Category: Freedoms

Jewish stars

Terrible Things, A Few Facts, and Another Terrible Time to be a Jew

Published on by dgkaye122 Comments

I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to have to write about it, but the world around me is spiraling, especially in my city, and country. Hamas has used their psychological warfare perfectly and has sent the world into a simmering pot of anti-semitism. Right, anti-semitism is nothing new, only Hamas unscrewed the lid off the jar of lies and the world ate it up. I write because I WILL NOT BE SILENT.

From the Universities here and there – and everywhere to Jewish establishments being blocked from business, to police having to guard Jews so they can go to synagogue to pray, and so children can continue to go to school, to the warnings to Jews FROM ISRAEL to Jews ‘across the planet’ to refrain from wearing Jewish symbolism. That’s our freedom!

When Hamas attacked Israel, the world became divided between Jews and Palestinians. You can cut the hatred with a knife it’s so omni-present. When people are uneducated, or don’t bother to learn about what is going on, they choose sides. This war began with the heinous hatred Hamas has for the Jews. Period. Their mission is to wipe out Israel. There is no peace agreement. They aren’t fighting for land or even a two-State country, they are fighting to rid the world of Jews. The Palestinians just happen to be their hostages since 2006 in Gaza. They don’t care about human life – Jewish or otherwise, and use their own as human shields. What people don’t get about this war is it’s not about territory, but democracy. If Hamas and their buddies, Hezbolah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and the whatevers in Syria, under the rule of Iran, can take out Israel, they will no longer have to worry about the West. The tiny spec of a country amidst a vast land of Arab countries has fought for their survival since the beginning of time. Gratefully, the US stands with Israel, and that’s the only thing scaring the Arab world. Sadly, because of Gaza gaslighting the Israelis in this war as part of their lying psychological warfare of spreading propaganda, and sorrowful lack of media showing ‘the odd’ snapshot of what’s going on in Israel, the world has been swayed by lies and social media to fan flames, and suddenly it became Jews against Arabs around the world?

The Palestinians are egged on by their Arab bretheren – I might add, the Arab bretheren anywhere aren’t offering them to come to their countries, but they egg on the Palestinians globally with their hate messages, and who are now having wild protests all over the world with their drummed in hatred. I know the US is trying hard to stomp it out before it becomes a national forest fire. But here in Canada, it feels like every man for himself. People need to learn the difference between Palestinians and Hamas – the terrorist group who holds Gaza Palestinians hostage daily since 2006. There is also the West Bank where Palestinians live, only they have different rights because they’re led by Palestinian Authority who, believe it or not, works with Israeli forces. They are not led by Hamas and happen to live amicably with Israeli Jews. Please learn who the terrorists are.

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This video needs to be spread around the world. People are always so happy to hate and jump on the band wagon of whatever social media is chanting without education. This professor of Columbian University is calling for government action to stop the hatred across campuses.

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I also wanted to share this important video that came out last week. The speaker is none othI also wanted to share this video that came out last week. The speaker is none other than the son of Hamas leader speaking about the terror of Hamas!er than the son of Hamas leader speaking about the terror of Hamas! MUST WATCH!

518,641 views 28 Oct 2023Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas leader, Hassan Yousef, delivers a powerful new message to people around the world that chant “Free Palestine”.

I wanted to share this video that came out last week. The speaker is none other than the son of Hamas leader speaking about the terror of Hamas and the world. A three-minute must listen.

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This war has been the focus of biased media with cameras on Gaza, and the forgotten issue about who started the war, slaughtered over 1400 Jews at a dance concert, in their homes, in their beds. Babies, elderly, children, men, women, and the disabled, stolen or slaughtered in their homes one early Saturday morning on a holiday weekend. Heads severed, babies and others burned alive tied together. Pregnant women had their stomachs sliced open and stabbed, both mother and baby. One baby was put in an oven. Others who ran to their bomb shelters had their houses burned down with them in them. All of the aforementioned, I saw with my eyes as my stomach wretched from both IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) and Hamas videos released. I’ve seen it in various global newspapers, videos, and various world news channels. None of these shown on Canadian airwaves since it happened SO LONG AGO, and the focus is now on Palestine and their terrorist leaders. I will also give a thank you shoutout to Rogers TV and communications for giving us the live Israel channel i24, free in our channel lineup so we can hear and see the truths with our own eyes and ears.

The world has almost forgotten about the Israeli massacre of October 7th and turned their focus to divide and hate. There is bloodshed on both sides, yet the context of this war has been so misconstrued. This is a war between terrorism and democracy, but the world turned it into the Jews against Palestinians, when in fact it’s about rooting out Hamas terrorism. But the damage is done.

Here in Canada, our government is busy allowing Palestinians to have frequent protests, chanting in English ‘free Palestine’, then chanting in Arabic,’death to the Jews’ as though nobody will get it except them. I appreciate the many who translate these videos for Canadians to see what’s going on. Sadly, the Prime Minister or Canadian media hasn’t caught on.

Here is a video of the now typical day in my city since October 7th. The video was taken by journalist Igal Hecht:

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=308&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Figal.hecht%2Fvideos%2F741424954495351%2F&show_text=true&width=560&t=0

Meanwhile the world has drank Hamas’ Koolaid when they started their psychological warfare by announcing that Israel took down their hospital, when in fact it was they who did it because they have no value for human life and use their citizens as human shields. But, the genie was out of the bottle, as the old cliche goes and the world went with it. Tag you’re it, the Jews are back to being ‘the chosen ones’. The terrorists start the rumors and the world plays broken telephone with it.

Hamas is the new hierarchy in the terrorist world. They’re worse than Isis. You remember them, the ones that used to love to chop off heads on video? Did you know in 1936 there were 16.6 million Jews, and now there are 16.1 left in the world. Jews are a mere dot in the world and Israel has fought to exist for thousands of years.

