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This Leading Line

This Leading Line (Randyjw; September 16, 2021)

I live with

a zillion consequences

of poor choices

and former past actions

Letting you in

where you’ve already been

Is where I can’t help myself

I’ve already been consigned

I do, so, know this well

and it’s verboten to

accompany beside me

On this personal journey

to Hell

No Soul

No Soul (Randyjw; September 16, 2021)

I felt like a hypocrisy

to rail at G-d

to draw, closer

and higher

but not looking

where I was going

with blinders on

To be the light

while losing a heart

closing out humanity

and living in the dark

I rebelled

shook my fist and yelled

Truly discovered love

live in a self-made Hell

wrote it and posted it

Thirteen minutes later

I felt a horizontal roll

taken from my heart

At first,

I felt lighthearted

Because, that’s what I was;

what I am,

and what I’ve become

Soulless –

Undeserving for the things I’ve done

Torn out by the One who

put it there

into the

one who

made it whole

Share this:

I do, now,

understand that solitude

and that very feeling,

of feeling alone

Aayan Hirsi Ali

Aayan Hirsi Ali (Randyjw; September 15, 2021)

(https://youtu.be/-tkGEFhHM5I)

Your Mom

Your Mom (Randyjw; September 8, 2021)

 

 

 

Charlie Watts

Charlie Watts (Randyjw; August 25, 2021)

 

(https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/aug/24/charlie-watts-obituary)

 

 

 

Same Shirt, Different Day

Same Shirt, Different Day (Randyjw; August 21, 2021)

 

I tremor with the autumn leaves

accosted at turns

by cold hearts and minds

molested, then restrained,

during the light of day

I pray that it’s all just a passing phase

 

 

Senderas

Senderas (Randyjw; August 13, 2021)

 

Camina con las ancianas

cuyas escobas

barrieron las senderas

en que pisaron tus pies

 

Al lado de las antiguas

en que se fallen

las cuerpas

 

Ni enfrente,

Ni detras

 

 

 

 

Thank You, Tokyo

Thank You, Tokyo (Randyjw; July 24, 2021)

(https://youtu.be/tHJWhwfVd7Q)

Thank You, England

Thank You, England (Randyjw; July 14, 2021)

Just a note to the Church of England to thank you for your apologies regarding previous antisemitism within your country. It is nice of you to do this (it’s the right thing), and I thank you, as one Jewish person (and as we all must think), for putting this forward as the representative stance of your people (across the sea). Thank you. Shalom.

Law

Law (Randyjw; July 14, 2021)

How can police enforce the laws,

if they’re not lawyers?

They don’t seem to listen

to reasoned argument…

Just come and take you, if they want,

despite logical excuse…

And how can lawyers make sure

the laws are being upheld,

or, more specifically, enforced,

when they see only courtrooms,

And not streets…

if they’re not even police?

Top Terrorists Being Released

Top Terrorists Being Released (Randyjw; July 3, 2021)

I’m a bit late in finding this information on the internet, but, then again… perhaps the timing of Independence Day should enhance its prescience:

(https://www.judicialwatch.org/corruption-chronicles/gitmo-to-free-three-al-qaeda-operatives-forever-prisoners-with-9-11-bin-laden-ties/)

Open Letter to Ilhan Omar

Congressperson Omar:

You may not appreciate the questions I’d like to ask of you, and you’d probably accuse me of being racist, but, nevertheless, we do live in a free society, and ask them of you is what I wish to do. They are basically rhetorical questions: no need to answer them, really. Questions I pose to myself, really and posit for the purpose of others to consider the answers, as they consider the same questions.

Why did you leave Somalia?

What was the reason for coming to the USA?

What was the reasoning for choosing the USA as a final destination?

Is Somalia an open society?

Is Somalia a democratic society?

Is there much violence in Somalia?

What are the racial distribution percentages of the population of the people in Somalia?

What was the racial distribution at the time of your having fled Somalia?

What are the percentages amongst the religious populations of the inhabitants of Somalia?

Specifically, what is the percentage of Jewish people in Somalia?

Is piracy on the high seas still a common means to “earn a living” in Somalia?

Or, has kidnapping and terrorism surpassed the boat piracy business?

Were you persecuted by Jews in Somalia?

Did Israeli people persecute you in Somalia?

Just thought I’d ask……

Came up with a few more since posting…

What is the population percentage of Latinx people of Somalia?

What is the population percentage of Asian people of Somalia?

Arabians have succeeded in conquering Africa for Islam. But, you’re not upset about that?

And, still; it was to America that you came, rather than to any other Muslim-majority African nation to which you emigrated. Many miles overseas… Why?

Yachad, b’Yad

 

Yachad, b’Yad (Randyjw; June 6, 2021)

 

 

Enough of my “own-ness,” for right now, on this paper

I speak out for others in “righteous” anger

You say you care for others, but only your self-same “color”

the ventriloquist’s strings being pulled by the Arab nations

 

Our cherished notions grant freedom of speech

Like children, we’ve grown-up from babbling, to real

We celebrate each soul for their unique formations

and daily greet passersby, of all combinations

 

Allied in pain with the African people

who’ve known the yokes of the mosques

and the foreign church steeples

fight against brothers divided by tribes

the lands from the sun turn to sand, or go dry

 

Oh, where is the outrage over Mauritania?

who trade slaves, to this day, but world silence remains…

 

Joining with your oppressors

will not bring you strength;

they’ve been leading you

unwittingly to the lion’s den

 

They’re killing the Christians,

they’re misogynistic,

and really against “others” —

Please, don’t you believe them

 

Who was beside you in the Civil Rights?

We’ve joined you and fought, so that all have “real” rights

And where were the others, during all this time?

They weren’t there; they’re just giving you more of their lies

 

In “private” conversations amongst themselves

Like the Ku Klux Klan, they repeat the same filth

I’m alarmed by this supposed “democracy”

now exhibiting this raging hypocrisy

 

Are your eyes closed or open —

Or, haven’t you really noticed?

that the “woke” hate the Jews;

it’s their only main focus

 

Wake up! Are you sleeping?

Or just going through the motions?

Under the Democrat’s administrations

we’ve had the worst race relations

 

Their bigotry sees you through the lens

of low expectations

But the reality I see

doesn’t meet their exhortations

 

And, back at my end,

the thieves steal my own story

They claim my heritage as theirs

as they’ve stalked us throughout history

 

 

They’ve stolen religion from books

which precedes their own time

claiming ours is now theirs,

with the facts turned around

 

They project their hideous methods and means

onto us; What is said is, instead

their own actions and deeds

 

They’ve expanded from Arabia

to slay Africa by the sword

they’ve attacked Europe, joined Hitler,

and lost so many wars

 

Expropriated works by others

never developing their resources

like oil, and books that were

written by others

 

We’ve helped them and tried to show them

better ways

than by murder or trying to

gain world domination

 

They call it “taqqiya;” a form of double-speak

Such lies as advance their cause

by Holy enshrinement

and Hudabiyya

 

By their very own language and

by their holy book

the truth of Israel “being for the Jews”

is quite freely admitted

 

Even today, when they rage,

to “Kill the Jews”

the phrase “Khayber all YAHUD”

in Arabic points to Our Truth

 

Tribes Benjamin and Yehuda

of all of Israel

point to our heritage, religion,

our culture and land

 

for that area which they want and rename

the West Bank

We have lived here, in Israel,

despite claims of our total exile

 

By being quiet and not refuting

wholesale lies of our dispersions

and our land being granted

to terminal losers

 

I know we’re supposed to “play nice”

with our murderous neighbors

but G-d warned us of Amalek

and disobedience shows we haven’t learned

 

Which is the worse transgression?

Let’s try and do our best

And know when our enemies are our enemies

and our alleged friends are really true friends

 

Don’t come after me, execute, or excommunicate me

I’m speaking my mind, standing my ground,

and you can check:

I’m doing so Biblically

 

For some of us, in Exile, have never forgotten,

and have always wanted

to be back in Israel

and have done so, throughout the ages

 

Possibly by adapting to new countries

via customs or “assimilation”

For without much historical education,

or through insidious modes of revision,

 

The wording of being in so-called exile for “two-thousand years”

can’t account for Bar Kochba, Yavne, Rehovot,

two versions of Talmud:

Bavli and Yerushalmi

 

The external sources all point to

our being there

How else could they all have attacked us,

if we weren’t really there?

 

Religious, Zionist,

Who cares how we’re called!?

We are one, under G-d,

Yachad, b’Yad.

 

Update (June 30, 2021); see also:

 

(https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/why-dont-christian-black-lives-matter-raymond-ibrahim/)

 

Update (August 23, 2021); see also:

 

(https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/why-rename-judea-and-samaria/)

 

 

Memorial Day

Memorial Day (Randyjw; May 31, 2021)

No Poetry And Few Words

No Poetry And Few Words (Randyjw; May 18, 2021)

You’d think with all my general rantings and ravings that I’d have plenty to write about in these times; but, no… too much bullying in personal space and cyberspace has really hurt me emotionally. My poor living situation leaves me physically struggling, which heightens the effects of stress, poor nutrition, rest, etc., plus grief in the loss of death, connections to others, personal and general war against my people on a continual and escalated basis. I’m still fighting racism and antisemitism, though… That’s what I do.

Anyways, I’m listening, now… reading… your words, still… And, yes; they have an impact. Music, and uplifting videos (at least for my purpose) are my present coping and enjoyment mechanism. Especially humorous ones.

I discovered this cool music/animation video recently (check out the themes!) – it’s my way, right now, and at least that I can handle, of reaching out to you.

Habibti Ensemble / Edom:

(https://youtu.be/TLi-_EXDTQ0)

Just Music

Just Music (Randyjw; May 8, 2021)

A really pretty song; Maybe I should take it to heart. Perhaps I will, when my heart and soul begin to fly, again.

No words just yet; only music.

(https://youtu.be/xYYYctLmnt4)

English translation available in the last song just saved to my YouTube channel.

Words Elude Me

Words Elude Me (Randyjw; April 20, 2021)

Passover 5781 (2021)

Passover 2021 (Diaspora Dates U.S.: March 27 – April 4, 2021) (Randyjw; March 26, 2021)

 

From the Haggadah, the Four Questions…

Music by Cecilia Margules

Gad Elbaz / Mah Nishtanah:

(https://youtu.be/A1rH7rYuZQE)

 

A tough-talking, jaw-dropping video:

(https://youtu.be/S-VzAWJ1yK4)

 

For those of us still dragging their feet, or unable to get away…

 

Bashanah Habaah Birushalayim:

(https://youtu.be/Zii_aIudSqk)

 

Meal ideas for last-minute procrastinators:

 

30 Passover recipes curated and taste-tested by Taste of Home’s staff:

(https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/classic-passover-recipes/

And, from The Nosher:

(https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/passover-marshmallow-brownie-recipe/) of course it’s chocolate!

 

(https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/braised-lamb-shanks-with-rosemary-red-wine-and-dates-recipe/)

 

Happy Passover!

 

 

Unleashed

Unleashed (Randyjw; March 24)

 

I’m unleashing my shackled mind;

my shackled mindsets.

I’m about the experiential definition now.

The characteristics.

 

 

I Don’t Know

I Don’t Know (Randyjw; March 23, 2021)

How to read these signs and wonders;

with love, certainly,

despite the traumas and the dramas

of this worldly life surrounding me

These petty, persistent attacks

on my person, and my people, and my family

the crabbing of my being

engulfed in the utter maelstrom

of this humming, drumming malevolency

I cannot write anything well-pleasing

yet I appreciate your loyalty

through my rotten inability to sublimate

the greedy tendency I have

to consume so much nectar you’ve

poured out at my feet

I cannot seem to sip lightly;

I lap the spoils and spills

like my totem coyote

that literally appeared in these weeks

to protect me (???)

And in the night sky,

How odd!

Orion’s belt (the bowslinger)

seems to lead me to Canis Major

(but all I can see is the triangle,

with the bright star, Sirius,

at its head,

while these skies and my mind

remain hazy)

So, while the white and brown

coyote brushes past my right shoulder

at three feet and circles around —

I wonder,

have you shape-shifted in new guise

to give comfort to the overly needy?

We seem to reach

an implicit understanding

Even while I cannot properly

convey my meanings

Writing bad verse with nothing

even slightly to redeem me

and gaze knowingly

or longingly at one another

from my perch on my bags

toward the intersection down the street,

and the coyote trails the unwanted,

unasked for strange man in the night

who was needlessly interrupting

my dearest, private alone time

with which I can concentrate

upon you within my deepest reveries

The poor coyote!

I sense his or her need, also

to be fed,

but, yet the people harass

this hungry animal, too

Alone in this world,

upon this earth

Will such atrocity never end?

(No – just keep drinking the Kool Aid.)

---

And, always ill-timing,

I can never seem to capture

this magnificent creature

who roams the night

with my camera

Antisemitism At The Grammys

Antisemitism At The Grammy’s (Randyjw; March 20, 2021)

 

Here is an article, which I didn’t write, but for which I am glad that someone else did, about intersectional antisemitism, from Tamika Mallory at the Grammy Awards (which I didn’t watch) this year (I’m sorry if I need to rescind any previous “likes” or approvals on this issue, due to not having known this had occurred, etc.):

 

(https://worldisraelnews.com/analysis-anti-semitism-gets-endorsed-by-the-grammys/)

 

Israel vs. UN (from UN Watch)

Israel vs. UN (from UN Watch) (Randyjw; March 18, 2021)

Sorry; I messed up the original post in my panic to get this info out.

The UN Watch has created a database, for doing research and fact-checking information coming from the U.N. (with its anti-Israel U.N. biases apparent, throughout).

This was revealed LIVE at 12:00 noon, Eastern Standard Time (U.S.).

Here is the copied link from the unwatch.org website:

(https://unwatch.org/database/)

Those Little Things

Those Little Things (Randyjw; March 8, 2021)

 

Just the little things,

as I walk on my way…

“Echoes of my Mind”

heard as I shopped for the day

 

But who could have formed

that  “O”  “X”  from the clouds –

on this side, seen backwards,

I wonder aloud

 

G-d, with a message

that must be heaven sent

and I’m thankful I saw it

a vision well-spent

 

Van Gogh: Multidimensional

Van Gogh: Multidimensional (Randyjw; March 8, 2021)

Here’s some cool news on upcoming interactive van Gogh exhibits (for all you Miamians out there, and some other information on multidimensional van Gogh exhibits happening elsewhere):

(https://www.vangoghexpo.com)

(https://www.instagram.com/vangoghmiami/)

(https://vangoghmiami.com)

Dueling Van Gogh exhibits generate interest, confusion in DC, New York

Update (June 3, 2021):

Here’s a travel deal from Travelzoo (check for other locations):

(https://www.travelzoo.com/entertainment/florida-southeast/-39-Van-Gogh-Monet-More-3D-Reproductions-in-Miami-2921102/)

COVID-19

COVID-19 (Randyjw; March 6, 2021)

 

My Mom passed away from respiratory failure due to COVID-19 infection at an assisted living facility. I just thought I’d let you know.

 

I’m thinking of you all, and my prayers are with you.

 

Stay safe, and be well. I’ll write when I can.

 

Love (Eleven and Counting)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love (Eleven and Counting) (Rachelgv; March 4, 2021)

The day is fading,

but not my thoughts of you

or the love for you

I hold within my heart

 

Calm Water

Calm Water (Randyjw; February 26, 2020)

 

I don’t feel the miles

but just the sweet, undulating

waves of the balm

propelled by your smiles

enfolded in calm

 

 

Purim 5781

Purim 5781 (Randyjw; February 25, 2021)

Today and tomorrow mark the holiday of Purim in the Jewish calendar. So, happy Purim to all of you, and here is a nice article, which gives me continued hope for peace (true peace) in the middle East…

(Love you, too, children of Cyrus):

(https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/iranian-crown-prince-reza-pahlavi-speaks-joseph-puder/)

And, of course, my annual favorites:

ONE NIGHT WITH THE KING (FULL LENGTH MOVIE):

(https://youtu.be/r4saPofrlbA)

(https://youtu.be/4RPoGjKC0Oc)

Dead Sea

Dead Sea:

Berkowitz, Adam Eliyahu. “Did Scientists Just Confirm Biblical Account of Sodom and Gomorrah?”;israel365news.com; November 23, 2018:

(https://www.israel365news.com/117449/scientists-confirm-sodom-gomorrah/)

Israel Quiz

Israel Quiz (Randyjw; November 21, 2020)

 

O, little town of:

a) Bethlehem

b) Ramallah

 

O, Come, all ye faithful

joyful and triumphant

O, Come ye, O, Come ye to:

a) Bethlehem

b) the West Bank

 

Noël, Noël

the angels did sing

born is the King of:

a) Israel

b) Palestine

 

The Torah relates when David approached the table of “showbread”.

