Sunday, January 31, 2016

The Women in Trump's LIfe

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                               
Donald Trump, BornJune 14, 1946 (age 69), Queens, New York City, NY
He was a pretty rough fellow when he was small", prompting his father to enroll Donald in the New York Military Academy (NYMA). ... Trump attended Fordham University for two years. 
 He studied business at the Wharton School of Finance, and joined his father's company upon graduation in 1968.  He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's career, branding efforts, personal life, wealth, and outspoken manner have contributed to making him a celebrity.  When Trump
graduated from college, he was worth about $200,000 USD ($1.4 million 2015 dollars)

An exceptionally successful businessman has thrown his hat into the ring to become president of the USA after having 8 years of Democrat Obama. His background lies in finances being he is worth $4 billion dollars and he deals, has had TV programs and expertise is in creating hotels.  This 6'2" tall leader has not been educated in politics.  He produced beauty contests and a successful TV program about creating businesses where he had the last word of "You're. fired called "The Apprentice!"   He has 5 children.
                                                                       
Daughter Ivanka Kushner nee Trump
1st Wife, Ivana 
This man has been married to the most beautiful of European women, and also has the most beautiful daughters.  His first wife was Ivana, a gorgeous 6 foot tall model and athlete from Europe, a Czech.  They married in 1977 and divorced in 1992.  Their children were Ivanka (5'11") , Donald Jr   (6'1") . and Eric (6'5") .  Now they are grandparents by Ivanka of Arabella Rose Kushner, and Joseph Frederick, 2 years old.   Ivanka is expecting her 3nd child soon.  Donald was hoping it would be born in Iowa since she's with him.  Ivanka's husband is Jared Kushner,.Orthodox Jew. "Jared Corey Kushner is an American businessman and investor. He is principal owner of the real estate holding and development company,  Kushner Properties and the newspaper publishing company,  The New York Observer." So Hillary isn't the only one who has someone Jewish in the family.  Hillary's daughter has also married a Jewish man.  Both daughters are friends.
                                                                             
                                                                             
Daughter Ivanka on inauguration night 1/20/17-Yes, update-he was elected
and now our 45th president.  
                       
3rd Wife, Melania 
2nd Wife, Marla Maples
His 2nd wife was an American actress born in Georgia, Marla Maples,  who he married in 1993 and divorced in 1999. They had a daughter, Tiffany.        
Tiffany Trump, Marla's daughter
         
 He married his present wife, Melania (5'11") in 2005.  She was Melanija Knavs/Knauss who was born in what used to be Yugoslavia, now Slovenia.  She became a USA citizen in 2006. Melania was also a model. She's the mother of 9 year old Barron,  who is becoming active with his father's new act of running for president.    .
                   
Donald and youngest son by Melania;  Barron, 9 years old..  
Megan Kelly"Megyn Marie Kelly, formerly known as Megyn Kendall, is a beautiful  journalist, former attorney, news pundit and political commentator on the Fox News Channel."  She is a tiny 5' 6".and  has 3 children.  
The latest dealings with another beautiful woman has been the American, Megan Kelly on Fox News during one of the debates, something he had never dealt with either in high school or college.  I don't think Fox News had, either as their idea of a debate has not been what my son experienced in his high school debate class of which I had been a judge.  I must say that my son went to state in debate and came in 2nd place with his partner who is now a lawyer.

Megan started off the debate by approaching Trump with negative personal statements about him which concerned what he had said about women in dealing with TV personality, Rosie O'Donnell.  Megan  attacked his person and words in what he had said on a program about Rosie and went on  with her diatribe of fault finding before she got to a question.  The man was reeling and seeing red!  Thus he claimed blood was coming out of Megan!  "Megyn Kelly on Thursday night had spoken about his use of language like "fat pigs," "dogs," "slobs" and "disgusting animals" to describe some women, The Donald didn't miss a beat.
                                                               
Rosie O'Donnell ,  co-host of "The View" who has had a running feud with Donald since December 2006 when he didn't fire Tara Conner, Miss USA, for drug use and Rosie was mad.  She's 5' 7" tall. 

"Only Rosie O'Donnell," he interjected, generating gasps, applause and laughter from the crowd." This was not what he, of all people, expected from her.  Before, they had gone through interviews together and he had been most gracious with her, as shown on CNN's TV Sunday program an hour ago.  Now, she was on the attack in a hideous way-about his feelings towards women!

Was Trump ready to be attacked personally?  No way!  Are there many occasions where an American billionaire is attacked?  This was probably his first experience.  This was not what he entered the race for.  He had some unique ideas he would put in place if he were president and wanted to talk about them, and felt he had no chance with this debate.

Personally, after reflection, this is not what a debate should be doing.  In a real debate the debaters must show their answer to a position and show their resources for it.  Whoever convinces the audience the most is the winner.  There are rules in a debate and it's usually between 2 couples who are a team, or 2 people.  They each have a proper time to speak and a proper length of time at that.