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Look at a map of the middle east and notice the tiny dot of might, surrounded by scary Arab countries, of which one never knows when they may feel like attacking. – Israel would not deny or confirm when that hospital was hit until evidence was viewed, and unlike Hamas who announced it was Israel within minutes after the hit (to initiate their propaganda, sound familiar?), the missile was the doing of Hamas – for whatever reasons, a bad shot, or intentional. So the world stuck with it. President Biden confirmed it to the world, and so did all the sane leaders of the western world, oh, except Canada’s PM, he couldn’t make up his mind who to believe, Biden had long announced the findings. A week later JT announced Canada agrees, it was Hamas. Oh, gee thanks. In the meanwhile, Jews around the world are frightened, and let me tell you, a lot of what’s going on smells a lot like 1939 to me.

This photo taken in Turkey, supposedly a democratic, NATO country.

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Thank you to Barnez Jumah who explained this post he shared: History 101 – The Beginning:

“The land of Israel has been populated by the Jewish people since 2000 BC. Here’s the timeline, in case you didn’t realize that it is their homeland, as designated by Lord Jesus Christ.

1900 BC: Abraham chosen by God as the Father of the Jewish Nation.

1900 BC: Isaac, Abraham’s son, rules over Israel.

1850 BC: Jacob, son of Issac, rules over Israel.

1400 BC: Moses leads the people out of Egypt and back to Israel.

1010 BC: King David unites the 12 tribes into one nation.

970 BC: King Solomon, son of David, builds the first temple structure in Jerusalem

930 BC: Israel is divided into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah.

800s BC: The rise of the prophets, God’s messengers.

722 BC: Kingdom of Israel is conquered by Assyrians.

605 BC: Kingdom Judah is conquered by the Babylonians.

586 BC: Solomon’s Temple is destroyed by the Babylonians.

539 BC: Persians conquer the Babylonians and take control of Israel.

538 BC: The Jews return to Israel from exile.

520 BC: The Temple is rebuilt.

450 BC: Reforms made by Ezra and Nehemiah.

433 BC: Malachi is the end of the prophetic age.

432 BC: The last group of Jews return from exile.

333 BC: The Greeks conquer the Persian empire.

323 BC: The Egyptian and Syrian empire take over Israel.

167 BC: Hasmonean’s recapture Israel, and the Jews are ruled independently.

70 BC: Romans conquer Israel.

20 BC: King Herod builds the “second” temple

6 BC: Jesus Christ is born in Bethlehem

70 AD: Romans destroy the temple

After that, the people were captives to the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Crusaders. Through all of these events, the Jewish people continued to live in Israel. There were more or less of them, depending on the centuries, but there was never a time when the Jews didn’t live in the land. They stayed, they built their communities, they raised their families, practiced their faith and they suffered at the hands of many outside rulers, but they always kept their faith. It is what sustains them, even now.”

I’m just going to say it. I’m so sick of the growing antisemitism, that really isn’t growing, just people’s ugliness is being revealed.Toronto is appalling! Our PM was the last person on the planet to say that HamASS shot their own hospital. He says nothing to make anyone feel better or to even attempt to bridge the hatred, and is more concerned with Palestine, than the Jews in Canada, who are too staying quiet because of all the NON CONDEMNED HATRED going on in my city.

Gaza protests banging down MP doors to demand a ceasefire by the : “Apartheid and Genocide Israelies”, what the world has coined them. Canadian government allows the mass Palestinian protests daily, intimidating Jews, pulling ‘Kidnapped’ hostage posters off wherever they’ve been plastered. They chant ‘Free Palestine’ in English, then change to ‘Death to the Jews’ in Arabic.

Well here’s my piece, That’s not how politics work in a democratic country. You want to be wild animals, go back to where you came from and do that. Here, we’re entitled to freely protest, but not spew hate and death. It would be nice to see anyone with authority in this city stop feeling intimidated and enforce the law. AND FYI, Canada does not make decisions on what the hell the Iraeli army does. Neither does the world! Israel is not going to ceasefire and wait for the murderers to kill all of Israel, WHICH IS THEIR MISSION. So get over yourselves and your terrorist networks. And take your dirty anti-semitism with you!

I’m ashamed of Canada. Nothing from JT, but I appreciate the Israeli IDF keeping ALL Jews in the world informed, such as with this warning video asking that ALL JEWS please refrain from wearing religious objects.

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Here’s a sweet little article from the Hamas Leader I came across in the National Post:

“When Hamas says it is a murderous, barbaric, evil cult that’s pathologically committed to murdering all Jews, at every opportunity, now and in the future, why do so many in the West refuse to believe it?

While many pro-Hamas supporters hail the glorious resistance, spokesmen for the terrorist organization openly stated that if given the chance, the slaughter of Oct. 7 will be repeated over and over again. If you care to read more about this heinous scum and his plans to eradicate Jews, please read on https://nationalpost.com/opinion/hamas-is-very-upfront-about-its-genocidal-intent-why-do-some-refuse-to-believe-it/wcm/49232b14-3403-4653-9eaa-4ae96e5395a8/amp/?fbclid=IwAR1G0LCRIxA3Shq6UArBewsI1eL-kZ4Kx1sQk1tDM9Rov1tpkF2c_Sr3QFU

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I’d like to share this important letter from Canada’s National Post:

Letters: ‘What’s happened to Canada’s “hate speech” laws?’

Living in ‘strange and hypocritical times’

“Re: As Israeli innocents are hunted and murdered, certain Canadian ‘progressives’ choose to celebrate — Terry Glavin, Oct. 8; and The Trudeau Liberals’ deafening silence in the face of Hamas horrors — Vivian Bercovici, Oct. 21“

Article content

“What strange and hypocritical times we live in when a teacher can be removed from his or her job and have his or her career ruined for addressing a student in their birth name instead of their new chosen name but we can have demonstrators in the streets supporting a vicious terrorist organization and calling for the death of Jews and Israel.

What have we become? Freedom of speech and assembly is one of our pillars but not when it supports or calls for violence against another ethnic group.

Where is our virtue-signalling federal government in all of this? England, France and Germany have all empowered their security services to look at who is participating in these tasteless demonstrations and if necessary deport them from their countries. . . you can read more in the link below.

Don Elliott, Richelieu, Que. – If you’d like to read more opinions about Canada’s silence, please continue reading at the National Post.

