20,000 New York City area Holocaust survivors living in poverty

The following quote is from this news article: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2018/05/09/holocaust-survivors-in-poverty/

Begin quote

Holocaust survivor Vera Liapina joined several other survivors in front of City Hall on Wednesday afternoon to show support for the Elie Wiesel Holocaust Survivors Initiative. [On the show, Elie Wiesel’s name is pronounced “Elly Vee-ZELL”]

“When we first started this initiative we pushed for $1.5 million. Within months, we were able to secure that funding,” City Councilman Rafael Espinal said.

Espinal said the money is to make sure holocaust survivors can happily and healthily live out their golden years in New York City.

“The needs are enormous,” said Eric Goldstein of the UJA Federation. “The monies we’ve raised so far and that they are allocating are simply not enough to address the need.”

At the City Hall event, the people there were imploring the City Council to earmark $4 million in the budget for 2019. It would mean more funding for organizations like Self Help.

End quote

This is what happens when you don’t get a book deal. No one gets to hear your sad story of how you survived the Holocaust. The Nazis were trying to kill you, feeding you potatoes, not realizing that potatoes are good for your health.

When I was a child, my family was very poor, but we had a large garden, which had a very large section where we grew potatoes. That is how I survived.

Maybe I should write a book about eating potatoes to survive. Oh, wait a minute! I am not Jewish. No one cares about my sad story.

Holocaust survivor dies at the age of 113

Holocaust survivor Israel Kristal died at the age of 113

You can read about this Holocaust survivor in a news article at:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/08/12/media-worlds-oldest-man-holocaust-survivor-dies-at-113.html

The following quote is from the news article:

Begin quote

 Israeli media are reporting that the world’s oldest man, who lived through both world wars and survived the Holocaust, has died a month short of his 114th birthday.

Ynet on Saturday quoted Israel Kristal’s daughter as saying her father died Friday. Shula Kupershtuch says: “He always saw only light and good in everything.”

Guinness World Records awarded Kristal a certificate as the world’s oldest man last year.

End quote

I have said this many times: Many of the Jews in the concentration camps camps lived to an advanced age because of their potato based diet.

Potatoes are very easy to grow; they will grow in very poor soil without any help from the grower. I know this because my family had half of a large garden planted with potatoes. I owe my good health, and my advanced age, to the fact that I eat lots of potatoes.

 

“survivors living in Israel, many of whom are well over 90 years old”

The title of this blog post is a quote from this news article: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Services-Ministry-to-double-budget-for-Holocaust-survivors-rights-501861

The following quote is from the news article:

Begin quote

Services Minister Haim Katz promised on Monday to allocate NIS 7 million toward a variety of social benefits and services for the welfare of Holocaust survivors in 2017.

That would more than double the amount, up from NIS 3m., allocated in 2016, the first year of the program that he initiated.

End quote

I have written about this in previous blog posts, but it needs to be repeated. I believe that these Jews have lived to be 90 years old because they had a diet, in the camps, that consisted mostly of potatoes and very little meat. People who eat a diet, that consists of large servings of meat, usually do not live to be 90 years old.

Ich Bin ein Hamburger

The title of my blog post today is the way that a German person might say that they live in the city of Hamburg in Germany.

In the video below, a German woman is shown, as she pronounces the name of the city known as Hamburg.

I have set the video to start at 35 seconds in, when you can hear the German woman start speaking.  She is speaking about the devastation that took place in the city of Hamburg.  Even if you can’t understand what she is saying, you can still view the photos.

In the photo below, you can see an American food that is known as a Hamburger.  American news reporters sometimes pronounce the name of the German City and the name of the American food the same way, but if you listen carefully to the woman in the video, the German pronunciation  of Hamburg sounds very different.

This is an American hamberger

Kushner’s luxury underground condo?

Kushner’s Grandmother Rae complaining about her accommodations in her Luxury underground condo.

Kushner’s grandfather and grandmother actually lived in a luxury underground condo, located within the huge Bielski  bunker complex, with more than 1000 other Jews.  Nowadays, it is refereed to as a “hole in the ground”. You can read a little bit more about the luxury bunker complex by following the link below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielski_partisans

Begin quote from Wikipedia

The partisans lived in underground dugouts (zemlyankas) or bunkers. In addition, several utility structures were built: a kitchen, a mill, a bakery, a bathhouse, a medical clinic for the sick and wounded and a quarantine hut for those who suffered from infectious diseases such as typhus. Herds of cows supplied milk. Artisans made goods and carried out repairs, providing the combatants with logistical support that later served the Soviet partisan units in the vicinity as well. More than 125 workers toiled in the workshops, which became famous among partisans far beyond the Bielski base. Tailors patched up old clothing and stitched together new garments; shoemakers fixed old and made new footwear; leather-workers laboured on belts, bridles and saddles. A metalworking shop established by Shmuel Oppenheim repaired damaged weapons and constructed new ones from spare parts. A tannery, constructed to produce the hide for cobblers and leather workers, became a de facto synagogue because several tanners were devout Hasidic Jews. Carpenters, hat-makers, barbers and watchmakers served their own community and guests. The camp’s many children attended class in the dugout set up as a school. The camp even had its own jail and court of law.

Some accounts note the inequality between well-off partisans and poor inhabitants of the camp.

End quote from Wikipedia

I wonder if the Kushners were among the well-off partisans.

In addition, the partisans stole food from local starving villagers, according to the next quote from Wikipedia.  They subjected local villagers to violence and murder, though some of the villagers willingly gave up their food rather than being murdered.  This is explained in the same Wikipedia article cited above.

