Huge Pre-State of Israel Photo Collection Gets New Life With Third-Generation Owner

Rudy & Miriam Weissenstein 

A deep appreciation for a photographic collection recounting Israel’s early years pushed Ben Peter to try to restore The Photo House, his grandparents’ Tel Aviv storefront with an archive of some one million photos taken in pre-state Israel.

Now a costly relocation back to its original 1936 site, coupled with the coronavirus pandemic, have pushed this historic business to the edge, and Peter is looking for financial help to restore the family business.

“When I look at my grandfather’s collection, I think of a man who left his family in Europe and came to a place because of an idea and documented all things that interested him,” said Peter.

Photographer Rudy Weissenstein, Peter’s grandfather, captured thousands of personal moments with his camera — including a famous photo of his wife, Miriam Weissenstein, descending through the air in what resembles a seated yoga pose — and major events, such as the signing of the Israeli declaration of independence.

A photo of dancer and gym teacher Miriam Weissenstein, taken by her photographer husband Rudy Weissenstein, who owned Tel Aviv’s Photo House in Tel Aviv (Courtesy The Photo House)

“It’s amazing for me to… see all these people in their small moments, and not to erase this but to protect it as is,” said Peter.

Peter didn’t always think of his grandparents’ business that way.

His love and need for stronger ties with his maternal grandmother first brought Peter to the shop when he was 26 and emerging from the painful depths of a familial tragedy.

Peter’s father murdered his mother and then committed suicide. His grandmother was wracked with grief and anger but still running the store, hoping there would be a third generation to take over the business. His grandfather had died 11 years earlier.

Michal Weissenstein Peter, the second generation of The Photo House in Tel Aviv, who died tragically in 2006 (Courtesy The Photo House)

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

Singing Happy Birthday could spread Covid-19 because the enunciation of Bs and Ps releases large droplets which may be infectious

Singing happy birthday may be good for timing how long to wash your hands, but a new study reveals it could also be spreading coronavirus infected droplets.

Aerosol researchers at Lund University, Sweden studied the amount of particles emitted when we sing, and the impact this has on the spread of Covid-19. 

To understand how many virus particles are emitted when we sing, researchers had 12 healthy singers and two people with Covid-19 sing into a funnel. 

The study shows that singing – particularly loud and consonant-rich singing found in songs like Happy Birthday – spreads a lot droplets into the surrounding air.

Researchers say if singers wear a face mask and venues practice social distancing and implement good ventilation, then the risk from singing can be reduced.

The NHS recommended people sing 'Happy Birthday' twice while washing hands as it was the perfect amount of time to ensure as many germs as possible are removed.

The idea for the study came off the back of a number of reports about the spread of Covid-19 in connection with choirs singing together, researchers explained.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

1,000 Americans Move to Florida EVERY DAY as They Abandon New York, New Jersey and Connecticut - with Home Sales doubling in Florida

Roughly 950 people move to Florida every day and the state has seen 'unprecedented demand' and an uptick in luxury home sales as people in northern states flee large cities amid the pandemic for more space and sunnier shores. 

The influx in new residents comes as the coronavirus shutdown led families to flee congested cities and seek short-term stays that turned into permanent moves.

The 2020 Miami Report released this summer states that an average of 950 people move to Florida every day and a majority come from high-taxed areas like New York, Boston, California and Chicago, according to the New York Times.

According to the Douglas Elliman August report, new contracts for single-family homes and condominiums doubled in July and continue to rise in five south and central west coast Florida counties. 

In Palm Beach County, new single-family and condo contracts are well above normal levels from a year ago, seeing a 268 percent increase in single-family contracts over $1million. 

For the first six months of 2020 80 percent of real estate transactions were residential transactions.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

My "Date" with History… and Hope

Scientists on a desert kibbutz coaxed fruit out of 2,000-year-old seeds found at Masada. It tastes like honey mixed with inspiration

“All things are mortal but the Jew,” Mark Twain once marveled. “What,” he wondered, “is the secret of his immortality?”

