Some Truths Are Self-Evident

The Onion does it again in it's Area Man Passionate Defender of What He Imagines Constitution to Be.

"Our very way of life is under siege," said Mortensen, whose understanding of the Constitution derives not from a close reading of the document but from talk-show pundits, books by television personalities, and the limitless expanse of his own colorful imagination. "It's time for true Americans to stand up and protect the values that make us who we are."

According to Mortensen—an otherwise mild-mannered husband, father, and small-business owner—the most serious threat to his fanciful version of the 222-year-old Constitution is the attempt by far-left "traitors" to strip it of its religious foundation.

"Right there in the preamble, the authors make their priorities clear: 'one nation under God,'" said Mortensen, attributing to the Constitution a line from the Pledge of Allegiance, which itself did not include any reference to a deity until 1954. "Well, there's a reason they put that right at the top."

"Men like Madison and Jefferson were moved by the ideals of Christianity, and wanted the United States to reflect those values as a Christian nation," continued Mortensen, referring to the "Father of the Constitution," James Madison, considered by many historians to be an atheist, and Thomas Jefferson, an Enlightenment-era thinker who rejected the divinity of Christ and was in France at the time the document was written. "The words on the page speak for themselves."

According to sources who have read the nation's charter, the U.S. Constitution and its 27 amendments do not contain the word "God" or "Christ."

Mortensen said his admiration for the loose assemblage of vague half-notions he calls the Constitution has only grown over time. He believes that each detail he has pulled from thin air—from prohibitions on sodomy and flag-burning, to mandatory crackdowns on immigrants, to the right of citizens not to have their hard-earned income confiscated in the form of taxes—has contributed to making it the best framework for governance "since the Ten Commandments."

As postscript about the Pledge of Allegiance: It was written by a socialist preacher in 1892.

Mississippi Lost and Can't Get Over It

I know Mississippi wasn't the only state that closed offices for Confederate Memorial Day on Monday. Like St Casserole, I feel it is time to stop doing stuff like this that keeps holding us back. Like her, I've had ancestors who fought in the Civil War, one killed and another who lost an arm.

Our New President

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Yellow Badges

The Shoah does not who we are as Jews but it has pierced our souls. As I was watching this video, as usual, I scanned the faces and saw those who were familiar.

An American Success

The United States has a long history of rugged individualism. Throughout our history, strong men and women have made a difference. The Founding Fathers fought the British empire over the right to have a government that was by the people and for the people. There were those who sought to end the cruelty of slavery. There were those who faced head-on the guns and batons of businesses who wanted to keep labor unions out. There were leaders such as Abraham Lincoln who did not have access to education and yet, his was curious enough to go out and learn. He went from a log house to the White House.

There are others who are less well-known. Some, like Booker T. Washington I read about in school. Against the background of being born a slave, he succeeded in establishing a college. Theodore Roosevelt invited him to dinner at the White House. One hundred years ago, this was met with much criticism.

Times have changed and for the better. We have a President-elect whose personal history is one that blends overcoming early hardships as well as representing the new mobility of our nation. Obama comes from a broken family. His father was from Kenya. Obama was born in Hawaii just two years after it became a state. He only met his father once and his mother had to go on welfare. With the help of his grandparents, he was able to go to some very good schools. Like many others, he has used the education he received to advance.

It wasn't just his education, which to some means elitism, that propelled him to the White House. Like other leaders in the mold of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan, he goes beyond the simple concept of individualism. All of these leaders succeeded to positions of leadership on their merits. Others have done the same without being well regarded or remembered.

I have my thoughts on why the Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Reagan stand out more so than than Cleveland, Harding, and other presidents. I'm not going to share them at this time. I seem to be at a cross-roads with many of the bloggers I read on a daily basis. I'm inviting opinions.

Why do you think George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan stand-out as presidents?

I Don't Trust Them

I don't trust the Evangelical movement and their motives for embracing Israel. Some Jews argue we need to accept their help because they are staunch backers of Israel. Maybe I'm too harsh or cynical but I cannot help feeling going this route will end in disaster for Israel. Throughout history, we've seen those who offered welcome to Jews eventually turn against them.

