You would like to help those in Israel but… to whom? Where? How?
Monday, June 23, 2025
Thursday, June 19, 2025
Never Again.
After the attacks of 9/11, my oldest brother — a Vietnam
veteran — gave out American flag memorial pins to his employees and family. I
still wear mine to this day. It reminds me not just of what was done to us —
but who did it.
Then came something even more horrific: the atrocities of
October 7th. Israel was brutally attacked by the butchers of Gaza in a massacre
that defies words. I searched for an October 7th memorial Israeli flag pin,
something that could say: We remember. We will not forget. We will not
forgive.
All I found were generic yellow ribbon designs. That wasn’t
enough. So I had these pins made.
They are small, but they speak loudly.
I wear mine next to my 9/11 pin — two markers of grief and resilience. Side by
side.
For a while, I gave them out or sold them personally.
Everywhere I went, Israelis stopped me and asked where they could get one. So I
opened an Etsy shop so anyone who stands with Israel can wear one too.
Now, as Israel confronts Iran — the puppet-master behind so
much of the terror — it’s more important than ever to show where we stand.
This pin is not just a tribute. It’s a reminder.
Of who we are.
Of what they did.
And that we will never forget.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Wear the memory. Carry the message.
Monday, February 15, 2016
The point made by this meme is all over the Internet and, apparently believed by some of those who tend to be more middle of the road....
Here are the Facts!
July 1, 1987; 45 minutes later - the despicable Senator Ted Kennedy said on national TV, broadcast to all and sundry:
"Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens."
And the Republicans have always been a day late and a dollar short in terms of using the media effectively.
Kennedy's vicious and untrue slander affected the nation and the Democrats, led by Joe Biden, viciously rejected Robert Bork.
Then President Reagan picked a mildly Conservative Judge (and his record has born that out - more Liberal than Conservative but - middle of the road which appeared to be the Fair and Right thing to do at the time) - Anthony Kennedy on November 30th, 1987 (Still NOT an election year).
He was confirmed on February 3rd, 1988 - well BEFORE the 1st Presidential Primary on Feb. 16th and even before every caucus (Kansas and Michigan started before Feb 3rd but Ended after Feb 3rd).
"....At the same time the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Alan Cranston of California, the party whip, urged colleagues in a letter to form a ''solid phalanx'' of opposition if the President's nominee was an ideological extremist. Some Democrats in Congress are worried that Mr. Reagan will nominate a conservative who will be committed to overturning Supreme Court decisions on abortion and other issues...."
http://www.nytimes.com/.../byrd-says-bork-nomination...
BYRD SAYS BORK NOMINATION WOULD FACE SENATE TROUBLE
NYTIMES.COM|BY BY JONATHAN FUERBRINGER, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
It's not healthy.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Leaving Mother Russia
anniversary of Natan Sharansky’s walk to Freedom from the Soviet Union.
Gulag as a prisoner for the “treason” of wanting to emigrate to Israel.
When he was finally released across the “Bridge of Spies” in East Germany, those
waiting for him at the West Berlin checkpoint saw him walking a zig zag back
and forth. They feared that he was
either drugged or unhinged.
When Sharansky got to the other side, he explained that he had been told by his
minders to “walk straight across the bridge.”
was to Not obey his oppressors.
“We are leaving Mother Russia,
We have waited far too long.
We are leaving Mother Russia,
When they come for us we’ll be gone.”
silence brings,
Another Hitler waiting in the wings,
So stand up now and shout it to the sky,
They may bring us to our knees but we’ll never die!”
Safam “Leaving
Mother Russia”
anyone under 30 years old, not only may not know who Natan Sharansky is, but
who do not know what the Soviet Union; Communism; and the Cold War were…
where those under 30 have no clue as to what happens when you surrender your
life to The Government in order to have the “freedom” Not to struggle…
OR, conversely, what happens when you surrender your life to someone larger
than life; a polar opposite demagogue who says: “I like making deals,
preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.”
what the deals . . . all add up to in the end, I’m not sure I have a very good
answer. Except that I’ve had a very good time making them.”
in an empire that imprisoned people’s minds and souls because he refused to be
a slave to the bribery of comfort, where someone or something else would take
care of him.
He suffered because what he wanted above all was his Freedom to be a Man in a
system that killed Men; to be a Jew in a world that despises Jews; and to be
Free to think and choose in a world that has largely given up thought and
choice.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
It was a mixed neighborhood where the residents were more “working class” or newly arrived in their corporate jobs and therefore less financially stable.