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In conclusion, I’d like to share this last article from the Canadian National Post, as people cry out, sign petitions and write to their MPs, to please step up to the podium and denounce hatred as they would surely do if they were Arabs, Blacks, Chinese being hated on, but sadly, THEY CANNOT, because they’re afraid they won’t be voted back in for sticking up for a minority – https://winnipegsun.com/news/national/why-wont-politicians-give-a-strong-response-on-anti-semitism/wcm/ecacc07a-5d5e-4751-b432-0aed1ee490e1?fbclid=IwAR35EhF7rRTsPuuDUXOH-3y7QO2XqPUemcSkg7Niis9Y9oMhNTq0fv7bGT8

This video was brought to my attention. It’s almost an hour long, but wow, it’s a clear breakdown on hate and the frightening consequences of propaganda: Douglas Murray is a British writer and political commentator. He is an associate editor of the Spectator and a columnist at the Telegraph and the New York Post among others. He is the author of many best-selling books including The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam (2017), The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity (2019), and The War on the West: How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason (2022).

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History 101

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Because we’re all going to need the prayers to avoid this war potentially escalating into WWIII. If Israel is defeated there would be no law and order left in the Middle Eastern world. And the West will be next on the agenda.

History repeats, just another location ~ D.G. Kaye

©DGKaye2023

Bitmo Sunday book review

My Sunday Book Review – Something a Little Different – Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi

Published on by dgkaye57 Comments

I came across this book, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, while watching CNN and they were interviewing the author, Marjane Satrapi. History has always fascinated me, especially, political history. And when I make new friends of a different cultural background, I’m always fascinated by learning about their culture and history. My review is a bit long because I wanted to touch on some issues, women in particular had to deal with, and why so many fled their homeland when the Islamic Revolution began.

Ironically, I have made some wonderful new Persian/Iranian friends at the women’s gym I belong to. One sweet girl, Asal, who is twenty years old who is so loving and always runs to greet me with hugs, has shared many a similar story with me about her young life growing up in fundamentalist Iran, and her eventual fleeing to Canada with her mother. So when I saw this author being interviewed and she was asked why she wrote this book, I immediately ordered the paperback. This book is a memoir written in graphic black and white comic strip style, twenty years ago. This book is a recounting about one little girl’s life from age six to fourteen, growing up in Tehran, Iran, whose world as she knew it was literally turned around over night in 1979 when the Shah was overthrown and the Islamic Revolution began.

I believe that an entire nation should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists. I also don’t want those Iranians who lost their lives in prisons defending freedom, who died in the war against Iraq , who suffered under various pressures of regimes, or who were forced to leave their families and flee their homeland to be forgotten. One can forgive but one should never forget. ~ Marjane Satrapi – Paris, September 2002

This book is available in Kindle, but due to the format it’s written in, I highly advise purchasing the paperback version.

Get this Paperback on Amazon

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Blurb:

BEST SELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s acclaimed graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.

“A wholly original achievement…. Satrapi evokes herself and her schoolmates coming of age in a world of protests and disappearances…. A stark, shocking impact.” —The New York Times: “The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years”

In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the coming-of-age story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.

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My 5 Star Review:

So many countries have had their share of war – both, internal and external war. Iran has certainly had their share of emporers, kings, and political oppression. In the introduction of this book, Satrapi gives us a brief two-page synopsis of Iran, its beginnings, its wars, and what happened in 1979 when the last Shah of Iran fled the Islamic revolution. And this is where the author begins her story.

Satrapi was six when the revolution began. Her coming of age story begins when she was aged ten. She was an intelligent child from an upper-middle class family who wanted to understand why her world as she knew it, was turned upside by revolution. Satrapi shares with us about all the changes that took place in her country during the revolution, and the year it became mandatory to ‘wear the veil’. She hated it. She could no longer go to school with a mix of boys and girls either. Her privileged and modern life as she knew it, was no longer.

Marjane was an only child, and a deeply spiritual girl. In her very young life, she thought she wanted to grow up to be a prophet, but as her world was changing, this would no longer be possible. At a very young age, she began reading books on empires and autocratic world leaders. She wanted to understand why the demonstrations in her country were so violent, horrible crimes against humanity. Marjane repeatedly asked her parents if she could join them in the daily protests they attended on the street from morning till night, but they wouldn’t allow her to participate. She was tired of protesting alone in her own backyard. But her father told her they could get shot at a demonstration, and refused to bring her along. But Marjane believed that if a revolution was to succeed, the entire population should support it. The revolution was a fight against social classes.

Politics overwhelmed Marja. She was tired of the people in her life ‘disappearing’, and she was tired of same answers from her parents – ‘they went on a trip’. When her Uncle Anoosh reappeared after fleeing political persecution, he told Marja, “In a country where half the population is illiterate, you cannot unite the people around Marx, the only thing that can really unite them is Nationalism or a religious ethic . . . but the religious leaders didn’t know how to govern,” he called it a fake election takeover – many fled Iran while others thought it wouldn’t last. Uncle Anoosh was found and executed. And Marja became angry with God.

The bombings began and the fundamentalists took down the U.S. Embassy – no longer viable to get a visa to flee. The universities closed for two years in order to rewrite new religious curriculum. The middle and upper class feared they’d be forced to wear the veil and perhaps ‘no more cars, back to camels’. Marja found her young world crashing as she feared she wouldn’t get to go to university and become a scholar.

Marja’s parents protested daily, and her mother was threatened for refusing to wear the veil or acknowledging the new fundamentalist government – she ultimately succumbed. It was declared that ‘to protect women from all potential rapists’, they declared wearing the veil was mandatory. There became two types of women and two types of men – the fundamentalists and the modern man/woman. Apparently, the modern woman no longer had a choice but to wear the veil, but in protest, they allowed some of their hair to stick out. To distinguish the two types of men – fundamentalists didn’t shave and grew long beards, and didn’tuck their shirts in, vs. the clean shaven men (mustaches optional) who tucked in their shirts and wore neck ties – a fashion from ‘the west’, frowned upon. New Islamic religion stated that women’s hair ’emanates rays that excite men’. It sure feels to me that women had to tone down their looks so as not to excite men. So sad. It doesn’t surprise me how many Iranians fled the revolution.

