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#I get that jews wanted to leave europe after wwii and even that they wanted to go back to their roots
longjiaojiao · 3 days
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yeah when China and Russia vote for Palestinian rights they are like "don't actually care about human rights they just want to fuck America" and when any other country vote for Palestinian rights it's like "thank you so much you are amazing you are the best" TBH I find it funny how naive people are that you really think there is ANY government in the world that care about individual human rights... The secret is thinking and learning is actually important dude, when you really learn about history, when you look at the world from a historical perspective, when you leave behind all your contemporary morals and capitalist worldview, you find that it's all about money, yes there is no such thing as human rights for the government, there is only money. Under capitalist I mean America, political power are only an adjunct to economic power. In fact one of the greatest advantages of being a Chinese is to see the world from a perspective that is completely unconstrained by Western values. You will see that the spread of Christianity is what forced the Jews to wander in Europe. In fact after the dissolution of Rome it was the Arabs who peacefully shared the land with the wandering Jews in Europe.
There is only one country's people in the world that is protected from being discrimination due to the loss of national honor, and that is America, because obviously when the Anglo-Saxon first arrived on this land it became a nation of immigrants. I don't know what moral superiority makes some people think that "fuck Israel" and "fuck Russia" is going to do any good, this sound only makes innocent Israelis and innocent Russians suffer from more racism, and by the way makes racists more racist, more extreme and more stupid, thus the new Nazis appear, endless loop! People will only hate each other more and more if you keep saying fuck something.
People just didn't fuck the right one. The arms dealers and rich persons are the ultimate winners. Jews are not bad, but the people who make the most money in America happen to be Jews. Sometimes the religion you hold dear is just an identity in the hands of others, a tool to get more resources.
The reason why Japan government is not apologizing for their actions in WWII is that their economy is not blocked by the world after all these shit. Germany was shunned by the whole Europe and could not make money without some apology. Don't think of politics as morality, or even expect it to be humane.
I have no morality myself actually, no one will force me agree on anything I haven't learn and think about, I only have what everyone else has: the lessons of history. The protection of minors that you attach great importance to came after the animal protection, and the concept of minors was formed because of the popularity of typewriters and printing presses. The concept of minors is so new and fragile that I think that now the Internet and video have replaced typewriters and printing presses, maybe the age of minors needs to be changed. So you see morality is inherently vague, which means being careful when enforcing it too, not to be deceived by anger and hate.
Everyone go watch Princess Mononoke ten times.
在西方待久了实在受不了客体化的东方世界和低语境的伪善了…喜欢中国也不是喜欢中国的政府,而是喜欢中国的文化和历史。中国和美国这两个词就是两个极端,一个偏向文化代指,一个偏向政权代指。但非要说的话,墓志铭也得是『中国饭很好吃,死而无憾了』。
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parksanddeserts · 3 years
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I still have some zionists on fb and it's so nasty how they claim that it was good to evict those Palestinians because according to the law houses in Eastern Jerusalem that were owned by Jewish people before 1948 can be demanded back by 'the rightful owners'. When you read this kind of bullshit and think 'well that makes sense", realize that when these zionists say rightful owners, they don't mean the family that used to live there. They mean any Jewish person or organization. And realize that this same rule does not apply for the 60.000 Palestinians who lost their homes in Western Jerusalem after 1948. Also why 'returning to the 1967 borders' wouldn't make Israel less of an apartheid state.
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girlactionfigure · 3 years
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‘We Are All Jews Here’
U.S. Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds, one of five American Righteous Among the Nations, never spoke about the 200 Jews he saved
BY
PATRICK HENRY
As of Jan. 1, 2020, there were 27,712 persons named Righteous Among the Nations (Righteous Gentiles) by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. All of them are non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Five of them are American.
In 1994, Varian Fry was the first American named to the list. A New York City native and Harvard graduate with a degree in classics, Fry had volunteered with the Emergency Rescue Committee to go to France to help rescue victims of Nazism. Planning on staying for a month, he arrived in Marseille in August 1940 with $3,000 and a list of 200 Jews he hoped to save. Soon, however, he understood the enormity of his task and judged it “criminally irresponsible” to return home. He stayed until he was forcibly expelled from France 13 months later “for having protected Jews and anti-Nazis.” Fighting the Vichy regime and the U.S. State Department, which tried repeatedly to have him sent home, Fry carried a gun, arranged smugglings into Spain, obtained foreign passports and visas, hired a forger, and with a small staff saved over 2,000 refugees. Mainly interested in writers, artists, and intellectuals, this passionate anti-fascist rescued Marcel Duchamp, Marc Chagall, Jacques Lipchitz, Max Ernst, Hannah Arendt, Max Ophüls, Arthur Koestler, André Breton, and several other surrealist artists.
Martha and Waitstill Sharp were named Righteous Among the Nations in 2005. Waitstill was a minister in the Unitarian Church in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and his wife, Martha, was a noted social worker. They agreed to go to Prague in February 1939 to help members of the Unitarian Church in Czechoslovakia. Once there, they helped smuggle Jews out of the country that had been taken over by the Nazis the month after their arrival. They experienced dangerous encounters with Nazi police but managed to return safely to the United States in August. Once again, however, in late spring 1940, they returned to Europe to help rescue Jewish people from France where they worked with Varian Fry, Hiram Bingham IV, and others smuggling Jews, many of them children, into Spain and Portugal.
Lois Gunden, named “Righteous” in 2013, also rescued Jews in France. Born and raised in Goshen, Indiana, Gunden went to France in October 1941, at the age of 26, to work with the Mennonite Central Committee. Fluent in French, she headed the Ville St. Christophe Children’s Refugee Convalescent Home in Canet Plage in the south of France. It was a 20-room mansion that housed 60 children, mostly those of Spanish refugees from Franco’s Spain and Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe being held in the nearby Rivesaltes internment camp. Gunden continued to run this safe haven for refugee children even after November 1942 when the Germans occupied the entire country. She managed to hide many Jewish children in the home and save them from deportation to Drancy and then Auschwitz. In January 1943, she was detained as an “enemy alien” and transported to Germany. In March 1944, she was released in a prisoner exchange.
On Memorial Day 2021, 76 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, let’s remember the heroics of Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds, the fifth American Righteous Gentile and the only one to have saved the lives of American Jews.
In early December 1944, the 106th Infantry Division, which comprised the 422nd, 423rd, and 424th Regiments, landed in France and traveled by truck across France and Belgium, reaching the Schnee Eifel area in Eastern Belgium near the German border. On Dec. 10, they took up their positions. On Dec. 16, the 422nd was attacked by the Germans in what would become known as the Battle of the Bulge, during which the Germans would capture 20,000 GIs. Although they were cut off and surrounded, the part of the regiment that Edmonds belonged to held out until Dec. 21 when they surrendered to the Germans. After having been forced to march 50 kilometers to Gerolstein, Germany, the men of the 422nd Regiment were loaded into box cars with no food or water and traveled for four days until they reached Bad Orb, Germany. They spent several weeks in Bad Orb, after which they were divided into three groups (officers, noncommissioned officers, and enlisted men). Roddie Edmonds’ group, the NCOs, were then shipped to Stalag IXA in Ziegenhain. There were 1,275 men in this group and Roddie Edmonds was the highest-ranking NCO among them.’
It was German policy to single out Jewish POWs and send them to extermination or slave labor camps. Accordingly, in January 1945, the Germans announced that all Jewish prisoners in Stalag IXA would report the following morning. Twenty-five-year-old Master Sgt. Edmonds, who was responsible for all the POWs in Stalag IXA, ordered all prisoners, Jews and non-Jews, to fall out. When the German officer in charge, Maj. Siegmann, saw all the prisoners lined up in front of the barracks that next morning, he said to Edmonds: “They cannot all be Jews.” Edmonds responded: “We are all Jews here.”
Siegmann then pointed a pistol to Edmonds’ head, but Edmonds, refusing to back down, replied: “According to the Geneva Convention, we only have to give our name, rank, and serial number. If you shoot me, you will have to shoot all of us, and after the war you will be tried for war crimes.” The German major turned and walked away. Edmonds had saved the lives of the roughly 200 Jewish prisoners among the 1,275 American POWs.
Edmonds, who was named “Righteous” in 2015, did not speak much about his experiences. His family only knew that he had been taken prisoner by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge and that he had survived 100 days of captivity before returning home. His son, Baptist Rev. Chris Edmonds, mentioned that when he would ask his father about the war, he often told him only that “Some things were too difficult to talk about.” When Roddie died in 1985, his wife gave her son, Chris, two of the diaries he had kept as a POW.
Yet it was only in scouring the internet many years later that Chris discovered the exact story of his father’s heroism. In 2009, Chris’ daughter, Lauren, was given a college assignment to do a video history project about a family member. Lauren opted to work on her paternal grandfather. Chris decided to lend a hand. He googled the words “Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds,” expecting that it would lead to Army records or the Battle of the Bulge. Instead, it led to a 2008 New York Times article about a New York City lawyer, Lester Tanner, who had sold his Manhattan townhouse to former President Richard Nixon. What could have possibly been the link between Edmonds and the sale of a townhouse to Nixon? Tanner mentioned in the article that Roddie Edmonds had saved his life and that of many other Jews during WWII.
This led Chris Edmonds to Lester Tanner and other Jewish POWs saved by his father, one of whom was Sonny Fox, the American television host and executive. These POWs and in some cases their families filled in many details completely unknown to the Edmonds family. Tanner told them that he admired Roddie for the way he led: “He never threw his rank around ... and was a man of great courage.” Tanner told Yad Vashem that they were all aware at the time that the Germans were murdering Jews. They therefore understood that the order to separate the Jews from the other POWs meant that the Jews were in great danger. “Master Sergeant Edmonds,” he said, “at the risk of his immediate death, defied the Germans with the unexpected consequence that the Jewish prisoners were saved.”
Another of the Jewish POWs saved by Edmonds, Paul Stern, explained that when the 422nd Regiment got to Bad Orb, lower-ranking Jewish POWs from another stalag were in fact sent to slave labor camps where many of them died. Stern, who had learned German in college, could understand what the Germans had in store for the POWs. He also stated that the conversation between the German commandant, Maj. Siegmann, and Roddie Edmonds was in English. “Although seventy years have passed,” Stern claimed, “I can still hear the words he said to the German camp commander.” Finally, Hank Freedman, another POW rescued by Edmonds, told Chris that his father’s faith impacted and emboldened all his men, whether they were believers or not.
On Jan. 27, 2016, in a ceremony at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., attended by then President of the United States Barack Obama, Master Sgt. Edmonds’ son accepted the Righteous medal and the certificate of honor awarded to his father. Roddie Edmonds has twice been nominated for the Congressional Gold Medal “in recognition of his heroic actions during World War II.” So far, no action has been taken. But Chris’ hope has hardly been extinguished. He wants his father to be awarded the Medal of Honor, our country’s “highest award for valor in action against an enemy force.” The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous’ short but powerful documentary on Edmonds, “Following the Footsteps of My Father,” would offer a great deal of compelling evidence.
In the JFR’s documentary, we learn that Roddie Edmonds might very well have also saved the lives of hundreds of his men by refusing to evacuate the camp where they were being held. The Germans knew the end was near and they did not want to be around when the American soldiers arrived. They told Edmonds to get ready to evacuate. Edmonds told the German officers that his men were too weak to evacuate the camp and begin a long march. The French POWs moved out along with the British POWs. The German officers told Edmonds that the camp was his: They were leaving.
Shortly thereafter, on March 30, 1945, Stalag IXA was liberated by American forces. It was the second day of Passover. As Sonny Fox remarked: “It was the day of our freedom.”
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hiddur-mitzvah · 3 years
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There is a lot going around about what is happening in Jerusalem, and while I am no where near an expert on the conflict, I will offer my pov as an American Jew.
To start: I support Palestinians. It is cruel and inhumane to force people from their homes and into the homes of oppressors. However, the exact same can be said for Israel.
Following WWII, hundreds of thousands of Jews were left homeless and penniless. Their homes had been destroyed, they had been separated from their families. They quite literally had nothing except the people they were next to, and an insurmountable amount of pain and trauma and uncertainty. Following WWII, these Jews were refugees. The only places left to go were Allied camps in a defeated Axis territories.
Throughout the war and after, the Allied powers did not want to deal with these refugees (see SS St.Louis). They had freed them, but only as an after thought. They didn’t fight WWII for the Jews, they didn’t give a shit about the Jews. So America passed legislation severely limiting the number of immigrants from Europe (it was almost exclusively used to prevent Jews from imitating). Meanwhile, Britain, France and the rest of Europe were in shambles having been the fighting grounds of the war.
So what to do with these enormous amounts of refugees who conveniently have been trying to get back into their holy land since they were kicked out ~2,000 years ago? Let them back into their holy land, which Britain just so happened to own. However when making this decision Britain and the UN “forgot” that there were people already there. So Britain drafts up an intentionally vague declaration saying the Jewish refugees are going to live in the Palestine Mandate.
What follows is a complicated war with a lot of grey area, but the main idea is this: some Jews wanted to live in the Palestine Mandate. Some Palestinians did not want Jews in the Palestine mandate because they would have to be nice to the Jews (who they saw as foreign invaders) and let them see their holy sights. Commence, war. In the end the Jews somehow win and get a bunch of land and the surrounding Arab countries are pissed and vow to never recognize the existence of Israel. During this conflict Britain also breaks pretty much every promise they made to both Jews and Arabs causing a huge mess each side blamed the other for.
This brings us to today when Israel has given some of the lands the won back to the original owners in exchange for recognition and peace (kind of). What is important to note is that during this whole process, Jews were facing antisemitism and fleeing to Israel. The war itself caused a huge surge of antisemitism in the east and several surrounding Arab nations kicked/forced out their Jewish populations. These Jews then went to the closest (and pretty much only) safe place for Jews: Israel.
And remember how at the end of WWII Jews were prevented from entering most of Europe, well one of the few countries who did welcome Jews was Russia. This of course caused problems when Russia -> USSR and religion became a bad thing again. Simultaneously, the USSR was blaming Jews for capitalism, and the USA was blaming Jews for communism. The USSR persecuted Jews via the KGB and generally making being Jewish illegal. The USA persecuted Jews via the CIA and making being Jewish treason (because. . . National security?). So here we have a whole new batch of Jews being persecuted who really would just like to be aloud to live their life without fear of persecution. The solution: Israel is giving citizenship to Jews all around the world so they can escape antisemitism.
All right, I think that is enough backstory. All of this is to say: Israel is important to the existence of Judaism and the Jewish people. There has literally never been a time when Jews weren’t being kicked out of some country or another. These Jews would leave for a country not persecuting Jews, only to be kicked out a few decades later. To Jews, Israel was revolutionary. There was finally a place they could go where they wouldn’t have to worry about being kicked out. Even in the middle of war, Jews flocked to Israel because if they won, they could finally call a place home. They would no longer be an other.
I call myself a Zionist because I fear what a world without Israel would look like. I fear for my Jewish siblings around the world facing much worse antisemitism than me. I fear the “anti Zionist” movement and how quickly I have see it turn to outright antisemitism. I full stop support Palestinian self-determination. But I have to support them from the Zionist side of the fence.
I fear that letting go of the title “Zionist” will also let go of the people who need Israel to exist. I fear it will erase the history of oppression Jews are already struggling to keep alive. I fear the increase in antisemitic hate crimes every time Israel makes the news. I fear wearing my kippah or Magen David outside because I don’t want to be next.
I dream of a land of milk and honey. A land where I no longer have to fear being Jewish. A land where I don’t have to fight to get even the most basic holidays off. A land where Jewish celebration can be public. A land where the streets can be lined with parades for Rosh Hashanah. A land where I can take off the holiest day of the year. A land where my synagogue doesn’t have to hire extra security around Chanukah. A land where I no longer am numb to the brutalization of my people. A land where 2% of the population doesn’t make up more than 50% of all religiously motivated hate crimes.
Above all, I want a land where I know I am safe.
TL;DR: People hate Jews. We just want to exist without fear.
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tcm · 4 years
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Holocaust Remembrance: Those Who Survived and Came to Hollywood By Raquel Stecher
Officially established by the United Nations in 2005, January 27th is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This day honors the 6 million Jewish victims as well as the millions of other victims of the Holocaust. It also marks the anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army.
From the time Hitler came to power and throughout WWII, actors, directors, producers, composers, production designers and other members of the European film industry emigrated to Hollywood to escape the Nazi regime and to begin a new phase in their careers. Some artists fled at the first sign of trouble, others were able to escape even in the face of real danger while others were interred in concentration camps and German POW camps. Many lost family members, some nearly lost their own lives but, in the end, they persevered in the face of adversity and lived to tell the tale. Here are some of their extraordinary stories.
Michael Curtiz
According to Michael Curtiz biographer Alan K. Rode, the director did everything he could to get his family out of Hungary. Curtiz arranged transport for his mother and got her housing in Los Angeles. He relocated his brothers David and Gabriel to Tijuana, Mexico where they waited for two years before being allowed entry into the United States. And Curtiz may have employed the help of Jack and Harry Warner to get the U.S. Army Air Corps to transport his sister out of Hungary. Curtiz’ brother Lajos and sisters Regina, Margit and Kornelia decided to stay behind. Margit and her family were eventually interned in Auschwitz and while Margit and her daughter survived, her husband and second child did not.
Audrey Hepburn
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Born in Belgium but raised in England, Audrey Hepburn’s parents were pro-Fascists. After their separation, Audrey’s mom Ella moved the family to the Netherlands and joined the Dutch resistance. Before becoming an actress, Hepburn studied as a dancer and her skills were put to good use when she was commissioned by local resistance leader Dr. Hendrik Visser‘t Hooft to perform dance numbers at underground meetings known as “zwarte avonden”, aka black evenings. This was a way to earn money to help fund the Dutch resistance’s efforts to hide or transport Jews across the country.
Martin Kosleck
German actors who fled Europe for America often found themselves playing Nazis in Hollywood productions. Actor Martin Kosleck played Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels 5 times including a role in CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY (‘39), considered the first anti-Nazi film. Kosleck himself was an outspoken opponent to Hitler and the Third Reich and fled Germany in 1931 when a warrant was issued for his arrest. A few years after he left, he was placed on the list of Gestapo’s “undesirables” and was tried and sentenced in absentia but remained safe in Hollywood.
Fritz Lang
Lang’s celebrated film METROPOLIS (‘27) was one of Adolph Hitler’s favorite films. The director caught the eye of both Hitler and Goebbels, the latter had even offered Lang the job of head of the German Cinema Institute which Lang eventually declined. Shortly after the premiere of THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE (‘33), Goebbels banned the film for inappropriate use of Nazi party slogans. Lang claimed that Goebbels then offered him another job as production supervisor at UFA which he declined. Lang’s Jewish heritage was no problem because according to Goebbels “we’ll decide who’s Jewish!” Lang wisely left Germany for Paris and eventually made it to Hollywood. His soon-to-be ex-wife and longtime collaborator Thea von Harbou joined the Nazi party and eventually wrote and directed propaganda films.
Curt Lowens
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Actor Curt Lowens’ story of surviving the Holocaust was one of bravery and sheer luck. Born in Poland, Lowens’ father was a highly respected attorney and his mother was an active member of the local Jewish community. His father moved the family to Berlin in hopes that he would find more work among the large Jewish community in that city. As the political climate changed, the Lowens planned to emigrate to the US by way of the Netherlands but the Germans invaded the day they were supposed to leave. Lowens’ father’s connections helped saved them from deportation to Auschwitz and eventually got them out of Westerbork. The family went into hiding and Curt Lowens changed his name to Ben Joosten and became an active member of the Dutch resistance. On V-E Day, Lowens rescued two members of the US Army Air Corps for which he received a commendation from General Dwight Eisenhower.
Branko Lustig
Croatian producer Branko Lustig is best known for his work on SCHINDLER’S LIST (‘93). Lustig himself was a survivor of both the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. In his acceptance speech for the Best Picture Oscar for SCHINDLER’S LIST, Lustig said, “My number was 83317. I’m a Holocaust survivor. It’s a long way from Auschwitz to this stage. I want to thank everyone who helped me to come so far. People died in front of me at the camps. Their last words were ‘be a witness of my murder. Tell to the world how I died. Remember.’” Lustig hoped that his work on the film helped fulfill his obligation to the innocent victims of the Shoah and that we will never forget what happened to them.
S.Z. Sakall
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The actor affectionately known as “Cuddles” was born Gero Jeno in Hungary in 1883. Early in his acting career he changed his name to Szöke Szakall (aka Blonde Beard) which was later shortened to S.Z. Sakall. The Jewish Sakall performed on stage and in film in Hungary and Austria. In his autobiography he remembers a chance meeting with Hitler, who openly criticized Sakall’s recent picture A CITY UPSIDE DOWN (‘33). Years later Sakall and his second wife Anna Kardos fled for Hollywood. Many members of Sakall’s family, including sisters, nieces and in-laws died in concentration camps. Sakall almost turned down the role of Carl the head waiter in CASABLANCA (‘42) because he thought it might be too much to bear.
Roman Polanski
Born in France but raised in Poland, by the age of nine Roman Polanski and his parents were deported and separated from each other. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Polanski recalls that his pregnant mother was most likely killed upon arrival to Auschwitz. His father was interned at the Mauthausen camp in Austria and managed to survive the ordeal. Polanski himself avoided the concentration camps by changing his name to Romek Wilk and fleeing to the countryside where he hid until the liberation. His experiences influenced his film THE PIANIST (2002) although he claims that the film was in no way autobiographical. 
Douglas Sirk
In 1934, the German director divorced his first wife Lydia with whom he had a son Klaus. Both Lydia and Klaus joined the Nazi party and because Sirk’s second wife Hilde was a Jewish woman he was not permitted to have contact with his son. Klaus was a child actor in numerous Nazi propaganda films and eventually served as a soldier in the German army and died on the battlefield in 1944. While filming in the Netherlands in the late 1930s, Sirk was contracted by Warner Bros. and he and his wife fled the Nazi regime for a new life in Hollywood.
Otto Preminger
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A few years before Otto Preminger moved to Hollywood, he was offered the position of director of Austria’s state-run theater, the Burgtheater, which required that he convert from Judaism to Catholicism. Preminger turned down the offer. This was a good decision on Preminger’s part because it allowed him to later take Joseph Schenck’s invitation to work in Hollywood. Also, religious conversion would not have protected Preminger from the Nazi regime. Preminger left in 1937 and his parents and brother stayed behind. When Austria was invaded in 1938, they found refuge in Switzerland.
Conrad Veidt
The German born star of films like THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (‘20) was not Jewish himself but stood in solidarity with wife Lily who was. When Goebbels required actors in the German film industry to declare their race Veidt made the bold decision to declare himself on the form as Jude (Jew). This infuriated Goebbels who proclaimed that Veidt would never work in Germany again. He and his wife fled for England in 1933 and later emigrated to Hollywood. Veidt would go on to play Nazis on screen including his part as Major Strasser in CASABLANCA.
Fred Zinnemann
Austrian director Fred Zinnemann started off as a concert violinist and a law student before transitioning to a career in film. He left for Hollywood in 1929 seeking better opportunities. His film THE SEVENTH CROSS (‘44) was one of the first to acknowledge the existence of concentration camps. Unfortunately, Zinnemann lost both of his parents in the Holocaust. According to a page of testimony Zinnemann filed on behalf of his parents for the Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in 1984, his mother Anna most likely died in Auschwitz in August 1942 and his father Oskar died in Belzec around December 1941.
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blogrivendell · 3 years
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#22. The Pain of  exile.
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By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said” Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the Lord in a foreign land?
 Psalm 137 : 1- 4
The news on television has been showing us heart-rending footage of the plight of Afghanis who are fleeing for their lives into exile from their homeland. Many don’t ever expect to return and are  grieving deeply to lose family, culture and their identity - all the things that made their lives rich and meaningful. They now face an uncertain future as refugees, often unwanted, resented, or treated with suspicion. They now  lack  status and value in a new culture that may not  welcome them or give them  a place for them to feel at home. If they were well off  before, they may now be poor, and stripped of all their possessions. If they had a good job it may be a long time before they can get anything but menial work especially if they do not speak the language in their new country. They may also be at risk of living in limbo for years, stuck in refugee camps, unable to find anything to call home. 
