Fiddler on the Roof Is In Portland

Nadene Goldfoot                                                              

                            
I saw Fiddler on the Roof last night at the Portland Center Stage.  It was fantastic.  I hadn't seen a stage play of this musical since I saw Treasure Valley Community College's presentation in the 1970's.  It had been a long time since I had seen the movie version.   It was a treat.  What amazed me was finding young adults who hadn't seen or heard about it.    A new generation of people who hadn't known the Fiddler!  How sad.  I hope they take advantage now that it's come here from New York.  In fact, we did have a few Portland actors in it along with 11 from New York.  Golda and one of the daughters with the long blonde hair are from Portland.
                                                                         

The singing, and  especially the dancing were fantastic;  every bit as good if not better than the movie presentation.  It was absolutely awesome to see the men doing the Russian Kazatzka dancing down on their knees in the kneeling position moving across the stage so quickly done by the Cossacks that entered the town of Anatevka.  I don't think our community college had an orchestra, but Portland did last night.  Of course they had a violin which played a prominent part, but they also had a keyboard, bass, percussion, trumpet, trombone, flute, clarinet and cello.
                                                                         

The main characters are Tevye, the milkman who lives in a little shtetl in the Pale of Settlement, an area that Catherine II set off for Jews to live in so that G-d forbid they wouldn't be in Russia proper.  This shtetl could have been in Ukraine, Poland, Latvia or Lithuania.  It's under the government of the Russian government, of course, and their soldiers occasionally enter to cause pogroms, of which one is in the story.  Golda Meier, Prime Minister of Israel had lived through one terrible pogrom that she wrote about.  Tevye spends time talking to G-d, and tells him all his troubles.  He has a wife, Golde and daughters to marry off.  Who they marry and how Tevye feels about it is the central theme of the story.  Yente, a widow,  is the matchmaker of the shtetl
                                                                           

The Czarist government would take Jewish boys into the army at a very young age and put them on the front lines.  This caused many families to seek out another country to live in as well as the whims of changing populations such as in this story.  Suddenly the village has 3 days of warning to leave.  Most go to the USA.  All the Jews were observant Jews, and were quite afraid of what would happen to them in a new country.  My paternal grandparents must have gone through these same feelings, as they came as immigrants around 1900.

What thrilled me in watching this beautiful production was the pride of the cast in their Jewish role. You could feel it in the manner that they sang, danced and spoke.   I could have sworn they were all Jewish, but most likely none were.  Thank you for this, Chris Coleman, artistic director.  My Polish/Lithuanian grandmother would have enjoyed this so much.

Mr. Coleman  mentions in the program that for those of us watching from the perspective of 2013, this was a story of a world changing too fast and another vanishing too quickly.  It shows the enormous resilience of the human spirit.  My family who were with me also enjoyed it so much.  Thank goodness there are such productions to give them an experience of our history in such a remarkable way.

Resource: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMT-2pcNJ5w  Kazatzka dancing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WpYWpN0VXU Russian soldiers dancing
http://www.pcs.org/fiddler/?gclid=CIPghonj_bkCFWfhQgod6SAANA
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/01/portrait-of-russian-shtetl-kupel.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/07/largest-jewish-ghetto-in-world-pale-of.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/06/jews-of-latvia-or-jews-outside-pale.html

Campus Antisemitism: Quaker Organizers

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                        

Why does this Christian group of Quakers  have it in for the Jews?  This Protestant group,  started in 1654 by George Fox,  has developed into an anti-Israel sledgehammer.  They have planned a veritable war using BDS against Israel and are extremely pro Palestine and anti-Israel.  For a people saying they are pacifists, this is quite a turn-about.  This is extreme anti-Semitism to the point of training people to  fight against us better through the use of BDS.  They are very much activists against Israel who side with the Palestinians.

The American Friends Service Committee, also known as AFSC, is the political arm of the Quaker movement.  They hare planning to hold a Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) summer camp in New York on July 28th to August 1st.  The description is a "5 day intensive program for campus BDS organizers.  There are those leaders who have campaigns running already and those who are hoping to get one launched  in the 2013-2014 school year.

They will include anti-Israel activities such as developing their campaigns, organizing, anti-oppression analysis, nonviolent direct action developing , study of history of BDS movement which started in 2005, woriking with activists, strategy sessions with leaders, and to get the pro-Palestinian students to organize better targeting Israel, boycotting products from Israel, passing divestment resolutions and pushing that Israel is an apartheid regime.

How nice.  My thought is who are these leaders?  They sound like Nazis to me.  One giant truth stands out.  Israel is not an apartheid state but the total opposite of the very meaning.  Since they are planting such a viscous lie, what about everything else they are teaching?  Pure anti-Semitism!