Marja tells us that not just the government changed, but many of the people she knew. Marja was told by her parents that if anyone asks, she prays five times a day. Her mother was a staunch fighter for women’s rights.

One year after the protests began, Marja’s parents brought her to one, and Marja shares the violence she witnessed that one and only day she went to protest. And when they began beating women with bats because they weren’t wearing the veil, Marja and her parents scurried home.

In September 1980, Marja’s parents took her on a three-week vacation to Europe, they came back to another war, with Iraq – that was on top of the already civil war going on in Iran. When the Iraqis began dropping bombs in Tehran, Marja writes, “The Arabs never liked the Persians . . . they attacked us 1400 years ago, they forced their religion on us.” Her father concurred, but added that the real invasion had already come from their own government. Everything was changing daily as war was both internal and external in Iran. Their Iranian National Anthem was replaced by the new government’s hymn. Marja’s father had given up on listening to news in Iran that he knew was lies. He’d tune in nightly to his old radio and listen to the BBC.

Once border town oil refineries were bombed, village people fled to the main city of Tehran, food shortages began in supermarkets, and gas was limited.

Marja had to get used to new school protocols, like beating her chest to war cries on the loudspeaker, and celebrating Revolution Day. Her parents along with many others rebelled the teachers. There were strict rules about wearing the veil with NO hair showing – to that statement, and some comic relief, Marja’s dad responded to that teacher, “If hair is as stimulating as you say, then you need to shave your mustache.”

The young boys were handed out golden keys in school, and told if they went to war and died, the key would get them into heaven and they’d be offered a better life in paradise. As young as fourteen years old, they were lured to war.

Soon enough, the family had to keep dark drapes drawn, and had to bomb-proof their house. The enemy was anywhere and everywhere among their own as citizens were swayed to the fundamentalist’s side, devoted to the new regime. There were strict rules: no parties, no card games, no gambling, no alcohol, and of course, the dress code. And one never knew if their neighbor had flipped and become an extremist who would happily rat out anyone disobeying. Marja tells us about one night in particular when her family was out at a newborn baby celebration, with alcohol, and they were stopped on the way home by extremist police spot-check. They smelled the alcohol on her father’s breath and saw he wore a necktie. He was told to get back in the car and they would follow him home to search his house for alcohol, but that one time they were lucky that money still talked and Marja’s dad bought them off. The persecutions got worse in Iran as the wars progressed. Besides wearing the veil in school, no nail polish or jewelry was permitted either. But food was becoming more available from the black markets – if you had the money.

Marja shares another scary story with us. She tells about the day she went out wearing her new American Nike shoes and a Michael Jackson badge she wore on her jacket. These were items no longer available in Iran, but her parents had taken a short trip to Turkey and bought some items for her that Iran saw as Western apparel. There was now a new extreme women’s branch called, The Guardians of the Revolution. Marja was stopped on the street by some of those women, they told her ‘decadence is forbidden’. Marja considered that her lucky day when she was let off with a warning instead of being taken to headquarters where ‘people have been known to disappear for days’.

At fourteen years old, Marja was wise beyond her years and a self-proclaimed rebel. If she chose to wear jewelry, the teachers would take it off her, never to be returned. And one day, Marja lost her constraint – the day the principal tried to take her bracelet from her, Marja whacked her so hard, she fell. Marja was expelled. Through connections, her parents got her into another school. But that didn’t last long before Marja called out the teacher for her lies. At that point, Marja’s parents arranged to have her sent to school in Austria, where they had relatives. They were petrified that their daughter’s brevity would land her in jail or killed. Her parents told Marja they would follow in a few months. But would they?

With breaking hearts, her parents took Marja to the airport so that she could live in freedom and get the education she deserved, and to allow her to be the child she needed to be.

I shall look forward to reading the second book, Persepolis 2, where Marjane returns to Iran as a young adult after fleeing the oppression.

NOTE: Thanks to Olga for informing me below, in comments, that there was a movie version of this book that I wasn’t aware of. Here is the Youtube trailer below:

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Here’s a preview of Persepolis 2 – the return of Marja and the escalation of Nationalist Law

©DGKaye2023

Bitmo Sunday book review

Sunday Book Review – Well Behaved Wives by Amy Sue Nathan

Published on by dgkaye45 Comments

My Sunday book review is for Amy Sue Nathan’s – Well Behaved Wives. This book takes place in the early 60s where most women were coming into themselves and waking up for and beginning to stand up for their equal rights. But there are many places where that kind of ambition and talk is just nonsense. Ruth Applebaum is the main character and will have you cheering for her all through the facade she must keep up, hiding her true ambition.

This book is available on Amazon

Blurb:

Perfect wives, imperfect lives, and upending the rules of behavior in 1960s America.

Law school graduate and newlywed Ruth Appelbaum is acclimating to life and marriage in a posh Philadelphia neighborhood. She’ll do almost anything to endear herself to her mother-in-law, who’s already signed up Ruth for etiquette lessons conducted by the impeccably accessorized tutor Lillian Diamond. But Ruth brings something fresh to the small circle of housewives—sharp wit, honesty, and an independent streak that won’t be compromised.

Right away Ruth develops a friendship with the shy Carrie Blum. When Carrie divulges a dark and disturbing secret lurking beneath her seemingly perfect life, Ruth invites Lillian and the Diamond Girls of the etiquette school to finally question the status quo.

Together they form an unbreakable bond and stretch well beyond their comfort zones. For once, they’ll challenge what others expect from them, discover what they expect from themselves, and do whatever it takes to protect one of their own—fine manners be damned.

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My 5 Star Review:

This story is set in mid-upper class suburb of Wynnefield, Philadelphia, early 1960s. This is where Ruth has moved to with her newlywed husband Asher after she graduated law school in New York and eloped with Asher. They are living with Asher’s parents Shirley and Leon, with the secret that Ruth is a liberal woman who is studying for the bar exam, and decide not to tell Asher’s parents because his pushy mother Shirley expects Ruth to be an obedient, good Jewish wife and be subservient to her husband.