As a teacher, I would never approach a parent at parent conference time with Megan's approach of attack first for shock purposes to bring him down and expose his handling of such a situation.  We are advised to say something nice about the child first, then discuss his problem areas, and end up with another positive note.  Megan put him on the defensive completely!  He reacted defensively!

Trump is not your average Joe.  He's in another class entirely, and must be very intelligent to have gained such a level of success.  None of the other people running on the Republican ticket are in his position except Dr. Carson, who is a surgeon and has the opposite personality though is also brilliant, and Carly Fiorina  who is also a former business-woman, and most brilliant in foreign affairs as well.  What a memory she has!    All the rest are politicians, either senators or governors.  I feel that Trump and Carson are learning as they go about our foreign affairs problems.

Trump's close family women have been Europeans, who have a different style with men than our direct American women.  Megan could have gotten away with her approach with someone else without a blow-up, but not with a person like Trump.  He began the "debate" not trusting Megan at all and felt unfairly threatened.

There's always so much more of a story that is never brought out than what we view on TV news.  An example is the long-time feud with O'Donnell.  Did Megan Kelly want to embarrass Trump with her introduction with him in how she stated such a statement?  Or did she just think that's what America wanted to see?  Megan had been my favorite person on Fox News.  I think most of us are more interested in how a businessman would handle international problems.  I have no doubt he might be better than politicians in handling financial situations.  We're in the middle of an international crisis right now.  This is what I want to hear about.  At any rate, I personally have been disappointed immensely on these so called debates.  Watching a real debate is a fantastic experience.  This has not been that at all.  It's been something of an interrogation what might go on in a police station in the 20s.

Leaders are typically found in tall men.  Donald is 6'2" but Jeb Bush is 6'3".  Donald has been leading and Jeb has been last.  We'll have to wait for almost a year when we all vote to see how this rule is going to hold.  How will we women vote this time?

Update: to understand wealth,
1 million=1,000 thousands or 1,000 X 1,000=1,000,000.
1 billion is a thousand millions or 1,000 X 1,000,000=1,000,000,000.

Resource:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivana_Trump
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marla_Maples
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melania_Trump
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megyn_Kelly
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-kids-meet-gop-candidate-donald-trumps-children/story?id=35253768
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/07/politics/donald-trump-rosie-odonnell-feud/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump
http://www.algemeiner.com/2015/02/18/ivanka-trump-and-husband-jared-kushner-tout-benefits-of-shabbat-observance-we-turn-off-our-phones-for-25-hours/
UPdate: 1/31/16  4:39pm about Baron's mother being Melania and not Marla.  

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Behind Leftist Anti-Israel Propaganda

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                                
George Soros, Billionaire

Ari Yashar has found 27 Israeli NGO"s that are responsible for financing anti-Israel groups from 2012 to 2014.  NGO Monitor ( (Non-governmental Organization Monitor) is a non-governmental organization based in the western part of Jerusalem, whose stated aim is to generate and distribute critical analysis and reports on the output of the international NGO community for the benefit of government policy makers, journalists,)  ...dug into what foreign governments are funding Israel's radical left and found 21 governmental and intergovernmental groups that include the EU and the UN.  What bigger groups can you get?  That's pretty inclusive.  Yet there are others.  The Human Rights and the International Humanitarian law Secretariat is doing it, too.  They are funded by Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Switzerland.  So we see governments involved in this anti-Israel movement.  Right now, 25 shekels equals one dollar.

NGO's are "A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an organization that is neither a part of a government nor a conventional for-profit business. Usually set up by ordinary citizens,NGOs may be funded by governments, foundations, businesses, or private persons.

From this we can see what countries are the most anti-Semitic today and are actively funding anti-Semitism.  Some people have probably been duped into donating to these NGO's, not realizing what they really are doing.  
                                                                     

Running for next UN Secretary 
Chancellor Angel Merkel of Germany
The ones donating the most money are:
1. EU with 28 million shekels or 7 million dollars ($7,000,000 ).  .
2. Norway
3. Germany-remember, the Chancellor  of Germany , Angela Merkel nee Kasner, was an architect  of the EU. She's also the leader of the Christian Democratic Union and has been since 2000.
About $17,000,000 total from this group alone.

PRIVATE FUNDING GROUPS
1. Sigrid Rausing Trust-London based-with 14% of this group's total:

Sigrid Maria Elisabet Rausing is a Swedish philanthropist, anthropologist and publisher. She is the founder of the Sigrid Rausing Trust, one of the United Kingdom's largest philanthropic foundations, and owner of Granta magazine and Granta Books.

2. New Israel Fund-12%  The New Israel Fund is a U.S.-based non-profit organization established in 1979, and describes its objective as social justice and equality for all Israelis.  Not true! 

