Behind the Scenes at the Supreme Court

By Joan Kurtz

CSJO recently joined with other diverse nontheistic organizations to participate in "The Secular Week of Action, May 1 – 10, 2020" to mobilize secular people to make positive changes in our communities and to work together to demonstrate our shared commitment to making this world, here and now, a better place.

I joined Zooniverse (www.zooniverse.org) to participate in online research projects. From its website: "The Zooniverse is the world's largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. This research is made possible by volunteers — more than a million people around the world who come together to assist professional researchers."

I scrolled through various subject options on Zooniverse's website — medicine, science, arts, humanities, just to name a few. I chose to transcribe the handwritten conference notes left by Supreme Court justices. These transcriptions will provide unprecedented access to the justices' conversations in thousands of Court decisions.

The process is basically to look over the court case being presented, read (or attempt to decipher) the justice's handwritten notes and then transcribe to the best of my abilities what I believe is written. Fortunately, nine other volunteers will also transcribe the same notes. This will assure that we all transcribed the notes as best as we could. Since I have been stuck at home due to the pandemic, I usually transcribe one to three sets of notes a day. I have transcribed notes from Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Blackmum, Stewart, Douglas and Stevens.

I encourage others to check out Zooniverse. You might find something that interests you and will help scientists and researchers complete their projects.

Chaim Yankel!

By Joan Kurtz

While visiting with my 94-year-old mother earlier this year, we were talking about the everyday person on the street. She said, “You know, Chaim Yankel!.” I instantly cracked up as she did as well. My husband who was sitting with us had never heard of Chaim Yankel. Mom and I were both stunned.

I grew up on Long Island and my husband in Queens. Yet he never heard of him. So I did a quick check with others. A good friend from Long Island had also never heard of Chaim Yankel, but my friend from the Bronx knew instantly who he was; she, too, started laughing as she hadn’t heard his name mentioned in a long time.

In his splendid book, “The Joys of Yiddish,” Leo Rosten gives two definitions of the Yiddish term Chaim Yankel:
1. A nonentity, a nobody, any “poor Joe.”
2. A colloquial, somewhat condescending way of addressing a Jew whose name you do not know — just as “Joe” or “Mac” is sometimes used in English.

My question is: Have you heard of Chaim Yankel?!?

First Jewish Ghetto

By Joan Kurtz

Most people have heard and used the word "ghetto," but may not know of its origins. I learned more about this word while visiting Venice recently where I actually saw where the Venetian Jewish ghetto had been established more than 500 years ago.

The original spelling of "ghetto" was "gheto" from an Italian dialect and means "foundry." It seems that the first Jewish ghetto was created on March 29,1516, on one of Venice's 118 islands on what was once the foundry or the area where metals were produced. The Jewish population was removed from the general population and secluded in this ghetto, far away from the other Venetians. In addition, two gates were constructed by the two bridges that connected this island to the rest of Venice. These would be locked at night but open during the day for both Jews and Venetians to travel unhindered.

Later, "gheto" would be spelled "ghetto" and translated as "section of city where Jews are forced to live." These gates were not open till 1797 when Napoleon invaded Italy. Then the gates were torn down and the ghetto's Jewish citizens celebrated.