The Jewish Percentage

It's Not Just About Josh: Abq Jew shares your pain. And there's plenty of pain to go around, so sharing it is even easier! From the US elections to Amsterdam to the Land of Israel, bad things have happened this past week.

But if you're a Jew named Josh - take heart.

A good thing has happened.

The above image is an AI (Artificial Intelligence)-generated depiction of the Biblical hero Joshua. Holding a printed, apparently paperback copy of (or perhaps the original) Bible, to which our guy would not have had access for ... well, a few more years.

On his tunic(?) is printed (or perhaps hand-written) the well-known English word? acronym? initialsim? abbreviation? NAH. The significance of NAH here is unclear; perhaps a reference to NaH, the highly reactive inorganic hydride sodium hydride? (Despite its hich basicity, NaH is not nucleophilic.)

Or perhaps NAH is used here as an adverb. The earliest known use of the adverb NAH is in the early 1700s. OED's earliest evidence for nah is from 1720, in the writing of Alexander Pennecuik, physician and poet.

A more recent use is the anthem known officially as Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, a 1969 song written and recorded by Paul Leka, Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer, with NA instead of NAH, and attributed to the then-fictitious band Steam.

And then there is always 

Northern Arizona Healthcare

Ah, yes. We were talking about a good thing and Jewish men named Josh. (Want to know more about the first, really Biblical Joshua? Chabad says "click here and here.")

Forward editor emeritus Jonathan Jeremy ('J.J.') Goldberg, Forward writer Benyamin Goldberg, and several dozen others have pointed out that, as one good yet curious result of the recent elections -

6 percent of US governors (that's 3 out of 50, folks)
are or will be Jews named Josh.

For those keeping score: that's 

Governor Josh Green of Hawaii; Governor-elect Josh Stein of North Carolina; and, of course, the unforgettable Governor Josh Shapiro (who could have been should have been VP and may someday be P) of Pennsylvania.

Please keep in mind that we Jews represent an amazing (considering the publicity we get) 0.2% of the total world population. And we all-powerful Jews represent an all-powerful 2.4% of the total US population. 

And - in case you were wondering, as was Abq Jew, about the percentage of Jews elsewhere in the US (a random sampling):

• 8.8% in New York
• 8.3% in Washington, DC
• 6.7% in New Jersey
• 4.3% in Massachusetts
• 3.3% in Pennsylvania
• 2.5% in Illinois
• 1.7% in Colorado
• 1.7% in Rhode Island
• 1.5% in Delaware
• 0.7% in New Hampshire
• 0.6% in New Mexico
• 0.5% in North Carolina
• 0.5% in Hawaii
• ~.~% in South Dakota

As one more good yet curious result of the recent elections -

12 percent of US governors (that's 6 out of 50, folks)
are or will be Jews.

For those keeping score: in addition to the above three, that's Governor Matt Meyer of Delaware; Governor Jared Polis of Colorado; and, of course, the ubiquitous Governor Jay Robert '(J.B.') Pritzker of Illinois. Six, total.

And yes, still another good yet curious result of the recent elections -

10 percent of US governors (that's 5 out of 50, folks;
and that's 83% of the 6 Jewish governors)
are or will be Jews whose first name begins with J.

Unfortunately, many (but not all!) of us are fully cognizant of exactly what in hell is happening. Even though many of TFFG's (The Future Former Guy's) new suggested team members appear to be fervently pro-Israel - their true focus is pro-Evangelical, which may or may not coincide with the true interests of the US or worldwide Jewish community.

To which Abq Jew can only add, with thoughts and prayers -

it may pass like a kidney stone, but it shall pass

Could Be Worse

Could Be Raining: Well. The 2024 elections are more or less over, finished, wrapped up, concluded. Some of the results - especially those here in our own New Mexico -  pleased Abq Jew no end; others, however, force him to remind you, his loyal readers, that, as Igor noted in Young Frankenstein, 

Could Be Worse.

Could Be Raining.

Yes, Abq Jew - along with about half the nation - had a sleepless night. As the one and only Yogi once observed (after Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris hit back-to-back home runs during the 1961 season) - 

It's like deja vu, all over again.

Many, many others had more to say about the 2024 election's results.

Public opinion consultant Fernand R. Amandi was succinct:

This election — the most critical and important in our lifetimes — was fundamentally about what kind of country and what kind of people we actually are — and I’m afraid we now have our answer.

Mother Jones' David Corn was not succinct. He wrote:

America Meets Its Judgment Day  

Trump’s victory signals a national embrace of the politics of hate and a possible fascist future.

Every election is a Judgment Day, but this one more so than any other in the history of the nation.

Never before has a major party run a nominee described by retired military leaders who worked with him as a “fascist” and a serious threat to American democracy. 

