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@Always
My maternal side came from Bavaria, leaving for America 3 years before the unification of the German Empire.
My paternal side came from an ever shifting area of the Pale which had been under, Polish, Lithuanian and Russian rule, today one of the towns is in Poland, the other in Belarus.Inherited money, is not a thing in our family, heirlooms such as jewelry and silver is. We were given educational opportunities that were afforded by our families, but all was not rosy in every generation.
My maternal grandmother left school at 14 to work and support the family. Her father made a large income, but was a gambler who lost more than he made. She worked days and went to business school in the evening. After getting her certificate, she went to work for a concern owned by a German Jewish man. Within 6 months he had asked her to marry. After having two children, Oma ran the business and Opa went to school to become and eye doctor. They led a privileged life until the great depression.
My Paternal great grandfather had only daughters. He was a necktie manufacturer. He set up each successive son-in-law in a complementary clothing manufacturing business. My Zaidy made shirts, the next daughter’s husband made suits, the next made underwear. The last went on the road as the traveling salesman, peddling a complete line of men’s clothing to Jewish (and Non-Jewish <future President Harry S Truman was a customer>) owned menswear shops across America.The only inheritance of dollars I recall, was when an unmarried great aunt died. They cleaned out her desk in her Brooklyn apartment and found that she had bought US Savings Bonds for her great nieces and nephews through the payroll deduction plan during the 1950s and 60s. By the time we got them they already had stopped drawing interest. I believe I received $750 in 1996.
Having made sure that their children were educated, housed and established, my ancestors in America tended to bequeath their real estate and money to charity not family members, who did not need it to live.
B”H my children and grandchildren are educated, I am now semiretired and we have more than what we need to live comfortably. When the time comes, our children and their children will receive our personal effects and choose from our artwork and furniture. The CTL compound is titled in family trusts. Should they wish to live here, they can negotiate a lease with the trustees. The money, stocks, bonds and commercial real estate will all benefit a list of charities, both Jewish and communal.
@Reb Eliezer…………….
I am 5th generation American
My parents and grandparents were college graduates, professionals or business owners.
I grew up in comfortable circumstances, as in the mid 1950s when a middle class white collar worker made $7.000 per year, my father was making between $75+100K.
I invested early, buying my first rental 3 family house for $27,000 ($3,000 down and a bank mortgage) at the age of 21. The money came from my earnings.
I didn’t inherit wealth, I was given benefits that allowed an Ivy League education and entre to certain people and organizations that allowed me to make and accumulate a large amount of money.
When my parents died, the only inheritance I received were personal effects, such as jewelry.
If one was raised in a family of means, one is not Noveau riche if he makes his own money and continues to be able to live at a similar or better lifestyle than the previous generation.B”H my parents and grandparents lived into their mid 90s. They retired in their mid 60s, their children encouraged them to live well and enjoy their accumulated wealth, not worry about leaving it to us.
Opulence is relative.
To those living in a crowded Brooklyn 2-3 bedroom apartment paying 3500per month in rent, my large home in small town Connecticut may seem opulent. But it was bought at a small price decades ago and built onto by us, doing much of the physical labor ourselves. 15 Rooms owned for the cost of taxes and insurance for less than $1800per month. Maintenance done by the family, not a super or paid help.
You send your kids to camp. Our grandchildren (and great nieces and nephews) all come and spent the summer at Camp CTL (imagine an upscale bungalow colony where all the summer residents are relatives and communal meals), swimming in our swimming pool, playing on our BB court and ball field, growing and harvesting fruits and vegetables in our gardens. Most important being with family. I trust our family a lot more than camp staff and the reported scandals about behavior, cleanliness, bad camp food, etc.
It doesn’t cost me 1/4 per child what camp costs and the piece of mind and joy of generations of the family together, is our true wealth, not opulence.
Only the nouveau riche need to show off money and possessions, building McMansions, driving cars that cost more than I paid for my first couple of houses, etc. But, as they say: There’s no there, there. It is all for show with no substance for lasting value.Oma taught me, buy the absolute best you can afford and it will last, cheap is dear and you are constantly replacing it.
