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 Jews and Blacks were not cordial. Many Jews became land owners and were ruthless businessmen who earned the wrath of the poor Blacks. Things changed later. 

During the Civil Rights Movement, many of the laws of the day, including the Jim Crow laws, were challenged by the movement with Jewish lawyers. Jewish leaders participated in numerous marches organised by Rev King and others. The 1955 to 1966 era is sometimes called the Golden Age of Black-Jewish relationships.

After 1966, the cooperation turned cold as the Jewish community moved higher in the economic class whilst the majority remained poor. Another possible explanation for this rift is the popularity of Islamic-based groups like the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X and the Panthers. The 1967 Six-Day War in the Middle East made many Black leaders and personalities, including Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, express solidarity behind the Palestinians and condemn Israel and the Zionists.

Set in the 1960s USA, this miniseries is mainly the story of two ladies trying to prove to themselves that they make something out of their lives. A 40-year-old Jewish lady who had to give up her writing ambition to get married and raise a child in a conservative, suffocating Jewish household gets an epiphany of sorts to break free from all this bondage. This happened after the much-published murder of an 11-year-old Jewish girl. She itches to investigate the case on her own accord. Through the episodes, we see the challenges she has to face to break from the mould of what is expected of a mother and a lady of the era.

In another parallel story, a young, ambitious black lady of about 30 tries to break from the clutches of poverty and the mob to make something out of her singing and provide a promising future for her kids. She needs to extricate herself from the crime-inducing society and the lure of the gangsters and their promise of a good future.

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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 in Shakespeare's play 'The Merchant of Venice'. He is portrayed as the miserly, greedy and vengeful moneylender who would charge exorbitant interest and stop at nothing to collect his dues.

The Japanese and the Russians had been perennial enemies fighting at their borders for aeons. In 1918, however, the Japanese Imperial Army was sent to support the Russian White Army to fight the Bolshevik Reds. It is said that here, the elusive Protocols of the Elderly of Zions was distributed to the Japanese soldiers. The Protocol is a notorious document that purportedly outlines the Jewish plan of world domination. Some quarters argue that such a book never existed in the first place. At the closest, there was just a figment of imagination from a fictional novel about cemetery, spirits and Satan. It was a ploy by Europeans who had been persecuting Jews since AD 73 when Emperor Titus ransacked Jerusalem and expelled them.


The ember of suspicion and Yudayaka (Jewish Peril) grew stronger as echoes of their ill-intent were fanned by the academia and media after 1919. The Red movement, the Communists, were mostly run by Jews. Karl Marx was a Jew. So was Leo Trotsky. The Jews alleged run their work by proxy, through the work of the banks, the Masons and the Illuminati.

The alleged modus operandi was by breaking family values, increasing individualism, early sexual activity, spiritual rupture of the parental-children bond, non-arranged marriages, replacement of monarchies and domination of media. These social changes were already apparent in Japanese society as the ruling class (emperor and samurais) lost their grip on society and the people became more assertive.

Commodore Matthew C Perry
(not of 'Friends' fame)

Around that time too, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison started distributing pamphlets about the Jew takeover of the world. Their conniving pursuits go back as early as the French Revolution, it seems. We all know about the 1869 gathering in Lviv, which eventually led to the Balfour Declaration in 1929 and the birth of Israel in 1948.

The bashing goes on even in the 21st century in the likes of Tun Dr Mahathir who still preaches about this grand scheme. He gets a mention in this book.

In the Jews' defence, throughout history, they have always been marginalised by the mainstream. It could be because of the peculiar practices or their conviction that they are the Chosen One. In the fringes, for survival, they had to resort to trades that were shunned by the mainstream. They indulged in moneylending, for usury was prohibited by other religions in their vicinity. They prospered in craftsmanship like diamond trade, photography and publishing. Their exile state of existence not only made them resilient. It became a fertile ground for conspiracy theories.

