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

How Britain Started the Arab-Israeli Conflict

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

The Paris Peace Conference was the formal meeting in 1919 and 1920 of the victorious Allies after the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers.  Britain, France, Russia, even Italy  and the USA were promised a chunk of land  including Palestine out of the Middle East.   It resulted in five treaties that rearranged the maps of Europe and parts of Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands, and also imposed financial penalties.  The Ottoman Empire was being cut up for these countries.  The Ottoman Empire captured the region in 1516 and ruled it until Egypt took it in 1832. Eight years later, the United Kingdom intervened and returned the region to the Ottomans.  The Ottomans had held Palestine for about 400 years.                                  

               Watching videos at home on our history

The video, "How Britain Started the Arab Israeli Conflict," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXfuqUhzESg, is certainly worthwhile watching.  I agree whole-heartedly that Britain started the conflict.  It seems that their left hand didn't know what their right hand was promising, and they promised land to everyone they wanted something from.   I did find a glaring misnomer, though.

It was about the name of the Arabs which are called Palestinians.  Nobody seems to realize its history in that both Jews and Arabs living in Palestine were called Palestinians.  

                             Aluf   Simon bar Kokhba

Palestine got its name from the Romans who lost Jerusalem for 3 years and had to fight bitterly to get it back.  This was when a Jewish general, Bar Kokhba, re-took Jerusalem in his attack in the year 132 and held it till he was killed in 135.  

The video mistakenly called the land Palestine because, as they commented, Palestinians lived there.    It's the land's name but never was a country.  

I can't say this enough times.  There never has been a country of Palestine.  It was the name of land that had once been Israel, King David's land from 1010 BCE on to 70 CE when the Romans burned down Jerusalem and its 2nd Temple of Solomon.  That was an over 1,000 years of belonging to the Jews.  In fact, the land went through a Civil War when Solomon, David's son, died in 920 BCE.  Judah was then the main state holding onto Jerusalem.  Israel and it's capital went to Samaria and Solomon's superintendent , Jeroboam,  became its king from 933 to 922 BCE.  Solomon's son, Rehoboam, became the king of Judah from 933-917 BCE.  In both areas, Jews were living.  Then the land's name was Israel, and later was Judah and Samaria, NEVER Palestine.

A country, not just land, includes having a leader such as a president or king.  Then it has a people who have a common language, and others that help to run the country.  They do things like have a census of their people in order to gather taxes.  They protect their people with an army.  

Misstating this fact leads readers and listeners to think that there once was a country called Palestine.  There never has been a country called Palestine.   The Arabs living in Palestine had come from surrounding places.  Most were looking for work because Jews there were building towns and cities and they were looking for jobs.  There were a few families there on land, but were so happy to finally be able to sell it to Jews who had newly arrived that paid the fantastic amounts they were asking.  Land was not stolen.  It was bought and paid for and the owners went off to Damascus, Cairo, other capitals of the world. 

                    Lord Arthur Balfour:  Balfour, who had known Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann since 1906, opposed Russian mistreatment of Jews and increasingly supported Zionism as a programme for European Jews to settle in Palestine.  However, in 1905 he supported the Aliens Act 1905, one of whose main objectives was to control and restrict Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe.  He said one thing while doing the opposite.

Misleading people were what the Brits did well.  Take the Balfour Declaration issued November 2, 1917.  It promised a Jewish Homeland but made sure that the Arabs were to remain put and even helped them enter Palestine when it should have been the Jews.  Both Jews and Arabs had high hopes of Palestine becoming their country. 

                                 Mark Sykes of Britain

The  Sykes-Picot Treaty was compiled in secret with Britain, France and Russia and later brought in Italy between 1914 and 1916. The Sykes-Picot Agreement was a private wartime treaty between Britain and France which was to determine the post-war partition of Arab Middle East lands. 2. It was named after its chief negotiators, Mark Sykes of Britain and Georges Picot of France. It pertained to the division of the Ottoman Empire and affected Palestine and Syria.  The Upper Galilee was to go to the French, Transjordan and the Negev to Britain, Haifa Bay to Britain, and Central Palestine (Nazareth to Hebron-Anglo-French-Russia).  Zionist leaders discovered this secret in 1917 and protested.   This treaty was partly responsible for the form of the post-war frontiers of Palestine.  

