Wednesday, January 6, 2021

STUFF...AGAIN

 Well, friends, we have collected some more stuff for your reading pleasure:

~~ JTA reported that newly elected Congressperson and past Chair of JFNA, Kathy Manning, will bring the same skillset that she deployed to "bring Jews together" to her new role.https://www.jta.org/2021/01/04/united-states/kathy-manning-brought-jews-together-can-she-do-the-same-in-congress Somehow, not my recollection. I do remember, however, the multi-million dollar waste of the Global Planning Table which the Congressperson chaired until it was put out of its misery. But, Kathy may have now found herself in a place -- Congress -- more dysfunctional than JFNA was under her leadership.

Today it was reported that cong. Manning had received an appointment to the House Foreign Affairs Committee (after not receiving the appointment on the first round). This proved the point that I made to a friend: "History has proved that what Manning wants, Manning gets...eventually. That tenacity should serve her well, as it always has.

~~ Saw an ad for the "auction of rare and important Judaica" which included, among other things:

  • Elizabeth Taylor's Personal Menorahs
  • Letters by Jewish Mobster Meyer Lansky
  • Dershowitz's Collection of Dreyfus Affair Ephemera
There's no doubt more.

~~ The New York Jewish Week recently reported that Sammy's Roumanian Steakhouse "denied rumors that it is closing permanently." Of course, it described this classic dump as "...the endearingly sleazy Lower East Side restaurant" -- just as I (and you) remember it. If Sammy's never reopens, all of us will treasure it, as the Journal cited one review: "...loudly, raucously, endlessly, embracingly Jewish, a permanent underground bar mitzvah where Gentiles can act like Jews and Jews can act like themselves." I recall that after my last visit to Sammy's (maybe a decade ago) I had to burn my clothes -- there was no way to get the garlic smell and the shmaltz fee out of them. (And, to actually feel and smell Sammy's, read Pete Wells great review -- "the most wonderful, terrible restaurant in New York" -- in the NYT in 2014:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/dining/restaurant-review-sammys-roumanian-steakhouse-on-the-lower-east-side.html)

2 comments:

paul jeser said...

I have been going to Sammy's for decades since I was a kid - even back when it was owned by Sammy himself. The best comment so far (forget who wrote it): Sammy's.. where Gentiles can act like Jews, and Jews can act like Jews!

We know David Zimmerman (current owner) who took it over from his father (Charlie - known for yelling when a good-looking obviously non- Jewish women would enter.. 'another shiksa in the house!'). Charlie won the restaurant from Sammy in a Poker game!

There is/was no place in NY more Jewish than Sammy's. I hope that David reopens it.

Anonymous said...

Kathy Manning bringing the Jews together??? Aside from your astute comments, is that really her role as a Congressperson? Congresspeople are not supposed to represent a particular religious group. She is supposed to represent the people of her district. If she helps bring the Jews and non Jews of her district together, that will be a far more important role for her.