WHY JEWS NOW? THE NAZI’S ELIMINATED ONE THIRD OF THE JEWISH POPULATION.


My first experience with antisemitism was at twenty years old. I was working for a Bank in Beverly Hills in the loan department. One day my supervisor gathered us around and told a joke. I cannot remember it exactly, I do remember that he compared Pizza in the oven to Jews in the Holocaust gas chambers. I told my father. He ordered me to call the President of Gibraltar S & L and repeat the comment. The president was Jewish. I did so. I was assigned a new supervisor, and the supervisor was not fired. .

When I moved to San Diego in 1983, I witnessed derogatory comments about Jews, I don’t look what is the stereotype Jewish female, so people assume I am not. My father had passed and wasn’t there to advise me. If I was in a social or business situation, and offensive Jewish comments were made, I remained silent and never went back to whatever event I had joined. I was more interested in what people thought, then reprimanding them.

That all changed over the years, and I am emboldened to announce my Jewish heritage. I still hear that vapid response, ” I have a really good friend who is Jewish.” Or “You don’t look Jewish.”

I am not prepared for what has mobilized into a national campaign promise from some politicians, antisemitism. What? Are we in Germany? Who started this and who will end it? Are Jews protesting? I don’t see it. How many non-Jews celebrated the return of the hostages, or the end of the Gaza War? Why hasn’t a film been made about this historical event. I hope and pray I’m wrong, but antisemitism is in vogue. And who follows trends, the youth.

DEATH AND LIBERATION COLLIDE


                              

It was her widespread, unrestrained, and contagious smile that I see when I think of her. Her expressive hand gestures seemed like separate limbs from her straight, head-held-high posture. Frankness, unpreparedness, and ebullience made her the embodiment of who I wish I were. 

I was on the phone with a friend when the news alert filled the screen, and a photo of her signature smile. 

โ€œ Oh my God!โ€

โ€œWhat?โ€ he asked.

In a voice trembling with shock, I replied, โ€œDiane Keaton died.โ€

โ€œ Whoa, how old was she?โ€

โ€œ Seventy-nine. She was the only contemporary actress I related to. I watched Baby Boom last week, so Keaton. It was like watching me if I had the same experiences. โ€œ

โ€œ She  was great in  The Godfather, not a lot of people would agree with that, but thatโ€™s my opinion.โ€

โ€œ I never thought of that. I watch it once a year. She was in an interview years ago, and the host asked,โ€ Why didnโ€™t you ever get married?โ€

With her arms opening like a double door, she exclaimed, โ€œ No one ever asked me!โ€

Her last post on Instagram is worth reading.โ€  

And in the same weekend, I think of this. We canโ€™t feel another personโ€™s sickness, or what itโ€™s like to sing if we donโ€™t sing, or fly like a pilot unless we’ve been one. We cannot imagine what it is like to be a hostage of Hamas.

I wandered about yesterday, in the gym, the veranda, and the lobby, and later, had appetizers in the restaurant. Two flat screens, football, the rest couples except the man next to me. I couldnโ€™t help but notice that he was three inches from me at the bar. A shrimp cocktail showed up, he ate voraciously, then a steak and a large flat potato sort of tortilla, a side of vegetables, and he ate enthusiastically, then a lobster plate, with more vegetables, and he ate, and then dessert. I left before it arrived, so I wouldnโ€™t swipe it from him.ย 

I wanted to say to someone, “The hostages are coming home!” ย I didnโ€™t. Diane Keaton would have! She lived with squamous cell cancer or many years. That explains the hats and turtlenecks.

THANKFUL FOR ARMEN


NOVEMBER 23, 2023.

The sky is shy today, she wants rain and snow but she hesitates, as the climate is over thirty. But outdoors isnโ€™t of concern these last sixty days. I never felt more Jewish than now, a reclamation of my upbringing, that I was too rebellious to take seriously, now it is a cancerous disease, antisemitism. I asked my friend who grew up in Istanbul in a surrounding of Jewish Armenians. Why do people hate Jews?.

” They are jealous, most Jewish people are educated, and learn at a young age to develop ambition, to make a better life.”

” That’s it? Jealousy?”

” I think so.”

Armen has been the best believer for me in twenty years. If I didn’t have her confidence, I’d have flattened over the last five years. Everyone needs a friend like that, she presses my buttons, sometimes I say stop, then she says I’m sorry, and we go on.

ISRAEL IS THE ONLY NEWS.


ISRAEL IS NOT JUST A JEWISH STATE IT IS A HOLOCAUST SURVIVAL SANCTUARY OF DESCENDANTS AND RELATIVES.