Hardly a day goes by but what I don't stop and silently thank my
mother and dad for teaching my sisters and me to respect all people,
regardless of our differences.
During the eight years I worked for the drapery factory, Bartmann and
Bixer, I became acquainted with a Gaggle of Jewish people of all ages
and all sexes. Stan Silver managed the Seattle factory, and David
Israel was his top salesman. But I bonded with a man about my
grandmother Ludwig's age. Walter Kiksmann, born in the late 1880's,
or the early 1890's. Walter, his wife and her mother escaped from
Germany in 1939. It was a hard, long and dangerous trip. They ended
up in Uruguay, and it took them ten years of effort before they were
allowed into the good old USA. From San Fransisco, they found their
way to Seattle, where Walter went to work at Bartmann and Bixer. The
company had a policy of hiring displaced Jews.
Walter was a rotund man with thinning hair and a ruddy round happy
face. I took to him at once, and he to me. Walter represented
himself to me as a member of the Working Class when he lived in
Germany, yet he spoke 5 languages and had a wide variety of interests.
After I became blind, in 1965, I learned that Walter and his wife
moved back to their home town in Germany. At the time the German
government was offering a pension to displaced Jews. They lived there
for a period of time, and then moved to Israel. Several years passed
until one day I received a call from Walter. He told me that he and
his wife were back in Seattle, in the same apartment building they had
lived in years ago. He told me, in brief, that they learned the hard
way that you can't ever go home. It was too different. So he said
they packed their bags and relocated in Israel. He simply said that
they did not agree with the direction Israel was taking. We were
always going to "get together" and he would tell me of all his
adventures. But life was busy, and I had a new family, and a new job,
and was fully involved in blind and political activities. Some time
passed and I found Walter's old phone number. The people who now had
that number told me that they knew Walter. His wife had died and he
was living in an Assisted Living facility. I called and asked for
Walter. The year was 1987. When I told Walter who I was, he wept
openly. He said he often thought of me, wondering how I, as a blind
man, was finding my way in the world. I told him that I often thought
of him, wondering how it was for a man whose life had been disrupted
so many times, was getting on in the world.
Walter was nearing 100 years of age, and it was the last time we
spoke. Walter was like a second father to me, and of all the handles
that might have been hung on him, that was first and foremost what he
was.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/5/16, Charles Krugman <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I heard the same messages from my parents (nonreligious Jews) and their
friends while growing up. I recall almost being conditioned that
Palestinians and Arabs were different almost inferior but Arabs that came to
the U.S. were different as they were Americanized. I remember this because
we had neighbors of Syrian dissent one was a successful businessman and the
other was our family dentist until he died of cancer. When I was attending
Michigan I had classes with a woman of Jordanian dissent who spent time in
Jerusalem and got to know a Palestinian restaurant owner that I became
friends with. AIn spite of my parents I was never a strong supporter of
Israel and Americanized Jewish kids growing up in the sixties were expected
to buy in to the Zionist movement. I had several friends that went during
summer vacations and spent time on a kibbutz and toruing Israel. but as a
teen ager not could I relate to Judaism I could relate less to Zionism.
Chuck
Chuck
-----Original Message-----
From: Miriam Vieni
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2016 7:36 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Shell Shocked and what happened on DB Review
when I recommended it
Alice,
I wish we could all use that as an excuse. But I have a clear memory of
sitting as a child in my parents' living room, hearing the grownups
rationalize what was being done to the Palestinians. They must have known
something because they were ssaying things like, "Well, they're just poor,
ignorant people, and they don't make good use of their land. The Israelis
will do much better. They will make the desert bloom". And Sanders and
Chomsky were in Israel where one can see new buildings built over ruins of
Palestinian villages. And many Israelis moved into homes that Palestinians
had to leave behind. And from the staart, there were novels and films, all
glorifying Israel, all showing Palestinians as the enemy. Someone wrote
those books and films with a purpose in mind. The Jewish terrorists were
glamourized, remember? They blew up the King David Hotel and people said,
"How terrible", but they didn't go on and on about it, nor did our media.
Miriam
________________________________
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alice Dampman
Humel
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2016 7:57 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Shell Shocked and what happened on DB Review
when I recommended it
I would posit that these things were not as publicized, not as widely known
as they are now. News coverage was so entirely different "back then," not
as
all-pervasive, not as investigative, not as many points of view expressed,
and not as technologically advanced, dare I say invasive, as it is now.
On Mar 30, 2016, at 4:51 PM, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Well, Bernie Sanders, as you probably know, spent time in Israel on
a
kibbutz when he was a young man. That's something that many Jewish
young
people did. Back then, politically liberal people were very
supportive of
Israel. Most older Jewish people can't give up that basic loyalty.
Even Noam
Chomsky, in his latest book of dialogues with Ilan Pappe on the
issue, has
some difficulty. He says, "It was different back then". Well yes,
Israel
wasn't as openly right wing back then but why wasn't it evident to
him, to
the grownups, that the State of Israel was being formed by the
dislocation
of, and the murder of some, Palestinians? Didn't it occur to anyone
that
there was something immoral about the ethnic cleansing of a people
in order
to compensate another people for their ethnic cleansing? Well, it
didn't
occur to me, but even Noam Chomsky?
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob
Hachey
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 4:32 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Shell Shocked and what happened on DB
Review
when I recommended it
Hi Miriam,
Firstly, good for you for having the chutzpah to put out a
recommendation
for Shell Shocked on that list. IT is sad that you had to endure
hostility
as a result of your action.
Secondly, there is no doubt that the Isreal lobby has tremendous
influence
both in congress and among our people generally. Heck, even Sanders
who is
opposed to many of our overseas actions is extremely careful when
speaking
of Isreal.
Finally, I've come in for a good bit of criticism for condemning
Protective
Edge and other Israeli atrocities. I've even been accused of
supporting
groups like al qaeda and ISIS! First rule of thumb wen you dare to
advocate
for anything that is not supportive of the Likud government here in
America?
Shields up!
Bob Hachey
