Breathe In, Breathe Out

Today is Ziggy's yahrzeit...the 17th anniversary of his death on the Hebrew calendar, the 16th of Sivan. His 73rd birthday happened to have been last Friday, the 29th of May. 

In real time, his birthday in 2009 was on a Friday; we had a rollicking Shabbat dinner...complete with the traditional angel food cake with chocolate frosting. My folks had flown in, the Senior Son was home for the weekend, and the Junior son and future Mrs. Junior Son were going to have their tenai'im...their official betrothal....on Sunday. It was a heck of a weekend.  Ziggy witnessed the document, we all signed around him, my machatenista and I broke a plate with a hammer, and everyone yelled MAZEL TOV, even though our hearts were all breaking because we all knew he would not be at the wedding in the fall.

My Steve left the building the next Sunday evening, after sunset. 

This year, the timing just seems too eerily close. And I don't feel like writing much of anything at all. So here's ZJOD published from May 29th, 2002. 

The Tip o'the Day is eerily prescient. 

Adjusting for time zone differences, I was born, almost to the exact
hour, on the 500'th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the
Turks.  This coincidence is a triviality of such small historical
import that even my mother, who took her master's degree in history,
never mentioned it.

To memorialize that long-ago military victory in our family's own
special way, I was unwittingly duped into accompanying the wifely
person and junior son to a 500+ person surprise party.  They enticed
me there by claiming it was the local high school's annual athletic
awards banquet.  On the way to the venue, I bluntly told the wifely
person that this event had better not be a front for some sort of
surprise party because, at my newly advanced age, I just couldn't
take those sorts of surprises any more.

She just smiled and said, "Oh, Honey... I know how you hate that
sort of thing.  I would never do that to you."

This woman can't lie to save her life.

But I have to tell you, I was almost sucked in.

Upon being seated, we were all treated to rubber chicken followed by
a nearly endless array of coaches, each describing in exquisite
detail the determination, work ethic, forthrightness and true grit
of this year's crop of student athletes.  The junior son's name was
even mentioned a couple of times.

Just as the event was apparently winding down, Matt, the school
athletic director (who I've known fairly well for most of the junior
son's high school tenure, and who is a fairly accomplished jokester
in his own right), stepped to the podium.  The entire room grew
silent as he scanned the crowd.  Finally, his gaze swept in my
direction...  and stopped.  Without saying a word, he held my gaze
while he reached into a shirt pocket and took out a folded sheet of
paper.

"Oh, Hell!" I thought.  "The wifely person's put him up to this.
Now he's going to announce it's my birthday and then 500 people are
going to sing that stupid `Happy Birthday' song and I'm going to
have to sit here and act like I enjoy it."

He adjusted the microphone.

In near panic, I began to wonder if it wasn't too late to dive under
the table before the spotlight swung in my direction.

Finally, he spoke.  "Hey, everybody!"  he said with a big grin while
staring right at me, "Thanks for coming!"

Boy!  Was I ever surprised!


On that cake-coffee-and-presents-at-home-later-with-Walter-Mitty
moment, Ziggy's Joke o' the day is from Wendy:

	A man's perfect breakfast:

	He's lying in bed.
	He just got laid.
	She just left.
	He is on the cover of the Wheaties box.
	He's single,
	and his girlfriend is on the cover of Playboy!

	A woman's perfect breakfast:

	She's sitting at the table.
	Her son is on the cover of the Wheaties box.
	Her daughter is on the cover of Business Week.
	Her boyfriend is on the cover of Playgirl,
	and her husband is on the back of the milk carton.

                             Ziggy's Tip o' the day:

	Next time you think that getting older is bad, consider the
	alternative.

       

                            

Kleptocracy Now!

Feckless and his lackey Blanche

In keeping with my desire to keep it short and simple, (HA!) not commenting on President Grifter Felon's newest scam of We, the People would be a dereliction of duty.  

There are actually two parts to this story. In exchange for dropping the ridiculous $10billion lawsuit against the IRS, the IRS agreed to the following: complete immunity for the entire Felon's family and associated enterprises. As per the PBS report, this runs the risk of undermining the fairness of the tax structure by letting these people play by a completely different set of rules.

"This is an unprecedented remedy," said former IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, noting that Trump should be treated like every other American. "People expect the same tax rules and enforcement framework to apply to everybody."

