New Years Greetings
Happy New Year to all my fellow Judeans, may it prove to be sweet and happy. I told the Face Book friends that on Rosh Hashanah we indulge in apples, honey and the blood of Christian babies. I am disappointed by lack of indignant response. Thus far only 
miabeth has replied telling me that she hoped that we had a vegan alternative...so instead of blood we'll be having agave nectar with red food coloring.
So my girlfriend lives in the Pico-Robertson section of West Los Angeles. For those of you not familiar with L.A. it's a very crowded, very Jewish, very conservative/orthodox section of the city. I've heard residents refer to it as "Little Brooklyn." It happens to also be my family's old neighborhood before they all absconded to the semi-secular Diaspora of Orange County. Jenna is not orthodox, she is reform like me but she interacts with the tribe and her observant friends better than I do as my Jewish friend before I met her consisted of 1/2 Shaina and 1/2 Luke. That's OC for you.
Anyway, the reason I'm relating all this is to give background information for a little anecdote that occurred yesterday. Pico-Robertson is a couple of blocks section of Pico blvd between the streets Robertson and La Cienega. Pico itself stretches from Santa Monica to Downtown and ends around Skid Row. I've spent many a pre Lakers/Clippers game going the wrong way off the 5/10 interchange and winding up lost on East Pico Blvd. Pico is a really cool street because A. In rush hour it's an easier drive into Downtown and East L.A. (or from there west) than the hell that is the 10 and B. It provides a really cool cross section of L.A. culture while skirting Beverly Hills which is obnoxious and undrivable and lacking parking even more so than the rest of L.A.
It would be a misnomer to label Jenna's neighborhood as exclusively Jewish or even ethnically Ashkenazi (European). While most of the Hasidim are certainly that, the neighborhood also houses a large number of Persian, Yemenite, Sephardic (Spanish/Moroccan) Jews and Israelis. You can tell the Israelis because they're loud and obnoxious and walk down the streets with their shirts off, sporting giand gold Mogan Davids (Jewish Stars). Since they are not wearing Hawaiian shirts and this is not Miami, they must then by default be Israeli. With no desire to get political, I think I am justified in calling Israelis, "The 'bros' of the desert."
A couple blocks down on Fairfax the Jewish-Ethiopian Falashas intermingle with the Orthodox Ashkenazi of Hancock Park and the Studio Execs. of Beverly Hills. Re: Pico, It is a strange culture even though it is technically my own. So strange in fact that I often feel more at home in the Mexican and Black run diners that break up the kosher block. Good, now you have an idea of the ethnic makeup of the area.
Yesterday as I left my house in Orange County and braved the nasty 405 I heard on the radio (in Irvine no less) an ad for a Glatt Kosher market that is a block from Jenna's apartment. I recall thinking how strange it was for such a specific radio add to penetrate so far south in the market. I should have known better. If the day after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day for most of America, the day before Shabbat and Rosh Hashanah is the busiest for Orthodox Jews. They blocked up traffic up and down Pico trying to turn into the tiny little market that has eight parking spaces, honking, screaming and cursing all the while.
When I left this morning it was much, much worse, made all the more intolerable by the following. Two Hasidim, one turning into the Glatt Mart and one going towards La Cienaga had stopped their cars in the middle of the intersection, rolled down their windows and began - in Yiddish - a leisurely conversation. Traffic backed up well past Robertson as the 'pious' idiots blocked the road in two directions. People began honking their horns and screaming in multiple languages but the two remained seemingly oblivious. Loud curses befouled the already filthy Los Angeles air; Yiddish, Hebrew, Arabic, Farsi, English and Spanish. It was a virtual multi-cultural fair of seething anger and expletives. I myself shouted "What is this? The Klezmer comedy hour? Are you the fucking Schlemiels of Lodz?" and then a little less Yiddishkeit, "Move your stupid, mother-fucking asses!" Finally, after two full minutes of abuse, the two conversationalists exchanged parting pleasantries, rolled up their windows and went on their way - after I might add, several cars had illegally moved around them, having had no other choice.
