Continued...
It is more or less 630AM on a Sunday morning. I hate Sundays. Rather, I hate Sundays IN AMERICA. In Israel it is a regular day for us. We go to school, work and so on. Friday is a half day where as Saturday is a day off for us. Counter-intuitively it is Saturday Night that is our big night on the town despite having to go to work the following morning.
A lot of people cannot understand the difference between "Jewish Ethnicity" and "Jewish Religion." Israel is a secular nation. Yet compromises have been made in order to reach a working relationship with the Jewish Religion. Prior to WWII most religious Jews absolutely hated Zionism which had been constructed by Atheists and to a much lesser extent, Agnostics. To come to this accord the Zionists agreed to place the Civil Justice System in the hands of each religious community. If you are an Israeli Catholic you MUST marry in the Catholic Church. Likewise a Bahai must allow the Bahai to run his or her life, at least in the civil sphere. If one is a Jewish Atheist they must still allow a rabbi to have a certain amount of control over their personal life. If you are really principled you can take a ferry to Cyprus, or Turkey...or even fucken' Italy and get married there by anyone you choose and the State will recognise it. It isn't a perfect system but thus far it has worked for us.
I was 16 when I went into the military. If you want to be technical I was actually 13, because my school was what we call a "Hesder." It was a religious school run by the military and specialised in Infantry. However, the military was still in transition. Up to that point there had been no accomodations made between the religious demographic and the IDF. The Hesder System was a way in which the 2 sides sought to make that first accomodation. Still, the only boys in Hesder were "At Risk Youth," like myself.
Why was I at risk? Here in New York, where I was born and where I spent most of my first 12 years I was running the streets. At the time 50 Cents took you all over the city. Bus Transfers, slips of tissue-like paper were good for several hours and took you all throughout this huge city. The subways? This was the birth of Hip Hop as well as THE birthplace. Graffiti on trains, dance, music, it was incredibly vibrant. All the more for a kid like me, growing up in a huge extended family of very traditional Jews.
Just about all my friends were Black or Puerto Rican. It is funny actually. In sending me from Brooklyn to the South Bronx my father thought he was saving me from that street environment. Of course my father never understood America.
My father came to the US after he fought in the Suez War, against Egypt. At the time, and up until the late 1980s the US Military allowed foreigners to enlist and then gave them a Green Card. My father joined the US Navy. He spoke no English but by the time he finished shoveling snow at Great Lakes, near Chicago, he was well versed in slang and so was sent around the world on 2 Aircraft Carriers,"Intrepid" and "Independence." During the Cuban Missile Crisis he was dug in on shore around Guantanamo but that was as close as he got to repeating his wartime experiences in Israel.
My father came to America in 1957, leaving my mum back in Bat Yam, my hometown in Israel. The 2 had met right after WWII when my father was 16 and my mum 15 and married almost immediately after they met.
My mum is from a place called Trans-D'niester, a spit of land between Moldova and Russia. Until the late 19th Century it belonged to Turkey, just as pre-Statehood Israel did. Therefore she and my father spoke the same language, Ladino. It is a Jewish Language based upon 16th Century Castillian Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew.
The Holocaust came, killed most of her family and when it ended she had survived by being whored. As such she wasn't facing many marriage prospects when she was released from British run Refugee Camps in Mandate Palestine.
My father's father was murdered when my father was less than 1 year old, in 1929. Later he had drifted into a militant group and ended up in a British prison towards the end of WWII for stealing British ammunition. After the War ended he knew a new war was coming and so he sought to make a family so he might leave behind a son if killed. Through a matchmaker he entered into an Arranged Marriage with my mum.
More than one son came, as did more than one war and by early 1957 my father had enlisted in the US Navy and gone to America.
