Showing posts with label Judaism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Judaism. Show all posts

May 3 - Happy Birthday, Golda Meir

Posted on May 3, 2021

This is an update of my post published on May 3, 2010:




Golda Mabovitch was born on this day in 1898 in Kiev, which was then in the Russian Empire. (The area later became part of the Soviet Union, and it is now part of Ukraine). She moved with her father to the U.S. in 1906. Even though she knew no English as she first started school in Mikwaukee (Wisconsin), she ended up, not just learning the language, but thriving and achieving: she formed the American Young Sisters Society, ran a fundraiser, and graduated as the class valedictorian.

I guess you could say that she showed leadership skills!


As a teen, Meir moved in with her sister in Denver, Colorado, where she met the man she later married, Morris Meyerson. (She took on her husband's name but later changed it to Meir.) In 1921 the couple moved to Palestine to live on a kibbutz, which is a collective farm, and after World War II Meir participated in the setting up of the state of Israel.

She served in a variety of ways in the government of the new nation, and eventually, in 1969, she became Prime Minister of Israel. She was only the third woman in the world to hold a prime ministership.


By the way, that elementary school in Milwaukee that she attended years and years ago is now called Golda Meir School.

Read some Golda Meir quotes.





Did you know...?

Israel uses more solar energy per capita (per person) than any country in the world. More than 90% of all households use solar energy for part of their energy needs!

Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel, is one of the oldest cities in the world, with a history that stretches back to the 3000s B.C.

Israel is considered part of the continent of Asia. 
  • Remember, Golda Meir was the third woman in the world to serve as prime minister of her country. Interestingly, the first two women who served as prime minister were also from Asia!

    • (First was Sirimavo Bandaranaike from Sri Lanka, and second was Indira Gandhi from India.)
    Take a peek...

    ...At the beautiful beaches and shorelines of Israel...





    ...At the top sights of Jerusalem...







    ...Here is a drone video at a beach along the Mediterranean at Givat Olga, in Israel...













    (Varies every year)


    (Online festivities in 2021 because of COVID-19)






    Sham el-Nessim in Egypt





    Plan ahead:


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    October 13 - Anniversary of the First Known Conversation in Modern Hebrew

    Posted October 13, 2020

    The first known conversation in a language???

    How is it possible to know the date of the first conversation in a particular language? Aren't languages ancient, and don't they develop slowly over generations? 

    Well, modern Hebrew is the only example of a language that was deliberately revived as an everyday language - going from zero native speakers to several million native speaker within a single generation.



    You see, Hebrew, like other languages, developed long ago, slowly evolving from the tenth century BCE to around 70 CE. At that point, the Roman army captured the city of Jerusalem and destroyed most of the city, and its Temple. Many Jews fled their homeland and scattered over Europe and Asia. 

    Living all over, Jewish people began to speak the languages of their new homes - Arabic, Russian, German, whatever - for everyday concerns. But
    Hebrew was still very much alive as a religious language. Rabbis and scholars and practicing Jews used Hebrew for verses of the Torah, the teachings of the Talmud, and for prayers.

    That means that for centuries, Hebrew was only a holy language, or liturgical language. Nobody spoke it as their first language. It's like Latin - nobody speaks Latin as their native tongue, but it is used in some Roman Catholic masses.

    Starting in 1880, two separate things began to happen:

    (1) Jews began to return to Palestine, but they didn't share an everyday language with other newly- arriving Jews, nor with the Jews who had basically stayed put (who mostly spoke Arabic). Since they DID share the holy language of Hebrew, they began the process of reviving it as a natural language that could be used to talk about everyday (non-religious) topics. 

    (2) Some Jewish writers living in Europe thought that Hebrew deserved fine literature and began to translate works such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - and of course began to write original works in Hebrew. 

    Eliezer Ben-Yehuda is often considered "the reviver of the Hebrew language" because he
    invented many new words for things that weren't around during ancient times. This includes New World foods such as tomato and maize, plus scientific terms such as electricity.

    It was Ben-Yehuda and some of his friends who had that "first known conversation" in modern Hebrew on October 13, 1881. 




    Also on this date:


















































     (Second Tuesday in October)


    Plan ahead:

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    April 20 - Freedom of Religion in New Amsterdam!

    Posted on April 20, 2020

    I don't ever want to hear this: "They killed Jesus!"

    One of the awful and ironic tragedies of the Christian religion is that Jesus's death - even though it was Roman soldiers who carried out the execution - is often blamed on the Jewish leaders who (according to the story) asked that he be put to death. 

    And then somehow many Christians blame ALL Jews for his death. Even though Jesus himself was a Jew! Plus, his disciples and supporters were all Jews!


    It seems that too many people use any excuse (no matter how unreasonable or counter-factual) to hate other people.

    Hatred of Jews is called anti-semitism, and history has seen far too much of it. 



    But today's historical anniversary is a little bit of positivity in the story of anti-semitism:

    When Portuguese forces conquered Recife, in Brazil, in 1654, the Jewish people of Recife faced oppression. Several Jewish families fled Brazil aboard a ship, but in the Caribbean they either ran into a storm and were stranded in Spanish Jamaica, or their ship was was attacked by a Spanish pirate (I've seen different reports!). Whatever happened, those Jews were fearful of facing the Spanish Inquisition - which was big-time religious bigotry, in which non-Catholics were forced to convert or die. 

    The Jews of Recife, Brazil, in the 1600s: various
    groups went to Dutch and English colonies in South
    America and the Caribbean Sea, one group went to
    the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, and the bulk of
    the Recife Jews went all the way back to the Netherlands.


    The 23 desperate Jews were finally allowed to sail to a Dutch colony in North America. They hoped to find a welcome there - a place where they could worship as Jews, settle and work and become a community.

    That Dutch colony - called New Amsterdam - was ruled by Director Peter Stuyvesant, and he did not welcome the Jews. Their perilous journey had resulted in them coming pretty empty handed, and Stuyvesant thought they would become a drain on the colony. 



    This logo of the Dutch West India
    Company appeared on its flags.
    However, under pressure from Jewish folks living in the Netherlands, leaders of the Dutch West India Company ordered that the Jews be given refuge in the colony.



    "Refuge" means shelter, a safe place. "Refugees" are people who need shelter because they had to flee their homes to escape harm or death.

    The Jewish families settled in New Amsterdam, and their freedom to worship their own religion was safeguarded on this date in 1657.

    One of the 23 Jews from Recife, Asser Levy, was the first Jew known to own a home anywhere in North America.

    Asser Levy Public Baths, located on Asser Levy Place in
    Manhattan, NYC. This facility is named after Asser Levy, one
    of the most prominent of New York Cities early Jewish citizens.

    In 1664, the British invaded the colony of New Amsterdam.  The Brits took over and renamed the town New York. 




    Nowadays New York has grown to be the largest city in the U.S. and one of the most important cities in the world! It's also the city with the most Jewish citizens in America.

    Also nowadays: many of us push back whenever we spot anti-semitism.  






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