Il Ghetto

 Il ghetto nuovo di Venezia. 5,000 Jews of different "nations" lived crowded on a small island. The German nation (Ashkenazim), which also included Italians, was confined to the Campo di Ghetto Nuovo, and was joined by the Levantine (Turkish) nation, which occupied the neighbouring streets of the Ghetto Vecchio in 1541. Later, the Jews from the west, mostly Sephardic Jews, took up residence in the same streets. Other Sephardic Jews were granted houses close to the Ghetto Nuovo, forming the Ghetto Nuovissimo in 1633. The French Revolution liberated and dissolved the ghetto. Cecil Roth's book describes some exotic figures of the ghetto. 

In retrospect, Venice allowed a safe and stable, if marginal, existence for the Jews. All the while, Jews were forbidden to live in Spain, France, Scandinavia, and most of the German states. 

Seeing the Light

Sasha Troufanov was 27 when he was kidnapped on Oct. 7 from his parents’ home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. After his release 498 days later, he spoke at the Palm Beach Synagogue about his life before Oct. 7. “One of the things I realized I had done wrong was that I wasn’t open to believing in God,” he said.

“My life had been pretty good; I had a good job, a good salary, a great girlfriend, everything I had ever wanted, but I hadn’t been happy at all. I was always planning ahead; I didn’t focus on doing right in the present. October 7 made me realize I can’t control what’s ahead; I can only control what I do in the present.”

On February 16, 2025, he put on tefillin for the first time in his life. “Doing a mitzvah, making a blessing before eating, kissing a mezuzah, or praying is a chance to feel gratitude and say ‘Thank you’ for what God has given you,” he said.

Pic.: Sasha thanking Putin for help in his release.

εὐαγγέλιον

Hamas leadership says it has lost all contact with the 150 terrorists trapped in underground tunnels in Rafah, Gaza, fearing that they have died of starvation.

These are the people who captured and enslaved, and assassinated our 18-year-old girl-soldiers.

Blanket Deleverage

NVidia in free fall - without any reason except that it has been rising steadily for a long time. Strong earnings unnerved the market, a sign that people are very nervous and will react unreasonably.

"The selloff appears to be largely positioning-driven, with recent outperforming names taking the worst of the move," said Jon Withaar, senior portfolio manager at Pictet Asset Management in Singapore.

There was no obvious trigger for the pullback, but it began with an unexpectedly negative reaction to strong financial results at Silicon Valley data and artificial intelligence firm Palantir Technologies. Pic.: Coffee Commerce, Pictet Collection.

Mr Herbert Hoover (1932): Now is the time to buy

 Just around the corner,
there's a rainbow in the sky,
So let's have another cup of coffee,
and let's have another piece of pie.

Gaza now

 https://x.com/i/status/1985243190937444826

This is an explosion of a main tunnel in Gaza. See the smoke emerging from ten or more outlets at the same time. 

Tehran water outlook

 

Tehran's 10 million inhabitants consume 3 MCM (million cubic meters) of water a day, and the reserves in the main dams contain 14 MCM. The probabilities of rain in November are nil.

Tehran loses nearly a third of its water through broken pipes. So much water has been pumped from aquifers that parts of Tehran are sinking by more than 10 inches per year. The Ministry of Energy is drilling 250 deep wells to extract groundwater beneath Tehran, but this water may be contaminated by wastewater (Dr Elisha Kaly taught me that there is no drinking water under cities).. 

Water access in Tehran is unequal; wealthier northern districts have better infrastructure and a more consistent supply, while southern districts experience frequent water rationing. The situation cannot be solved by rationing; instead, a plan is in place to evacuate approximately one-third of Tehran's population.  This is genuinely alarming for a capital city and virtually without precedent.

A political change will not improve the outlook. Claude estimates that desperation will not motivate them to start a war. Iran's current president Pezeshkian has publicly acknowledged the crisis, even offering 100 million tomans (about $1 million) to anyone who could solve it. Honi HaMeagel may have some ideas.

Pic.: Amir Kabir Dam. See the regular water level mark.