3. Open Society Institute -7%  The big Macher (Mah kher)  is backing this one:  George Soros:  Open Society Foundations, formerly the Open Society Institute, is an international grantmaking network founded by progressive-liberal business magnate George Soros.  Their ad should say leftist business magnate.  He also helped fund J Street in its beginnings and most likely is still a member.  

CHRISTIAN GROUPS: 19% of total funding in 50 million shekels.(about 12.5 million dollars $12,500,000).
Presbyterians and Methodists have been internationally active in promoting BDS against Israel. This again is motivated from Palestinian Christian groups such as Kairos.
This group receives large governmental funding themselves, then used for anti-Semitism

PRIVATE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS/DONORS-5% of Total

  One problem allowing all this to happen is that Israel had not passed an NGO transparency law like the USA's.  They will be doing this now since this has come about.  It would obligate any NGO that gets 50% or more of their funding from foreign states to open their books to the public and identify themselves as "foreign agents" when lobbying in the Knesset.

RADICAL LEFTIST NGO'S
1. B'Tselem:   The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
2. Breaking the Silence: Israeli soldiers talk about the occupied territories

An investigative TV report showed how leading activists hand over Palestinian Arabs who want to sell land to Jews to the PA (Palestinian Authority) which then tortures and then executes them.  So the activists supposedly acting in favor of the Arabs are causing  some their horrid deaths.

I notice that Sweden has really become active in anti-Semitism whereas it had been a country that took in many Jews from the Holocaust.  Today these same but much older people are being tormented by young Muslim refugees who have now entered the country.  It's been so bad in Malmo that many younger Jewish families have moved out and to Israel.  I'm afraid this has happened to much of Scandinavia.  If you notice, anti-Semitism has risen in Europe, and that goes along with all the Muslim refugees that have been entering.  They were anti-Israel while in their Middle East country and that hasn't changed.  After all, the Holocaust started in Europe, so they must have rapt listeners to the accusations they are spreading.

Resource:  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/206826#.VqzY4NIrJkh
http://www.biography.com/people/angela-merkel-9406424#early-years
http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigrid_Rausing
http://www.firstpost.com/world/after-ban-ki-moon-heres-why-the-next-un-secretary-general-should-be-angela-merkel-2454732.html

Friday, January 29, 2016

Why Jews Often Disagree: The Twins, Esau and Jacob, Complete Opposites

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                   
Esau and Jacob, twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca

A very special man named Abraham lived about 4,000 years ago in the 2nd millennium BCE.  He and his wife, Sarah, had a son named Isaac.  The land was full as strange people at that time in the Middle East.  People usually found mates among their own family.

Isaac at the age of 40 and Rebecca had twin sons, Esau and Jacob.  Jacob was a very important person in our Jewish history as he was the father of 12 sons who became the 12 tribes of Israel.  And who  was Israel?  It was actually Jacob, who had a name change as his mind and soul  had developed.
Terah, father of Abraham
I wondered about their grandparents being I'm a grandmother now.  How did they contribute to the minds of both twins?  What genes did they bring to the table?  Their paternal grandfather was Abraham and grandmother was Sarah, the niece of Abraham.  So this set of grandparents had come from the same genetic family.  Abraham's father was Terah.  They had lived in the city of Ur, which is in today's Iraq;   Ur of the Chaldees, Sumeria, Mesopotamia- Iraq.  Abraham's line goes back to Noah.  Sarah's grandfather was Terah.  That's how they had been related.  Abraham and Sarah are buried in Hebron, Israel, now taken over by the Palestinian Arabs.    Abraham had been one of three sons of Terah.  His other 2 brothers were Haran and Nahor II.
                                                                               
Abram- Abraham
Abraham's son, Isaac, born in the Negev,  had married Rebekah who was his 1st cousin once removed.  Again, they were all  from the same family and were laying down the roots of their descendants becoming an endogamous society.  Rebekah's father was Bethuel,  the Aramean from Paddan-aram, and she was the sister of Laban, also an Aramean.   Bethuel's  father was Nahor II and mother was Milcah who would have been the other set of grandparents.  .  Milkah was the daughter of Haran. She had married her uncle, Nahor II.   Nahor II's father was Terah.  Luckily, brother and sister never had married in this family like what had gone on in the Egyptian culture.

The tribes of Aram, called Arameans,  were a group of Semitic tribes who invaded the Fertile Crescent at the time of Abraham and roamed between the Persian gulf and Amanus Mountains.  Aram and Israel had a common ancestry and the Israelite patriarchs were of Aramaic origin and maintained ties of marriage with the tribes of Aram.  They were found living in Syria and Mesopotamia.  The states in Syria were overthrown and turned into Assyrian dependencies.  When they were rebellious, they were punished by deportation to distant countries.  This is how the Aramaic language spread.  The Aramean deity in Syria was Hadad, god of wind, rain, thunder and lightning.  Today it's an important surname.

