Busy

 Very, very busy. So busy that there is no time to frivolousness like writing.

Taxes

In this country one can be a mass murderer, a spy, a military deserter but nothing is such a major crime as not paying taxes. Al Capone the famous Chicago gangster who was responsible for countless murders was eventually arrested and tried for tax evasion. He made millions (lots of money back then) in the prohibition era but "forgot" to pay his taxes. This was a major crime.

According to some news commentators Biden has shown total deniability as far as his son is concerned. Regardless that his son was already indicted, and he did admit to wrongdoings, as far as Biden is concerned, he is as innocent as a baby. Then Biden son admitted to not paying taxes on millions of dollars he made. Yet, being the president's son has its advantages. He is allowed to make a deal instead of going to prison.

Also, over the weekend there was a state dinner for the visiting Indian prime minister. This dinner was hosted by Biden and paid by me, the taxpayer. The guests are usually the who is who in DC. VIPs all. And amongst them was an indicted person, the president's son. He smiled and mingled with the other invitees. Pretty crazy, if you ask me. This gave the opposition a tremendous amount of ammunition in their newscasts and commentaries.

Good country, America!

Grandma

Here is a long but very interesting story. This is not made up it is true.

On the eve of World War II, Sighetu Marmatei in Romanian, Maramaros Sziget in Hungarian, had the highest proportion of Jewish residents of any city in Hungary representing close to 40 percent of the municipality’s population of about 40,000. During four days in May 1944, after having been penned into two ghetto areas for several weeks along with several thousand of their relatives and other Jewish residents from the smaller communities surrounding Sighet, almost all of the Sighet Jews were deported to Auschwitz.

People did not know what waited for them, but they all guessed there was nothing good at the end. Understandably, parents tried to protect their children as much as possible. The parents of two little girls in this story also wanted to protect them so they escaped to a small village close to the Romanian border. There they found a good-hearted family who were brave enough to hide their daughters from the nazis who went around gathering up the Jewish population.

These little girls were lucky. They survived, but their father and brother did not. They were hiding inside haystacks and cellars. Life was very difficult and dangerous. This goodhearted family also had a son who was in on this thing and helped the little girls whenever he could.

Jumping ahead in time, these young people stayed in touch after the war and eventually got married. Their marriage resulted in three girls who gave them nine grandchildren and eventually five great grandchildren and one great-great grandchild. Thank God they stayed around to enjoy all of their off springs.

As I indicated the little girl I am writing about was Jewish, but her husband was not. Interestingly, throughout the year the question of religion never came up. That could have been because after WWII this subject was muted by the regime. Not going to church or synagogue, not having baptism or bar mitzvah was the norm for the times.

The family lived well, prospered throughout the years. Because the grandmother never ventured to tell her story everybody lived with the assumption that this was a non-denominational family. 

Until...

Her favorite granddaughter came to this country and started to work. As luck had it she wound up working in a pretty strict orthodox environment. She was liked very much by her coworkers. Because of her way of thinking and acting they constantly teased her that she must be Jewish. They said she acted Jewish, she looked Jewish so she must be Jewish. The girl didn't know any better but did not argue. But since she was in frequent communication with her grandmother, she always told her these stories.

The grandmother never reacted. Never gave any sign as far as the truthfulness of their observations.

One day the grandmother got very sick, looking ahead to a bleak future. At that point she decided not to keep her secret anymore and to tell her story. She called her favorite granddaughter on the phone and told her the truth. Up to that point the granddaughter did not know any better either. But then reality hit the fan.

Reality is that this is a true large Jewish family. Since Jewishness goes from mother to daughter, every daughter is Jewish as well as each of their children. The granddaughter who was privy to this information was entrusted with informing the family. It was not an easy task but she prevailed.

In Hungary religion does not play a major role in family life. Because of that the family has plenty of mixed marriages. But since the Jewish origin is matrilineal technically all the children are Jewish.

As expected, this information was received with mixed results, but there was nothing anybody could do about it. 

Once the grandmother passed away the granddaughter collected all her papers and found documents and photographs proving this story correct.

I know he granddaughter, and I met the grandmother who recently passed away. 

Sunday

 Another Sunday. Boy, how time flies.