Antisemitism was debated in the 1930s. Some looked at the Jews favourably as they were of 'Asiatic' stock. During the industrialisation era of Japan in the 20th century, bankers, predominantly Jews, were there to finance them. The military, however, clang upon this Yudayaka. They entered an allegiance with Hitler on his anti-Jews stance. In the South-East Asian countries that they overran in WW2, they perpetuated their idea of the Allied forces (through their association with the Jews) a sure proof of world hegemony, to garner support from their subjects.

The Japanese, in wanting to protect their country, society, economy and way of life, immersed themselves studying and debating the contents of the Protocol. In contemporary times, they are doing the same to ward themselves off the 'side effects' of an unabashed open invitation to foreigners who could possibly derail the progress they have made after being flattened out in 1945. 

The debate on the Protocol amongst the members of academia, civil societies and the elite generated keener awareness that hostile, predatory ideologies from abroad were out there to sway the Japanese culture and to derail their national aspirations. 

Thanks to AqSS for input.

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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 thing that makes this comedy miniseries worth a watch is their display of Jewish thinking, peculiar habits and values systems to us gentiles.

Mrs Maisel, the protagonist, is a 30-something mother of two is a go-getter who leads her life dancing to the tune of her two-timing husband and running her Westside household to perfection. Her husband, a part-time stand-up comic, walks out her after an embarrassing performance. He goes on to live with his secretary, working job that he finds unfulfilling.


On a drunken stupor after her breakup, Mrs Maisel walks on to the stage of the bar where he estranged husband used to perform, to rant out her sorrows in a funny controversialist manner. The performance was a hit. 

The rest of the story is about her desperate climb to the stand-up comedy, which was something new, especially for a female performer. Her interaction with her self-appointed manager who has body image issues and used to be a bartender is a joy to watch. Mr and Mrs Maisel continue their on-and-off love relationship. Her parents also continue to find meaning in their seemingly meaningless marriage whilst engaging in a journey of self-discovery.

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

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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 of the 6 million Jews by the Nazis, when in fact, around 10 million people may have perished under the oppressive Communist regimes in Russia. The deaths were masterminded and executed by Jews.

Jews in Russia were industrious people who prospered under their disciplined way of living. Much to the chagrin of the rest of the Gentiles, they refused to assimilate to norms of society. They were conceited by their perceived right way of living was paved by God Himself. They are content donning their own traditional garbs, refusing to wear what the rest seem trendy. Their careful way of life protects them from the rare trying times. That angers the gentiles. The shrewd Jewish business people always stood ahead of economic hardship and emphasised the need for quality education for their community.

To be fair, the Czars who ruled Russia just before the Revolution did pen out plans to integrate Jews into mainstream Russian society, but they chose to remain among themselves, confining themselves to the Pale of Settlement. A literature search indicates that Pale of Settlement refers to a vast region on the western part of Russia, equivalent to present-day Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, East of Poland and others. Jews came to be congregated here after repeated Christian armies tried to convert them. Life was harsh here. Despite their hardship, being the persecuted people they had always been, they became successful in whatever ventures they went into. With the World Wars, many of them migrated to the US (in late 19th and early 20th century), dispersed to interior Russia to escape the German Army or was killed in Hitler's planned genocide.

Jewish thinkers like Marx were behind the idea of an alternative form of economy to capitalism. Again Jews like Trotsky and half-Jews like Lenin execute the concept of a brutal kind of this oppressive ideology. They were supported by faithful generals who ran the secret police Cheka, the precursor of KGB and the Gulags. Many Jews were efficient bureaucrats who executed the leaders' execution orders to perfection. The Russian Revolution was in fact not initiated by the Russians at all. It is said to have been spearheaded by disgruntled Jews who were exiled for subversive activities. Taking the goodwill of the monarchs, the dissidents were instrumental in their fall. Thanks to Jewish bankers from outside Russia, the Communists came to power.