The numbers of people being  forced into exile or into “internal displacement camps” is growing dramatically across the globe. We  also hear of so many of our Christian brothers and sisters not only in Afghanistan, but in  Myanmar,  sub- Saharan African states  etc, who have had their homes destroyed by militarized anti-Christian forces and had to flee for their lives with nothing to sustain them and  governments lacking the will  to protect them.  The Jews have been in and out of  heart - breaking exile for most of the past 2,500 years at least. “Exile was a defining experience for the nation of Israel.” (Beach) The  modern state of Israel was set up to provide for the traumatized, and stateless remnant of the holocaust of WWII in Europe. Jesus himself lived in exile  in Egypt as a small child, and in a condition of homelessness in his ministry years, but his greatest dislocation was to leave Heaven to suffer in the world of humankind, (we have absolutely  no idea how hard that was to do.)   Abraham, the founder of the people of God, chose to live in exile from Mesopotamian society to  follow the call of a God he hardly knew, to  go to another land, living in tents as a migrating herdsman. He had to purchase burial plots because he had no rights to any land holdings in Canaan.  Adam and Eve were the first exiles, forced from Eden, the protected garden God had given them, into the hardships of life “in the wild”. Sometimes it is God pushing people into exile as a  consequence of   sin and idolatry in order to save them from themselves,  and other times it is the harassment of the Enemy who is resisting what God has been doing through His people.  Whatever the circumstances,  it can be a devastating experience, so much loss, grief and hardship. But it is also such a common  experience across human history, and the Bible has  much to say to God’s people who so frequently find themselves in a state of exile.  God works through the experience of exile  to bring us to maturity and to show His power in human weakness, defying an enemy who exults in raw power for its own sake.  God  is never truly absent, nor abandons His people even when the whole  institutional structure around traditions of worship and meeting together are destroyed. 
The Bible encourages us to never put our roots down too firmly even in our own culture, but to see ourselves called like Abraham, to go on a journey, looking towards an eternal home (Hebrews 11)   that totally outclasses whatever we consider to be earthly “Paradise”.   
How does this relate to us now?  There have already been many Christian thinkers who have recognised the changes in Western society, moving into “post Christendom” that is now causing Christians to feel alienated within our own society. Walter Brueggemann, Michael Frost,  Alan Hirsch and Lee Beach, to name some, who have described this as “exile”.  We have a choice to adapt or die out but change is unavoidable. 
 Because the challenge is also an opportunity, I want to focus more of my blogs on this concept of moving into exile.  We can have real hope by being able  to see what God may be doing rather than just mourning or resenting our losses. 
Here is the perspective of  Lee Beach who can express it better than I can, 
“This is the reality of life in the post-Christian era. While the church once helped define various forms of empire in the Western world, its influence has abated, and there is within contemporary culture a  deconstruction of former beliefs, patterns of life and conventions that defined the world for many generations but  no longer do. This tearing down of the structures of modernity is akin to a revolution that strips power away from those in control and dismantles the systems that perpetuated their power. As in a political revolution, it leaves those who had enjoyed a place at the table of power scrambling to discover where they now fit within a new cultural and social reality. In the post - Christian revolution, it is fair to say that the church is one of those former power brokers who once enjoyed a place of influence at the cultural table but has been chased away from its place of privilege and is now seeking to find where it belongs amid the ever-changing dynamics of contemporary culture....While these changes are difficult for many to accept, they also offer a certain prospect of hope. They offer to us a chance to re-evaluate what the church is supposed to be and where it fits in a highly non - Christian society. It may be that the reality of life in a post -Christian  culture serves as a therapeutic opportunity for the church as it provokes a time of deep reflection and self-analysis.”  ( from the book ”The Church in Exile: Living in Hope after Christendom” .)
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logantheanimal · 6 years
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History Lesson
Of some of the DM's I've gotten (none of which are fit to share), I've had a few people try to tell me that Jews cannot possibly understand that struggles of black people. One recited the deeply insulting belief that Jews are all wealthy and that we're the root of everyone's problems.
Sit down, kids. We're gonna have a talk.
The Nazis did not invent antisemitism. That hatred is age-old and goes back further than indoor plumbing. I'm not gonna go back to the beginning; let's start with the Romans. Emperor Hadrian tired of the uppity Jews trying to fight for their freedom, so he sent the Legion to wipe them out. The Wailing Wall is all that was left standing. They are still excavating the ruins of Jewish homes razed by Roman troops to this day. Hadrian declared all things Jewish punishable by execution and renamed Judea "La Palestina", or Palestine.
Jews never left. The survivors carried on their tradition and faith in secret. Others were scattered to the four corners of the Earth. Once Christianity became mainstream, Jews began to face stiff persecution. The charge? Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus. Good ol' King James confiscated all land and business owned by Jews and expelled them from England. Other European nations followed suit. Spain went so far as to threaten all Jews with death if they refused to convert to Christianity (ever hear of the Spanish Inquisition?). Eventually, Jews found themselves legally barred from nearly every profession available, save one: the middle-age version of money lending and banking.
After a century or so of being able to do nothing more than that, people added a new hatred for Jews on top of being Jesus' supposed murderers: usury. The same people who told them they had no other way to make a living declared it evil to charge interest on loans. It took centuries for Jews to climb back into legal equality and win back the basic human right to make a living with whatever skills and talents they'd been born with.
(Sidenote: the crusaders wiped out entire Jewish settlements on their way to take back the Holy Land.)
Pogroms, violent riots aimed at Jews, continued in Europe and Russia well into the 19th century. The Nazis didn't bring antisemitism to us as a novel concept; they simply took advantage of a sentiment that was already deeply rooted throughout Europe. When WWII finally ended and Jews were freed from the camps, many tried to go back to the homes they'd been dragged out of only to find good Aryan families living there and refusing to leave. There are stories of German and Austrian families tearing homes apart to find treasure that they were sure was hidden because, in their minds, something of great value would be the only reason a Jew would return.
That mentality persists to this day. Al Sharpton's rhetoric leading up to the Crown Heights riot (read: pogrom) has never been called out, and the New York Times recently printed yet another excuse-ridden missive he wrote in an effort to shrug off his responsibility for that travesty. 9/11 truthers believe that Jews helped make that attack possible. Don't even get me started on Alex Jones. That guy is nuttier than a squirrel turd. He is one of a very few people who make me wish I believed in using violence over words.
Nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody cares to admit that Jews are openly hated. This year, Jewish women were tossed from the Chicago Dyke March over their Jewish pride flags. Not only did they not apologize for their blatant hatred, the organizers doubled down when called out on it. The journalist who first reported the story even lost her job. I saw one Muslim girl try to stand up for us, but she was largely ignored.
Please, somebody explain to me how Jews don't understand what it's like to be hated. We make the joke all the time that all of our holidays go something like this: "they tried to kill us, they failed, hallelujah, let's eat!"
Yeah, it's a cute joke. It's also a sad one. Every generation has had an excuse to hate Jews. This one is no different.
(Post Script: if all Jews get a check at a certain age, I've been shafted. That is a ridiculous myth. I grew up poor in a military family - no, my dad was not commissioned - and am no wealthier than any other middle-class working stiff.)
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vhalyria · 7 years
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Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump - a dangerous parity?
I’m worried. I’m so worried that I can barely sleep at night, and it’s giving me stomach cramps. Because we’ve been here before, and we need to talk about this. 
So, my unprofessional, biased ass sat down for a few hours and tried to collect everything it knew about Hitler and Trump, in order to see if it’s just a bad feeling that I’m having, or if my fear is justified.
As I said, I am not a journalist or anything else, I simply did some research alongside the stuff I still remembered from my history classes and books. Sources can be seen at the end, although many of them are in german, sorry.
I won’t go much into the reasons behind Hitler’s and Trump’s behavior, because I don’t care what turned them into the people they were/are. Also, I tried to keep this as neutral as possible, only relying on facts (and no, those aren’t alternative). There are probably a few things I’ve forgotten about, but feel free to add them!
1.) Where did they come from?
Hitler: Adolf Hitler was the oldest of three siblings, born in Austria in 1889. Growing up, he started to care less and less about school and eventually dropped out without graduation. After that, he applied for a place at an art school, multiple times, but got rejected every time. He has spent a few years in poverty until he joined the army in WWI. After that, he joined the NSDAP and eventually became their leader. The rest should be known.
Trump: Donald Trump was born in 1976, as the fourth of five children. His father, the son of german immigrants, was a real estate businessman. After graduating from High School, Trump studied economics and eventually took on his father’s business. He joined the Republicans in 1987, and became their candidate for the election in 2015.
2.) How was it possible for them to become so popular/get voted?
Hitler: Hitler made the people like him because he was using their anger and their fears for his own means. After WWI, Germany was financially and socially destroyed. The Treaty of Versaille asked them to pay a lot of money for reparation, they had to reduce their military force to an absolute minimum and due to the high sanctions and the new yorker stock crash, an inflation came over the country, causing many people to lose their homes and all their savings. The people were scared about their future and felt betrayed by the government, because it was them who had to pay for everything. Radical groups arised and Hitler not only recognized those fears; he built his policy on them. He promised to create many new jobs, that the countries that won the war will pay them back because they were the guilty ones in his eyes, that no one will have to be homeless and hungry anymore. He promised to take revenge on those countries, even if that meant starting another war. Hitler promised to “give Germany its pride back”, and people believed him.
Trump: The rich are getting richer, the poor are losing what little they have left. That’s how people in the US felt when Trump got voted. They didn’t trust their government, even having multiple jobs wasn’t enough to pay the rent anymore and on top of that, terrorists kill people all over the world. The citizens were afraid and worried, they wanted to find a way out of their misery and feel safe. And that’s what Trump promised to provide them; he promised to make “America great again”, to create work for the american people so that no one has to be poor anymore. He said he would lead the fight against terrorism, and his people wouldn’t have to be scared anymore. Trump promised “America comes first”, and the people believed him. 
3.) Personality traits that made people like them 
Hitler: The one thing that every history book and every documentation about Hitler never leave out; he was a great rhetoritian. He was able to inspire to people, to make them believe everything, to cheer for anything he says. He was confident and determined.
Another thing that made him popular, was that he gave his people someone else to blame for their misery than themselves or the government; the jews. According to Hitler, they were at fault for everything bad that has ever happened in Germany, and people felt comforted by that thought. It takes the blame from them by assigning it to someone else; it made living easier.
By that, Hitler also managed to make the germans feel like a community; united by hate towards a minority, but united, still. He fed them the illusion that he would lead them to wealth and happiness, and that everything will be turning out greatly for them, as long as they’re supporting him.
Trump: Trump is a rich man, someone who calls himself a successful businessman. He made it to the top, and that inspired the people. He makes the American Dream seem still alive, and on top of that, he promises that he will be the one to lead the United States into a bright future, with lots of work, wealth and unity. He is a confident person and by talking like the common people, he makes them feel like they could relate to him. Like Hitler, he uses the fear of the people and unites them in hate towards minorities; the mexicans are to blame, the people of color and the muslims. They are the reason for misery in the US, but he can change that, he can throw these people out of the country and “make America great again”.
4.) A list of the exact things they promised:
Hitler: 
- “Deutschland über alles” (”Germany above everything”)
- to overturn the Treaty of Versailles and stop reparation payment
- to “give Germany its pride back”
- to re-arm Germany and to enlarge their military force
- to create jobs (by expanding the army)
- a strong government and stability
- a better life for the lower and the middle class
- to make Germany “a power country” again
Trump:
- “America First”
- “Make America great again”
- to cancel Obamacare to reduce costs
- to build a wall to Mexico
- to send immigrants back to their countries so that american citizens can have their jobs
- to send troops back into war zones and to enlarge the military force
- banishment of muslims
- tax reduction
- to bring back manufacturing jobs
- to step back from several international trading agreements
- to lead the fight against ISIS
5.) Foreign policy
Hitler: Hitler wanted Germany to become a global leading power again and to expand the german territory. He worked on an intense connection to fascist Italy, while he had an anti-russia policy. Promised other countries freedom while already planning to take over Europe, Hitler eventually declared war to Poland, which led to WWII.
Trump: Trumps goals when it comes to foreign policy are to work together closely with Russia, to step back from several international trade agreements, to impose penalties on several branches of import, to fight against ISIS and to support Israel in their conflict with Palestine, to name a few of the endless plans he talked about
6.) The role and value of women
Hitler: Hitlers policy understood women as barely more than birth machines. His propaganda made it look like being mother to (the more, the better) aryan children is the best thing to ever happen to a woman. It was socially unacceptable for a woman to go to work, they needed to stay at home to look after the children and to keep the house clean for their husbands. Women were a thing to be owned, their opinion didn’t matter. Emancipation was seen as something “evil” that the jews brought into Germany.