Why would such a part of Christianity act in such a way?  Their beginnings included people being hung in Salem or at least being outcasts for being these different Quakers.  I even found a Quaker on my mother's branch of our genealogy tree and went to the funeral get-together of the celebration of his life.  How those  distant Quaker relatives would have screamed if they knew that they had a Jew hanging on their tree.  I gave them a whole line of my genealogy searches leading to them as well, being a nice person.    So I am very disappointed to find out that Quakers are leaders in this BDS movement.

There are people who see something and do not have the background to interpret it without a study of the history that brings about the visual experience. There are many groups and people such as  "British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who are pressing Israel not to go all out on Hamas, while Khalid Mashaal, head Palestinian,  calls for the destruction of Israel.  This comes even though Hamas has been raining rockets, missiles and mortars down on southern Israel since 2001 and there has only been a brief let up at the end of 2012.  The whole truth of Israel being rightfully there as a state is ignored in their fight against Israel.  What they see is what they figure to be the poor underdog, throwing rocks against Jews with unlimited weapons.  This is only what they want to see, not the truth.
 
One minor piece of propaganda being used could be the old diary of Nancy Parker McDowell which the Quakers are printing off.  She was a teacher in Ramallah which was under control when she taught there from 1938 to 1939.  The British were tough against the Palestinians there as she wrote.  She didn't know what was going on against the Jews.  But she saw the Arab as the underdog then.  It had nothing to do with Jews, but now that the Jews are fighting these same people, she sees them in the shadow of the British meanies.

The Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation (FFC) is divesting from Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Veolia Environment.  This came about from "reaction to demands from “Palestinian rights advocates.”  Heavens, they simply wouldn't be caught listening to the Jews' side of the situation.  "There are only about 80,000 Quakers in North America.  Their spokespersons are heatedly anti-Israel. Quakers are traditionally pacifist of course.  But Quaker ire does not typically focus on Hamas or Hezbollah terror, nor on the violent threats of Israel’s neighbors."  No, evidently they just don't like Jews.

"The Religious Society of Friends is a movement that began in England in the 17th century. Members of this movement are informally known as Quakers, a word that means, "to tremble in the way of the Lord." In its early days it faced opposition and persecution;  however, it continued to expand, extending into many parts of the world, especially the Americas and Africa.

Mary Dyer was thus executed in 1660. Three other martyrs to the Quaker faith in Massachusetts were William Robinson, Marmaduke Stephenson, and William Leddra. These events are described by Edward Burrough in A Declaration of the Sad and Great Persecution and Martyrdom of the People of God, called Quakers, in New-England, for the Worshipping of God (1661)In 1657 a group of Quakers from England landed in New Amsterdam (later called New York). One of them, Robert Hodgson, preached to large crowds of people. He was arrested, imprisoned, and flogged. 

Quakers do differ from other Christians in that they actually are closer to how Jews believe in many respects. They  profess to bring about  peace, integrity,  humility, and community.  They have no written creed.  

  Bible - Quakers' beliefs stress individual revelation, but the Bible is truth. All personal light must be held up to the Bible for confirmation. The Holy Spirit,  who inspired the Bible, does not contradict Himself.

Heaven, Hell - Quakers believe that God's kingdom is now, and consider heaven and hell issues for individual interpretation. Liberal Quakers hold that the question of the afterlife is a matter of speculation.
Sin - Unlike other Christian denominations,  Quakers believe that humans are inherently good. Sin exists, but even the fallen are children of God, Who works to kindle the Light within them.

"Historically, the Society of Friends has endorsed strong moral codes including the refusal to participate in war, the refusal to own slaves, and the elimination of many worldly structures. Socially, they were committed to various causes including women's suffrage, the abolition of slavery, and prison reform."  In other words, from their inception, they have been activists in social affairs.  Though they had picked very worthwhile causes in the their past, I do not agree with their siding with the Palestinians at all, being an Israeli Jew myself; for I know all our history and why we have this fight on our hands with the Palestinians and they do not.

The way it comes down, since the USA support Israel's rights, the Quakers have taken the Palestinian's side. They have done it out of emotion, not out of intellect or facts, much like so many others have done.  We still find people accusing Jews with "the blood libel" even though blood is something forbidden to us in our religion and many will go through hell and high water before touching anything non kosher or that has any blood in it, but people are believing it anyway.  It's just easier to pick a side and hate and accuse rather than bother to dig up facts to prove otherwise.  In looking at the hearts of people, I find very few defenders of Jews except with the followers of Pastor John Hagee, of the Evangelical Christians.  