Russia

October 1917 the Bolshevik revolution started. It took a few years until situation consolidated in the then Soviet Union. It is understandable, Russia was a huge country with tremendous outlying areas. It was not an easy task then to get all the necessary information to every corner of the country. A 106 years later I don't even think it is that easy now.

Today's news is full of an impending Russian civil war. This so-called Wagner semi-nazi mercenary group declared war against Putin. Here in NY there is nothing but analysis of this news story. The reporters are foaming at their mouth about this. Now they have something else beside Trump to talk about.

I think this situation will place Biden in a very peculiar situation. He will have to decide who's side he is on. Knowing this country's foreign policy, I am sure it will be on the wrong side. But can we imagine that after 106 years there is another civil war in Russia? Even though politicians are saying this is an internal affair, I don't think there is such a thing in today's world.

They can say whatever they want, it would affect everybody. As well as politically as economically. And that is something we do not need. Rumor is that Putin left Moscow to St. Petersburg. Maybe because it is closer to the border? But whatever it is, it is interesting to watch these events. I am just sorry for the everyday people living there because I am sure they do not need this. Nobody does.

Golf

My impression of golf that it is a r elitist pastime. I realize that there are public golf courses where basically everybody can play but the good courses are in country clubs where there are prohibitive fees. This, the way I see it locks out the aspiring and poorer players. They really have to try hard to accomplish anything.

I probably mentioned it before that I like watching golf. Fortunately, like the Tennis Channel, there is also a Golf Channel. So, there is always some tournaments being shown. I do not understand the logic behind these promotional tournaments. Every company on earth is having an annual golf tournament with large money prizes. No wonder there are so many professional golfers.

What is the advantages of spending these huge amounts on golfers? What is the business advantage of it? Most of these tournaments have a very limited tv viewership and the spectators on the golf courses, I'm sure don't pay enough to make up the prizes.

These companies can not spend their money in better places? I just don't see the point of all these expenditures. But then what do I know about business?

Funny

This is a funny story from way back. I had a very good friend, may he rest in peace, whom I knew most of my life. We came from the same neighborhood, he was about two years older and a lot smarter than me. Our mothers were very good friends and stayed in touch until my mother passed away.

He left Hungary about a year before I did and thanks to our moms, we found each other here in the US. He and I grew up in the same political system where religion was kind of outlawed. We didn't practice it and did not follow it but knew where we belonged to.

Here in this country,g he made a good life, had a nice family, lived in the suburbs in a nice house. I found it curious that since we grew up in a very similar environment he did become observant. Not zealous just moderately observant. He lost his father in the Holocaust, his mother lived alone but frequently visited him here. I knew her and liked her. She was a nice lady. Not very Jewish but still Jewish.

One time, years ago I visited him at his house when his mom was here. A cousin of his mom came by. This person was retired and since he had the time he decided to investigate their family tree. This investigation involved talking to still living relatives and also spending time in the Mormon Library. This library supposed to have a tremendous amount of information about people who lived in Europe.

He fed everything into a computer and then printed out the results. The results were very thick bundle of computer paper. No cd at that time.

After he connected all the dots he came to some very interesting conclusions., and he told that story to my friend's mom. Her ancestors came from a small village from Transylvania (Erdely). The village was predominantly Jewish as well as the entire area including several villages and also very likely orthodox.

History has it that a few hundred years ago this village was all Christian and since it was surrounded by the Jewish villages, the inhabitants decided to become Jewish. It was more advantageous for them. Bottom line: my friend's mother came from a Christian ancestry. She was pretty shaken up at this enlightenment. Her family suffered through the war as Jews but if they would have known this it might have changed some of the outcomes.

This thing didn't change his attitude toward the religion but both he and I found the results of this search a little hilarious. 

A funny postscript.

My friend's wife came from a very religious upbringing (also Hungarian). Father was a Levi and he was extremely observant. He wasn't very enthusiastic about my friend as his future son-in-law. His casual approach to Judaism was almost as bad as if he were a Christian, said he (or hinted). If he would have known that my friend's ancestors were really Christians he would have flipped. Fortunately, he was not alive by the time of this discovery.

Don't get used to this. I will not write this long very frequently.