Nadene Goldfoot
As I write this, our numbers have been quickly fading away. Our American-Jewish population makes up only 2% of Americans as of 1997 when Alan Dershowitiz's "THE VANISHING AMERICAN JEW" was published. That means that about 5.5 million Jews out of 262 million Americans are the teeny group that I belong to. For such a small group, we manage to get a lot of attention by being leaders in many areas, causing others to think we make up about 20% of this country.
This number is huge compared to our position in the world. There, we make up only about 0.02% of the world population. We exist mainly in in Israel with 6 million today and the USA, with about 2 million more scattered throughout the world.
As far as the USA's numbers go, we are vanishing just as Dershowitz prophecized, and I was certainly one of them. My parents never took my brother and I to synagogue as they never attended, though I must add that my mother took me to synagogue on the high holidays. My father must have attended my brother's bar mitzvah.
My father, Morris (Moses) born in 1908, lost his father when he was 4 years old. His father was killed in his horse and wagon accident in SE Portland. Not being proficient in handling horses, his was spooked by a loud noise and threw my grandfather Nathan Goldfoot, out of his wagon which caused him to land on his head and be taken to the old St. Vincent Hospital, never to waken. My grandmother (Bubba) was beside herself on Friday when he didn't come home. She didn't speak anything but Yiddish and didn't know what happened to him until several days later when a friend of Nathan's came by to tell her that her husband was dead.
Our dad was out on the streets at age 4 selling newspapers by following his 6 year old brother, Charlie. The boys continued to help this fledgling family of a mother and 2 sisters. Their mom had lost Abraham, a middle child to the feather mattress he had died on before their father had died. Dad had been a track star and baseball outfielder at Commerce High School in Portland but had to drop out before his senior year to help support everyone. His mom had found work plucking chickens which didn't pay very much. She also raised goats in the Gulch where they lived and sold the milk.
I know that both Charlie and my father, Morris (Moshe) had been thrown out of Hebrew school where Bubba had sent them for being rowdy and unmanageable. I don't think from the stories I've heard that Bubba could ever manage them. She's chase them under a bed in the house with her broom. So much for their Jewish education, even though she attended the First Street Shul. It was all she could do to see to it that they all survived.
Dad had a failed first marriage that ended in divorce. In those days he had become a kosher butcher, in a shop that was part of the neighborhood they lived in.
He also was a boxer at the Neighborhood House, something a lot of poor immigrants did that were either Jewish or Italian.
One day he saw Milly walk by his shop and he whistled. She had beautiful "Betty Grable legs, was a tall as he was, and was a blonde.. They dated. It turned out that she was a live-in maid and baby-sitter for the Gurions, another Jewish family in the neighborhood who was very well off. Milly came from a poor home herself whose mother was a Swedish immigrant. Her father was from an old established Vermont family of Robinsons. Milly's parents were old enough to be her grandparents and she was one who had left home early to seek her fortune. They married and Milly converted to Judaism.
I was born in 1934, just after the 1929 Depression that hit the whole world and especially the USA. We were lucky to have a dad who was in the meat business, so we didn't go without that. Dad's aim in life had not changed. His efforts were in keeping his extending family supplied with meat. The last thing on his mind was his religion. They sent me to Sunday School at age 5, and I loved it. By then we had moved across the river to the SE side of Portland so dad had to drive me to school. I continued on till about age 15, staying home some mornings and thus missing some important classes in Hebrew which set me behind. I skipped a year in grade school, making me just 16 when I started college.
When still 15, I was chosen QUEEN ESTHER at our Purim Ball. At the time I was going steady with Sam Arnstein who had caused this to happen with his ticket-buying which meant votes for me. When I found out how it came to be, I was furious with Sam, but as things turn out strangely, it was the best thing that had ever happened to me for the rest of my life. It was a huge reminder that I was Jewish, even a queen. I'm forever grateful to Sam for that.
