To Siege-y

[Lettow77]

Did you know, Charleston was the seat of a large Sephardic jewish community?

It was the largest jewish population in the Americas until the ashkenazi from eastern europe started pouring into new york. They poured their blood into the cause of the Confederacy, with a very signifigant amount of them falling in the field of honour.

As a result, there are less jews in charleston now than there were in 1800, with a signifigant portion of those being yankee immigrant types mucking up the South.

I just thought you might be interested by the story of Sephardic Jews and their role in the Confederacy, and what it cost them. It would seem remiss to close, however, without mentioning Judah Benjamin- sephardic jew, and frequent native of South Carolina, who rose to hold two seperate offices in Davis's cabinet, proving the most effective and lasting Secretary of State the Confederacy would ever have.

[dps]

Vickburg also had a large Jewish community.

[Siege]

Lettow, I know a lot about the sefaradim in the South.
There was even a governor of Georgia in the early 1800s that was sefaradi.
Savanah also had a sizeable sefaradi population.

You should also know that the sefaradim in England sided with the South.
My family on my father's side went to England from Holland, but moved to South Africa during the 1830s, so they were far away during the ACW.

Anyway. The South lost, and the South will be ever tainted with brutal slavery.
There is no way around it. I am not gonna get into the discussion whether they were guilty of this or not.
The fact remains, that it was wrong, the same way apartheid was wrong, no matter how much I loved South Africa.

I don't know how much contact with african-americans you have, but not all of them are ganstah paradise.
Yes, many of them are garbage, but you cannot judge an entire ethnic group by the actions of the few, or even the actions of the many.

Did you see the picture I posted in the Looking Glass thread?
Yeah, that's an african-american from Florida and a southern-boy from Georgia, with me.
They both deployed to Iraq with me, they both kicked down doors with me and took down names.
They both have skills and kills. And they both lost and mourned the same brothers I lost in Iraq.
They are both my brothers.
I would take a bullet in my heart for either one of them, for both of them.

[Lettow77]

A very large post was deleted. I will recap.

My contact with black people is massive, and I believe surpasses that of anyone on this board- I live in a city that has more blacks than whites, in a neighbourhood that reflects this.

I would hate to be misunderstood for my beliefs regarding black people, by you and languish as a whole, so let me state it plainly.

I use the word nigger in common discourse. I believe intermarriage is wrong, and the current state of the negro is deplorable. However, 100 blacks lives are worth 1000 yankees lives any day of the week, and twice on Sundays. Blacks, you see, are Southerners. The great tragedy of Southern history is that neither blacks nor other Southerners seem to realise this, and the yankee has pitted us against each other since 1865 with great success. No good will come of Southern independence until blacks and whites have meaningfully reconciled. They are my countrymen, by cultural, historical, spiritual and linguistic ties. As my countrymen, they are some of the most precious people on earth to me.

You are right that slavery is wrong. The South practiced slavery. However, it does not naturally therefore follow that the South is wrong. For that matter, I wouldent venture with certainty that slavery is better than the wage slavery practiced up north at the time.

You also love South Africa? I don't meet many fans of that troubled state. I hold the Afrikaners in very high esteem, and hope they get a nation of their own in the near future. Surely it wouldnt be too much to ask for fortune to shine on such a gallant but luckless people.

[Siege]

Lettow, don't misunderstand my love for South Africa.
My grandfather was born there. He was a boy when he came to Israel with his two older brothers. His 3 sisters remained behind, married already. His two older brothers were killed by the arabs before the Independance War. My grandpa and his brothers were romantic zionists. They really believed. They even thought that cohexistance with the muslims was possible.

I went to South Africa as an exchange student. My family exploited the exchange student program to get me and my cousins to South Africa, and my cousins from South Africa to Israel. I finished High School in Cape Town in 1987. There was a lot of goverment money from both countries involved in paying for that program.

I lived with them for a year. I got to know them, and to know that South Africa was a lot more than apartheid.
But, but, there is no justification. The global war to contain comunism does not justificate apartheid.

[Siege]

http://languish.org/forums/index.php?topic=573.msg24720#new

[Grey Fox]

Yankee Pride!