In 1964 he brought my mum and brothers over. Still, we lived an entirely insular life. The Syrian Jewish Community (Jews from pre-Statehood Israel, Lebanon AND Syria) is centered in a very small area of Brooklyn. The first members moved there in the early 1930s along with another branch in Buenos Aries, Argentina. In America the largest number of Jews arrived between 1885 and 1915, after which the put in a strict quota system to stop us from coming. By the 1930s Jews could see that the children, and even grandchildren of that mass influx had assimilated at an incredibly high rate.
Worried, they Syrian Jews came up with a unique solution. The rabbis and elders of the community issued what we call, "The Edict," 1 in Argentina and 1 in New York City. The edict stated that not only could noone marry a non-Jew who converted, they couldn't even marry a Jew from outside our community unless their geneaology passed muster for 7 previous generations. Anyone violating the edict is considered dead, mourned for a week and then never referred to again.
There was a case in 2004 when a man in New York married a convert and had the conversion performed by 1 of Israel's 2 Chief Rabbis. They considered the man dead and he fought back, taking the case to the Chief Rabbi. The Chief Rabbi then came to NY and argued the case and was told to fuck off hahaha.
In my mum's case, though her geneaology is solid it didn't matter either way. It only matters if a resident of the community marries a non-Syrian Jew. My mum coming from Mandate Palestine qualifies as a Syrian Jew.
In my case, with Rizza, I never brought her into the community, nor could I. I do agree with the edict for a very simple reason: Nearly 80 years old, both Argentina and New York's Syrian Jewish Communities have nearly Zero assimiliation versus 64% for American Jews as a whole. You can't argue with math.
We place no respect in individualism, it is all for the collective.
Back to me...wonderful me...So I entered the Army officially at age 16. By the time I re-deployed from my first post, a firebase on Mt.Hermon, they had beat the religiosity out of me hahaha. In those days they actually beat us. It isn't as bad as Russia where 17,000 recruits die in hazing each year. 17,000 is larger than most armies!
More spontaneous trains of thought to follow...or maybe not since it is time to take my 220 mgs after which my thoughts aren't worth a shit. Ciao...
It is more or less 630AM on a Sunday morning. I hate Sundays. Rather, I hate Sundays IN AMERICA. In Israel it is a regular day for us. We go to school, work and so on. Friday is a half day where as Saturday is a day off for us. Counter-intuitively it is Saturday Night that is our big night on the town despite having to go to work the following morning.
A lot of people cannot understand the difference between "Jewish Ethnicity" and "Jewish Religion." Israel is a secular nation. Yet compromises have been made in order to reach a working relationship with the Jewish Religion. Prior to WWII most religious Jews absolutely hated Zionism which had been constructed by Atheists and to a much lesser extent, Agnostics. To come to this accord the Zionists agreed to place the Civil Justice System in the hands of each religious community. If you are an Israeli Catholic you MUST marry in the Catholic Church. Likewise a Bahai must allow the Bahai to run his or her life, at least in the civil sphere. If one is a Jewish Atheist they must still allow a rabbi to have a certain amount of control over their personal life. If you are really principled you can take a ferry to Cyprus, or Turkey...or even fucken' Italy and get married there by anyone you choose and the State will recognise it. It isn't a perfect system but thus far it has worked for us.
I was 16 when I went into the military. If you want to be technical I was actually 13, because my school was what we call a "Hesder." It was a religious school run by the military and specialised in Infantry. However, the military was still in transition. Up to that point there had been no accomodations made between the religious demographic and the IDF. The Hesder System was a way in which the 2 sides sought to make that first accomodation. Still, the only boys in Hesder were "At Risk Youth," like myself.
Why was I at risk? Here in New York, where I was born and where I spent most of my first 12 years I was running the streets. At the time 50 Cents took you all over the city. Bus Transfers, slips of tissue-like paper were good for several hours and took you all throughout this huge city. The subways? This was the birth of Hip Hop as well as THE birthplace. Graffiti on trains, dance, music, it was incredibly vibrant. All the more for a kid like me, growing up in a huge extended family of very traditional Jews.