Resource: Quakers Planning Hate Israel Summer Camp » the Jerusalem Connection Blog -
http://www.thejerusalemconnection.us/blog/2013/06/17/quakers-planning-hate-israel-summer-camp.html by Nitsana Dirshan-Leitner, Shurat Hadin
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12586
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/mark-d-tooley/quakers-divest-from-israel/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Quakers
http://christianity.about.com/od/quakers/a/quakersbeliefs.htm
http://www.patheos.com/Library/Society-of-Friends-(Quaker).html

Netanyahu Needs a Meeting

Nadene Goldfoot
After being turned down by Obama  to meet with him, I figure that Netanyahu is feeling very irritated, and has made the strongest remarks possible with criticism of the Obama administration over the Iranian enrichment issue.  Israelis feel it is a clandestine Iranian plan to build nuclear weapons though Tehran keeps on denying this.  He feels Obama's type of response is just a signal to the Iranians that they could build atomic bombs with freedom from punishment.

Words are a funny thing.  People may understand and translate the English language, but depending on their culture, interpret words in different ways.  Take the example of what happened to cause riots in Cairo and Libya over words from one small-time pastor.  Not even in the translation but in the power of the words we find differences.  We sluff off his words while the people of those places took them to heart as an offense and rioted, killing 4 Americans.  .

US State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland repeated Obama's commitment not to allow Iran to get nuclear weapons and said "it is not useful to be parsing it, to be setting deadlines one way or the other, red lines."  The whole problem rests on the fact that Israel will be hit first and needs to prevent it from happening in the first place but needs the USA as a partner.  The commitment sounds like a partnership, doesn't it?  They are not going to allow them to get nuclear weapons?  Israel needs some facts on their table. He needs facts but doesn't want to broadcast those facts, just know them, and he can't even get an appointment to talk about it let alone get any facts.

Netanyahu is not satisfied with the economic sanctions imposed on Iran and thinks they are ineffective in stopping the enrichment program.  Every day that goes by is another day they keep getting closer to creating nuclear bombs, Netanyahu fears.  He spoke before of a window of opportunity that could close very soon.  When it closes, we are all in mortal danger.

To feel secure, Netanyhu is a man who goes by detailed plans.  He has heard a lot of unfulfilled promises in his day.  It's a long haul by plane from Israel to New York.  I've done that trip.  It's exhausting.  Would it kill Obama to set aside time for Netanyahu and hash some of this out?  Isn't this a part of his job description?

Whatever happens, a least Netanyhu can feel that he has done his utmost to warn the world of the impending danger.  He's just trying to prevent the obliteration of his own little state by a leader or leaders that have continually threatened such extinction.  In that part of the world, people take leaders' words seriously.

Update: 12:00 noon:  I am going to take this a step farther.  Obama is not to like Netanyahu.  This comes from his comment once on an open mike that was heard by others and reported.  What is he doing to Netanyahu's constituency when he can't get an appointment with the President of the USA?  He's snubbing him and showing him disrespect.  Is Obama trying to get him out of office while he himself is drumming up votes for his next term?

Resource:  Oregonian Newspaper 9/12/12 page A3, Netnyahu criticizes US over iran stand

Chutzpah! Jewish shekel from 66 CE Claimed by PA Authority as "Palestinian"

Nadene Goldfoot
How can the PA ever be trusted and respected with all the shenanigans they pull?  One of the most galling ones is calling a recently discovered silver Judean Shekel coin a "Palestinian" coin!  They try to reinvent history with their lies.

The coin is from May 66 CE, the first year the Jews rebelled against Rome.  Jerusalem fell in 70 CE.  It is a shekel, the coinage Israel today calls its coins and paper bills, like the USA has dollars.  This coin was sold for $1.1 million this week at an auction in New York.  On it are the words in Hebrew "shekel of Israel and the year in Hebrew on the front and "Jerusalem the holy" on the back. 

The PA Authority daily wrote about it  in Al-Hayat Al-Jadid, March 4, 2012, and calls it an "ancient Palestinian coin" and as being part of the "Palestinian cultural tradition."  I guess they're hoping that their audience is ignorant to the fact that Judea  wasn't called "Palestine" until 135 CE when a brave Judean named Bar Kochba held a rebellion against the Romans and  lost.  The result was that the Romans changed the name of  Judea to Palestine as punishment for the Jewish rebellion. 

The PA has been busy trying to erase any evidence they can of the Jewish presence in Israel, Judea, Samaria and Gaza.  They try to claim all for their "Palestinian" heritage.  It's just amazing chutzpa at the utmost and is part of the problem of making peace.  It's a sign of the utmost animosity that prevails between the two  that is so hard to bridge.  The PA does not even recognize Israel's right to exist and calls any archaeological findings showing Israelis ancient past in the land a "political agenda."  Well, besides "The Bible" telling of our history, it is nice to find physical proof!  What will it take to make headway with Fatah and Hamas to prove we have returned home?  Whoever should be living in an ancient  Jewish land but the Jews themselves? 

Resource: http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157;doc_id=6541 PA historical revision:  Judean shekel coin from 66 CE is ancient Palestinian coin" and part of the "Palestinian cultural tradition" by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik