pictures from the honeymoon.  But here are some of the first pics - the flight, the hotel (I got very excited by big bathrooms and suites!) and the beach - Adam's first time in the ocean and our first moments of feet in the sand! Enjoy!

Welcome!

Test. Garberkowitz Family Blog. Does it work? Are we all excited? oh yes!

The bigger questions - will this be a useful tool to share our honeymoon pictures since I can't get our wedding website to work?  And will I be able to keep this up, to update you on our incredibly exciting lives?  Let's see.