@Avira…….
Re: Rav Meir and StamfordYou are correct, he was involved in finances in Stamford.
I would receive about 4 personal phone calls from him Y”N, Chanuka, Pesach and my Zaidy’s Yahrzeit requesting generous support for the Yeshiva.I gave because I believed they were doing good work and not squandering funds. I never attended a fundraising event and never had my name published in a donor list, on a brass plaque or worse sold to other fundraisers.
51 years ago this summer, Disgraced, Anti-Semite, EX-President Richard Nixon implemented a 90 day Wage and Price Freeze in America.
It was a poorly thought out reaction to inflation. It created shortages of goods in the marketplace.
Dad owned 15 childrens clothing stores. Many Back to School orders did not arrive from clothing manufacturers. The producers could get higher prices exporting the goods than delivering to domestic customers.
Grandpa was a shirt manufacturer. He was paying more for piece goods and trim all during the spring and July and planned to raise prices for Xmas season deliveries due in Chain warehouses by September 1. He immediately came out ‘new’ products and set the prices higher than the old, All mens dress shirts were now made with a locker loop below the rear collar. The added cost in material and labor was about 12 cents per garment, In fact the loop was added to the cutting room markers for the garments using material that would have been thrown in the scrap bin. The wholesale price for the shirts were raised about $1.50 which helped cover the overall increase in costs during 1971 til the freeze. His underwear factory stopped producing plain T-shirts. Now the designs were changed to be pocket T-shirts. New product, added feature meant he could set higher prices.
We were not a net importer of clothing back then, so US factories and manufacturers could react to the wage and price freeze quickly and not lose money.The 90 day freeze was a colossal failure. There were shortages and as soon as the freeze was lifted, prices skyrocketed adding to the inflation spiral.
Back then, people and businesses obeyed government. Most adults had lived through rationing and price controls during WW2. Today, people are far more likely to ignore such a government order and take their chances with lax inspection and inforcement,
@UJM
“Anyone commiting an abortion in those states will find themselves imprisoned.”Your crystal ball is cracked!
Committing a crime does NOT equal imprisonment.
One must first be arrested, charged with a crime, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced.Plenty of people commit crimes and are never imprisoned. A professional lifetime as an attorney has shown this to be true.
there will be jurisdictions where the police will not get involved, where the state’s or district attorneys will not prosecute, where juries will find defendants NOT guilty, where judges will give sentences of fines and/or community service and not prison,
You are truly ignorant of the realities of the legal system.
@Young Rechnitz
“This is great news from everyone’s perspective…”WHO ARE YOU to assume you can speak for everyone. It does not apply to me.
Lakwhut
Talk about Elite against the law…your words
Drunk Laura Bush running a Stop sign and killing someone………………
Get a life. These are NOT elected officials and these are local not federal offenses
Who cares, no one elected the husband to office. He is a private figure.
@UJM
My eldest daughter had to fly to Spain two weeks ago. She asked me for some of the N95 masks with exhalation valves as she has found wearing the regular ones while sleeping or for more than 4 hours hampers her breathing.
She went through TSA checkpoints and the gate at JFK wearing the mask with exhalation valve, no Problem.
BUT, as she was seated and the cabin crew came through, she was Informed that Iberia (as part of IBG Group) does not permit N95 masks exhalation valves on flights as germs can spread through the exhaled breath. Daughter said this was the only type that she had. Airline offered her a surgical style mask. Daughter, took he surgical style mask and put it over the N95 with valve.
When the lights were turned off for the overnight sleep portion of the flight, she removed the surgical mask.
She has since written a letter to Iberia asking for their rationale, as this 8+ hour flight had two meal services and drink service where masks were removed to eat and drink.
Curious what the answer will be, if there is one.
She flew home private on a client’s G650 and choice of mask was not an issueDifferent locations have different regulations, so those posting and not identifying location make comments that are not applicable to all readers.
Black plastic trash bags are not illegal here in CT. In fact our trash haulers require we use them inside the garbage cans. This reduces chances of vermin, especially in hot weather.