The Grifter-in-Chief, at the same time, provided himself with a slush fund to pay off the January 6th rioters, as well as anyone he wants to give money to. This fund, as established by the rule the DoJ spelled out, has no oversight, no transparency, and prevents any agency whatsoever from going after President Felon and his cronies for accountability for almost 2 BILLION dollars of OUR money. The money We, the People, paid in income taxes. PBS News Hour explains it this way:

President Donald Trump's administration has created a nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay people who say they were victims of government "weaponization," raising questions about whom among his allies and supporters – including those who rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6 – might get payouts from taxpayers, as well as what kind of influence Trump will wield over the fund. 

The Justice Department's $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund," a nod to the country's founding year, is part of a settlement with Trump to end a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leaking of his tax returns, which occurred during his own presidency.     

The New York Times exposed this in an article with the headline “With Trump’s Deal, a Possible $100 Million I.R.S. Penalty Melts Away.” Back in 2010, the IRS busted him for allegedly claiming a deduction against the losses from his failing Chicago tower twice, a crime called felony tax fraud, and has been trying to collect around $100 million (plus interest) from him ever since. 

But this new Thug Fund will eliminate all claims against him, his kids, and his “affiliated entities” and businesses, for all past, present, and future times. So he gets to keep the $100 million (plus interest). And the media — other than that one reference in the Times — seems to have completely ignored it.  

The Anti-Weaponization Fund is set to be administered by five commissioners. Four commissioners will be appointed by the attorney general and the fifth will be appointed in consultation with congressional leadership.  

According to the Department of Justice, the president can remove any of the commissioners.  

The commissioners will create guidelines, take in information and assess whether claimants were victims of weaponization. 

"The commission can do anything according to what was set up yesterday, from issuing an apology to the claimant to awarding monetary compensation," Blanche said. 

Anyone, regardless of their political affiliation, is eligible to apply for the fund, Blanche said. 

"It's not limited to the Biden weaponization. It's not limited to, in any way, scope or form, to Jan. 6 or to Jack Smith," Blanche said, referencing the Justice Department's former special counsel who conducted investigations into Trump. "There's no limitation on the claims."

This is supposed to pay people who feel they've been victims of governmental weaponization...whatever that means. In other words, he can pay off whoever he wants with however much he wants to give them.

This is the kind of stuff Noriega did. Or Putin. Or Kim Jong-Whatever did. This is the stuff of a kleptocracy, and that's what we officially have now. 

How does it feel to be the patsy for the bully who is paying off other bullies to torment you?

If you haven't had nearly enough weird for one day, try Wackadoodle Hegseth's speech to the graduating class at West Point. Scroll down a bit and you'll get to the transcript. Even I had trouble reading the whole thing. It's a doozy. My favorite part? The blanket pardon:

For all those cadets who’ve committed minor infractions or violations of the regulations of the United States Military Academy, before which ordinary and special punishment has been imposed or is being considered to the Corps of Cadets, as President Trump might say, a complete and total pardon.

Is that standard at the military academies? To wipe out any and all disciplinary infractions? I don't know.  Maybe that's just part of this new armed forces they're building to defend the third reich...I mean term. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Did you know they're building a bunker with a high tech hospital wing under the ballroom? Just a thought, but did you ever see the movie DAVE?  Maybe you should. 

We can only hope Melania would be as fabulous a First Lady as Sigourney Weaver.

In our dreams. (Sigh)

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Only leaders who are afraid of their citizens 

are obsessed with secret bunkers.

Putin, Hitler, Mussolini, Khamenei, Gaddafi...

BONUS TIP:

Friday marks the 573rd year since Constantinople fell to the Turks, and 

the 73rd year since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay 

reached the summit of Mount Everest. 

These events are traditionally celebrated with 

angel food cake with chocolate frosting. 

They've Got To Be Carefully Taught

Nicholas Kristof has a hate/hate relationship with the truth. This week's pack'o'lies about Israel training dogs to rape Palestinian men is just one more piece of spewed bullshit that The New York Times as published as "opinion."

Federal Judge Roy K. Altman, a Venezuelan-American lawyer and jurist who currently serves as a United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, published a terrific analysis of Kristof's latest in Substack's The Free Press. A Miscarriage of Journalism at ‘The New York Times’. I would strongly urge everyone to read his analysis of Kristof's lack of journalistic integrity. In it, Altman writes:

But we entrust our fellow Americans with the power to make these choices because we believe that a virtuous people will be equipped to make the right choices—principally because we assume that our citizens will be prepared to discern truth from fiction. And we feel comfortable in that assumption because we’ve devised a system of laws—based on evidence, burdens of proof, and a time-tested set of rules—to help us assess the veracity of contested claims. In this way, the jury system isn’t simply a means of ensuring fair trials. Rather, it’s a way of training free citizens to make difficult decisions for themselves.