Begin quote from Wikipedia

Like other partisan groups in the area, the Bielski group would raid nearby villages and forcibly seize food; on occasion, peasants who refused to share their food with the partisans were the subject of violence and even murder. This caused hostility towards the partisans from peasants in the villages, though some would willingly help the Jewish partisans.

End quote from Wikipedia

Slate article about Kurshner’s holocaust experience

The following is a quote from the news article in the link above.

Begin quote

…miraculously, Kushner, her father, and her sister did [Escape the Ghetto]—and were eventually rescued by the legendary Jewish partisan Tuvia Bielski. For a year, they lived in the forest with Bielski’s brigade of more than 1,000 Jews until, in the spring of 1944, “he brought us out from the woods.” Novogrudok had been liberated by the Soviets.

End quote from Slate.

Fat faced Rae Kushner was a cook in the Bielski luxury bunker complex, and might have prepared food stolen from local peasants murdered by the partisans.

https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10008263

The following is a quote about Kushner on the US holocaust museum web site.

Begin quote

Shortly thereafter [escaping from the ghetto], the Bielski partisans took in the escapees from Novogrodek—including Rae and her family. In the Naliboki encampment where the Bielskis had managed to shelter over 1,200 people, Rae regularly stood guard and often cooked the camp meals—mostly potatoes, soup, and small pieces of bread.

While in the partisans, Rae reconnected with Joseph Kushner, whom she knew prior to the war. They married a year after the Bielski camp was liberated by the Russian army in July 1944.

End quote

So it turns out that the Kushners had it relatively easy in their bunker complex.  They had whole bunkers filled with underground dairy cows.  Probably much easier than the poor local villagers whom they sometimes murdered and and from whom they stole food.

The FBI may soon be coming after Kushner  — maybe he should dig himself a new “hole in the ground” and hide in it.

The diet that has made Tom Brady a star athlete

• 

  HOUSTON – FEBRUARY 5: New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) lets out a howl as he raises the Lombardi Trophy after winning Super Bowl LI in overtime. The Atlanta Falcons play the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI at NRG Stadium in Houston on Feb. 5, 2017. (Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty ImaThe following way of eating is what has made Tom Brady a star athlete:

• Avoiding nightshades: Where’s the science behind the statement that tomatoes cause inflammation or that nightshades are bad? Tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, and eggplants have plenty of nutrients.
• No dairy: I’ve already discussed the myths about dairy when Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers cut dairy out of his diet. Of course, you don’t want to pound milk or yogurt, but dairy does have important nutrients as well.
• No fungus: Yes, you don’t want to eat the fungus on your bathtub or the locker room floor or between your toes. But presumably, Campbell is talking about mushrooms here, and not the kind that get you high. Mushrooms can have copper, phosphorous, Vitamins B-2 and B-5, and various antioxidants. Again where’s the scientific evidence against mushrooms?
• Gluten-free: There’s been no news that Brady has celiac disease or real gluten sensitivity. If you don’t have any of these, as Dr. Daniel A. Leffler, Director of Clinical Research at the Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston says, “People who are sensitive to gluten may feel better, but a larger portion will derive no significant benefit from [a gluten-free diet]. They’ll simply waste their money, because these products are expensive.” Of course, this last point doesn’t matter as much to Brady and Giselle.
• Oils: Cooking with vegetable oils is better than with animal fats or lard. But the differences among the different vegetable oils is still a bit in the air. Some have raised concerned that at higher temperatures olive oil will break down and release toxins but where is the specific proof of this?
• Also, keep in mind that Brady is not you. He has personal trainers, mentors, and coaches, the best equipment and apparel, lots of comforts, a nice house and neighborhood surroundings, people around him telling him how great he is, a good job with decent benefits, and, yes, a supermodel wife. His diet and chef are not the sole reasons for his success or feeling good. Even if you avoid nightshades, dairy, fungus, and gluten, you probably won’t play football like Tom Brady or get a supermodel wife but may end up spending money on food like he does.

Schwäbisch Maultaschen

You can read all about this delicious German food here!

500,000 Holocaust survivors are living out their final years in poverty

The title of this blog post is a quote from a news article that was published today:

Remembering the Holocaust, Forgetting the Survivors

This is the time of the year when you see ads on TV asking for donations for the starving Holocaust survivors in Russia.

The Jews are the richest people in the world; why can’t they take care of their own.

The following quote is from the news article, cited above:

Begin quote

Today, many of the world’s remaining 500,000 Holocaust survivors are living out their final years in poverty. Most of those who are suffering either live in Israel, across the former Soviet Union or in greater New York City.

Of the 189,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel, 25 percent live below the poverty line. Of the 60,000 survivors throughout the former Soviet Union (FSU), poverty is endemic — approaching 85-90%. Even in New York City, home to another 60,000 survivors, about half live below the poverty line.

End quote

I have written many times, on my blog, that I think the reason that these Jews have lived such a long life is because they had a meager diet as children; their diet consisted of bread and oatmeal, with very little meat.  I had a similar diet as a child, and I think that this is why I have lived a long life, and I am still in good health.

Leberkäse:The Food of Bavarian Royalty

I found an interesting article about this German food that you can read here.

Apparently it tastes almost exactly like spam.

Begin quote

Despite my curiosity, I wasn’t feeling confident about ordering the mystery meat so  J.P. (my German husband) offered to order it so that I could try a bite.  When it came out, I told my German companions that I thought it resembled SPAM which was met with blank stares.  “You know the meat that comes out of a can that’s really cheap and popular with university students.”  From the scowls on their faces it was clear that my unflattering comparison of Leberkäse to canned meat wasn’t appreciated.

I cautiously tasted a small bite – yep it tasted exactly like warm SPAM. Warning, if you feel the same way, you might want to keep your comments to yourself, or try one of the German dishes that is actually really good.

End quote