Shirley decides to send Ruth to her friend Lillian’s private housewife etiquette school at her home where a small group of girls learn how to become the perfect wives, shop, cook, clean, have babies, praise their husbands, and of course, after a day’s work, make sure they get changed into fancy dresses and put on make-up to greet their husbands when they return from a hard day’s work at the office, complete with a cocktail in hand upon their return – almost Madmen-esque. Except Ruth is a sharp and educated young woman and has seen and dealt with things growing up and living in New York that this group of girls she meets are oblivious to – until they become woke.

Ruth came from a family where women were treated equally and she lost her mother at four years old. She is forward thinking for the times. She didn’t want to upset the apple cart by sharing her becoming a lawyer intentions with anyone, until she befriends a few girls in the etiquette class and reveals her education to one of them. These girls also went to college, but not so much for the education, but to snag a husband. Ruth also volunteered to help abused women while back in New York, and somehow observes that there is indeed abuse going on in high society where she now lives, which isn’t exposed, nor believed around the good family value circles she’s now living among. The other girls in her group are Carrie, still childless with a secret, Irene who was made to give up her nursing career once married, and now has four young kids, and Harriet, newly engaged to be married, and both envious and curious about Ruth’s ambition.

Through the story we learn that Lillian’s seemingly perfect life isn’t as fulfilling as she wishes it could be Lillian could have had a career too, she comes to realize, once she learns how independent Ruth is. We can sympathize with Lillian, despite how she comes off at first as ‘Miss Manners’, as we get to know more about her sad childhood that comes to light in conversations, discovering she was raised by her grandparents because her mother was put in an institution when Lillian was only eleven and her father was dead. Until one day, Lillian discovers an old photo of herself with her parents, which compels her to go visit her institutionalized mother – with said, dementia, to see if the picture stirs anything of recognition – then a whole new kettle of fish is discovered – and a terrible secret exposed about what caused her mother to be institutionalized.

Ruth’s husband is crazy about her but keeps putting off the time to share Ruth’s ambitions with his parents. Ruth befriends one of the girls in particular and shares her secret that she has graduated law school and studying for the bar. She suspects this friend is being physically abused by her husband, but the girl denies it and makes excuses for her husband and tries to shut Ruth out of her life, afraid to cause trouble. But Ruth instinctively wants to help her, because it’s part of who she is and what she does – defend powerless women. Later in the book the women are forced to confront the realism of domestic abuse and many secrets of the past are revealed about Lillian and Shirley’s past, and secret lives.

This story takes on many issues about women back in the early 60s. Society dictates what’s expected of them, but some have a voice and go against the norm. Spousal abuse in an upper class surburbia just couldn’t be possible. Respectable men with important jobs would never abuse their wives, would they? And awakenings stir on the topic of mental health, which back in those days didn’t take much to have a woman committed for hysteria or any other dispicable label they could place on one to have them certifiably locked up because their men declared them so.

This book was a time capsule about the place of women back in the early 60s, a nod to how far we’ve come since then, but then again, how much further we have yet to go. I enjoyed this book so much – the characters, the issues, and the development of these ‘Diamond’ girls who learned to take their power. The writing was beautiful, and I should look forward to reading more from this author. At the end of the book, the author offers many resources for abused women to seek help. I’ll definitely be reading more from this author.

©DGKaye2022

Bitmo Sunday book review

Sunday Book Review – Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Published on by dgkaye60 Comments

My Sunday Book Review is for a moving children’s book (ages 9 +), Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. I typically don’t read children’s books often, but I do read a lot of historical fiction, and I came across this book while I was looking at two books Robbie Cheadle had written reviews for and talked about these books written for children to help them understand in their terms about the wars and politically incorrect things humans do to humans. I was curious to read such a book to see how an author could write for the young ones to help them understand the tragedy of WWII.

This book was written in 1989, yet has over 10,000 reviews, many of them from recent years, and many from teachers and parents who’ve read this book to their children. This book is also in school libraries.

This is the heartfelt story of Annemarie Johansen, a Danish girl, and her best friend Ellen Rosen during occupied Denmark 1943. Nine year old Annemarie is a fictional character whose story the author based on true stories she learned of from a friend who lived in Copenhagen during the German occupation, and the sacrifices the Danes made to save most of their Jewish population from capture. Beautifully told with many lessons, teaching children about loyalty and compassion. Denmark surrendered to the Germans in 1940 because their country was too small and not a big enough army to defend themselves. It also explains the story about the Danish King, King Christian, who loved his people and rode on his horse, unaided by guardsmen, to greet the people of his city, daily, even through the war – a story that is documented, and was told to the children as a fairytale to keep them inspired and to know their king loved them, despite the takeover of his country. No doubts Hans Christian Anderson was Danish and well ahead of his times with his famous fairytales and plays!

Blurb:

The unforgettable Newbery Medal–winning novel from Lois Lowry. As the German troops begin their campaign to “relocate” all the Jews of Denmark, Annemarie Johansen’s family takes in Annemarie’s best friend, Ellen Rosen, and conceals her as part of the family.

Through the eyes of ten-year-old Annemarie, we watch as the Danish Resistance smuggles almost the entire Jewish population of Denmark, nearly seven thousand people, across the sea to Sweden. The heroism of an entire nation reminds us that there was pride and human decency in the world even during a time of terror and war.

A modern classic of historical fiction, Number the Stars has won generations of fans.

“Readers are taken to the very heart of Annemarie’s experience, and, through her eyes, come to understand the true meaning of bravery.” (School Library Journal)

My 5 Star Review:

In this story, the author expresses events that occurred with such an easy to understand and compassionate style, teaching history through simpler and metaphoric explanations as used to explain to the children what they were seeing and hearing on their streets, and in public anywhere. For example, when the Danes sank their own navy in Copenhagen harbor before the Germans could take them for their own use, the explosions as ships were burned, were loud and lit up the skies, in the book, the parents would tell them they were fireworks to entertain the children. The author has a wonderful way of conveying the scary events in a way that lets them absorb, what lightens the way to teaching.

