Expressing thanks is one of man’s greatest traits.
As Thanksgiving gives way to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, most normal people continue to give thanks for all of the good that they have in their lives. If one actually sat in a comfortable chair and began to rattle off all of the good in his life, he may be sitting there for some time: his health, family, dough in the bank, roof over his head and food in the fridge and on and on. There are many Jews in Israel from the lands that are Kurdistan. One descendant of Kurdish parents told me that his mother has an old book of Psalms that has at the end a list of things for which to thank God. One of them is, “Thank you for all of the things that You did not give me.”
When going through my late folks’ stuff, it felt like being rushed through a museum 15 minutes before closing. There were all of the goodies that they had collected over decades of going to auctions, visiting every trading outpost in the southwest and buying goods wherever we traveled. There were also tons of documents, letters, and pictures. In going through the documents, I tried to grab things that seemed to have familial significance. It definitely was not scientific, but some of the materials did find their way here to Jerusalem.
Three items are related and are reasons for me to give thanks to people, also whom I never knew. My mother had two uncles who set out from Germany to Utah to make their fortune. And apparently they did very well with a silver mine, converting some of their wealth into railroad and other holdings. Their last name was Bamberger, as was that of the only Jewish governor of the state, who was in office around the same time. The two men never found Jewish brides in the land of Mormon and did not marry. The first document is the will of the older brother. It’s a pleasure to hold it, as it is a typed document on the kind of paper that you can’t find any longer. He wrote it in November of 1938, and he passed away shortly thereafter. He set aside his wealth for the families of his nine brothers and sisters still in Germany. My mother’s name was Ella, and he mentions his niece, “Elly”. I never in my life heard anyone call her such. His actions saved not only my mother and her parents but also other members of the extended tribe. My mother left Germany in December of 1938 on the SS Washington to New York to start a new life away from Hitler and the Nazis.
The second document is a notarized letter from a Jewish family living in New York. I never heard my parents mention their name, but they played a key role in my pre-history. They stated to the US government that they would take financial responsibility for the three new immigrants should they be in need of any external funding or assistance. One did not just show up in the US and declare, “I am here.” He had to show means and/or a sponsor who would take financial responsibility so that the newcomer would not become a ward of the state. My father had the same in Australia, where an uncle sponsored him and his parents. This is the way that immigration used to work: for the benefit of the US.
The final document is the naturalization papers of my maternal grandmother. It actually has the only picture I have of her. My mother and her parents became American citizens because it was an honor and privilege to do so. Fleeing Germany, they found refuge in America and wanted to be a part of such a great country. My mother could never forgive the Dodgers for leaving Brooklyn.
When one sees a rally of the “Democratic Socialists of America”, he rarely sees any American flags. He also does not hear much in the way of thanks. They wouldn’t know to thank God, and other than billionaire funders, to whom should they express their gratitude? Nixon was once in Moscow for nuclear weapons talks. Brezhnev said that “God would not forgive them” if they could not find a way to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world. All of the Soviet officials standing behind the podium were shocked that he had invoked God: what does a godless commie have to do with God? America, its founding and the rights enshrined in the Constitution have everything to do with God. The Founders saw all of the blessings of the New World as a gift from God, as reflected in Washington’s proclamation of the first Thanksgiving holiday.. Look at this Mamdani rally prior to his election as Mayor of New York: do you see a single American flag on the stage or in the crowd? I don’t. Thanksgiving is every day for normal Americans. They are grateful for all that they have in the greatest country on the planet and all that they are free to do. Spending time in other countries is often the best way to find out how great one has it in the US—and how much one needs to be thankful for.
Chanukah is quickly approaching, and every year I stand dumbfounded. One of the items associated with the holiday is the “dreidel” or spinning top. On the four sides are four letters in Hebrew representing the words, “A Great Miracle Occurred Here.” When I grew up in the Chicago area, our dreidels had a different final letter, meaning that the great miracle happened “There”. For the past two decades, local toy stores have brought in endless types of spinning tops, most of them having nothing to do with Chanukah. There are those with different colored LEDs that play a favorite holiday song as they spin around. When they break, I open them up to see three watch batteries, lights, and an electronics package for the music and control of the LEDs. Such a top costs 10 shekels, around $3. I think about the factory in China that makes them, the shipping company that brings them to Israel, the local importer who takes them from the dock and finally the store where I buy them. Those $3 have profit for each of these companies. And that to me is amazing. While inflation post-COVID has driven up prices for a lot of goods, and housing is becoming more difficult for many Americans (the average age for first-time home buyers in the US: 40 years old), we still have an extraordinary standard of living. One can make free video calls to the other side of the world or hop on a plane for 15 hours and get to the other side of the world.
The ability to give thanks is an extremely important human trait for several reasons. Firstly, it requires that the person leave himself to realize that there are those around him who make his life better, from someone opening a door for him to a doctor saving his life. Also, giving thanks is a sign of a person holding others in a state of respect. The millionaire “Democratic Socialists of America” don’t thank God because they don’t think that He did anything for them. They don’t have American flags because they only have complaints about the country and its history. I would imagine that in their personal lives, they are similar: that it is hard for them to thank others, as they believe that they deserve everything. Giving thanks shows the sublime in man, and that’s why it is sadly lacking in the political left. Donald Trump is always expressing his gratitude.