Doug walk about: In reply to your response to Jeanette-Isabelle’s post on what she should carry on for her ( somewhat fanciful) theorized emigration flight to Israel, I note the common sense of your comments. Big and well resourced vs. small, water challenged and surrounded by hostile forces is a fair, SURFACE reading, of JI’s thoughts.

But , as a Jew , I understand her unspoken fear and “longing”. Jews in the USA are used to dealing with jibes about “ secret cartels of Jewish bankers”, “ cheap Jews” , “ Christ Killers” etc. from the usual fringe groups. Because, those bigots aside, Jews, since they first emigrated in the 19th-20th Centurys bought into the American Dream, lock stock and barrel !

Poor, dirty, uneducated, East European Jews , who emigrated to the US in the late 19th- early 20th century, helped to a very limited extent by earlier immigrating , successful self made German Jewish philanthropists, stuck together, engaged in community self-help, established Jewish aid and education societies, even multi family communal farms, Jewish loan agencies, Established hospitals , schools, & graduate schools ( since they were often barred or discriminated against by the non-Jewish majorities) funded by families who had a little extra to lend at low rates,, gobbled - up all the education they could get, worked collectively, for obscene amounts of hours, in little businesses, staffed by family and built bigger businesses, had their parents drill into their heads to walk the straight and narrow, get good marks, go to college, get a licensed profession ( like Doctor, pharmiscist, engineer, etc. ) , because if you had to run away again, that knowledge was portable. Add to that, a very strong and central religious commandment to do “ tzedakah’ , the giving of a tenth part, a/k/a, “justice”. ( there being no word in Hebrew for” Charity”) and an accompanying requirement to participate in “Tikkun Olam’, a/k/a “ repair the world, that is make it a better world, the “Jews” as a people , generally did well in an America prime for strong backs , hard work, entrepreneurship, and economic expansion!

But no Jew ever lived, except perhaps in Israel, who didn’t keep one eye and ear open for rise of anti-semitism and a new Holocaust. After all , who expected it in 1920s-1930s Germany, which was the first European country to offer Jews full citizenship , the right to own land and go to Universities? But 10-15 years later, 4+ million murdered in the camps and an additional 2+ million by the Eisenstaedt movile killing teams. But for European , British and North American guilt in standing by and not stopping the mass slaughter of Europe’s Jews,, even when they knew and could have bombed the camps’ killing “showers”, fences and railheads leading to the camps, but for that , there would never would been a UN vote on the creation of a Jewish Homeland, i.e. Israel.

So someone like me, and probably JI, native born, patriotic , red-blooded, proud Americans, with no desire to be anything but good American citizens, keep our one eye and one ear alert for the rise of Facism and anti-semitism in America, especially if it starts to get normalized by a major American political party who tells us “ There were good people on both sides “ in Charlottesville, Parties that nurture candidates with strong racist- anti semetic backgrounds & orations.

If your “RUN”. Button gets pushed often enough ,you yearn for a place where you are a majority ,not a despised miniority, even if it’s arguably not as well equipped with resources and is surrounded by openly hostile neighbors. WORST CASE I’d rather die fighting back to back with my family and friends than get dragged out of my hiding place, like Anne Frank’s family, to be taken to an extermination camp.

And if, gentle reader, that sounds like paranoia to you, I have two responses. Study history and remember, even paranoids have enemies!