We have separate blue recycling cans. The next town does not separate the recyclables, but has a sorting operation at their transfer station (modern word for dump). This facility employs people with limited mental abilities who are suited to repetitive tasks, so it accomplishes multiple goals.
We recycle, glass, metal, cardboard in our blue bin. We have a compost area on our property for food waste. This is later used as fertilizer for our lawns and gardens. Old electronics are taken to our town’s transfer station and are purchased by a recycler who processes them and recovers precious metals from the circuit boards.
We have both garbage disposers in our sink to grind the food waste from dirty dishes, and trash compactors to crush our trash requiring fewer cans to be taken to the street and fewer black bags to be used each week.
Our town even has collection bins outside each public school for fabric waste…meaning ripped clothing, linens, etc. That are not suitable to be donated to charity, but are instead sold by weight and reprocessed. The money from received from this recycling buys additional books for school libraries, beyond the annual budgeted amount
@Avram in MD
French Onion Soup is NOT designed for dairy, it is a beef based soup full of onions with a crouton or piece if crusty bread across the top that the non-kosher world finishes with Gruyere cheese melted on top.
Imitation kosher versions may have a pareve soup base instead of beef and cheese melted on top,
or beef based soup with imitation pareve cheese on top.Personally I prefer just the beef based soup with all the onions and crusty bread to dip in the bowl. Not a fan of cheese
@lakewhut
your ignorance always makes me laugh.
Please prove that the Democratic Party has gone Communist.
You can’t
The Democratic Party platform has never called for the abolition of private property, the hallmark of Communism.
There have been plenty of totalitarian regimes that actively tried to limit free speech that are/were not Communist, the Third Riech for example…they actively persecuted Communists,Check your accuracy before posting falsehoods,
BTW, The Biden Administration is not one and the same as the Democratic Party.Guess it doesn’t serve as the public town square in my town.
I polled fellow active members of town government and the party Town Committees. None have active accounts. Some used it in the past but gave up on it because of overload.Much more going on in the 40 or so town specific Facebook groups. Don’t know many using Instagram, I gave up my account 3 years ago. I used it to follow friends, never posted. The under 25 crowd seems to like Tik Tok, but I have never viewed it, and probably won’t.
Now that government meetings and public hearings in our town are live, I am seeing loads of townspeople I haven’t seen for 2 years. Nothing like sitting over a cup of coffee and discussing the local government, schools, budget, etc
I have never used Twitter….
Never sent or received a tweet……………………………………………..
Somehow a platform for twits never sounded appealing to me. It’s ownership doesn’t matter much to meno, but I don’t eat or like it the rest of the year, either
Continuation response……………….
Those of us living in suburbia, small towns, or with a summer home in the country can also grow some of our own food. It yields better and fresher food than you buy at the supermarket and teaches the kids a good work ethic.Here at the compound, we have always had a 100’x 100′ fruit and vegetable garden, this year we will actually plant 1/2 acre of food items. Seedlings have already been started indoors to be transplanted in late April. Our apple, pear and peach trees, were trimmed in the fall after harvest and will be in bud come May. Corn, potatoes, tomatoes, radishes, beans carrots, melons, cabbage are all easy to grow. Like our non-Jewish country neighbors, we can and freeze and fill the cold storage with root vegetables each summer, but this year will plan on a larger harvest for some of the extended family.
I have a 1/2 interest in several steers being raised by a local farmer. This summer, the Shochet will come from NYC and slaughter and process the animals, the farmer keeps the hides, my non-Jewish neighbor (owner of the other 1/2 interest) gets the hindquarters and my family will kasher and break down the forequarters and freeze in appropriate cuts.Profiteers are using this war as an excuse for raising prices. In most places there is no food shortage, but many may have a shortage of money necessary to purchase the same foodstuffs as in the past.
Just as the US has strategic oil reserves, it has food reserves. The USDA may have to stop paying farmers not to grow crops and pay them to grow food crops (by subsidizing fuel and fertilizer and transportation costs.
