 Good day, May 40th here. So I was just listening to an article from New York magazine on Why is everything at Walgreens behind a locked door? and It's talking about the current wave of shoplifting and It had the observation that every booster so apparently a booster is someone who steals on a regular basis then Sends sells the stolen goods to a fence to someone who then sells it usually online and So this observation in the New York magazine article was that every booster All right, it was a drug addict so let's just Save her for argument sake that every booster is a drug addict Then it seems like it would be appropriate to talk about shoplifting and the like they're primarily in terms of sick or You know well that these people are addicts if they weren't dealing from from stores and they'd be doing something else heinous to to feed their habit and so Maybe not looking at things through the moral lens, but looking at things in terms of Sick and healthy versus moral and immoral. Maybe that would be appropriate So normally I'm type of locust looks at shoplifting things. Oh, that's highly moral. That's terrible How can anyone do that? That's immoral but maybe the psychological therapeutic 12-step approach of looking at this kind of behavior as sick versus healthy Maybe maybe there's something to that if that works. All right my my moralistic Judaic Anglo heritage wants to say moral immoral, but if it's if it's more accurate to talk about Second healthy, I mean if it's more useful if that's getting more down to the to the nub of what's going on Then who am I to argue against it? So I had a good night's sleep last night. It is currently those day afternoon January 19th 2023 here in Sydney 416 p.m. And At a good night's sleep last night and I want to explore the Royal National Park Which is a national park about 20 miles south of Sydney. There's about an hour and a half usually by public transport, so Many of the attractions not so easily accessible if you're just going to take public transport down there So I wanted to get down to Otford Which is on the way to Wollongong and it's fairly close to the beach I heard it's a nice 12 kilometer walk to Burning Palm Beach and Anyway, because it was raining and drizzly or morning. There's the electricity went out on the line So our train had to stop at waterfall, which is about five miles shorter Six miles short of Otford. So I've got out there found a trail just started pleasing trails exploring trails and So I got up early I'd left the house before 7 a.m. And I was still like pumping with adrenaline There's like a light drizzle coming down as I'm tackling the open trail about 9 30 a.m And then because I had a good night's sleep It's just kind of interesting to watch the trajectory of my willpower and my thinking so it's kind of a cool day here It's about 63 degrees here. It's about about 18 17 degrees Celsius so As I'm blazing down this unfamiliar trail, there's absolutely no one around hiking I hiked for Two and a half hours before I saw a single person And it was interesting just to see my willpower and the acuity of my thinking just like steadily drop as I became more and more fatigued so for the first 30 to 60 minutes I was like powered by enthusiasm powered by Excitement powered by the unfamiliar here. I am exploring this national park. There's absolutely no one around Am I going to run into a serial killer? And I sent a ping of my location to a family member so that you know, at least they'd know where to find the body And then after about an hour of walking And we're talking terrain that's up and down. It's not just you know walking Uh Notice a little fatigue starting to set in and the excitement level, you know dropping And the willpower kind of dropping and And I noticed that my thinking was no longer in enthusiasm mode. Wow, this is new and exciting and this is brave And I'm blazing a new trail out of waterfall And I had no idea that this is where I'd be today But kind of looking around and you know seeing the bars drop on my phone. So I can't live stream my adventure and the bars dropping on my phone and The fatigue's heading in and the willpower is dropping and dropping and dropping and so that's kind of steadily how it went Through through the morning Then I made made it to a waterfall about 11 a.m And I went to like the edge of the waterfall and I was like, whoa, that's a long way down And there's absolutely no one around. I haven't seen anyone for two hours So I I scoffed down my five protein bars And then I get I noticed like the willpower's coming back And a bit of the old enthusiasm coming back and the thinking's getting sharper and clearer And then I see a suggestion to it to another hike. It's only about three kilometers, but it's labeled hard And everything's wet. All right, it's been drizzling all morning. So I'm kind of pushing my way through this wet vegetation and I've been fired up by my lunch. So you always get more willpower usually after a meal. So I finally pull out my DG Gimbal thingy and start recording videos. There's not enough bars to go live So recording videos and I almost make it down to this watering hall and I see a couple so I start my Streaming start my video recording and put all my stuff away go down to The waterhole and there's a couple and the bloke is from El Salvador Anyway, his parents are El Salvador and his parents and extended family came to Australia in 1989 On refugee status and apparently there's a whole El Salvadoran community in Sydney In the western suburbs and in Brisbane. I didn't know it I didn't think I'd seen an El Salvadoran or a Mexican or Central American during my whole Two months three weeks here in Australia But apparently there's a whole community and he's never Almost never