A well conveyed story with genuine understanding of a child’s mind – example: little Kristi, Annemarie’s five year old sister, is used to seeing German soldiers on every corner in their neighborhoods as Annemarie tells her bestie, Ellen Rosen, reiterating Kristi is only five and that’s how she grew up in five years of occupation. She’s used to that, that’s all she knows. It’s the nine year olds who were born in freedom and watched their world taken away from them. A very clever telling.

This is a timely book still. And I should think everyone, any age above nine could read this and learn.

A beautifully told Afterword is at the back of this book, where the author authenticates the events that took place are all truth from the people who witnessed. She has a light way of writing on some gloomy subjects and does a great job of expressing – gently, heavy events. She authenticates events and enlightens as to what were facts and which were fiction. Yet, her fictional characters represented actual people’s circumstances. When she brings in Peter who worked for the resistance and was close with Annemarie’s family, Peter was fictional, based on a true person she read about that worked for Resistance.

A good and current reminder timely about the fragility of democracy.

The author reiterates the part of the book where it was the Jewish High Holiday, the New Year, and 1943 now, Jews were still allowed to be in public, (which I sure wouldn’t have gone to synagogue with German SS standing on street corners.) And on this holy day,the Rabbi warns the congregation in time to leave home because the Germans had asked the Rabbi for a ‘list’ of members and they were going to be taken and ‘relocated’. The Rabbi found out as a favor from someone in the high up ranks. Most Jews, except the non believers, left that same night. Most Danes took them in, took care of them and eventually, got them off to Sweden. Only weeks after that holy day, almost the whole 7000 population of Danish Jews were eventually smuggled across water by fishermen to Sweden. These are just some of the things we learn about history, in easy to digest stories.

A fantastic historical telling in easy to read comprehension for children 9 and up to help learn about Danish occupation during WWII.

©DGKaye2022

the world

Visionary Writers of Books and Movies from Decades Ago

Published on by dgkaye53 Comments

Recently, I was chatting in comments with my friend Sue Dreamwalker about one of her posts about the state of the world and what we have to do to help make it a better world. Something she said sparked a famous quote I still use from way back in 1976 from the movie Network, this classic, infamous line: “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.”

The storyline back then, uncannily was written as fiction, but so fitting for current times. The basis of the story was a fictional news station – UBS Network during the 1970s when terrorism was the new up and coming violence that was high up in the news. The aging news anchor, Howard Beale, played by the iconic, Peter Finch, gets fired as the new dawn of ‘ratings on TV’ determine your worth as a news anchor.

During that era, there was plenty of turmoil going on, not unsimilar to today’s world – pre – our technology driven world where there were no tech devices and we relied on newspapers, radio and TV for world news. TV ratings became tied to profits with advertising being the bread and butter of revenues. This was also a time of no cable news outlets and a limited amount of national news stations.

Howard Beale becomes angry as he sees the writing on the wall, greed is taking over service and loyalty, as plenty of ugliness was going on at the time. Howard ultimately, goes on a tirade On Air, threatening to kill himself live on air, and subsequently, stirs up huge ratings. His famous quote from this tirade: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.” Beale goes on to tell the audience how they are being duped with news that are lies and coverups, as sensationalism becomes a good hook for ratings.

Here a few more poignant quotes from some of Beale’s speeches:

“But, man, you’re never going to get any truth from us. We’ll tell you anything you want to hear; we lie like hell…”

“Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn’t come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people…”

I rate this movie one of the greatest movies of the times that depicts humanity and greed, and is more than relevant today. Here’s the infamous scene below where Howard goes on a tirade, all the while Faye Dunaway, his boss, starts to get all excited because his wrath is great for their ratings. But he puts out a wake up call and the people respond: (Finch won an Academy Award particularly for this scene)

I find it almost frightening that quite a few books written back in the 70s and 80s in a fictionally created story, have come, and on their way to coming to fruition. 1984 by George Orwell, wrote essentially, about Big Brother. Margaret Atwood’s horrifying tale of the Handmaids is essentially, parallel to what’s happening in the US now with the crushing of Roe v. Wade and women’s rights.

And let’s go back further to Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World, written in 1932, his most classic masterpiece that was mandatory reading in my high school. A story about world controllers said to be creating the perfect society through brain-washing and genetic engineering.

Not scary enough? How about Sinclair Lewis’s book – It Can’t Happen Here, a cautionary tale about how craftily a government gets taken over by fascism, and turns it into an authoritarian scary country all in the name of power and greed, demonstrating the fragility of democracy – also written back in 1938. Hmm, almost sounds like a scenario that tried to play out in 2020. Then there’s Ray Bradbury’s, Farenheit 451 where a fireman takes on destroying books in fears that people may learn too much and not be able to be controlled. Hmm, again.

Those are just a few books to mention, then referred to as dystopian genre, but if you go read reviews on these books where people who’ve read them decades ago, as well as the younger generation reading now, there is a common thread in comments, and that is the revelation that these stories were written so long ago as fiction and are becoming real life, and all generations are relating the same, collectively.

Did all these writers write about their fears of the future, or for sheer entertainment?

I’m an addict when it comes to reading reviews. I read reviews for everything I buy online, most especially books. Perhaps, that’s why I enjoy writing reviews. If you learn to take the majority of reviews as relevant and honest opinion, and also read the one and two star reviews, we usually find that the majority of the reviews will give a truthful opinion and review. You will also find, on a mostly 5 star rated book that has a few low star reviews, those reviews are usually, nonsensical or irrelevant. Many uneducated reviewers will rate an author’s work or a product with low stars because they are pissed at their untimely or shabby delivery of the product. This has nothing to do with the book or the product, yet seeds doubt in a potential buyer’s thoughts.

But I digress, and wanted to leave you here with some comments people left on the video clip above of Howard Beale’s madness speech:

The comments I’ve chosen to share below are just a few of the over 4400 comments on the video, and most of them all saying the same in personal ways:

“Is it weird that this made my cry? The energy is so contagious”

“God this scene is so relevant in today climate!”