There will be more buy local pushes going on.Yes, but I would not do it because they really have to be available 24/7 for emergencies,
That said, I have been an elected Town Council member, Board of Finance Member and Planning and Zoning Commissioner. I was asked to run for State Senator, but in CT, that is a part-time position requiring full time work and would have taken away from my family and law practiceTrump, who stated this week he is Proud of Putin?
Trump. Putin’s puppet, who owes untold millions to Russian banks
I am thrilled to have voted for Biden, so Trump lost@Always
a quick history lesson
The Interstate Highways….those numbered I-xxx (I-95, I-80, I-678 are examples) was originally known as the National Defense Highway System. It was devised and pushed by President Eisenhower based on his horrific experience trying to move an army convoy from the west coast to the east back in the WWI era.
The width of the roads, how much must be level straightaway, etc., was determined by the needs, of tanks, troop carriers, etc. Originally none could have toll booths which were too narrow for this equipment.
Here in CT, what is now I-95 from Greenwich to Waterford was named the CT Turnpike, paid for by bonds the Turnpike authority issued in 1958 and had tolls til the 80s. The receipts could only be used to pay off the construction bonds. Road paid off, tolls gone. Then the road officially became I-95 and federal funds accepted for maintenance and improvements I-91 and I-84 were actually built with federal money and never had tolls.@screwd….
Why is requiring the Covid Test legal for those who want to enter the USA?let’s start with the easiest:
Read the Preamble to the Constitution and when you get to “promote the General Welfare” it is game, set and match.
We have the federal system for the stated reasons in the preamble and societal health falls into the General welfare.No case citations needed.
Don’t want to take the test, don’t enter the USA, don’t want to wear a mask? Instead of buying cheap seats on Spirit or Jet Blue, try NetJets and charter.
@screw
“how can the feds have jurisdiction before the plane is even in America? The entire commerce–that’s transpiring in a different country–is under their regulation?”The feds have jurisdiction because the carriers must certify they have met regulations and bear the cost to repatriate those denied entry to the port of embarkation at the carrier’s expense. This goes back to ocean travel. That is why visa and passports are checked before boarding and a passenger manifest is made at the departure point to be presented on arrival.
The carrier accepts these regulations if they want permission to operate into the US.@Participant
More years ago than I care to admit, I won a prize in law school for top performance in Aviation Law. I have never practiced that kind of law, but I am an aviation ‘geek’No airline exists in the USA that does not a Federal operating license. All commercial pilots licenses are Federal, not state (like your drivers license). Planes operate under FARs…Federal Aviation Rules
The FAA governs airline activity and has the power to approve, ground, fly, etc.
Thus all airline operations are subject to all Federal regulations, laws, mandates, etc.All determination of entry into the country is Federal, now Customs and Immigration is part of ICE.
One cannot be stopped from traveling from state to state by private conveyance (car, boat, walking, private plane), BUT as soon as one boards a public conveyance licensed to carry passengers to cross state lines, then due to the Interstate Commerce Clause in the Constitution all powers belong to the Federal Government.Now the carrot and the stick moshul.
In the 70s many states lowered the legal drinking age to 18 (NY was already there, but CT and most others were 21). Highway deaths among the young skyrocketed, Congress could not pass a federal minimum drinking age (it was 21 on planes and trains for the control reasons stated above), SO, the Federal Government said to the states if you don’t raise the drinking age to 21, we will cut off all federal highway funds to your state. It worked.Are you wrong? YES
Interstate Commerce is governed by Federal not state law and this includes transportation.
Furthermore, a law cannot be illegal, actions violating a law are illegal. A law may be found to be UNCONSTITUTIONAL and struck down by the courts.$12 an hour is ridiculously low in 2022. Here in CT minimum wage is $14 an hour. If I could trust this cleaning person in my home with my possessions he/she had better be worth and paid far more than minimum wage. We have been paying $25 the past year, and during the worst of the pandemic in 2020 and early 2021 were paying $40.
Tikun Meir
Rewrite, edit and publish copyrighted material may be theft and/or violate the copyright laws.
If YWN wants to do its own reporting fine, but of it subscribes to newswire services, it is not free to change things as you wish.What embarrassment, they are both honors.
Did you pay for the honor of Hagbah that morning? If not, move on.