An English language transliteration from the Hebrew for “house of bread” is:

a) Bethlehem (Beit Lechem)

b) The West Bank (???????)

 

 

Holidays Of Another Tune

Holidays Of Another Tune (Randyjw; October 24, 2020)

 

I’m dreaming of some hot, buffalo wings

Just like the kind I used to eat

With some bleu cheese and celery

it’d sure be merry

and would be something of a treat…

 

 

Scars and Always

Scars and Always (Randyjw; October 17, 2020)

 

Cry, Cry

Cry all you want…

as for me, it’s long-lasting;

too hard to move on

 

Dignity

Dignity (Randyjw; September 28, 2020)

 

I cried for that man

sitting so stoic in the chair

when the cops came and said

You can’t be seated there

 

He turned his head around

a four-inch ‘fro dark in the air

some curls lay on the ground

the other half completely bare

 

So proud of the barber woman

who defiantly took her stand

she said she’d continue to do the job

let them arrest her, she’d be damned

 

They’d come with a mobile shower

a volunteer restored their crowns

And for at least one blessed hour

Our heads held high — we stared him down

 

 

The Adopted, Dejected (Son and) Daughter

It started out as a love poem, and then grief, anger, (and love) took over.

Real? You want real? Back to writing on paper the way I feel.

 

The Adopted, Dejected (Son and) Daughter (Randyjw; April 14, 2020)

 

He explores me to the core of my soul

my first breath, a cry, because I did not know his name

a desire to be held and to be loved for all time

and thousands of singular steps I chose to take*

 

To be held onto, so much, that I was formless, spineless

The peacemaker, a Cinderella

a pleasant woman of sorts

 

My mind, not mine, but mindless

to be good, to cause you to never let me go

 

A displeasing result, to follow orders not of my making

to be chastised and berated

as the consequence for these actions

 

To be belittled, when little, to assert my independence

withheld from affections

and confidence slow-whittled

 

My heart was broken many times,

at the thousands of disappointments seen in your eyes

at the casting aside of other peoples’ lives

and the callow reflection deemed grand of the statusized

 

I chiseled away and acted out

became a wild child

and, as a feral adult,

 

maintain the thin skin

of my childhood sensitivities

and cry like the unloved, unwanted thing

that never seemed how to learn

to reconcile all these things

 

It wasn’t to some other

as if it happened on-screen

my judgment was stunted

and became a bad dream

 

I was good, I was bad,

and my fairness was had

’til it left not much more

than a shell in its wake

 

What once calciferous deposits

took years to build upon

now come shear to clear translucence,

no less fragile, still more strong

 

For I treasure the love you intended

and realize your anxieties at being a parent

Never understanding when to let go, and

Being fiercely overprotective

 

For I know, now, how much you molded me

Being denied the history of my family

Cutting me off and denying me to the end

Did you cut off your emotions when I was ten?

 

I think it was before

at the elementary school doors

Wanting not to be thought uncool

being kissed by a parent

 

I’m sorry I hurt you

I’m sorry I repeated the scenario at college

I never learned

and how I have yearned

 

I have made a lifetime of making apologies to you…

but, when is it your turn?

 

How it has been, since that time

so way back when

that instead of your smothering,

wet, sloppy coffee kisses**

I’ve had to be always the one

to take the first initiative?

 

To be the one to offer a kiss

to your turned cheek, unreturned

To be the one to say I love you

with stone cold silence my reward

 

I’m sorry for wanting to be loved

I’m sorry for wanting to fit in

and never finding a place

It was presented as shielding me

but I was intelligent, so caught on

 

Maybe you should have allowed me into

the inner sanctum

Made me feel as if my thoughts

might matter

Instead of allowing me to be a

forever-child

Instead of a body that’s now grown?

 

Telling me hardly anything about

anything going on?

Hoping I’d forget things, until I

was reminded later on–

 

You chose me, remember?

Well, maybe you can’t quite recall…

The joy you must have felt

after all those years

waiting for oh so long

 

I’ve pieced together

the subtle clues you extended

one, maybe at seven

and another, through my social security number

 

The gifts you gave

lay in my jewelry box

admired in my own way

rifled through and taken

in front of me, while I watched

 

You re-gifted them to others

showing me that I must value them so little

heedless of sentimental attachment

or any comfort of nostalgia

 

And a choice of a better-days Bambi

or a bedraggled tiger

to give to the kid who fell down

off his bicycle

 

Nothing to hold onto,

nothing to hold on

and you sit and remain there

with your voicemail turned on

 

No, I didn’t cause your cancer

as you so like to claim

where both you and significant other

chose to pinpoint the blame

 

Of saying you’d disown me

when I was a teen

because I’d wanted to learn

who my birth parents had been?

 

Denying you’d said that

and so many other things

like saying a former boyfriends’ two children

weren’t like having the real thing (your own)?

 

You didn’t believe I could be hurt

by extrapolating in the frame of an adoptee?***

 

Denying me knowledge that my father

was dying

Then telling me to rush over

the miles

and watching his morphine-addled

last hours (okay, a bit more, but…)

 

Telling me no, I couldn’t get a cot

and stay by his bedside until he was not

Looking over my shoulder to see

the devilish grin****

of the nurse plumping his pillows–

and knowing that this was the end?

 

I said never, ever, do that to me

ever again

and break the news not alone to me

but with a posse of relative(s)/friend(s)

                                                       (the second because it rhymes)

 

And you promised, but repeated the same

scenario with my brother

I suspect you hid his cancer

over a year with your continued

trips back up to Boston

 

And hearing the news, of my brother again, with

a cousin present

and learning of your own battle with it

and more Aunts with you, yet

 

Asking if I could speak with you

alone

to receive a three-ply no

rather than a shared mother-daughter

moment?

 

Did you harbor a bunch of resentment

when you, one day, outed the fact

that my Aunt’s heirlooms from

the two of yours mother

my Uncle declared he won’t give back?

 

And I wanted to keep peace in the family

and said you shouldn’t act this way

because I still wanted a family to have

and thought it too high a price to pay

 

But, I guess you’ll teach your lesson

as you’ve done the same to me

Is it a cycle of abuse

or some form of reverse psychology?

 

You’ve always, but maybe twice, tended

to side with anyone but me

Encouraging me to lie, and listening to you,

saying it was me?

 

With your significant other

you made some kind of a devil’s pact

and when, at the beginning you

mentioned this “deal”

I was completely and utterly aghast

 

Everything you’d made with yours and dad’s

hard work

went completely to their family

leaving out my bro and me

 

In cryptic fashion, you mentioned

you tied up your money

I said, whatever it is, I don’t

care about me, just take care

of my sibling (brother)

 

Then the trips away started

with one reason or another

never knowing it might have anything

to do with my brother.

 

And I went to him, solo,

I couldn’t know why you’d delay by weeks

I used half of my savings,

the rest with you, upon my return

 

and my job you belittled, was apparently

good enough for my friend

who came to your workplace with her mother

discussing they wouldn’t hire me again

 

Yet they had, in the past, and had

given me a raise

and had fired many others

and where I had still remained

 

You said I was homeless just to spite you

but I think three years’ way too long

and know the mother I thought G-d

a human with problems all along

 

And so this Chillul Hashem

goes back to the secular

self-loathing Jew I tried hard to be

When I wanted so much to fit in

that I assimilated and then lost me

 

I still have that feminist streak

and that veneer of American society

and I apologize for denying your heritage

and trying to mold you in some ways

more modern

 

When you weren’t with me when I

went to my brother

over your dead body you

said you wouldn’t put me as proxy

He passed away and then I came

to help you, too

And you chose then to show me a

paper

that showed us both as proxies to him?

 

And if that wasn’t enough

throughout the years with your significant

other and kin

You’d promised everything that was yours

would be left to me?

 

And slowly, continually, and surely

you kept giving away

everything little by little

to always everyone else?*****

 

And then they’d flaunt it before me

and wave it before my face

Saying Look what your mother gave me

All a pathetic and hurtful disgrace

 

So, your significant other renéged

on his deal

I’ve been through that before

and can sympathize with how that feels

But do you think I should trust

his daughter’s call to confirm with her my

personal information to get “back”

into your will?

 

… she statedly said three years or so ago,

before my life and apartment fell

When I told her I wanted to speak with you

she said, “She’s not speaking to you! Get it?”

 

and now, with my phone and email hacked,

my phone uncharged and likely deactivated

it took months to get a replacement

and I still can’t even use it

 

And you, also, now in your fourth living

place in the in the past year or so since

he passed away

the last time I visited you, you

seemed quite happy that I came

But since I call from the soup kitchen phone

and service is banned now due to the virus

I still keep getting your voicemail

and my own phone number might’ve expired

 

On a cool and early morn when I had

a bit more to my energy

and free buses to assist me

on my seven-hour journey (2-1/2 hours walking)

 

I learned his daughter now you’d given

over power of attorney

regardless of the fact of COVID (19)

that I wouldn’t get to see you

 

I don’t know whether she’s provoking me

or whether it’s to you of credit deserving

whose oversight of the daughter

to visit

was left off the list by design

 

I found out when I visited last

and they told me who it was

and I’d need to go to Court

whose time might come

after you’re gone

 

I asked them to call that daughter so she can put

me on the list

Her reply, to them, was I

should call her

meaning no, or some blackmail,

or something

 

That daughter married three times

my cousin was also once homeless

and somehow they’re better than me

the adopted, dejected (son and) daughter

 

 

* (post script: everything became all mingled and intertwined)

** (sorry; I can’t change this; it’s central to my memories)

*** That it would leave scars upon me for all of eternity? (Added: April 17, 2020)

**** (of “Joanne, or Johanna”) (Added: September 30, 2020)

***** Their family (Added: September 27, 2020), my cousins (Added: October 17, 2020), and your friends (Added: September 27, 2020)?

 

How Coronavirus Is Affecting The Homeless

 

How Coronavirus Is Affecting The Homeless (Randyjw; March 18 and March 19 [updated], 2020)

 

We hear of instances during this coVid-19 coronavirus epidemic in which those who have been in possible contamination with an infected/infectious individual are requested to self-quarantine at home for 14 days. The cases of infection have increased substantially, and many countries have placed stay-at-home measures on their populations, closed their borders, and other arising instances. Public locations are being closed, such as schools, religious institutions, and others.

 

But, what if you have no home to shelter in? Here, where I live (undisclosed, for privacy), and across the nation, shelters are only temporary reprieves for the homeless; they are not a permanent solution. Stays are limited in duration, and the demand for shelter is always insufficient to meet the actual needs. During the daytime, on a regular basis, the homeless can only go to public locations, such as parks and libraries, or face the likely consequences of encountering a law-enforcement officer who will then ticket or jail the individual for loitering, lodging, trespass, or other such law designed to make it practically “illegal” to be a poor homeless person. The shelters, I heard from someone who has been lately trying to get into them, have stopped their “overnights,” which is a few-day stay which requires a pre-referral (running around after a van which goes to numerous cities and standing in long lines to see if there’s a bed available, and often, there is not… You can’t just “walk-in” to a shelter whenever you please…); they are also stopping their daytime harbor (if they ever had one, in the first place). The volunteers which help out at the shelters are no longer being taken, and staff is very short-handed. Today, I went to the other city I briefly stayed at; they handed out meals (no dining in) in styrofoam containers. They did a great job, even though some people complained.

 

In fact, it is getting downright scary during these times. I’m actually surprised that rioting hasn’t yet broken out. The tension is becoming almost unbearable, as homeless people are now congregating closer to resources, having a semi-martial law imposed (truly) with the closure of locations where the homeless did (but officially shouldn’t) sleep, and “homeless real estate” (i.e., a “spot” to sleep in, outdoors) becoming very scarce. Often, homeless individuals will watch other homeless people — their movements, locations, etc. — so that they can come and impose themselves on another’s “turf.” I’ve already had this happen; I was once severely beaten up due to this, with my head being bashed against a brick wall four times. The martial closure also takes away a few more options for the homeless: bathrooms and like facilities, etc. They are now closing down the libraries, so you will not be hearing from me until further notice from the library [except for today, March 19]. This is another location for a bathroom for me, as well as a place to stay indoors, out of the elements, and away from the cops and sheriffs, and keep me out of trouble. No longer. Where are we to go?

 

Also, the extraneous people, who help to provide food for the homeless, such as religious institutions, individuals who operate non-profits, etc., have stopped their feedings. I had tried another city out and had found the resources for food better there, but I was banned from their library for my excess bags (although, not until I started bothering them to loosen their computer cords, so that I could bring the monitor close to me, in order to compensate for my degenerative myopia…) and they tore down my sleeping spot, so I moved back to where I originally was. The food resources are not very good here; but, even those extraneous ones, they have stopped. There is still one soup kitchen, but I have not normally been going there as it is an arduous effort for me to get there. The place is very small and is always closely packed, with people lining out the entryway.

 

Last night, I was very frightened, and felt that two men, perhaps in tandem, but not near each other, were “casing me out.” This is a very dangerous situation for a female, and one that prefers to be alone, for many reasons (not all listed). For one, I prefer it that way. Socializing is okay, to a certain extent, but at nighttime, I want to be with my thoughts and silence and recoup. Many homeless women out here prefer to have a male around for the feeling of so-called “protection” that they might “infer” upon them; but, all I hear are horrible stories and drama which ensues in these circumstances, and this is just not my cup of tea. I feel that if anyone is creeping up on me at nighttime, I want to be prepared, if at all possible, and not have to determine: is this “friend” or “foe” when I only have a few reactionary seconds, if that, if awake, to make some kind of reaction. I have been around other people, and it’s just not a good fit for me. Many other problems occured because of that, so I try to prevent it as best as possible. Last night, one guy came exceedingly close to me in a wide parking lot, which was totally unnecessary. He then moved to a median within the parking lot toward another building, but then stayed in this small median and loitered there, not heading anywhere. I thought he was going to try to steal my stuff. As I walked toward the other end of the parking lot, another guy was walking nearby. He pretended like he was going to continue on the path out of the parking lot, and I waited and watched to see if he was, but he then did not and stopped. When he noticed I was watching him, he then moved to the path, but didn’t proceed on it and out of sight. I was waiting at a bus stop near the path, but then moved forward to where I knew there would be a place which had video cameras. He then moved a few feet back towards the parking lot and the line of sight of where the other man in the median was loitering, and he made gestures which seemed to me like they were intended for that other man. I was very nervous. Then, I noticed, which I hadn’t before, and don’t know whether this person had been there or had come along in the interim, another man across the street, who did not get on the bus which eventually pulled up for him at that bus stop. I was so nervous, I told the bus driver my misgivings and what had happened and described the individuals. When I got to my spot, and I hope no-one was noticing me, I laid down, and was anxious and cried awhile, then read some of my book I’m presently reading (The Monuments Men; I’ve read it before, but prior to learning about stuff I’m kindof looking into now), and eventually was tired and shut my eyes — I really don’t sleep too much or too well out there; I never feel like I’ve actually gotten any sleep, and stay awake most of the night.

 

The tensions are really bad out here at ground level. Perhaps you are somewhat insulated from what’s happening “out on the street;” and I hope that you are. But, it gives me, I think, a sometimes truer indicator of how people are feeling, reacting, etc. — at least at this level. I hope the calm holds.

 

[Update – March 19, 2020]:

 

The libraries will be closing. I heard that the parks, also, will soon be closing. These are the only locations where a homeless person can be. So, what — We are now “illegal citizens” within our own country? Worse off than even “illegal immigrants?”

