Where Were You on 9/11?

Everyone's doing it -- the obligatory "Where Were You on 9/11?" blog post. What were you thinking, feeling, eating, saying. Were you asleep? Standing up? Waiting in line at the grocery store? Maybe you were taking your kids to school or in the hospital mourning a passing relative. Were you burying someone? Were you giving birth? What were you doing? Who were you? Ten years have passed, and the defining moment of my generation is September 11, 2001. The moments when we found out are clear, and the rest of the day is a blur.

Essex County (NJ) 9/11 Memorial (My Photo)

I was in Citizenship Issues course -- the bane of all of our existences, it was a required course for all seniors to discuss and learn about our country and its branches of government, policies, and procedures. I can't remember how we found out, but the school immediately shut down academic operations and turned on emotional operations. TVs and radios were on in every classroom. We stopped learning and started watching, breathing, doing whatever was necessary to swallow reality without spitting it back up.

Then I went on to Calculus, where I grabbed the hand of my then-boyfriend Kevin and just stared at the TV screen, watching everything unfold. Kevin and I broke up less than a month later, shortly before my 18th birthday. I entered adulthood with images of falling bodies and ash.

In choir class, all we could say was, "We were just there." And we had been. My junior year, Concert Choir took a big trip to New York. It was my first time out of the midwest, my first time to a city bigger than Kansas City or Tulsa. We soaked everything up -- the food, the music, Broadway, the buildings. The buildings. In our pictures, there they are! Just months before, the Twin Towers, standing tall behind us. Did we know what they were? Did we care? Or did we just miss them when they were gone, a hole in the skyline, a gap in time.

The rest of the day was a blur. I don't remember classes or going home or what our parents must have tried to say to us to calm us down. My little brother was just a kid, I was almost an adult. We were so far away from it in Nebraska, but what most of this country doesn't know is that Middle America is called the Heartland for a reason -- we feel everything that happens in this country, and we feel it harder and louder. When any part of the U.S. bleeds, Middle America dies a little more.

The past 10 years have seen much in my life change.

• I have two degrees and am working on two more.
• I have lived in Nebraska, Colorado, Washington (D.C.), Illinois, Connecticut, and New Jersey.
• I have dated countless folk, become engaged, and married. 
• I have visited Israel four times.
• I have learned a new language (Hebrew).
• I have converted, twice, within Judaism.
• I have legally changed my name from Amanda Jo Edwards to Chaviva Jo Galatz.
• I have watched friends come and go and come and go.
• I have become the proud aunt of four boys.
• I have grown up.

Ten years has flown by. Just like August -- zip, and it's gone. Will we continue to remember? It's embedded in my early adulthood, it colored my senior year of high school in more ways than one. I won't forget, will you?

From the Just Call Me Chaviva archives on 9/11:

• Mentions of 9/11 (of which there are quite a few, actually)
• 2006: On this day in History
• 2003 (from my retired LiveJournal): "Two years ago right now, I was done with lunch and sitting in CI, if I remember correctly. Or maybe I was in Science. I was at school. And regardless of where I was, every TV was on in Northeast High School with the station tuned in to the news showing the planes crashing, and crashing, and it was like a tape on repeat. And that, is where I was. Now, it's raining. I don't have a television to watch what's going on. I can't see what the news has to say in rememberance. I just know it's sunny in New York City, and it's cloudy here. And I don't mind. Give them all the sunshine they need. I had mine."

Being Propositioned: This is My Life?

Sometimes, I'm just blown away by what people are willing to say, out loud, to strangers.

I have oodles to say about my experience at the Sabra Factory in Richmond, VA, from Tuesday-Wednesday, but that's coming later. Right now, I have to focus on a peculiar and unsettling thing that happened to me this morning. That being said, it also was really amusing.

I had to head into NYC early because I had a ticket to The Nate Berkus Show, and I had to be there by 9:45. I woke up later than I wanted, so I got into the city later than I wanted, and I ended up taking a taxi from Port Authority to the studio up on 57th Street.