Next door to us lived a very nice older black couple who had been there for at least 25 years. He was retired from the merchant marines. On the other side lived a very white Catholic family. He had a landscaping business and was not very friendly towards my Jewish family. Across the street were immigrants from England where the husband was newly employed as… a guy who created the chemical formulas for flavors in food… or something like that. And, behind us was an Orthodox Jewish Lubavitch family who father worked in the financial world.
Most of our other neighbors were either immigrant families, white and black, or “ethnic” white folk who were a tad less educated or cultured than to that which we were accustomed.
When they were informed that our son was not home, they responded rudely and began riding their little bikes around in our driveway, swearing like little sailors, using rather foul language as to why our son wasn't home.
I was both shocked and bemused, not comprehending how they could possibly be upset or why they would express themselves in this way.
From my back porch I asked them to stop and to leave. They ignored me.
I strode down off of my back porch, onto my driveway, and literally grabbed each child by the scruff of his neck, stopping them and making them dismount from their bicycles.
I then began to march them out of my driveway, while they held onto their bikes, telling them that I was taking them to their own houses to talk to their parents.
It so happened that by the time I got to the end of my driveway, the mother of the younger of the two was walking by. I told her what had happened and she, appropriately, scolded her child and took him home while telling her nephew to go home to his father.
And, all was well with the world.
The father was a strapping young man with a close haircut, wearing what I believe is commonly called a “wife beater” sleeveless t shirt, showing off his impressively muscular physique. He was about 6’ 2” and he was not happy.
I, on the other hand, was about 6’, overweight, slightly balding, and not a particularly impressive specimen of manhood. Apparently, my wife and mother in law were afraid that this guy was going to beat the bejeesus out me.
His son was with him, still on his bicycle.
I walked up to him as he stood on the sidewalk outside of my house, curious but unafraid.
“Hi,” I said, “I understand that you want to talk to me.”
“Did you put your hands on my son’s neck?!!” he inquired with obvious anger.
“Yes, I did,” I replied, intending to continue...
“How dare you touch my son!” he yelled at me, stepping closer and getting menacingly “in my face.”
“Whoa,” I replied, more astonished than fearful. “Your son and his cousin were riding around in my driveway, swearing, using extremely bad language and would not leave. Are you okay with that?”
He took a step backward and repeated, “Don’t you ever touch my son again. I’ll sue you for everything you've got!”
“What?” I replied truly confused. “You are angry with me for not letting your 7 year old son swear at me in my driveway? And you want your son to stand here listening to you threaten me and tell me that his behavior is acceptable. Really?!”
My antagonist was momentarily disconcerted and brusquely told his son - “Go home.”
His son pedaled off. He had been smirking thus far during our brief conversation but, he looked a bit put out himself as he left. I don’t think he understood why his father was letting this “old fat guy” send him away…
His father continued to threaten me with lawsuits and angry rhetoric.
And, I continued to try and ask him why he thought it was okay for his son to do this.
Each time I would ask him something like: “You really want to bring your son up this way?,” he would take a step backwards.
I did not step forwards but, with every comment or admonition I made, he would jerk backwards almost like I was punching him. He probably took about five steps backwards to my comments, retorting each time about how he was going to sue me, until he finally turned and left.
I was totally amazed. I also had a “fight or flight” adrenaline rush as I only then realized that my body, if not my mind, had fully expected him to pummel me into the ground.
It was an extraordinary experience.
A false narrative is one where the whole premise upon which it is based, is a lie. It is an invented story to explain whatever point of view the author wishes to justify.
The boy’s father in question based his false narrative on the idea that I was criminally wrong to place my hand upon his son’s neck and escort him off of my property.
My questions did nothing to dispel his belief in this false narrative; however, my questions did confuse him enough to back away and go away.
(And, no, he did not sue me. I never saw him again.)
Many of us blithely accept these narratives as true and thereby do a great of damage to our own integrity and our relationship to truth.
We know Right from Wrong.
If we choose to not question that which is Wrong, and instead worry about being “sensitive” or “poetically correct,” then we are supporting what is wrong. We are supporting a false narrative; a lie.
I learned a little bit from my experience that G-d supports us, even in peculiar circumstances, when we support truth.