When Rebecca was pregnant, she could feel much movement, like an agitation, and she ask G-d about it and was told this: " That she had 2 nations in her womb, 2 regimes that shall be separated.  The might shall pass from one regime to the other, and the elder shall serve the younger."  This actually came about.

When Esau was born,  he was red, entirely like a hairy mantle.  This is why he was named "Esau."  After that Jacob was born with his hand holding onto the heel of Esau, so he was named "Jacob".  Isaac was 60 years old when they were born.

Esau and Jacob were fraternal twins.  They were complete opposites.  Esau was born first.  This meant he was to receive his father's birthright.  Jacob tricked him into selling it to him, as he felt he really deserved it more.  This made Esau so angry when he realized what he had done that he intended to kill Jacob, so Jacob fled to the land of Haran. and only returned to the family after 20 years.  While there he married his uncle Laban's 2 daughters, Rachel and Leah.    Esau received him warmly when he returned home.  .  Esau is later identified with Edom and Jacob had a growth in spirit and his name was changed to Israel.  It was later when he had sons by his wives' handmaids, Bilhah and Zilpah.  Leah also had given him a daughter.

When grown, they had different interests.  Esau became known for hunting, a man of the field.  Jacob was known as a wholesome man, abiding in the tents.  Isaac loved Esau the most and was proud of his hunting skills.  Rebecca loved Jacob.  Jacob would cook the game that Esau caught.

When Esau was 40 years old, he married Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hittite.  Isaac and Rebecca were not happy about this at all.  These wives were a source of spiritual rebellion to them.  The Hittites were enemies.  From the 15th century BCE on, their power extended south to Syria.  Their main kingdom had fallen in 1200 and all they had left was in northern Syria and the area around the Euphrates River.  These places were then run over by the Armenians and Assyrians.  The Hittites in the Bible were connected with the Canaanites.  Abraham had bought the cave at Machpelah from a Hittite.  They had been one of the 7 peoples the Israelites had to fight to conquer Canaan.  Later on, King David had Hittite warriors, and King Solomon himself took Hittite wives.  This should mean that some of us  carry some Hittite genes.

These twins and their story symbolizes the relationship between 2 nations, developing to the point of hostility.  In the Talmud, Esau was synonymous with villainy and violence.  The word, Esau in late Hebrew literature implies a coarse materialist.
                                                                       
Ishmaelites buying Joseph from his older brothers
 Very little has changed.  The Arab nation is said to have come from Ishmael, son of Abraham by Hagar, the Egyptian princess who was Sarah's maid. She had been a servant for 10 years before Abraham felt the need to have a son through her.  This was because Sarah had been barren and he was living under the injunction to have many children.  It was at this time that Abram's name was changed to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah.   Esau had joined Ishmael's new family when he left his father's house. Ishmael had gone to live earlier in Paran, which was the desert in the Negev.  It was land that the Israelites have marched through after they had left Mt. Sinai.  It lies south of Kadesh, going to the shores of the Gulf of Elath and the Arabah.   Ishmael  had joined Isaac in burying Abraham when he died.  His daughter married Esau.

Whatever happened to Abraham's brother Haran?  He was the father of Lot, Abraham's nephew.  Haran lived and died in Ur of the Chaldees.  It had been a trading town of NW Mesopotamia and was the center of a moon cult.  Assyrian inscriptions from this period mention a Habiru (Hebrew?) settlement in the vicinity which some scholars link with Terah's residence there.  In the 12th century, Benjamin of Tudela found a small Jewish community in Haran.

We do have the story of Lot's problem.  Lot had 2 daughters.  Lot and his daughters had been living in Zoar and settled on the mountain in a cave.  The girls had no males around to marry, so they decided to sleep with their father.  They got him drunk on wine one night, and the older one laid with him.  She bore a son and named him Moab.  He became the ancestor of all the Moab tribe.  The younger daughter had also laid with her father and she had born a son she called Ben-Ammi, the ancestor of the children of Ammon.

Moab is a country in southern Transjordan bounded by the river Hesehbon in the north, and the river Zered in the south.  The Jordan and Dead Sea is to the west and the Syrian Desert is on the east.  We see the Moabites were related to the Israelites from Lot.  Their language was akin to biblical Hebrew.  During Abraham's day they had settled in their land which had been captured from the Rephaim or Emim.  During the Exodus Period, part of this land had come under the rule of the Amorite monarch, Sihon, but after he had been defeated by the Israelites, it was occupied by the Amorites and became an object of contention between Israel, Moab and Ammon.  The Moabites were originally divided into small tribes but also united into a single kingdom, and it was the 2nd ruler, Balak, who called up Balaam to curse the Israelites.  The Moabites had extended their kingdom to Jericho.  King David had conquered the Moabites .  It finally fell to the Assyrians and became a province of theirs.  During the Persian Period, Arabs entered and assimilated with the people.  Moabites were conquered by the Hasmoneans and was later incorporated by the Romans into Arabia.