The taxi ride started out normal: The Middle Eastern driver was kvetching about his last passenger and how she didn't speak English and had no idea where she wanted to go, and then? It got really weird. Here's how the dialogue went between the two of us. (D: Driver | C: Chavi)

D: So you're Jewish, right?
C: Um, yeah.
D: It's the hair, it's that (he searches for the words) you know, you're one of those (still searching for the word) the guys with the long hair (and he motioned like the peyot curls).
C: Orthodox?
D: Yes! That's it. Orthodox women are very faithful to their husbands, right?
C: Yeah, we are. We're devoted.
D: So you never cheat?
C: Um, I've never cheated. I never would. I don't know anyone else who has, either.
D: How long have you been married?
C: Almost a year.
D: Things get old, right? I mean, I'm married, but, when I find a woman I want, I have her.
(at this point, I'm like, WTH!?)
C: Well, I'd never cheat. I love my husband.
D: Do you live in the city?
C: Nope. I live in Jersey.
D: You are very beautiful, you know. Very beautiful.
C: ... thanks. That's very kind of you.
D: I've never slept with a Jewish woman before.
C: Well, lucky for you there are a lot of them here in New York.
D: You know, if your husband ever goes away, I could give you my card, I could come to you.
C: Listen, I'm really flattered, but, I'm married.
D: Are you sure you don't want my card?
[We arrive to my destination.]
C: No, thank you.
D: Well, good luck with your husband!
C: Thanks ...

Yes, that happened. To me. Here's a taxi driver, who knows I'm an Orthodox Jew, but clearly knows nothing about Orthodox Jews or Judaism, and he propositioned me. I should have taken his number down. I mean, it was flattering, but incredibly awkward. I had zero clue how to handle this situation.

But then I was at The Nate Berkus show, which was awesomely amazing, and I got some nice schwag to bring home with me. I'm actually submitting a story that I hope he'll take on, which I'll let you guys know about soon enough. Check out the goodies:

A messenger-style blanket/bag by The Diaper Dude and Chris Gardner's new book (he was on the show!).

So that was my day. Man alive. Has this ever happened to any of you?

EDIT: The portion up there in bold I forgot to write the first time around. WOW. Because that was the funniest thing.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: Our Jewish History

Friday marks the 100th anniversary of the worst industrial disaster in New York City history: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. The fire resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in United States History.

Do you know about it? Did you know that most of the 146 victims were Jewish? Women? Did you know that the owners of the tenement factory also were Jewish? And that they got off scott free?

I'm guessing most of you said no. I'm writing about this because we spent an entire class period in one of my courses devoted to the fire and its role in Jewish education and whether it has a role in Jewish education.

I learned about the Triangle Fire way back when in history class during discussions on labor law and tenement factories and the immigrant experience, but it didn't have a Jewish angle (and it wouldn't have, me living in Nebraska at the time). But I'm surprised to meet so many Jews (my dear husband Tuvia included) who have never even heard of this horrible event in Jewish history.

A mockup image of where the fire started.

What happened? In a nutshell, young girls were the most common figures in shirtwaist factories in the early 1900s. Many of these young girls were Italian and Jewish immigrants who were the first and only members of their family to come state-side. These girls would work in sweat shops, 14 hours a day or more, in order to save and send money back to bring the rest of their families to the states. So many of these girls were Jewish, because many of these tenement factories were in Lower Manhattan, near the Lower East Side, which was a hub of Jewish life in the early 1900s. Most of these girls left shtetls and traditional Jewish lifestyles and were forced to work on Shabbos. It was the great compromise of many Jewish immigrants, and it changed forever the landscape of religious Jewish identity.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was located on what is now the NYU Campus in New York City at 29 Washington Place. The building still stands and it is the Chemistry Building currently, and there are three plaques on the building memorializing the event -- have you seen them? On Shabbos, March 25, 1911, the sweatshop was full of workers, someone dropped a cigarette into a pile of cloth, and a fire blew up on the upper floors of the building. The doors were locked, the fire ladders only reached the eighth floor, and 40 people ended up leaping from the building to their death (and a comparison was drawn on 9/11 to this very event). The death toll was 146, and most of them were Jewish young women.

