Rethinking Thanksgiving

I have no doubt that many Americans will take umbrage, get super angry and upset at this post. While I was still an American, and yes I do retain official citizenship/passport, I learned of how immigration quotas were put in force to try to keep out undesirables, like Jews. This is a fact, not opinion.

Most American Jews ignore it. But check your American History. Early in the twentieth century, when official statisticians began to notice that massive immigration of Jews from eastern Europe was rapidly increasing the number of Jews, they instituted quotas based on much earlier statistics to keep Jews out.

Jewish refugees were never welcomed to the United States; they were grudgingly allowed in. For Jews, the Thanksgiving holiday was more of a "whoopee we got in," rather than "thanks for the hug."

Remember the closed doors prior to World War Two and afterwards. Jewish refugees, begging for a safe haven, were told to go elsewhere.

And for the "lucky ones" who did make it to the United States, staying strictly Jewish became another challenge. Even if there was a five day school week, important tests were on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. In addition, many jobs required work on Saturdays or Fridays after sunset. This continued well into the late twentieth century, and even though there are official laws now protecting "other sabbath days," the United States is still based on the Christian Calendar. That's life. You can make whatever adjustments you like, but you can't deny it. Many Torah observant, aka Orthodox, Jews use up all of their official "days off" or vacation days for the Jewish Holidays. That is the price of living in America.

Live where you wish, but  please don't call the USA the "promised land," because it isn't. The true history of the invasion by Europeans onto two incredibly large and rich in natural resources continents, isn't very pretty.

Thank Gd I am here in the Holyland, Israel.