 

Also, the other day, because they had stopped extraneous feedings, I had not had dinner, nor anything to eat in the morning of the following day. I had gone to the park to try to meet up with the individual who helps distribute food to homeless people, but was told that she would not be coming until further notice. Si, I had to go elsewhere; I went to a supermarket, and there was hardly anything a homeless person could purchase left on the shelves, because everybody is panicking and stocking up on food items and leaving nothing for us to be able to purchase with food stamps. I was hoping to have some bologna; there were only a few Hebrew National salamis available (and those are usually much higher-priced than cheaper bologna — and, yes, I believe it is a Heavenly reminder sent to me, but the problem is that I am just having too much difficulty in trying to survive and am not really keeping Kosher at this time (probably reaping the consequences for this decision, as well…). In any case, I bought the salami, some Martin’s potato bread, free mustard packets, and a pack of cheese (yes, I know… the meat-dairy admix is a big non-no)… It wound up costing me almost $21.00 USD, which is about three-1/2 times my daily allotted expenses on EBT… I’ll probably be suffering further… So, now… I guess all of us homeless people will soon be accruing multiple tickets (courts are closed now, but…) or stays in overcrowded jails (never been to one; don’t really want to go), but they are making being a poor, homeless person a crime by leaving us no alternative arrangements, with shelters maxed-out, no day options, no “overnights” and basically nothing else. No-one cares. There are not even portable toilets being set up, and if you want to consider the potential fallout from that situation, I would say that the cities are not being considerate…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Purim 5780

Purim 5780 (Randyjw; February 27, 2020)

Purim: March 9-10, 2020

 

Purim (Randyjw):

(https://youtu.be/4RPoGjKC0Oc)

 

Some Purim fun:

 

Comedian Bob DiBuono as President Donald J. Trump, with a message for Purim:

(https://youtu.be/lQaIsfJpXDY)

 

“”Shushan Funk” – Rosenblum Shaloch-E-Manos – Purim 2015 ~ פורים תשע’ה”. Published: February 17, 2015:

(https://youtu.be/batkXb4-wVg)

 

“”What does Purim Say?” – (Parody: What does the fox say) Rosenblum Shaloch-E-Manos”. Published: March 4, 2014:

(https://youtu.be/UnJ6BLyPpjs)

 

“”Purim Town Road” – Rosenblum Shaloch-E-Manos – Purim 2020 ~ פורים תש’פ”. Published March 2, 2020:

(https://youtu.be/kYLx29ViCAA)

 

“Kippalive – Purim Up – כיפה לייב”. Published: March 6, 2014:

(https://youtu.be/J9CJjNtEieA)

 

 

These recipes for Purim, or anytime, look delicious!!! Although, sad to say, I haven’t actually tried them out (but, just wish, only slightly, that I could)….

 

Dulce de Leche Hamantaschen:

(https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/dulce-de-leche-hamantaschen/)

 

Poppyseed-filled Challah:

(https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/bake-a-poppy-seed-filled-challah-this-purim/)

 

 

Birthday Joy

Birthday Joy (Randyjw; February 27, 2020)

 

 

(https://youtu.be/PLAc9rTfDCM)

 

 

 

Jewish Land

Jewish Land (Randyjw; February 24, 2020)

 

 

Read this important history regarding the Jewish Land and presence in Israel:

 

 

 

Shabiy, Dr. Yechiel. “The History of the Land Is Jewish, Not Palestinian”. besacenter.org; February 23, 2020:

(https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/israel-jewish-palestinian/)

 

 

 

 

Beautiful Halo

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful Halo (Randyjw; February 23, 2020)

 

 

I’ve lost my poetry, for awhile

I don’t know when it will return;

I guess when true smiles

return to my face

In signs and thoughts

imagined of the nearness

of your soul to mine

 

And,

 

In the meantime,

without this heaven on earth…

Yet, with nothing lost,

I have this beautiful halo you misplaced

and unerringly dropped into my heart.

 

 

(https://youtu.be/BeMJoRppPDw)

 

 

Europe Recognizes Legal vs Illegal Border Entry

 

Europe Recognizes Legal vs Illegal Border Entry (Randyjw; February 18, 2020)

 

Kern, Soren. “Spain: European Court Approves Summary Deportations of Illegal Migrants”. gatestoneinstitute.org; February 17, 2020:

(https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15615/spain-migrants-deportations)

 

 

2020 Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy

 

2020 Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy (Randyjw; February 18, 2020)

 

(https://youtu.be/m5zq4ZuZ1HQ)

 

 

My Honey Valentine

My Honey Valentine (Randyjw; February 12, 2020)

 

 

(https://youtu.be/eMROpDMepWY)

 

 

 

 

Official Anti-Semitism

 

Official Anti-Semitism (Randyjw; February 12, 2020)

 

It’s official: The United Nations has officially and flagrantly boycotted Jews. That means anti-Semitism is now officially sanctioned, according to the U.N., in this “Advance Unedited Version Of A/HRC/43/71. It seems we are in possibly worse times than 1930’s Nazi Germany.

 

Read the press release and the “Blacklist/Boycott” of companies sponsored/condoned by the U.N.:

 

 

 

UN Watch Press Release; February 12, 2020:

(https://unwatch.org/press-release-un-releases-anti-israel-blacklist-fueling-global-boycott-divestment-sanctions-campaign/)

 

 

Update (Added January 18, 2020):

 

Here’s the Jewish response, listing allegedly known companies doing business with the U.N., and an article describing it:

 

(https://mk0breakingisralps2c.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/UN-vendors.pdf)

 

(https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/145220/firing-back-settlers-release-their-own-blacklist-of-companies-doing-business-with-un/)

 

 

 

Tu Bshvat

 

Tu Bshvat (Randyjw; February 7, 2020)

 

 

Happy

Tu Bshvat!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Hamstrung By Left

 

Hamstrung By Left (Randyjw; February 2, 2020)

 

I can’t believe what I’m seeing, here.

 

So much Spin… both by the leftists in Congress, and the Iranians, at their centrifuges (thanks to those U.S. Leftists).

 

Congress, dominated by Democrats, has just voted to hamstring the United States against a war involving Iran, called the No War Against Iran Act, which passed with a vote in favor: 228-175.

 

And, so, could you please tell me what would happen if Iran sent over their newest missiles, soon to be “tipped and equipped” [my coin — ed.] with radioactive material, to the U.S.?

 

What? We couldn’t make a war with them? Defend ourselves?

 

Do these political representatives of ours have any brains, whatsoever? Or, are they really that idiotic?

 

 

Read about this ridiculousness, here, and you’ll learn of even more further hamstringing:

 

(https://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/us-house-passes-multiple-measures-to-curb-military-action-by-trump-on-iran/2020/02/02/)

 

 

 

 

Oslo Redux

 

Oslo Redux (Randyjw; January 31, 2020)

 

I haven’t even read the Trump Administration’s Peace To Prosperity plan, yet – – and, I might, eventually. But, there are already intrinsic problems I see at a glance which tell me this will never work.

 

For one, the Arabs have never, and will never, rescind their war to eliminate the Jews – – especially those Jews living in Israel. The conflict is about genocide of the Jewish people (again), and nothing is going to change the Arab mind about that. That concept is as intrinsic to the Koran, as is that of taqqiya, the same Arab concept which allows for deception to the enemy as a means of strategic warfare to attain the goal. In it, all need to be of one mind, and, therefore, religion; therefore: join, or be gone (eliminated).

 

Seeing, briefly, the outline of a map which contains Judea and Samaria (or, as those siding with the Arabs will call it: The “West Bank”) and which connects via an underground tunnel to make an accessible roadway between the areas of the so-called “West Bank” on the east side of Israel near the Jordan River, and connecting it to Gaza, located on the western border at the Mediterranean Sea, would cut Israel in half, even if the tunnel is situated below ground. All the Arabs would need to do is amass in the tunnel, blow it up, and come pouring out of it — effectively eviscerating Israel into two.

 

Meanwhile, the Arabs would also be given east Jerusalem for their capital, and have another means of attack against the Jews spread very thin around the outer perimeters of land that had been left for us.

 

This is the same basic plan as the 1947 partition plan, to which the Arabs already said no. The Arabs continually void any treaties they have signed, as mostly seen even in the supposed Jordanian and Egyptian peace treaties. Put your right hand to your heart in a solemnly sworn oath, yet steal with the left hand, and what is left but a thief. We have already seen, since all these previous supposed peace treaties with the Arabs have gone, that they continually attack us and violate their treaties. The Arabs themselves have made each proposal, such as this “newest”-old one, completely irrelevant: null and void.

 

A plan that doesn’t send all of the Arabs to Jordan, since Jordan was already wrested twice from the land of Israel, is not a plan that any Jew should consider. To make pretend that this newest plan, reiterating old ideas that the Arabs have rejected, time and time again, is a gift to the Jews is just ridiculous. We need to be proud of our heritage. We need to stand up for our land. All of it. We should not pretend that we were totally ENTIRELY exiled from it for two-thousand years: because the fact is that it is not entirely true. We have always been there. We need to stop pretending that an acceptance of less and less of our own land is a gift that others need to give us. The good people who know this, and then go take jobs with governments that don’t have these interests in mind, corrupt the good people to their way of thinking. This is not a favor, but a disservice. Let’s not pretend that it is. We already know that this is a non-ending war of attrition against us. We need to fight it to win it, or just forget it. That’s it.

 

Peace To Prosperity Full Plan Download – 181 pages: (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Peace-to-Prosperity-0120.pdf)

 

 

Additional Opinion (Added: February 1, 2020):

 

 

Sidman, David. “Israel has Officially Ended its Love Affair with Trump”. breakingisraelnews.com; January 28, 2020:

(https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/144172/israel-has-officially-ended-its-love-affair-with-trump/)

 

 

A Prayer For The Holy Temple

A Prayer For The Holy Temple (Randyjw; January 30, 2020)

 

 

This is beautiful … listen.

 

 

Yehuda Katz, Raphael Barkats, Chanan Elias, Shlomo Katz, Aron Razel, Yankele Shemesh, Chizki Soifer (recorded by Chanan Elias) – Yibaneh HaMikdash:

(https://youtu.be/M9mCDqCKbkA)

 

 

Dr. Jack Van Impe

 

Dr. Jack Van Impe (Randyjw; January 21, 2020)

 

I just learned of the passing, Saturday, January 18, 2020 of Dr. Jack Van Impe. I’m saddened to learn of the news. He, and his wife, Rexella, had a television show called Jack Van Impe Presents. Where I could receive it, and when, I used to watch, and enjoy his presentations. The pair were well aware of the dangers of terrorism and I felt that they were good friends of the Jewish people, despite our differences. I will miss you, Dr. Van Impe, and send my condolences to Mrs. Van Impe.

 

 

 

I Have A Wish (and A Dream…)

I Have A Wish (and A Dream…) (Randyjw; November 4, 2019)

 

 

 

Randy’s Reviews: The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family – by Martha Raddatz

 

Randy’s Reviews: The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family – by Martha Raddatz (Randyjw; January 18, 2020)

 

Raddatz, Martha. The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family. Copyright © 2007, 2008 by Martha Raddatz. Published by BERKLEY an imprint of  Penguin Random House LLC; 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. G.P. Putnam’s Sons hardcover edition / March 2007; Berkley trade paperback edition / January 2008; Berkley trade paperback edition (TV Tie-in edition) / October 2017. 338 pages, plus photos. ISBN 9780451490797.

 

Isaiah 2:4

And He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Translation: https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1002.htm).

 

I wish we were at the aforementioned point in time, as noted in the prophecies of Isaiah, as seen above.

 

Instead, we are far from it – – spiraling even quicker towards its counterpart of constant battles, skirmishes and full-out war between regions, countries and partnered nations vying for ultimate world power and dominion.

 

Though only a relatively minor percentage of a people’s nation actually participate in the fighting of a nation’s army, the entire population bears the consequences of the outcome of war, whether favorably or to their collective detriment. It matters not whether the war is enjoined on the offensive or defensive side, but to which side the favor falls. It is not an easy matter to enter the fray, especially when having war thrust upon one’s country, or in marrying powers to aid one’s friendly allies, betrothed to what each feels are the just cause, besides political, economic, religious, and other interests beholden to one’s beliefs.

 

Nevertheless, it comes as a surprise to learn that the honor of a “gentleman’s war” is a silly notion; when fighting for one’s life, some do so with dignity, and some scrap ’til the final breath, using any mean or method deemed necessary to survival – – the ends justifying the means.

 

This is what a war in the Middle East looks like. Though I’ve never seen one, up close and personal, I’ve been in the vicinity to support the noncombat efforts of one: the ongoing war of attrition faced by the Jewish people and citizens of Israel, who are surrounded by hostile forces intent on their destruction throughout the entire region of the mid-East. It’s not that the wishes of the populous twenty-two Arab nations couldn’t make the reality of Israel’s existence disappear, nor that an additional thirty Muslim states have lacked in trying to make that so… it’s just that the wars come in dribs and drabs, with great public perception in trying to stage it to appear otherwise.

 

Therefore, we see war by attrition: a constant picking off of the enemy through all means possible, including car-ramming attacks, stabbings, improvised explosive devices (i.e., creatively camouflaged these days in balloons. kites, books, printer ink cartridges, etc.) and other means.

 

It is essential that a book such as the New York Times Bestseller, The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family, by Martha Raddatz has been written to bring the realities of war to consciousness, rather than as an abstract concept fought by far-off people in distant lands. This story, a reconstruction of the true events facing U.S. soldiers on Iraqi soil during the Iraq War (which, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Iraq_War) truly portrays in the U.S. perspective what it is like to be facing war in this region. Here, the boys are surprised that the enemy uses women and children as human shields; that regular neighbors are all armed and turn on you in a dime. Here, the war dead mount quickly and suddenly.

 

This is a must-read book.

 

 

 

 

 

Religious Freedom Day

 

Religious Freedom Day (Randyjw; January 16, 2020)

 

Today is Religious Freedom Day in the USA. Go, USA!!!

 

Read President Trump’s Proclamation, here:

 

(https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-religious-freedom-day-2020/)

 

 

‘Women of Color” A Biased Term In Itself

 

‘Women of Color” A Biased Term In Itself (Randyjw; December 26, 2019)

 

If Arab women fulfill the requirement of being “women of color,” such that the “woke” Left wish to declare, and if the Jews are of Middle Eastern origin — with Arabs even claiming that the Jews are stealing Israel (or their own wishful derivative term for it,”Palestine”, which includes half of Jordan and all of present-day Israel) — then, how is it possible that this fight over the same land of Israel, and for which the Jews have a several-thousand year old recounting in the Bible of our history there (accorded to by the New Testament, and the Koran, to boot), with literally tons of archaeological and material culture to back our Jewish claim) strips us of our own “color”? The term is an Anti-Semitic attempt to accuse us of being white Europeans who came to colonize a foreign land: an inherently false lie, and an anti-Semitic trope, at best.

 

Just wondering…

 

Recommended (Added: January 23, 2020):

 

Neuer, Batsheva. “Why intersectionality fails the Jews”. jta.org/opinion; January 16, 2020:

(https://www.jta.org/2020/01/16/opinion/why-intersectionality-fails-the-jews)

 

 

A Menorah And A Message

A Menorah And A Message (Randyjw; November 21-22 2019)

HAPPY  CHANUKAH !!!

 

CHAG CHANUKAH SAMEACH !!!

