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Showing posts with the label Jews

How they converge and diverge?

Lady in the Lake (Miniseries) Season 1, Episodes 1-7. An intriguing miniseries set at a time when Black Americans had an understanding with Jewish Americans. Even though Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation to declare all slaves to be free, in reality, the Blacks still received the short of the stick. In so many instances, they were discriminated against. The law was not in their favour either. The Blacks had to prosper by themselves despite the restrictions. Some beat the systems and joined the mainstream, while others prospered through an alternative economic system. The evidence of their successes includes the Harlem Cultural Renaissance in the 1920s and the numerous legislative gains through the efforts of the NAACP (North America Association of Colored People). Many of the African-American associations worked in tandem with many Jewish bodies. The Jews also felt the discriminatory vibes of the predominantly Anglo-Saxon majority of America. The earlier interactions between ...

Nippon Antisemitism?

The Russian Protocols of Zion in Japan (2009) Author: Jacob Kovalio One assumes that Japan, being a homogenous country practising Shintoism and Buddhism, would not have issues with Judaism. Surprisingly, Jewish Peril (Yudayaka) has had its roots in Japan's late 19th and 20th-century history. Only when the Japanese aristocrats landed their eyes on Commander Perry's navy fleet in 1858 did they awake from their slumber. At first, the Japanese thought that the American ships were the mythical celestial dragon that they had heard so much in their legends. This became their wake-up call as they realised that the world had passed them by. Emperor Meiji opened the floodgates for modernisation. For a start, his army was no longer hostile to damaged American whaling boats. Business flourished. Cultural exchanges took place. Loans from American banks (owned by Jews) started trickling in. The Japanese noblemen and intellectual's first exposure to the Jews must have been Shylock...

What works for you may not for others!

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (Seasons 1-2) Quite an engaging mini-series, this one. Set in the mid-1950s New York, it tells the story of a Jewish immigrant family as they and the family sails through the obstacles living in the post-WW2 America in the shadows of what the family through during the times of Hitler and Nazi Germany. Having lived through the hell of war, the elders feel that their survival depended solely on their brand of faith in the divine forces. If it worked on them, it should also work well to the newer generation in the bountiful land of the plenty. But the world has changed. The priorities of life are different. The younger ones fail to see the wisdom in older social mores and want to change the world. Hence, the clash. The background is so convincing that the viewers cannot be faulted to believe that they may be watching a timepiece. The setting is so meticulous that every tiny detail is ensured to avoid getting trapped in the web of anachronism. Another th...

Two sides of the same coin?

The Secret Behind Communism (2013) Author: David Duke Growing up, we were fed with ideas that Jews were wronged in Russia (and the whole world). The first exposure to this must have been when we were first given free movie tickets, during special national holidays, to watch films like ' Fiddler on the Roof'. Here, Russian Jews were portrayed as simple people living quiet lives only to be chased around for their beliefs. Whether it is a belief system or ethnicity is another bone of contention as breeding within the community is emphasised by its practitioners. My earlier understanding was that Jews and Communism were on the opposite of the camps. Now, this book by Dr David Duke postulates that in fact both of them are comprised of Jews. Communism is a Jewish construct, financed by the Jewish capitalists and the mass murderers of the 20th century are not the Germans but the Jews themselves. The word 'Holocaust' has been hijacked by the world to refer to the gassing o...

The early silver screen moghuls

Hollywoodism : Jews, Movies and the American Dream (Documentary; 1998)  The main driving point of this documentary is that the American Dream that Hollywood is trying to propagate is no American invention. It is the message brought in by a few Jewish immigrants who escaped the pogroms in the shtetls (Jewish village) of Eastern Europe. They invented Hollywood and owned the six leading studios in Hollywood in the 1920s. The message that they try to disseminate are their own experiences; Harry Warner and his three brothers who brought sound to the motion pictures; Samuel Goldwyn @ Goldfische, the biggest of the independent producers;  Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Studios; Louis B. Mayer, founder of MGM; Adolph Zukor, founder of Paramount; and William Fox of 20th Century Fox. They all came from an area within a 500-mile radius area in Europe, between Poland, Hungary and Russia. They end up living in Los Angeles within a 15-mile vicinity. After leaving the tyranny ...

A taboo subject...

The Jew is not my Enemy (Unveiling the Myths that Fuel Muslim Anti-Semitism) Tarek Fatah (2010) Warning: Only for Mature Readers It is often said it is good to forgive and forget. People also say that to err is human and to excuse is divine. We have seen nations fight in one generation, only to be allies in the next. But somehow, the Muslim-Jewish animosity seems to have last centuries. The earliest record of Jewish betrayal happened during the Battle of Badr (Trench War) when Meccan pagans ambushed Prophet Mohamed's army in Medina. A group of Jews who were chased from Medina for breaking certain treaties joined forces with the Meccans. As the going was tough, and the mighty Meccan army could not infiltrate the Medinians, the renegade Jews tried to coax the Medinaian Jews to double cross. Here, the story turns cloudy. After the win, Mohamed is supposed to have personally killed about 900 Jews to be buried in trenches. The authenticity of such an event has been argued f...