The answer, I’m happy to say, is sweeter than you think. And it is blossoming on Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava region, 40 minutes north of Eilat. Yes, the New York Times just broke the story of the children of Methuselah and Hannah, biblical date trees (that didn’t meet on JDate) with some impressive history and something to teach at this perilous time as a lead up to the Jewish New Year.

Times reporter Isabel Kershner has been to Ketura before and in her article on the budding solar industry in Israel back in 2012 dubbed me “Captain Sunshine.” Actually, she quoted Dr. Elaine Solowey calling me Captain Sunshine. “Anyone who beats the government bureaucracy is a superhero,” said Dr. Solowey, a renowned authority on desert agriculture. And since then I’ve been wearing a ring with a 2,000 year old coin minted in the temple in Jerusalem with an insignia of the sun, fighting the fossil fuel lobby and working with partners to achieve, finally, the redemptive 100% solar daytime goal for Eilat and the Arava.

Dr. Solowey, along with her partner in bringing ancient history alive, Dr. Sarah Sallon from Hadassah Hospital, are the heroes of the day. Or actually the millenium. Back in 2005, Dr. Sallon got hold of some ancient date seeds found at Masada, the last stand of the Jews against the conquering Romans. The seeds were from the Judean Palm, a variety that is extinct. Could they resurrect these ancient seeds in this, the Third Jewish Commonwealth?

A year after Theodor Herzl convened the first Zionist Congress, in Basel, Twain published “Concerning the Jews” in Harper’s Magazine. “The Egyptians, the Babylonians and the Persians rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greeks and Romans followed and made a vast noise, and they were gone,” observed the essayist, but not the Jew. “All other forces pass, but he remains.”

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

Tischler.... “Go drop dead, Cuomo, go drop dead, Mayor de Blasio,” "Im going to put you over my knee and slap you like a little girl Cuomo"

New York City revealed Sunday that despite a citywide test positivity rate of less than 1%, some neighborhoods are registering results far higher. Borough Park, home to the largest Hasidic population in the city and one of the neighborhoods with the highest rate of positive cases at the beginning of the pandemic, saw a positivity rate of over 4%, with that number surpassing 6% in part of the neighborhood.

“In recent days, we have observed heightened rates of COVID-19 in many neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations,” Dr. Dave Chokshi, New York City’s health commissioner, wrote in a letter to local Orthodox media outlets Sunday. Chokshi pointed to increased positivity rates in Borough Park, Midwood, and Williamsburg in Brooklyn and Forest Hills and Far Rockaway in Queens.

“The neighborhoods experiencing transmission were particularly hard hit in the worst weeks of the pandemic this past spring and we never want to return to those awful days,” Chokshi wrote.

According to charts prepared by the city’s health department, the spikes in positivity rates in New York City’s Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods appear to begin around Aug. 15.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

We Found the Video Of President Trump Talking About Wounded Soldiers

Forget the Fake News smear articles with ridiculous anonymous sources. 

Here's a 2007 video of Donald Trump talking candidly about our wounded soldiers. 

What people don't know is that for years he has been giving them free trips to Mar-a-Lago among many other donations to our veterans.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

Osama Bin Laden's Niece Endorses Jewish Laura Loomer

Loomer

Loor bin Laden, the estranged relative of Osama bin Laden, is esteemed today for her human rights work and for courageously speaking out against radical Islamic terrorism and extremism. The resulting intimidation and persistent threats of death haven’t deterred her. She has repeatedly expressed her praise for President Trump. Now, she’s throwing her support behind Republican Congressional candidate Laura Loomer.

​

In a recent interview with the New York Post, Loor stated, “Another 9/11-style attack may be just around the corner if Joe Biden is elected president.” She continued, “You look at all the terrorist attacks that have happened in Europe over the past 19 years. They have completely shaken us to the core … [Radical Islam] has completely infiltrated our society”. Bin Laden also noted, “In the US it’s very worrying that the left has aligned itself completely with the people who share that ideology.”

Lastly, the article announced Noor’s endorsement for Laura Loomer, “Laura has been very vocal about this and I commend her for being brave enough and speaking out”. Laura has said of Noor, “She is a very kind hearted person.”

