Blogger Dixie Yid is raising funds to help his friends, the Landon family. The Landons’ son is undergoing emergency treatment for neuroblastoma, a life-threatening illness. Read more about it here.

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Diane Wiessinger is a La Leche League Leader in Albany, New York, and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). In her classic essay Watch Your Language, she explains how we undermine breastfeeding by speaking about its “advantages.” She is also known for her creativity in explaining correct latch-on to breastfeeding educators and new mothers.

While Wiessinger is visiting Israel, I plan to combine two of my loves, blogging and breastfeeding, by reporting about her talks. Topics scheduled for tomorrow include “Changing Paradigms in Infant Latch” and “Words Create Reality–Making Breastfeeding the Norm.” (See this site for details.) In her third talk, “Lactation Consultation: Art or Science?,” Wiessinger will talk about different approaches toward a nursing dyad experiencing difficulties, and how to become a “breasteeding detective.”

Here’s my report from the Jack Newman conference in 2006.

Read more on Diane Wiessinger in Israel…

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This article by Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsburg caught my eye. When the author’s friend became a grandfather he told everyone that he had become an einekel, Yiddish for grandchild, instead of a zeidy, Yiddish for Grandpa. No one corrected him, including the writer, until the grandfather had told possibly hundreds of people. He then asked the writer to spread the word about the importance of correcting people.

This made me feel good because I often find myself correcting others. As I wrote here, I started young and the trait seems to run in the family.

In college, my English professor was once talking about poetry. He said that sometimes seemingly unimportant elements of a passage are emphasized, and gave the example of the Bible. “In the Bible,” he said, “insignificant words are put in italics.” I explained to him that some biblical translations italicize words that don’t appear in the original Hebrew like “is” and “the.” (This site gives examples from the King James translation of Psalms. Apparently some fundamentalist Christians take issue with the additions.) I realized my comment might embarrass him, but felt it was more important not to leave the other students with the misinformation. I did make the correction directly and respectfully, as recommended in the article, and I hope he forgave me.

Occasionally I correct my fellow bloggers, most often by email. If you have been a recipient of my constructive criticism, consider it a compliment. I only go to the trouble if I think the blogger would care, since I have enough editing and fact-checking to do for my own writing — I continue to find errors in my older posts.

Like most people I don’t enjoy being corrected, but I still prefer to find out about my mistakes in order to improve myself and so as not to (continue) look(ing) ignorant.

Read more on Correcting Others…

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Ingredients:
1 large clove garlic
Fresh parsley or coriander, washed and dried
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup raw techina, or sesame paste
1 tsp. ground cumin
Salt to taste
About a half cup of water (Perhaps more.)

Method: Chop the garlic and parsley in a dry food processor until fine. Add the other ingredients, keeping back some water until the mixture is the right texture. Most people prefer it slightly runny. Keep in mind that it congeals some in the refrigerator. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. If you use bottled lemon juice, the preservatives will help the techina keep longer (I’m not recommending this, I’m just saying.)
When serving, put enough for one meal in a separate bowl and don’t return the leftover dressing to the original batch.

Read more on Recipe: Homemade Techina (Sesame Paste) Dressing…

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Leah and her mother won the contest! See the Yaldah Magazine site for details.
A female movie producer refusedto let the Jerusalem Film Festival broadcast her film to mixed or male-only audiences. Hat tip: Leora
A very lovely edition of Haveil Havalim, the Jewish Blog Carnival, is now up over at Ima on and off the Bima.
Baila hosts the newest Kosher Cooking Carnival–the procrastinator’s version. I procrastinated sending in my Rosh Hashanah cooking post so it only appeared now.

But please don’t procrastinate about sending posts to jpixcarnival@gmail.com, for the next carnival of Jewish and Israel-related photographs. The deadline is Friday, December 5.

Read more on A lot of links…

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It seems that just when Shabbat starts to “come in” (as my kids say) at a normal hour, the clocks get switched back. With candlelighting at around 4 PM, I have to be organized. Below I post techniques that I have used.

Read more on The Day is Short, and the Work is Great: Efficient Shabbat Preparations…

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They have been around so long we take them for granted. They are where we go to find a ride, recommend a babysitter, and ask about electricians. I am talking about the English email lists that exist for every community with a reasonable number of English speakers. Janglo (short for Jerusalem Anglo) is the biggest with its own website, while the Jordan Valley’s group has five members.

I started the local list and continue to moderate it. At times it can be a thankless job. One member thinks the list is unfriendly, while another thinks there is too much discussion. Some posters have to comment about everything. Then there are the small businesses and public relations professionals who have discovered that community email lists are a free way to reach consumers. One even used our list to try and sell a $2 million property on the Tel Aviv beach. Do you think I could ask for a commission?

I decided to learn how moderators of other lists handle these issues, so I started a “meta-community” list for moderators and began inviting. Just reading the various list’s rules has been enlightening. About ten moderators have joined so far. We all share problems with annoying posters, pushy advertisers, and people who just can’t seem to follow the rules.

I get a lot of satisfaction in running the list. I know people have found rentals, service providers and helped people considering moving here (the main reason I started). I’ll share the last part of an exchange with a potential oleh, after I wrote him a long email about our community:

Read more on Hug Your Community Moderator Today…

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A reader sent me the following story:

Two days ago my daughter L’s 8th grade class returned from a field trip at 9:00 PM, so they let the girls come in late the next day. An hour or so before L had to leave, her friend M called her. M was locked in her house! (Most locks in Israel need to be opened with a key even from the inside). She had lent her brother her key, and her parents were at work. Her brother was already at school. L tried to talk M through finding solutions — getting help from her parents, grandmother, aunt, etc. L kept calling back to report no success. Her parents just told her to stay home and not worry about it, and her relatives, who did not have keys to the apartment, pooh-poohed her concerns and told her to enjoy her vacation day. M was scared, and L pointed out that if there was a fire or a gas lehttp://www.amotherinisrael.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=572ak — even in a neighbor’s apartment — she would have no way to get out. We suggested that the parents send a key to her by cab, if they didn’t want to interrupt their work day to go themselves. (We keep keys with neighbors, plus we always have a key in the door so we can get out immediately in case of emergency.) M’s parents refused to help her, and stopped answering their cellphones. [MiI: This part bothers me the most.]

Read more on Teen Locked in Apartment; Parents Unconcerned…

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I figure the dress in this picture would fit in well in Bnei Brak:

But the advertisement appeared on the front page of Haaretz’s Gallery section.

The copy is over the top, but it seems that religious women aren’t the only ones having a hard time finding clothes. Anyway that outfit sure beats these.

Read more on Tzniut fashions hit Tel Aviv?…

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I generously offered to serve as “blog fodder” for Robin’s NaBloPoMo. See the results here.

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