“America in 2020: “I’m apathetic as hell and I’ll take whatever you give me as long as I have my Netflix.”

“This is exactly the problem, people think that just being mad and telling everybody and then going and sitting back down in your armchairs is gonna fix anything. Don’t tell people you’re mad, do something about it”

“One of the greatest movies ever made! So prophetic, so relevent, so true. From 1976. We are living this right now!”

“Tears in my eyes because this is so close to truth. I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

“45 years later, still feels relevant, arguably even more so now.”

106REPLYView 4 replies

“If you ask me. I certainly think it’s time we all start getting ‘mad as hell’ and get educated on what is happening in our world.”

“He won the Oscar for this scene alone.”

“I remember when this aired on tv. My kids went to the window without me knowing it and they started yelling that they were as mad as hell and weren’t going to take it anymore. Then, slowly from one neighborhood to the next the chorus was taken up, dogs started barking and you could here the kids laughing from one house to another. Will never forget. Hard to believe it has been 44 years ago that happened.”

“This is with no doubt one of the best speeches in the whole history of cinema. What a goosebumping performance!!!”

“Just one of the greatest movies ever made. Still as relevant today as it ever was. Everyone needs to watch it”

“How did so many of the cautionary tales from the 20th century, end up becoming the instruction manuals for the 21st?”

“One of the greatest movies ever made! So prophetic, so relevent, so true. From 1976. We are living this right now!”

..

Personally, I think we should all, collectively, be mad as hell and take heed to truth, compassion, and be doing good things to make the world and this planet a better place to live in, not just for ourselves, but for the generation(s) that will follow.

©DGKaye2022

Bitmo Sunday book review

Sunday Book Review – Why Didn’t They Leave by Eva Hnizdo – WWII #FamilySaga

Published on by dgkaye48 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Book Review. Today I’m reviewing Eva Hnizdo’s historical fiction book, taken from memoir – Why Didn’t They Leave? . This book was right up my reading alley. The book begins in the late 1930s Czechoslovakia just as WWII is heating up. A family saga that takes us into the life of three generations of women – Franzi, her daughter Magda, and spans through the decades of change into the early 2000’s as told by Magda’s daughter, Zuzana. This is a story of life-altering change, fear, humanity, and how each generation of women coped with war and its devastating effects on body, mind, and spirit, and an understanding for Zuzana born of another generation, struggling to learn why her relationship was strained with her mother from resentments to a final understanding.

Blurb:

You can’t ask for asylum in another country just because your mother drives you nuts, so when 19-year-old Zuzana flees from communist Czechoslovakia to England in 1972, she says she just wants freedom. Her relationship with her mother, Magda – a Holocaust survivor who lost most of her family in the concentration camps – is toxic and Zuzana finds happiness in London with a loving husband and beautiful son.

But when her mother dies, Zuzana is crushed by guilt and feels an overwhelming urge to discover more about her family’s tragic history. So, she embarks on a life-changing journey, discovers some incredible stories and tries to answer the question which haunts her: Why didn’t they leave?

“Eva Hnizdo’s Why Didn’t They Leave illuminates the lives of one extended family from the beginning of Naziism. With meticulous detail and heart-wrenching scenes Hnizdo offers answers through her characters’ actions as to why some chose to remain in their homeland and others fled. A story filled with history and heartache… survival and hope.” – Julie Maloney, author and founder/director of Women Reading Aloud

“Eva Hnizdo has turned her own story into a gripping work of fiction that follows a secular Czech Jewish family’s fortunes during World War Two through communism to a multi-cultural life in Britain. Her book says much about prejudice and tolerance, survivors’ guilt and the emotional challenges of motherhood, all through the voice of her extrovert and sexy heroine.” – Brigid Grauman, journalist and author of Uncle Otto’s Puppet Theatre

“Zuzana is haunted by the choices that her family made during the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia and later during the Communist regime. Her discoveries make for a compelling story of loyalty, love, and courage.” – Jacqueline Sheehan, author

Eva Hnizdo is a Jewish Czech, born in Prague in 1953. She is the granddaughter of a man who lost his life by deciding not to emigrate in 1938, and a daughter of parents who, after surviving the Holocaust, spent most of their adult lives under an oppressive communist regime. Eva studied medicine at Charles University in Prague and became a doctor. She escaped to the West in 1986 and obtained political asylum in the UK in 1987 with her husband and two sons. She worked as a full-time GP partner at the same surgery in Watford for twenty-three years. Now retired, she spends her time writing.

My 5 Star Review:

Magda is 13, it’s 1940 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The Germans are taking over the country and Magda and her brother Oskar have already been booted from school, while their mother is sewing yellow Stars of David on their clothing. At first Magda thinks the stars look cool, then quickly realizes after getting pushed and shoved on the street, the star is a calling card for attention. Magda’s family was privileged and Magda’s mother Franzi and her husband Bruno did well with buying off SS agents by giving them many family possessions to avoid deportation to Theresienstadt, but by 1942 her family was finally deported. Some survived, some didn’t. When liberation finally came, Magda and her mother lived through the brutal and lean times and were lucky to be given back their home in Czechoslavakia.

Magda at 18 reinserts herself back into the school system and studies hard to graduate high school after missing four years of school and succeeds. She marries Mirek after she graduates and they live with her mother Franzi. Franzi mourns the loss of her husband, her son and all others while Magda wants to go on, avoiding the memories and deaths. By 1948 communism was taking over the Czech oslovakia and government was taking over private businesses, those who didn’t comply were sent to jails. It was like war was back but within their own country. Magda and Mirek were urged to leave in the late 40s, but Magda didn’t want to leave her mother. By 1952 they were stuck there. Anyone caught trying to leave the country was jailed.

