TO WHOM DOES THE LAND OF ISRAEL BELONG??

An Israeli Sense of Humor at United Nations set the record straight.

An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly and made the world community smile.

A representative from Israel began:
‘Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Moses:
When he struck the rock and it brought forth water, he thought,
“What a good opportunity to have a bath!”

Moses removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water.
When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished.
A Palestinian had stolen them!

The Palestinian representative at the UN jumped up furiously and
shouted, “What are you talking about? The Palestinians weren’t there then.”

The Israeli representative smiled and said,
“And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech.”

Author of this piece is unknown

DAVID BANCROFT

Do You Pass The Israel Test?

Not just Americans should watch this video. It is sponsored by Dennis Prager who is a right wing radio talk show broadcaster. Despite his right wing stance and some of his foolish commentaries, his position on Israel and Jews is on target.

Arabs should watch this video.

Commentary of Highly Respected American News Anchor

Bob Schieffer on last Sunday’s Face the Nation. This doesn’t need any explanation.

In the Middle East, the Palestinian people find themselves in the grip of a terrorist group that has embarked on a strategy to get its own children killed in order to build sympathy for its cause, a strategy that might actually be working, at least in some quarters. Last week, I found a quote of many years ago by Golda Meir, one of Israel’s early leaders, which might have been said yesterday. “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children, she said, “but we can never forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.”

David Bancroft

‘FUN Factoids’ of Olde Time Jewish Celebrities

* Who was the First Movie Star?

Maxwell Henry Aronson aka ‘Broncho Billy Anderson’ (March 21, 1880), had three minor roles in one of the first movies, the 10 minute 1903 ‘The Great Train Robbery. Soon Max began to write, direct and act in his own westerns. Founding his own studio in 1907, Anderson acted in over 300 short films but gained huge popularity as Broncho Billy in 148 silent western shorts.

***

* Why Did ‘Jack Benny’ write his Autobiography in the 1960’s and then buy the rights back from his publisher and hide it?

His daughter Joan says she found the manuscript after her mother died in 1983¦the story she heard was that Jack’s wife Mary (Sadye Marks) Livingstone objected because Jack (born Feb. 14, 1894) had so many stories of his olde girlfriends in it! Joan published it.

***

* Who was a catcher for the Boston Red Sox, spoke 7 languages and a spy for the OSS?

‘Moe Berg’ (March 2, 1902) played 15 seasons in the majors mostly as a back-up catcher¦ In the off seasons he traveled extensively around the worldâ¦.including two trips to Japan. It turned out he had been working for the OSS as a spy for the U.S. on those trips. In 1943/44, and speaking German like a native he was touring Nazi occupied Europe, on a spy mission. He had to determine if the Germans were close to an ‘A’ bomb, in which case he was charged with murdering the Nazi scientists who were developing it!

***

* Who was BEST Ventriloquist ever and created the First Artificial Heart?

The most famous ventriloquist was Edgar Bergen he was also the worst. The Best was ‘Paul Winchell’ (Dec. 21, 1922) Paul Wilchinsky who as Paul Winchell with his wooden partner Jerry Mahoney had their own TV Shows in the 1950’s and made many appearances on all the popular variety shows of the time¦.Paul NEVER moved his lips! Paul was also an actor and inventor. He has many medical patents including the device which was exactly the same as the ‘Jarvik’ heart.

***

* Who was the FIRST ‘Method Actor’, the FIRST ‘Bad Boy’ Movie Actor & had the ‘Largest Funeral’ of any celebrity since Rudolf Valentino?

Jacob Julius Garfinkle aka ‘John Garfield’ (March 4, 1913) grew up in poverty on the Lower East Side. If I hadn’t been an actor I might have become Public Enemy #1’. ‘Cutting his teeth’ at the Group Theatre. Garfield on Broadway and in the Movies was an early great proponent of the ‘Method’ acting. He was the predecessor of the Monty Clift, Marlon Brando & James Dean school of acting. With a bad heart and the stress of possibly losing his career because of being named to the ‘Black List.’ John Garfield died of a massive heart attack at 39. Over 10,000 people crowded outside the cemetery at his funeral.

***

* What Famous Movie of 1942 cast 4 Jews, an Irishman & a German as California Mexicans?