Just about all my friends were Black or Puerto Rican. It is funny actually. In sending me from Brooklyn to the South Bronx my father thought he was saving me from that street environment. Of course my father never understood America.
My father came to the US after he fought in the Suez War, against Egypt. At the time, and up until the late 1980s the US Military allowed foreigners to enlist and then gave them a Green Card. My father joined the US Navy. He spoke no English but by the time he finished shoveling snow at Great Lakes, near Chicago, he was well versed in slang and so was sent around the world on 2 Aircraft Carriers,"Intrepid" and "Independence." During the Cuban Missile Crisis he was dug in on shore around Guantanamo but that was as close as he got to repeating his wartime experiences in Israel.
My father came to America in 1957, leaving my mum back in Bat Yam, my hometown in Israel. The 2 had met right after WWII when my father was 16 and my mum 15 and married almost immediately after they met.
My mum is from a place called Trans-D'niester, a spit of land between Moldova and Russia. Until the late 19th Century it belonged to Turkey, just as pre-Statehood Israel did. Therefore she and my father spoke the same language, Ladino. It is a Jewish Language based upon 16th Century Castillian Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew.
The Holocaust came, killed most of her family and when it ended she had survived by being whored. As such she wasn't facing many marriage prospects when she was released from British run Refugee Camps in Mandate Palestine.
My father's father was murdered when my father was less than 1 year old, in 1929. Later he had drifted into a militant group and ended up in a British prison towards the end of WWII for stealing British ammunition. After the War ended he knew a new war was coming and so he sought to make a family so he might leave behind a son if killed. Through a matchmaker he entered into an Arranged Marriage with my mum.
More than one son came, as did more than one war and by early 1957 my father had enlisted in the US Navy and gone to America.
In 1964 he brought my mum and brothers over. Still, we lived an entirely insular life. The Syrian Jewish Community (Jews from pre-Statehood Israel, Lebanon AND Syria) is centered in a very small area of Brooklyn. The first members moved there in the early 1930s along with another branch in Buenos Aries, Argentina. In America the largest number of Jews arrived between 1885 and 1915, after which the put in a strict quota system to stop us from coming. By the 1930s Jews could see that the children, and even grandchildren of that mass influx had assimilated at an incredibly high rate.
Worried, they Syrian Jews came up with a unique solution. The rabbis and elders of the community issued what we call, "The Edict," 1 in Argentina and 1 in New York City. The edict stated that not only could noone marry a non-Jew who converted, they couldn't even marry a Jew from outside our community unless their geneaology passed muster for 7 previous generations. Anyone violating the edict is considered dead, mourned for a week and then never referred to again.
There was a case in 2004 when a man in New York married a convert and had the conversion performed by 1 of Israel's 2 Chief Rabbis. They considered the man dead and he fought back, taking the case to the Chief Rabbi. The Chief Rabbi then came to NY and argued the case and was told to fuck off hahaha.
In my mum's case, though her geneaology is solid it didn't matter either way. It only matters if a resident of the community marries a non-Syrian Jew. My mum coming from Mandate Palestine qualifies as a Syrian Jew.
In my case, with Rizza, I never brought her into the community, nor could I. I do agree with the edict for a very simple reason: Nearly 80 years old, both Argentina and New York's Syrian Jewish Communities have nearly Zero assimiliation versus 64% for American Jews as a whole. You can't argue with math.
We place no respect in individualism, it is all for the collective.
Back to me...wonderful me...So I entered the Army officially at age 16. By the time I re-deployed from my first post, a firebase on Mt.Hermon, they had beat the religiosity out of me hahaha. In those days they actually beat us. It isn't as bad as Russia where 17,000 recruits die in hazing each year. 17,000 is larger than most armies!
More spontaneous trains of thought to follow...or maybe not since it is time to take my 220 mgs after which my thoughts aren't worth a shit. Ciao...