History tells of the forced conversions of Jews in Spain. It tells of the mass expulsions from Europe. It tells us of Poland welcoming those expelled Jews. It even tells us hat happened after the welcome mat was withdrawn. My families history is entwined with one experience: Tulchin. Jews and Poles fought against the Cossacks in that town. Jewish defenders numbered 2,000 and Polish defenders numbered 600. The Cossacks convinced the Poles to give up the Jews and Rabbi Aaron agreed, warning that not to do so, Catholics would turn on Jews as well. After the Jews gave their weapons to the Poles, the Cossacks entered the town. They were given the choice of baptism or death. The thousand Jews who remained steadfast and rejected baptism were tortured and then murdered.

Time after time, Christians have called on easing hatred of Jews. This was done in order to try to attract Jews to Christianity. One of the most famous and vile of these was the leader of the Reformation Movement, Martin Luther.

He stated at the beginning:

The Jews are blood-relations of our Lord; if it were proper to boast of flesh and blood, the Jews belong more to Christ than we. I beg, therefore, my dear Papist, if you become tired of abusing me as a heretic, that you begin to revile me as a Jew.

This was not an acceptance of Jews but merely a means of trying to court Jews to convert. When those conversions failed to appear, Luther turned on the Jews and gave the world some of the most vile anti-Semitism. Some of his one-liners:

What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct, now that we are aware of their lying and reviling and blaspheming. If we do, we become sharers in their lies, cursing and blasphemy. Thus we cannot extinguish the unquenchable fire of divine wrath, of which the prophets speak, nor can we convert the Jews. With prayer and the fear of God we must practice a sharp mercy to see whether we might save at least a few from the glowing flames. We dare not avenge ourselves. Vengeance a thousand times worse than we could wish them already has them by the throat. I shall give you my sincere advice:

First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians. For whatever we tolerated in the past unknowingly and I myself was unaware of it will be pardoned by God. But if we, now that we are informed, were to protect and shield such a house for the Jews, existing right before our very nose, in which they lie about, blaspheme, curse, vilify, and defame Christ and us (as was heard above), it would be the same as if we were doing all this and even worse ourselves, as we very well know.

Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their synagogues. Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a barn, like the gypsies. This will bring home to them that they are not masters in our country, as they boast, but that they are living in exile and in captivity, as they incessantly wail and lament about us before God.

Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. (remainder omitted)

Mohammad also tried to woe Jews to convert to Islam and when they held steadfast, the curses rained upon them and the attacks began.

It has been barely two hundred years since Jews were freed from the ghettos of Europe. Even this was not a move intended to give Jews greater freedom but a way to speed up assimilation. We all know the atrocious horror of the Shoah. The words of Martin Luther were echoed by Hitler and are now echoed by Iran's leader. Just replace the word Jew with Zionists or Israel, the message of hate is still the same.

Today, Jews are facing another wave of anti-Semitism. Even in the US, synagogues in large cities have to have heavy security. Noted scholars openly state that the Jewish lobby has undue influence on US foreign policy. These same scholars ignore the vast lobbies of others. Since the financial melt-down, there have been more and more claims that Jewish financiers are to blame.

Evangelicals proclaim their love of Israel and are, on the surface, staunch supporters of Israel. But what is their motivation? Is it love of HaShem's Creation? Or is it the believe that by having all Jews in Israel, their messiah will come again? And what happens if their messiah doesn't show up at the proscribed time? Will their thoughts turn, as been the case many, many times through history, to destroying Jews? I know Ann Coulter is the extreme but when spouted that Christians are "perfected Jews", it was largely held that this is standard believe. We see some Christian groups calling themselves Jews for Jesus and trying by deception to convert Jews to Christianity.

History does have a nasty way of repeating itself. Each time Jews or their cause is welcomed, they are later turned on. It took a couple of hundred years for Poland to reverse its welcome mat. It took around a decade for Luther to stop praising Jews and to start vilifying them. What will happen to Evangelical support for Israel in the future? We only have history to go by and I don't trust their motives.

Presidential

An American Story

My family's story is typical of many. On my Mom's side of the family, our roots can traced to the shores of England. On this side of the family, there are ancestors who fought in most of the wars the United States engaged in. There are those with my family name who fought in the Revolutionary War but I haven't yet been able to connect without doubt they are part of my family tree.

These ancestors fought in the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Battle of Little Bighorn, and World War II. They were hard-working and had land in Virginia and the one who fought in the War of 1812 was given more land. He lost an arm. Two lost their lives in the Civil War: one from disease and the other from wounds suffered. They fought on the southern side of the conflict but their descendants went on to defend the United States in future wars. My Mom's uncle lost an arm in World War II.

