Growing Up Jewdy

Each day, I read stories about Jewish cults and customs, corrupt Jewish leaders and the heinous activities of the Zionist elite. Each day I read about the brutality in the Middle East, the plight of the Palestinians, and the culpable Jewish leaders in America. And each day, as I think back on my personal history, my coming of age in an average American Jewish family, I wonder, "where do I fit in?"

Each day, I read stories about Jewish cults and customs, corrupt Jewish leaders and the heinous activities of the Zionist elite. Each day I read about the brutality in the Middle East, the plight of the Palestinians, and the culpable Jewish leaders in America. And each day, as I think back on my personal history, my coming of age in an average American Jewish family, I wonder, "where do I fit in?"

I am prompted to write this essay because stories like mine rarely get told. It is the story of an ordinary Jewish family, my family.

My childhood drama played on the stage of a secular Jewish family. Dad, who had been raised as an Orthodox Jew, married Mom, an atheist. She professed to be a Zionist, and yet, I cannot help but wonder, if she were alive today, how she would feel about the behavior of the State of Israel.

I was blessed with a sister who is five years my senior. Always wanting to be like her, I followed obediently down the rebellious road that she paved. She refused religious instruction so "little sister" emulated her. My father went to shul (synagogue) alone.

Certain holidays did make their way into the Zaldin household. We had our annual Passover Celebration, we lit candles on Chanukah, on Rosh Hashanah my father made his pilgrimage to the shul and on Yom Kippur, my mother yelled at my sister and me as we headed out the door to spend time doing "our own thing"

"What will the neighbors think?" My mother's main concern echoed behind us.

I did not know much about the meaning behind the holidays except, supposedly, that they had something to do with the Jews fleeing persecution. In an attempt to enlighten me, Dad provided a copy of "Hillel's Happy Holidays". If I indeed read it, I do not remember it. And from what I have learned, since those innocent days of yesteryear, they were not necessarily "happy".

Dad pursued a career in medicine.

"You are wasting your time and money" His father had no empathy for his son's choice and wanted him to take his rightful place in the family furniture business. But Dad was resolute, and so, in the face of extreme opposition, he did various and sundry jobs to put himself through medical school. You see, my Dad had watched his mother die an excruciating death from esophageal cancer when he was a boy of 16. His motivation was to help put an end to suffering.

My father was a dreamer. But he was a lot more. An old fashioned man, Dad was the stereotypical family doctor with the little black bag who made "house calls". Yes, dear readers, there were such things, back in the day. Many a night, the phone would awaken him. Bag in hand, he set out to answer the cry of the sick. Those were the days before Medicare and Medicaid and so, if his patients could not pay, they did not pay.

"Before I die, there will probably be a cure for cancer" He said innocently. He has been dead for 24 years.

I am certain that my father, with his Orthodox background, had read the Talmud and yet, when my sister and I married outside the faith, both husbands were welcomed into the family. We never heard the "g" word. We were never exposed to any racist doctrine. If I had not reincarnated as an Internet essayist, I would never have known about the racist Babylonian Talmud. The secular Jewish people I knew assimilated into the host culture and many of them intermarried. Their children also intermarried.

Last night I listened to Joachim Martillo being interviewed on Lewis News. He is a convert to Islam but has a rich background in Jewish studies. In Israel, he got to experience the evils of Zionism first hand.

In my family, lying to anyone, whether Jew or Gentile, was considered a sin. And so, it was with great interest that I heard Mr. Martillo discuss the Kol Nidre, the most sacred and controversial prayer in the Jewish religion. "There are many non-Jewish Web sites that are alarmed by the existence of this prayer and what they feel is a license to lie and deceive year after year." The "Explaining Kol Nidre" Web site --
www.angelfire.com/mt/talmud/kolnidre.html

Mr. Martillo explained the difference between a vow and a contract, and further research provided me with the following: "Refers Only to Individual Vows.
The teachers of the synagogues, however, have never failed to point out to their cobelievers that the dispensation from vows in the "Kol Nidre" refers only to those which an individual voluntarily assumes for himself alone (see RoSH to Ned. 23b) and in which no other persons or their interests are involved. In other words, the formula is restricted to those vows which concern only the relation of man to his conscience or to his Heavenly Judge "(see especially Tos. to Ned. 23b). http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=340&letter=K

I believe that my father was an unusual role model for ethics. We had a summer cottage upstate where no taxes were required, but our main place of residence was in heavily taxed Brooklyn, NY. When my father bought my mother an expensive coat, he could easily have avoided paying taxes by using the upstate address. And yet, he refused. He did not think it was ethical And furthermore, he felt privileged to be able to pay taxes in America. You see, Dad's family had been in Russia during the Pogroms. His older brother was nearly killed. And so, when they came to America, they literally kissed the ground.

And now it is 2007 and the world is precariously teetering in the balance. Israel is not the dream that my mother had envisioned. The America of today is not the dream of my father. They have morphed into a nightmare where greedy unconscionable elitists make the rules and the ordinary person, Jew or Gentile is merely fodder for the self serving goals of the ruling cabal. I have long since left the Jewish religion, if indeed, I was ever there. I was baptized in 1991 and opened myself to an entirely new reality. And yet, the values of my family of origin will always be a part of me.

The Internet screams about Jewish crimes and Jewish criminals. My mission as an Internet essayist has been twofold. One has been to open Jewish eyes to the reality of their leaders; leaders who have duped them in the past and are duping them again. I yearn for Jewish people to question what is truly taking place in the Middle East. I yearn for Jewish people to question their history and their reported "victimhood". I yearn for Jewish people to become "individuals" and not fall prey to a "consensus trance" imposed upon them by "fear programming". I yearn for Jewish people not to accept the official narrative of events past and not to jail differing opinions. I yearn for Jewish people to rise up against their leaders. And, most passionately, I yearn for ALL Jewish people to recognize that nobody is any better or any worse than anyone else.

In addition, I yearn for non Jewish people to realize that not ALL Jewish people are corrupt and/or evil. Certainly there are families that lie and cheat, but it is important to acknowledge that my story is not unique; many people have grown up in families such as mine. Do not let those who have been corrupted obscure the reality that there are many people of Jewish origin who have love and respect for all of humanity.

I hope my story has been of value. That is the only justification for its telling.

"We are one, after all, you and I; together we suffer, together exist, and
forever will recreate one another." - Teilhard de Chardin.

www.judyandreas.com
JUDE10901@AOL.COM

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