Tortilla Flat, from the famous book by John Steinbeck, was a movie about a bunch of poor Monterrey, CA. Mexicans that just sit around and ‘kvetch’ all day. The cast consisted of 4 Jews: ‘Hedy Lamarr’ (Nov. 9, 1914) a Viennese Jew with a strong German accent, ‘John Garfield’ & ‘Sheldon Leonard’ (Feb. 22, 1907) both Jews with strong New York accents and ‘Akim Tamiroff ‘(Oct. 29, 1899) a Russian Jew with a strong Russian Accent. In addition the very Irish Spencer Tracy and the German American Frank Morgan!!!…. not a decent Mexican accent in the bunch.

***

* What Film played a N.Y.C. neighborhood theatre in the early 1950’s that put this up on it’s marquee: Starring ‘Bernard Schwartz and Rosetta Jacobs’?

‘The Prince who was a Thief starred ‘Tony Curtis’ (June 3, 1925) and ‘Piper Laurie’ (Jan. 22, 1932). Both were locals born on the lower Eastside of N.Y.

***

* What nice Jewish girl left Darren Aronofsky to marry ‘James Bond’???

‘Rachel Weisz’, born March 7, 1970 and now married to Daniel Craig.

***

* What Jewish girl at 19 hung out with Hitler & Mussolini, married a ‘semi-Nazi munitions dealer, made a ‘semi-porno film’ that got world wide release, ran off to Paris & London where she met Louis B. Meyer & became one of MGM’s biggest stars, was called ‘The Most Beautiful Woman in the World’, helped invent a process called ‘Frequency Hopping’ used in military code machines & cell phones AND sued ‘Blazing Saddles’ for making fun of her name?

Eva Maria Kiesler aka ‘Hedy Lamarr’ born November 9, 1914 in Austria.

***

* What famous stand-up comic saw his first movie, ‘Shane’, as a little kid sitting in the lap of singer ‘Billie Holiday’ at the Lowe’s Commodore, N.Y.C.

‘Billy Crystal’ (March 14, 1948)

***

* Who was the first & greatest Swashbuckling Movie Hero Known as the First King of Hollywood?

Thomas Ullman aka ‘Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.’ (May 23, 1883)

***

* What two famous actors of the Yiddish Stage became Movie Super Stars playing Italian Gangsters?

Emanuel Goldenberg aka ‘Edward G. Robinson (Dec. 12, 1893) with ‘Little Caesar’ in 1931.

Muni Weisenfreund aka ‘Paul Muni’ (Sept. 22, 1895) with ‘Scarface’ in 1932.

***

* Who was the first ‘Professional’ Baseball Player?

‘Emanuel Lipman Pike’ (May 25, 1845) and in 1866 he accepted $20. a week to play.

***

* What Famous Superstarâ¦as a kid in the 1930’s would pee off the roof of the N.Y.C. tenements on top of parading American Nazi’s?

Bernie Schwartz, aka ‘Tony Curtis’ (June 3, 1925).

***

* What famous Hollywood leading lady missed out on playing ‘Scarlett O’Hara’ in Gone with the Windâ¦.over her affair with Charlie Chaplin?

Marion Pauline Levy aka ‘Paulette Goddard’ (June 3, 1910). Producer David O. Selznick was afraid Paulette’s fooling around with Charlie would hurt the box office of the movie so decided against casting her.

***

* What famous TV star hung one of his young writers out an 18 story window until they agreed on whether a joke was funny?

Sid Caesar (Sept. 8, 1922) hung his writer Melvin Kaminsky ‘Mel Brooks’ (June 28, 1926) out the window until the other writers restrained Sid!

***

* What Famous Stand-up once asked Frank Sinatra to stop by his table (in Vegas) to help the comic impress a girlâ¦later when Sinatra stopped to say hello the comic said.. ‘Not Now Frank, Can’t You See I’m With Somebody’???

Only the impish Don Rickles (May 8, 1926) had the guts!

***

* What silent film star, known as ‘The Vamp’, was the first movie ‘Femme Fatale’?

Theodosia Burr Goodman aka ‘Theda Bara’ (July 29, 1885) and at her height she was ranked in popularity behind only Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplain.

***

* What Famous Movie Star had ‘Two’ of the world’s largest and finest privately owned art collections in the world?

Edward G. Robinson (Dec. 12, 1893). In 1956 he was forced to sell his first art collection, as part of his divorce settlement. Missing his art more than his wife of 29 years he immediately began to build a second collection!

***

* What Famous Movie Star ‘Hunk’ wore dresses as a kid?