After the event, there was a huge outcry from the Jewish community, and the labor community was changed forever -- labor laws were enacted, and the fire went down in history as a turning point in U.S. Labor Law. And then? Poof. We forgot it happened. We forgot it was a Jewish disaster, and we forgot that Jews helped shape labor law in the U.S. through a horrible loss of life.

There were stories reported in the Yiddish newspaper after the event that an adjacent floor had negotiated with their floor boss to leave at noon before Shabbos each week, and so they were saved from the fire. There was another story about one of the worker girls who felt like she was betraying her family back in the Old Country, so she skipped work and watched the building burn from the street, in horror. Miracles? Coincidence?

Seeing the pictures is horrifying, because I walk on that street, where those bodies fell, at least four days a week.

Here's my point: This event was huge and so important in American Jewish history. I think, too, that it is possible that it impacted the worldwide Jewish community in an untold way. Just think: More than 100 young Jewish girls, working to send money to their families in the Old Country, die in a fire. The flow of money stops. This means the families of a 100 or more girls do not make it to the U.S. as soon as they would have -- or, possible, ever. I wonder how many families perished in the Holocaust who would have made it to the U.S. otherwise? This hasn't been studied, at all, and I wish someone would look into the impact this event had on the worldwide community.

The owners, both Jewish, were acquitted. No one ever truly paid for the murders.

Here's my question: Did you learn about this in your Jewish education? Whether at Sunday School or Yeshiva or day School? Do you think this is relevant to the Jewish educational experience? Should this even be taught through a specifically Jewish lens? And, most importantly, do you think this event can be categorized as a uniquely Jewish event?

Food for Thought: Someone mentioned to me that because the fire happened while Jewish women were working on Shabbos, Yeshivot might not be willing to teach the topic. However, wouldn't the fact that so many were saved by making the choice not to work be a boon to teaching in an Orthodox, Shomer Shabbos environment? 


Also: The previously unknown names of six of the victims have been released. Several of them were engaged to be married. One of them was a man. 

Walk a Mile in My Vest

Oh no! Blurry ... let's clear that up.

I decided to get my fashionista on today for an outing to the city that started far too early for my liking. My understanding was that class began at 8 a.m. down by Washington Square, so I got up at 6 a.m., grabbed a nearly-7 a.m. bus, and ended up at the door of my building (after nabbing a coffee) around 7:47 a.m. The door? Locked. Another classmate walked up, the security guard opened the building, we found the room, two other students joined us, and half an hour later ... we were sitting. Turns out the class was bumped to 9 a.m. and no one told us! Ugh. What a way to start the day, eh? After an intensive Hebrew-only course and reading a Hebrew article, I ventured to the campus Starbucks to do some e-work. After a few hours there, I decided to trek up to midtown, walk around a bit (stupid), find a place to sit and work, etc. It turned out I spent too much time walking (my feet are covered in blisters and raw skin), my computer ran out of juice and the Starbucks I was at had closed off all their wall-plate plugs (jerks), and by the time my awesomely awesome friend met up with me at around 4:30, I was pooped.

But? I looked good. And I was comfy.

We schlepped over to Cafe K on 48th, ate an amazing meal and schmoozed, and then got turned around heading to the subway on our way down to NYU for a 7 p.m. reading by Jonathan Safran Foer (author of "Everything is Illuminated"). By the time we got there, the auditorium was packed, we were exhausted, and we called it a day. But throughout the day, and even though when I got home I could no longer walk, I felt put together. I felt like I had a fluid look that I was comfortable in. So let's talk about it.