Today, this whole system is being undermined by the proliferation of false information—especially on the internet. But it’s one thing to have our geopolitical and ideological enemies—whether China, Russia, or the Muslim Brotherhood—pushing unverified claims about our closest allies into our cell phones. It’s another thing entirely for The New York Times, a supposed “paper of record,” and one of its Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists to offer a story that—in its disregard of basic evidence-gathering norms, its unwillingness to investigate the opposing side’s position, and its inversion of common sense—violates the fundamental rules of fairness and due process that have, for centuries, served as the bulwark of our democracy.

In digging into Kristof's background, I discovered something that is overlooked, even though he actually wrote about it in his first memoir. His father, after immigrating to the US, became a respected academic. His name, Wladyslaw Krzysztofowicz, was changed to Ladis Kristof, and while he has written about his father as a refugee and mentions his father served in the Romanian army during the war, he glosses over what his dad actually did.

Larry Tauber writes about that period in an article on Substack: What Did You Do In The War, Daddy?

According to Kristof’s 2024 memoir, Chasing Hope, “when I was growing up and other kids talked about their dads heroically battling the Nazis, I kept quiet. I did not want to admit that my father had actually for a year been on the same side as the Nazis.”

That may sound like Kristof is making a heartfelt confession. But that’s only if you believe his father, who was of conscription age, served in the Romanian military for one year.

The historical record strongly suggests otherwise.

The facts surrounding Ladis Kristof — born Ladislas Kristofovici — are murky, contradictory, and seem to be shaped by deliberate obfuscation. Even the most basic details of his identity shift from document to document. In his naturalization petition, he listed his birth year as 1918. Yet immigration records from 1952 indicate he claimed to be thirty-two years old, suggesting a birth year of 1919 or perhaps 1920. His birthplace likewise fluctuates across records: “USSR” in one document; “Cernauti, Northern Bucovina, Russia” in another.

These inconsistencies, standing alone, might be dismissed as common immigration-era confusion. But they become more significant in light of Kristof’s conspicuous unwillingness to examine his father’s wartime role with any seriousness or precision, despite repeatedly writing about him and even featuring him prominently in a 2017 New York Times video.

Romanian conscription practices during World War II make Kristof’s sanitized version of events highly implausible. Military service was generally mandatory at the beginning of the year a man turned twenty-one. Depending on which birth year Ladis Kristof actually used, he would likely have been conscripted in 1939, 1940, or at the latest 1941 — not 1942, as Nicholas Kristof suggests in his memoir. If born in 1918, he almost certainly would have served at least four years in the Romanian military. Even under the most charitable reading of the documents, he would have entered service no later than early 1941.

In June 1941, the Romanian army under Marshal Ion Antonescu participated in some of the most savage massacres of Jews during the Holocaust. Romanian forces, often working alongside German Einsatzgruppen and aided by local collaborators, slaughtered between 100,000 and 120,000 Jews in Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Romanian soldiers and civilians also carried out the Iași pogrom, murdering approximately 15,000 Jews, while further atrocities followed in Odessa and throughout occupied territories.

If Ladis Kristof was indeed serving in the Romanian military throughout 1941 — as the documentary evidence strongly suggests — then it becomes nearly impossible to believe he was untouched by, unaware of, or wholly disconnected from these events.

Apple. Tree. Children have got to be carefully taught and it looks like Papa Kristof did a good job.

Maybe if this was Kristof's first foray into opinionated fantasy land, I might feel less inclined to mention it. But it is not. Nor is it the first time The NYT has been caught with their editorial pants around their ankles, especially when it comes to Kristof. Just google 

how many times has kristof posted false information?

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Heard Douglas Murray speak on Sunday,

so the tip really come from him:

"One truth can puncture a thousand lies."

One can only hope.

Monument Man ~ Part Trois

If Ziggy was running this show, this would be the intro. Or, it might be the joke. Hard to say. But on May 7th, a 22' gold leafed President Felon was unveiled at his Doral golf course and blessed with a dedication by "Pastor" Mark Burns, a guy of dubious origins. From Wikipedia:

Burns claimed to have held a Bachelor of Science degree from North Greenville University and claimed to have served six years in the U.S. Army Reserve. In August 2016, those claims were disproved by CNN. Burns attended North Greenville University for one semester and did not receive a degree. Burns served from 2001 to 2005 in the South Carolina Army National Guard, rather than the Army Reserve. Burns said the false claims about his life on his website were the result of the website being hacked. Later, he admitted that he had lied about his education, but said he was attacked because he is "a black man supporting Donald Trump for president."