Issur Danielovitch aka ‘Kirk Douglas’ (Dec. 9, 1916) was the only boy among had 4 or 5 older sisters, they couldn’t afford toys so they treated him as their own private dress-up doll. As a teen he muscled up and become macho to prove his manhood… ‘I am Spartacus’!!!

***

What Current Famous Conductor is the grandson of the King & Queen of the Yiddish Theatre¦Boris & Bessie Thomashefsky?

Michael Tilson Thomas (Dec. 21, 1944)

Get the Truth out about Israel

that the settlements are NOT the “bar” to peace (Jews lived on the West Bank – and in “East” Jerusalem, where the “Western” or Wailing Wall, original Hadassah Hospital and the original University of Jerusalem are located – prior to being driven out in 1948)
that 20% of the Israeli population is Arab – and that 20% of the medical students in Israel are Arab (that’s Apartheid?)
that the current “Miss Israel” is Black
that one of the Israeli Supreme Court Justices is Arab
that NO map used by the Palestinian Authority includes any “space” for a Jewish state or area
that only one country in the history of the world bought Black Africans – and brought them to the “buyer’s” country to give them freedom and make them citizens …. (if you guessed the Ethiopians that Israel was forced to “buy” in order to bring them to Israel, you’re correct).
Your silence will only help the hatemongers. Do whatever you can to help!
Israel (and these Jewish students) need our help! The American (and European) public are being bamboozled.

Anti-Semites (and self-hating Jews) do not want anyone to know the truth of history or of what is really happening in Israel.

Israel (and these Jewish students) need our help!

David Bancroft

Can a Jewish state exist?

The issue is can a Jewish state exist? In other words, can there be a country where the majority of the population is Jewish? It was the intent of the United Nations in 1948. However, currently the birth rate of Jews versus Arabs living in Israel makes the country not indefinitely viable as a Jewish state. As I understand the current situation only about 75% of Israel is composed of Jews. If the native birth rate of citizen Arabs is 3 to 2 for that of Jews the time will come when the Arabs will out number the Jews. When that happens and Jews control the nation there will be Apartheid.

Criticizing John Kerry for his impolitic statement does not change reality. US secretary of state sparked outcry when he said country risked becoming an ‘apartheid’ state without a peace deal. Of course Jewish leaders are fuming over remarks made by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Discount Ted Cruz and others who see John Kerry’s comment as an opportunity to obtain donations for political campaigns.

From http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4327295,00.html

“The number of Jews and Palestinians living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean will be equal by 2016, according to estimates by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). According to the data, there are currently 11.6 million Palestinians across the globe.

According to the PCBS, by 2016 there will be 6.5 million Palestinians and a similar number of Jews in Israel. By 2020, the Palestinians will outnumber the Jews – they are estimated to number 7.2 million compared with 6.9 million Jews.”

From http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/172925

“Israel: Jewish Birth Rate Continues to Rise”

“CBS report says Jewish birth rate is highest since 1995. Hareidi society younger than ever, Muslim birth rates still higher but falling.

By Adam Ross

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics has published a report entitled “the Face of Israel”, with a long list of statistical data from about the various different sectors in Israeli Society. The report includes data on the varying trends in the number of births within different groups in Israel. The Jewish birth rate which was measured at 2.98 – was the highest it has been since 2.53 recorded in 1995. Muslim women in Israel continued to have more children than Jewish women, although the figures showed the birth rate in the Muslim community had fallen to 3.51, down from the 4.71 measured in 2001.”

This is a painful reality for Jews around the world who had dreamed of a Jewish homeland. The idea was and is that there ought to be a country where Jews would not be subject to discrimination based upon their religion. The State of Israel has been the closest scenario that replicated the dream.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to sustain the dream. Others in Israel are equally determined. Only G-d knows if this Jewish nation will survive. Even the non-religious Jews will pray for Israel’s survival.

David Bancroft

Who is a Jew and other hard questions

This opinion piece appeared in the Toronto Star. The author, Rick Salutin, is Jewish and a regular commentator in that newspaper. I agree with him that defining who is a Jew may be impossible. Jewish tradition says if your mother was Jewish then you are Jewish.

David Bancroft

April 17, 2014

The Israeli government is trying to close the question of who is a Jew with a simple answer. It won’t work.