If it makes you feel better, discuss what happened with the Gabbai, so it doesn’t happen again,
.Lastly, follow the methodology of modern synagogues, spend a few dollars and buy a set of honors cards for the Gabbai to hand out. They list the honor: Cohen, Levi, Slishi, etc., Maftir, Hagbah (or 1 and 2), Gelillah (or 1 and 2). The holder of the honor card comes up to the bima and hands the card to the Gabbai or puts it on the Shulchan. Everyone knows which honor the man is getting.
It is common to hand the cards for honors for a Bar Mitzvah or Wedding family to the father who distributes them to his guests (who may not be known to the Gabbai).Golabki……………….
My eldest BIL’s family calls it Chunt. They hailed from Minsk in the 1880s
@Lostspark
I am not a moderator of the CR@always
Representing CCP types in American Courts??????????????????????????????????How many times do I have to post that I am a family law attorney. I do divorces, wills, trusts, estates, adoptions. I don’t do criminal law, real estate, slips and falls, auto accidents, medical malpractice, etc. In fact 90% of my personal work is for one family and its trusts across five generations.
I take very few new client families at this point of my life, I don’t do any advertising and a prospective client would need a really fine referral to see me. The chance of representing a CCP type in American Courts is virtually nil.
There is not enough room to post why I don’t like Trump (and his spawn). Biden is a better option, but not THE better option.
DO NOT put words in my mouth. I challenge you to show where I supported killing anyone in China. I supported letting countries make their own domestic decisions. I did not state whether or not I agreed with the decision.
You again lie about my post when you say I condemn Kent State. I said don’t get me started, as the Deceased Jeffrey Miller was m cousin. I prefer not to open a wound and discuss the situation.
Tie for you to get a job, or go back to learning and stop trolling. No further replies, you are not worth my time
I am a Zaidy, but still actively practicing my profession. My house may be mortgage free (because I paid it off on schedule over its 20 year term), but I have many mortgages on properties I own. In fact, yesterday I closed on a property and another mortgage. With rates at historic lows and rents at historic highs, it makes sense for me to borrow to finance these new acquisitions.
#1 I don’t have to believe, I watched the news coverage of the massacre live
#2 There were alternatives, but this is what the Chinese government chose to handle the domestoc situation
#3 I support letting countries make domestic decisions without our interference.#4 Don’t get me started on Kent State, the dead Jewish male lying in the street in the iconic photograph was a cousin of mine (not first degree)
@EJMBRO
or should I call you bigot?
Youngest CTL daughter was born and adopted in China. All of our grandchildren are fluent in Mandarin, taken as their foreign language requirement, as it is more useful in their professional lives than French or Spanish.
You have no clue what is going in in China.
Major areas on lockdown to stop spread of Covid. Vaccination and masks are mandatory, period.I’m glad you think VP Harris will be President in the future. I have been a delegate to the National Democratic Convention for decades, and I don’t think she will the party’s nominee. As long as President Biden stays healthy, she will not be President.
Your fear mongering is disguting
Things change over time. I am a baby boomer. When I was in high school, I went o Yeshiva from 7:30 to 12:30 and then the afternoon shift at public high school from 1-5. Then to an Ivy league college and law school.
My daughters and granddaughters went to a Chabad girls high school that has been around 60 years. It prides itself on top notch secular studies half a day and their students being admitted to top colleges and universities. Outside of members of the Principal’s extended family, virtually no girl goes on to only seminary after high school. This school had a boys high school as well in my sons day, it closed before my grandsons time, so they went to high school in Brooklyn, but were listed as being homeschooled in CT, got CT diplomas and admitted to top colleges and law schools. Mrs. CTL and I taught them most of their important secular subjects or engaged specialist tutors.If your child or grandchild is playing the sport, perhaps on a school or camp team, not showing up, watching and shouting encouragement is dumb.
Watching professional sports may be a waste of time.
Taking my grandsons to see minor league or college baseball in the springtime is time well spent in a wholesome environment4 hours is enough for me…………..
