Living in an antisemitic forest trees etched with swastikas go unnoticed. It seems hate and love can be felt in our bodies, somehow transmitted in the air. In the antisemitic forest Democrats are assumed Jewish. Your body feels the hate.

Julius Gordon

As a toddler at Christmastime in my grandmom Pitcherella’s house, my favorite thing next to la frit (frittelle) was Uncle Tony’s Jewish business partner Julius Gordon making me laugh. 

 

 

Raised Catholic, my Grandmom Cavallucci was the organist and choir directer at the Holy Rosary a block from our home. She made sure I was at church on Sundays.  

My next-door neighbors for the first 17 years of my life were Dr. Lewis Stokes and his wife Ms. Barbara Stokes. Dr. Stokes was a pioneering Black physician who was active in the NAACP. 

My parents called on Dr. Stokes when I had medical emergencies at night. I went to his office on Chestnut Street in Coatesville. I don't know what he put in those big syringes. I got better quickly when I saw him. 

Cutting through my Black neighbors yards on my way to school where I had Black and White friends it was hard to be racist. 

When we lived in Philadelphia in the 60s & 70s, we were affiliated with the Catholic Vietnam peace movement (Father John McNamee, Friends Meetinghouse). 

War and anti-war.

My wife Betsy worked at the Red Cross linking people on the homefront with officers in the field in Vietnam by ham radio. We talked with then Minister Bob Edgar about the war. 

Betsy's Red Cross friend the wife of David Douglas, recently home from serving in the Marines at Khe Sanh. He knew about David Douglas Duncan who arrived just as he was leaving Khe Sanh. 

Betsy volunteered as a tour guide at the 1976 July 4th celebration in Philadelphia. 

Getting Frank Rizzo's autograph. She actually knew him. 

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“The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, was “handpicked and funded by George Soros,” the former president declared on Thursday as news of his indictment was breaking.

The descriptor “Soros-backed” was attached to Mr. Bragg’s name by Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor and potential White House rival of Mr. Trump; Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, a member of the House Republican leadership; Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the last head of the Senate Republican campaign arm; and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, the far-right firebrand, as she traveled to Manhattan on Monday to protest Mr. Trump’s arraignment.

The right’s fixation with Mr. Soros has waxed and waned for years, but the tumult surrounding Mr. Trump’s indictment has given new life to what critics have long contended is a fixation tinged with antisemitic bigotry. Mr. Soros, a Hungarian Jew, survived the Holocaust, fled communism and became one of the single largest funders of democracy promotion, anti-Communism and liberal education around the globe.

“We understand that when someone makes comments about ‘Soros-backed prosecutors,’ that on its own is not necessarily antisemitic,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group.

“But when a person or a political party repeatedly and relentlessly makes wild claims such as that there is a ‘cabal of globalists backed by Soros destroying our country,’” Mr. Greenblatt said, “that is invoking a classic anti-Jewish conspiracy theory, and it should be condemned.” Mr. Trump and his allies have singled out Mr. Soros for years, Mr. Greenblatt added.”

MORE AT:

The New York Times

Behind Trump Indictment, the Right Wing Finds a Familiar Villain in Soros

Conspiracy theorists have long attributed wildly varied events to George Soros, in attacks often viewed as antisemitic. His indirect donations to a prosecutor’s campaign are animating Trump allies.

Trump’s Arraignment in New York

By Jonathan Weisman and Andrew Higgins

April 4, 2023 Updated 7:38 a.m. ET

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“Feel the love” is said in church and at concerts. I could feel the love at my grandmom’s home. Love is a thing that floats in the air. 

Hate can also be felt, maybe transmitted through the eyes.

Invited to a small gun club on top of a hill near Coatesville PA to shoot clay pigeons I felt the hate in the air. A couple of years later I learned the men were remnants of the 1930s & 40s KKK. 

It seems that hate and love can be felt in our bodies, terror and comfort somehow transmitted in the air. In my near to 80 years I’ve developed a keen sense of hate and love, terror and comfort. 

I’ve known people who generate love like Othmar Carli and Father John McNamee

I learned furniture restoration from Othmar Carli while working in a cabinetmaker shop in Hanover PA. I had to stop. Couldn't handle the dust. 

Father Michael Doyle, John McNamee’s friend at Sacred Heart in Camden was at an event Betsy & me were invited to at my teacher Othmar Carli’s studio. My connection with John McNamee & Othmar came full circle. 

The SS scarred his back. He wouldn’t submit to the Hitler Youth. Othmar's kindergarten teacher took his class to see a burned out synagogue. At 6 years of age he made a pledge to himself to devote his life to rebuilding places of worship. 

Othmar is the kindest man I ever knew. I found this video about Mr. Carli's work at Sacred Heart in Camden: