It's May Day or Beltaine and there is something special in the air. Everything is bursting with life, blossoming and expanding. Instead of our usual quote de jour, I've included a poem by Corinne Whitby. Clicking on the blue hyper links will bring you to the information later in the blog and the Website for the The Museum Of Jewish Heritage. Sorry for the techno glitches in formatting. Cyber nerd is not my middle name.

 Beltaine

Green and growing
May flowers blooming
Love and ,longing
Nature dancing.
Amid growing energy
The vibrations of life
Burst forth in ten thousand different directions.
And like the may queen
I wear bright ribbons and a dress of green.
I dance in the sun and rain
And feel within my breast
The fire burning
To take risks
To live on the edge,
To spread my wings and fly,
For this moment
Life is and I am
One and the same.

This is one of my favorite holidays,but a sad one too because it is the anniversary of my father's death. I visited one of my favorite cemeteries last week and felt the juxtaposition of life and death in full force. Mushooms sprouted amongst fresh blades of grass and fiery leaves glowed next to cold stone. The merry month of May brings much hope and promise. What will inspire you this month?

Last night, I attended a preview  for the new exhibit: From Beyond Swastika To Jim Crow: Jewish Refugee Scholars At Black Colleges. It's equal parts inspiring and heartbreakingly poignant.

The eye-opening exhibit opens today at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. You needn't be Jewish or African American to appreciate this important and little known slice of history. The museum is a modern masterpiece of glass and metal situated at the tip of Manhattan with stellar views of the statue of Liberty and ironically, Ellis Island.

 
In Nazi Germany, many top Jewish scholars and professors who had lost their jobs in 1939 (for simply being Jewish) tried finding jobs at American colleges. Generally were not received with open arms, but over fifty Jewish scholars found their luck at many black colleges in the south. These two presecuted groups found comman ground for a mutually enriching relationship.

It's one thing to read about history, but for a visceral taste, there is no substitute for seeing real artifacts up close and personal like: a Klu klux Klan robe, a sign for "colored waiting room" and inky documents from another era. It feels so long ago and yet it it wasn't.