When the Pentateuch was completed, we see it forbids intermarriage with a Moabite.  The Talmud took this to mean only males and then the prohibition was finally abolished in the Mishnaic Period.  Ruth was a Moabite!  She was the ancestor of King David!  She had married Boaz, Naomi's cousin.  David's father was Jesse and his mother was Ithra's daughter.  His grandfather was Oved and his great grandfather was Boaz.  Boaz was the son of Judah of the 12 sons of Jacob/Israel..    David, the youngest son,  became king of Israel in about 1000 BCE to 960 BCE.  Today,  many of us find through DNA that we have King David as a distant ancestor.

And so Jews often disagree.  We are split in religious understandings between Orthodox, Conservative and Reform with many names in between each today.  We range from left to right in political ideals.  Much of this is connected to our religious understanding.  Each one of us thinks we are right.  The old joke has been that if 2 Jews were stranded on an island, they would build 3 synagogues; one for each and the third the one neither would enter.                                                                            
I have dual citizenship: USA and IsraelNadene Goldfoot, age 15 
 We have almost 6 million Jews in the USA making up about 2% of the population though we are only 0.02% of the world population.  6 million Jews populate Israel along with 1.7 million Arabs.  I see that we have our differences.  A big % of American Jews are Democrats and voted for Obama.  Israeli Jews have switched from left leanings with Labor to right politics with Likud for security's sake.  Where Jews in the USA have had it pretty good since WWII's end in 1945, Jews in Israel have been struggling to keep afloat since their inception in 1948.  Each has developed some different outlooks on life.  Israel lives with orthodoxy while 1.5 million American Jews are of the Reform Jewish movement and many are on the left side.  Many have also intermarried with non-Jewish partners.  It's all in the article, "Have Reform Jews given up on Israel? by Elliot Jager in The Jerusalem Report Magazine, Dec. 14, 2015 issue.  But yes, this is a crucial time in our history, and here we share very different ideals, J Street with many Reform American Jews and Israeli Jews defending Israel through the IDF service until age 55 in Israel who have gone over to the right side with Netanyahu.  .
                                                                       
You don't want to argue with my father, the boxer in his youth.
His haplogroup is Q1b1a or Q-L245.  
Though it must have been the haplotype of J1 that Aaron, brother of Moses, a Levite,  carried as the chosen Priest by Moses, and almost half of the Jews of today carry this DNA marker, we are carrying other haplotypes as well  as Jews.  My father carried Q1b1a; others carry E, G, R, I, in the male line, most likely picked up from our out of family-from the neighborhood  connections.  I guess we were never meant to all be agreeable with each other.  Differences of opinion keeps us thinking and on our toes.  There are no sheep here in our outgrown clan.  We do have a nation once again.   I have to give Netanyahu a double hand.  Anyone who can manage a people like us is just amazing.  I know what it was like to teach in a Jewish school and keep all my parents happy, both in the USA and in Israel!

I can't complain about us.  We are a creative people.  That's what we do:   debate, become lawyers, teachers, performers, businessmen and women and doctors.  But don't be surprised if we do not always agree with each other.  What we do and must keep on doing is respecting each other's opinion.  Like my husband used to say, " Moshe has a point and Sam has a point, but their hair hides it nicely.  Now my point is......"   To L'Chaim, life.  The important thing to us is preserving life.  This must come first in our decisions.

Yes, Jewish people count Abraham and Sarah as their ancestors.  It doesn't matter if we are Mizrahi, Sephardi or Ashkenazis, we had to leave Jerusalem in 70 CE and we scattered.  Now many are back.  We carry the same DNA as our ancestors.  It's like a label found in clothing telling where it was made.  Only if an ancestor converted would they not have some common haplogroups found in Jews.

Resource: The Jerusalem Report Magazine, Dec. 14, 2015, page 26-31; Have Reform Jews given up on Israel?  by Elliot Jager; though the movement is on the political and theological left, members remain mostly committed to the Zionist enterprise.  
 The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Tanach, The Stone Edition, ArtScroll Series.
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2010/01/jewish-genes-what-haplogroup-could-they.html

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Senator Bernard Sanders-Presidential Democrat Candidate

Nadene Goldfoot                                                     

The Junior Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, Independant Democrat and a Socialist,  was born on September 8, 1941 to  to Dorothy (née Glassberg) and Eli Sanders  and raised in the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City, so he'll be 75 years old in September.  He would be good for one term, starting at age 75 and finishing at age 79.  His father was born on September 19, 1904, in SÅ‚opnicePoland  to a Jewish family, and emigrated to the United States in 1921. Eli's family was killed in the Holocaust.  His mother was born  on October 2, 1912 in New York City  to Jewish immigrant parents from Poland and Russia.  He attended Hebrew school in the afternoons, and celebrated his bar mitzvah in 1954 at age 13.  Growing up during the days of Nazis and the Holocaust shaped his interest in politics.  He spent several months on an Israeli kibbutz.  