One thing that probably kept a lot of Jewish families from attending a synagogue was the expense. It was a time of frugality due to poor income and to attend a synagogue meant joining one by paying dues, probably once a year. There wasn't much of getting out and beating the bushes and finding families who did not attend, either, I imagine. Once people moved out of a pocket of Jewish families, they were lost to the rest. My parents did see to it that my brother was bar mitzvahed and I became a Sunday school teacher after being too old to continue attending school myself.
What brought me into the Jewish community was joining the B'nai Brith which had clubs and groups for Jewish teens. How did that happen? I was a butterfly caught in the net, I suppose, by a friend or relative.
Sam and I had broken up and I became enamored with a pre-med student at Reed College, the Harvard of the West. He wasn't Jewish but some of his friends at Reed were. We met through Bernie Ax. We married and wound up in Seattle where Wes was in medical school. We divorced and Wes went on to became a Radiologist. His parents were from England and they had been very anti-Semitic but changed somewhat when they met my mother..
My life continued with its ups and downs, but I managed to become an elementary teacher and supported my children and myself by teaching. I met a Jewish conservative from Brooklyn somewhat like myself and we married, winding up in Israel where we lived and taught for over 5 years. We held dual citizenship. That's when I finally took a look at myself and was so proud of being Jewish. I was delving into our ancient Jewish history and appreciating everything I read.
We were married for 22 years and I constantly studied our religion and actually was able to attend a synagogue, even a synagogue in Israel! We had to live in an ulpan and study Hebrew which led to a 3 hr test at the end of our 10 months of daily classes 6 days a week and I passed despite having fallen and crushed my right elbow and arm bone. Ending up in Haifa's army hospital, it took 3 hours for 3 doctors to put me back together and be able to play the piano I had shipped to Israel along with our other belongings.
The NJOP Report of July 2019 in their article, FACING ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE USA by Ephraim Z. Buchwald tells us that 80% of American Jews cannot read Hebrew. The 20% that can must be the Orthodox as our books contain both Hebrew and English for our Synagogue readings.
This is very sad as reading Hebrew starts in Kindergarten and even in Jewish pre-schools. Buchwald wonders how many Jews know who the mother of Moses was as so many can answer the question of who was the mother of Jesus. Of course they can answer that; it's a part of their environment, but I figure that anything about Moses is a mystery today to many people who are children of Jews. In fact, few know anything about Judaism.
It is said that if Hitler had left the Jews of Germany alone they would have totally assimilated within 2 or 2 generations; a generation being about 25 years. The same is being said of American Jews today. We hear about the possible loss of about 70% of American Jews within 2 generations, and I think that the 30% remaining will be in pockets in New Jersey and New York.
Looking back, almost every child attended Hebrew school, especially the boys. Ugh, my father must have been either terribly unruly or the teacher just didn't know how to handle the class.
I say this because dad went on without a high school diploma to have Silver Falls Meat Packing Co on Columbia Blvd next door to Swift and Armour. He was successful, though he died in 1967. It was a very competitive business and he worked day and night. He had grown from his beginnings of Lincoln Wholesale Meats near the Lincoln Theater. I worked for him after school when 15 as his bookkeeper until my son was almost born.
Too many American Jews today have become completely estranged from their religion and heritage. All this is happening at a time when anti-Semitism is running rampant in this country. I know a few who don't even recognize anti-Semitism. Where do interests lie today with our population? Seems as if a large segment of our population know all about football and basketball and who the winners are.
Along with the lack of interest in our religion, I see a conflicting group has developed to compete with AIPAC, the group who speaks up in Israel's defense with our governmental leadership It's J Street, who profess to also defend Israel.
When I returned to Portland after living in Israel at the end of 1985, I eventually joined a group of advocates for Israel. Believe me, I was shocked with what I found out about J Street and how they had no regard or respect for how Israelis felt and voted for the land they were living in. It's as if these couch potatoes simply knew it all because they were Americans and had better insight to matters. What hurt was that I saw many rabbis belonging to this group. It all comes together with not having the knowledge or even interest to know what they were advocating. It's a part of group mentality; following the leader, doing what's popular. It's disgusting! This is what lack of education leads to; going against your own people. They may even be more anti-Semitic than the anti-Semites!