In 1953 Magda gave birth to daughter Zuzana and was happy to let her mother Franzi do everything and look after her daughter while she kept occupied, entrenched in her job. By this time Mirek was already cheating on moody Magda. Magda decided she didn’t want her daughter to be Jewish so she convinced her unwilling husband to have Zuzana baptized to protect her from being a persecuted Jew, as anti-semitism was running rampant even after the war, especially while Czechoslovakia was under communism. When Zuzana was age 9, Mirek left Magda. He was tired of her whining and lack of interest in cultural things he liked to do. And he wasn’t happy about not giving their daughter a religion to practice, as Magda only wanted the baptism to protect her child from future incidence of anti-semitism, without teaching her about any religion.

In the mid 60s, Magda went to visit Bavaria. She was stunned at all the beautiful goods for sale in stores – something they didn’t have in the Czechoslovakia. Her pent up anger at Germans had her stealing from stores because she felt entitled after the Germans seemed to have stolen much more from her. Her passive- aggressive anger lingered.

By 1964, Zuzana was a young teenager who protested all her mother’s good intentions for her. Magda tries to send Zuzana for dance lessons but Zuzana doesn’t like it, doesn’t like girlie things or dresses. Magda wants to give her daughter everything she didn’t have, but Zuzana is rebellious. Zuzana prefers wearing pants and reading books to dresses and parties. Magda is often bitter at her daughter’s reactions to all her plans for her, as though Magda wanted to live what she missed out on vicariously through her daughter. Magda often mumbles to herself that her daughter doesn’t know how lucky she is to have access to clothes, classes and adventures as Magda internally remembers her time imprisoned during the Holocaust. But Magda stays firm in her decision not to tell Zuzana about her imprisonment or how so many family members actually died in the Holocaust. She never even told Zuzana they were really Jewish.

Part two of the book is Zuzana’s story in the year beginning back at 1966, til the early 2000s. Now married Zuzana with a 13 year old son, Adam, tells her husband Harry that she changed schools when she was a teenager where she could learn more languages, adding that her mother got her in through black market connections, which she reiterates was really such a thing.

In 1967 Zuzana’s Uncle Otto and his wife came back to Czechoslovakia to visit his remaining family and he went to the synagogue with Zuzana, her mother and grandmother Olga. This was the first time Zuzana realized that it was not only the communist anti-fascists who were killed in the war, but innocent people, including her own family. Until then, Zuzana had been sheltered from knowing about war and the fact that she was an actual Jew. As an avid book reader, Zuzana began to read ‘different’ books that were starting to appear on the shelves – stories about the Holocaust.

As a late teen, Zuzana left the country, organized by her rich Uncle Otto and moved to England where she went to university and lived out her dreams of freedom, education, meeting people from different races and falling in love with her to be black husband Harry who became a pharmacist.

Zuzana felt she didn’t love her mother because Magda nagged her all the time and never gave her daughter a compliment, almost trying so hard to force her daughter to do the things Magda never had the chance to do. The tension remained between mother and daughter throughout the story until Magda’s ultimate death, when Zuzana learned from Uncle Otto what really happened to their family during the war, and this opened up a world of curiosity for Zuzana about her real heritage inspiring her desire to travel to America to meet the sparse family who survived the war and ultimately, moved to America. Then Zuzana gets the rude awakening about how her mother survived and the PTSD effect it left on Magda that made her become the way she was. She meets up with aunts, uncles and cousins who were survivors and descendants of survivors, and her new discoveries give her a new sense of why her mother acted the way she did, discovering her mum not wanting to talk of what she lived was a shield for herself and the PTSD she suffered through the rest of her life from what she lived through. Zuz learns that she shouldn’t have judged her mother and once Magda dies, Zuz’s grief becomes overwhelming. As Zuzana begins to have regrets in this new appreciation for her mother, we begin to learn the true effects the war had on this one family.

This is a story about a family caught up in the brink of war, during the war, and their lives in the aftermath. It deals with racism, anti-semitism, communism, humanitarianism and inhumanity. Fascinating on many levels with the intricately woven characters and going deep learning how and why these people were shaped. Yes it takes place during the Holocaust, but it’s about people’s individual lives, living through hell, and how they become after. This is the story of one once large family torn by war, how they survived, why some left in time, and why some chose to stay behind.

©DGKaye2022

Poetry challenge

Colleen Chesebro’s #TankaTuesday Weekly Poetry Challenge No. 272: #Tastetherainbow-Color Poetry ~Senryu

Published on by dgkaye52 Comments

It’s been awhile since I hopped on to one of Colleen Chesebro’s Poetry Challenges, and as one known for not tolerating injustice, I felt compelled to join in this week’s poetry challenge with a Senryu. This week’s challenge we are free to choose any form of syllabic poetry we like, but must include a color.

Black hearts, empty souls
Stealing freedoms, women's rights
Darkness reigns Supreme

If you’d like to join Colleen’s weekly challenge, please visit the original post.

©DGKaye2022

kindness compassion

Goodbye #WATWB We are the World Blogfest

Published on by dgkaye54 Comments

As many of you know, I have been a participant of the #WATWB for almost five years. This was a group of authors who posted something positive every Friday on the last Friday of each month to deflect from some of the negativity going on in the world. While I was on winter blog break, I didn’t know that March was the last month for this.

It was nice to be part of a set scheduled posting, but that doesn’t mean we can’t randomly share posts on goodness at our leisure or whenever we come across something worthy of sharing. So this past weekend I was feeling a bit nostalgic and was surfing through some different genres of music videos on Youtube and came across one of my favorites by Tim McGraw – ‘Humble and Kind’, and another classic relic by Teddy Pendergrass, sung when he was still lead singer of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes – ‘Wake Up Everybody’. Both these songs spoke to me with renewed emotion on reminders of the state of our world with big messages to remind about patience, tolerance and actions needed, reminding us about compassion. Like Teddy sings, “The world won’t get no better, if we just let it be …”

We are all, still the world. McGraw’s video is beautiful – both words and video. Pendergrass’ song is still very much of importance, despite the 70s being long gone, the message remains relevant, wake up everybody!

I hope you enjoy and are rejuvenated in compassion as you listen to the words. Not sure about you guys, but McGraw’s video has me reaching for tissues everytime. That song has been the ringtone on my phone now for quite a few years.

Official Soultrain video – by Philadelphia International records

Tim McGraw official video

©DGKaye2022