Bernie graduated from the University of Chicago in 1964 with a BA in political science. While a student, Sanders was a member of the Young People's Socialist League and an active civil rights protest organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.  In 1963, he attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.

After settling in Burlington, Vermont in 1968, Sanders ran unsuccessful third-party campaigns for governor and U.S. senator in the early to mid-1970s. As an independent, he was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont's most populous city in 1981. Burlington's population in 2013 was 42,284.  It has several synagogues.  

In 1985, Burlington City Hall hosted a foreign policy speech by Noam Chomsky. In his introduction, Sanders praised Chomsky as "a very vocal and important voice in the wilderness of intellectual life in America" and said he was "delighted to welcome a person who I think we're all very proud of."

Noam Chomsky, yes, also Jewish, is one of the worst Israel bashers that I have run across besides his good friend, Norman Finkelstein. Noam has his degree in Linguistics but thinks he's the last word on Israel and the Palestinians.   If Bernie is going by what Chomsky thinks, no wonder he hasn't been very vocal about Israel.  I'm proud that he has retained some feeling for even being Jewish or that he evens has some feeling for Israel.   


  In 1988, Sanders married Jane O’Meara Driscoll (née Mary Jane O'Meara), who then became president of Burlington College, in Burlington, Vermont.  Their wedding trip was to Yaroslavl in the Soviet Union.  
He has one son.   This son, Levi Sanders, was born in 1969 to Susan Campbell Mott. He considers Mary Jane O'Meara's 3 children like his own, however.  She is his present wife.  
"Sanders has said he is "proud to be Jewish" but "not particularly religious.  His wife is Roman Catholic, and he has frequently expressed admiration for Pope Francis, saying that "the leader of the Catholic Church is raising profound issues. It is important that we listen to what he has said." Sanders shares Francis's beliefs on economic equality and has described him as "incredibly smart and brave."
As for his views on Israel, he has been critical but supportive.  He has been quite non committal about Israel to the press, but  is best friends with Richard Sugarman, a professor of Jewish philosophy at the University of Vermont who champions Zionism to his left-leaning students. His other best friend – and former chief of staff – is Huck Gutman, a University of Vermont professor of literature who is a passionate aficionado of the poetry of Yehuda Amichai.
When in Los Angeles campaigning on August 10th, he had  the comedian, Sarah Silverman, introduce him, so she left out her caustic Jewish attacks that she considers funny.  Sanders sees himself as "an old Jew."  
"Sanders’ well-known pique surfaced in June when Diane Rehm, the NPR talk show host, declaratively told him he had dual US-Israel citizenship, citing an anti-Semitic meme circulating on the Internet.

“Well, no, I do not have dual citizenship with Israel,” Sanders said. “I’m an American. I don’t know where that question came from. I am an American citizen, and I have visited Israel on a couple of occasions. No, I’m an American citizen, period.”
He backs Israel, but he believes in spending less on defense assistance to Israel and more on economic assistance in the Middle East. Of all the senators who do back Israel, why does it have to be a Jewish one who is ready to cut the important defense assistance?  

"
Do I think Israel has the right to exist? Yeah, I do. Do I believe that the United States should be playing an even-handed role in terms of its dealings with the Palestinian community in Israel? Absolutely I do.  He had been asked if he considered himself a Zionist and questioned what that was.  

He went on to explain to the Jerusalem Post newspaper that,  "Again, I think that you have volatile regions in the world, the Middle East is one of them, and the United States has got to work with other countries around the world to fight for Israel’s security and existence at the same time as we fight for a Palestinian state where the people in that country can enjoy a decent standard of living, which is certainly not the case right now. My long-term hope is that instead of pouring so much military aid into Israel, into Egypt, we can provide more economic aid to help improve the standard of living of the people living in that area." 

Ugh, it is the uninformed that think poverty is the cause of all problems.  Bernie should only know how much money the friends of Palestinians have given them only to see it spent on making and buying bombs and creating tunnels in order to bring in weapons and to use to kidnap Jews.  Israel has even had to pay their electricity bill!  

Perhaps the reason Sanders said this is  that Sanders is a self-proclaimed Socialist and is very naive about Jewish and Israeli history and facts. He knows very little about what Israel has done or the problems they face from this response, even though he lived on a kibbutz for a few months long ago.  He's 74 years old now and like he said, his interests are the USA and obviously they  haven't been on Israel.    He sees problems only through a socialist's eyes.  This is sad if he becomes president and must make decisions that gravely affect Israel.      

                                                        
What is socialism?  The Webster dictionary defines it as any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.  It's a  system of society or group living in which there is no private property.  Socialism is in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state.  It is also a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done. 