In other words, the evil Jewish bankers and the Communists are both sides of the same coin. The capitalists and communists are working together. Much like the Cola War, Pepsi or Coke, the global conglomerate still wins. And like the cereal war - Kellogg or Cornflakes, it is still the collapse of traditional breakfast and fattening of the foreign capitalists.

Zionism (or Jewish tribalism) and Marxism are said to be children of the same Jewish mother! Winston Churchill and the contemporary leaders were well aware of Jewish involvement in Communism. The Jews were supposed to be split between Zionism and Communism. Churchill went as far as to say that the Jews were to be blamed for every subversive movement of the 19th century!

After Communism planted itself in Russia, nationalism took precedence over the Jewish issues. About this time, the idea of Jewish state came about. Leaders like Gorbachev were more than willing to purge Jews from Russia to settle in Israel.

Jewish migration to the USA happened in three phases: Shepardic (with the Spanish in the 1600s), German (1840s through to WW1) and Eastern European (1880 through to 1924). With each wave of arrival, many industries prospered -garments, cigar, newspaper, drama, food production etcetera.

With their hegemony over the print media and entertainment media, they managed to influence the thinking of people around the world. With their financial control of the most developed countries, they control economies of most countries.

The book goes on to blame all of our current international turmoil to the Jews, either directly or indirectly through their actions. Communism created dictators in Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and East Germany. Jews who migrated to China were the biggest opium dealers. As we know, opium was the means by which the West crippled China. Of course, Russia had a hand in establishing Communist China. Mao even had Jewish as the Health Minister in his cabinet. The Jewish elites started the Workers' Party of America which was the precursor of the Communist Party of America. This party was made famous in the 1940s and 50s when many hearings were conducted to hunt down Russian spies among Americans.

In contemporaries times, the Jewish influence has not waned. Hollywood is their biggest outlet to propagate their ideology. The Neo-Conservatists who made their stronghold in the previous US administration are actually Trotskyites or closet leftist the least. The Neo-Cons were best known for their shenanigans in creating unreasonable fear the world over through their false intelligence and supposed discovery of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

The Jewish agenda is said to be tribalist in nature. It creates mayhem in apparently peaceful countries. They are supposed to have spread Marxist ideology covertly hoping to destroy institutions that the world has built over centuries of trial and error. Their activities widen the gap between the haves and have nots, hence killing the middle class. By stirring the marginalised and the minority, they want unrests. The nuclear family concept is destroyed, and destructive habits like drugs and alcohol are glorified.

Two-faced Janus: the beginning and end!

The author does mention the reason for their behaviour. Generations of persecution or delusion of persecution with self-perceived grandiosity sowed the seed of genes that some have today. Inter-marriages perpetuated the dominance of this trait. The need to survive a harsh winter and the fear runs deep. Thus can be said of many migrant economies like the Chinese and the Indians. But then these people assimilate whilst the Zionist Jews do not. Tribalism in any form, Islamic fundamentalism, Hindutva, Christian Evangelical extremists is problematic.

At the end of the book, one cannot stop but wonder. Is this for real or are we trying to find the easy way out of all shortcomings, as we always have been doing by blaming the other, the bogeyman? Are we so weak as not to be able to assess what we need but to fall prey to fulfil our reptilian mind and follow the herd, plunging head in without thinking?

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 of persecution and discrimination against the sin of being born Jew, they left their homeland in the heart of Europe to seek newer pastures in the New World. Here, the ghost of their past re-surfaced. The American public was not welcoming of their Jewish newcomers. They were ostracised and were discriminated against in fields of banking, business and education. Growing up in the ghettos, these enterprising people persevered. They moved to West Coast with their risk-taking attitude to reinvent themselves. Within a generation, as the joke went, they progressed from “from Poland to polo in one generation,”!

