The German word ersatz is commonly used around the world today to refer to an “artificial and inferior substitute or imitation.” During WWI, the shortage of coffee in Germany catalyzed the development of over 11,000 ersatz products, including a coffee substitute using roasted acorns, chicory and beechnuts. Thousands of U.S., British soldiers, primarily airmen, captured in […]
Category Archives: Fascism
This is the third of a three-part newsletter investigating Russia’s stated reasons for invading and destroying Ukraine. President Putin and Russian media repeatedly stress that Ukraine is a fascist country run by neo-Nazis and anti-Semites. Is there any truth to these charges? This third newsletter weighs Ukraine’s history regarding anti-Semitism, fascism and neo-Nazi movements, and […]
This is the second of a three-part newsletter considering the subject of Russian propaganda and disinformation regarding their purported reasons for invading and destroying Ukraine. President Putin and state-controlled Russian media repeatedly stress that Ukraine is being run by neo-Nazis and anti-Semites. This second newsletter weighs Russia’s role (both in history past and present) […]
The word of YHVH came to Jonah, commissioning him to, “arise, [and] go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out against it, because their wickedness has come up before Me.” But instead Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of YHVH” (Jonah 1:1-3). Jonah was a bona fide prophet who had a spiritually sensitive […]
My Yiddish-speaking parents were communists. They believed that socialist revolution held the key to a better world, and they poured their lives out in support of what they called ‘the progressive movement.’ They loved music. My dad used to be a cantor in the U.S. Army and as a youngster he sang in Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt’s […]
On March 15, 1917 the editorial board of the Communist Party newspaper Pravda welcomed a new member – Joseph Stalin. The name chosen for this flagship journal –‘Pravda’ – is the Russian word for ‘truth,’ though its original usage also referred to ‘justice.’ The first medieval law code of Kiev Rus (ancient Russia) was known […]