Trump: Trump treats woman without respect and like a thing to be owned. According to him, a woman’s worth it determined by her attractiveness and they should feel honored when he gropes them or makes obscene comments about them. Trumps policy is anti-abortion, he wants to take the right to decide over their bodies and lives away from american women. 
7.) The treatment of minorities
Hitler: Hitler used the jews as scapegoats for everything bad that happened. It was their fault that people lived in poverty, that women wanted to have a say about their lives, that germany lost the war etc. His party supported and encouraged violence against jewish people (the ”Kristallnacht”, for example), and they got socially seperated from the rest of the society. Sad peek of Hitler’s anti semitism was the torture and killing of millions of jews, within Germany and from other countries, in concentration camps. Over six million jews had to die. 
Homosexuals and people with disabilities often got the same treatment.
Trump: Not only once did Trump say what he thinks about Mexicans; they are rapists, criminals, they’re bringing drugs and misery into his country. “Some sure are nice, though.”, he says. He’s using them the same way Hitler used the jews; he blames them for everything. They are stealing jobs from americans, they are endangering the public safety, all they do is create chaos and crimes.
 His opinion about people of color isn’t better; he stated that he doesn’t support the Black Lives Matter Movement. “If Black lives matter, go back to Africa”, is what he said. He also believes that racism would not exist anymore. On several occasions he has encouraged his supporters to verbal and physical attacks towards people of color. He also claims that the era of slavery was a good time for the US and ignores police brutality towards poc’s.
Trump wants to ban muslims from entering/staying in the US. As we all know he already tried to do that a few days ago, but fortunately, a court declared his action to not be legal. Trump also made fun of people with disabilities.
8.) How they deal with the media
Hitler: Adolf Hitler knew how to use the media for himself. “The press is an instrument for education to bring 70 million people to an unified world view”, is one of the things he said. The principle was easy; every newspaper or radio station that wasn’t supporting him by reporting what he wanted them to report about, got banned. Resisting journalists and leader of companies got fired and also arrested in some cases. Hitlers party used the media for their propaganda, freedom of speech and press didn’t mean anything anymore.
Trump: Trump hates the media. While he enjoys the attention given to him, he can’t deal with negative reports. He calls those journalists “liars”, claims that they are spreading “alternate facts”, that only his point of view is the truth. Trumps party sees journalists as “part of the opposition”, and says they should “just shut up and listen”. Apparently, there were already plans made to ban the press from the White House. During Trump’s inauguration, the first journalists already got arrested.
(Personal) Conclusion:
Their differences:
- Hitler knew how to make the media work for him, Trump doesn’t (yet)
- Trump grew up wealthy and with academic success, Hitler grew up poorly and dropped out of school without graduation
- Trump’s politic is pro-russia, Hitler’s was anti-russia
- Hitler wanted to expand the german territory while Trump want to build a wall
- Hitler’s policy aimed to start a war
And, most importantly:
Their similarities:
- Power hungry, radical, racist, misogynistic
- use prejudices against minorities, support violence against them
- “America First” and “Germany above everything” are the same damn thing
- Unite people through hate
- mainly voted by people who aren’t wealthy, scared for their future
- creating jobs by extending the military, taking “stolen” jobs “back” from immigrants/women
- wanting their countries to be the first in everything, don’t care what it takes
- against freedom of speech and press
- enforcement of military power, getting ready for war
- give their people a minority to blame for all the existing misery
- aggressive, short tempered, determined
- no respect for human life
I don’t know about you, but I think this is terrifying.
Like I said, I have probably forgotten about a lot. Feel free to add!
Sources: x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x
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onegirlabroad · 7 years
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Berlin
In Berlin, I met these two American girls (from Jersey ironically, so close to my home). We did the Sandeman’s tour (popular free walking tour group in many major European cities, I recommend) of Berlin and the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. I have to remind myself to write my tour guide Amy a good review, she said it helps her stay in business. I am still remembering her name almost two weeks ago because she was such an amazing tour guide. She was this Scottish girl who moved to Berlin and loves Berlin, she was awesome! Anyway moving on, on the free tour, we saw:  the former site of Hitler’s bunker and where he took his life, the site of the Nazi book burning and the local university, Brandenburg Gate, the Jewish Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, the shopping district, Humboldt University, and more.
The signifgant part of Hitler’s bunker is that there are no remnants visible that he was there or that this is the place he took his life. It is now a parking garage for an apartment complex with a small sign saying what it once was because the Germans don’t want a place for Neo-Nazis to honor him. His remains have been burned and scattered. Humboldt University is an internationally ranked university with alumni like Karl Marx, W.E.B Du Bois, Angela Davis, and 40 Nobel Prize winners. I visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum on my own.
For the concentration camp, Sachsenhausen was significant in its day because just 50 minutes by train from Berlin, it is closest to the capital. It was mostly a camp for POWs but other prisoners stayed here as well. After WWII, it was used a Soviet Prison where thousands more were killed here. The tour to the concentration camp was intense. I was thinking how strange it was to be in such a place where such evil acts occurred, it was built for horrible things. I won’t get into the details as much as I could. It was a 6 hour tour. So by the end, this being the day after the 3 hour walking tour, my legs were absolutely exhausted. It was cold (the weather was very cold my whole time in Berlin, though). It was -4 degrees Celsius, 24 degrees Fahrenheit. It was also raining during part of the tour. I think this part made me really think about the cruelty of this place all the more because we were bundled up in our warmest gear and shivering and these prisoners were forced to work backbreaking work outside for hours on end and live in wooden barracks when the SS soldiers had nice, warm houses to live in that THEY BUILT for them wearing only pajamas. When I say my warmest gear, that means two pairs of paints, boots lined with fur, a long sleeved shirt, a jacket lined with fur, ear muffs, a hood, fur lined gloves. Many of the wooden barracks have deteriorated over time. 
This camp was to be used as a labor camp but people were also murdered here. We viewed where they lived and worked. Many of the stone structures are still intact. 
The guide thanked us for being a part of a group of so many people who take time out of their vacations to come to this place and remember the people that were here. When I told someone I went to the camp, they said, “I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t want to be sad on vacation.” Which is true. And that struck me, why do we go? Why do any of us go to these memorials? I thought about that a little bit. I feel that if it were me, I’d want someone to remember me. I feel on another level, it’s as they say, it’s so we never repeat it. But am I the type of person that would repeat this, personally orchestrating it or be complacent in such a thing? No. But could I like so many others be tempted to be complacent in the face of challenges? I suppose the answer is yes and experiences like this deepen our strength to fight that and not just refusing to be complacent when it comes to full scale genocide but hate speech, people that engage in hate speech *thinking of a certain political figure now.*
 The sad thing is that genocide has continued in Rwanda, Darfur, and the refugee crisis in Syria. I don’t know if the terminology of genocide is fitting for Syria politically because I don’t believe the people are being killed systematically but becoming pawns in war with their human rights being ignored. But there is a commonality in both cases: Jewish refugees tried to leave and were denied just like the Syrian refugees are being denied. Here, I learned about the Evian Conference, with leaders present from countries like the U.S, Great Britain, France, and Australia in attendance. Hitler offered to let the Jews leave and these countries in large part refused. Their countries were suffering hard economic times, it was too many people, it would cause too much racial divide, etc. 
Hitler said, "I can only hope and expect that the other world, which has such deep sympathy for these criminals Jews, will at least be generous enough to convert this sympathy into practical aid. We, on our part, are ready to put all these criminals at the disposal of these countries, for all I care, even on luxury ships.”
That’s not a political sway or me sweeping problems that can arise with mass immigration under the rug but me stating the obvious, when good people stand by and do nothing, people die. It’s cold and hard and it’s difficult to say but nevertheless true. An estimated 6 million Jews and estimated 13.9 million people died because Western countries didn’t have enough room. In the past four years, an estimated 400,000 people have died since 2011 in Syria.
But on a brighter side, which we should get to, Berlin and the country of Germany are more than the atrocities that occurred here. Roughly 70% of Berlin was completely destroyed from the war so that means it had to be rebuilt. That means many parts of the cities are quite new. It’s always nice when things are built new but another benefit is that only recently has Berlin been a popular city to live in where other cities like London and Paris have had desirable real estate for quite some time. As a result, it is more affordable than other cities so many artists from all across Europe come to Berlin because they can live here, have a part time job, and devote the rest of the time to art where in other cities, a part time job is not enough to sustain one self. The city has amazing art which I saw on the Alternative Tour of Berlin. 
Germany still has some of the best universities in the world like Homboldt. They also have free college education. (*Winks at the U.S government*) Another cool thing about Berlin is that it’s one of the best party cities in Europe. This is what I read, I was just coming off partying with great friends and had moved on to a city that was much colder, by myself, and I was beginning to get to the point where I was tired of all that. You must remember at this point, I’ve been traveling alone almost a month, partying, walking hours a day, sleeping on bunkbeds every night, and it is freezing in Berlin! I’m sure if you head to Berlin with some of friends (try to get there in the Summer because of the weather), I’m sure you’ll have a great time. 
Final point, the Berlin Wall, once a symbol of oppression - parts of it still remained and there’s street art and commissioned murals on the wall (the East Gallery) and it’s really amazing to look at. I think it’s a testimony to what Berlin is. This is a place where for decades, people were trying to flee. It has risen beyond that and reinvented itself in such a way that people are running to come back. The latest tourism data from 2013 reported that Berlin saw 11.6 million tourists. And I’m happy that I was one even if not during the most perfect circumstances.
