Abby, our real estate daughter, writes a letter once a month and it is from the heart.
I was particularly proud of the attached because she was willing to bare her soul and reveal what a great, decent person/mother she has become and is.
This is a sad time for Jews, particularly because we are in America.
In time, this period will become history and simply be another chapter in a nation that is not perfect but hopefully remains to strive to become better.
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As I sit down to write to you this month, my heart feels heavy, and I debated even putting pen to paper.
In fact, I have been going back and forth for 2 weeks before finalizing this letter. Every
month, I strive to send out a letter with an open heart, focusing on the positive aspects of
life and personal growth.
However, this month is different. I've made it a point to keep religion and politics out of my
conversations in my professional world. I've never wanted to offend anyone or make anyone
feel uncomfortable. Even as I write this, I’m saddened at the thought of the clients and
friends I feel I might I lose by merely speaking out. But today, I find myself compelled to
speak up, and I hope you will bear with me.
As a Jewish person, I am not an overly religious individual. I must admit, I do like bacon-
wrapped shrimp.
But being Jewish means more than just practicing a religion. The essence of Judaism is
multifaceted, often debated, and encompasses elements of religion, ethnicity, race, and
nationality. It is an intrinsic part of who I am. Despite not being a devout practitioner of my
faith, I still feel a sense of responsibility to be a; l "ight unto the nation."I have seen how
easily people can turn against what they don't understand," I believe it is our duty as Jews
to bridge these gaps and promote understanding and bring about Tikkun Olam. This is a
Jewish concept that translates to "repairing the world."
Even the smallest flame can brighten the darkest room. We must use education to fight
ignorance, bring about unity versus divisiveness, compassion versus hate, and we need
humor. We definitely need lots of humor.
This month has been an emotional roller coaster for me. For weeks I would wake up with
fear, carry sadness throughout the day, and go to bed with anxiety. I'm very grateful for my
team, family, and true friends, who have shown their unwavering support during these
trying times and continue to remind me to control the controllable's. Eleanor Roosevelt
said, “nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.” It has been an eye-opening
experience, and I now truly understand the concept of generational trauma
On a small scale, I aim to keep my head held high, as I tell my children every morning: "be
good, do good." I will continue to do my best to bring hope and positivity to those around
me and feel that it is my duty to speak up and speak out against evil and hatred, as these
forces are not the path forward for society. Please don’t turn a blind eye to this situation
because it’s easier to just go about your day as you might not think it impacts you.
Rather than just sit in silence, please reach out, I’d love to educate you about my
perspective.
Together, we can strive to make the world a better place.
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Did Covid come up? Did Hunter come up? Did intimidation of our planes and ships come up?
Certainly, it is critical we maintain contact with our enemies but is it wise to bow as Obama did? Is it wise to suggest enemies who have lied time and again are to be trusted? Is it wise to ignore how our enemies treat their own citizens? Is it wise to appease? I could go on and on.
It will be interesting to hear how Biden spins his meeting with Xi.
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Emory should fire this professor not because of her anti-Semitic attitude but because of her support of inhumane terrorists. If she spoke lovingly of the KKK she would be out on her ass in a second.
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Chapter 7 in the "Genius of Israel" is about the history of the Jewish people as story tellers which led to them becoming a powerful force in the movie and television field. Fauda was a break through program that caught fire.
Chapter 7 in the "Genius of Israel" is about the history of the Jewish people as story tellers which led to them becoming a powerful force in the movie and television field. Fauda was a break through program that caught fire.
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Chapter 8 explains why Israel was the first to have their population use Pfizer's Covid vaccination. The reason is a multi one.
1) First, a young epidemiologist, named Ran Balicer, convinced Prime Minister Sharon and his cabinet to develop and store vaccines in advance so, if an outbreak occurred, Israel would be ready.
2) Netanyahu was the Finance Minister and realized/calculated the economic benefits and convinced the Chairman of Pfizer why Israel was in a perfect position to be the world's "guinea pig' (Quite a feat for a Kosher nation.)
3) Israel had a developed health care system and virtually everyone belonged to one of the four companies. Israel had a system of excellent health data which served the needs of Pfizer which had developed a vaccine in an extraordinary time. Israel's population comprised a combination of many nations which was also beneficial. Finally, the population was used to responding to emergencies and military service insured a disciplined quick response.
Bibi deserves a great deal of credit for Israel being the first nation to be vaccinated with Pfizer's vaccine. Half the population admire Bibi and the other half are turned off by him. I have noted, in a previous memo, a dear and learned friend, who knows and supported him in his earlier political days, believes Bibi has changed and is not the politician he once was. It is as if the liberal side in Israel have turned against Bibi and made him their "Trump" pin cushion.
Personally, I am not intimate enough to see Bibi's "other side" and still believe he is responsible for much of Israel's financial and technological success and like Churchill is a victim of "fickle" citizens wanting a new face.
Frankly, America should have such leadership.
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Iran signals.
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Iran to Hamas: 'We won't go to war for you'
Iran's supreme leader rebuked Hamas's leader Ismail Haniyeh for not giving more warning of the attack.
Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, sharply criticized Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh for not giving sufficient advance warning of the invasion of Israel, according to Reuters.
According to the report, the criticism was expressed in a face-to-face meeting between the two in the past few weeks.
“You did not give us enough warning of these October 7th attack, and we are not intending to go to war with Israel for you,” Khamenei told Haniyeh.
He also noted that his country would give him full support in different ways but would not take an active role in the fighting. He also demanded that Haniyeh work to silence the members of Hamas who called for Iran and Hezbollah to join the war against Israel.
This constitutes another attempt to present Khamenei as having had no knowledge at all of the planned attack on the Gaza region.
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Biden pledges to stay the course.
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Biden: The war will end when Hamas can no longer murder Israelis
US President says Hamas is committing war crimes by operating from underneath hospitals: Israel is bringing in incubators and allowing doctors and nurses to get out of harm's way.
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Hamas is committing war crimes by operating from underneath hospitals.
"You have a circumstance where the first war crime is being committed by Hamas by having their headquarters, their military, under a hospital. And that's a fact. That's what happened," Biden told reporters after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"Hamas has already said publicly that they plan on attacking Israel again, like they did before cutting babies’ heads off and burning women and children alive. And so the idea that they're just gonna stop and not do anything is not realistic," he continued.
On Israel's military operation at Shifa Hospital in Gaza, Biden said his administration has discussed with Israeli officials "the need for them to be incredibly careful."
He noted that Israel is "bringing in incubators and other means to help the people in the hospital." Biden also said that he was told that Israel gave "the doctors and nurses and personnel an opportunity to get out of harm’s way. This is a different situation than before with indiscriminate bombing."
"The IDF acknowledges they have an obligation to use as much caution as they can going after their targets. It's not like they're rushing the hospital and knocking down doors and pulling people aside and shooting people indiscriminately. This is a terrible dilemma, what do you do? Israel is also taking risks themselves going through these hospital halls," Biden added. "Hamas does have weapons and headquarters and material below this hospital, and I suspect others."
Biden said the Israeli operation in Gaza will end when Hamas can no longer murder and perpetrate horrific acts against Israelis.
Biden also said he had made it clear to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that a two-state solution was the only answer to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict and that “occupying Gaza would be a mistake.”
He added he was doing everything in his power to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, but that did not mean sending in the US military.
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I never doubted what has happened but America is not Germany. That said, there are ignorant, mindless haters in every nation. In America they have not reached the majority.
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The Shock of Facing American Anti-Semitism
Jews thought America was a safe haven, but Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities revealed hatred here at home.
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Outside afterward one of the academics asked why I didn’t kiss the cardinal’s ring. Before I could explain that we kiss liturgical objects, not men, the judge shouted: “They only kiss a—.”
They.
Two of the others physically restrained me from drop-kicking his family jewels into the Bay of Naples. I was in my 40s, and this was my first authentic, unambiguous anti-Semitic comment from the mouth of another American.
I assumed that it was a one-off and rarely thought of the judge for years. But now I can’t stop thinking about him—that is, how much company he has and apparently always did. How could I have missed that? How had we all?
There isn’t an American Jew I know whose worldview wasn’t trampled by the anti-Semitism that has been displayed in this country with such fervor and pride since the barbaric attacks in Israel on Oct. 7. Millions more Americans than we ever imagined consider us less than human and would like to see us dead. That’s a lot to deal with so suddenly and unexpectedly.
Every conversation I’ve had with American Jews since then has eventually reached the point of trying to describe accurately this sudden and now unrelenting anxiety and unease none of us had felt before, which all of us agree is located deep in our kishkes, suggesting it’s epigenetic in origin: an inherited memory of the Holocaust and all the lesser pogroms that preceded it that we didn’t know we were carrying.
Here in 2023 America, not 1938 Germany: Jewish students hiding in a college library from a mob; Jews being told not to “look Jewish” in public—or, better yet, to stay home; Hamas supporters trying to break down a door to Grand Central Terminal without a policeman in sight or an arrest made; swastikas proudly displayed; chants of “Globalize the intifada,” which is a war cry to kill Jews wherever they live.
One could find a silver lining in that the purveyors of this hate no longer deny the Holocaust. But they wish aloud that Hitler had finished the job. And now the denial has taken on an even stranger form. Video of the grotesque acts that Hamas terrorists themselves livestreamed is now often claimed to be Israeli propaganda, and the 240 hostages the work of the Jews.
That this is happening in the United States of America—the country where for 250 years Jews have been safer than we were anywhere else throughout history—and may continue to happen and get possibly much worse is a game-changer for us and for our relationship to most everything. Sure, there were restricted country clubs and college quotas and otherwise nonviolent forms of anti-Semitism for decades. But there weren’t Cossacks or Nazis. “Never again” meant that murderous Jew hate lay on the trash heap of history. Or so we thought, believing as an article of faith that we would never have to deal with the horrors our great-grandparents in the old country had
True, it was hard not to notice rising anti-Semitism in the last few years—Kanye West, Charlottesville, Pittsburgh. But the offenders, we assumed, were marginal, shunned by polite society. There were no observable indications that Jew hate would reach critical mass more quickly than it did in Germany 90 years ago.
The unavoidable conclusion is that this hatred was there all along, waiting for the on button to be pushed. That realization can’t fail to refract our view of this world and, alas, our country.
Two miles from where I live, a 69-year-old man named Paul Kessler died after a confrontation with a Hamas supporter, who some eyewitnesses say whacked the victim in the face with a bull horn, causing him to fall and hit his head on the sidewalk. (The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, but police say they have been unable to establish probable cause for an arrest because of conflicting accounts.) For more than a decade, Kessler was known to be a prolific letter writer to our community’s free weekly newspaper, always taking the liberal-left position as most secular Jews seem to do. One imagines that he, like millions of us, had been shocked to find that many of the people he had always believed were his philosophical and political compatriots actually hated him for being a Jew.
Whether they had all along is irrelevant. That they do now is why Jews in this country wonder whether we’ll ever feel as comfortable as we always had; and it explains why we are so grateful to Gentiles of goodwill who have reached out, by word and deed, to stand with us. May they continue to outnumber the Jew haters so that we don’t redefine “Never again” to mean only that never again will we allow Germany to kill six million Jews between the years 1933 and 1945.
Mr. Engel is author, most recently, of “Scorched Worth: A True Story of Destruction, Deceit, and Government Corruption.”
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Start praying to Allah because you will soon be in hell:
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