experienced any racism or pushback from from Aussies He's a gym owner He's a gym owner and his girlfriend's a public school teacher. He teaches health. So they're a very fit couple and I you know, they they brought out the goodies like they opened up like sliced oranges and grapes and I was just They said they didn't want to carry it out and uh and went for a swim in the watering hole. So it's like 60 degrees out all right, it's about about 16 degrees Celsius 60 degrees Fahrenheit But I go for a swim in the watering hole because it's just such a classic place Fresh water watering hole And then as they're making their way back apparently civilization is only about an hour away On this new direction. So they asked me how how fast of a Walker are you and boy these two people were fit. I mean I could not keep up I mean they were just blazing trails But here I am back in Kudji and uh On the good side, right? I might stay here in Australia. You know, I haven't been paying for a hotel all right just been Bludging up people. I know the downside is I often have to be out of the out of the unit for like Eight ten hours at a time So I'm waiting for the text that says that I can go back in the unit. I could warm up I can take a hot shower Can get cleaned up because I've been doing all my hiking in my in my thong so Nothing, but we're in thongs the last uh Last week or so just really enjoy kind of the freedom my shoes are really worn out And so the thongs just really enjoy the freedom. So I've been yeah hiking in thongs And it's not so bad, right? Not so bad. It's very pleasant And it's cold here. So look no one is out and about so If it was a warm day, this would be absolutely filled with people because it's summer holidays So most school kids are off from About december 15th until the beginning of february So let me know if there's like too much wind distorting the audio quality and I'll just Wrap it up for today go on a walk about trying to get some warmth back into me and Wait for the text which is I can return to the unit And I can return to feeling like a mensch have that nice hot shower Haven't had a shower today. Did did go for a swim in the watering hole I had been listening to a lot of misha's all podcast so he does the eureka podcast And he's got a really good twitter account eastern european jew lives in sydney 32 years old got two three kids really smart jewish wife Who's that wanted to be jewish like a lot of people and this is his Conversation with with raseeb khan. So the the blogger who specializes in genetics here He's talking about genetics and the history of the jews State in spain and we'll get into that So they show up in the netherlands now Some of the people that went to the netherlands they had connections actually with people in the Ottoman empire So from a chinese perspective, all right all the abrahamic religions must seem really similar. Oh jew christian muslim I did Do those distinctions mean really anything to the chinese So he says later on that the chinese tend to assimilate people while the indians Would put jews in their own separate caste But that was an interesting distinction Chinese assimilate indians put people into a caste Now from from a jewish perspective like as someone who's converted to Judaism Like I see all these different gradiation gradations of jew But even from for a completely outside objective perspective just knowing that someone's a jew doesn't really necessarily tell you much They might be secular. They might be an atheist. They might be orthodox They might be ashkenazi, safariq and misrahi and by and large those groups don't have much in common Right, so you get to a synagogue with with posion jews and safariq jews and misrahi jews and ashkenazi jews And they all pretty much stick to their own Type it's kind of like a prison where people divide up by race And so too with churches, right churches. You got korean, you know christian churches in los angeles and filipino christian churches and You know west african christian churches. So you have someone like uh grassy amendez nazi She's kind of like a she's a merchant prince of the 16th century Born in portugal raised as a crypto jew She spent some time in the netherlands and also So a crypto jew when people have to hide their their Judaism So there's a whole spade of you know, anti-jewish attacks leaving people Sometimes in a wheelchair paralyzed Like jewish kid had been so beaten down and bullied that he committed suicide So when you have a you know spade of anti-jewish attacks Then it would make sense that people would be say less likely to wear a yarmulka You know be be less visible But uh during you know safer safer times people We're gonna feel you know more free to express their quirky minority perspective. So prior to the 1960s there was a strong pressure in australia and in the united states to assimilate to the dominant mainstream culture And so jews maybe up until the 1950s in australia They often didn't want to be known as jews. They would choose every other euphemism like We're australians of the mosaic persuasion or We're australians that just happened to you know worship in a hebrou temple or What are the israelite, you know Their organizations it would rarely say jewish. They'd be like hebrew this or israelite that or mosaic this So i'm not sure i don't think it was the same way in the united states But in australia up until about the 1960s Most jewish organizations didn't seem to want to go down as jewishers like hebrew mosaic israelite right so When there's a bigger price to pay for not being mainstream Right then people tend to start hiding. Can you hear the the crashing of the ocean waves in the background? Can you hear the the wind is distorting the audio quality in the ottoman