Russia, of course, is a communistic country.  Germany was a socialist state.  The Nazi Party was from "The National Socialist German Workers' Party."  which fought against the communist uprisings in post-World War I Germany.  The party was created as a means to draw workers away from communism and into völkischnationalism.   Initially, Nazi political strategy focused on anti-big businessanti-bourgeois, and anti-capitalist rhetoric, although such aspects were later downplayed in order to gain the support of industrial entities, and in the 1930s the party's focus shifted to anti-Semitic and anti-Marxist themes.  Of course, Sweden has a king, but it is socialistic and many feel it is not an example of successful socialism.  Israel has the kibbutz, which is a socialistic way of life, but they also are into individual success, too, having more business start-ups than most other countries.    

Yes, I question the difference between Communism and Socialism.  I'm not the only one. "The majority of self-declared socialist countries have been Marxist–Leninist states inspired by the example of the Soviet Union. They share a common definition of "socialism" and they refer to themselves as socialist states on the road to communism."

                                                             
This is the exact opposite of the Republican party who believes in small government and feels that the Democratic government of Obama has grown too large.   It could be too small for Sanders.  

Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders
http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Where-does-Bernie-Sanders-the-Jewish-candidate-for-president-stand-on-Israel-412448
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Party
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_socialist_states
http://thefederalist.com/2015/08/11/scandinavia-isnt-a-socialist-paradise/

Jeremiah's Prophecy of the Return of Jews to Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  
Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon 605-562 BCE, Conquerer all the lands from the Euphrates to the Egyptian frontier including Judah.  

Where was Babylon?  Is it Iraq?  It was known in the bible as the land of Shinar or of the Kasdim (Chaldees).  In Genesis it is regarded as the cradle of humanity and of the scene of the Tower of Babel-man's first revolt against G-d.  Abraham was born in the city of Ur of the Chaldeans, but migrated to Canaan where he later fought Amraphel, King of Shinar.  Ur today is in Iraq.
                                                                           
The Assyrians had already attacked Israel in 722 BCE and had led 10 of the 12 tribes away as slaves.  This left the tribe of Judah and some of the Benjaminites .  Then along came the Babylonians led by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE and destroyed the 1st Temple built by King Solomon.  This was the period that Jeremiah had been born into.
                                                                         
Jeremiah Painting by Michelangelo
"I will make Myself available to you----the word of HaShem (G-d)----and I will return your captivity and I will gather you in from all the nations and from all the places where I have dispersed you----the word of HaShem----and I will return you to the place from which I exiled you."

This has been now taking place in Israel. It took 2,000 years of patiently waiting.   From 650,000 Jews in 1948 to 6,000,000 today, Jews have been returning to the land of their origins.  The wonderful thing happening is that many from the 10 Lost Tribes from the days of the Assyrian attack back in 722 BCE  are returning, claiming to be from these lost tribes.  As anti-Semitism happens more and more in Europe, those Jews are finding refuge in returning to Israel such as the recent French and Swedish Jews.  Jeremiah saw it all happening.
                                                                           
Priests serving in the Temple of Solomon
Jeremiah lived in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE which would be sometime between 600 to 500 BCE.  He belonged to a priestly family of Anathoth near Jerusalem, and began to make prophecies in 625 BCE.

This means in today's DNA science that he must have had the Y haplotype of J1 and also J2, the Cohen gene.  Cohens were from the brother of Moses, Aaron.  It was Aaron who was chosen by Moses to be the High priest.  His sons were consecrated to the the Priesthood. Today's organization in the synagogue of men are the Cohens and the Levites and the Israelites.  Cohens have certain responsibilities.  What we notice the most is that they are the first to read from the Torah on Shabbat morning.  Then the Levites are called to read and after them, the Israelites.  There are also other responsibilities Cohens and Levites are expected to do.  Scientists have recently found  "indications that the majority of contemporary Jewish priests descend from a limited number of paternal lineages,"  or lines from Aaron.  " We find almost half of Jews today are descended from Aaron, brother of Moses  as they have the Cohen haplogroup gene, J1 and J2."

"Half of today's Kohanim (Jews knowing that they are Cohens in the synagogue) have the haplogroup of J1c3 or (J-P58). The Cohen I know personally is J1  (M267) and matches with J1c3d (L147.1) and J1c3-P58.   15% of the Kohanim today have the haplogroup of J2a (J-M410).  This line goes back a good 3,200 years to 4,200 years ago to Aaron, brother of Moses or his descendants who would have the same Ydna haplogroup but would have had time to pick up a few mutations.."  Therefore, Jeremiah was a Cohen from the priestly line.  Understandably,  he had inherited some special qualities of the gift of prophecy.  

His first prophecies were about scolding the nation of Israel for idolatry practices that he found going on.  After King Josiah's reform in 621 BCE, (637-608 BCE) he warned the nation to keep the covenant then made with G-d.

