
On Passover, Jews around the world recite a passage from the Haggadah that strikes a note both poignant and defiant.
In every generation they [our enemies] rise up against us to destroy us, but the Holy One Blessed Be He saves us from their hands.
But Judaism does not place faith in faith alone. Man is born with free will and G-d expects us to exercise that free will in order to do what is right.
Jewish law holds—as does common sense—that it is incumbent to strike preemptively at your enemies before they attack you. Because Jewish history shows with Newtonian certainty that when people threaten to kill Jews — they mean it.
Our IslamoNazi enemies in Tehran have made it quite clear that they intend to annihilate the Jewish State. Barack Obama has, at the same time, made it even more clear, that he couldn’t care less about Israel or the Jewish people. To this doctrinaire Marxist who has made common cause with Jew-haters for his entire academic and political career, Israel is just an annoying and illegitimate neocolonial outpost in the Middle East.
In every generation they rise up.
The surprise is that the American people and 74% of American Jews rose up and freely elected one of our bitterest foes.
A few photos to enjoy over the next few days.






This is a ‘Photoshopped’ portrait before the digital age.
















RE: Barbara Stanwyck: Just recently, I saw a DELIGHTFUL romantic comedy of hers, called BALL OF FIRE. It does sag a little, in the middle. Stanwyck plays a sassy, fast-talking showgirl, a gangster’s (Dana Andrews’s) girlfriend. Gary Cooper, playing a professor researching an encyclopedia article on slang, meets her and falls for her. Oskar Homolka plays another professor working on the same encyclopedia. Kathleen Howard, whom I had never noticed before and instantly became a fan of, plays the puritanical, snoopy, bossy housekeeper at the “Totten Foundation,” where all the professors are living while they research and write the encyclopedia. Stanwyck, hiding from both her boyfriend and the D.A., comes to live there. The encyclopedia was supposedly endowed by the late Daniel S. Totten, inventor of the elctric toaster, who blew a gasket when he found he was omitted from the Encyxlopedia Britannica.
By the way, if there’s somebody out there who A) has seen the movie, and B) knows something about the history of hairstyling, do you think the hair stylist put a foundation in Barbara Stanwych’s pompadour?
CORRECTIONS: “(I)nventor of the electric toaster.”
By the way, if there’s somebody out there who A) has seen the movie, and B) knows something about the history of hairstyling, do you think the hair stylist put a foundation in Barbara Stanwycks pompadour?
CORRECTION: By the way, if there’s somebody out there who A) has seen the movie, and B) knows something about the history of hairstyling, do you think the hair stylist put a foundation in Barbara Stanwyck’s pompadour?
“Ball of Fire” was remade for Danny Kaye, substituting Big Band music for Slang as the research subject. I didn’t think it was quite as good as “Ball of Fire” but still enjoy it. Virginia Mayo played Barbara Stanwyck’s role, as she often played against Danny Kaye. Otherwise the plot was primarily the same and the Seven Dwarfs were in both, much to viewer delight.
A SONG IS BORN sounds like a fun picture. I’ll see if I can find the DVD.
The Joan Crawford photo pair is an impressive display. If your browser size is right you can position one photo and then alternate Page-Down and Page-Up to go back and forth nearly seamlessly between the two photos to see the differences. The retouching work demonstrates the important difference between “Do you want it good?” and “Do you want it fast?” My opinion is that six hours by a professional proves that you rarely can have both, making it one of the important tradeoffs that only great managers understand. Considering the amount of work, I’ll bet the retoucher’s hours is equivalent to someone else’s days.
Maayan’s club house looks first class because Robert & Karen don’t do half measures! Is there a doorman?
on MM’s pictures – you can tell who is Norma Jean and who is MM.
Reminds me of a wonderful documentary I saw of her – she is staying with her NY friends in 1956 – quietly – and shows someone in downtown Manhattan the difference between NJ and MM –
As it was she was NJ – nobody on the street noticed her. Then she turned on the MM persona and people instantly recognized her.
What “it” was was a mystery, but MM knew…
Oh Mr. Avrech how I love your Friday photos. They are like savoring a box of chocolates. I had surgery this morning but glad I took the time to read your blog; back to bed for me 😉
We wish you a speedy recovery!
Yes, we do.
In my discussions online with various folk, I often run across the argument that whereas the poster is not anti-Jewish and thinks Israel is okay…. they think that Israel is “creating enemies out of the people of the region;” that Israel needs to stop “oppressing the Palestinians;” that if Israel doesn’t “change” its enemies are going to destroy Israel….
Oy.
My last response to such a comment was:
“In a Middle Eastern/ Arab/ Muslim world of self-immolation; of the most horrific destruction imaginable; that grows almost exponentially before the eyes of the rest of the world and that is being spread by Arabs and Muslims everywhere, it is indeed comical to read how State of Israel and Jews are supposed to be somehow held accountable for this utter barbarism.
G-d; the G-d of History says otherwise.
Look it up.”
Gut Moed and Chag Sameach!
that Israel needs to stop “oppressing the Palestinians;”
Dear Moishe3rd: Ask the next person who tells you that Israel needs to stop oppressing the now-so-called “Palestinians” if he thinks that Anne Frank, may the al-mighty avenge her blood, and her family, were oppressing the Nazis, may their names be erased. Anne and her family, when they went to hide in that attic, were trying to stay alive when the Nazis wanted to kill them. When the Israelis finally shoot back, after the Arabs, which is what the “Palestinians” are, historically, culturally, and liguistically, have been firing missiles at them for years, they are trying to stay alive when Arabs want to kill them. Logically, anyone who thinks Israel is oppressing the “Palestinians” should think that Anne Frank was oppressing the Nazis.
Nice pair of photos showing skilled retouching. I watched an expert at work at the Erie Times newspaper, in 1979. His tools were an airbrush with a collection of different shade of gray paints, plus a q-tip. He worked on the prints, because those are what goes into the page layout. Elapsed time, 5-15 minutes per photo.
My dental hygienist is a young woman born in Ethiopia and raised in Israel. We sometimes talk about the psychopathology of American blacks. She tells me she gets hate stares from black women who see her with her white husband.
If your friend isn’t letting her nerves and her imagination run away with her, that’s about as sad as it can be.
Another wonderful post, Robert. Chag Sameach
Your Hebrew skills are impressive. Thanks so much.