We've been a people for almost 6,000 years and have gone through so many periods of being almost totally wiped out from the time of slavery in Egypt and our 40 year march back home with Moses to the Crusaders, the Inquisitors, Martin Luther, pogroms, forced conversions to Christianity which included some being burned at the stake showing that some of us were even willing to fight and die for the right to remain Jewish and today, who cares?
The prophets may be right. All 3 religions, Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe that there is an ending coming soon and each one thinks they are on the right path. What a time to happen; when the world has changed so much that we can get to the moon, when we have weapons that can blow up the planet or at least many parts of it, and all but Islam is dying off. Well, they were last to get on board in the year 632. ISIS has been picking up people from other religions to join their slaughtering.
I'm hoping that the discovery of DNA might arouse some people like it has me in our history and therefore the respect and love for our religion of Judaism. The birth of Israel certainly has shook up a lot of the world.
While living in Safed, Israel, I met Dov Silverman, author of Legends of Safed, and his book certainly did impress me with unbelievable stories that make you gasp with wonder. Dov, a former marine from New York, made aliyah in 1972 and we arrived in 1980, so he already had a real house in Safed while we lived on the 1st floor of a high rise apartment. His only son was killed in an automobile accident in Safed. He wrote some interesting tales that took place during the 1967 War that surprised me about planes that collided with each other. He also wrote one about the Katusha rockets and the 7 sons of Hannah. (I bet very few know who Hannah was.) It was a story about how this holy city of Safed was protected from the Lebanese border which is only 14 km away. Safed received hits often even between wars. Hannah existed during the days of the Maccabees-you know, the story of Chanukah, I hope and how the Maccabees turned against the Greeks who put a Greek god statue in our Temple. Her 7 sons were killed by the Greeks at the beginning of the revolt against them and they all are buried on the side of the hill over which the katushas pass. It is thought they cause the slowing down of the rockets so that they all fall harmlessly in the wadi.
For those assimilated Jews and for those who have found they bear some segments of Jewish genes, be it Ashkenazi or Sepharic or Mizrachi, and would like to know a little of your people's past, I suggest a few books to get started. Unlike other religions, we don't proselytize. That's one reason why we remain a small group. You must know that Jews have been the scapegoats of the world's problems. We've been blamed for it all.
1. THE SOURCE by James Michener, a novel that is an interesting introduction to the land of Israel by Random House, 1965. I love this book. I wrote a play based on the chapter, the Saintly Men of Safed and put it on in Safed with the help of the city who had the building we used as the theater. The book also led me to choosing Safed to live in as well.
2. THIS IS MY GOD by Herman Wouk, 1992. Tells about our religion.
PS: Amram was the father of Moses and Jochebed was his mother. Their children were Mirium, Aaron and Moses. Moses was found by the Egyptian princess who saved him from the river where he had been placed to save his life from the government who were slaughtering Jewish baby boys. He was raised by this princess. Watch Exodus, the movie and get a taste of the history.
Resource: Video on becoming an assimilated Jew by son which triggered my writing this article:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ7eqRA7TeY&feature=youtu.be
National Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP) July 2019
The Vanishing American Jew by Alan M. Dershowitz
Legends of Safed by Dov Silverman
 |
| 1981 and we've moved into our Safed, Israel apartment. This is my living room with bars on the window as we're on the main floor and terrorists could come through here. The apartment comes with bars. I'm waiting for my lift to be delivered. This is a bed provided for us that I'm using as a sofa. I'm now an Israeli, the girl who almost became an assimilation statistic. |
This number is huge compared to our position in the world. There, we make up only about 0.02% of the world population. We exist mainly in in Israel with 6 million today and the USA, with about 2 million more scattered throughout the world.