empire? So these families the sofatic families had networks all over the place And in much of northwest europe, they were the first jewish communities So the sofatic jews used to be the elite jews So i'm not exactly sure when the ashkenazi jews became the dominant jews I think probably 16th century. So my monadies were sofatic. I believe rashi was sofatic But if you were to to tabulate say that 100 most influential jews of the past Say rabbis of the past 300 years Probably no more than like two of them would be sofatic And yeah, if you were to make a list of the top 100 jews of the past top 100 rabbis of the past 300 years I don't think even one would be miss rachi. So maybe any two Which is about you yusuf would be sofatic 98 99 percent would be ashkenazi You spell their jews. I think the 1250s or something, you know, a lot of us have to do with black death and then also Monarchs were intended, you know that right? That's why they're so jews did better than average surviving the black death In part because of jewish ritual practices of washing your hands before a meal Pick out a france name But um, the first jews that show back that show up in england again I think in the 1650s sofatic jews show up in london. So a lot of the early jewish communities were sofatic So in spain itself there were still crypto jewish communities most of them assimilated So, you know, montaigne the philosopher had partial jewish ancestry So until I got to ucla at age 21 I'd never consciously met a jew but I'd worked with a jew That I find out later in the news department at k high k hill radio And so I'd probably been around other jews But they just never spoke about being jewish because I grew up in these rural areas where There were more homogeneous and so there was less of a celebration of multiculturalism Yeah, I guess paternal grandfather was born a jew Something like that or a conferso family St. Teresa of Avila also came out of a family with conferso origins They were excluded out of large sections of spanish society but allowed in others So the you know the purity of blood rules for spanish mobility and the spanish elite come out of the fact That there were so many confersos and also some mariscos There were certain times in spanish history where it was perfectly fine to be jewish and You know jews could you know mix the highest most elite levels And then times change and jews are persecuted or driven out So There is within christianity and islam like a latent strongly anti- jewish element because If there was an anti- jewish element, then why would you need christianity or islam? All right, obviously you're going to have a new religion But in large part grew out of Judaism All right, you'd have to you know sustain Reasons why you're not jewish why you have developed something beyond Judaism So there is an inherent, you know hostility in christianity in islam, which may or may not be expressed And so depending on circumstances That anti- jewish element can come to the fore Also backgrounds who are coming into spanish society But it looks like from the genetic and the genealogical evidence A lot of these conversos So it's kind of interesting sitting here in australia because if i'd stayed in australia It's highly unlikely i would have ever converted to Judaism because it's you know much less of a possibility in In australia because australia has much more of a homogeneous culture And so the idea of converting to Judaism just wouldn't be on in australia But in america where we celebrate multiculturalism and diversity And also jews are a much more influential and larger part of american life than they are in australian life, so We're talking jews are What about 100,000 200,000 in australia? So we're talking about Way less than 1% of the australian population Is jewish In america jews have comprised up to 3% of the american population So proportionally There are about 20 to 30 times as many jews in united states as there are in australia So jews have 20 to 30 times the influence on the cultural reach economic reach political reach In united states as compared to australia So as i just look around here and i enjoy australia's homogeneous society high levels of social cohesion and social trust I also have to be kind of humbled if i'd stayed here I probably would not have converted to orthodox jews and crypto jews They went disproportionately overseas because the inquisition was weaker in the new world It was weaker in asia and so this is a place where they could go for opportunities so Moving to the united states say from england. I it was about It was about a 20 20 to 30 day voyage Hey, holly good to see you. How are you? So moving the united states from england and say that the 17th 18th century Easier to seek status as a new jew in la than in australia. Yeah Yeah, much easier to convert to jews in united states than i assume would be in australia be kind of unthinkable in australia but moving to the united states from england 17th 18th century it take about 20 days 25 days by sail While sailing to australia it would take 80 to 90 days. It's the tyranny of distance And then when when you started getting faster and faster ships, okay, it'd be the difference between five or 10 days from england to new york versus you know 40 40 days 50 days to to australia So we're much more remote here. It's just enormous Country and so you know the further you have to go right the less likely you are you are to do it That's why so many more immigrants move to the united states other than australia and also with conversion You know the more difficult it is the more challenging it is The more It takes you out of your habitual ways, you know the less likely you are to do it So I think one reason that my conversion stuck As opposed