 

 

A few new doughnut  (sufganiyot) recipes for your gustatory pleasure:

 

New Sufganiyot:

(https://mayihavethatrecipe.com/the-8-donuts-of-chanukah/)

 

 

A few videos for your viewing pleasure:

 

The Perfect Chanukah Greeting SONG – CHANUKAH MEANS DEDICATION!; Published – November 29, 2012:

(https://youtu.be/ze1udTZ6mxM)

 

 

Alex Frankel – ‘Hanukkah in ’96’ (Official Audio); Published – November 22, 2019:

(https://youtu.be/YzJr6yP84vE)

 

 

Six13 – Bohemian Chanukah (a Queen adaptation); Published – November 27, 2018:

(https://youtu.be/9P30ckBf1wk)

 

 

Chanuka Medley with Micha Gamerman (Official Animation Video); Published – December 12, 2017:

(https://youtu.be/S0gbvH_LqP4)

 

 

Chanukah Day #8: Chanukah in Auschwitz: The Ninth Flame; Published – December 18, 2017:

(https://youtu.be/4ywifg9DJY8)

 

 

Amazing Chanukah Video Maoz Tzur Hanukkah Song; Published – November 20, 2013:

(https://youtu.be/9GDhRAolw1k)

 

 

For Hanukkah Light that Menorah Technion Rube Goldberg Machine Chanukah; Published – November 25, 2012:

(https://youtu.be/We-KRSy64r4)

 

 

THE GREAT BOWLING GREEN MENORAH 1997-2019; Published – November 21, 2019:

(https://youtu.be/Le36FlXG3Ro)

 

 

Chanukah candle lighting at the Western Wall; Published – February 24, 2011:

(https://youtu.be/J33TEtHlXbA)

 

 

No Good Definitions

 

No Good Definitions (Randyjw; December 21, 2019)

 

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) is an intergovernmental organization comprised of member states who have been approved and accepted to the organization based on several criteria: paid membership; adherence to the principles of the Stockholm Declaration (January 28, 2000); the establishment of a Holocaust Memorial Day (January 27th, or other); Holocaust archives open to research; approval and other considering factors.

 

Each member state may nominate its countries’ delegational body from those it designates experts, including individuals, non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) and others, with one Head of Delegation representing it in Plenary, the decision-making body, within the IHRA. New members first become an Observer Country, who participates in Working Groups in providing recommendations to the IHRA Plenary and Committees. The next step is as a Liaison Country, who works with an IHRA member state or states in establishing a liaison program with that state; final status is as a full member. The Chairmanship of the Plenary body is decided on a yearly volunteer basis from amongst its member states, and whose actual physical location rotates according to the Chairmanship’s member state.

 

Eight Permanent International Partners of the IHRA , each of which have Observer status only, are: the United Nations (UN); the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s ‘Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights’ (OSCE/ODIHR); Arolsen Archives [International Tracing Service (ITS) — (Allied Expeditionary Forces 1948); International Commission for the ITS; ICRC (1955-2012); United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Organisation; the International Refugees Organisation; and the Allied High Commission for Germany; German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv 2013); now, they belong to UNESCO’s ‘Memory of the World’ program)]; European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA); the European Union (EU); Council of Europe; and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

 

IHRA’s ‘Working Definition of anti-Semitism’ (Plenary Session – Bucharest: May 26, 2016):

(https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/working-definition-antisemitism)

(https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/Fact%20Sheet%20Working%20Definition%20of%20Antisemitism_16.pdf)

 

“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

 

There were also anti-Semitic scenarios listed to provide working guidelines for the IHRA. Included among these were these two:

 

Applying double standards by requiring of it (Israel) a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.

 

Antisemitic acts are criminal when they are so defined by law (for example, denial of the Holocaust or distribution of antisemitic materials in some countries).

 

The problem with these definitions is that it gives a pass to non-Democratic nations (such as those of the Arab League, or other) to not even have to be bothered about anti-Semitism, as they are exempted from behaving civilly, as the rest of the member states must do. This contravenes the first IHRA guideline I noted, above.

 

The second problem is that the second guideline of calling anti-Semitism criminal only applies when the country has a law saying that it is a crime. If the country is already ‘anti-Semitic’, then they won’t have such laws, will they? It circles around back to number one, above.

 

 

Read Also (Added: February 22, 2020):

 

Shindman, Paul. “Israel and the Innate Bias of the UN Security Council”. honestreporting.com; February 6,2020:

(https://honestreporting.com/israel-innate-bias-un-security-council/)

 

 

 

 

American Intifada

 

American Intifada (Randyjw; December 10, 2019)

 

There was a mini Ft Hood jihadist murder spree at Pensacola Air base; now there is an anti-Semitic murder spree in a shootout, with dead an injured, at a kosher supermarket in New Jersey today. These are the types of incidents which Israel faces daily, in addition to rocket attacks from Arabs. The first act is what is termed as a war of attrition — getting rid of the enemy slowly, but surely, as opposed to eradicating many in one fell swoop. This is anti-Semitism in action. This is Jihad in action. Getting used to it yet?

 

 

TODAY ONLY – Up to 80% Off Koren Books

 

TODAY ONLY – Up to 80% Off Koren Books (Randyjw; December 10, 2019)

 

People sometimes ask for guidance in selecting help to choose Hebrew works of interest. While each person has their own needs, style of learning, and other factors which make them unique, I have often cheered this particular Tanach (Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuvim) by Koren Publishers in Jerusalem. This Tanach was the same set I used to have. And, today only, Koren Publishers is offering up to 80% off many products.

 

Here’s the page linking to the Tanach:

(https://korenpub.com/products/the-koren-jerusalem-bible-sethardcovercompact)

 

Here’s their website:

(https://korenpub.com)

 

 

‘The Truth About Palestine’ – Review

 

‘The Truth About Palestine’ – Review (Randyjw; December 5, 2019)

 

Here’s one of the best holiday gift-giving ideas I can think of:

 

(https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/12/truth-about-palestine-bruce-bawer)

 

 

Economy Report

 

Economy Report (Randyjw; December 7, 2019):

 

(https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/november-job-gains-smash-expectations/)

 

 

A Kettle Of Truth

A Kettle Of Truth (Randyjw; December 2, 2019)

 

A weird title for a post, but the kettle is steaming and needs to call out the pot(s)…

 

 

(https://unwatch.org/algeria-jews-hillel-neuer-u-n-human-rights-council/)

 

Thankful

Thankful (Randyjw; November 27, 2019)

 

G-d

family

friends

caring people

and U-Deer

 

 

Untitled

 

Untitled (Randyjw; November 14, 2019)

 

I recently remembered this long-forgotten poem I’d written at a young-adult period during my lifetime. I guess that deep, and recent, grief in my life has somehow jogged this from the recesses of memory. I thought I’d include it here, now. I believe this completes my entire work-to-date now, except for individual poetry written to individuals, which may have never made it to these pages.

 

 

When I am torn with grief

and aching for a love I cannot yet understand

You smile, knowingly,

and say you understand.

 

Accepting this statement at face value,

I go on.

 

Once again, the hurt swells up inside me;

tugging. tearing.

 

I dare not return while the crowned king

reigns his one-man kingdom.

 

 

The Arrowhead And The Gate

 

The Arrowhead And The Gate (Randyjw; November 14, 2019)

 

There are no longer any words I hold

that are my own

I shape yours in hidden poetry

taking flint to flint

etching sentiments into

sedimentary stone

 

 

 

The Many French Connections

 

The Many French Connections (Randyjw; November 1, 2019)

 

There is something really strange about current, ongoing derangement syndromes whereby ineffectual people, who might normally never acquire the prestige or standing within their communities they might wish to have, suddenly latch onto and support causes and ideologies which directly contravene even their own potential survivals. It’s not even a Darwinian type of “survival of the fittest,” but the transverse: the “survival of non-thrivers.”

 

We are so insistent on the triumphalism of individualism, that we have long forsworn the collective community, and the supposed “good” for the whole we are to inherently strive toward achieving. How can we, when personal goals of achievement involve tooth-and-nail competitiveness; the directive to celebrate our individuality by being “special” requiring ever-increasing acts of outrageousness in order to stand apart from the crowd; the obsessive social media need to prove popularity online shaping our behaviors (if we’re prone to feeling shamed by public ostracism)?

 

Those who just want to fit in will do so, whatever the trending fads, thoughts, or fashions are currently prevalent. Support in numbers, even involving ideas antithetical to their survival are embraced, being perceived as the strong, authoritative voices they represent. In all actuality, most of these voices are just loud and continual, often like the school or cyberspace bullies turn out to be. They may represent a non-normative state of mentality which no-one has the strength to counter. The bullies engrain their methods and ideas into the less strong-willed, begin to form committees and memberships and “social” activism to enjoin others to cause – – often succeeding…. as so many people just want to fit in.

 

Why would there be any reason to open a floodgate, just to see your own downfall, were this not the case? Popularity, and the need to be seen standing with the reigning mode/modality of the day, seems to be the answer. Therefore, the reason for the constant flip-flop in opinions, and the need for the constant cover-ups of having to lie that one held those beliefs, in the first place. Identifying with an ideology that would see you as a non-compatible force would eject and annihilate the foreign body from within its midst, just as an army of white blood cells would attempt to attack a particle in the body which didn’t belong.

 

This is what is happening now with the many individuals attempting to identify with those people or alliances of individuals who commit terrorist attacks against others they see as just subjects: people as objects, not human. Inhuman. Sub-human. But because there are some very loud voices, marginal to the mainstream, but amplified to the masses, so many others contend that this must be the popular way to be – think – act, and so they join their voices and pocketbooks to this cause du jour they know nothing about and will likely forget about in the next five years. This can cause a lot of harm and damage. We just need to recall the master propagandist Joesef Goebbels to mind. No, let’s not, and say we did.

 

See what I mean?

 

And so, this is the popular bandwagon that is the terrorist-support system, emanating from the halls of Europe, the socialist-communist mouthpieces posing for education that the U.S. university campuses today represent, and the halls of Montezuma (and it’s revenge). Call it appeasement. Call it France and Algeria. Call it Seventh Century. Call it French Class. Just don’t call it the “T” word.

 

 

Recommended:

 

 

Yedid, Baruch. “Disguised as Agricultural Work, French Org that Supports BDS also Supports Terrorism”. tazpit.org.il; October 28, 2019:

(https://tazpit.org.il/disguised-as-agricultural-work-french-org-that-supports-bds-also-supports-terrorism/)

 

 

Black, Edwin. “Funding illegal Palestinian settlements: Links to terrorists”. israelhayom.com (Opinions); August 22, 2019:

(https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/whos-funding-illegal-palestinian-settlements/)

 

Free Online Class: The Bible in Light of the Ancient Near East

 

Free Online Class: The Bible in Light of the Ancient Near East (Randyjw; October 28, 2019)

 

 

Sign up, quickly!

 

Tomorrow begins the start of a free, nine-week online course from Bar-Ilan University called The Bible in Light of the Ancient Near East.

 

For more information, see the course sign-up:

 

 

https://www.edx.org/course/the-bible-in-light-of-the-ancient-near-east-2

 

 

Hope you get an “A” in class!

 

 

 

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays (Randyjw; October 26, 2019)

 

 

 

(https://youtu.be/hYRox80wkQ0)

 

 

Shemini Atzeret And Simchat Torah

Shemini Atzeret And Simchat Torah (Randyjw; October 18, 2019)

 

 

HAPPY SHEMINI ATZERET !!!

HAPPY SIMCHAT TORAH !!!

 

 

 

 

(https://youtu.be/tefRfH73TBc)

 

 

 

More Problems in Belgium

More Problems in Belgium (Randyjw; October 17, 2019)

 

 

Gee, I hope they get to the bottom of this…

 

Lipshitz, Cnaan. “Knife-wielding Muslim man in Brussels asks passersby if they are Jewish”. jta.org; October 16, 2019:

(https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/knife-wielding-muslim-man-in-brussels-asks-passersby-if-they-are-jewish)

 

Definitions of the word, “terrorism,” vary considerably, depending upon whom you consult. Here are some:

 

 

dictionary.com:

noun

1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.

2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.

3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government

 

(https://www.dictionary.com/browse/terrorism) ; accessed October 17, 2019.

 

 

 

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse:

 

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University. tracreports: terrorism/215/include/definitions.html (…) “Alternative Federal Definitions of Terrorism Criminal Cases”. (…). trac.syr.edu; 2009:

 

(https://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/terrorism/215/include/definitions.html) ; accessed October 17, 2019.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sukkot 2019

 

Sukkot 2019 (Randyjw; October 14, 2019)

 

 

 

 

(https://youtu.be/vjTcKXWidQY)

 

 

 

H A P P Y   S U K K O T  ! ! !

 

 

 

Yitzhar

 

Yitzhar (Randyjw; October 5, 2019):

 

See this video from Boomerang about Yitzhar:

 

(https://youtu.be/XlNXtzYr8iA)

 

 

 

 

Ilhan Omar… Al-Shabaab… Jew-Hatred…

 

Ilhan Omar… Al-Shabaab… Jew-Hatred… (Randyjw; September 30, 2019)

 

I don’t think we can sweep this explicit support for terrorism by Ilhan Omar under the rug, any longer.

 

Please read this report by Clarion Project, showing a Twitter screenshot of Ilhan Omar’s tweet openly addressing Somali government and peacekeeping forces to protect a telecommunications company, named Hormuud, associated with multiple affiliations to terrorists, terrorist attacks, the financing of such, and more.

 

 

Clarion Project. “Ilhan Omar Asks for Protection of Somali Company Linked to Terror”. clarionproject.org; September 3, 2019:

(https://clarionproject.org/ilhan-omar-hormuud-jimale-al-shabaab/)

 

New Year 5780

New Year 5780 (Randyjw; September 24, 2019)

 

 

Rosh HaShanah is celebrated Sunday evening, September 29, 2019, in the Diaspora.

 

 

Never-ending joy and happiness, this sweet New Year…

 

(((xo)))

Love you

The New, Old Fiddler

The New, Old Fiddler (Randyjw; September 14, 2019)

 

 

Fiddler On The Roof / National Tour:*

 

(https://youtu.be/VHVSljY00Jw)

 

 

 

Inside The Studio Recording The Broadway Cast Album:

 

(https://youtu.be/kgt0tl3oExM)

 

 

 

Ticket Information:

 

*National Tour:

(http://fiddlermusical.com/ticket-info/)

 

 

On-Broadway / Off-Broadway

 

In Yiddish; Directed by Joel Grey:

(https://www.broadway.com/shows/fiddler-roof-yiddish/)

 

 

 

Randy’s Reviews: The Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach

Randy’s Reviews: The Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach (Randyjw; September 14, 2019)

 

Bach, Richard. The Bridge Across Forever. Published by: Dell Publishing Co., Inc.; 1 Dag Hammerskjold Plaza; New York, New York 10017. Copyright 1984 by Alternate Futures Incorporated. Reprinted by arrangement with William Morrow and Company, Inc. – February 1986.

 

Also available in 4-cassette audiotape edition.

 

 

Interesting, intriguing, and involving, a reticent heart learns to glide and soar in this autobiographical account from author-pilot, Richard Bach.

 

 

New Revelations Reveal Same Old Problem

 

New Revelations Reveal Same Old Problem (Randyjw; September 9, 2019)

 

Terrorism reveals its continued perpetration, from the same old perpetrators, with its same old mindset, against the same old (ancient) community:

 

Cohen, Ben. “Former French Intelligence Chief Alleged to Have Made Secret Pact With Palestinian Terrorists Behind 1982 Kosher Restaurant Massacre”. algemeiner.com; August 9, 2019:

(https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/08/09/former-french-intelligence-chief-alleged-to-have-made-secret-pact-with-palestinian-terrorists-behind-1982-kosher-restaurant-massacre/)

 

 

Satyrous Satire

Satyrous Satire (Randyjw; September 6, 2019)

 

Greenfield, Daniel. “Banana Republic Can’t Cover Up Women Fast Enough to Sell Them Hijabs”. frontpagemag.com; August 8, 2019:

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274509/banana-republic-cant-cover-women-fast-enough-sell-daniel-greenfield)

 

 

Bait And Switch

 

Bait And Switch (Randyjw; August 29, 2019)

 

What happens when you’re a Walmart customer, and two of the items you were planning to purchase ring up at the wrong price advertised? If you notice it, and you’d prefer to receive the cheaper prices that the proposed items should be, then you notify the cashier, who’s supposed to check the prices and adjust as needed. But, if you’re a homeless person, and, in my case, Jewish, as well, you get banned permanently from the store, law enforcement called (five!), handcuffed, and humiliated.

 

I hate to be writing about this, at such a time as when Walmart, and it’s customers, have also been innocently targeted, as in the recent incidents that have lately been in the news. I commiserate with the victims and the victims’ families, as well as the corporation, for these recent (and, also, not so recent, come to think of it) tragedies. But, I am upset about the treatment I have received in their store – – not only today, but in the last few months during which time I have been a regular customer.

