Edgardo

 My friend Edgardo Schinder stopped answering emails and his son Immanuel wrote that he had "ascended to a higher plane". His latest emails were from Hawaii, where his daughter was living (she was married to an American working on the naval base), 

He called himself Osiris, I imagine he saw himself as related to that Egyptian god. Maybe that was his middle name. 

I don't want to write an obituary. We met in high school, Nacional Mariano Moreno, Buenos Aires. He was the son of a Jewish doctor of the Baron Hirsch colonies in Entre Rios. He was the very best student of all of us, always 100 in every subject.  He was interested in environmental medicine and ended up teaching as many of my friends did.

He had immigrated to Israel, worked in a hospital in Beer Sheba, and then in Tel Aviv. He was always worried about his wife, Mercedes, who is the daughter of Spanish immigrants. He insisted that she was a Jewish descendant.  (I never discussed the idea, but doubt that after 500 years it can be established). She is a psychiatrist, very soft and quiet. 

My old friends are rapidly dying off. I am healthy, thank you. 

 

Kenon Distributes Profits

 My investment in Kenon apparently struck gold, as the company announced monstrous dividends. I shall pay for a Purim lunch in a good restaurant for the family. Pic.: Ofer.

Exploitation and Opression

A number of Ashkenazi Jewish remains were discovered in the old synagogue (pic) of Erfurt. In the 11th century, they were killed and put into a hole. It is interesting because they are the early knowledge we can have of the seed communities of Eastern Germany. Erfurt was an important trading town because of its location, near a ford across the Gera river. Having exterminated the local Jews, the Municipal Government found that they had been the largest taxpayers and now they had no resources. So they called the area Jews to move back and they re-settled Erfurt.

Something similar happened in Vac (Weitzen), the German-populated city in Hungary. The town is located on a ford of the Danube, the nearest one is Buda, some 70 km East. My grandfather was the largest taxpayer of the place. When the Jews were ghettoized and sent to Auschwitz, the economic turnover of the city disappeared and the inhabitants became poor. But the Jews did not come back and there are no spare Jews to take their place.

Israel is prospering. In 2022 it grew by 7% (GNP), the top of the OECD countries and the rest. We are now a highly developed rich country. Imagine where we could be without carrying the Arab handicap.   

What I am saying is that the universal feeling that the Jews were exploiting the natives is the opposite of the real situation. We, Jews, were and are exploited and oppressed in the Galut  - politically and economically - and the Zionist Movement really is our national liberation movement. 

East Lansing 63 years ago

At least three people were killed and at least five others were injured at Michigan State University after shootings at two locations on the East Lansing campus Monday night, university police said.

Students were urged to "secure in place" as officials searched for a shooter who remained at large hours after gunfire was first reported at 8:18 p.m. local time, according to NBC News.

I copy this news note only because I visited the place in winter 1960 and was kindly hosted by Prof. Klein. It was snowing and it was very quiet and nice. No one in that time imagined a massacre in the campus. Who and why would do a thing like that?

What I read at age 12

 

My uncles in Buenos Aires had a collection of pre-WWII Szinhazi Elet (an illustrated magazine of the thirties, from Budapest). I read them all voraciously. It dealt mostly with the celebrities of the day, the Austro-Hungarian titled aristocracy, and fashions of London and New York (of impossibly tall and slim gentlemen and ladies), although the Budapest theater life and readership was Jewish. But Jews, identifiable as such, figure only in humor section. Yet, in Buenos Aires 1959, I was able to read between the lines and enjoy the wit of that lost world. My world. 

Now is the time to buy!

 Let's have another cup of coffee.

Find the Escape Hatch!

 Damals, 1937, gab es Juden in Berlin, die beschlossen, den Sturm zu überstehen und hier zu bleiben.  Andere nahmen die ersten Boote nach England, in die USA und nach Südamerika.   Wir alle in der nördlichen Hemisphäre stehen jetzt vielleicht vor der gleichen existenziellen Entscheidung.

Meaning: The Ukraine War is becoming WWIII and better look for the fire escape before you find yourself trapped like Berlin 1937 Jews.  By Gilbert Doctorow.