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arabellaflynn · 4 years
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Advent Calendar: "The Rabbi's Game of Cards"
From From The Heart of Israel: Jewish Tales And Types, collected by Bernard Drachman. James Pott & Co., New York, 1905. At the time this book was published, "Israel" was more a concept than an official place; the independent state of Israel wasn't established until after WWII, in 1948. Most collections of "Jewish folklore" are comparatively modern stories from the Jewish populations of Europe. (I'm pretty sure the 'province of Posen' referenced here is present day Poznań, which sets this story in then-Prussia, now-Poland.) I tried finding something older, but there's almost nothing out there from the Middle East between the Bible and the printing press in age. I would be very surprised if there weren't Jewish variations of the tales of Nasruddin, a figure in Arabic-language lore that spreads from North Africa all the way into Turkey, who is alternately portrayed as a very wise man and a complete wiseguy. A lot of the same clever "well, technically..." reasoning appears in modern Jewish folklore, as it does here. “Rabbi, why do you not come to supper? Everything is getting spoiled; and if you do not come soon, your meal will not be fit to eat.” It was the voice of Rebecca the rebbetzin, or wife of the rabbi of Galoschin, in the province of Posen; and she was endeavoring to induce her lord and master, Rabbi Akiba Erter, to leave his sanctum, where he had been busy all afternoon solving profound intellectual problems, and to turn his attention to the less ideal but equally necessary task of eating his evening meal. It was nothing unusual for the good rabbi to be so absorbed in his studies as to be utterly oblivious to all other matters, and to disregard utterly such insignificant trifles as a call to a meal. Rabbi Akiba was a noble specimen of the old-time rabbi. He was a Talmudic scholar of extraordinary erudition and dialectic keenness, a pietist of rigidly scrupulous observance, and charitable in the extreme. Of the three elements which go to make up the ideal man, the head, the heart, and the soul, it was hard to say with which he was more liberally endowed. Whatever he did, he did with all his power. When engaged in study, his absorption was absolute and his concentration complete; when worshipping, his whole being poured itself out before his Maker; and, when engaged in performing an act of benevolence, he had no other thought in his mind until it was accomplished. The problem which had engaged his attention on this particular occasion belonged to the last-mentioned category, and was knottier far than the most abstruse ceremonial, legal, or theological riddle he had ever been called upon to solve. So troublesome was it, and so greatly did it worry the good rabbi, that he presented quite a picture of despair as he sat before his study-table, upon which were heaped in picturesque confusion huge rabbinical tomes, some open and some closed, his black skull cup pushed far back upon his head, and his hair and long venerable beard sadly tousled and frowsed from the constant pulling he had given it during the past three hours, while his long peoth were from the same cause all limp and out of curl. Supper-time had come, but the problem was apparently as far from solution as ever, for the servant maid of the household had summoned him four and five times to the evening meal and he had not answered or even seemed aware of the summons; and it was only when the rebbetzin herself appeared that he seemed conscious that he had been called, and answered abstractedly, “Yes, wife, I am coming at once, at once.” Impatiently muttering and grumbling to herself, the rebbetzin returned to the dining-room; and the rabbi, rising from his seat, directed his steps to the same place, his face clearly showing by its abstracted and absorbed expression that the same problem which had worried him all afternoon still engaged his thoughts. Rabbi Akiba was usually a very pleasant companion at table. He was in the habit of telling amusing anecdotes and making witty remarks in the course of the meal, and it was his invariable custom to discourse learnedly on some theme of the law before the blessing of the food was pronounced, in order to fulfil the rabbinical precept, “a man shall always speak words of the law over his table”; but to-night he was very poor company indeed. He ate his food mechanically, taking everything that came along without examination, although his usual practice was to eat quite sparingly, and only such dishes as were favorites of his. He put snuff into his milk-soup and salt to his nose, and would have eaten the soup with its snuffy admixture had not Rebecca pointed out the error. To the remarks addressed to him by his better half he returned only incoherent answers. In a word, he was in a state of abstraction and perplexity which was plainly visible to all, so that not only his spouse and his three pretty black-eyed daughters, Leah, Miriam, and Taube, noticed it, but even the Russian Bochur Hayim, whom the rabbi kept in his house out of admiration for the latter’s profound erudition and who was three-fourths blind, and as a rule totally oblivious to everything that went on in the world outside of the Beth Hammidrash, dimly perceived that his master was not the same as at other times. Suddenly the rabbi paused while drinking a cup of tea, with such a suddenness, indeed, as to make half of the hot fluid go down “the wrong throat”; and though sputtering and coughing, and with face fiery red from the resulting tracheal disturbance, managed to exclaim in triumphant gasps: “I have it, I have it.” “What have you?” inquired Rebecca with some acerbity. “As far as any one can notice, all you have is a fit of coughing which cannot do you any good. I hope what you have is worth having.” “Never mind, wife,” said the rabbi with a pleasant smile. “What I have is indeed worth the while. When all is accomplished you shall know what it is. And now let us finish our meal, for I am in haste.” The rabbi then briefly discoursed on a religious theme in order not to deviate from his custom, and pronounced the blessing of the food, in which all joined. “Now, my good Rebecca,” said the rabbi, when these ceremonies were concluded, “bring me my great coat, my Sabbath hat, and my cane, for I have a certain visit to make.” “Why, what possesses you?” said Rebecca in wonderment. “Why do you want to go out at night, although you have often told me that the disciples of the learned should not go out alone at night, and why do you wish to dress in your Sabbath state? Are you making a visit at court or the palace of a noble? I am afraid all is not right with you.” “Do not be afraid, wife,” said the rabbi, who was now in excellent spirits. “Everything is all right. Now, quickly get me my things, for, as I said, I am in haste.” The rebbetzin was fain to be content with this not very satisfactory answer, and brought her husband his finest official robes, the great, heavy satin jubitza and his broad velvet streimel or Sabbath hat. Having arrayed himself in these, and taken in addition a stout stick, the rabbi ventured forth into the night, which, although the hour was not late, was already, as usual in those northern regions, intensely dark and quite cold. While he is on his way to his destination, whatever that may be, let us see what was the matter which had so greatly troubled the holy man all day, and which had driven him forth into the darkness and rigor of a northern winter night. That morning there had come to him Mosheh Labishiner, one of the constant worshippers in the synagogue and an unfailing attendant at the rabbi’s Talmudic lectures in the house of learning, and had poured into his ears a pitiful tale of woe. It was not exactly a story of destitution, but it was one which touched the rabbi’s naturally soft heart, always open to every plea of distress and ever ready to sympathize with all that suffered and sorrowed, in a particularly tender and sensitive spot. Mosheh told Rabbi Akiba that his daughter Deborah (whom Rabbi Akiba knew as a dutiful and God-fearing maiden and pretty withal) had been betrothed to a poor but very worthy youth, Samuel of Kempen, for more than two years; that the two young people were ardently devoted to each other, and desirous, as were also the parents on both sides, of sealing their love by the sacred bond of wedlock, but that prudence forbade the union until the youth would be the possessor of a business of his own, and able properly to maintain a wife and family. He, Mosheh, in accordance with the invariable custom in all good Jewish families, had promised his prospective son-in-law a dowry of a thousand gulden, which would be amply sufficient to establish a modest business; but that owing to various misfortunes and losses he had been unable to accumulate more than two hundred gulden, which would barely suffice for the expenses of the wedding, but would leave nothing for the dowry. The young people were to have been married a year previously; but as Mosheh did not possess the requisite amount of the dowry, he had continually deferred the marriage, on various pretexts, until now it was impossible to defer it any more. His poor wife and his daughter, the Kallah, were in the utmost distress and wept unceasingly, while his intended son-in-law and Mehuttanim, who knew nothing of his financial embarrassments, were beginning to grow suspicious and to think that he was opposed to the marriage, and did not really intend to permit it to be consummated. “And now, dear rabbi,” Mosheh had said, “help me, I implore thee. Unless I can procure a thousand gulden within a day or two I do not know what misfortune will happen. My poor wife and daughter will surely die of broken hearts and my name will be blackened forever.” Rabbi Akiba was not intimately acquainted with Mosheh. All he knew of him was that he was an “honest Jew,” a good, straightforward, religious man; but that was sufficient to gain his sympathy, and especially the sorrows of his wife and daughter touched him to the quick. He at once offered to go and collect the money for the dowry among the wealthy members of his flock; and he added that he was sure there would be no difficulty in obtaining the required amount for a young woman of such excellent repute, who was a daughter of such eminently respectable and pious parents. But here he struck an unexpected difficulty. Mosheh objected strenuously to any public collection in his behalf. “You must not breathe a syllable of all this to any living creature, dear rabbi,” he begged. “I could never endure the thought that all the Kehillah should know that I had been obliged to depend upon the charitable gifts of kind-hearted people in order to obtain a dowry for my daughter. I have always been an independent, self-respecting merchant, and have myself provided for all the needs of my family. I could not endure the thought of appearing as a Schnorrer for any reason. And then my wife and daughter, do you think that they would ever accept a dowry which had been thus gathered together from the offerings of pity? They would sooner die. They do not even know that my circumstances are so straitened. The mere report that contributions were being solicited in our behalf would destroy whatever happiness they have. No, rabbi, you must get the amount needed in some other way, in some way which will not even raise a suspicion that we are being helped, or else I shall have to ask you rather to do nothing and to leave it to the All-Merciful One to deal with us as He sees fit.” These words, while they greatly increased the respect which the rabbi felt for Mosheh, also added immensely to his perplexity. They seemed utterly to shut the door in the face of any attempt to obtain the required sum. Rabbi Akiba himself was not the possessor of any considerable amount of money. His income was not large and he never had any difficulty in disposing of it, there being plenty of claimants on his bounty outside of his own family. If, therefore, he could not go to the wealthy householders in the Kehillah and openly ask them for donations, he knew of no source whence he could derive the assistance needed. It would not do to request of them the gift of such a large amount without stating the purpose for which it was to be used. They might give it to him, such was their respect for his character and their trust in the purity of his motives, but they would be apt to speculate on the use to which he intended to devote it, and very likely they would find it out, too, and that would be directly contrary to the explicit desire and request of Mosheh, Hence the perplexity and the mental struggles by which the poor rabbi had been tortured all day until at supper he had found, as he thought, the solution of the vexatious problem. The simpler solution which would have suggested itself to many a modern cleric, to shrug the shoulders deprecatingly and politely to inform the suppliant that he regretted extremely that under the circumstances it was impossible to do anything for him, did not occur to Rabbi Akiba. He was narrow in many ways, limited both in views and experience to that which could be acquired in the secluded recesses of the Beth Hammidrash, simpler, indeed, than many a modern child in worldly ways; but on that very account his moral fibre possessed the old, unspoiled Jewish sturdiness. He knew that Mosheh was deserving of sympathy and help, and he determined to help him if there were any possibility of doing so; and believed he had now found a way to attain that wished-for end. Rabbi Akiba hurried through the streets of Galoschin, brilliantly lighted with the bright illumination of early evening, presenting a singular enough figure, as he hastened along, to be the object of the wondering stares of many a passer-by. Galoschin was a city originally Polish, but which under the influence of Prussian culture and discipline had become thoroughly Germanized, and which strove to reproduce the manners and the external characteristics of the German metropolis. The Jewish inhabitants in particular had, as a rule, dropped all the old-time Polish characteristics. Jubitzas and peoth in particular were utterly banned, and were conceded only to the rabbi to whom, as an example of rigid conservatism and unswerving piety, they were deemed appropriate. As Rabbi Akiba hastened through the streets he presented, therefore, a most extraordinary contrast in his long, girdled robe, his strange broad-brimmed hat, with long, dangling ear-curls and the stout cane in his hands, to the ladies and gentlemen, attired in the height of modern fashion, who sauntered along the elegant thoroughfare, stopping before the brilliantly lighted windows of the shops or entering the theatres, concert halls, cafés, and other places of amusement which abounded in this vicinity. In front of a large and splendid edifice, through whose windows and great portal floods of light poured and loud strains of gay dance music were heard, the rabbi paused. Over the gateway was a huge sign, which bore, in letters composed of shining gas flames, the legend, “Galoschiner Casino und Vereinshaus.” Rabbi Akiba glanced at this sign a moment and then boldly entered. His entrance was the signal for great excitement among the persons standing in the hall and among the visitors who were entering at the same time, and who had come to attend the annual ball and reunion of the Galoschiner Gesellige Verein, the fashionable club par excellence of the town, to which belonged all those who could lay claim to wealth and social station. It was an unheard-of thing that an old-fashioned, conservative Jew, who clung to Polish costume, beard and ear-locks, should set his foot within a place dedicated to the dance and the new social practices which had come from the West. To such a one they were all un-Jewish abominations; and the sight of swallow-tailed, bareheaded men and half-clothed women, shamelessly exposing their naked bosoms and arms to the gaze of strange men, was hateful and loathsome. That Rabbi Akiba, the holy man, whose name was a synonym for all that was pious and austere, who stood for rigid and unswerving adherence to the olden Jewish life and stern religious discipline, and for uncompromising opposition to all new-fashioned vanities and worldliness, that he should actually in propria persona enter into precincts given over to empty gayety and folly, “the abode of scoffers,” was more than surprising; it was bewildering, stupefying, paralyzing. Rabbi Akiba did not seem to notice the excitement created by his entrance, but walked ahead to the door of the main salon. Here stood several gentlemen in evening dress. They were the reception committee, appointed to welcome the arriving guests. They gazed with amazement at the venerable figure approaching, and bade him good-evening in subdued voices. He answered their greeting and strode into the salon. The dance had just begun, and the floor was crowded with gentlemen in evening dress and ladies in handsome décolleté gowns and elegant coiffures. The appearance of the rabbi gave rise to a scene of extraordinary excitement and confusion. Both men and women had no other thought but that their venerable spiritual chief had come there to rebuke them for their pursuit of unseemly and impious fashions; that he would denounce them in fiery words as recreants to the faith, as sinners in Israel. In those days men and women still trembled when the rabbi uttered bitter words of reproof; and it was, therefore, only natural that a sort of panic seized those who knew that they had transgressed against the strict rules of propriety of their faith, and saw before them one who could call them to account. Some of the women fled to the other end of the room, followed by their escorts; others endeavored hastily to cover up their bare breasts and arms; others again stood as if rooted to the spot and unable to move. But Rabbi Akiba uttered no word of rebuke. He stood still, gazing with a benevolent smile at the scene of confusion which his advent had caused. Several moments of embarrassment and constraint passed before a few of the gentlemen present plucked up courage to approach the rabbi, bid him welcome, and inquire the reason of his visit to the ball. At their head was Herr Pringsheim, the banker and president of the community, who, by reason of his prominent station, acted as spokesman. “Peace be unto thee, honored rabbi,” he said, with a low and reverential bow. “We welcome thee to our festivity. But may I inquire what has brought us the honor of thy presence this evening? We had hardly thought that festivities such as this met with thy approval.” “Curiosity, merely curiosity, friend Pringsheim,” answered the rabbi, with a reassuring smile. “I wanted to know what our Jews are doing in these new-fashioned days. One must know everything. Our sages, of blessed memory, tell us: ‘Know what thou shouldst answer to the Epicurean.’ But how can one know what to say to the Epicureans unless one knows what they do? Just think: I have grown so old and have never seen a ball and know nothing, except by hearsay, of what is done in a casino or clubhouse. Now, let the dance go on. Do not interrupt your proceedings on my account. I shall not scold you to-night, although what I may do some other time I shall not say.” A gasp, indicating wonderment and only partial reassurance, escaped from the breasts of the rabbi’s hearers at these words. There was nothing to do, however, except to follow his suggestion. Herr Pringsheim signalled to the musicians, who had ceased playing, to resume, and most of the dancers also resumed their places, showing, however, by their embarrassed air that they were ill at ease and not at all comfortable under the rabbi’s gaze. It was a singular sight, the venerable rabbi whose whole appearance bespoke the house of worship and the study chamber, and recalled memories of centuries long past, standing in a modern ball-room, critically inspecting the motions of the gayly clad crowd, who bowed and chasséed and changed partners and swung around in the most approved style, but who could not help showing by their sheepish looks how keenly they felt the absurdity of their position. The dance over, Herr Pringsheim asked the rabbi if he had now satisfied his curiosity. “Oh, no,” answered Rabbi Akiba, “unless this is all that takes place here. But there must surely be more going on in a casino than merely dancing, or you could not use so many rooms.” “But there is really nothing else,” answered Pringsheim, “except the card-playing. Those gentlemen who do not dance play various games of cards until supper-time, which comes at midnight. But I hardly suppose, worthy rabbi, that you take any interest in games of chance?” “Ah, but I do,” answered the rabbi, with sudden animation. “That is just what I want to see. I want to know what there is about games of chance which so fascinates men that they will stake their money, their health, the happiness of their families, even their lives, upon the issue of a game of cards. By all means bring me where they play cards.” With a gesture of despair and an illy suppressed groan, Herr Pringsheim led the way to the card-room. The entrance of the rabbi into the elegantly furnished card-room produced a sensation similar to that which had been caused by his appearance in the ball-room. A number of gentlemen were sitting around the green-covered tables, deeply engrossed in their hazardous and exciting pastime; but no sooner did the tall, venerable figure of the aged ecclesiastic appear amid the thick clouds of tobacco smoke which filled the atmosphere of the room than all paused in astonishment and rose to their feet in varying attitudes and aspects of amazement and consternation. Like their companions of the ball-room they were apprehensive of a fierce denunciation of their ungodly doings, and half expected to be peremptorily ordered home. Herr Pringsheim hastened to relieve their apprehensions. “Retain your seats, gentlemen,” he said, “and do not interrupt your game. Our honored rabbi has come here this evening impelled by a desire to see for himself how modern society amuses itself. He does not wish to disturb or interfere with you in any way. Resume your playing, therefore, and we shall remain here as mere spectators.” The effect of these words was that the players resumed their seats and began again their interrupted games. The ban of the rabbi’s presence rested, however, heavily on all, and the playing, like the dancing in the ball-room under the same influence, became spiritless and perfunctory in the extreme. The players removed their cigars from their mouths, the erstwhile boisterous voices became subdued, and all animation departed from the scene. After silently watching the proceedings for a few moments the rabbi said to Herr Pringsheim: “Do you know, friend Pringsheim, I do not seem to gain any insight into a gambler’s feelings from merely looking on. To me the whole thing seems a merely mechanical proceeding. One makes one move and the other another move. I cannot make out what it is all about, and I believe that I shall never have any conception of what card-playing is, or wherein the fascination lies unless I play a game or two myself. Would you mind playing with me?” “Not at all, rabbi,” said Pringsheim, highly amused at the request. “What game shall it be?” “That is all the same to me,” answered the rabbi. “I do not know one from the other. You choose any one you please and you will be kind enough to teach it me. I think I shall be able to learn it.” “Very well,” said Pringsheim, laughing heartily. “I don’t doubt but you will make a famous card-player. Where there is Torah there is Chochmah.” “But one thing I must tell you,” said the rabbi. “We must play for money. I could never get the real feeling of the gambler, the thrill and the tension which he feels, unless there was the hope of gain and the risk of loss. So we must not play a mere formal game, but there must be a real stake involved.” “Very well, rabbi,” said Pringsheim, still smiling. “How large shall the stake be, a gulden or five gulden?” “Oh, that would never do,” said the rabbi. “I could not get the right idea with such a trifling sum, which is of no consequence whether won or lost. Let us play for a thousand gulden. I shall put my five hundred gulden on the game and you put in five hundred gulden also.” The effect of this proposition was naturally startling. Pringsheim stared at the rabbi for a moment as though he could not trust his ears. But he was, to put it in modern parlance, game. “As you wish, rabbi,” he said, quietly. “We shall play for a stake of a thousand gulden.” The game which ensued was highly interesting. Writer deponeth not, nor is it essential to the purposes of this veracious history to state whether the game was klabberyas, pinocle, skat, euchre, or poker. Pringsheim taught Rabbi Akiba its rules and the game began. With one accord all the other players suspended their games to contemplate the spectacle of a rabbi in jubitza, streimel, and peoth engaged in a game of cards with a society gentleman in swallow-tail and bare head. Of the result there could be no doubt. Pringsheim, of course, had no intention of either defeating the rabbi or taking his money. After various more or less intricate manœuverings Rabbi Akiba won. “Well, rabbi, you have won. Here are your winnings,” said Pringsheim; and he took out his wallet, and extracting therefrom five hundred gulden notes, handed them to the rabbi, who took them with great complacency and stowed them carefully away in his purse. “I think you must understand now a gambler’s feelings, at all events when he wins.” “So far, so good, friend Pringsheim,” answered the rabbi; “but this is not quite experience enough for me. I want to know how a gambler feels when he risks the possessions he has gained so easily. If you do not mind, therefore, I should like to play one more game, staking the amount I have just won.” “I shall have to beg to be excused this time, worthy rabbi,” said Herr Pringsheim, with an amused chuckle. “You are too good a player for me. Let some one else take my place. Herr Commerzienrath Hamburger, perhaps you will oblige our honored Rav and play a game with him on the same terms as the first one.” Herr Commerzienrath Hamburger, a stout man with a bald head and a smooth face, who, like Pringsheim, was one of the Vorstand or trustees of the community, came forward, somewhat reluctantly, at these words and signified his willingness to do as requested. The issue of the second game was the same as that of the first. The rabbi’s good luck did not desert him, and a few moments later he rose from the table with the handsome sum of a thousand gulden in his purse. He thanked Messrs. Pringsheim and Hamburger for the instructive experience which they had been the means of affording him, bade the other gentlemen good-night, and turned to depart. He was escorted to a private exit by Herr Pringsheim, who had him placed in a carriage, and the rabbi was whirled to his home, leaving behind him a much puzzled and mystified company of his congregants. On the following day Mosheh Labishiner called on Rabbi Akiba. He was in a state of wretchedness bordering on utter despair. He had been forced to yield to the repeated entreaties of his wife and daughter, and had permitted the date of the wedding to be set, and had assured his intended son-in-law that the dowry would be ready a few days before the marriage. But he had not the faintest idea whence he could derive the needed funds; and he did not believe that Rabbi Akiba, in view of the restriction he had placed upon him, would be able to assist him. His visit to the rabbi was more with a vague idea of obtaining some comfort from the rabbi’s friendly words than of anything more material. As soon as the rabbi caught sight of Mosheh’s distressed countenance he cried out: “Mosheh, don’t look so black. A man who is going to marry his daughter to a fine young bochur must look happy. Have you set the date of the wedding yet?” “Yes, rabbi, but the Neduniah?” “Oh, don’t let that worry you. Here it is.” And the rabbi drew forth his purse, and taking therefrom ten hundred gulden notes, placed them in the hands of the bewildered Mosheh. “O rabbi, a thousand thanks! But how in the world did you get it, since you had not the money and I had insisted that you must not collect for us?” “Oh, that was easy. I won it at cards.” “At cards!” and Mosheh stared at the rabbi with a look of blank amazement and non-comprehension. “Yes, at cards,” said the rabbi. “I am a famous card-player. Whenever any of my good friends cannot find the dowry of his daughter, I go and win it at cards. Why not? Do I not cause the card-players to do a Mitzvah? And is that not in itself a Mitzvah?” And the rabbi laughed long and heartily. “Rabbi, I do not understand thy words,” said Mosheh; “but I know thou hast been my saviour, and the saviour of my family. I would fain show my gratitude. How can I thank thee?” “I want no thanks,” said the rabbi. “All I want is that thou shouldst respect my ability as card-player and give me the privilege of a Mitzvah dance at the wedding.” And the rabbi laughed again. from Blogger https://ift.tt/2sSUwPS via IFTTT -------------------- Enjoy my writing? Consider becoming a Patron, subscribing via Kindle, or just toss a little something in my tip jar. Thanks!
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wikitopx · 4 years
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Oh, the endless things to do in Berlin!
Are you ready for my list of the coolest, most interesting and awesome things to do in Berlin? Berlin is truly the freest city I have been to! It’s a city that will leave a strong impression on you, a place that holds many stories on the surface for you to see: stories of East and West Berlin, stories of the past, present and future, stories of former tragedies and modern tolerance.
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1. The Impressive Brandenburg Gate
  The Brandenburg Gate is a neoclassical monument that has stood through the city’s history since the 18th century and it should be at the top of your list of things to see in Berlin!
As you might already know, the gate is a symbol of separation between East and West Berlin, – and is probably one of the most significant landmarks in the city! Be sure not to miss this historic place and the photo opportunities it offers!
2. Have an Art Appreciation Session on Museum Island
Located in the middle of the Spree River, Museum Island (also known as Museumsinsel Berlin) is a complex that was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status. If you are wondering about the best way to get your Museum Island tickets, it’s best to purchase a 3-day museum pass and spend a whole day there in order to fully appreciate the beauty of the place.
If you would prefer to have a Berlin Welcome Pass with Museum Island (which offers 3 days of free public transportation, free entry to the Museum Island museums once a day excluding special exhibitions plus some bonus discounts).
PRO TIP: Do not forget to take a bottle of water with you. You’ll be thirsty after a couple of hours of roaming around, and the only store nearby sells water for 3€ a bottle!
3. See the sunset on the top of The TV Tower Berlin
Berlin TV tower, also known as Fernsehturm Berlin, gives the best 360-degree view of Berlin. It can hardly go unnoticed as it is the highest building in the city! Climb into this concrete forest in the sunset for a better experience! The price of a tracking ticket is € 21.50.
As with most of the TV towers around the world, you can have cocktails and/or dinner at the Berlin TV Tower Restaurant, which is a revolving one! If you are interested in this experience.
The prices for booking a table are 21.50€ (for the inner circle) and 24.50€ if you want a window seat. Tickets include a skip-the-line ticket to the Observation Deck. Food and drinks are not included.
4. Visit The Reichstag Building
Another historic place to visit in Berlin is Reichstag, a place where Congress sits. It includes a glass dome, which represents the political transparency of the city.
Entrance to Reichstag Berlin is free, but be sure to book your visit in advance! I booked mine (a guided tour followed by a visit to the dome) 2 weeks in advance and there were not many spaces left. There is no need to print your booking form, just show it on your phone at the entrance. Don’t forget to bring your valid photo ID!
If you would prefer to take a private tour instead of Reichstag and the Glass Dome, where a guide will explain everything you need to know without having to be in a big group of people, you can book yours here and you can choose to have it in your preferred language (English, French, Spanish, Italian etc.)
5. Admire The Berliner Dom
Berliner Dom, also known as the Berlin Cathedral, is a Neo-Renaissance style building built-in 1905. Visiting this magnificent church is considered one of the ten most things to do in Berlin!
The Dome is located right on Museum Island where numerous other museums are nestled (see number 2 above). You should go up to the top of the cathedral for an incredible view of the city! The admission is 7€.
6. Time travel through East Side Gallery’s Paintings
East Side Gallery Berlin is a 1316-meter-long gallery where 105 paintings from artists from around the world can be found. Ok, so what’s so special about it?
Oh, did I mention the paintings are all done on a wall? Yes, I am talking about the Berlin Wall, you will learn a lot about your Berlin trip. Take a walk around this free monument and learn about Berlin history through it!
