Goldstein is a Jewish Name

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Aug 18, 2015 at 14:27

Hi, Waz. Some interesting points. You said,

"You Brits?? LOL. We're not Brits!"

This brings up a subject that OUGHT to interest Jewish readers (which doesn't at all mean that it does). The bigger question is,

"Who, the heck, are you!"

I live in a country that's officially and legally color-blind, religion-blind, sex-blind and otherwise just flat-out blind. Identity is a MAJOR, and majorly unspoken, issue in my country, on blogs in general and especially among Jews.

First of all, let's start with the facts: The most wonderful, beautiful, talented and morally excellent people in the world are of 50% Chinese, 20% English, 13% Swedish 12% Slovenian and 5% Dutch extraction, all liberally laced with American First Nation, Jewish, Scotch-Irish, Huguenot, German and 27 secret herbs and spices. That's a given; and coincidentally, it exactly matches up with a description of my grandchildren. Does that make me a racist? Perhaps in the eyes of the law and of "netiquette", it does; but in my own heart I believe it simply makes me human; and I don't consider it as an anti-Semitic "hate crime" to think this way.

Of course, I also believe that all people should throw away their religious labels and come around to thinking exactly like me on spiritual matters. I honestly believe that. After all, I'm right, aren't I? Wouldn't it be awfully stupid of me, to put my trust in something I believe to be wrong? And contrary to the established "practiced non-communication" of the day, there is no such thing in religious matters as "That may be right for YOU, but not for me." In my (correct, obviously) opinion, God doesn't tailor his core identity to the whims of men (/women/ LGBTs/ Democrats/ whatever).

So far, I've touched on at least three forms of "self-identity": (1) Family connection, (2) Race/ Ethnic identity, (3) Religious identity. You seem to have brought up a fourth, namely, (4) Identity by residence and a fifth, (5) identity by citizenship.

Those last two are especially important to my family in Hong Kong and China. I imagine they're also important to our Polish-Jewish-American blog host, who may or may not approve of hyphenated identities. Neither is this a new phenomenon. A look at the New Testament character Paul reveals this:

Acts 22:
[25] And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?
[26] When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman.

and,

Acts 21:
[35] And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people.
[36] For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him.
[37] And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek?
[38] Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers?
[39] But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.
[40] And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,

22:
[1] Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you.
[2] (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)
[3] I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.

So now, I have an Irish-German-Dutch-whatever Aussie telling me he's not a "Brit". What's the world coming to, seriously? "Americans", I have read, are the most "patriotic" people in the world, but they're all mixed up. From a "patriotic" point of view, you Aussies are about the closest thing to brothers that we can find on the planet; because you have stuck with us (and we with you) in one misadventurous war after another: The Boxer Rebellion, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq I, Iraq II, Afghanistan, and now in the sitzkrieg "Anti-ISIL" shennanigans. In that sense, you're surely not "Brits"; because we stabbed the Brits (and Israelis) in the back in Sinai in 1956, and they returned the favor in Vietnam.

That last sentence ought to be a yellow flag, to those who trust in their governments and "patriae" for their identity. In a few years, all the patriae in the world will come together in a "New World Order" -- the same one announced 25 years ago by US President George Herbert Walker Bush. In that day, which I imagine as happening in perhaps a decade, Yanks and Aussies will again be in the trenches together; and the one's they're shooting at will be Christians and Jews. In those days, we who stand for God's people will be as popular as the prophet Jeremiah was, when he said,

Jer. 38:
[17] Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house:
[18] But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.
[19] And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.

When those times come, my Aussie brother, what will you do? How about your children and grandchildren? I continually labor in prayer on this matter for my own family. How about you? You said,

"My government is in control of 100% of Australia right now. I don't think that's a bad thing. I'm glad that it is ."

My fellow INGSOC Oceanian, Winston. The Two Minutes Hate has already begun; and it's no coincidence that "Goldstein" is a Jewish name.

Shalom Shalom :-)

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