to many comments to judyism is that it's psychologically very amenable to me. I really enjoy Jewish war Jewish emotional openness Jewish intensity Jewish competitiveness Like I really like the life of being jewish while I know for Many other converters to judyism they get through the process And then their commitment and excitement and interest and all things jewish that's really dropping off And so usually people will convert to judyism for reasons of marriage And then if they if that marriage runs into trouble or if they divorce then they just You know, they're just completely abandoned being jewish So you can be married to a jew for 20 plus years. I mean david brook's second wife, right? She converted to judyism. I think for him Uh, is she still a practicing jew question mark? I don't know, but I know You know women have converted to judyism to marry a jewish man Then after the marriage ends and the children leave home. So after 25 years living living as a jew living As a traditional orthodox jew They will completely walk away from that Because the primary reason they did it was for the marriage and then to raise the kids And they're coherent home then once the kids go and the marriage goes They no longer see no sufficient reason to be jewish Asia and so this is a place where they could go for opportunities Because their opportunities were restricted in spain And I think this is actually analogous to what you would see in europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries When a lot of australian juice left for the west they So there's such a high quality of life here in sydney But if your burner is primarily burning on ambition Right if you want to get away from tall poppy syndrome You want to just be or you can be if you really want to go for the gusto Then the most ambitious australians are very likely to move to the united states The west they left for america they left for england Because their opportunities were restricted like they could only go so far unless they became totally christian right And so there is a fair amount of circumstantial evidence of cultural revivals in parts of the new world Uh in particular villages and domains kind of out of the way like in weird places like in the mountains of ecuador You know, so when jews move say from poland to germany their Judaism changes significantly Right it becomes more assimilated they get more secular education They develop better relations with the non-jews than they Suffered say in poland Uh jews move from germany to england it changes again Usually in a more assimilated direction When jews move from from england then to new york it changes again Uh when they then move from new york to california it moves again So the geography and culture that surround jews or any minority group muslims too i'm sure Right are going to be profoundly affected by the geographic location and the culture in which they Operate so you know la jews are a very different type than say new york jews Right much more assimilated and much less ethnic much less religious Uh compared to new york and new york say compared to Eastern europe All right night and day It's like in the mountains of ecuador, you know, they have so far to jewish practices They didn't know it was so far to jewish practices until you know subject There's no inherent reason why you cannot maintain Judaism in the mountains of ecuador But Judaism is one of those things that can't really practice a line. You have to be part of a community And community needs like a kosher butcher It needs A mikvah so that married women can dip once a month and Before they reunite with their husbands. You need you know, jewish education. Okay, get away from those institutions And you will naturally just start assimilating so The most traditional the most orthodox jews live in melbourne overwhelmingly sydney jews are entirely far more assimilated far more secular So I can listen to someone who is like driven to synagogue And then castigating other jews for not, you know, being sufficiently rigorous about keeping kosher so for for an orthodox synagogue in in los angeles or New york, I mean the idea of like publicly announcing that you drove there to synagogue that just wouldn't be on Because overwhelmingly orthodox jews don't don't drive But sydney is much more assimilated but compared to Brisbane like sydney is traditional. All right, brisbane jews are far more assimilated than sydney jews so The further you get from traditional community traditional communal institutions like the more likely you are to assimilate Also, jewish tourists or anthropologists or scholars showed up. They're like, these are clearly jewish practice And then you get the dna and the genetics are like, yeah, these people are about like 10 to 15 percent so far to jewish Like they're meant for the end of you write about colombians and how they've had with that So people aren't also just their genetics. So you can take, you know, pure ashkenazi genetics Transfer transfer those people to aquador and the Judaism is going to steadily diminish and you know, they're going to intermarry and The genetics will be changed by the new culture and environment that they're in So falashian jews from Ethiopia, right? They don't have any identifiable genetic markers of being jewish But for, you know, largely political pragmatic reasons by american jews who wanted to show to the world See, Zionism isn't racist. We just brought in 120 000 Ethiopian jews All right, Israeli jews not so thrilled about the importation of 120 000 quote unquote, you know falashian jews Uh who have, you know, zero genetic jewish markers at Israeli jews not thrilled by that importation But american jews were really thrilled. See jews aren't racist. Israel's not racist. Zionism isn't racist We just discovered celebrated imported 120 000 African jews and uh Falashian jews haven't generally assimilated into Israeli life They seem to have all the same problems that african-americans have in america All right, they listen to rap music. They have high rates of crime low rates of educational attainment Very high rates of poverty enormous rates of living off government assistance not exactly breaking academic and cognitive records So overwhelming leaf lashian jews from Ethiopia haven't assimilated into israel Don't usually marry regular, you know ashkenazi israelis So you take ashkenazi jews and falashian jews, especially nothing in common But there are your largest words of like rural columbia that are like 10 percent jewish or or something like that Which is amazing when i was in um costa rica, um, and i um, yeah I went to the to the local ashkenazi synagogue kind of kind of curiosity and it's actually a beautiful synagogue in san jose and you know, I went to um to dinner with some of these families homes and You know, they've got very uh, you know, they're very well aware of that dynamic in costa rica They're called maranos in costa rica. We have these kind of So michael fermento. Wow what a adventurous and torturous path that he's been on like a downward spiral in the past 15 years he moved to columbia and he's I think he's jewish by genetics but doesn't Doesn't seem it doesn't practice much judeism and but he went went to a synagogue in columbia and They someone invited him home just kind of as an obligation, but he felt very You know disconnected from the the jewish community there so When people, you know extend hospitality to you by by obligation you can't Can't really expect any further bonds to develop from that. Crypto Jews basically go costa rica and doing the same things I imagine the stories replicated across the the latin and the last world and the new world I was just reading a book fire and blood by um, uh ferenabracha I'm probably just pronouncing his name, which is the story about uh, you know, the history of mexico basically And he talks about the inquisition waning waxing waning in terms of strength in in mexico Depending and there was one event with some privilege you jewish noble family Were a little bit too aggressive with their, you know, pro-jewish Prostitutizing and they basically burned him in the square As a result, but that was kind of the exception to the rule I think attempt Yeah, so if an individual's christianity waxes or if they're Islamic identity waxes, and they're more likely to have negative views of outgroups All right, and so when there was christian fervor and there was a minority jewish The individual you know celebrating their Judaism. Yeah, that's not going to go over to I mean you see this with with gays who are really into their gay identity That they have all sorts of derogatory terms for street people Be a lot more a lot more relaxed. I think I remember reading with the portuguese I was surprised at the number of um conversos among the conquistadors as well I think the gamma from memory was uh, was a jewish convert and the like so you're kind of seeing this Both in terms of all the conquistadors launching and the everyone kind of trying to find, you know A new home is seeing probably disproportionate number of uh, so someone who converted to Judaism And just empathizing then with with these uh jews who converted to christianity There is something of a sense when you convert of Being homeless in two cans, right? You haven't like fully established yourself in your new identity But you've largely lost your old identity. So Many of the people that I grew up with You know, they found it horrifying when I converted to Judaism and just like completely ended you know that that relationship and You then step into this new world of Judaism And it will be a reflection of your psychology So if you're like a self-doubting person if you're an anxious person if you have a lot of tendencies to fear And you want to do I really fit in here? Does anyone like me? Does anyone care for me? Do I belong? So yeah, I've had some of that when I was going through those down periods of my thinking You know just express a selfies of being my Jewish identity and As I uh, whined to my therapist one day about synagogue. I said Sometimes I sit there and wonder does anyone you know care for me? And he had the greatest rejoinder said would you do you care for anyone there? So when I'm happy in myself and I feel like I've been going in a good direction in my life And I naturally tend to care about other people and you know fear and anxiety Concern about my identity tend to tend to diminish but when I'm like struggling in life Then you know the fear and the anxiety comes to the fore and caring about other people no longer seems to Be be a high concern, but when I when I'm happy, you know when I'm feeling good that I'm naturally Concerned about other people and I naturally want to be helpful and generous and kind Which then helps me to connect with other people and build those identities and connections and you know a sense of community So yeah, I see Outside of me what's going on inside of me. I've converted converted Jews following the expulsion Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know they went where opportunity was and where they could make the most of their talent So you know hindsight this all makes sense, but yeah, I mean that's true for people generally We go where there's opportunity We grow towards the sunlight we grow towards what gives us attention What gives us a feeling that we're doing something that we're good at like, why do I live stream? I feel like I'm good at it. I enjoy like the repartee with the chat You know