Kristallnacht: Then and Now

(Click on the image to read the headlines)

Two items from Aish for The 70th commemoration of Kristallnacht:

This November Jewish communities throughout the world will again gather to recall Kristallnacht -- and will unwittingly allow themselves, in some measure, to verbally embrace the very heresy that abetted the Holocaust.

Kristallnacht is German for "the night of crystal." And 70 years after the horrible events of 1938 should have given us by now sufficient perspective to expose the lie of a horrible WMD -- Word of Mass Deception -- that epitomizes the key to the most powerful methodology for murder perfected by the Nazis.

How, after all, were the Nazis able to commit their crimes under the veneer of civilized respectability? Upon analysis, the answer is obvious. They glorified the principle of murder by euphemism.

Read the rest.
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If you were a Jew in Europe in 1941, and you actually knew that Hitler was developing the means to carry out his threat to exterminate the Jews, what would you do? Dismiss the danger as overstated? Try to arouse the nations of the world to stop him? Or take upon yourself to employ every means possible -- both physically and spiritually -- to avert the catastrophe?

A must read.

Yitzhak Peretz of Mahane Yehuda (original photography)

Yitzhak Peretz of Mahane Yehuda 1 (Dave Bender)

Yitzhak Peretz is a devout Moroccan Jew who immigrated to Israel in the 1980's. He owns a small tailor shop across the street from Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market. I stopped in one day, looking to repair my backpack.

Peretz's pride and "old-world" manner, innate respect for his lifelong profession, and his clientele impressed me as I waited for him to finish the repair.


Yitzhak Peretz of Mahane Yehuda 2 (Dave Bender)

I was rapt, watching his hands and eyes as he worked on his ancient sewing machine. He said he'd brought it with him from Morocco to Israel.


Yitzhak Peretz of Mahane Yehuda 3 (Dave Bender)

As I waited for him to complete the work on my pack, another customer came in. Peretz proudly displayed his completed repairs on a handbag she'd brought in earlier.

Caption Contest: 'American Change in Jerusalem' (original photography)

"American Change in Jerusalem" (Dave Bender)

Any connection to the presidential elections is strictly coincidental...

This is one of my favorite shots.

The elderly man is waiting for a city bus on a freezing, drizzly Friday morning in downtown Jerusalem. The red neon sign behind him is blinking on and off. He's holding fresh flowers and even fresher baked challah bread, to honor the oncoming Sabbath, coming in that evening st sunset.

Looking back on the photo several years after shooting it, for me, he's come to symbolize patience, serenity and calm hope in the face of inclement weather, the vicissitudes of time, and the roaring pace of modern life epitomized by the loud "CHANGE" AMERICAN CHANGE."

I "grabbed" the scene with my first DSLR, a Fuji S5000, soon after purchasing from a shop in town. I shot it from across the street, with the camera mounted on a small tripod, and pressed against a wall to steady it.

Comments are welcome.