Sykes had long agreed with the traditional policy of British Conservatives in propping up the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) as a buffer against Russian expansion into the Mediterranean. Britain feared that Russia had designs on India, its most important colonial possession. A Russian fleet in the Mediterranean might cut British sea routes to India. British statesmen such as Palmerston, Disraeli and Salisbury had held this view. Liberal Party leader, William Ewart Gladstone, was much more critical of the Ottoman government, deploring its misgovernment and periodic slaughter of minorities, especially Christian ones. A Liberal successor, David Lloyd George, shared a progressively disdainful attitude towards the 'sick man' of Europe.

Compounding Britain's difficulties, France sought to secure a Greater Syria, where there were significant minorities, that included Palestine. Another ally, Italy, advanced claims to the Aegean Islands offering protection to Christian minorities in Asia Minor. Then Russian claims had to be considered, particularly with respect to control of the Straits leading from the Black Sea to the Aegean and protection of the Christian population of Turkish Armenia and the Black Sea coast. Greece coveted historic Byzantine territories in Asia Minor and Thrace, claims that conflicted with those of Russia and Italy, as well as Turkey. David Lloyd George, favoured the Greek cause. Complicating this was the desire of Zionists to have a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

They say that money is the root of all evil.  All these countries wanted a piece of the pie that was the Ottoman Empire. The land meant money in their pockets.  Jews really needed their ancient land back as a place to live in.  Pogroms were happening all the time to them.  Talks had been going on during WWI as to the land.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Palestine#:~:text=The%20Ottoman%20Empire%20captured%20the,the%20region%20to%20the%20Ottomans.

Development of the Jewish Mind and Personality

 Nadene Goldfoot                         

                   Our minds being formed by teaching from Moses

Ever since our ancestors stepped out of the Egyptian slave quarters in 1311 BCE, our lives changed from other people on earth. We were taught about one G-d when all the other people believed in  polytheistic religions.  Only one Egyptian ever broke that belief and tried to get his people believing in one G-d, but that god to worship was the sun, and Moses, our teacher and leader on the Exodus, taught us that G-d was an invisible entity; and no-wasn't the sun though it's important.  

We were not to even try to draw a picture of G-d or even use his name in vain, meaning, using it too often.  It was a very special name, even wasn't pronounceable- more like air escaping from our mouths. (YHWH),)  We do not say "Yahwah".  We say adonai.  Jews also call God Adonai, Hebrew for "Lord" (Hebrew: אֲדֹנָי). Formally, this is plural ("my Lords"), but the plural is usually construed as a respectful, and not a syntactic plural. (The singular form is Adoni: "my lord". or Ha Shem (the name).  Most use hashem today.  

We were taught that we could argue with G-d if we presented a strong-enough case; and he would relent.  It was Abraham, our father who spoke with G-d first, who was able to do this.  

Moses had been raised as a Prince of Egypt, so could read and write and compute.  He kept a journal of the 40 year trip which was called the Torah that amounted to 5 books, and people have read from this, especially the Jews.  They were among the first people that were literate and into this history.  Many became rabbis, congregating together in Germany meeting, discussing the events, history, truth, religion.  Cities like Mainz and Worms held lots of Jewish debaters. 

                             Israeli Yeshiva students
                                               

Later, such as in schools in New York City,  Yeshivas sprang up, places that continued with the learning that occurred in Mainz and Worms, debating, arguing, challenging memories of students, always discussing the history of the Jewish people and what was right or wrong to do.  Judaism is dealing with how people were to live and treat others, and what to do that was righteous.  Whatever happened when we died was in the hands of G-d, and Jews trusted G-d's decisions.  By doing good things, Jews had the insurance that whatever went on would be good for the Jews.  

Thus came about the big question, BUT IS IT GOOD FOR THE JEWS?    The people and the land were always the prime consideration of the actions of the country and the people. Here's where some of us differ.  There are some orthodox that have not been supporting the state of Israel.  They may be fearful that their position will dissolve being they speak Yiddish, not Hebrew and that Israel already has a valid educational system.  They are refusing to look at the whole historical picture, nor have prepared for it.  Israel should put those great minds to work to make  good use of them other than the army, of course.  That too, and perhaps that's why they desist in making aliyah.                    

Debating has been indoctrinated in us, probably the reason why we produce so many lawyers.  We've had doctors in our midst.  Abraham ben Moses ben Maimonides   Born in 1186, died in 1237, he was a court physician, son of Moses Maimonides-the famous Rambam /also a doctor to the Sultan Alkamil, and wrote much in Arabic including an encyclopedic work on Judaism and commentaries on the Pentateuch, the Talmud and his own father's books.  He even issued ordinances to strengthen the community.  His contributions in religion, philosophy, and medicine have influenced Jewish and non-Jewish scholars alike.  