7. Drive around the City in A Trabi
  Trabant or Trabi is a slow and noisy car, popular in the former “Eastern Block”, that became a symbol of bygone East Germany back in the days when the city was separated. Even if it is one of the most touristy things to do, I found it very entertaining and I consider it to be fun alternative sightseeing in Berlin!
The guide will drive ahead of you in his own car and he will talk about the main points of interest via the radio when you pass by them. No worries, you will not be on your own and you will surely get to see the best of Berlin!
The tour I made was 49 € per adult for a compact tour (1 h 15 minutes) but there were more tours.
8. Join A Free Walking Tour
The best thing about free walking tours is that at the end of the tour you get to decide how much the tour was worth to you. Nothing? That’s fine! Did you love it? Great, leave as much as you think the guide deserved.
Usually, these kinds of tours are highly interesting because the tour guide wants you to like it, and will make it memorable! I think it’s a great concept!
If you liked the free walking tour of Berlin and want more, I recommend you also try an alternative free walking tour, which is equally fun, informative and free! It will tell you more about the rich street art in Berlin. In my opinion, without this tour, you absolutely cannot feel Berlin!
9. Holocaust Memorial
The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin is a memorial to the murdered Jews in Europe. The memorial is an open space structure and you can freely walk around it. Please respect the memorial – I saw some people climbing on it and even jumping. Do they even understand how disrespectful this is?
A stone’s throw away is the place where Adolf Hitler hid during the end of World War II (WWII), which is a normal parking lot right now. There are many theories about his end, but my guide believed that Hitler could have escaped to South America.
10. Take a photo at Check Point Charlie
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Check Point Charlie was one of the most famous crossing points between West and East Germany back in the day. Now it is a tourist spot that boasts of double-tap worthy sightings and taking a picture at Check Point Charlie is definitely a must-do in Berlin! The place was even revamped in order to make it look exactly as it did during the Cold War!
More ideals for you: Top 10 things to do in Boston today
From : https://wikitopx.com/travel/top-10-things-to-do-in-berlin-2-703067.html
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Alright, sorry for the bad pun but it had to be done. This weekend, Ryan and I spent 3 jam-packed days in Budapest and, around walking just over a marathon, we ate our body weight in delicious Hungarian cuisine.
The weekend started, like most do, with an early morning ride to the airport. We boarded our Lufthansa flight at 9:15, feeling like kings when we sat next to each other, got free coffee and water, and even a snack! (It’s the little things, friends) We landed in Budapest a bit before 11:00, hopped on a bus downtown and showed up at our Pest apartment shortly after noon. We checked in quickly to the studio apartment and then turned straight around to start the culinary adventure at Tüköry Étterem, a Hungarian eatery about a mile from our Airbnb.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we started big. We sat down at the tiny sidewalk table and dove into the Hortobágyi palacsinta (Hungarian pancake), Gulyásleves (goulash soup), Cigánypecsenye steak burgonyáva (gypsy steak with Hungarian Bacon), and fried Camembert cheese because there didn’t seem to be enough fat in our meal. The goulash, unlike those our midwestern mothers made us, had hearty chunks of beef, big pieces of potato and carrot, and a paprika broth that dyed our fingers red. The gypsy roast had a ring of Hungarian bacon on top, which is essentially bacon flavored fat, grilled up to make it crispy. We washed this all down with a smooth Hungarian red wine, which we hadn’t expected to love quite so much. Our arteries clogged and moving a bit slower, we pushed away from the table and headed in the direction of our next destination.
Possibly a poor decision after so much fat, we boarded a tram that took us outside the city center to Széchenyi Thermal Bath, one of the many thermal baths Budapest is famous for. We had pre-bought tickets so after being led to our cabin, we changed quickly and then headed out to the crowded deck to join the fellow sun-and-water worshippers. Hailed as the “most authentic” of the baths by guidebooks, we were a bit surprised to see the place crawling with fellow tourists. Can’t blame them for wanting to do the same thing we do, but we were disappointed that we never saw the chess-playing Hungarian thinkers we had hoped to find. Instead, we waded through the waters surrounded by countless bachelorette and bachelor parties, trying to guess all the languages we were hearing.
After an hour in the glorious sun, we followed a guide up to a quick, peaceful massage. It was one of those that had me drooling and wondering if I had been there for even 10 minutes when they said it was at an end. Feeling significantly more relaxed, we made our way back to the pool to bop around in the thermal pool. The water, which bubbles up from the earth’s core at around 72 degrees Celsius (161 F) is mixed with cooler water to bring it down to a balmy 100, perfect for hanging out for an hour or a day and releasing the stress of being cooped up on a flight. We hung around for another hour or so before drying off and making our way out of the spa, leaving plenty of partiers behind us.
The Bath is located in the middle of Budapest’s City Park, a great expanse of green that was built for the millennium celebration of the city’s founding. In 896, the Magyars came from Central Asia and decided this part of the Carpathian basin would be the new home of their people. So in 1896, the Magyars (the Hungarian way to say Hungarian) threw a massive party and nearly all the city owes something to that fest. Within the park, there is a replica of a Transylvanian castle, an area which used to be part of Hungary. Although it was originally built out of paper, the locals loved it so much that it was rebuilt out of stone.
All around this park, there were tents full of food, stalls selling toys, and carnival rides. As we found out later, there was a children’s festival this weekend and, lucky for us, that meant lots of locals enjoying their favorite Hungarian treats right beside us. We did a quick stroll through the options before getting a kolbasz (sausage) and Lángos, a delicious fried flatbread topped with garlic, sour cream, and cheese. I’m telling you, the funnel cake has a savory run for its money! After feasting on that, we did another lap around the park to make some more room before finishing our meal with a Chimney Cake, a deliciously toasted pastry, flavored with cinnamon. We sat beside a little lake and peeled apart the cake over half an hour before we finally made our way back to the city center.
By this point, the sun was starting to go down. We stopped by our little apartment to drop off our wet towels and suits before heading back into the city for some final sightseeing that day. We took a quick (5 mile) stroll along the Danube, trying like everyone else to get the perfect picture of the Parliament building. We stopped by the memorial shoes along the river, in memory of the victims of WWII that were shot there and left to float down the river. After looking at everything lit up by night, we ended the night in the best way possible – sipping some Hungarian red wines in the shadow of St. Stephen’s Basilica at a famous little wine bar called Di Vino. By this point (11:30!) my feet and I were a bit worn out so we took our walk home and fell fast asleep.
We woke up without an alarm the next day although, with transparent curtains, that was still fairly early. We had a quick cup of coffee, accompanied by some Hungarian cartoons and then some British TV. Then we started a full day of sightseeing. We started by crossing from Pest over to Buda by way of the Chain Bridge. Budapest was actually the two cities of Buda and Pest (pronounced pesht) until the 1873 century. The two cities could only be reached by boats crossing or by walking across on the frozen river, leaving crossers at risk of being stuck on the wrong side of the river. One such man was Count Széchenyi, who was stuck on the wrong side of the river when his father was dying. After missing his father’s funeral, he vowed to build a permanent bridge so that no one would be in the same situation. He held to his word and the bridge was built in 1849, the first time the two cities were connected.
Now people cross with regularity and we joined the wave of people crossing over to Buda from Pest. Our goal was the top of the hill, where we started Rick Steves castle hill walk under the Turul statue. We read about this historic symbol of the Magyar people before walking beside the Royal Palace, a recreation of the seat of Hungarian power since the Turul allegedly dropped the Magyar sword here. We decided not to go inside but enjoyed the panoramic view before going through a courtyard to admire a statue of King Matthias, one of the only Hungarian-born Hungarian rulers.
After that, we walked beside the President’s Palace before reaching the former Court theater. It has since been converted into the home of the Prime Minister, Viktor Orban. Needless to say, some people didn’t take his actions very well but just goes to show no matter how powerful you become, people will always be jealous of what they don’t have. From the palace, we went down to see the Matthias church before joining the crowds to crawl over Fisherman’s Bastion. We walked around the outlook until we found a somewhat-secluded corner to sit down and enjoy a picnic lunch of paprika salami, cheese, and apples. After half an hour there overlooking the Parliament building, we got a Starbucks cold brew (I know, #basic but it was so warm!) before starting the walk down Castle Hill toward the city center.
There, we met up with Regina, a local woman who was to be our guide for a 3-hour walking tour. We were joined by Francoise, a French 50-year old woman on her first trip to Hungary. The tour started with a walk through the streets, Regina introducing herself and her little sister who wanted to learn more English. We headed towards the river where, after seeing the famous Little Princess statue, Regina pointed out Gellért Hill with a tall bronze statue on top. Known as the Liberation Monument, Regina explained that it was given to them by the Russians, who were their liberators (occupiers?) after they sided with the Germans in WWII. Our next stop was beside the Hungarian University of Science, where we were introduced to the various Hungarian inventions, including the rubrics cube, Microsoft word and excel, and the vitamin C supplement, extracted from peppers.
After this history lesson, we were taken to the Chain bridge and were told one of the most famous stories in Hungary. The short version is, a man was commissioned to make the lion statues for the bridge. He was so enthusiastic that he went to the zoo every day to study the lions and, when he unveiled them, he said: “if anyone can find a flaw in my perfect lions, I will jump off the chain bridge and kill myself.” As the story goes, there was a little boy walking with his mom who asked: “Mom, where are the lions’ tongues?” Distraught that the little boy had found a flaw, the man did, in fact, jump off the bridge.
“It’s not true,” Regina assured us, “the sculptor lived for another 20 years and the lions do have tongues. But it is very Hungarian.”
After the bridge, we headed away from the river towards St. Stephen’s Basilica. On the way, we stopped by “Uncle Charlie”, the statue of a jolly police officer who was always happy to let anyone rub his big belly for good luck. He seemed to have had plenty of luck himself because, legend has it, that he had hundreds of lovers throughout his life. Anyone still looking for luck can rub his belly or, If they want more luck in their love life, they can rub his mustache as well. After snapping a picture on his right side (the left side is saved for “professional ladies”), we finished our walk down to the Basilica.
Here, Regina told us more about the religion of the country – 60% Christian, 30% not religious after the Soviets and then the largest population of Jews in Europe. St. Stephan turned the country Christian at a time when it was beneficial to be aligned with the church. 40 years after his death, they decided to canonize him and, after digging him up, they found his hand mummified so they chopped that off and saved it in a golden case. Besides the hand, the church also holds the “right leg” of Hungary. As part of the 1953 Hungarian soccer team, Ferenc Puskas led the team in one of their most successful seasons, including beating the unbeaten England team by 6-3 (which is still used in place of “cheers” in Hungarians bars.) (Our guide also used the term “in brackets” in place of “by the way” when speaking, making me realize how much I do put things in brackets.)
After this stop, we made a trip to the world’s first metro, built in 1896 for the fair. Originally pulled by horses, the metro still uses the same tram cars but there have been a few upgrades, most notably electricity. The tram took us out to Heroes Square, an expansive space that was dominated by an obelisk with the Angel Gabrielle on top. Below him were the 7 chieftains of the Magyar tribes and behind that, 14 of the greatest kings in Hungary’s history. We got a brief history of each as we walked into the park.
The history of this little country is full of tension and oppression. As Regina told us, the Hungarians have only won one revolution ever. “There was a war over if chimney cakes were Hungarian or a Romanian. It ended a few months ago, saying they are Hungarian. That is the only revolution we ever won.” Between the Ottomans, the Austrians, the Germans, and the Russians, the Hungarian people have been in charge of their own country for a shockingly short time throughout history. She pointed out a little pond that is used for ice skating and where they sell chimney cakes and mulled wine in the winter. We walked through the park and saw the castle and the festivities again. We heard about the world famous zoos and the Hungarian People’s love of the thermal baths. Turns out, all you need is a doctor’s note to get into the Thermal Baths for free! Anyone a doctor?
After the park, we took the metro back to the city center and walked through the Jewish Quarter. After walking through some trendy restaurants and a flea market filling a secret little alley, Regina showed us the Grand Synagogue, which is the largest Synagogue in Europe. There is a moving memorial garden behind the synagogue, paying respect to the victims of the Holocaust. After gazing at the second largest Synagogue in the world (only a smaller capacity than one in New York City) we made a beeline for our last stop of the day, the Parliament building. We sat outside the iconic building, which is 96 meters tall, matched only by St. Stephan’s Basilica. The symbolism of this height is two-fold. Not only is it to commemorate the 1896 millennium celebration (as is nearly everything else in the city) but also to symbolize that the church and the state are equals.