Anyway, Shana Tovah everyone, Happy New Year!
miabeth has replied telling me that she hoped that we had a vegan alternative...so instead of blood we'll be having agave nectar with red food coloring.So my girlfriend lives in the Pico-Robertson section of West Los Angeles. For those of you not familiar with L.A. it's a very crowded, very Jewish, very conservative/orthodox section of the city. I've heard residents refer to it as "Little Brooklyn." It happens to also be my family's old neighborhood before they all absconded to the semi-secular Diaspora of Orange County. Jenna is not orthodox, she is reform like me but she interacts with the tribe and her observant friends better than I do as my Jewish friend before I met her consisted of 1/2 Shaina and 1/2 Luke. That's OC for you.
Anyway, the reason I'm relating all this is to give background information for a little anecdote that occurred yesterday. Pico-Robertson is a couple of blocks section of Pico blvd between the streets Robertson and La Cienega. Pico itself stretches from Santa Monica to Downtown and ends around Skid Row. I've spent many a pre Lakers/Clippers game going the wrong way off the 5/10 interchange and winding up lost on East Pico Blvd. Pico is a really cool street because A. In rush hour it's an easier drive into Downtown and East L.A. (or from there west) than the hell that is the 10 and B. It provides a really cool cross section of L.A. culture while skirting Beverly Hills which is obnoxious and undrivable and lacking parking even more so than the rest of L.A.
It would be a misnomer to label Jenna's neighborhood as exclusively Jewish or even ethnically Ashkenazi (European). While most of the Hasidim are certainly that, the neighborhood also houses a large number of Persian, Yemenite, Sephardic (Spanish/Moroccan) Jews and Israelis. You can tell the Israelis because they're loud and obnoxious and walk down the streets with their shirts off, sporting giand gold Mogan Davids (Jewish Stars). Since they are not wearing Hawaiian shirts and this is not Miami, they must then by default be Israeli. With no desire to get political, I think I am justified in calling Israelis, "The 'bros' of the desert."
A couple blocks down on Fairfax the Jewish-Ethiopian Falashas intermingle with the Orthodox Ashkenazi of Hancock Park and the Studio Execs. of Beverly Hills. Re: Pico, It is a strange culture even though it is technically my own. So strange in fact that I often feel more at home in the Mexican and Black run diners that break up the kosher block. Good, now you have an idea of the ethnic makeup of the area.
Yesterday as I left my house in Orange County and braved the nasty 405 I heard on the radio (in Irvine no less) an ad for a Glatt Kosher market that is a block from Jenna's apartment. I recall thinking how strange it was for such a specific radio add to penetrate so far south in the market. I should have known better. If the day after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day for most of America, the day before Shabbat and Rosh Hashanah is the busiest for Orthodox Jews. They blocked up traffic up and down Pico trying to turn into the tiny little market that has eight parking spaces, honking, screaming and cursing all the while.
When I left this morning it was much, much worse, made all the more intolerable by the following. Two Hasidim, one turning into the Glatt Mart and one going towards La Cienaga had stopped their cars in the middle of the intersection, rolled down their windows and began - in Yiddish - a leisurely conversation. Traffic backed up well past Robertson as the 'pious' idiots blocked the road in two directions. People began honking their horns and screaming in multiple languages but the two remained seemingly oblivious. Loud curses befouled the already filthy Los Angeles air; Yiddish, Hebrew, Arabic, Farsi, English and Spanish. It was a virtual multi-cultural fair of seething anger and expletives. I myself shouted "What is this? The Klezmer comedy hour? Are you the fucking Schlemiels of Lodz?" and then a little less Yiddishkeit, "Move your stupid, mother-fucking asses!" Finally, after two full minutes of abuse, the two conversationalists exchanged parting pleasantries, rolled up their windows and went on their way - after I might add, several cars had illegally moved around them, having had no other choice.
Anyway, Shana Tovah everyone, Happy New Year!