Questions are generally superior to answers because they open discussion up; potential responses radiate in many directions. Answers have their virtues: they let you get on with it, whatever it is. But they close discussion down and make life less interesting. So, at Passover seders — the ritual meal Jews held this week to mark Passover, the anniversary of liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt — things begin with the youngest child asking four questions: Why is this night different from all others? Etc. The rest of the night is a verbose, rambling response that never answers the questions but raises many fascinating issues.

Here’s another question in the same ballpark: Who is a Jew? Talk about radiating. Is it the member of a religion? Hardly, many Jews are atheists. A race or ethnicity? Those categories are vague and shifting, plus Jews can convert in, which you can’t to a quasi-physical demographic. A culture? There are too many versions and it’s unstable. A people? OK, but then: what kind? Those of us who’ve had the discussion often and unsuccessfully, know you’ll never get an answer but you’ll know more afterwards and you’ll feel smarter. Anyone who’d try to shut it down with a simple answer is either a fool or a troublemaker.

That’s the situation the current Israeli government is in. They say they won’t make peace with the Palestinian co-inhabitants of the country unless they’re acknowledged as n .le,v!sh statc. The Palestinians say, more or less: Not our problem. We’ll recognize you as a legitimate state but we’re not getting into that jackpot, you can hash out the definition yourselves. The result is stalemate, which has always looked like Israel’s goal. They keep finding ways to avoid the obvious solution: two states with international security guarantees. This is merely their latest way to evade it, while continuing to expand and colonize. But it’s a brilliant move, since everyone knows the question will never be settled.

I mean, how would you do it? Take it to court? Courts are terrible places to deal with complex moral matters. Think of Rob Ford (mayor of Toronto) saying the issues about his behaviour are over since he hasn’t (yet) been criminally charged. Stephen Harper (Prime Minister of Canada) may try the same ploy regarding the Duffy payoff (Canadian issue) . Large questions of right, wrong and responsibility are poorly handled in narrow contexts like courts. That’s why it’s generally in the interest of the powerful- Ford, Harper, Israel’s government – to keep discussion narrow and restrict it to yes-no answers. Nothing’s more obnoxious than someone hectoring someone else by saying: It’s a simple question: answer yes or no. You see it on TV panels all the time. Ugh.

In fact the very existence of a “normal” state for Jews, whoever they are, by itself tends to reduce the resonances of their Jewishness since it’s a sort of answer to that question. If “We are One,” as the signs outside the synagogues say, then “we” are less multifaceted and indefinable.

Consider Passover. Images like slaves to Pharaoh or crossing the Jordan river to the promised land once echoed broadly and ricocheted through other cultures. AfricanAmericans, for instance, used those images to help create a rich new culture from a tragic past. Those millennia of Jewish life in exile were fruitful, not just painful. But when the very same words – Egypt, Jordan – appear in headlines about modern Israel, it grows easier to treat them literally rather than metaphorically.

I don’t mean the narrowing of the Jewish mind toward identification with Israel hasn’t generated creativity. Israel has a vital culture, but it’s primarily Israeli, not Jewish. Jewish cultural creativity during the millennia in Diaspora wasn’t just aided by but dependent on precisely the absence of the defining markers of statehood: borders, a government, police or military to enforce laws and loyalty. Overarching identification with Israel can sap that kind of creativity and leave you a little vacant. You still feel Jewish but it’s elusive what that means outside Israel. The height of Jewish culture becomes something like Adam Sandler’s The Hanukkah Song. We’re Jewish because we’re, er, Jewish.

This raises other questions. Was there any alternative to Israel? Can there be exile without mortal risk? Etc. Great questions – and unanswerable.

35 Signs You Were Raised By A Jewish Mother

On buzzfeed.com for all the dialog and pictures

So, is he Jewish? What, just asking. Oy vey.

12. She says she loves you no matter what your sexual orientation, just raise the children Jewish.

35 Signs You Were Raised By A Jewish Mother

For Ukrainian Jews Nothing has Changed

Remembering 1905 in Ukraine. My grandparents left Ukraine in 1905 along with thousands of other Jews. Their destination was America. Some settled in the United States and some in Canada. “Fiddler on the Roof” ends in 1905 with the citizens of Anatevka leaving for America. Pogroms were the primary motivator.

The term “pogrom” in the meaning of large-scale, targeted, and repeated anti-Jewish rioting, saw its first use in the 19th century, in reference to the anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire. Pogroms began occurring after the Russian Empire, which previously had very few Jews, acquired territories with large Jewish populations during 1791-1835. These territories were designated “the Pale of Settlement” by the Russian government, within which Jews were reluctantly permitted to live, and it was within them that the progroms largely took place. Most Jews were forbidden from moving to other parts of the Empire, unless they converted to Christian Orthodox.