 

I selected my purchases and proceeded to the self-checkout lane. Upon finishing my scans, I noticed that two items did not ring up correctly, and notified a cashier. One item was a French Bread, which normally is $1.00 USD. I wrote about the bread in a previous post. And, yes; I have been discriminated against before making that post, and hence to this day. The French Bread, however, was ticketed with a French Bread Twin price tag (both front and back), which makes it $1.98. However, the product was obviously mislabeled, as I know the difference between the two: the French Bread has only one loaf in the bag, and seems to be wider than the French Bread Twin, which, as its name indicates, contains two loaves in the bag, but they are seemingly thinner. I’d rather have more middle than crust, anyways, and being that the other one is cheaper, it works all around for me. But, no. The cashier was insistent that it was French Bread Twin, although she was wrong. The second item was a small Snickers bar (I would have preferred a larger one, but they didn’t seem to have them in the next couple of aisles, so I just left it, as is). The orange and yellow shelf tag indicated that the Snickers bar was .78 cents – – but, it rang up at .88 cents.

 

Then, a man came over (not the usual manager), a Walmart employee, and told me to never set foot inside the store again. He was going to also take my entire purchase. They hadn’t even gone to check any prices or anything (in fact, a female employee said I should go get another one; all the way at the back corner of the store…). I had picked out the particular loaf I wanted because it was lighter than the others, and would therefore be softer. The man said he was calling the police (law enforcement). He did, and they arrived quickly. First, there were two officers, than three, inside the store. They took the story of the Walmart man first. I had wanted to hear what my accuser was saying, but they would not let me.  The employees then fixed their errors of the pricing, and then the officers left the store with me. They wanted my ID, but I didn’t see any reason to provide it, considering that I didn’t feel I had done anything wrong, other than exert my protection under Federal law to receive the pricing advertised on the shelf and items. Then they started giving me a hard time. They said to me that I couldn’t take the cart beyond the area (these things are limited with electronic stopping devices, anyways…), and so I went to get my stuff out of the cart. One officer grabbed and pushed down my backpack, so that I could not remove it from the cart. Then they started trumping up charges, saying I was yelling and disorderly conduct, and trespassing, saying I could be a serial killer, (no, I really wasn’t; I was just being targeted and discriminated against by Walmart (there have been many, many other incidents by them to me, some of which I’ve made reference to and have responded to them in their surveys). They said that they took the ID of the Walmart guy. They asked for my hand (no; not in marriage, but behind my back), and handcuffed me. The officer got my ID from my pocketbook; he said they needed it so that they could put it in the computer. He went into Walmart with it. When he came out, one of the officers asked, Anything? The other indicated no. The free bus picks up at Walmart, and I told them I was going to wait for the bus. Now, I don’t really know what is going on; if it’s just the store, or if I can ever wait for the free bus at the location, or not.

 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) protects consumers from such practices, known as bait and switch, since it had been a problem in the past, when sellers would advertise items at a certain price and then say they were, or actually be, out of stock on that item, or sell higher-priced items in their place. It’s some of the driving factor between stock numbers on cars being listed in ads, or rain checks for sold out items, etc. Mislabeling, with higher prices charged for the item in the package, or a shelf price which rings up higher at the register, would likely fall under the same parameters.

 

As they say, Caveat Emptor.

 

 

Update (September 23, 2019):

 

Today, within the past two hours, prior to 3:00 p.m., I waited in the plaza parking lot, the one in which Walmart is located, for the free public bus which picks up and disgorges passengers at this particular location. It is the only location, within quite a distance, to the next stop either before or after it, in this particular city bus route, and I saw no problem with waiting there to catch the bus. During the original incident, the manager who banned me from the Walmart store had only said to never set foot in the store again. He repeated, a second time, the same thing again, when the law enforcement officers showed up. Walmart had, to cover their steps, allowed me to purchase, through EBT, the items I requested, and had changed the prices to the correct ones, while the officers were present (but didn’t want to do so and really didn’t even want me to buy anything before their arrival — he’d snatched the bag away from me…). However, that manager had said, “After this (and with the officer present) … never set foot in this store again,” and I agreed not to, although I think it is severely discriminating against me for no reason. When I had gone outside, escorted by the officers, with my backpacks still in the cart, and my Walmart purchases, one of the officers had said, as I’d previously mentioned, that “this” (the cart), was their (Walmart’s) property. I said I know, and that was why, I said, I was going to remove my things from it. One of the officers pushed down on my backpack, with a few fingers, but he was strong, and I could not get my backpack out of the cart. After trying a bit more, and still being unable to, I just sat there. I now had an audience of five officers. They requested my ID, which I didn’t feel any reason was necessary to supply them with, since I’m sure both Walmart and the officers would recognize me, if I ever was in the store again. I felt that the officers were just there to make sure I exited the store, as requested, and to which I complied, and they escorted me out the door. Incident over. Compliance on my part. But, no… as I said, I felt that they were jacking up charges on me when I didn’t want to procure my ID. They said they had gotten one from the other guy (meaning the manager). I still said that I was complying and didn’t think I was doing anything wrong, and had even mentioned that it had been Walmart who was in the wrong, with their product (being in the wrong bag or mislabeled) pricing (and the Snickers bar), both of which Walmart corrected. They placed me in cuffs and said Yelling, Disorderly Conduct, Trespass… They talked about doing a fingerprint scan. I finally said okay, (being under these trumped-up charges), and the officer went in my purse (since my hands were cuffed) and got out my ID. He then went into Walmart with it. I never received anything in writing, either from Walmart, or from the law enforcement. Law enforcement said they would enter the information in their computer in case Walmart called again. I never received an incident report or a ticket or anything.

 

Today, while waiting for the free city bus, the same manager who had banned me very quickly from the store and had started this whole thing, came out and saw me. He then reappeared with a female Walmart employee who talked to me and said that they thought they had told me I couldn’t be on the property, and that this was their property (I was outside by the parking lot waiting for the bus). I have walked through the parking lot, since the initial incident, but I have not gone on the walkways (sidewalks) surrounding the Walmart, nor through the next little area where the soda machines outside are located. It is a commercial plaza with other businesses in it, which I do utilize. In fact, once, when I had gone to another store at this location, not too many days since the Walmart incident had happened, a sheriff, who had apparently been parked in the parking lot spot near the establishment, then came in after me, and had asked the manager if they were having any problems with the homeless (people). The manager said no, and then something else, which I didn’t hear.

 

Anyways, back to the story. Maybe all not quite verbatim, but in the spirit of everything said, just to disclaim myself if I mention something not quite right. Anyways… So, I said to the women that he (the manager standing there) had only said to me not to ever set foot in the store again. And I told her that I had not and was in compliance. She proceeded to tell me that the parking lot was Walmart property and she could “trespass” anybody she wanted, for any reason. She said Remember when you got that information? (I had never received anything…). I said I never was given anything. She said, when they got your information and entered it in the computer? I said that I had never been given anything, and that the manager had never said anything about Walmart property; just only never to set foot in the store again. She continued to insist that the parking lot is Walmart property, saying, as she walked down the ramp and touched her toes onto the parking lot, This is my property. I said, Walmart owns this? I thought it was owned by the plaza owner, and she agreed that was the case. Oh, I said, so Walmart doesn’t own it, but leases it? And she basically agreed. So, I said, well, than it’s not Walmart property. She said she’ll call the law enforcement if they see me there again and they’ll take me to jail. Now, I had been confused, since the law enforcement had trumped up to Yelling, disorderly conduct, and trespass, and there were contradictory “charges” going on, so I didn’t know if I could or couldn’t be on their entire property. I still felt I was in the right, since, at no time, did they warn me not to be on their property. But, now, this time, she is now saying that. I don’t think that is fair to tack onto the original charge, when there was no charge to begin with. I had told her that I wasn’t trespassing when I went into the store, so how was it possible for me to be trespassing, when I left the store, and have not been back into their store since? And she said she didn’t really know what the reason had been. And I told her, briefly, that it was Walmart who had incorrect prices, and that was all they banned me for (which is ALL Walmart’s fault), and they’re discriminating against me. Oh, and here comes the bus….

 

This ban affects me in many ways. While I do have a free bus pass for the regular county transit busses, the free city buses provide a needed and helpful service to someone like myself, since I commute door-to-door from that location, directly to a library. As stated, there are no other designated bus stops along the city route for quite a distance, either prior to or after the Walmart stop. I feel that I’m entitled to wait for the free bus and take it, just like anybody else. It is not their parking lot, unless the plaza owner also is affiliated in some way to Walmart, which I don’t know about, but doubt. She cannot ban me from a place which is not hers (or Walmart’s), and try to intimidate me or try to prevent me from using a free city bus to get around. I do have bags to carry, and must get around either by foot or by public transportation. By extending this initial charge to now encompass further charges, such a ban from the entire Walmart property, even the public lot, which may not even be theirs, and trying to limiting my access to these publicly-provided facilities goes way beyond the scope of this Walmart fiasco, which they started. I believe they are discriminating against me for being a homeless person with bags, or perhaps, unconsciously biased against my ethnicity as a Jewish person, or possibly even a combination of the two, a discriminated-against minority in society, as a whole, for just being Jewish, but without any minority rights. I have IBS, and taking away the Walmart bathroom, which I could previously use as the short-term regular customer I have been, prior to this incident, deprives me now, even more so, because I am homeless and do not have the same access to a bathroom, as compared to most regular people who have a place to live in do, and I have to hold off using a bathroom for much longer than I would have, given the Walmart option, previously. I try to buy a small thing from the other stores which will let me use their bathroom, just in order to use the bathroom, and not have them hating the homeless for using up their resources with no gain. These other locations are more than nice to my face and always say “Yes,” but still, I don’t want to be a bad stain on “homeless people’s” “name”… There is a county bus I could utilize, but that would involve more walking, a transfer, and is all-around more inconvenient. Still, I don’t think I should be harassed by these employees like this, for absolutely no reason at all. Also, banning me from Walmart takes away my food availability and convenience factors to get other food, even though there is another market not far from there, but I am often too tied to go even that short distance. So, they’ve limited my food choices. EBT allows only cold food to be purchased, unless the loophole places, such like convenience stores offer, such as heated frozen foods, using their microwave, etc., and as such, it limits my food choices, as is, with EBT. Add in the lack of stores from where I can purchase, such as Walmart is doing by banning me from their store, and this is really curtailing my food choices, leading me into a sort of cycle of being too tired to hunt down nourishment, but needing better nutrients to keep going. Yes, there is a soup kitchen; and, it’s the same thing. It’s even further, and I get tired and find it difficult to schlepp with all my bags in weather. Being homeless, the only places you can go are to a park or a library, or you’re otherwise considered loitering and tend to get harassed by the law enforcement. Many get ticketed for this. Even though I coincidentally recently read that Walmart often wins its discrimination cases, I’m thinking perhaps I might sue them. Then, I feel, that the law enforcement will ratchet up anything against me in the interim until the case gets heard and make me look bad. This is the perception of intimidation I feel – – as if we are living in a police state. But, the Walmart employees have been very hostile to me all throughout my shopping experiences there, with the exception of the very first few beginning days, when I told you before, that the nice, Hispanic customer service lady had been an exceptional employee – – but she seems to no longer be there.

 

 

 

Indulgent Deluge

Indulgent Deluge (Randyjw; May 17, 2019)

 

Oh, brother…

Look what you’ve done

Opened the faucets

and let the water run

 

Now all the tributaries

merge into one

When the cascades fall

it’s the time to run

 

 

Collab

Collab (Earlier; Rachelgv and Yassy)

 

I wonder why we love but it happens
Always when you least expect it
We will face it
and surmount all the odds

– a collaboration by Yas and Rach
called …. ____________ ?????

 

 

Google ‘Insider’ Reveals…

 

Google ‘Insider’ Reveals… (Randyjw; August 14, 2019)

 

Watch this former Google employee speak about internal Company policies:

 

(https://youtu.be/g1VeElBAeas)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tisha B’Av 2019

Tisha B’Av (Randyjw; August 10, 2019)

 

 

(https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/135039/rabbi-viral-video-of-foxes-on-temple-mount-a-timely-sign-more-prophecies-about-to-be-revealed/)

 

 

(https://youtu.be/wxWdUc98Zdc)

 

 

 

Shomeret

Shomeret (Randyjw; August 8, 2019)

 

The afternoon’s reflection:

a grown-up girl

Both woman, and warrior

with a sidelock curl

 

 

Shomeret (Hebrew):

 

The afternoon's reflection:
A grown-up girl
Both woman, and warrior
with a sidelock curl

Shomeret (Hebrew):

השתקפות אחר הצהריים:
ילדה בוגרת
גם אישה וגם לוחמת
עם תלתל בצד

 

 

Shomeret (Spanish):

 

El reflejo de la tarde:
una niña adulta
Tanto mujer, tanto guerrera
con rizo lateral

 

 

Shomeret (Hindi):

 

दोपहर का प्रतिबिंब:
एक बड़ी हो चुकी लड़की
स्त्री, और योद्धा दोनों
एक साइडलॉक कर्ल के साथ

दोपहर का प्रतिबिंब:
एक बड़ी हो चुकी लड़की
स्त्री, और योद्धा दोनों
एक साइडलॉक कर्ल के साथ

dopahar ka pratibimb:
ek badee ho chukee ladakee
stree, aur yoddha donon
ek saidalok karl ke saath

Stretching Minds And Light

Stretching Minds And Light (Randyjw; August 7, 2019)

 

Thank goodness our space exploration program has been revived. Combined with other observatories located throughout the world, new planets and galaxies are being discovered, challenging our theoretical scientific conceptions to-date. For a fascinating look, see this article, here:

 

(https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/universe-galaxies-milky-way-hubble-nasa-discovery-breakthrough-latest-a9045951.html?amp)

 

 

 

 

FB Incitement To Violence

 

FB Incitement To Violence (Randyjw; August 3, 2019)

 

You would not believe Facebook’s policy on incitement to violence. According to Paul Joseph Watson, he reports that Facebook will allow people to incite violence against those people Facebook deems to be ‘Dangerous Individuals,’ such that they are claiming Paul Joseph Watson is. Watson says, on the video below, that the UK has laws against that. Watch:

 

 

Watson, Paul Joseph. “Watson Video: Facebook Put a Fatwa on Me”. frontpagemag; July 24, 2019:

(https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274400/watson-video-facebook-put-fatwa-me-paul-joseph-watson)

 

 

Will Look

Will Look (Randyjw; July 31, 2019)

 

and beneath the

lash-fringed eyes,

the shyest broad smile

brings peace and

contentment to mine

 

 

Too Little, Too Late

Too Little, Too Late (Randyjw; July 31, 2019)

 

Too little

too late

from the more that was in my heart

But found no privacy

to say

 

 

Anti-Zionism vs. Anti-Semitism

 

Anti-Zionism vs. Anti-Semitism (Randyjw; July 30, 2019)

 

 

Statements delivered at the U.S. Department of Justice Summit on Combating Anti-Semitism in Washington, D.C., July 15, 2019 by Jonathan S. Tobin, editor in chief of JNS, in edited written form, below:

 

 

Tobin, Jonathan S. “How anti-Zionists legitimize anti-Semitism”. jns.org; July 15, 2019:

(https://www.jns.org/opinion/how-anti-zionists-legitimize-anti-semitism/)

 

 

 

Antennae

Antennae (Randyjw; July 21, 2019)

 

I feel the sadness,

and, seeming,

but probably unlikely,

futility.

 

Like a broadcast transmission,

pushing through space,

forward with expansion,

for which no higher being ever captured.

 

Israel Screen Time

 

Israel Screen Time (Randyjw; July 20, 2019)

 

Netflix and HBO will be featuring films on Israeli special operations.

 

Premiering July 31, 2019 on Netflix, The Red Sea Diving Resort recreates the operation to extract and bring the Ethiopian people to Israel.

 

HBO brings to screen the true, harrowing events surrounding the kidnap and murder by Hamas of three Israeli teenage boys – Naftali Frenkel, 16, Gilad Shaer, 16, and Eyal Yifrah, 19.

This ten-episode series, called Our Boys, begins on August 12, 2019.

