papereader

kristin. new yorker. // i'm in love with the possibility of words and music. writer, editor, star trek is my greatest love. this here is tumblr catharsis.  current resident of south korea. former resident of amsterdam, noord-holland & osaka, japan. icon by foxboros!

[telegantmess]

“Forgiveness, it has been said, means giving up our hopes for a better past.”

Rabbi Alan Lew (z’’l)

This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared

[holyisthenameofmyruthlessaxe]

To the Bone, Dorothy Allison 

[ID: That summer I did not go crazy / but I wore / very close / very close / to the bone.]

[spockvarietyhour]

Talk to me, Walter.

Fringe "The Box"

[papereader]

[thelupuslady]

True.

[garak-pussy-indulgence]

i saw the original and blacked out, and when I woke up I had created this

[lsleofskye]

Hrensko | _marcelsiebert

[rosvl]

[riverwindphotography]

Clear waters trickling through granitic rocks, Crazy Creek, Absaroka-Beartooth Plateau, Wyoming

(c) gifs by riverwindphotography, August 2023

[enigmasandepiphanies]

I am, as the novelists say, in need of seaside air

[hamotzi]

✨🔥happy hanukkah!! 🔥✨

[landrylovesmatcha]

i know that technically this would probs be the other way around but shhhhh let spock be swept off his feet

🌾🪐🌏✨🥃

[docholligay]

Help a Jewish Community Buy Back Its Own Damn Synagogue!

Firsty, thank you for reading this, and I hope you’ll get through it and give us the honor of a donation, firstly, and a reblog, secondly. Maybe even a note to any friends you have outside of tumblr! 

If you don’t care about the history, skip to the bold at the end! 

This is Temple Emanu-El, in Helena, Montana. At the time it was built, it was the only synagogue between Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Portland, Oregon. It was built with the hard work of the Jewish community that had come west to seek their fortune and stability, having heard that people were more willing to do business with Jews in the West, a place where social strictures were slightly relaxed. This turned out to be true, and the community thrived. 

This picture resolves small on tumblr, but you can see the love and care they put into it. It’s modeled after the great synagogues of Europe, with heavy stonework, onion domes, and intricate stained glass. The president of the congregation cried at its opening and dedication. 

As the years went on, the West became more settled, and for a series of socio-political reasons of which my History of the American West major ass is well aware but are ultimately unimportant to the issue at hand, Jewish communities left much of the interior west for metropolitan areas. By the 1930s, the Jewish community was so small that they could not justify the large and lavish worship center. 

They sold it to the city for one dollar. 

The promise made to them was that it would be used for the public good. The state readied the former temple for its new function as offices for Social and Rehabilitation Services, sandblasting of the Hebrew inscription, “Gate to the Eternal,” above the entry and removing the star-studded, painted domes.. The copper was stripped from the building and likely reused to re-clad the State Capitol’s dome at about the same time. 

That lasted all of 40 years, when the State of Montana decided to let it sit idle and decay, so they could justify the sale of the building, sold for a pittance to the public good, to the Helena Catholic Diocese for $83,000  (this is an opinion of mine, though it is not an uneducated one, and I do firmly believe it. I do not, however, represent that they allowed it to fall into disrepair to justify the sale as objective fact.) 

This is the building now

In a twist of fate, the diocese can no longer afford to maintain the building. They are selling it, and the Jewish community of Helena is trying to buy it. 

The Montana Jewish Project is being far far far nicer and more politic about this than I would be, but in fairness, they actually how to get Nice Goyim to donate, and I don’t, so. The Diocese is spinning this as selling the building for much less than its worth, which may be true, but if you bought it for $83,000, that would be $280,000 now. 

They are selling it for $925,000. And we have to have 70% of the purchase price by February 28th. Easy terms, right? 

Here’s where you come in! If the idea of Montana’s Jews getting back the building that was sold to the Diocese in spite of the original agreement appeals to you, you can and should donate to their capital campaign. They even have an option for your donation where if we don’t get Emanu-El back, your money will be returned to you instead of being used for other MJP protects and repairs. 

This place won’t just be used for the Jewish community, though I think that would be enough. They want it to be used as a museum and center for the community as well, to teach about Jewish life in Montana, with Jewish cooking classes, and social programs, and teaching non-Jews about Jewish customs and culture. 

I just want to get the cross off the top.

Donate here

[keyofjetwolf]

Please donate if you can. Please help signal boost either way.

[flapjacs]

Happy Lunar New Year! 🌙새해 복 많이 받으세요~

have this fat chonky baby

[reachabovethetrees]

“We are held in a matrix of cause and effect, of actions and consequences, of infinite complexity. Perhaps we catch an occasional glimpse of how things came about in a particular case. Mostly we simply try to make sense of what is happening to us now, at this precious moment.”

— Rabbi Jonathan Magonet, A Rabbi Reads The Torah

[riverwindphotography]

Winter Evening in Wyoming

© riverwindphotography, January 2022

[lovestereo]

Visit Original Link

[papereader]

하늘에 닿은 그곳 꿈을 꾸는 자들이 있는 곳 생사의 그곳 갖은 전설이 떠도는 곳 때때로 우린 보게 되지 가능치 못한 건 세상에 없단 증거를