It now appears that things have not changed in Ukraine.

Jews in East Ukraine Are Being Threatened, But By Whom?

The grand rabbi of Donetsk talks to The Daily Beast about fliers ordering Jews to register or be deported from the pro-Russian “republic” proclaimed there.

DONETSK, Ukraine—It was the second day of Pesach celebrations on Tuesday and over 100 Jewish believers at the Donetsk synagogue had just finished praying. Several stayed to visit a bit longer; some shared a community meal, others just chatted with friends. A few community members were smoking outside when a car pulled up, five men in masks got out, and handed them pieces of paper. Witnesses said that on reading the text of the leaflets a few elderly Jewish women burst into tears.The flyers were addressed to “Jews of Donetsk” from the “Independent Donetsk Republic” and ordered Jewish residents of the city to pay the new pro-Russian revolutionary authorities $50 apiece for individual registration, otherwise “the guilty ones would be deprived of their citizenship and deported outside the republic; their property would be confiscated.” Identical leaflets appeared under the windshield wipers of cars parked on Artur Avenue in the middle of town on Wednesday night. The threat left many of the 15,000 Jews of Donetsk “shocked and hysterical,” the chief rabbi of the city told The Daily Beast in an interview on Thursday. He pointed out where one of the leaflets had been left on a tree outside his synagogue on Oktiabskaya Street. In all of his 20-year service in Donetsk, Rabbi Pinhas Vyshedski said, he could never imagine that anything as “cynical” and “anti-human” could ever happen to his community. The text of the leaflet read like an accusation against Ukrainian Jews for their supposed support of the “Bandera Junta” in Kiev, which is what many Russian-speakers call the government that took over in February after ousting pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. The irony, of course, is that Bandera was for a time a Nazi collaborator. The leaflet claimed that each Jew was to come to room 514 of the occupied administration building on Lenin Square and to pay the fee. The leaflet was stamped by the Donetsk People’s Republic and signed: “Your People’s Governor Denis Pushilin.”Later Pushilin publically denied that he had ever signed such a letter, and indeed it could have been the work of provocateurs hoping to discredit the pro-Russian movement. But Pushilin’s statement was not enough to comfort the alarmed Jewish community, which has other reasons to suspect it could have been issued by at least some members of the pro-Russian faction.

According to Rabbi Vyshedski, the press secretary of the self-proclaimed republic, Aleksander Kriakov, is “the most famous anti-Semite in the region.” Schneerson wondered how separatists who are trying to position themselves as “anti-fascist” and claiming it’s Kiev that’s run by neo-Nazis could pick Kriakov as their spokesman.

The sense of insecurity is heightened by the uncertainty and a feeling of abandonment. “I want to know why in two days of these threats, the Jewish community has not heard a single comment from either Donetsk—or from the Kiev authorities,” said the rabbi. “Last time Donetsk saw similar messages was in 1941, when the Nazi German army occupied Donetsk. It is so painful for us to see that some cynical politicians dare to use us as an instrument in their political games.” The rabbi said he is still hoping authorities will find the guilty ones and punish them.

But the problem is, precisely, that there are no authorities who really control the situation in Donetsk Oblast just now.On Wednesday afternoon a group of 100 pro-Russian protesters arrived at Prokofiev International Airport in Donetsk. The visitors brought flags from the Russian Federation and Donetsk Republic flags and banners “to demonstrate who has power in this region.” In Sloviansk, where protesters had barricaded the entire town last week, pro-Russian militia or “green men” took over the television tower; from now on there will be no Ukrainian channels working, only Russian, the Medianyanya Internet news website reported.This afternoon I went to see who was collecting the “Jewish fee” in room 514 at the seized administration. The office was empty.

“Nobody is going to charge Jews for living in our republic,” said Dmitry Sinegorsky, the “security supervisor” on the 5 floor who showed me the room. Sinegorsky said he would personally “put needles under Pushilin’s nails” to find out whose idea that was to discredit the pro- Russian movement, but he believed it also could have been a “pure provocation.”

“See, until today, there were all sorts of thugs and confused men in this building,” Sinegorsky told me. “But as from today we begin a self-cleansing process.”

“Jews should not be worried,” he said. “We are an anti-fascist, anti-xenophobic movement.”

But Jews are very worried indeed.