Moses Maimonides wrote the 13 Principles of Judaism:

Thirteen Principles of Judaism ( recited daily by some) 

1. Belief in the existence of the Creator, who is perfect in every manner of existence and is the Primary Cause of all that exists.

2. The belief in G‑d's absolute and unparalleled unity.

3. The belief in G‑d's non-corporeality, nor that He will be affected by any physical occurrences, such as movement, or rest, or dwelling.

4. The belief in G‑d's eternity.

5. The imperative to worship G‑d exclusively and no foreign false gods.

6. The belief that G‑d communicates with man through prophecy.

7. The belief in the primacy of the prophecy of Moses our teacher.

8. The belief in the divine origin of the Torah.

9. The belief in the immutability of the Torah.

10. The belief in G‑d's omniscience and providence.

11. The belief in divine reward and retribution.

12. The belief in the arrival of the Messiah and the messianic era.

13. The belief in the resurrection of the dead.

It is the custom of many congregations to recite the Thirteen Articles, in a slightly more poetic form, beginning with the words Ani Maamin--"I believe"--every day after the morning prayers in the synagogue.

                                Sephardim Jews

                               Ashkenazim Jews

Our Sephardic/Mizrachim ancestors, and then our Ashkenazi ancestors have been believing  the 13 articles ever since Moses ben Maimon, also called Rambam, Arabic name Abū ʿImran Mūsā ibn Maymūn ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, (born March 30, 1135, Córdoba [Spain]—died December 13, 1204, Egypt) wrote them, let's say at age 30 as he died at 51, Jewish philosopher, jurist, and physician, who was the foremost intellectual figure of medieval Judaism. His first major work, begun at age 23 and completed 10 years later, was a commentary on the Mishna, the collected Jewish oral laws. A monumental code of Jewish law followed in Hebrew, The Guide for the Perplexed in Arabic, and numerous other works, many of major importance. His contributions in religion, philosophy, and medicine have influenced Jewish and non-Jewish scholars alike.  So, since 1165, we've been a people with this stated belief.  

It's been impossible to go along with any other ideas of religion for us.  Jews have been burned at the stake, tortured during the Spanish Inquisition on torture machines; have enduring all sorts of impossible ways of life in order to stick to our beliefs; so that shows how strongly our ancestors felt about it.  The Holocaust killed off 6 million of us, and still we survive with the creation of Israel in 1948 and now a Jewish population there of almost 7 million.  

Maintaining strong Jewish values on a Friday night

All this time, Jews have rubbed up against anti-Semitism which has kept our populations apart with only an occasional intermarriage.  Today, is is far more common, and lo and behold, is acting on breaking down our barriers to keeping a strong hold on Judaism as it has been.  

Israel is trying to maintain our Jewish values as they watch the change happening in other countries where Jews still reside.  To show how far the change has developed, these Jews in other countries are acting shocked at the Jews maintaining their religion in Israel !   

 Each thinks the other is out of step.  Considering the belief of the rest of the world and what it has led up to, I think Judaism at full value  (with 13 Principles) is just fine.    Let those Reformed, Conservative and Orthodox Jews do a good job at their own level.  There's a reason for each.  

          Lawyer Alan Dershowitz, has all these traits

Our mind and personality?  We're argumentative, think outside the box (thank G-d), individualistic, strong family members, love to learn,  have high IQs at least 10 points above average population;  want to be the best, strive for leadership... That's my opinion.  Oh yes, we're very opinionated.  Our minds are well-formed, made up of 3,188 years of a DNA Jewish Haplogroup  which amounts to 3,188 years X 4 generations each 100 years=138  generations of Jewish DNA.  We could say of someone that they are our 138th cousin (3188 divided by  100=32 almost and 32 X 4=138)--more interesting than saying they are our distant cousin.  We're an endogamous people which most people aren't.  That's an  adjective. of or relating to the practice of allowing marriage only within a specific tribe, caste, ethnic or religious group, or other social unit:  (Anti-Semitism restricted social relations between different ethnic groups, intensifying endogamous practices in some villages).  In this case it actually helped to keep the Jewish line pure, something they themselves were not trying to do, most likely, as with all men, usually sex rules. The Torah is full of examples, reads like a soap opera many times.  David and Bathsheba;   Samson and Delilah.  

One step into our future and we are always faced with new problems.  We can do it.  We've lasted this long with our beliefs intact already.  

Resource:

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/332555/jewish/Maimonides-13-Principles-of-Faith.htm

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Moses-Maimonides