When Our World Destiny Changed

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

By the end of World War II, the course of our world's destiny was completely changed. From here on, life for all changed socially, technically, and scientifically.  Here,  ending the war on New York (Aug. 14, 1945) The kiss heard 'round the world, which has now been proven scientifically to be Quartermaster 1st Class George Mendonsa and dental assistant Greta Zimmer Friedman.  She was born Grete Zimmer on June 5, 1924, to a Jewish family in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. In 1939 at age 15, Zimmer emigrated to the United States from Nazi-controlled Austria with her younger sisters Josefin (Fini) and Bella.  George Mendonsa was born on Feb. 19, 1923, in Newport, R.I., to Arsenio and Maria Mendonsa, immigrants from Portugal. His father was a fisherman, and George dropped out of high school to take up the trade before he enlisted in the Navy in 1942. He served as a quartermaster on the Sullivans, a destroyer in the Pacific.  The iconic and now sometimes controversial photograph has become a symbol of joy and relief through the years. (photo by Lt. Victor Jorgensen/Navy)  END of WWII. 

On August 6, 1945, the United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. This ended the war. 

Women's suffragists parade in New York City in 1917, carrying placards with the signatures of more than a million women.

Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote in the USA. This happened after WWI had ended.  The 19th amendment legally guarantees American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle—victory took decades of agitation and protest.   It took such a war to bring on the vote for women,

 evidently.                       

A British emplacement after a German gas attack at Fromelles, July 19, 1916.

Our destiny changed  with Germany in World War 1 when more soldiers died than in any other previous war.  The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians. The Entente Powers (also known as the Allies) lost about 5.7 million soldiers while the Central Powers lost about 4 million. This didn't satisfy Germany as they lost this war.  It had started on the evening of 2 August 1914, when Germany demanded that its troops be allowed to pass through Belgian territory. Belgium refused. Accepting Germany's demands would make Belgium complicit in the attack on France and partially responsible for the violation of its own neutrality. Germany invaded on 4 August.                          

Adolf Hitler (right) prepares to fly to the Polish front, 1939.Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Germany had  smoldered like a campfire that had not been sufficiently put out and developed  21 years later into the 2nd World War in 1939. They had invaded Poland.   The First World War (WWI) was fought from 1914 to 1918 and the Second World War (or WWII) was fought from 1939 to 1945. They were the largest military conflicts in human history. Both wars involved Germany invading a country and military alliances between different groups of countries.  The Holocaust showed early signs of happening by 1933, and then 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis led by a failing unemployed artist, Hitler. 

Israel finally was created on May 15, 1948 after praying for 2,000 years for it to happen after losing it in 70 CE.  15 minutes after the announcement, they were attacked by Arabs who refused to accept the UN partition resolution.  Before in April 1948 units of Arab irregulars crossed into the country from Syria, Lebanon and Egypt to reinforce local Arabs in their attacks on Jewish localities and in an attempt to block the main roads.

According to a report published yesterday by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Israel's population currently stands at 9,656,000, of which 7,106,000 are Jews, 2,037,000 are Arabs and 513,000 defined as other (including non Arab Christians and other religions). It has taken us 78 years to regain the loss of our 6 million and top it with 7,106,000. 

From 1930 to 1953, the radio ruled in most homes.  George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen were beloved comedians that we listened to.   Edward R.Murrow had a profound impact on both radio and television. His ability to paint a picture with words brought him overnight success during his radio news reports from London during World War II. In fact, Murrow is often credited for inventing the radio correspondent. 

Our family had 2 newspapers delivered each day; The Oregonian and the Oregon Journal. One was delivered in the morning and the other in the evening.  War news dominated every page;  nothing else.                    

Women joined the army as WAACS in WWII.  After the war, they went to work outside the home.  Divorces happened more as women could support themselves by working. They had added more responsibilities upon themselves besides their position as homemakers. Women's Army Corps (WAC), U.S. Army unit created during World War II to enable women to serve in noncombat positions. Never before had women, with the exception of nurses, served within the ranks of the U.S. Army. With the establishment of the Women's Army Corps (WAC), more than 150,000 did so.  The WAC was disbanded in 1978, and all units were integrated with male units.

     PHOTO: Eddy Shuldman and her parents at her bat mitzvah (1966).  OJM 07171 

  By 1966, they were going through bat mitzvahs instead of confirmations.  I was confirmed at age 12 in 1946.   Actually, The first bat mitzvah for a girl in America was in 1922, for Judith Kaplan, the daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan who founded the Reconstructionist denomination. But the coming-of-age ceremony didn't extend to girls in most synagogues for decades more.  

Jewish women were becoming rabbis. Sally Priesand – the first American female rabbi – was ordained just 50-51 years ago, on June 3, 1972. This groundbreaking ordination changed women's roles, and the course of Judaism itself.                        

Up to then, educated people displayed their personal books in their own library, a room most people would enter when visiting.  There, they could see the interest of the owners by looking at the title of the books that were proudly displayed.  These were real published books from printing presses, books with titles like 1984, published in January 1961,  and Brave New World, published in Britain in 1932.  Then, by the 1970's, social standards concerning books really started changing.

 In the 1990s, the general availability of the Internet made transferring electronic files much easier, including e-books. In 1993, Paul Baim released a freeware HyperCard stack, called EBook, that allowed easy import of any text file to create a pageable version similar to an electronic paperback book.  No more published bound books for e-book users.  No more libraries for the youth.                                                     

                                                     

The personal computer industry truly began in 1977, with the introduction of three preassembled mass-produced personal computers: the Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.), Apple II, the Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80, and the Commodore Business Machines Personal Electronic Transactor (PET).

The first commercially made electronic televisions with cathode ray tubes were manufactured by Telefunken in Germany in 1934, followed by other makers in France (1936), Britain (1936), and USA (1938). The cheapest model with a 12-inch (30 cm) screen was $445 (equivalent to $8,567 in 2021). New York had TVs way before we had them in Portland.  

                                            

               TV in 1953--usually lots of snow on screen with bunny ears antenna on top--in Portland, Oregon.  TV didn't hit Portland and my house till 1953.                         

                          Barbara Walters in 1979 at age 50

Barbara Jill Walters was born in Boston on September 25, 1929, the daughter of Dena (née Seletsky) --born in , in Byenyakoni/Binikpo (Russ/Pol), Belarus  and Lou Walters (born Louis Abraham Warmwater); both parents were children of Russian-Jewish emigrants. Her paternal grandfather, Abraham Isaac Waremwasser, was born in the Polish city of Łódź and emigrated to England, where he changed his surname to Warmwater. Walters' father was born in London in 1898 and moved to New York City with his father and two brothers on August 28, 1909. His mother and four sisters arrived the following year.  She  was an American broadcast journalist and television personality. Walters began her career on The Today Show in the early 1960s as a writer and segment producer of women's interest stories.  Known for her interviewing ability and popularity with viewers, Walters appeared as a host of numerous television programs, including Today, the ABC Evening News, 20/20, and The View. Walters was a working journalist from 1951 until her retirement in 2015.  She just passed away on December 30, 2022 at age 93.                       

On July 20, 1969, millions of people gathered around their televisions to watch two U.S. astronauts do something no one had ever done before. Wearing bulky space suits and backpacks of oxygen to breathe, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first human beings to walk on the moon.

             Today's Smart TV can bring us You Tube and videos of UFO's that have been spotted.  The Department of Defense formally released three Navy videos that contain “unidentified aerial phenomena.” Enthusiasts were encouraged, though there was nothing new.  We know now that UFOs do exist and might come from beyond earth.  The Pentagon had released the photos.  

Resource:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/05/16/in-their-80s-and-90s-three-jewish-women-finally-become-bat-mitzvahs/

https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/19th-amendment#:~:text=Passed%20by%20Congress%20June%204,decades%20of%20agitation%20and%20protest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_set#:~:text=The%20first%20commercially%20made%20electronic,equivalent%20to%20%248%2C567%20in%202021).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Zimmer_Friedman