Jennie Molovinsky, Part 1

I was at a party where the host recently acquired a lawn sculpture. Unknown to him, a section of it was comprised of an old Jewish tombstone, of a wife and mother, M. Azrilian, who died at the age of 25 in 1918. It's a beautiful carving of a branchless tree trunk, symbolizing a life ended prematurely.
I became concerned as to where this stone had come from. Who would know if their great-grandmother's stone was taken? I had no idea even where my great-grandmother was buried. I searched for this young woman's grave. Finally, Rabbi Juda from Bethlehem directed me to the old Agudath Achim Cemetery in Fountain Hill. There I found the woman, M. Azrilian, with a new grave marker. Next to her I discovered Jennie Molovinsky, my great-grandmother.

My thanks to Rabbi Juda and M. Azrilian (1893-1918)

I  wrote the above paragraph in July of 1997.  In searching for M. Azrilian, I first became aware of Mt. Sinai, the small Jewish portion of Fairview Cemetery on Lehigh Street in Allentown. Early posts on this blog deal with my advocacy for that cemetery, and the history of the Mt. Sinai portion.  When Jennie died in 1913, the former Agudath Achim Synagogue on 2nd Street in Allentown had just consecrated their new cemetery on Fullerton Avenue. Jewish tradition requires that the first burial be a man, so Jennie was buried in the old cemetery, on Fountain Hill.

A Thorny Issue With Old Allentown

Although I'm friendly with a number of people who live in Old Allentown, I must once again take their Association to task. Their current press release: Please come out and help us beautify our neighborhood and meet your neighbors... The Old Allentown Preservation Association is planting roses bushes along the Union and West End Cemetery's fence on Chew St. from 10th St. to 12th St...We have cleared a 3 foot rose bed along the whole Chew St. fence and will be planting 142 3 gallon roses along the fence. Partially funded by a grant from the City of Allentown and by the United Way. The last thing that cemetery needs is more plantings to take care of. It's been well over a decade since that cemetery has been properly maintained. Even as the group prepared a bed for the rose bushes, large sections of the cemetery, and the area around the tombstones, have yet to be mowed this year. I made this observation on Facebook today, and a member replied, There are plans in the works to assist with dealing with weeds and mowing the grass. OAPA has not finalized them yet. OAPA has been in existence for 30 years, the cemetery, in the middle of the district, has been in distress for 20 years. Time for you folks to finalize those plans.

UPDATE: Perhaps the true intention of the roses is to be a sight barrier between Old Allentown and the reality of the cemetery's neglect.

The Forever Bridge

As the recently departed city engineer, Richard Young, was giving his blessings to the Wildlands Conservancy phonies to demolish the Robin Hood Dam, supposedly for ecology, the Cedar Creek, just south of the Taking Forever New Union Street Bridge, was disastrously eroding it's banks. In the destruction, caused by the coffer dams and resulting creek rerouting for bridge construction, the trees are dying and the pedestrian bridge has been virtually destroyed. This bridge served the parking lot and children of Hamilton Park for decades. Another casualty of the Taking Forever Bridge, is that both the Union Terrace baseball fields are out of commission. Save for this blog, where has the Park and Engineering oversight been hiding?

The $10 Million Dollar Man

There is an interesting letter to the editor in today's paper, where the writer regurgitates the image that Madison Avenue put in his head about Tom Wolf. The writer thinks that Wolf is a folksy guy, as portrayed in the television commercials. I don't know much about the real Tom Wolf, but neither does he. I do know that he's no outsider, having served under Rendell. I suspect that he didn't come back to his family business to save the worker's jobs, but because he stopped receiving payments on a note that he was holding. The letter writer speculates that this marvelous guy went from last to first place because he's such a champion of the people. I marvel about how oblivious people are to the influence of a good commercial.

Power Outage Idles Blog Production

molovinsky on allentown has just gotten back on line, after about 13 hours of another PPL outage. Customers have come to expect disrupted service when wind reaches beyond 6 miles per hour. Although the PPL automated message system first reported that power would be restored by 8:00pm last evening, the message was then changed to 7:00am this morning. As a veteran of these power interruptions, let me translate. A tree or branch fell on a line, and the contracted tree service doesn't start work until daylight. One would think that after all the recent outages, the utility might have considered an in-house tree service. According to an article in The Morning Call, PPL showed some favoritism in 2011, dispatching crews to special customers. We know that I'm not one of them.

Historic Visit To Israel

Although Pope Francis' visit to Jerusalem captured world headlines, the real history was made by Cardinal Bechara Ra'i, Patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, centered in Lebanon. While over 11,000 Maronites live in Israel, it was the first visit by a leader of that church since 1948, when Israel was created. The Patriarch felt compelled by faith to greet Francis in Jerusalem, but while there met with no Israeli officials. Never the less, the visit has been criticized in Lebanon by Hezbollah, for humanizing the enemy. They said that the Patriarch's visit to Jerusalem cannot pass quietly. Let us pray that it does. Here in the Lehigh Valley, there is a Maronite community in Easton.

the Cardinal at a church in Jaffa

Internet TV Scoops Mass Media

ASSOCIATED PRESS: A small internet TV production has announced the first scheduled interview with Candidate Molovinsky, who is vying to be the only independent in the Pennsylvania State House. Molovinsky has agreed to sit down with hosts Robert Trotner and Lou Shupe this coming Sunday, June 1, at three o'clock. The show, Lehigh Valley Caffeinated, specializes in political content.

UPDATE:This interview has been postponed one week, until Sunday June 8th, same time, same channel