Sure, it was. 

But this is so עגל זהב...golden calf straight outta the the Book of Exodus....with a twist. The statue isn't real gold, it's cheesy gold leaf, just like all the gold leaf decorations in the Gold House. Apparently, gold plating was too expensive and this was a cheap (and cheesy) work around. Interestingly, so far there is no transcript or video of the dedication ceremony or "Pastor" Burns' dedication/blessing speech. President Felon wasn't there...but he did phone in a few comments praising "Pastor" Burns, who held his phone to the mic so his taskmaster could be heard by the devotees. I wonder why that was. Of course, we all know what happened when Moshe Rabbeinu (our man Moses)  came down the mountain with the tablets and saw the golden calf: a BIG gaping hole. We can only hope.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch,  I said I was stepping back a bit. I listened to Andy Borowitz interview Heather Cox Richardson (my hero) who described her daily letter writing process and I was delighted to learn she functions much like I do. But she said something that really got to me:

Honestly, if I were really getting to do whatever I wanted to do, I would stop reading about this administration and just do history. Right. Because that's really my happy place. But I'm happy to be able to share my world with other people. And I would urge everybody to share their world with other people.

 

Look at what you do. That really contributes to the world. And I couldn't begin to do that. So I'm tired. There's no doubt about it. But I feel extraordinarily privileged to have been given the skills of to help other people through this moment and help them find ways to contribute as well.

 

There's nothing actually I'm prouder of that I've done. So that's all I got.

I don't have her skills, but I do know from the email I get that people do read my stuff. They don't always agree, but that's okay. And she echoed exactly how I feel right now: that's all I've got. For now. I just need to regroup a bit. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Feel free to revisit 

Monument Man ~ Part Deux

May Is Not My Best Month

May is not my best month. 

All these years later, I'm still missing a big, giant part of me; it's just this a gaping sinkhole that never really shrinks. There are days I wonder how I got left behind, but then Little Miss and Young Sir somehow manage to remind me I have a function. They seem to want me around, so I guess it's a good thing I'm here. 

But I'm tired. I'm tired of pissing into the wind and getting it back in my face. I'm getting screechy again and I cannot stand that. 

I cannot keep writing about open-season on Jews worldwide without wanting to stand on my mirpeset and scream. I am tired of talking to non-Jewish friends who think I'm over-reacting when I point out London, Paris, and most of Spain are not safe for Jews. And New York City is moving in that direction. That we are walking targets.  And, when it was suggested we should "stand down," in Israel, I can't keep trying to explain that this is an existential threat, and then ask why we, the indigenous people of that strip of land, have not the right to live there peacefully. And why 78 years of non-stop rocket launches at our civilian population requires a response. 

We may be only 0.2% of the world's population, but we seem to get 90% of the hate. (I made that hate percentage up, but it's probably close enough for government work.) You'd think they'd go pick on someone else for a while.

from Truth Social

I cannot make sense of this administration and its leadership. We have a president who posts shit like this on his social media and then thinks we buy into his delusions of whatever. That gilding of the White House into the Gold House is obscene. So is this cockamamie ballroom and the Arc de' Felon. Oh, did I mention the Golf Garden of Heroes? I'm sure Charlie Kirk's statue will be lovely.

I am tired of WRITING IN CAPITAL LETTERS TO TELL PEOPLE TO REMOVE BULLSHIT FAKE NEWS POSTS. I am tired of being the vetting police amongst people who cannot be bothered to check the veracity of their own posts. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....it's almost 10 p.m. and I've tossed out seven blog episodes so far tonight. 

The truth is, I need a break. 

So here's what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna do a few weeks of The Best Of The WP. I'll put something out on Mondays as usual, and if something radical happens, it's back to work.  Ziggy would approve. Deal with it.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Whatever

This week's tip comes from Albert Einstein. 

The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake,

an almost fanatical love of justice

and the desire for personal independence—

these are the features of the Jewish tradition

which make me thank my stars that I belong to it.

If His Lips Are Moving...

Assassination attempts come with being a head of state. Just ask Julius Caesar; Shakespeare wrote a whole play about that one. So too went Caligula, William II, Charles VII of Sweden, Manco Inca Yupanqui, Tsar Peter III, Tsar Nicholas II, Michael Collins, Abdullah I of Jordan, Indira Gandhi, Olof Palme....just to name a few. There are a whole lot more if you're interested in the list. 