At this point, we said goodbye to our guide and, armed with a dinner recommendation, we started out for another walk around. Starting at Di Vino for a rejuvenating charcuterie board and glasses of wine, we watched a performance on the street and finished our final game plan. It started with a walk back to the Jewish Quarter for a dinner at Regina’s favorite, called Bob. After settling in on the sidewalk seating, we ordered one Hungarian 3 course meal (goulash, Chicken Paprikas, and a chocolate dumpling) and stuffed cabbage (a surprising favorite) and of course, more Hungarian wine. I spent the dinner trying not to get distracted by the English safari-themed bachelorette party behind Ryan. It was a bit hard to do between the shouting, the bags of Cheetos and chips they pulled out of their purses, the bride dry-heaving at the table and then proceeding to put her feet up on the table. When we had mentioned the 20 or so bachelor/ette parties we had seen, Regina had given a bit of an eye roll.
“The locals don’t really like it. It is cheap here compared to the rest of Europe so they come and get really crazy and make a big mess.” But when asked about how the locals felt about other tourists, Regina was more upbeat. “It is so different from when I started 5 years ago. There is one music festival that brings in 500,000 people in one week (the city itself is only 1.9 million) but we like that people are seeing our city and they are spread out enough so it is okay.”
As another, German-speaking bachelorette party joined the restaurant and a bachelor party got turned away for not having enough room, we were wondering at the number of people making Budapest their holiday destination. Although I have to say, it was definitely growing on us. Ryan ranked it as one of only 5 cities he wished he had a 4th day in, next to cities like London and Paris. Leaving a lot of things undone, we ended our last full day by going back to St. Stephans and enjoying a Rose-shaped gelato caramel butter pecan and white chocolate lavender cone from Gelarto Rosa.
The last day came and, with quite a few things left on our list, we decided to end it our favorite way – with food. We started out with a last walk by the Danube and the Parliament building. After saying goodbye, we headed down Vaci Utca, which was once the envy of the Soviet Union. After running under “goulash communism” (a term that meant they still allowed some Hungarian Free enterprise) the city was the first to allow the western evils, including the first McDonalds behind the Iron Curtain. I’ve been McD’s free since 2007 but I decided to break my steak in this historic restaurant, where people once waited an hour in line for a taste of freedom.
After a cheap breakfast, we finished our walk down the street, ending at the Central Market. Here, we walked along rows of produce, meat, cheese, and of course, paprika. We saw all the kitschy tourist souvenirs, including a few communist era t-shirts. (Personal favorite was a “Tzar Wars” shirt with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin)
Saying no to all of that, we did decide to get a carved chess board and spent half an hour circling for options. We finally settled on a glossy brown-and-white board, sold by a sweet old woman. After buying the board and thanking her, we made our way to a corner for our last Chicken paprikas and stuffed cabbage, washed down with two Hungarian specialties – Unicum and Palinka. While Palinka was familiar (it’s just like schnapps) the unicum was an herbal drink that sent a shimmy down your spine. The Hungarians say it is just like medicine because it just kills everything on the inside. It certainly felt like it but Ryan finished it happily anyway.
While we ate our last meal, we wondered at the sweet old woman who had sold us the chess board. Not only did we wonder about the average annual income for Hungarians (€650/month after taxes) but we also talked about her life in particular. If she was in her early 80’s, like we thought, she would have been in grade school during the German Occupation, walking along the Danube at 5 years old at the same time men, women, and children were shot into the river by militiamen. She would have been a young girl when the country was “liberated” by the Soviets and she would have spent over half her life living under communist Russia. Only in the last few decades would she have been able to vote, to see the western world, and to embark in free enterprise. She would have been in her 60’s when Hungary got their independence and in her 70’s when the country joined the EU. All those things you read about in history books that seem like they can’t be real – those would have been her whole life.
That is the thought that I carry with me as we end this trip. After buying some paprika at the market, we boarded a bus to the airport. On reflection, the city and the people aren’t what you would expect when you think of a former Soviet country. The buildings are colorful, the people are friendly, the opportunities are plentiful, and the city is bustling with art and music and food and wine. It was an exhausting weekend (28 miles will do that) but one that left us wishing for a few more days to really get our fill of all things Magyar.
It was Buda-ful Alright, sorry for the bad pun but it had to be done. This weekend, Ryan and I spent 3 jam-packed days in Budapest and, around walking just over a marathon, we ate our body weight in delicious Hungarian cuisine.
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British police probe anti-Semitism within Labour Party | News | DW
A criminal investigation has been launched within the British Labour Party after an internal dossier of 45 alleged anti-Semitic crimes was leaked, British police said on Friday.
The inquiry comes after London police chief Cressida Dick was given the dossier in September by LBC, a national talk radio station based in the British capital. 
The document, which was part of an investigation carried out by the party itself, reportedly contains evidence regarding anti-Semitic social media postings by party members.
One allegedly read: “We shall rid the Jews who are a cancer on us all.” Another reportedly said that a Jewish Labour politician would get a good kicking, and yet another contained a threat to throw two parliamentarians from the top of a building.
Read more: Anti-Semitism in Germany: Are immigrants unfairly portrayed in the media?
‘I am not surprised’
Dick said that the Labour Party as a whole was not under investigation.
“We are not going to investigate the Labour Party. We would always want institutions and political parties and similar to be able to regulate themselves,” she told BBC radio.
She said, however, that the material she had received suggested that “there may have been crime committed.”
Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, told the same broadcaster that the allegations were “thoroughly depressing, although sadly I am not surprised,” adding that there was “no role” in the party for people who committed hate crimes.
Amanda Bowman, the vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, an advocacy group,  said the group was also not surprised that an investigation was taking place.
“There is a deeply embedded culture of anti-Semitism in parts of the Labour Party … to the extent that some cases may now even meet a criminal threshold,” she said, accusing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of doing “close to nothing to address” the problem.
Corbyn has come under fire for his handling of anti-Semitism allegations
Lingering charges
The Labour Party has faced persistent allegations of anti-Semitism among its lawmakers over the past few years, including ones leveled by Jewish party members.
These have intensified since the party’s hard left fringe, coalesced around party leader Jeremy Corbyn and the increasingly influential Momentum organization that backs him and his allies, took over the leadership in 2015.
Although Corbyn has tried to rebut the charges and said that his party deplores all racism, the issue continues to dog Labour.
In July 2018, Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) drew criticism for amending or removing examples given in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism for Labour’s own code of conduct. It cited concerns that anti-Semitism was being falsely conflated with criticism of Israel in some of them.
But in September, the NEC decided after all to include all IHRA examples in the definition of anti-Semitism and the code of conduct without amendment.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
Anti-Semitism in 16th-century Prague
One of Germany’s most famous silent films, “The Golem: How He Came Into the World,” was made in 1920. Paul Wegener directed and played a leading role in the film set in 16th-century Prague. The Jewish ghetto is in danger and the emperor order the Jews to leave the city. Only the mythical Golem can help. It’s one of the earliest films to address the persecution of Jews.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
Persecution of Jews in 1920s Vienna
Based on a novel by Hugo Bettauer, “The City Without Jews,” is an important example of how films have taken on anti-Semitism. The Austrian-made film is set in Vienna in the 1920s and shows how the residents held Jews responsible for all social ills. Critics, however, have lamented the film’s use of anti-Semitic cilches.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
Fine line between tolerance and clichés
Four years earlier in 1916, the American director DW Griffith had created the monumental historical film,”Intolerance.” The story explains historical events over the course of four episodes, taking intolerance to task. Yet in a scene showing the crucifixion of Jesus, Griffith employed Jewish stereotypes. As a result, critics have also accused “Intolerance” of demonstrating anti-Semitic tendencies.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
Ben Hur through the decades
“Ben Hur” was first made in 1925, but has been reinvented many time since then. It tells the story of a conflict betweet Jews and Christians at the beginning of the 1st century. Jewish prince Judah Ben Hur lives in Roman-occupied Jerusalem as a contemporary of Jesus Christ. The way the Jewish-Christian relationship is showed in the Ben Hur films remains a topic of discussion today.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
A trial and pogrom in 1880s Hungary
Although hardly known today, GW Pabst’s “The Trial” (1948) is an astounding early example of how the cinema reacted to the Holocaust. Filmed in Austria just three years after the end of the war, Pabst tells a true story set in 1882 in Hungary. A young girl disappears from her village and Jews are blamed. Tragically, a pogrom follows.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
Broaching the truth
“The Trial” remained an exception. After the war, it took the film industry in Europe quite some time to deal with the subject. The French director Alain Resnais was the first to address the Nazi genocide in 1956, in the unsparing 30-minute documentary “Night and Fog.”
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
Bringing the Holocaust to TV
It wasn’t until the 1978 television mini-series “Holocaust” was made that the genocide was brought to the broader public. The four-part US production directed by Marvin J. Chomsky tells the story of a Jewish family that gets caught in the cogs of the Nazis’ genocidal policies.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
Steven Spielberg’s ‘Schindler’s List’
Fifteen years later, American director Steven Spielberg was able to accomplish on the big screen what “Holocaust” had done for television audiences. “Schindler’s List” portrayed the brutal reality of the Nazis’ anti-Semitism in Germany, but also in Eastern Europe, spotlighting the unscrupulous SS offcer Amon Göth.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
Claude Lanzmann and ‘Shoah’
French director Claude Lanzmann harshly criticized Spielberg’s drama. “He did not really reflect on the Holocaust and cinema. The Holocaust cannot be portrayed,” he said in an interview. Lanzmann himself took up the subjects of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust in a completely different way – through long documentaries and essay films such as “Shoah” and “Sobibor.”
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
Humor and the Holocaust
Italian comedian and filmmaker Roberto Bengini took a daring approach in his film on anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. In 1997, “Life is Beautiful” premiered, telling the fictional story of Jews suffering in a concentration camps. The humor he wove throughout had a liberating effect.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
Roman Polanski’s ‘The Pianist’
An equally moving film by Polish-French director Roman Polanski was released in 2002. In “The Pianist,” the fate of Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman during the war years of 1943-44 was brought to the big screen. The project allowed the director, whose mother and other relatives were deported and murdered by the Nazis, to work through his own family’s past.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
Anti-Semitism and Jesus the Jew
Films about the life of Jesus Christ often come up in discussions about anti-Semitism in cinema. Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988), for example, has been accused of reinforcing anti-Semitic clichés, particularly in scenes in which Jews are indirectly associated with greed.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
Mel Gibson’s scandalous ‘The Passion of the Christ’
Much more controversial was the film that Australian Mel Gibson released two years later. Both Christians and Jews accused Gibson of explicit anti-Semitism in the film, saying he didn’t counter the implications in the New Testament that Jews were to blame for the death of Jesus (who himself was Jewish). In public, Gibson likewise used anti-Semitic speech.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
Turkish anti-Semitism
Audiences and critics alike decried the anti-Semitism in the Turkish film, “Valley of the Wolves.” The action-packed movie version of a TV series of the same name showed a battle between Turkish soldiers and Israel. The film employed “anti-American, anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic stereotypes and was inciteful,” according to several organizations.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
WWII still a challenge for filmmakers
Just how difficult it can still be to address the subject matter of World War II is evident in the response to a three-part German TV series from 2013, “Generation War.” The series follows a handful of German soldiers fighting on the eastern front. It was criticized in Poland for anti-Semitism and was said to have represented the Polish resistance.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
Hannah Arendt and ‘the banality of evil’
Margarethe von Trotta’s film about Hannah Arendt was well received in 2012. The director sketched a balanced portrait of the philosopher and publicist who, in the 1960s, grappled with a figure who was largely responsible for the Nazi genocide: Adolf Eichmann. Arendt coined the phrase “the banality of evil” to explain anti-Semitism clothed in seemingly harmless bureaucracy.
Anti-Semitism in film before and after the Holocaust
The ‘Wonder Woman’ controversy
Because the protagonist of the current Hollywood super hero hit “Wonder Woman” is played by Israeli Gal Gadot, the film was not shown in a number of Arab countries. Gadot herself had served in the Israeli army and defended her experience. Not showing “Wonder Woman” is anti-Semitic, according to the public sentiment in Israel.
Author: Jochen Kürten (ct)
tj/msh (Reuters, AFP, AP)
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