Outwardly these re-invented American exude a nationalist persona. They promote allegiance to the American flag and to whatever the founding fathers stand for. Deep within themselves and their household, they stick steadfastly to their religious beliefs. In their movies, they portray images that behind in their villages. The suffering of the little people is seen as the pilgrims hunted by Native American bandits, a robust maternal character out to defend the family, the looting, the burning in the early Westerns are all reminiscence of their past lives. At the same time, the films try to create a new American society which is more democratic, where blacks, Jews and Gentiles are treated as equal. In real life then, that was far from reality.

The story of the golden era tried very hard to fit Jews in the American society. The process of assimilation had begun. Interracial marriages were depicted as acceptable norms. Came World War 2, these silver screen Moghuls paid their national service. They infused patriotic values in their stories to keep the fighting spirits high.  Washington was working hand-in-glove towards this end. Making movies about Russia, who were their allies, was acceptable. The first generation had become a power to reckon with and could walk shoulder to shoulder with the WASPs (wealthy White Anglo-Saxon Protestants), finally.


The dreams of these moguls fell apart soon after WW2. They were accused of thinly disguising communists values in their presentations. The witchhunt for un-American activities had begun through the House of Un-American Activities (HUAC). Some say that the outsiders (as the WASP always considered them to be) never really recovered from this blow. Actors and directors lost their jobs. Others lost the zest to fight.

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson

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 for ages now. On the one hand, opposers to this narration claim such an event is not even mentioned in the Quran. It is also not in keeping with His previous teachings of not punishing others for the crime of someone else and the Islamic law on the treatment of women and children.

There was also a time when Jews and Muslims had apparently lived in harmony, in Andalusia, for example. Under Islamic rule, many Jewish thinkers including Maimonides prospered.

The problem of justification of Jew bashing had started with the writing of Ibn Ishaq, in the 14th century, of the biography of Prophet Mohamad. In his writings, he described the killing of Jews by the Prophet. Somehow, this made its way to the Hadiths and newer prints of the Holy Book. Extremists groups, with leaders like Banna, Qutb and Maududi, were more than happy to continue the Prophet's unfinished work.

In the modern era, every malady faced by humankind is often pinpointed at the Jews and their secret agenda. Let there an earthquake, a flu epidemic, the communist insurgency, tsunami or even Sunni-Shia divide; the Jews are almost always blamed. What started as a secret meeting in 1895 to decide the fate of the displaced Jews culminate to Balfour declaration and eventually the creation of the state of Israel. This formation invoked the ire of the jihadists for losing part of their land, as the second most sacred mosque where the Prophet is said to have ascended to heaven is situated. What the jihadists fail to realise is that the Ottoman Empire and the Grand Mufti were supporting the losing side of the World Wars, Germany and Hitler respectively.

Paradoxically, the Quran does not condemn the non-believers. If at all, it is the Hadith that does. In one verse, it is said that Judgement Day would only come after the last Jew is slain!

The author goes on to condemn the Muslims themselves for fighting amongst themselves and practising race politics where Arabs perch on the highest branch. Many Muslims societies, long ago, used to live in harmony with other communities. Now, with the new brand of militant Islam practised by believers gives the impression the religion is a hostile one. Many non-Islamic countries who obtained Independence around their Islamic counterparts have reached great heights in term of economic, scientific, social and living standards. Sadly, the Muslim countries still struggle to get their act together. They dream of turning back the clock to Golden Era of Islamic Civilisation.

In the concluding chapter, Fatah takes a swipe at Holocaust deniers. He reiterates that many Muslim fighters too died fighting against the cruel Nazi regime. This includes the Turkestan Army, the many Muslim soldiers buried in Majdanek, Poland, just outskirts of Auschwitz, the Muslim soldiers of the British Empire and Princess Nor Inayat Khan @ Nora Baker who was a British secret agent who died in a concentration camp. Interestingly, the Princess is the great-granddaughter of Tipu Sultan of India who fought to defend his land against the British. She gave her life protecting for the course of the British, fighting tyranny.

Author with Holocaust survivor Max Eisen
Auschwitz, March 2010