Only 4 U.S. Presidents, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy have been assassinated. The number is relatively low in comparison to the number of attempts made over 250 years of our democracy. 

So it should come as no surprise that I spent most of yesterday and today researching assassinations and assassination attempts. Let's narrow the scope a bit for the sake of this blog. President Obama logged 13 assassination plots, 3 of which happened after he left office. Only one, in 2011, had shots fired, and that was at the White House, not directly at the president. President Biden had some internet threats and memes, but no credible assassination attempts were listed for him. President Felon, however, has logged 21 "security incidents" including this week's. 

Why do you think that is? 

When I first heard about the "loud noises" at the hotel, my first response was what? someone dropped a tray? All things considered, that was a plausible explanation until events in the lobby were disclosed. Being that I tend not to believe anything that comes out of this Gold House until it's been vetted nine ways against the middle, I was reserving judgment. Then I saw video tape. And then I saw the alleged gunman naked and bound on the floor. In reading multiple reports in the NYTimes and Washington Post, one thing kept cropping up: security at the site sucked; it was lax, The gunman was a guest of the hotel, therefore with a roomkey he had some ease of passage. People were getting through to the upper ballroom area with minimal checks. And then this:

Watch it for yourself. Why aren't the security guys paying attention? One would think President Felon is an ongoing target. If I were running the Secret Service and was aware of the number of attempts made on this president, I'm pretty sure I woulda thrown the fear of imminent destruction at anyone charged with guarding the entrance.

Yeah, sure, this guy was trying to kill President Felon, but this looks more and more like a cross between Amateur Hour and The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight. Watch the guys with the guns. Keystone Cops maybe? They certainly don't look serious enough to be guarding the upper level bureaucrats of our government, president included. Let's not forget our current crack FBI director, Kash-is-king Patel who was photographed scrolling through his phone while a guy is shooting up the lobby. Maybe that was because Cole Thomas Allen, the alleged shooter, specifically excluded him from his list of targets?

Administration officials (not including [Kash] Patel): they are targets, prioritised from highest-ranking to lowest.

Then, of course, in the aftermath, come the statements claiming had the Gold House had a proper ballroom, this would not have happened. This is a capture from Truth Social:

Okay. The guy is unhinged. We know this. 

Bemelmans' illustration

My Big Brother called me a conspiracy theorist because I said my bog-o-meter was off this scale on this thing. Granted, Mr. Allen be a real assassin wanna be, but everything around the event is just off kilter enough to make anyone with a pair of eye wonder why. There are too many lapses, too many people saying security was serious in checking the attendees. Too make Ja, sure, you betcha wave-throughs. People noticed. People commented. And Kash scrolled through his phone. 

As the beloved Miss Clavell would say, "Something is not right."

And I stand willingly in that doorway.

Meanwhile, back at the Gold House....

Did anyone manage not to choke Feckless Felon's interview with Norah O'Donnell? It is possibly the lease bombastic I've ever heard him, and his calmness is far from reassuring, it's chilling. Add to that his lips are moving, so the odds of him telling the truth are slim to none. My favorite part his when she asks him about the manifesto written by the shooter. (Go to minute 18)

I recently read an article about how narcissist debate, and one of the core techniques is to shift the blame to the other person. In this clip, Feckless Leader tells O'Donnell she is a terrible person and a disgrace. Here's an excerpt from the whole transcript:

NORAH O'DONNELL:  The so-called manifesto is a stunning thing to read, Mr. President. He appears to reference a motive in it. He writes this quote, "Administration officials, they are targets." And he also wrote this, "I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes." What's your reaction to that?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you're-- you're he-- you're horrible people. Horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I'm-- I'm not a rapist. I didn't rape anybody.

NORAH O'DONNELL:  Oh you think-- do you think he was referring to you?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I'm not a pedophile. Excuse me. Excuse me. I'm not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with all-- stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated. Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with, little's say, Epstein or other things. But I said to myself, "You know, I'll do this interview and they'll probably"-- I read the manifesto. You know, he's a sick person. But you should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I'm not any of those things.

NORAH O'DONNELL:  Mr. President these are the gunman's words –

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:  And I was never-- excuse me. Excuse me. You shouldn't be reading that on 60 Minutes. You're a disgrace. But go ahead. Let's finish the interview.

