As far as I know, there are only two countries in the world that were founded on the idea of hope.
America and Israel.
And what was the hope?
The hope of achieving religious freedom, and freedom from the tyranny of centralized government.
The Children of Israel, fleeing Egyptian slavery and religious persecution, settled the land of Israel over 3,000 years ago, thereby fulfilling G-d’s eternal covenant with the Jewish people.
The Pilgrims saw themselves as the children of the children of Israel, escaping a British Pharaoh and crossing a liquid desert.
In fact, so complete was the Pilgrim identification with the Jewish narrative that they seriously considered making Hebrew the national language.
Israel and America are religious and national twins.
At Casa Avrech, when we gather for our Thanksgiving meal, we go round the table, each of us listing our reasons for being thankful.
The kids laugh because I always say the same thing:
“I’m grateful that Karen married me.”
Well, I’m still grateful that Karen married me. I’m grateful that our daughters are lovely and generous young women. I’m grateful that our sons-in-law are kind and loving husbands. I’m grateful that our five grandchildren, Maayan Ariel, Lielle Meital, Livia Yarden, Ariel Chaim, and Pinchas Tzvi are bright and happy children.
I’m grateful that the memories of our twenty-two years with our late son Ariel zt”l are filled with joy and pride in his piety, modesty and goodness.
I’m grateful that America makes this wonderful life possible.
I’m grateful that Donald Trump is President. The Supreme Court will be saved from the radical leftists Hillary would have appointed. President Trump is systematically rolling back Obama’s anti-business regulations. And the economy is growing rather impressively. My friends and relatives in Israel are breathing a huge sigh of relief. They dreaded a continuation of Obama’s anti-Israel policies.
The left told us that Barack Obama’s election was historic. They told us that Hillary’s election would also be historic. But Donald Trump’s election is historic too. Mr. Trump is America’s first President who is a businessman, a political outsider, a man without a law degree. He’s also the first American President who is trying to keep his campaign promises. He moved the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. President Trump has also cut major funding to the IslamoNazis who call themselves Palestinians, a faux nationality dreamed up by the KGB in the mid-sixties. And with the great Nikki Haley as America’s Ambassador to the UN, the United States is, at last, finally standing up to the Jew-haters of that vile collection of tyrants and cowardly appeasers.
President Trump is also the first American President with Orthodox Jews in his closest circle of advisors, his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, and their children who attend yeshivas. And this drives secular American Jews out of their minds because their true religion is not Judaism but Marxism.
Anyway, once upon a time—before anti-American leftism became all the fashion in tinsel town—Hollywood loved America and the Judeo-Christian values that are foundational, and Thanksgiving was celebrated by all the studios with still photos featuring their contract stars.
We wish all our friends and relatives a happy and meaningful Thanksgiving.
God bless America.
I’m guessing that the Clark and Carole photo was not a studio-staged event. It looks too natural… too normal.
The Audrey Hepburn photo also looks natural. I think she exuded the French sentiment of “Joie de vivre” — she’s even smiling while she feeds the turkeys. How many people do that?
I like “the Children of the Children of Israel” concept. It seems very similar to my feelings about the Judeo-Christian tradition. Historically, the Catholic Church saw (or sees) itself as a “reformed” Jewish tradition and the Protestant Reformation was a further reformation of that tradition, so I could say that the Protestants are “the children of the children of Judaism”.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Robert and Karen!