Ghermezian, Shiryn. “New Trailer Released for Netflix Film About Mossad Operation to Smuggle Ethiopian Jews to Israel”. algemeiner.com; July 17, 2019:

(https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/07/17/new-trailer-released-for-netflix-film-about-mossad-operation-to-smuggle-ethiopian-jews-to-israel/)

 

Ghermezian, Shiryn. “HBO Releases Trailer for Series Based on Kidnapping, Murder of 3 Israeli Teens Before 2014 Gaza War”. algemeiner.com; July 16, 2019:

(https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/07/16/hbo-releases-trailer-for-series-based-on-kidnapping-murder-of-3-israeli-teens-before-2014-gaza-war/)

 

---

 

Update (September 10, 2019):

A letter was sent to HBO from 120 bereaved Israeli families regarding this series.

 

See more:

 

Green, Aryeh. “Bereaved Families to HBO: ‘Our Boys’ Misleading Viewers About Israeli Societal Acceptance of Terrorism”. TPS via Jewishpress.com; August 14, 2019.

(https://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/bereaved-families-to-hbo-our-boys-misleading-viewers-about-israeli-societal-acceptance-of-terrorism/2019/08/14/)

 

And [added September 21, 2019]:

 

Berkowitz, Adam Eliyahu. “New HBO Series Depicts Jewish “Settlers” as Neo-Nazis”. breakingisraelnews.com; August 21, 2019:

(https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/135784/new-hbo-series-depicts-jewish-settlers-neo-nazis/)

 

 

Beit She’arim

 

Beit She’arim:

 

(https://youtu.be/N_eDWi46h7o)

 

 

Re-Made

Re-Made (Randyjw; July 13, 2019)

 

Why do we take this pain

and internalize it, until we have

nothing to say?

 

Maybe we’re just too hurt;

Maybe it’s the way we’re made.

 

xo

 

 

 

Heart

 

Heart (Randyjw; July 12, 2019)

 

I wish you could read with my heart

the unstoppable, beating thoughts

you, only, love

 

 

 

Just Five Jews Left In Egypt; Sorry: in Cairo

 

Just Five Jews Left In Egypt (Randyjw; July 10, 2019)

 

There are only five Jews left in Egypt:

 

World Israel News Staff. “5 Jews left in Egypt as pillar of Cairo’s Jewish community dies”. worldisraelnews.com; July 9, 2019:

 

(https://worldisraelnews.com/5-jews-left-in-egypt-as-pillar-of-cairos-jewish-community-dies/)

 

Update (July 17, 2019):

There are a few more, elsewhere in Egypt – – 12 in Alexandria:

(https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/133101/exodus-from-egypt-nearly-complete-just-five-jews-remain-in-cairo-following-death-of-matriarch)

 

 

Sarah Idan: Beautiful Inside

Sarah Idan: Beautiful Inside (Randyjw; July 7, 2019)

Miss Iraq: Peace, Love, and Oh, So Beautiful

(https://unwatch.org/boom-brave-miss-iraq-drops-the-mic-at-unhrc-owns-the-dictators/)

Update (June 3, 2021) / See also:

(https://youtu.be/_qHWXBmm80Q)

Fourth of July

Fourth of July (Randyjw; July 2, 2019)

 

 

Happy Independence Day, America!

 

 

Johnny Cash: Ragged Old Flag; posted by Good Stuff on February 6, 2017:

 

(https://youtu.be/o0Jl2qOFOJk)

 

 

American Patriotic Song: America the Beautiful; posted by Ian Berwick on May 21, 2016:

 

(https://youtu.be/Tcg11sx1vYM)

 

 

Anthem Lights / Patriotic Medley:

 

(https://youtu.be/NuqUSJIFreI)

 

– – – – – – – – – – – –

 

Artists and aficionados from around the world converge in Jerusalem at this time each year to experience the unique, spectacular light show known as the Festival of Light. This annually-changing exhibit of illumination features dozens of artistic displays located throughout various areas of the Old City. A different way to take in Israel at night, and combine it with a July Fourth celebration, as the event continues through that date, this year.

 

See Fernalyn Payal’s Youtube video from 2014 from one of the festival’s features:

 

(https://youtu.be/rRQmQXPh4HQ)

 

 

This video, by Jacob Richman, is from the 2017 festival:

 

(https://youtu.be/9QcUk2Y9Ti8)

 

 

This post, from alex goot77, is from 2018:

 

(https://youtu.be/NrwPNngQSJg)

 

 

 

One Breath

One Breath (Randyjw; June 24, 2019)

 

You leave me breathless;

Wanting, Lacking, and restless…

(peacefully rested).

 

 

The “Numbers” Map

 

The Numbers Map (Randyjw; June 22, 2019)

 

See the locations of the places mentioned in the “Numbers” portion of the Torah, as presented by Rabbi Tuly Weisz, of the infamous Israel 365 and Breaking Israel News websites, which I love, and link to so very often… (Rabbi Weisz has also recently completed The Israel Bible™):

 

(https://theisraelbible.com/numbers-map/)

 

 

Save Face

Save Face (Randyjw; June 21, 2019):

 

Before valuing another,

Don’t be hasty to rely on the opinions of others

Though they speak loudly

and with seeming authority

Someone that cares will be their own heart- and fact-checker

 

 

 

 

 

A Dream Uncovered

A Dream Uncovered (Randyjw; June 19, 2019)

 

Unveiling the moon

of her shrouded mysteries

illuminating

 

 

Randy’s Reviews: Tears of the Moon – by Nora Roberts

Beauty and melancholy intertwine in the Irish folklore, music, and deep ties to its land. Among its people, a haunting longing within the heart and soul can only be quenched by returning to the roots of all connections: G-d, Love, and Country. For Brenna O’Toole and Shawn Gallagher, each learn to find the fulfillment of their deepest dreams and desires through a gradual understanding of the meaning inherent in all three.

 

 

(https://youtu.be/2IFBtpfY5kM)

 

Avraham’s Journey

 

Avraham’s Journey (Randyjw; June 18, 2019)

 

I was slowly setting out to do, in a way, what Rabbi Tuly Weisz, in his The Israel Bible, has already done. Within this digitally-modern, Google map, you’ll be able to visually review, en masse, location markers for Biblical sites attenuated to the travels of Avraham:

 

(https://theisraelbible.com/genesis-map/)

 

Randy’s Reviews: The Day You Were Born: A Journey to Wholeness through Astrology and Numerology – by Linda Joyce

Randy’s Reviews: The Day You Were Born: A Journey to Wholeness through Astrology and Numerology – by Linda Joyce (Randyjw; June 16, 2019)

 

The Day You Were Born: A Journey to Wholeness through Astrology and Numerology; Copyright © 1998 by Linda Joyce. Kensington Books. Kensington Publishing Corp., 850 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022. http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

 

This book applies the sun signs of the zodiac, in a formula beginning in Aries and ending in Pisces, with a numerological factoring for the variance, and combines it with some metaphysically-specific best-practice recommendations to supposedly inform a person on the manners whereupon this application might be achieved.

 

Is it proper for me to side with or promote an astrological/numerological work? Not quite. Evidence for this, in Judaism, would point to the disaster of King Saul and his consultations with Hulda, who may or may not have been the same (I just don’t know) as the externally written-about Greek Oracle of Delphi. King Saul eventually fell prey to a never-ending wrestle between inner peace and an aroused spirit of paranoia and jealousy toward his eventual successor, David, the only one, paradoxically, who could calm Saul’s troubled spirit with the notes he played on his kinnor.

 

Yet, there exists further depth in the Judaic expression and realms of revelations intrinsic in the holiness of the Hebrew script (it is G-d’s word, after all); the corresponding numerical equivalency of the tandem Gematria; Kabbalah; and, really, actually, all things.

 

I can argue under Judaism, or Jewish perspective, for a combination of the essentiality of man’s existence on the earthly plane, combined with the striving toward the spiritual plane. G-d’s Laws (the Torah) are set before us with the imperative to choose life; that ye may live. We are told that doing so is not too difficult for us. We see that the 613 commandments include both the positive and the negative. We see that they include both the earthly (between man and man), and the heavenly (between man and G-d) — the stronger emphasis, surprisingly, being expounded as those between men. Disaster befalls us each and every time we go astray the Laws, which is a deviation from the spiritual. And Hillel sums up the whole of Torah as the essence that one should not do what is hateful unto another, stressing the earthly, inter-relationary aspects of man.

 

According to Linda Joyce, the author of the titled book in review, life should be balanced between the worldly aspects of the physical, such as the body and things of the earth, which is known as Ego, and the world of Spirit – – the heavenly realm — in order for the soul to receive its lessons as it proceeds through life and corresponding zodiac sun signs to grow in a balanced manner.

 

Linda Joyce has formed a merger of the practices of numerology and astrology to reveal an appreciable insight into human nature, combined with a gift for anecdotal and biographical supporting stories. What I can say is that, for everything that she presents, she does so to full confirmation of a certain perspective.

 

In a way, I always thought it was most imperative to nurture the qualities which would be so-considered the characteristics of a “higher calling,” tending to feel that one should aspire to lift one’s self above a baser nature. There’s nothing wrong with self-improvement, so I don’t find that, as an expression, to do so is as hypocritical an endeavor as the transverse, where the thought might be that, perhaps, one can only express their authentic selves via the masks of solely their present, fixed immutability. I think both give themselves a viewpoint weighted to the specifics of each varied individual: an optimistic outlook or a realistic outlook; but valid on either hand, regardless. It just matters which works better for each person.

 

Much like magic did this book appear on a shelf, at a time of deep, personal loss and internal struggle; although, unlike magic, I believe in G-d, and I believe in the basic goodness of man. The Biblical Jacob and his personal struggle teaches us about life, love, hardship and pain. But the message imparted is that we can prevail.

 

This excerpt, delineating Ego and Spirit in its last perfected self through Pisces, is seen, then, thus:

 

The search for your true origin, the haunting memory of happier days, innocence and youth — this is your memory of Eden and paradise. Darwin shocked and divided the world when he declared that men and apes had a common ancestor. His findings challenged the biblical origin story. The truth is that both origin stories are correct. We come from both heaven and earth. Heaven provides our mythical and symbolic origin. Evolution is what happens to us on earth — we evolve and grow and transform. The two are not in conflict (pg. 343).

 

Feelings of separation and loss, either because your path leads you elsewhere or someone else’s path has come to an end, is symbolic of the relationship between Ego and Spirit. Pisces is the end of the journey, and these two antagonists have traveled together through sunny days and terrible storms. They know each other in any disguise. They can recognize each other in a crowd, in the role of pauper or king, thief or saint. Together they have played all the parts, challenged each other’s goals and ideals, fought for and against each other’s dreams, shared each other’s joys and sorrows, triumphs and failures. Their commitment to the journey has bonded them through shared experiences, and now their differences seem unimportant and small. Theirs is a true relationship, one tested and sure, one based on earned respect. Now, when they have put aside their differences and learned how to play, it’s time to part. Love has awakened through the impending separation. Ego is old and must face death. Spirit is young. Having been reborn to a new strength, she can now defend herself and move forward, taking Ego’s memory into her heart and soul. Along the path he has protected her, allowing her to do her work. His devious ways and masterful disguises have honed her ability to see and discriminate. He has been her warrior, fighting her dragons; her enemy vying for position and power; her lover, embracing her with desire and will, trying to control her every breath. He has put her on a pedestal and he has abandoned her for fruitless dreams. But through it all they have remained together. Forgiveness came in Aquarius and the true meaning of love will come with separation. For without loss one does not know what one once had. They are soul mates and the song they sing has finally become one. Ego will surrender into the soul of the Spirit, ending their separation forever. Their love defies death because they are children of heaven and earth, who through their magical relationship have been able to bring one person closer to his or her true nature, to enlightenment, and to God.

 

… what they are learning is to love and go on, embodying that love within their soul, knowing that their physical presence is not needed for it to be real (pp. 373-374).

 

---

 

 

Read also:

 

(https://www.jewishpress.com/judaism/parsha/torah-shorts-lech-lecha-horoscope-proof/2019/11/08/)

 

 

Happy Father’s Day

Father’s Day (Randyjw; June 16, 2019)

 

 

 

 

 

Music (Added September 5, 2019):

 

(https://youtu.be/ZBysir_2vtk)

 

 

Shavuot 2019

Shavuot 2019 (Randyjw; June 7, 2019)

 

 

Happy Shavuot!!!

 

 

Twenty Years at Hull-House; with Autobiographical Notes

 

Twenty Years at Hull-House; with Autobiographical Notes – by Jane Addams (Randyjw; June 1, 2019)

 

Twenty Years at Hull-House; with Autobiographical Notes – by Jane Addams; original publication date 1910. Paperback reissue by University of Illinois Press Urbana and Chicago in conjunction with the Illinois Center for the Book. Introduction and Notes ©1990 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, written by James Hurt, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

 

This is a review of paradoxical contradictions. Written by: a self-termed Conservative with a bent toward issues-oriented policy, regarding the premise of socialized, communal living, termed a ‘Settler Movement,’ within a democratic republic. A Movement meant to examine the processes and application of social theory towards the results of its experiments; yet still finding an unsolved relevancy in the persistence of those self-same subsets one hundred-years forward. The subject of ‘Humans’, as human subjects.

 

The time was ripening for the arousal to consciousness of how man must learn to structure their societal proponents to live amongst a continually burgeoning and industrializing U.S. population. With the influx of immigrants from abroad, there needed to homogenize the old traditions and cultures to create a workable new, and this was the tenet of a number of ambitious people and projects attempting to do so, circa late-Nineteenth/early-Twentieth centuries.

 

Jane Addams was one of them. In her 1910 published book, she describes her project, conducted with a friend, to live amongst the poor, and to become good neighbors with them. Along the way, she is caught up in the issues of the day, such as the women’s suffrage movement, the assimilation of immigrants from old worlds into a new country, and the effects of egregious working conditions amongst the poor. Whether by choice or chance, she winds up taking a more proactive role to see their challenges as they would experience them, up close, and finding means and both temporary and permanent solutions to help rectify their situation.

 

It’s often hard to tell whether this was an intended undertaking, or whether she was just along on a developing ride. But, in any case, it seems that the attentions given to youth development and education enhanced their opportunities for growth through learning, and lent great assistance to achieving these marks.

 

The book offers an interesting perspective of the literal language of life one hundred-years ago. Sometimes dull, sometimes pedantic in thought – – but still a particular slant from another era lending insight into the influencers of the way in which societies might develop.

 

Jerusalem Day

 

Jerusalem Day (Randyjw; May 31, 2019)

 

 

Happy Jerusalem Day!!!

June 2, 2019

 

Gennady Tkachenko-Papizh

 

Gennady Tkachenko-Papizh

 

If you haven’t seen Gennady Tkachenko-Papizh sing, please watch:

 

(https://youtu.be/g9VjiTDbVDk)

 

 

Rampant Antisemitism

 

Rampant Antisemitism (Randyjw; May 29, 2019)

 

Anti-semitic sentiment bears its fruit in influence and actions. Much as we would like to think that the degree and tone of an individual’s public expression to their commitment of non-prejudice toward all people might be true, it’s rather difficult to accept the excuses given, the non-apologetic justifications and back-pedalling, and all else that passes for non-pc-speak, by our elected representatives, officials, the spinners of propaganda passing for news, and those entrusted to uphold our constitutional values.

 

This should especially be true in our education system today, given how hard our nation has fought each other on the issues of equality, the right to vote, etc.

 

I must say that I cannot accept that most universities today continue to allow blatant hostility to its Jewish students to continue. If student clubs receive budgets for their activities through the school, and if that agenda includes sponsoring convicted terrorists as speakers on-campus; If the selfsame speaker has ties to, sympathizes with, or has even committed terrorist acts; if the US Department of State has listed such an affiliated group as a terrorist organization; is the material support and comfort given to this person or endeavor a treasonous act to our country?

 

If a faculty department of a university, which is comprised of teachers employed by such school, engages in such behavior; discriminates against students, particularly Jews wishing to study abroad at an Israeli campus by rescinding a previously agreed commitment to write a letter of recommendation for such study, upon learning that it would take place in (Jewish) Israel; if antisemitic violence against Jewish students, harassment of Jewish students by other students; if a collective body of students under their club, or student government promote such discrimination against pro-Israel Jews:

 

Besides lip service paid by the administration of such universities in simply stating that their administration does not share such values…

 

Isn’t it obvious that they do, if they will allow such actions to keep on? Isn’t silent agreement an act of complicity, in itself?