As far as the USA's numbers go, we are vanishing just as Dershowitz prophecized, and I was certainly one of them. My parents never took my brother and I to synagogue as they never attended, though I must add that my mother took me to synagogue on the high holidays. My father must have attended my brother's bar mitzvah.
 |
| Charlie 6 on left and Morris 4 on right; my dad |
Our dad was out on the streets at age 4 selling newspapers by following his 6 year old brother, Charlie. The boys continued to help this fledgling family of a mother and 2 sisters. Their mom had lost Abraham, a middle child to the feather mattress he had died on before their father had died. Dad had been a track star and baseball outfielder at Commerce High School in Portland but had to drop out before his senior year to help support everyone. His mom had found work plucking chickens which didn't pay very much. She also raised goats in the Gulch where they lived and sold the milk.
I know that both Charlie and my father, Morris (Moshe) had been thrown out of Hebrew school where Bubba had sent them for being rowdy and unmanageable. I don't think from the stories I've heard that Bubba could ever manage them. She's chase them under a bed in the house with her broom. So much for their Jewish education, even though she attended the First Street Shul. It was all she could do to see to it that they all survived.
Dad had a failed first marriage that ended in divorce. In those days he had become a kosher butcher, in a shop that was part of the neighborhood they lived in.
One day he saw Milly walk by his shop and he whistled. She had beautiful "Betty Grable legs, was a tall as he was, and was a blonde.. They dated. It turned out that she was a live-in maid and baby-sitter for the Gurions, another Jewish family in the neighborhood who was very well off. Milly came from a poor home herself whose mother was a Swedish immigrant. Her father was from an old established Vermont family of Robinsons. Milly's parents were old enough to be her grandparents and she was one who had left home early to seek her fortune. They married and Milly converted to Judaism.
 |
| Mom was 5'6" with great Aunt Jenny Criss nee Jermulowske, my bubba's sister. I thought mom was really tall. |
When still 15, I was chosen QUEEN ESTHER at our Purim Ball. At the time I was going steady with Sam Arnstein who had caused this to happen with his ticket-buying which meant votes for me. When I found out how it came to be, I was furious with Sam, but as things turn out strangely, it was the best thing that had ever happened to me for the rest of my life. It was a huge reminder that I was Jewish, even a queen. I'm forever grateful to Sam for that.
One thing that probably kept a lot of Jewish families from attending a synagogue was the expense. It was a time of frugality due to poor income and to attend a synagogue meant joining one by paying dues, probably once a year. There wasn't much of getting out and beating the bushes and finding families who did not attend, either, I imagine. Once people moved out of a pocket of Jewish families, they were lost to the rest. My parents did see to it that my brother was bar mitzvahed and I became a Sunday school teacher after being too old to continue attending school myself.
What brought me into the Jewish community was joining the B'nai Brith which had clubs and groups for Jewish teens. How did that happen? I was a butterfly caught in the net, I suppose, by a friend or relative.
Sam and I had broken up and I became enamored with a pre-med student at Reed College, the Harvard of the West. He wasn't Jewish but some of his friends at Reed were. We met through Bernie Ax. We married and wound up in Seattle where Wes was in medical school. We divorced and Wes went on to became a Radiologist. His parents were from England and they had been very anti-Semitic but changed somewhat when they met my mother..
 |
| Oil painting I did of Danny before moving to Israel |
 |
| Cooking lot of our Jewish foods was a good reminder of who I was. Here's a round challah I baked for the Rosh Hashana. It's a more recent picture. I make the challah from scratch; yeast and all. There's nothing like the smell of bread baking and chicken soup simmering in the kitchen. It's the smell of heaven. |
The NJOP Report of July 2019 in their article, FACING ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE USA by Ephraim Z. Buchwald tells us that 80% of American Jews cannot read Hebrew. The 20% that can must be the Orthodox as our books contain both Hebrew and English for our Synagogue readings.
This is very sad as reading Hebrew starts in Kindergarten and even in Jewish pre-schools. Buchwald wonders how many Jews know who the mother of Moses was as so many can answer the question of who was the mother of Jesus. Of course they can answer that; it's a part of their environment, but I figure that anything about Moses is a mystery today to many people who are children of Jews. In fact, few know anything about Judaism.