Never before has the electorate been provided the choice of a nominee who previously refused to accept vote tallies, falsely declared victory, covertly schemed to overturn an election, and incited a violent assault on the US Capitol to stay in power, as well as one whose mismanagement of a pandemic caused the avoidable deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. 

Never before have Americans been asked to return to office a politician who waged a massive disinformation operation fueled by the most vicious vitriol to exploit hatred, racism, misogyny, and ignorance.

Is America a nation that accepts and embraces all that?

The answer is yes.

Despite Trump’s multiple offenses (criminal, political, and social), tens of millions voters—more than half of the electorate—said they want more of him and desire this felonious, misogynistic, racist, and seemingly cognitively challenged wannabe autocrat to lead the nation once again. 

Trumpism triumphed, and the godhead of this cult has become both the first fascist and the first convicted felon to win an American presidential election.

And he concludes: 

At this fork in the road, Americans made a decision on what sort of country the United States will be. A judgment has been reached: 

This is a nation to be ruled by Trump’s politics of hate.  

It can happen here, and it has.

As for The Jews - Brianna Wu posted:

As the polls close, I'm really only interested in one number.

Just how badly has the Democratic Party lost the Jewish vote by refusing to denounce the antisemitism that has infested our party?

And as for women - Jill Filipovic quoted Germaine Greer:

Women have very little idea of how much men hate them.

The Atlantic's David Frum offers a note of hope:

Eight years ago this night, my son asked me: "What do we do now?"

I answered,

We walk to the bar, strike up the band,

and sing The Marseillaise.

Another Night at the Garden

This Again: It is with fear, anger, and profound disappointment that Abq Jew confirms what you, his loyal readers, already know from the extensive news coverage of the event:

Last night, The Former Guy (TFG) gathered deplorable myriads (how could there be so many?) - of, in the unrepeatable words of Hedley Lamarr -

"rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers, and Methodists" 

in New York City's famed Madison Square Garden - where the Knicks and Rangers play! where Billy Joel performs! - for what many have rightly described as a fascist rally, with deeply disturbing overtones of the 1939 meeting of the pro-Nazi German American Bund at the same venue.

Not to make light of it, but what is left, after all these years, of Abq Jew's mind is "a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives."

Wait, it gets worse. TFG is reportedly scheduled to return to the Land of Enchantment, appropriately on Erev Halloween, when all the other ghosts, ghouls, and goblins are also scheduled to appear.

This reported sighting has just appeared on TFG's official Events calendar. Yes, TFG will apparently be coming to Albuquerque on Thursday to hold a noon rally at CSI Aviation at the Albuquerque International Sunport. Tickets are available online on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Abq Jew is sure you can imagine just how thrilled he is to learn of this - probably as thrilled as you are. As with everything TFG, there remain an entire plethora of reasons - misunderstandings, swindlings, and the ubiquitous who knows what - why TFG's return may not take place as announced.

Among them - TFG's campaign still owes Albuquerque more than $200,000 (plus interest) in security costs and paid time off for city employees tied to his 2019 campaign rally in Rio Rancho, according to Mayor Tim Keller’s office. 

While this debt - and other debts, to other cities - may or may not be legally collectible, there is still ... the embarrassment. But TFG does not get embarrased - and, as we all know too well, has no sense of shame.

So. Back to TFG's campaign's fascist rally, at Madison Square Garden, which Heather Cox Richardson termed "a rally so extreme that Republicans running for office have been denouncing it all over social media tonight."

In February 2019 - shortly before TFG's last visit to New Mexico - Abq Jew published A Night at the Garden, which dealt with the eponymous film about the 1939 rally, Sinclair Lewis, Dorothy Thompson, Philip Roth, and - perhaps most importantly - Isadore Greenbaum.

Which Abq Jew proudly provides, in its entirety, below. Still crazy after all these years.

A Night at the Garden

It Can Happen Here

February 19, 2019

Yes, the Academy Awards are coming up - on Sunday February 24, to be exact. Among the Oscar nominees this year - for Best Documentary (Short Subject) - is a film that shows what happened when it almost happened here.

If you haven't heard of A Night at the Garden - you will. On CNN and MSNBC. But not on Fox News! Ari Feldman reported in The Forward on February 14:

Fox News Rejects Ad For Oscar-Nominated Short About American Nazism 

Fox News will not air an ad for an Oscar-nominated documentary about American Nazism, the Hollywood Reporter reported. 

The 30-second ad, called “It Can Happen Here,” is for “A Night At The Garden,” a documentary short about a 1939 meeting of the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization. 