11-3 if I conference calls with clients in China
1-5 if not@guteyid
“‘its 100 percent true that vaccines WORK’
Not true. End of conversation.”They work, no one posted that they are 100% effective.
Some vaccines work better than others” banned outdoor church and synogogue services because of covid ”
I call out your lie,
The PARTY has/had no power to ban anything. Bans were put in place by elected state and municipal officials according to emergency powers granted by state legislatures.
Last April, those gathering bans were ordered by CT Governor Lamont (D) and our next door neighbor, MA Governor Baker (R).Get it out of your head that every action by a member of a party means it is the official stance of the party, or even that the party takes such a stance.
Right now in CT, Mandatory mask wearing inside buildings besides schools and Government offices is a decision made by the municipal chief executive. My Town, led by a D does not have a mask mandate, the 4 contiguous towns led by Rs do have mask mandates.
@CoffeeAddict
Have you ever seen me mention CRT?
In my school days it referred to a Cathode Ray Tube…..the picture screen of your television or computer monitorNo, things will get much worse. Kiss your religious freedom goodbye
@Gadol
doesn’t sound like there is a drasha from the shul Rav when there are 11 separate minyanim in 11 separate rooms each with 100 participants@gadolhardorah
Why an assignment for adolescent boys. My comment was in reference to those required to perform x hours of community service by their schools, not adolescent boys in general.As for asking noncompliant sfarim users to daven elsewhere………………….
I come from OOT. People pay membership dues to belong to their shuls, that why I mentioned it being part of what the shammos is paid to do. The OP wrote of a shul large enough to have 1100 men davening in Shabbos in 11 minyanim in separate rooms. This sounds like a large enough institution to have paid employees…..or is it 1100 men who enjoy the heat, lights, furniture sfarim paid for by others?@amom
I discussed both public and day school salaries here in CT in my comments.
My mother spent her 40 year career in the public school system ending up as Asst Superintendent of Schools for Special Education. She retired in 1984. Back then the Jewish Day schools and local yeshivos would not admit that there were Jewish children who needed Special Ed and did not accept them as students.
In 1962 my mother approached the Director of Jewish Education for the Community Council in New Haven (H. Henkin) and offered to teach a Sunday school class for Jewish students with mental retardation (back then the basic diagnosis of special ed students, way before Autism and the spectrum were en vogue). He refused, saying those children should not be out in the community. She approached Yale University and was offered a classroom free of charge. he ran a Sunday program for Jewish students without regard to how religious the family and its practices were. By 1980 the local day schools and after school Hebrew Schools were employing Sped teachers and she stopped the Sunday program. 18 years with no salary, just love.OOT, teachers at day schools and yeshivos get paid far more than in Brooklyn and Lakewood. I remember all the years on the synagogue boards I put in…general rule of thumb: the closer to Brooklyn the lower the dalary you have to offer teachers and Rabbis
That’s part of the job of the Shammos. We pay him to put back sfarim left out by inconsiderate people as well as to go through the shelves in the course of the week and put things in order.
Some day schools are now requiring X hours of community service, just as public schools do. Perfect assignment for adolescent boys to fulfil the requirements.@AbbaS
“so electricity not used is lost.”
It is not lost, it does not disappear in thin air.
The excess electricity we generate goes to our local power company. Unlike your post’s assumption, they don’t buy it at the selling rate. They bank it and a running balance appears on out monthly bill.
So when we use power from the utility in bad weather, at night, etc. we are withdrawing KHW from our savings account.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Generation by wind farms and hydroelectricity may be a better solution for a utility to produce electricity, but not for an individual. Our town’s zoning would never allow windmills of requisite height in the backyard of a home on a typical 1/2 acre plot. All windfarms and hydroelectric production do is reduce costs for utilities and cut down on fossil fuel waste. I am in favor of Nuclear production, but that’s for a utility not a homeowner.Last year, we were guaranteed 30,000KHW production by the company who installed the solar on the main house in the compound (all our buildings have solar), we produced 47,000KHW. We have enough banked to carry us through a stormy winter. I love when I open the utility bill and it is only for the minimum $11.46, prior to solar this house bill was $650monthly in winter and $1300 in summer.