My father's side were one of the millions who believed in the words at the base of the Statue of Liberty:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

My grandfather was ten when his Dad grew tired of the endless pogroms in the Pale of the Settlement. These roots can be traced to the early 1700's in Tulchin. My grandfather lied about his age in order to join the fledgling US Air Corps in 1916. He grew disenchanted when his duties consisted of sewing the canvas that the wings were made of. His father had a grocery store in Chicago. My grandfather built up a construction company. He married my grandmother. She served as a secretary to Adlai Stevens father. My grandfather and his brothers and sisters all worked hard in this country and quickly established means of living in this land of opportunity.

My family's story is just one of millions. It is these stories which shed light on what makes the United States unique. It is the freedoms which we defend so fiercely that make us unique. We have no established religion such as the Church of England. We have the right to mock, belittle, and criticize our government leaders without fear of prosecution. We hold peaceful transfers of power in elections that are representative of the people. We have the right to bear arms and to defend ourselves. We even have the built in right of dissolving our Constitution and forming a new form of government. We are not prefect but the world has yet to see a more prefect form of government. We must guard our cherished rights and allow those who disagree with the direction our country is taking to be able to voice their opinion. We must not limit our right to freedom of speech in a misguided effort not to offend. We have been given the freedom "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".

There are some injustices currently that need to be addressed. In a misguided effort to stop the flow of drugs, police were given unreasonable means of seizure. Without a trial, a person can now have his money, his home, his car, and other property seized under the suspicion of drug possession and trafficking.

In a misguided effort to protect our children, people are now being prosecuted for unknowingly downloading child pornography. Others are the victims of gross injustice because of the no-knock ruling. Now, we have reports of computers and other electronic devices being seized by TSA.

The men who read aloud the Declaration of Independence 232 years ago did not fear the repercussions of their audacity. We should not let fear today erode our freedoms.

Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton


US Archives

President Coolidge-1926

President Lincoln-1858

You've Come Along Way "Baby"

The first computer I used was TRS-80. Biloxi High School purchased them for computer science classes. We learned BASIC programming and for our final exam, each had to write a program to help other students having trouble in algebra. I choose to do mine on quadratic equations. I still have a copy somewhere. I should try to run it on the 1981 IBM PC someone gave me about ten years ago. The one I have has both a 5 1/2 and 3.5 floppy drive!!! Someone gave me a copy of Windows Version 1. Both the computer and the software I was able to find for it are a far cry from today's computers.

Even as primitive as the first IBM PCs appear by comparison to the computer of today, the forerunners seem prehistoric.

BBC has a recording of one of the earliest computers, "Baby", playing songs. The pictures of "Baby" and the recorded songs show just how far computers have come.

To Touch the Wall

To touch the Wall, to stand at the remnants of the Second Temple and to offer up our prayers to HaShem: This has been a longing for Jews for over two thousand years. In 1968, 40 years ago today, we once again could stand at the Wall and the Old City was filled with life.

The Palestinians try to deny Jewish ties to the Wall and to the Temple Mount but history cannot be denied. Arch of Titus was made after the Romans captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple.

Treppenwitz and his family went to visit Jerusalem.

I still get goosebumps when listening to this recording.

The blowing of the shofar and this prayer said at the Temple Mount are filled with the emotion of the dreams and hopes of 2,000 years:

El male rahamim, shohen ba-meromim. Hamtse menuha nahona al kanfei hashina, be-maalot kedoshim, giborim ve-tehorim, kezohar harakiya meirim u-mazhirim. Ve-nishmot halalei tsava hagana le-yisrael, she-naflu be-maaraha zot, neged oievei yisrael, ve-shnaflu al kedushat Hashem ha-am ve-ha'arets, ve-shichrur Beit Hamikdash, Har Habayit, Hakotel ha-ma'aravi veyerushalayim ir ha-elokim. Be-gan eden tehe menuhatam. Lahen ba'al ha-rahamim, yastirem beseter knafav le-olamim. Ve-yitsror be-tsror ha-hayim et nishmatam adoshem hu nahlatam, ve-yanuhu be-shalom al mishkavam [soldiers weeping loud]ve-ya'amdu le-goralam le-kets ha-yamim ve-nomar amen!