That infamous meeting, which gathered 20,000 people in New York’s Madison Square Garden, was a dramatic show of American support for Hitler — and of American anti-Semitism. 

Banners hung up in the Garden read “Stop Jewish Domination of Christian Americans,” and “Wake Up America. Smash Jewish Communism.” The crowd yelled “Seig Heil!”

A Night At The Garden is pieced together from archival footage of the event, recalls the shocking level of determination and organization achieved by American Nazis and their supporters. 

But Fox News rejected the ad for the short, which is meant to warn that Nazism and fascism can happen in American. The ad, which Fox News’ leadership deemed “not appropriate,” was meant to be aired for the Sean Hannity’s show, historically the most-watched cable news broadcast. 

“It’s amazing to me that the CEO of Fox News would personally inject herself into a small ad buy just to make sure that Hannity viewers weren’t exposed to this chapter of American history,” said Marshall Curry, the director of the short.

Sinclair Lewis predicted it in It Can't Happen Here.

It Can't Happen Here is a semi-satirical 1935 political novel by American author Sinclair Lewis, and a 1936 play adapted from the novel by Lewis and John C. Moffitt. 

Published during the rise of fascism in Europe, the novel describes the rise of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a demagogue who is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and "traditional" values.  

After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government and imposes a plutocratic/totalitarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force, in the manner of Adolf Hitler and the SS. The novel's plot centers on journalist Doremus Jessup's opposition to the new regime and his subsequent struggle against it as part of a liberal rebellion.

And Philip Roth updated it in The Plot Against America.

The Plot Against America is a novel by Philip Roth published in 2004. It is an alternative history in which Franklin D. Roosevelt is defeated in the presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh.  

The novel follows the fortunes of the Roth family during the Lindbergh presidency, as antisemitism becomes more accepted in American life and Jewish-American families like the Roths are persecuted on various levels.  

The narrator and central character in the novel is the young Philip, and the care with which his confusion and terror are rendered makes the novel as much about the mysteries of growing up as about American politics.  

Roth based his novel on the isolationist ideas espoused by Lindbergh in real life as a spokesman for the America First Committee, and on his own experiences growing up in Newark, New Jersey.  

And it was fully on display when the German-American Bund held a rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939, on George Washington's birthday. Jason Daly of Smithsonian Magazine wrote in 2017 about "A Night at the Garden":

The film shows about six minutes of the rally, including the American Nazis marching into the hall in the party’s brown uniforms, reciting the pledge of allegiance and listening to the national anthem before giving Nazi salutes. 

It also includes a piece of a speech by Fritz Kuhn, the leader of the German-American Bund (the American wing of the Nazi party), in which he rails against the "Jewish-controlled media" and says it’s time to return United States to the white Christians who he says founded the nation.

But first - please watch the film (here or here.) It's only a bit over 7 terrifying minutes long.

Here is how it gets better: with a remarkable display of Jewish bravery.

At one point during the speech a 26-year-old plumber’s helper from Brooklyn named Isadore Greenbaum charges the stage and yells, "Down with Hitler." 

He is beaten up by Bund guards and his clothing is ripped off in the attack before New York police officers arrest him for disorderly conduct. 

In court that night, the judge said, 

“Don’t you realize that innocent people might have been killed?” 

Greenbaum responded, 

“Don’t you realize that plenty of Jewish people might be killed with their persecution up there?”

Philip Bump of The Washington Post wrote in 2017 about Isadore Greenbaum:

Shortly after the Loma Prieta earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay area in 1989, the Los Angeles Times spoke with local residents about the likelihood that they, too, would experience a significant quake at some point in the near future. 

One man the newspaper spoke with was stoic about the prospect. 

“When it comes, it comes. Not much use worrying about it,” local fisherman Isadore Greenbaum told the paper. “I remember when one hit a ways back, some of the people didn’t know what it was, and I told ’em it was just a whale scratching its back.” 

What the Times doesn’t seem to have known is that they were speaking with someone with a proven track record of bravery in the face of danger. 

Isadore Greenbaum was arrested in 1939 for charging the stage at a rally of 22,000 Nazi sympathizers in the middle of Manhattan, enduring a beating at the hands of the uniformed stormtroopers who were providing security before being dragged away by the police.

Another historical note: Famed journalist Dorothy Thompson was present at the Bund rally, and at one point was temporarily evicted.

For laughing. 

Dorothy Celene Thompson (July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster, who in 1939 was recognized by Time magazine as being equal in influence to Eleanor Roosevelt. 

She is notable as the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany in 1934 and as one of the few women news commentators on radio during the 1930s. She is regarded by some as the "First Lady of American Journalism."

 At the time of the Bund rally, she was married
to Sinclair Lewis, who wrote "It Can’t Happen Here."