 

That is why, despite a Universities’ stated position, I still leave them on my listings, for having allowed the Jews to have to go through such things, here in America, as well as around the world.

 

See:

“What You Do To Jews”:

https://newsnotes1.wordpress.com/2016/08/20/what-you-do-to-jews/

 

See (Updated June 5, 2019):

Stellar, Richard. “UCLA: No place for Jews?”. jewishjournal.com (Opinion); September 1, 2016:

(https://jewishjournal.com/opinion/189501/)

 

 

Book Review Corrects Revisionist History

 

Book Review Corrects Revisionist History (Randyjw; May 27, 2019)

 

This book review by Raymond Ibrahim corrects the historical account, to a great extent, between competing versions of the past, which vie for our attention, today:

 

(https://www.raymondibrahim.com/2019/05/24/reversing-the-roles-of-crusade-and-jihad/)

 

 

US Vets

 

US Vets (Randyjw; May 11, 2019)

 

FREEDOM. LIBERTY.

What would you give for these? Ask

any vet you see…

 

 

MEMORIAL DAY – – May 27, 2019 (Randyjw; May 5, 2019)

 

 

Star Spangled Banner As You’ve Never Heard It:

mona rose

Published on Jul 6, 2013

(https://youtu.be/YaxGNQE5ZLA)

 

 

 

Freedom Is Not Free – A poem by Kelly Strong:

CoquiDave

Published on Oct 12, 2006

(https://youtu.be/jHl5Pf6mc60)

 

 

 

Memorial Day Tribute:

Dennis Henry

Published on May 23, 2013

(https://youtu.be/NOcl17HIa7c)

 

 

 

TAPS:

Norick Hapa_On_A_Moto

Published on Dec 9, 2015

(https://youtu.be/nb2EDrrqgOk)

 

 

Calm

Calm (Randyjw; May 26, 2019)

 

Like Saul to David,

calmed with tender, soothing tones

played on the kinnor.

 

 

These songs by Yehuda Katz have a rather collective, soothing effect:

 

Yehuda Katz – Bachatzi Halayla (Midnight Escape):

(https://youtu.be/u0UN_06tess?list=PLMsoBWRyDM56WNWnS31I7XJ5VIQbRoAXZ)

 

This next one is by Shlomo Katz:

Shlomo Katz- Od Yishama (There Will Be Heard) (composed by Reb Shlomo Carlebach):

(https://youtu.be/_DbMc-xbYOQ?list=PLMsoBWRyDM56WNWnS31I7XJ5VIQbRoAXZ)

 

Yehuda Katz – Woman of Wisdom and Valor (Eshet Chayil) (composed by Reb Shlomo Carlebach):

(https://youtu.be/nb73TalRKYw?list=PLMsoBWRyDM56WNWnS31I7XJ5VIQbRoAXZ)

 

Yehuda Katz – B’Simchah Rabah (We’re So Happy) (composed by Reb Shlomo Carlebach):

(https://youtu.be/d30TDPPxs3A?list=PLMsoBWRyDM56WNWnS31I7XJ5VIQbRoAXZ)

 

Yehuda Katz – Calling Out to You (Elecha) (composed by Reb Shlomo Carlebach):

(https://youtu.be/cH_Vv9Sr9qc?list=PLMsoBWRyDM56WNWnS31I7XJ5VIQbRoAXZ)

 

Yehuda Katz V’hamagal –  Libi U’b’sari:

(https://youtu.be/wEQYpCcnmnE?list=PLMsoBWRyDM56WNWnS31I7XJ5VIQbRoAXZ)

 

Yehuda Katz – Loving Life (Mi Ha’Ish):

(https://youtu.be/geMyb2pImuM?list=PLMsoBWRyDM56WNWnS31I7XJ5VIQbRoAXZ)

 

Yehuda Katz – Reflecting Light (K’Gavnah):

(https://youtu.be/UWOz_gWJXP4?list=PLMsoBWRyDM56WNWnS31I7XJ5VIQbRoAXZ)

 

Yehuda Katz – All Together (composed by Meir Banai, Yair Nitzani):

(https://youtu.be/b7X_ENnjvNw?list=PLMsoBWRyDM56WNWnS31I7XJ5VIQbRoAXZ)

 

Yehuda Katz – Purple Royalty (Shoshanah Ya’Akov):

(https://youtu.be/ygEvI8SrXgo?list=PLMsoBWRyDM56WNWnS31I7XJ5VIQbRoAXZ)

 

Yehuda Katz – Dancing in Mezeritch:

(https://youtu.be/qhooIOY71RY)

 

Yehuda Katz – Hand in Hand (Yamin V’Smol) (composed by Reb Shlomo Carlebach):

(https://youtu.be/5so_kNsFDlE)

 

Yehuda Katz – Nigun Lewis (composed by Reb Shlomo Carlebach):

(https://youtu.be/7Yvh0Pgsgk4)

 

Yehuda Katz – You Are the Kind (composed by Reb Shlomo Carlebach):

(https://youtu.be/YHAezU-oMhE)

 

Or:

https://newsnotes1.wordpress.com/2016/03/05/shema-yisrael/

 

 

The Who: Moving On Tour (US) – Travelzoo Special Members Only Offer

The Who: Moving On Tour (US) – Travelzoo Special Members Only Offer (Randyjw; May 26, 2019)

(Reposted from Travelzoo; May 26, 2019)

 

This is an exclusive special-pricing offer brought to you by Travelzoo and special deal expert, Erin Mara. This goes through memberdeals.com/experience club.

 

So, join Travelzoo, become a member (it’s free), and see, do, experience, travel, and enjoy — so much more, for less ($)!

 

With this Who concert, you get:

Great Rates, help a great cause, and with two tickets purchased, receive a music download or cd of new music by The Who.

 

Here’s their special offer, taken from their deal offer. Please make sure to reclick their links or recheck their website for updates and complete information.

 

————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

 

The Who presents its Moving On tour in cities nationwide, and Travelzoo members save up to 50% on tickets with this exclusive offer.

The Who’s hits include “Baba O’Riley,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “I Can See for Miles” and “My Generation.”

For every two tickets purchased, your order will include one CD or music download of new music by The Who. After you attend the show, you will receive an email with instructions on how to redeem your CD or music download. Also, $1 from every ticket will benefit Teen Cancer America (teencanceramerica.org).

Starting prices are listed below; click your city to see all ticket options:

Northeast and Southeast:

• Atlanta … $75 (reg. $114) at State Farm Arena, Sept. 18
• Boston … $55 (reg. $95) at Fenway Park, Sept. 13
• Pittsburgh … $30 (reg. $61) at PPG Paints Arena, May 30

Florida:

• Sunrise … $50 (reg. $65) at BB&T Center, Sept. 20
• Tampa … $157 (reg. $185) at Amalie Arena, Sept. 22

Midwest & Texas:

• Cuyahoga Falls (Cleveland) … $35 (reg. $70) at Blossom Music Center, Sept. 10
• Dallas … $65 (reg. $113) at American Airlines Center, Sept. 27
• Detroit … $118 (reg. $146) at Little Caesars Arena, May 28
• Elkhorn … $35 (reg. $70) at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, Sept. 8
• Houston … $69 (reg. $119) at Toyota Center, Sept. 25
• St. Paul … $35 (reg. $70) at Xcel Energy Center, Sept. 6

West:

• Denver … $60 (reg. $81) at Pepsi Center, Sept. 29
• Hollywood … $49 (reg. $67) at Hollywood Bowl, Oct. 11

Note: There are extra fees of up to $13.38 per ticket (varying by city), but the fees are actually less than what you’d pay for full-price tickets.

* Discount based on full-priced tickets and associated fees. Restrictions may apply. Subject to availability. CD or music download must redeemed by Sept. 25, 2019.

Im Eshkachech

Im Eshkachech (If I Forget Thee) (Rachelgv; Hebrew Translation / May 26, 2019)

 

T’filah L’Hashem:

Shalom Birushalayim,

yonim al hashurim

 

---

 

English:

 

If I Forget Thee (Rachelgv; May 25, 2019)

 

A prayer to G-d:

Peace upon Jerusalem,

doves upon the walls

 

 

If I Forget Thee

If I Forget Thee (Rachelgv; May 25, 2019)

 

A prayer to G-d:

Peace upon Jerusalem,

doves upon its walls

 

——————————–

 

Im Eshkachech (If I Forget Thee) (Rachelgv; Hebrew Translation / May 26, 2019)

 

T’filah L’Hashem:

Shalom Birushalayim,

yonim al hashurim

 

 

Yeshiva Study Petition

 

 

 

A petition on Change.org regarding yeshiva study:

 

(http://chng.it/7chpRk6R86)

 

 

Love (Ten)

Love (Ten) (Randyjw; May 22, 2019)

 

The unseen art, of dabblers, and love,

in the negative space on the wall

was filled to existence by tenderly painters

trading places when the other stalled

 

 

Some New TV Clips From MEMRI (Content Advisory Warning)

 

Some New TV Clips From MEMRI (Content Advisory Warning) (Randyjw; May 16, 2019)

 

 

Here are the latest TV clips from Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) (Content Advisory Warning):

 

 

(https://www.memri.org/tv/hamas-bureau-member-fathi-hammad-liberation-palestine-soon-zionists-place-europe-hell-bermuda-triangle)

 

(https://www.memri.org/tv/palestinian-cleric-nidhal-siam-aqsa-ramadhan-devils-america-russia-britain-islamic-state-muslims-time-bomb-explode-jihad)

 

 

 

Psstttt…… Are you awake?

 

Illegal Peace Prayers

 

Illegal Peace Prayers (Randyjw; May 16, 2019)

 

 

I’m admitting to post-facto supposed “war crimes” of having placed a note in the Western Wall/Wailing Wall/Kotel and joining Alan Dershowitz’s satirical call of rebellion in doing so, to protest the designation of parts of Israeli land as being called “occupied.”

 

Does this designation apply retroactively to 587 BCE, 70CE, the actual placing of my note circa 2003/4/5 or so, the UN Security Council Resolution (fake news) of 2016, or what? Am I a satirical 2,600-year criminal, a 2,050-year criminal, a 16-year criminal, or just a mere 3-year criminal? Better round those criminal Jews up, again.

 

Dershowitz, Alan. “War Crime!: Placing a Note in the Western Wall”. gatestoneinstitute.org; May 14, 2019:

(https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14223/western-wall-note)

 

Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day (Randyjw; May 11, 2019)

 

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY !!!

Fuschia Blooms

 

Fuschia Blooms (Randyjw; May 10, 2019)

 

Fuschia brush my ears:

caresses near the soapdish

blushes cheeks and hair

 

 

Turquoise

Turquoise (Randyjw; May 10, 2019)

 

Sunlight pierces the branches of mangroves

the blue heron sailing a vast expanse for the other side

At the bank gleam shining pairs of faceted rainbows

partially submerging preying alligator eyes

 

Junebugs arrive early

and mayday beacons, like fireflies, bioluminesce in neon green

A striped mullet arcs and twists his agile body,

silvered underbody draped in pearlescent sheen

 

Sugar kisses coat the cypress swamp,

of which the water was filled and drained

And now sits the still glorious eagle

in its place where the plantation stands

 

The cypress canoes lay now silent

on the trails, filled with tears, which man tamed

A seminal tale for the Seminole,

at the time when the full moon waned.

 

 

(https://youtu.be/6cR-h8FU7rI)

 

 

 

 

Chamesh

 

Chamesh (Randyjw; May 9, 2019)

 

Chamesh is a five-fingered luck sign

of both Jewish and Arab design

To which I added further images

of symbolic peace doves of Israel, in mine

 

 

Two birds in the hand

and the world, as a pomegranate

solely… to wish each soul

A good year!

That’s all…

dadnabbit!

 

 

Love / Amor (Nine)

 

Love / Amor (Nine) (Randyjw; May 9, 2019)

 

Verses in reply

from seemingly simple lines

Layered depths to mine

 

 

No Contest

 

No Contest (Randyjw; May 9, 2019)

 

Of the bad I’ve done

No excused crimes of passion

emits from forked tongues

 

The judges human

don’t look at goodness in sums

but each act, as one

 

Opening statements,

intent, and motivation

Leave the jury hung

 

The courtroom drama

supporting evidence flung

considerations begun

 

Intimidation

the cross-examination

A gavel bangs down

 

So, put to the gun,

Not for, but because… of love,

I admit to none

 

 

Wingwoman

 

Wingwoman (Randyjw; May 9, 2019)

 

Birds on a wire

at times don’t face each other

but love, together

 

 

Can’t Chew Gum

 

Can’t Chew Gum (Randyjw; May 9, 2019)

 

My heart skips its beats

Even while managing to

trip over my feet

 

Why America Is Great

 

Why America Is Great (Randyjw; May 8, 2019)

 

Ducking beneath an overhang to avoid rain, I found myself sitting next to two people engaged in a conversation in which one of them stated that he saves only a little money, and the rest of it he sends back to his country. I was a little concerned about this guy, as he seemed to have taken two “location shots” of a not-so-special place, and then seemed to proceed to aim his phone, somewhat surreptitiously, toward me. I told him, twice, “Don’t take my picture,” but I think he did. I did not get a good feeling from it – – and it seemed more like a bad reconaissance mission, as opposed to a friendly gesture. Without saying what I’m saying, I’m saying it, anyways… Hopefully, it’s just hyper-awareness in this situation and doesn’t portend ill-purpose on his part.

Anyways, it set me thinking about immigration, other countries, and the U.S.

 

I have nothing against immigrants. I understand that people want to share in our “dream” of freedom, democracy, and prosperity. If only some family members from foreign countries settle here, it tears their family apart, and that can be difficult. When an immigrant finds work, and sends most of their wage earnings home, these remittances help raise the living standards for their family, since the dollar tends to be the strongest currency against which other countries peg their own currency. The value is so much higher, that the dollar has so much more purchasing power.

 

But, there are other factors to consider, as well. What if there are so many emigrants doing this, that half the country are receiving this income, but the other half are not? Maybe it will lead to the artificial inflation of the cost of goods, based on what the given market will bear: such items such as housing, cars, and the like, eventually, and effectively, pricing the poor half of the population right out of the market and even deeper into dire poverty.

 

Maybe there’s a point of too-quick growth, where booms in various industries lead to a top-heavy shift of workers toward these growth areas, while leading to the paucity of other industries and the workers required to learn and perform still needed functions and vocations. The lure of foreign countries whose workers will earn less, due to the stronger dollar at home, helps to also cause the business-investor’s exodus.

 

I think that’s why President Trump is bringing back manufacturing to our shores, and really understands the full benefits of doing so. While we, here, in the U.S., still stand to retain our competitive technological, military, and business edge, it also helps to raise the standards of living for so many in the rest of the world.

 

How? It might help to galvanize the populations of other countries to confront the reasons why their present system isn’t working and to find the means to make it work. Perchance a popular movement will gain traction, using the ideals of the U.S. success as a role model. It’s already beginning to happen in Saudi Arabia, with nepotism and cronyism in the awarding of cushy jobs to the royal sons now losing favor and industry opening up to the general population. Other mid-East countries, not in the midst of long-term internal or external war, are also feverishly developing their infrastructure and, hence, furthering their economies. That’s better diversification for them, as oil, gas, and alternate energy resources are now also found in better concentration beyond just the middle East. Word being bandied about by the Palestinians is heading in this area, also.

 

 

When the U.S. was great, the world’s countries rose, as well. At least, those which were based on a democratic-capitalist system. Where the U.S. started to fail is in the brawn-drain exodus of our manufacturing jobs and the brain-drain exodus in the tech sector. Accelerated immigration growth led to a demand to accommodate a bilingual work-force, to tap, not only foreign markets, but now the internal language shift of the U.S. This has forced a change in the population of both the workforce and those forced out of once plentiful jobs formerly requiring only a monolingual language. The country from the exodus continues its decline as workers leave for greener pastures, and this causes more instability around the world.

 

I think that the world can rise with America’s rise, rather than by bringing it down. It’s just something to seriously think about.