[Translation: Merciful God in heaven, may the heroes and the pure, be under thy Divine wings, among the holy and the pure who shine bright as the sky, and the souls of soldiers of the Israeli army who fell in this war against the enemies of Israel, who fell for their loyalty to God and the land of Israel, who fell for the liberation of the Temple, the Temple Mount, the Western Wall and Jerusalem the city of the Lord. May their place of rest be in paradise. Merciful One, O keep their souls forever alive under Thy protective wings. The Lord being their heritage, may they rest in peace, for they shalt rest and stand up for their allotted portion at the end of the days, and let us say, Amen.]

Le-shana HA-ZOT be-Yerushalayim ha-b'nuya, be-yerushalayim ha-atika

Wiping the Veil From Your Eyes

Some claim that Jews lived in a virtual paradise under Islamic rulers in North Africa and the Middle East. Some claim that Jews and Muslims have lived peacefully side-by-side since the spread of Islam by sword. The "benevolence" of Muslims toward their non-Muslim neighbors included such things as making Jews wear yellow badges and Christians blue ones. Jews were forced to live in ghettos. Non-Muslims lived at the whim of mobs. They faced pogroms which were as devastating as any seen in Eastern European countries. The Meccan army slaughtered Jews in 665ad. The "benevolence" continues to this day.

Much like early Christians, Mohammed was infuriated that Jews refused to accept the teachings of Mohammed. The Koran describes Jews in such glowing terms as the descendants of pigs and apes. Anti-semitism runs rampant in Arab Muslim countries. There are those that will try to explain this hatred resulted from Zionism and the establishment of the Jewish State of Israel. This flies in the face of historic facts.

Solomonia has a great round-up of books in which Jews lived under the "benevolence" of Muslims for the past 1,400 years.

Let's Pretend

Some people have a tendency to gloss over the fact Jews have had a continuous presence in Israel for over 3,000 years. Until 2,000 years ago, this land had been called Israel/Judah. The Romans sought to destroy any memory of Israel and changed the name of Israel to Palestine, after the most bloody enemies of Israel, the Philistines. It didn't work. For more than 2,000 years, the focus of we Jews, in our thoughts and prayers, has been Jerusalem and Israel. It is part of our being.

Images of Israel, Jerusalem, and a bimah at a synagogue awakened my Jewish soul. When I was younger, I ignored those promptings. I took the easy road back then. It was just easier to ignore the promptings of my heart. But as the years passed, I could no longer ignore those promptings and it was the images of Israel which led me to take my place with my ancestors.

The history and ties of us Jews to the Land of Israel cannot be denied. It would be like trying to suppress your body's effort to breath. And yet others will try to say we do not have any right to the Land of Israel. That we usurped the Palestinians who lived there previously. And those who say this tend not to have any knowledge of the long history of Jews in Israel.


Elder of Ziyon has a series of posts regarding Jews in Palestine in the mid 1800's.

Ignoring history doesn't do anyone good. The Romans tried to sever our ties to the Land through the Diaspora and by destroying the Second Temple. Like the Babylonians before, they didn't succeed.

And ignoring the history between the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the 1920's to the establishment of Israel in 1948 doesn't do anyone good either. Why is it that the only refugee group to have it's own UN department are the Palestinians? During this same period, India and Pakistan were formed. There were 14 million refugees when those two countries were established. It would seem that those refugees would have more of a need for a special UN organization than the 400,000-600,000 estimated Palestinian refugees. And why are the Palestinian refugees the only group whose descendants granted refugee status? And why has the UN almost completely ignored the estimated 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab and North African countries from the same period?

Solomonia, in his post Congress Does the Right Thing links to an interesting article about Palestinian refugees and Jewish refugees. It is called The Palestinian Refugee Issue: Rhetoric vs. Reality. I've used the same excerpt as Solomonia because it is the heart of the issue:

The sixty-year-old Palestinian refugee issue has little connection with reality. It has become solely a bargaining chip used by Arabs and Palestinians in peace talks with Israel and, as such, is a distraction from the real issues of terrorism and boundaries. Indeed, continuing to call Palestinians refugees is a misnomer. They no longer live in tents or temporary quarters. In addition, the Palestinian refugee issue is unique. Since 1920 all other major refugee crises involving the exchange of religious or ethnic populations, while creating hardships, were dealt with in a single generation. Meanwhile, issues such as the "right of return" and compensation never were adequately resolved and were largely forgotten. The same pattern evolved for Jews who fled Middle Eastern and North African countries, even though their number was some 50 percent larger than Palestinian refugees and the difference in individual assets lost was even greater...

The Palestinians have been used by Middle Eastern despots to focus attention away from their repressive regimes. The Palestinians are used by many to bludgeon Israel as the world's most horrific violator of human rights while ignoring the blatant atrocities committed elsewhere.

