Oy Vay!
Neumann, Thomas
Oy Vay! Start Worrying: Details to Follow Albert Vorspan > UAHC Press, 1991 98 pp, $7.95 Reviewed by Thomas Neumann Maybe the secret to Jewish survival has been our capacity to laugh at our...
...Inc , 1992...
...One chapter, "Money and Power, Values and Class," addresses "the attitudes that influence our thinking and actions...
...99.50 Jewish family names are "chronicles written in code," said the scholar Leopold Zunz...
...Divided into three sections: The Personal Connection, The Public Connection and The Personal Becomes Political, this book is a starting place for Jewish women of all ages to get together in groups and speak to each other honestly and openly...
...The book also includes a list of Jewish film festivals and addresses of archives and institutes...
...882 pp...
...Jewish Film Directory Matthew Stevens, Publisher Greenwood Press Inc...
...Alice in Wonderland...
...As Vorspan proves, comedy is more than a survival kit in Jewish life...
...Albert Vorspan, senior vice-president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, does just that in his book, Start Worrying: Details to Follow, as he laughs at the foibles and idiosyncrasies of Jewish communal and temple life...
...Usually we wajk out of these meetings with groans and wonder what we are doing in the midst of these bizarre scenarios when we could be playing golf...
...Vorspan adeptly describes Jewish organizational types...
...The essence of good comedy is that in it we recognize truth...
...1992 298 pp., S65 00 Over 1,200 films about Jews and Jewish history, culture, personalities and issues are listed in this catalogue, a collection from sources worldwide...
...In it leaders of major Jewish organizations debate how to deal with the pope on his trip to the United States...
...Thomas Neumann is executive director for the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs...
...The first section is a comprehensive listing of documentaries, foreign language films, Hollywood features, film testimony, made-for-television mini-series, dramas, educational films and Yiddish cinema...
...From Abarbanel to Zywot, this work lists names and their origins and definitions for most ethnic Jewish backgrounds: Ashkenazi, Sephardi and modern Israeli...
...He was executive vice-president of B'nai B'rith International for four years...
...Start Worrying is light, quick and entertaining...
...Not quite...
...The second part provides indexes, cross-referencing all films by subject (for example, the Catskill Mountains, Yiddish culture, food, vanishing cultures and communities, Nazi propaganda films), director, country of production and source material...
...It is an essential way of giving a message and telling the truth...
...This vast etymological dictionary, with over 65,000 Jewish family names, is a fascinating resource for breaking that code...
...Another deals with "Women at Home and Women at Work," and others with how Jewish women are portrayed in television and movies, sex and the Jewish woman, and impacting the system through political action...
...Questions, such as who would speak for the Jews, who should meet with the pope and how dare the pope dictate the time and place of the meeting were all part of the exchange...
...Ethiopian names were not included and#the Oriental listing is incomplete.'Sample entries: "Fayerwerger, Russian (German, Feuerwerker), maker of fireworks...
...Sianitzki as Sephardic name, Talmudic expression for one who is a walking encyclopedia...
...Not to be mistaken for therapy or support groups, these small gatherings are intended to provide a means for looking at the forces and messages that influence and shape Jewish women...
...One chapter, titled "The Pope is Coming," had a particularly familiar ring...
...All those involved with Jewish community life at one point have encountered Vorspan's "machers," "potential leaders," "nudniks," "leaders" and "A.K.S," which he defines as "ancient knights" but we know as something else...
...Vorspan's book allows us to step back and view the frustrations with comic relief...
...Start Worrying: Details to Follow Albert Vorspan > UAHC Press, 1991 98 pp, $7.95 Reviewed by Thomas Neumann Maybe the secret to Jewish survival has been our capacity to laugh at our troubles, our bureaucracies, our enemies and even at ourselves...
...1992.132 pp., S7.95 From the how-tos of starting an awareness group, to focusing on mother-daughter connections, to exploring body image this guide is an invaluable resource for Jewish women...
...Jewish Family Names And Their Origins Hemrich W. and Eva H. Guggenheimer Ktav Publishing House...
...The book also contains an excellent bibliography and list of resources...
...Siani, Siany (Yemenite), guardian, watch, chastity, modesty...
...Few of us can avoid sitting through meetings with long-winded, ponderous chairpersons, with people fighting over credit, people complaining about being slighted and, of course, the granddaddy of all Jewish problems— who gets to sit on the dais and who sits next to whom...
...The authors also suggest that women who are not part of a group use the guide questions as the basis for a personal journal or discussion with families and partners...
...Unfortunately, I happened to have been at that meeting to plan for Pope John Paul II's visit to Miami and all that "comedy" actually took place...
...New and Noteworthy The Jewish Women's Awareness Guide The New Woman Collective: Janet Camay, Ruth Ann Magder, Laura Wine Paster, Marcia Conn Spiegel, Abigail Weinberg Biblio Press...
...It was as if Vorspan had left the meeting with the minutes tucked in his pocket, laughing while everyone was moaning...
Vol. 18 • February 1993 • No. 1