The outfit is:

Hat ~ Burlington Coat Factory

Jean Skirt ~ Land's End

Vest ~ Van Heusen

Ruffle shirt ~ Van Heusen

White tank (under) ~ Lane Bryant

Black Leggings (not pictured) ~ Old Navy

I wore my Skechers with these, and usually they're crazy comfortable, but no dice this time around. Sigh. My feet seriously hurt. My knees probably do, too, but I can't feel them. Anyhow, this outfit was an easy  throw together, and I was so, so, so excited to actually buy a vest and be able to pull it off. It's a really cozy material, and the ruffle shirt is really light weight, which makes it good for layering. The jean skirt, of course, is my constant-wear item. And the hat? Love it. The zipper detail is super cute, and the color scheme really comes together (CoverYourHair.com actually has headbands with this design now). If I'd of had some cushion in my shoes, this would have been the best fashion day EVER. There's always next time.

And, for those of you who haven't been to Cafe K, here are some photos of the amazing food. I had the most delicious fish ever, with the most creative potatoes ever -- baked potatoes that are then grilled! I felt so healthy-licious eating this. Oh, and the awesome friend wanted me to make sure her cappucino got some play. It, too, was delicious (or so she said). I highly recommend Cafe K, by the way. It's dairy, delicious, and aside from the bones in my fish, I had zero complaints. There will be a Yelp review, but believe me, it will all be good, so you can just take my word for it.

Yes, that's a fish in a cup on the cup!

This is the salmon with "baked" potato ... best grilled fish I've ever had, hands down.

And, again, in case you missed it the first time.

The Japanese salad. Yes, there's seaweed.

Stay tuned for a Yom Kippur post, and, on Sunday, the next installment of Haveil Havalim!

Connected in the City

Living near NYC has its perks, big perks. A hub of Social Media life, NYC is bustling with events and meetups and Tweetups and creativity that breaks the boundaries of anything I was involved in in Chicago and definitely Connecticut.

I missed out on the #140conf partizzle that Jeff Pulver put on this past week, only because it rocked out on Tisha B'Av, but I'm blessed tomorrow in the city with the Future of Jewish Nonprofit Summit (an all-day extravaganza of great minds meeting to talk turkey) and in less than two weeks I'll be back in the city for the Jewish Schmooze event at the JCC of Manhattan. I've blogged about FOJNP (event's tomorrow, you can still show up and join us!), but here's the 411 on the Jewish Schmooze event, which I hope y'all will consider coming in for! Check out the event over on MetroImma.com, too!

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Want to tap into the incredible online presence of Jewish-flavored social media networks that can increase the visibility of your brand? Join Metroimma and Prime Time Parenting for a very exclusive social media event.

Jewish Social Media Schmooze is an event for Jewish authors, musicians, film and television producers, and entrepreneurs--all creative individuals that weave their Jewish heritage into their books, CDs, television, and film. Learn how creators engage in conversations and interact with their fans, followers, and inspire individuals via social media platforms (facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs) and build long-lasting relationships.

Guest speaker and moderator Jessica Abo, anchor and reporter at NY1 News.
Participants include:
Allen Ganz, Co-Founder, Metroimma.com
Chaviva Eliana Galatz, Writer and blogger,www.kvetchingeditor.com
Rabbi Motti Seligson, Media Relations, Chabad.org
Dave Weinberg, recently named one of the “Top 50 Most Influential Personalities Online” by the Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA)
Itamar Kestenbaum, Moishe's Moving Systems Social Media & Manager
Lisa Grunberger, Author, Yiddish Yoga

Cost: $15
Raffle prizes, goody-bags and refreshments will be serviced

To RSVP, send email to events@metroimma.com.

Please send any questions via email to jewishshmooznetwork@gmail.com.

For advertising opportunities please contact ads@metroimma.com or 262.692.0123.