Let's keep pretending the issue is the plight of the Palestinians when in reality it is the existence of the Jewish State of Israel.

Let Freedom Ring

Veteran's Day Thank You

Since our country's founding, there have been men and women of every generation who have stepped up to preserve freedom. Today and everyday, I thank them.



This was my Dad's favorite day. He felt great pride when asked to be part of the color guard on Veteran's Day. Below is a picture of my favorite vet. It was taken while he was deployed at Guantanamo Bay Cuba in the early 1970's.



My Dad was the most recent in my family to serve our country's call. He was in the US Army for 16 years and a Seabee for 4 years. He had two tours of duty in Vietnam as a Seabee. There have been others in my family who have served. Some served during the War of 1812. Some served during the Civil War. One was at Little Big Horn. Some served during World War I. Others served during World War II. I am proud of each and every one. I am thankful for all those who are now heeding our country's call.

Thnaks to all who served. And thanks to all who are serving. Today, reach out and thank a vet. Go to a parade. Donate to Project VALOUR-IT.

Broken Glass

Once upon a time, I was a cathecist and taught 7th grade students. I wanted to teach about Kristallnacht. I was told the subject was "too heavy". The world needs to remember. To forget means that it can happen again. Students in Venezuela are being shot at by Chavez's thugs, Sudan is conducting an ongoing genocide, monks in Burma being murdered for peacefully demonstrating, China tortures people on a daily basis, as does Egypt and Cuba, support is given around the world for Palestinian suicide bombers, and the UN can find only one country to single out time and again for human rights violations: Israel.

It is moral depravity. And anti-Semitism is on the raise. More often than not, it is cloaked under the guise of anti-Zionism. Today marks 69 years since Kristallnacht. It is time for a reminder.

One Day

Sometimes, a day can make all the difference in the world. October 31, 1917 was such a day and it occurred in Beersheba. The heroic efforts of the Australian Lighthorse broke through the Turkish lines. And this action led to the loosening of the Ottoman Empire strangle-hold.

David at Treppenwitz posts about the importance of this and why it made it possible for Israel to become a state. It was a hard fought battle:

"The key to the battle were the Gaza-Beersheba fortifications. Beersheba, meaning "well of the oath", so named by Abraham in the book of Genesis... Any army approaching its life-giving wells has to march for days through the waterless desert. All the Turks had to do was hold off an attack for one day and the merciless desert sun would do the rest. Despite constant assaults by the combined forces of the British and Australian armies, the place could not be taken. Then came the fateful day of October 31 1917. The generals were desperate, 50,000 British infantry with tank support had been driven back into the desert. With the sun about to set and with no water for many miles, disaster stared them squarely in the face. The Australian Light Horse Commander [General] Chauvel's orders were to storm Beersheba, it had to be won before nightfall at all costs. The situation was becoming grave as they were in urgent need of 400,000 gallons of water for men and horses.

Every anniversary is marked with gratitude. And those who died that day, like Sidney William Watts are remembered.

Bridges

Over ten years ago, soon after my grandfather's death, I decided to explore my family's roots. Through the Internet, I have been able to trace my Mom's maternal line back to the early 1700's in Virgina.

Also through the Internet by using JewishGen, I was able to trace my Dad's line to the 1700's to Tulchin. My great-grandfather emigrated from Nemirov Ukraine to the United States in 1914. I'm still working on my Mom's paternal line and on my Dad's maternal line. These are the two I thought would be easiest to do but it hasn't turned out that way. Genealogy is a fascinating subject. I not only discover my family's history but certain things I've found led me to read more about American and Jewish history.

I've been trying to find out more about Nemirov. My grandfather was 10 when they emigrated and I didn't think to ask him questions about what it was like living in Nemirov. I've done searches but there is very little written. But in my searches, I came across Reb Noson who was born in Nemirov in the late 1700's.

I found he was a follower of Rabbi Nachman . Rabbi Nachman founded the Breslov hasidim. Looking around their web-site , I discovered some wonderful music.

I found this wonderful version of Kol Ha’Olam Kulo on Youtube. Every week, I try to find a video and post it before Shabbat. This week at Youtube, I did a search for Breslov. And something unique came up. I discovered Na Na Nach. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with the joy these dancers exhibit.



Bridges: from Tulchin to Nemirov, to Chicago, to Mississippi, and one day, to Israel.