NORAH O'DONNELL: The other thing that he wrote, in the—

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You-- you're disgraceful.

It's been said before, but this bears repeating: If his lips are moving, he's probably lying. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you need a haircut...Lag B'omer 

 starts next Monday at sundown.

My appointment is Tuesday afternoon. 

Huzzah!

Remembrance and Independence

In Israel, it's already Yom HaZikaron....Remembrance Day. It's not unlike our Memorial Day, but it is, at the same time, vastly different. Unlike America where we compartmentalize everything so we don't have to truly face the enormity of collective pain, there is not a house, a home, a family, a community, or a city who does not feel the pain of loss on Remembrance Day. Twice on Yom HaZikaron the sirens go off: first at 8 p.m. to mark the beginning of the observance, and again at 11:00 a.m. when recitation of public prayer begins in the military cemeteries. When the sirens sound, all of Israel stands still in a moment of silence.

This day is to remember those who have fallen protecting Israel as well as all those who have died because they were present when terrorists attacked. This is not a Jewish holiday or a Christian one or a Muslim one...it's an Israeli holiday for all Israelis. If you've ever been there you know Israelis come in all shapes, sizes, colors, religions, orientations, and opinions. What unites them is exactly that which causes Israelis to rail against lines at the market, the lines at the post office, the lines at every bureau ever invented...but most of all, at their their government. Israelis are vocal about everything but in their shared grief are moments of national silence, of communal remembering, and of shared pain of loss for all families. Not just Jews, not just Muslims, not just Druze, not just Christians, not just Bahai, not just Buddhists, not just Samaritans, but ALL Israelis and ALL those who have perished through acts of terror around the world. 

Immediately following Yom HaZikaron, is Yom HaAtzmaut...Israel Independence Day. As one ends, the next begins. This is not accidental. Lots of people talk about the relationship between the two. Camp Ramah in Wisconsin's Facebook page posted an excellent explanation

Yom HaZikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day) is observed immediately before Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day) very intentionally, and the pairing is deeply symbolic.

The core idea is this: Israel’s independence came at a cost.

Yom HaZikaron honors fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism – those who died defending the state or simply because it exists. By placing it right before Yom HaAtzmaut, the national calendar creates a direct emotional and moral link:

Remembrance → Independence

Sacrifice → Statehood

That sharp shift, from mourning to celebration, is meant to reinforce a few things:

1. Independence isn’t taken for granted. It exists because people gave their lives for it.

2. Collective memory is central to national identity. The country pauses together to remember before celebrating together.

3. Grief and joy coexist. Israeli culture often emphasizes that these emotions are intertwined, not separate.

Historically, this structure was established by the Israeli government in the early years of the המדינה (state), especially after the 1948 War of Independence, which made the connection between loss and independence undeniable.

This is not a new concept for Jews. We are pros at remembering. Mourning and loss is a recurrent theme in our texts, in our poetry, in the very essence of our lives. Since the very first exile from the land, we have longed to go home. How can we forget you, O Jerusalem, when our prayers are uttered facing in your direction? The places of our foundational stories still exist. We buried our dead on the Mount of Olives beginning about 3000 years ago and some graves remain marked. We're not newcomers to this place. But that does guarantee peace with our neighbors or with the world for that matter? 

Obviously not. These last few years have proven that the lies and the hate speech, the slander and the blood libels we have endured for centuries have not abated. There's still a drinking game in Spain during Holy Week that asks, "¿Matar judíos?"  How many Jews did you kill today? We hear the ridiculous rhetoric calling us colonizers. The haters drink the Kool Aid because they need someone to hate to feel better about themselves. We are not required to make them feel better about hate. That's a them thing, not an us thing.

Israelis are a tough, stiff-necked people; we have a right and a responsibility to defend what it our homeland. Together. Jews, Muslims, Christians, Bahai, Pastafarian, Samaritan, whatever. If you are Israeli you are one of us. We stand together. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

This past Sunday, 60 Minutes broadcast Anderson Cooper's interview with Rachel Goldberg Polin, mother of murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin. It is hard to watch, hard to hear. If you have not seen it, stop whatever it is you are doing to watch this interview. The video clips are not recreations; they are actual footage of the event. Rachel Goldberg Polin is a force of nature because she has been forced to be one. She's mother whose child was kidnapped, tortured, and then murdered. Listen to her talk about what the good days were. 

 The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you've never been to Israel, 

you don't get to have any opinion at all. 
Israel is not the place you see on the news.

You have to see it to believe it. 

Photo by Ynhockey