His prophecies were gloomy, and this aroused bitter resentment, but during the reigns of King Jehoiakim or  originally called Eliakim , depicted by Jeremiah as a tyranical oppressor, and died while Jerusalem was under siege by the Babylonians in 598 BCE, (608-598 BCE) and King Zedekiah  or originally called Mattaniah (597-586 BCE) , he found, others starting to understand what he was saying and came over to his side.  He then found supporters among leading personalities and priests.  One was Baruch, a member of a prominent family who then joined him as a faithful friend and scribe.  

Jehoiakim 608-598 BCE- was the son of Josiah, made king by Pharaoh Necoh in succession to his brother Jehoahaz.
Jehoiachin 598-597 BCE-  was son of Jehoiakim and reined in 597 BCE, became king during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, lasted for 3 months and 10 days when only 18 years old, then capitulated to Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon.  He had to remain in detention  for a long time.  His original name was either Coniah or Jeconiah.
Zedekiah-597-586 BCE  was the son of King Josiah of 637-608 BCE , and was appointed king by Nebuchadnezzar at age 21 to succeed the exiled  King Jehoiachin.  Because he had conspired with Egypt against Babylon finally, Babylon invaded Judah and captured Jerusalem.  He was put on trial by Nebuchadnezzar, his sons were killed in front of him and  he was blinded by having his eyes put out, then kept in prison until he died.  It's in the Book of Kings II 25 and Jer. 52.

Nebuchadnezzar became King of Babylonia  and took the Babylonian throne in 605 BCE. Jeremiah said he would conquer Judah. Judah was the southern part of Israel that consisted of the land allotted to the tribe of Judah.   The king of Judah then, King Jehoiakim, was upset because this prophecy could have a negative affect on his people, like a self-fufilling prophecy, and so he ordered Jeremiah's arrest.  This caused Jeremiah to go into hiding until the country had actually submitted to Nebuchadnezzar that very next year in 597 BCE.

King Zedekiah (597-586 BCE), Judah's last real king, had admired Jeremiah a great deal, but he hadn't followed his advice.  He went ahead a joined into an anti-Babylonian alliance.  Jeremiah then foretold of Judah's coming defeat and advocated to surrender now.  King Zedekiah put him in prison for that statement for a short period, and then had him consigned to a pit, being saved by Zedekiah's personal regard for him.

After the fall of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar's officials, aware of Jeremiah's pro-Babylonian attitude, accorded him protection.

 At this time, the Governor of Judah was a man named Gedaliah.  He was from a noble Jewish family and was appointed by the Babylonians as the governor.  The population was allowed to remain in Judah after the 586 BCE when the 1st Temple was destroyed.  Gedaliah  set up the seat of his administration at Mizpah.   Then Gedaliah was murdered by the commander,  Ishmael ben Nethaniah.  He and his followers were apparently planning a revolt against Babylon with their neighbors, and the panicky survivors of this attack forced Jeremiah and Baruch to go with them to Egypt where they were going to seek refuge as outlaws.  This slaughter of Gedaliah was tragic because it destroyed any hope of holding a Jewish community together in Judah after the Babylonian conquest.  Jews today have a fast on the day after Rosh ha-Shanah (Tishri 3) to remember the assassination of Gedaliah.

Jeremiah's last recorded prophecy was a condemnation of the Egyptian Jews for their idol-worship.

His subsequent history has been the subject of Jewish and Christian legends.  Jewish tradition says that he was the author of of the Book of Kings in the Bible, and possibly even Lamentations.  Evidently Baruch had taken dictation from Jeremiah and then were put together in the Book of Jeremiah, which was in a section of the Latter Prophets in the Bible.  His book consists of 52 chapters from 1-18,and his prophecies that were mostly from the time of King Josiah;  19-36 that were prophecies and a narrative from many periods mostly from the rein of King Jehoiakim, King Jehoiachin and King Zedekiah; 37-44 which was a historical narrative from the time of Zedekiah to the journey into Egypt;  45-51 that consisted of many prophecies mostly concerning other nations; and 52 that was a recapitulation of the last chapter of  the Book of Kings.

The Book of Jeremiah was edited by Baruch., who was Jeremiah's scribe.  It was Baruch who read the prophecies to the people of Jerusalem (jer. 36.).    There are variant readings between the masoretic text ( is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the Tanakh for Rabbinic Judaism) .and the  Septuagint (Greek Translation of the Hebrew) evidence of subsequent re-editing. (The Septuagint Old Testament, because (1) It represents a translation of an older Hebrew text, (2) It includes books not found in the Masoretic text. It's something used by Christians. ) The final  edition has been placed in the 2nd century BCE which would be the time of Roman occupation in Jerusalem.  .

Resource: The New Standard Jewish encyclopedia
 https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/departinghoreb/masoretic-hebrew-vs-septuagint-part-1/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1ApBbv5j44
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/06/demographics-of-jews-in-israel-and.html
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2009/08/finally-updated-look-at-y-chromosomes.html
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2005/11/what-was-really-aarons-lineage-cohen.html