Here we have two prominent and courageous women defending modernity and civilization from Jiihadist barbarism, something to be praised by American institutions, yet almost the opposite has happened. 

Noor’s endorsements have hardly been reported and Laura is unfairly and harshly attacked as “far right” or some kind of a conspiracy theorist.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

Closeted Chasidic Trans Inches Closer to Her 'feminine dream'

I'm thinking after reading this article, that "Rivky" of the story below will not help the "shidduch crises.' We have enough girls trying to find a shidduch and now this guy becoming a lady will add another girl to the crises.....

By Monica Haider

Rivky strolled through the Zara store in Manhattan's fashionable SoHo neighborhood, one eye examining the racks of skirts and blouses and the other looking out for anyone she might know. She was looking for something that would fit her broad frame. Rivky made her way to the women's dressing room line, dresses and skirts piled on her forearms. The female attendant looked confused and then chuckled. Why was this male-presenting person — wearing traditional Hasidic Jewish men's attire — walking into the fitting room with women's clothing?

Rivky, 41, is not your typical gender-conforming religious observer. Her white dress shirt, black vest and black slacks — the daily dress code for Hasidic men — serve as culturally acceptable covers for the bra and women's underwear she frequently wears underneath. She feels her best when dressed in women's attire, and at home she regularly strips down to just a bra, panties and nylon tights when she knows her wife will not be back for hours.

"It makes me feel like I want to dance for joy," said Rivky, who asked that her full name not be published because she is not out to friends and family about her gender identity.

Rivky identifies as transgender but deeply buries these emotions and feelings away from her ultra-Orthodox community in Borough Park, Brooklyn. She fears that if she were to come out of the proverbial closet, she would face social expulsion or, worse, abandonment by her wife and four children. While there is no set Hasidic policy regarding those who come out as transgender, the community's strict code of living does not condone even the slightest deviation from the Hasidic norm.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

Watch A Chat of 2 Mothers Who Lost a Child

Hindel Swerdlov grew up in LA as one of 12 children to the late Chabad campus Rabbi and Rebbetzin of UCLA, Shlomo Schwartzie and Olivia.

She has been living in Jerusalem for the past 23 years with her husband and 7 children.  Hindel is the founder and director of Shula's Library and writes for Our Tapestry magazine and other publications. She is also a teacher of Chassidut on Self-growth at Mayanot Women's Yeshivah.

She is the latest guest of Real Talk with Hadassa Chen, who also a child, her daughter Navi, whose birthday is today and who passed away 8 years ago after an illness.

from ColLive

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

Facing Charaidie Rebellion, Ministers Approve Local Curfews Instead of Lockdowns

Ministers on Sunday evening approved nightly curfews in some 40 cities with high infection numbers, instead of the previously planned full lockdown on a smaller number of towns — a plan that had sparked a threat of rebellion from some ultra-Orthodox mayors and a major political crisis with the ultra-Orthodox parties.

The curfews will be in effect every day between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. Non-essential businesses will be closed during the curfew. Schools will be closed at all times.

The cabinet had been due to vote on a plan formulated by the government’s virus czar, Prof. Ronni Gamzu, to impose new lockdowns on 10 municipalities, including the Arab towns of Umm al-Fahm, Tira and Kfar Qassem, and the Haredi towns of Elad, Bnei Brak, Beitar Illit and Emmanuel. Israel this weekend passed 1,000 COVID-19 fatalities.

But facing a withering backlash by Haredi leaders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day called off the special cabinet meeting on the lockdowns and held a meeting with the heads of the two major ultra-Orthodox political parties, Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman of United Torah Judaism and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri of Shas, to hammer out a new policy toward so-called “red” municipalities — those with the highest infection rates — as he seeks to assuage rising anger in the Haredi street.

Netanyahu’s about-face came after four Haredi mayors published an unprecedented open letter earlier Sunday accusing him of “trampling” their communities and “turning us into disease vectors and enemies of the people.”

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES!