Mosque Storehouse for Rockets in Gaza

Yesterday's Oregonian printed a letter to the editor from John Grosvenor who was irate because Israel had hit a mosque in Gaza. What people don't realize is that Israel found out that it was a storehouse for a large number of rockets and explosives to use against Israel.

The IDF certainly does not pinpoint mosques on purpose just for the sake of hitting them. The war is to wipe out the weaponry of the terrorist Hamas regime and bring an end to their constant 8 year bombardment on Israel. Hamas puts its guns, rockets, etc amid civilian areas, and evidently the civilians do very little to leave the sites. Again, they use this as ammunition against Israel. Israel is not indiscriminate in its attacks against their strongholds, but knows where weapons are kept.

Reference: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230456538553&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Missiles and Mortars Reach Ashkelon Area

Ashkelon, Portland's Sister City Today
Ashkelon, Portland, Oregon's sister city, home to 120,000 Israelis, has also been hit with missiles and mortars from the Gazan terrorists during the past six months of "cease-fire" that never really ceased.

The IDF told the citizens there to stay out of the open as the terrorists are continuing their barrage on Israel. Rockets continued to land near Ashkelon thoughout the day, with a 15 second warning siren preceeding them. One lady that was spotted was totally in shock, hovering in a corner outside and refusing help.

Ashkelon contains Barzelai Hospital, a big one that serves both Israelis and Palestinians when they feel the need. It has had to move their most essential sections underground to be protected from the missile bombardment. Though the Gaza Strip contains nine hospitals, many near the border have crossed over to use Barzeli.

See my blog on Israel for updates: http://israel-nadene.blogspot.com

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081228/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians_103

First Aluf of Israel Since Joshua: Mickey Marcus

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                       

David "Mickey" Marcus (1902-1948)

Israel's birth in 1948 might be attributed to the assistance of  "Mickey" Marcus, American Jew and graduate of West Point.   He was a United States Army colonel who became Israel's first general since Joshua of the bible.

His parents were Mordechai "Max" Marcus and Leah Goldstein, born in 1864 and 1868 who immigrated from Romania in 1898 and settled on Hester Street in Manhattan on the Lower East side of New York. They had married at age 23. David Daniel Marcus "Mickey" was born on February 22, 1901, the same day as George Washington. He was destined for big things.

On the 20th of April 1910, I found the family in Manhattan, Ward 17 with Max age 46 as a fruit peddler. Lena was 42. Mickey had 6 siblings. Isadore, a stenographer for a hat factory was 18, Michael, a shipper, was 16. Jacob, an errand boy, was 15, Roy 12, David 9, Rebecca "Becca" 7, and Victoria was 5.

In 1920 David attended West Point and graduated in 1924. He attended Brooklyn Law School. By 1930 he was the Assistant U.S. Attorney in New York and dealt with people like Lucky Luciano under Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia. He was then Commissioner of Corrections in New York City by 1940. It was then that he reenlisted in the army.

Also, on 2 June 1930 at age 28 he and Emma, his new wife, left Hamilton, Bermuda on the ship "Bermuda" and sailed back to New York. It must have been their honeymoon. They lived at 2055 Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn, NY. Emma was 24, born in 1905 in New York. In 1931 he was appointed assistant US attorney in the southern district of New York.

By 1942, at the start of WWII, he was made Commissioner of the U.S. Army Ranger School. He parachuted into Normandy with the 101st Airborne Division. In 1945 Micky was helping to draw up the surrender terms for Italy and Germany and was stationed in Berlin in 1945. He was put in charge of planning to feed the millions in places liberated by the Allies and clearing out the Nazi concentartion camps.

With this background, Israel's Haganah approached Mickey and recruited him to be their military advisor. He had to have his name and rank disguised to avoid problems with the British Mandate of Palestine. He was made Aluf, which is like a Brigadier General in Israel. This made him the first general in the Israeli army.

Being an assimilated American Jew, he did not speak Hebrew, which had become the language of the Jews in Palestine. He was accidently killed by a Jewish sentry on June 10, 1948 because he did not understand the question the sentry asked. It was a tragic experience. Ben Gurion told Emma, his wife, that he was the best man they had. His body was brought back by Moshe Dayan to the USA for burial and is buried in the West Point Cemetery. His gravestone says, ""Colonel David Marcus-a Soldier for All Humanity". In the Temple in Brooklyn a memorial plaque says "Killed in action in the hills of Zion while leading Israeli forces as their supreme commander in the struggle for Israel's freedom.

Kibbutz Mishmar David and the neighborhood of Neve David in Tel Aviv and many streets are named after him.

A wonderul movie was made in 1966 about his story called "Cast a Giant Shadow". It starred Kirk Douglas as Mickey Marcus. Senta Berger was a love interest in Palestine. Angie Dickinson played Emma, his wife, Yul Brynner, John Wayne and Frank Sinatra played supporting roles. Yul Brynner played the part of an important Jewish person in Haganah. John played an American general friend and Frank actually helped out in the fighting against the Arab attackers. The movie is now in DVD form found at http://www.ancestry.com/ It runs 2 hrs 18 minutes and is in color, of course.

Not many people remember seeing Kirk Douglas in this movie, so memorable about the birth of Israel. I hope you all go out and order this to find out what Israel was up against in 1948. He came along just at the right time.

Reference: Cast a Giant Shadow, DVD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Marcus
http://www.ancestry.com/ searches for Marcus family
Updated: 5/15/15 The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia- Marcus, David 

Hadassah Bilked

Nadene Goldfoot
70 year old Madoff, the Wall Street scam artist, also bilked a lot of Jewish organizations. Hadassah lost $90 million dollars to him. Elie Wisel's Foundation was taken, along with Steven Spielberg's Charity, Mort Zuckerman and the Yeshiva University.

Anti-semites are probably having a hey day knocking Jews because of this one selfish and intolerable man. No one was safe from his charms and promises to make money. He took everyone who trusted him.

Reference:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1048317.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/nyregion/23yeshiva.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

2008 Hadassah Chanukah Fair

Today was the Hadassah Chanukah Fair which was held at Neveh Shalom Synagogue. The parking lot was full at 11:00am. There were lots of tables with wonderful items on display. I sat at the Jewish Genealogical Society of Oregon's table where we had a lot of people stop by to look up their surnames in some of our books.

Hadassah's table was selling some tasty desserts that I had to pass up, even though I'm also a Hadassah member. I'm dieting again for the zillionth time. Finally I bought a white T-shirt with Israel on it in blue along with a blue Nike swish. Then I accidently dropped my bag at the end of the stairs that led to the outer entrance. Carolyn Shain, Hadassah's Secretary, was manning the door as a greeter/guard and asked me if I had bought anything. I looked and saw I didn't have my bag. I went over to the stairs, ready to descend again and there was a teen-age boy near my bag. I yelled at him to please pick it up, and as he was commencing to climb the steps, did so and gave me my bag. It turned out to be Carolyn's son! Lucky me! Thanks to Carolyn and her helpful son!