It is said that if Hitler had left the Jews of Germany alone they would have totally assimilated within 2 or 2 generations; a generation being about 25 years. The same is being said of American Jews today. We hear about the possible loss of about 70% of American Jews within 2 generations, and I think that the 30% remaining will be in pockets in New Jersey and New York.
Looking back, almost every child attended Hebrew school, especially the boys. Ugh, my father must have been either terribly unruly or the teacher just didn't know how to handle the class.
 |
| One of our Silver Falls Cattle Trucks |
Too many American Jews today have become completely estranged from their religion and heritage. All this is happening at a time when anti-Semitism is running rampant in this country. I know a few who don't even recognize anti-Semitism. Where do interests lie today with our population? Seems as if a large segment of our population know all about football and basketball and who the winners are.
Along with the lack of interest in our religion, I see a conflicting group has developed to compete with AIPAC, the group who speaks up in Israel's defense with our governmental leadership It's J Street, who profess to also defend Israel.
When I returned to Portland after living in Israel at the end of 1985, I eventually joined a group of advocates for Israel. Believe me, I was shocked with what I found out about J Street and how they had no regard or respect for how Israelis felt and voted for the land they were living in. It's as if these couch potatoes simply knew it all because they were Americans and had better insight to matters. What hurt was that I saw many rabbis belonging to this group. It all comes together with not having the knowledge or even interest to know what they were advocating. It's a part of group mentality; following the leader, doing what's popular. It's disgusting! This is what lack of education leads to; going against your own people. They may even be more anti-Semitic than the anti-Semites!
We've been a people for almost 6,000 years and have gone through so many periods of being almost totally wiped out from the time of slavery in Egypt and our 40 year march back home with Moses to the Crusaders, the Inquisitors, Martin Luther, pogroms, forced conversions to Christianity which included some being burned at the stake showing that some of us were even willing to fight and die for the right to remain Jewish and today, who cares?
The prophets may be right. All 3 religions, Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe that there is an ending coming soon and each one thinks they are on the right path. What a time to happen; when the world has changed so much that we can get to the moon, when we have weapons that can blow up the planet or at least many parts of it, and all but Islam is dying off. Well, they were last to get on board in the year 632. ISIS has been picking up people from other religions to join their slaughtering.
I'm hoping that the discovery of DNA might arouse some people like it has me in our history and therefore the respect and love for our religion of Judaism. The birth of Israel certainly has shook up a lot of the world.
 |
| Here I am at my Safed apartment building with my German shepherd dog that we shipped with us from Ontario, Oregon. This is 1981. |
For those assimilated Jews and for those who have found they bear some segments of Jewish genes, be it Ashkenazi or Sepharic or Mizrachi, and would like to know a little of your people's past, I suggest a few books to get started. Unlike other religions, we don't proselytize. That's one reason why we remain a small group. You must know that Jews have been the scapegoats of the world's problems. We've been blamed for it all.
1. THE SOURCE by James Michener, a novel that is an interesting introduction to the land of Israel by Random House, 1965. I love this book. I wrote a play based on the chapter, the Saintly Men of Safed and put it on in Safed with the help of the city who had the building we used as the theater. The book also led me to choosing Safed to live in as well.
2. THIS IS MY GOD by Herman Wouk, 1992. Tells about our religion.
PS: Amram was the father of Moses and Jochebed was his mother. Their children were Mirium, Aaron and Moses. Moses was found by the Egyptian princess who saved him from the river where he had been placed to save his life from the government who were slaughtering Jewish baby boys. He was raised by this princess. Watch Exodus, the movie and get a taste of the history.
Resource: Video on becoming an assimilated Jew by son which triggered my writing this article:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ7eqRA7TeY&feature=youtu.be
National Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP) July 2019
The Vanishing American Jew by Alan M. Dershowitz
Legends of Safed by Dov Silverman
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