 

See Also (Updated June 20, 2019):

 

Stossel, John. “Moral Capitalism”. linbertynewsnow.com; June 20, 2019:

(https://libertynewsnow.com/moralcapitalism/article16884)

 

 

How Beautiful

 

How Beautiful (Randyjw; May 5, 2019)

 

How beautiful is this song, “La Vie en Rose.”

 

Some would call me a hopeless romantic. I’d disagree. I’d call it something more, like… a “hopeful romantic.” Isn’t that better? I think so.

 

The perfect embodiment of this is found in the song, “La Vie en Rose.”

 

I just found this beautiful version of it, last night. It features Nieka Moss, with Jason Lux accompanying on piano. Listen to these love-ly words, especially the English wording at the end.

 

Have a beautiful day and evening. Good night.

 

 

(https://youtu.be/eu1auaUHy0c)

 

 

 

Love cont

 

Love cont (Rachelgv; May 3, 2019)

 

Pick for me

another song

and let me grasp

at shadows

that have already gone

While nights grow shorter

and the days grow long

I’ll be seeking your starlight

in the rise of each dawn

 

 

Yom HaShoah (This Evening)

 

Yom HaShoah (This Evening)

 

In remembrance of the six million who perished in the Holocaust.

 

Hannah Szenes wrote this poem. She escaped from Hungary in the second World War, and went back over enemy lines to help her fellow Jews in trouble. She gave her life, in doing so.

 

(https://youtu.be/R1hH5c4k51Q)

 

 

Yom Hazikaron / Yom Ha’Atzma’ut (Repost)

 

Yom HaZikaron / Yom Ha’Atzma’ut (Randyjw; April 17, 2018)

(Reposted May 1, 2019)

Yom HaZikaron May 7-8, 2019

Yom Ha’Atzma’ut May 8-9, 2019

Soldiers, warriors, heroes, victims

mothers, fathers, siblings, children

departed, terrorism, so many gone, in memoriam

never forget, ever learned?

millions strong, remembering

Israel Stands Still

Israel Stands Still (Randyjw; Originally Posted: April 22, 2017)

Israel stands still

when the siren sounds across the land

recalling the fallen

the never again

You are not forgotten

but remembered again

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Siren of Rehovot, Israel (2012):

 

(https://youtu.be/M_Dc2D2va_A)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I Am poem – Anne Frank

by Natasha Hashemi and Claire Hawer

 

(https://youtu.be/2p-a_mCO_JA)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eli Atah – Shlomo Gronich and the Sheba Choir

 

(https://youtu.be/CidvVpPMQQ8)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

In Happier Days (Randyjw; Originally Posted: April 23, 2017)

 

Through the slavery of Egypt;

through the auto-da-fe’s; the pogroms;

through the Inquisition; the Crusades;

and the exile of Babylon.

 

The destruction of our Temple

was more than the razing of a building;

it was the attempt to destroy through deicide

what they couldn’t destroy within.

 

The burning of our skin

in the synagogues

as they torched us alive in flames

worshipping false G-ds with idols

and blaspheming the Good L-rd’s name.

 

They eradicated us en masse in genocide

and overtook the Holy Land,

What they didn’t take, through Holocaust,

was that G-d would foil their plans.

 

G-d knows how to make it rain,

blessing, in its proper times.

As much as is done for the earth,

He has done, as well, for our minds.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy Rebirthday: Eternal, Israel

 

Happy Rebirthday: Eternal, Israel

(Randyjw; Originally Posted: 05/11/2016)

 

Eternal:

Yom HaZikaron

Remembrance Day (Memorial Day)

 

 

Israel:

Yom HaAtzma’ut

Independence Day

 

 

Yom Holedet!

Happy Rebirthday, Israel.

Always Eternal.

Eternally Yours,

 

HaTikvah (The Hope; a poem by Naftali Herz Imber; also it is the Israel National Anthem)

 

Kol od balayvav pnima nefesh Yehudi homiyah

Ul fatey Mizrach kadima

Ayin L’Tsion tsofiyah

Od lo avdah tikvatenu

HaTikvah shnot al payim

Liyot Am chofshi be’artzenu

B’Eretz Tzion V’rushalyim.

 

(HaTikvah “The Hope” translation from “My Jewish Learning”:)

As long as within our hearts

The Jewish soul sings,

As long as forward to the East

To Zion, looks the eye —

Our hope is not yet lost,

It is two thousand years old,

To be a free people in our land

The land of Zion and Jerusalem.

 

Hear The Israel National Anthem, HaTikvah, on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6Q4XL4oRIRE

 

See excerpts of Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, proclaim the State of Israel, with HaTikvah in the background: https://youtu.be/XTSpfNoHpzU

 

 

Shomron

 

Shomron (King Omri bought hill for two talents of silver from Shemer; hence, the name) / Christian: The City of Sebastia (Randyjw; April 24, 2019)

 

Jewishpress.com/author/photo of the day; “The City of Sebastia”; April 24, 2019:

(https://www.jewishpress.com/multimedia/photos/the-city-of-sebastia/2019/04/24/)

 

 

Land Theft In Judea/Samaria

 

Land Theft In Judea/Samaria (Randyjw; April 24, 2019)

 

This is another really important and informative article toward understanding what is occurring now in Judea/Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”):

 

 

Linder Kahn, Naomi. “The European Union: Nurturing Instability and Terrorism in the Middle East”. gatestoneinstitute.org; April 24, 2019:

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14011/european-union-palestinians-instability

 

 

Best Yet Article

 

Best Yet Article (Randyjw; April 22, 2019)

 

This is the best article I’ve yet read on the Jewish people vis-à-vis Israel (and mostly what I’ve been saying, all along):

 

Sylvetsky, Rochel. “The legal status of Jerusalem: Examination of Israel’s lawful rights”. israelnationalnews.com Op-Ed; April 18, 2019:

(http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/23749)

 

 

Passover Songs And More 5779

 

Passover Songs And More 5779 (Randyjw; April 18, 2019)

 

 

Bachatzi Halayla (Midnight Escape) – Yehudah Katz

Published on Apr 2, 2012

(https://youtu.be/u0UN_06tess?list=PL5SpPWIeTwWNr_4EOsuabEG3-7YdmU4_S)

 

 

Od Yishama (There Will Be Heard) – Shlomo Katz

Published on Apr 23, 2012

(https://youtu.be/_DbMc-xbYOQ)

 

 

(Added April 24, 2019):

Mordechai Ben David – Kumzits 1 / Shiru LaMelech

Published on Oct 27, 2015

(https://youtu.be/nCbTQZNWpns)

 

 

All About Those Plagues – Chuck Green

Published on Mar 23, 2015

(https://youtu.be/biBGKDoolCk?list=PLKfigRKHaOCiC8FTF2ZQ16TrNohxpZg5o)

 

Passover Rhapsody – A Jewish Rock Opera – aish.com

Published on Mar 27, 2012

(https://youtu.be/BRWNrk7FxG4)

 

 

Avadim Hayinu (We Were Slaves) – Yuval Grumer

Published on Apr 16, 2019

(https://youtu.be/qg21q0koFJY)

 

 

Pessach Medley with Micha Gamerman (Official Animation Video) –

Published on Apr 5, 2017

(https://youtu.be/0VeH2DARmFE)

 

 

The Passover Seder Symbols Song – runsing

Published on Apr 7, 2008

(https://youtu.be/awl1KCo_oZ0?list=PLEF01FC549202E9E1)

 

 

JEWSIC PASSOVER MUSIC VIDEO – The Jewsicgroup

Published on Apr 12, 2011

(https://youtu.be/EWG4GGmw06E)

 

DK Eyewitness Books: Judaism – Discover the History, Faith, and Culture That Have Shaped the Modern Jewish World

 

DK Eyewitness Books: Judaism – Discover the History, Faith, and Culture That Have Shaped the Modern Jewish World (Randyjw; April 19, 2019)

 

CHARING, D. DK Eyewitness Books: Judaism – Discover the History, Faith, and Culture That Have Shaped the Modern Jewish World. First American Edition 2003. DK Publishing, Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. Copyright 2003 Dorling Kindersley Limited, London.

 

This great book is one of a series, called DK Eyewitness Books, on multiple educational subjects aimed at children and young adults. This older, 2003 library version, is a slim, hardcover coffee table-style book, compiled with factual short paragraphs of information and glossy, full-color photos. The photos are especially interesting for their archaeological- and museum-quality details, showing both verbally, and visually, some highlights from the periods of Jewish history, both modern, and ancient.

 

DK Publishing is now under the banner of Penguin Random House. For more information on the parent company, see the Wikipedia reference, below. The newest revised edition of this book was published June 14, 2016, with sixty-four pages geared toward Middle Grades (8-12), and is available in hardcover and paperback. I highly recommend this book, for all ages.

 

DK (publisher):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DK_(publisher)

 

 

Let Us Be

 

Let Us Be (Randyjw; April 15, 2019)

(to the tune of The Beatles’ “Let It Be”)

 

When we found ourselves upon the Nile

bondsmen to our slavery

Built up Egypt’s cities

men unfree

 

And while the whips rained down upon us

beating us relentlessly

chained into our bondage

misery

 

Chorus:

Let us be (x4)

G-d proclaims His answer:

Let us be!

 

But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened

and he had no eyes with which to see

He who rules above us

Elokim

 

So G-d sent down ten plagues amongst us

sparing us eternally

G-d would let us worship

finally

 

(Chorus)

 

Then Egypt wound up devastated

livestock, land, and progeny

but now set forth to our freedom

Liberty

 

Still Pharaoh’s woes had deepened

and he suffered economically

the wage paid for those slaves

had come free

 

(Chorus)

 

The chariot army trotted

G-d endowed the rod and let us flee

by dry ground we departed

through the sea

 

And Moshe let the rod down

and two walls were one in unity

Pharaoh’s army drowned,

all but he

 

(Chorus)

 

In wilderness we wandered

seeking solace and a destiny

and false gods we created

Idolatry

 

And G-d called Moses to the Mount

and gave Laws for eternity

And Torah’s words of wisdom

set us free

 

(Chorus) (x2)

 

 

Doubtless

 

Doubtless (Randyjw’ April 15, 2019)

 

It would be close to impossible

to believe

that the silent conversations

I hold with you – –

without you

Aren’t expelled through

the ether

where they eventually

reach you;

it’s doubtless

Want them, or not,

there they are

before your heart

 

Communion

 

Communion (Randyjw; April 14, 2019)

 

Aching beauty

often finds expression

only in communion

when our souls become one

 

 

Old And Homeless

 

Old And Homeless (Randyjw; April 12, 2019)

 

You came out from the library,

looking forlorn

Garbed in like clothing

my father had worn

Then stopped on the walkway

and set your bags down

And you stared, and you stared

at that man, like your son

The man walked away

without once looking round

But you watched over him

as he gained further ground

Then you turned and went over

to sit on the bench

Your glasses were perched

and your shoulders were hunched

And looked around, aimless

Not knowing what to do

While here you sit, blameless,

Bereft of him, too

 

 

WATCH Live: Beresheet Moon Landing

 

WATCH Live: Beresheet Moon Landing (Randyjw; April 11, 2019)

 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7GUHd554NY)

 

 

Randy’s Recipes: Olive, Fig, Ricotta, Orange Sandwich

Randy’s Recipes: Olive, Fig, Ricotta, Orange Sandwich (Randyjw; April 10, 2019)

 

It’s been a long time since I’ve stepped inside a Walmart; I usually found them inconveniently located, and didn’t find much enticing selection to warrant the trip.

 

But, this time was different. As I browsed the aisles, I found the shelves stocked with the best brands of commercially-available offerings I would have chosen, should my local market chains have kept purchasing them. But, as usual, the buyers always seem to discontinue my favorites in any categories, from food to cleansers.

 

I put together this “Walmart special,” and it wasn’t bad.

 

Randy’s Recipes: Olive, Fig, Ricotta, Orange Sandwich (Randyjw; April 10, 2019)

 

French Bread ($1.00 USD), or other of your choice

Ricotta Cheese, or other of your choice*

Orange ($0.68 USD), segmented

Olive and Fig Tapenade (small jar; a bit costly – – probably better to make yourself. Includes sea salt, cardamom, assorted vinegars, more.)

 

Try other options:

Honey

Spearmint leaves

Sunflower kernels

Lemon

* Walmart has a nice selection of sliced cheese in a platter, although not best quality, such as this one, which was $7.00 USD, featuring: Irish cheddar, Havarti, Gouda, Imported Swiss (it didn’t taste like it, and had no holes):

Layer olive/fig spread onto open face of French bread loaf. Top with ricotta, or other cheese of your choice. Top with orange segments. Enjoy.

 

5 Yums Up

 

Passover 5779

 

Passover 5779 (Randyjw; April 10, 2019)

 

I wish I still had the index cards of all my Mother’s recipes (hers, friends, or curated) I’d laboriously copied over the years. I think they were lost with some of my previous items at a time when I was told I should store them at someone’s business location, but then was not allowed to retrieve any of my things back. My Mother, as well, has lost pages from her personal collection, as people just pulled them out, rather than copying them from her. But, here are some Passover ideas and inspiration from elsewhere. And, if sometime, I can try to recreate those missing recipes, I will.

 

Inspire your own ideas, and read Doreen Wachmann’s article on Charoset recipes through the ages:

 

Charoset:

https://www.jewishpress.com/sections/food/our-kosher-world-the-pesach-palate/2019/04/10/ (flip pages to 12-13)

 

 

Here’s a recipe for Passover Apricot Squares that, if I’m remembering correctly, seems to be like the ones my Mother used to make:

 

Passover Apricot Squares:

https://www.koshereye.com/passover/270-passover-apricot-bars.html

 

The Quarry by Pope John Paul II

 

The Quarry by Pope John Paul II (Randyjw; April 8, 2019)

 

New link / Hope this one works:

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/blog/the-poetry-of-saint-john-paul-ii/amp (scroll down)

 

Interesting information about Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla):

 

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/01/11/Records-show-papal-appointee-helped-run-Nazi-camp-where-pope-worked/8335411109200/

 

 

Worthwhile

Worthwhile (Randyjw; April 8, 2019)

 

Before entering the library today, I weebled over to the garbage can to throw out some trash. I rolled my eyes and said “eh” to the guy standing nearby, indicating my exhaustion lugging around my three bags, and other matters. The guy said, “I understand. You gotta make it worthwhile.” I said, “It is worthwhile; we’re here.” He nodded, and I went back to gather my backpacks. Sitting on top of one, I thanked the guy for his motivation. Combined, perhaps the two serve as the purpose and goals for our lives: To make it worthwhile, while we’re here.

 

 

Chick-Fil-A Controversy

Chick-Fil-A Controversy (Randyjw; April 5, 2019)

 

 

McGuinness, Dylan. “Brockhouse apologizes to Chick-fil-A for San Antonio’s decision to remove restaurant from airport plan”. expressnews.com; March 26, 2019:

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Brockhouse-apologizes-to-Chick-fil-A-for-San-13719006.php

 

 

Update / Additional (November 22, 2019):

Greenfield, Daniel. “Chick-fil-A Put an Obama and Hillary Supporter in Charge, but Dumped Christians”. frontpagemag.com; November 22, 2019:

(https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/chick-fil-put-obama-and-hillary-supporter-charge-daniel-greenfield)

 

 

 

Be’er Sheva

 

Brummer, David. “Evidence of Second Temple Era Settlement Found Near Abraham’s Biblical Home”. breakingisraelnews.com; April 4, 2019:

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/125971/second-temple-era-settlement-abrahams/

 

 

 

TLC

TLC (Randyjw; April 3, 2019)

 

Teaching

Leading

Giving

Receiving

 

 

Sydney Debate-to-Be

 

Sydney Debate-to-Be (Randyjw; April 3, 2019)

 

 

Rabbi Tovia Singer debates Reverend Samuel Green:

Is Jesus the Promised Jewish Messiah?

 

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

6:30 – 8:30 PM

 

University of Technology Sydney

1 Quay Street, Haymarket

Building 5C, Room 02.010

 

 

Free Audio Posts:

 

https://outreachjudaism.org/lets-get-biblical-audio-series/

 

 

Update (April 13, 2019):

 

Rabbi Singer has posted the video of this debate on YouTube:

 

(https://youtu.be/OY5_DNL6X1Y)