The Jewish Question

Monday, September 2, 2019

"A shooting spree that unfolded Saturday afternoon during a chaotic, high-speed police chase in West Texas was not an act of terrorism, law enforcement authorities said as they continued to piece together what had led a gunman to open fire on motorists and police officers while driving along a 15-mile stretch of highways and shopping centers.”  How could we even think of a white, Christian killer as a terrorist?

. . .

It is pointless for a Jew to ask himself "Why am I Jewish?"  It is an accident of birth that is effectively irreversible in the eyes of friends and foes alike.  More significant is the question "Why do I call myself a Jew?”, a question that many people would never ask given how uncomfortable they are with the label in the first place.  I don't hesitate, however.  I am a Jew, though unfamiliar with scripture, dismissive of spirituality, aloof from much ritual, a Jew nevertheless.  

If I needed prompting in asserting my identity, The Book Smugglers by David E. Fishman, a book that I am in the middle of reading, would effectively get me back on track.  It is the story of a group of Jewish intellectuals in Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania, some Yiddishists, some Hebraicists, some socialists, some Communists, some devout, some irreligious, calling themselves the "paper brigade," who risked their lives to save Jewish books and artifacts from Nazi expropriation and destruction.  They began their efforts as soon as the Nazis invaded Lithuania and ghettoized its Jews in June 1941.  They continued until Vilna, once a major center of Jewish life and education, was emptied of Jews in September 1943 by shooting, by hanging, by deportation, by starvation.  

In a sense, the Nazis facilitated the book smugglers, by grouping librarians, academics and writers to inventory and organize the wealth of materials held in major Jewish institutions outside the ghetto walls for shipment to Frankfurt and Berlin, an example of Judenforschung, anti-Semitic Jewish souvenir collecting.  Only some items interested the Nazis, who trashed much of what they got their hands on.  While the Jews lamented the loss of all items that represented their heritage, culture and beliefs, they made special efforts to keep holy items, such as Torah scrolls, and irreplaceable documents, such as Theodor Herzl’s diaries, away from the Nazis.  They smuggled the materials into the ghetto to be hidden in cellars, attics, or buried in the ground.  While other brave people smuggled bread, potatoes, eggs and guns into the ghetto, the paper brigade risked their lives to preserve the infrastructure of Judaism for a return to daylight at some future time.

This account is a vivid example of the rightness in labeling Jews the People of the Book, a term originating in the Koran, by the way.  I cannot walk away from this. 

. . .

The Upper West Side's Power Couple continued our almost perpetual motion by going to Massachusetts for the holiday weekend to spend time with the second and third generations.  After a day of shopping for back-to-school (or back-to-retirement, in my case) clothing at the Wrentham Village Premium Outlets, our gang had dinner at Sichuan Gourmet II, 271 Worcester Road, a family favorite.  It’s a sign of enlightened parenting that the grandchildren, ages 6, 9 and 11, all know their way around a Chinese menu and have their favorite dishes.  While there was some mixing and matching around the table, I concentrated on Sichuan cold noodles ($6.50), mei fun-angel hair-vermicelli, in a peppery, hot sauce; scallion pancake ($6.25); chicken in Yu Hsiang (“fish fragrance”) Sauce ($11.95), which contains vinegar, fermented broad beans, soy sauce and pickled chili peppers, but no fish or seafood; spicy cumin lamb ($16.95).  The children’s education is in good hands.

Tuesday, September 3, 2019
In case you are looking to move and insist on new construction, this article contains interesting data.  https://www.charlottestories.com/an-estimate-of-6000-new-apartments-are-waiting-to-be-opened-this-year-in-charlotte-metro/ 


Skip the Charlotte-specific stuff and scroll down to the table that lists the number of new apartments and the % change from last year for 83 U.S. markets.  In most cases, the rate of change up or down seems completely independent of population movement.  For instance, the Los Angeles metropolitan area had a 23% decline in new apartments, while only reporting a 0.1% decline in population.  Earlier figures are not provided, so you can only speculate on what's causing what.

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

I had lunch with Max, the former Wonder Boy, at Bangkok Cuisine, 107-18 70th Road, Forest Hills, which has opened a branch in Manhattan.  I had not been to either, so I was willing to start out closer to Max’s home turf.  This proved quite satisfactory, since Bangkok Cuisine offered 17 lunch specials, including an appetizer, soup or salad, for $11.95 or $12.95 based on the major ingredient of the main course.  I had soup, a vegetable broth with 3 chunks of tofu afloat, 2 chicken/shrimp dumplings and “Drunken Noodles” with shredded chicken, eggs, yellow onions and bean sprouts.  The noodles were my favorite wide ones, chow fun, seemingly sober.

I may have scared Max by reminding him that, at age 34, he may have 50 more years to live.

Thursday, September 5, 2019

In contrast to yesterday’s lunch, the Boyz Club gathered today, a bunch of alte kockers, each hoping to have 50 more weeks to live.  To increase the prospects for our longevity, we ate at Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, sharing beef chow fun, mei fun with scallion and ginger, moo shu chicken with pancakes, beef with scallions, pork fried rice and green beans in black bean sauce.  Several of us had soup, hot and sour or won ton, as well, with Wo Hop's world-class crispy noodles.  Bottom line, big smiles and $15 each.
. . .

In the evening, I went to hear Clifton Hood, an urban historian, speak about "A History of the New York City Subway," based on  his book 722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York.  Hood is not an engineer and he took a retrospective look, while many in the audience wanted to hear about corrective measures and technical improvements.  And, the audience was the real story.  The SVA Theater, 333 West 23rd Street, was absolutely full, all 479 seats and a few extra folding chairs were occupied.  This was no Marvel Super Hero adventure, no umpteenth Star Wars sequel.  In fact, few, if any, of the nerdy adolescents usually beguiled by galaxies long ago and far away were in the building.  It was grownups, adults, citizens concerned about this critical element of our urban life.  Might this make any difference, a signal of increased civic engagement?  Well, Rosh Hashanah is coming up and this would be something worth praying for.
   
Friday, September 6, 2019
Lefties -- a study by scientists at Oxford University has good news and bad news for us left-handed people.  We have a very slightly lower chance of having Parkinson’s disease, but a very slightly higher chance of having schizophrenia.   https://academic.oup.com/brain/advance-article/doi/10.1093/brain/awz257/5556832?searchresult=1

That means that we will live longer hearing weird voices.