otherwise I could be pumping weights right now or they're working on my internet commerce business or Their marketing or we do what we're good at we grow in the direction of our talents So we have genetic talents And then we have often instigating events in life that make us realize. Hey, you know, I'm really good at this I really enjoy this and so we just do more and more of it So why do people do what they do? Because they're good at it and they enjoy it and their opportunities are The issue is as I think allude to it in my sarcastic piece, you know, some Western anthropologists in the 20th century were like Oh, well, you know, this is actually because they don't like being indigenous And they want to like, you know identify a source of ancestry. That's pure. So yes So like what they're saying like I think a lot of Jews will find this funny Then like some in parts of latin america. It's like if you're jewish that means you have no indigenous or african ancestry Yeah, you're pure with blood Yeah Yeah, status status that's that's like The great driver of people that gets the like the least attention in polite conversation Like who is going to come out and admit how much they strive for status And who's going to come out and admit that they're choosing clothing choosing friends and choosing work Choosing accommodations They're choosing a car They're choosing hobbies They're choosing books that they're reading choosing podcasts choosing political affiliations Uh newspaper magazine subscriptions in large part based on their desire to achieve a certain status But uh very few people can be open and honest about how much driving The status dominates their lives, but it's an inherent part of life You know, and so and like that might be true But uh now the genetics actually does confirm that they do have jewish ancestry. So it's not just made up, you know So, um, there was a period of the 20th century where if you read the scholarly literature, they're like, oh, these are this is obviously just Fabulism, uh partly driven by like just myth-making and mythology and it's not just purely myth-making mythology There's like a real kernel of deep truth there that there were just proportioned number of sub-artic jewish people that So what's interesting is to discover like what what is sacred to you You know, it may not be obvious And so you'll you'll find out what's sacred to you by what gets you upset So for example black lives matter and support for black lives matter, you know, that gets me upset So this is surfing blouse. No, I like long sleeve t-shirts. So that's what this is. It's a long sleeve t-shirt. So I often notice You know, I live in LA and often It's a little too cool to just wear a t-shirt But it is too warm To wear a sweater. So what do you wear when the temperature is say between 62 and 70 degrees like I do not like being cold Like I would rather be a couple of degrees too warm than to be cold So I find like a long sleeve t-shirt just essential So when I'm working in office buildings, all right, they've got let's say they've got the thermostat at 70 degrees or something Just wearing a dress shirt. I feel cold. So A dress shirt and a very classy long sleeve t-shirt like this I think is just the Just the clothing statement I want to make to achieve, you know, the appropriate level of social status so It's hard to find a really classy long sleeve t-shirt A lot of them don't look good, but I think this is No, I think this is kind of Kind of flattering it, you know demonstrates the the tremendous physical brute strength that lies just underneath this Shear fabric. So I think it's sending out the right message Well, that went to the new world and we're involved in the spanish and portuguese colonial efforts and also You know, as I mentioned on my piece about safari jews, uh, they've been in north america You know, they've been the united states of america the greatest country in the world, you know But uh, uh since 1650, you know, okay, so when he says here Look for fishing shirts, mate. Okay. Thanks for the tip So when he says united states of america greatest country in the world, all right, he's not talking spiritually or morally Culturally he's talking just in terms of brute power Now america is the most dominant country financially militarily culturally Right, just in terms of brute power United states has been like the greatest country in the world Many decades. So united states effectively became the richest country in the world in the 1880s And it effectively became the most dominant military power in the world after 1945 Culturally america also became the most dominant cultural power after probably the 1940s So germany was the most dominant cultural power up until about 1932 Germany was also the dominant academic power in the world until about 1932 After 1940s america's being the dominant power in the world culturally And in terms of academia almost all the world's greatest universities are in the united states The dutch period a safari jews have and they were the dominant jewish community During the revolution they're the jewish community That created the first synagogues the george washington addressed in terms of like, you know praising them for their religion and their beliefs And saying that they're welcome in this country the tolerant country They were the dominant jewish community culturally probably up until like the 1860s or 70s at the earliest Even though german jews, you know jews from europe central europe german jews because like the eastern european jews really didn't come until later Were probably numerically dominated by the 1840s. So far the jews like amelazarus who wrote the poem that's associated with Statue of Liberty And then also david yuli was a senator i believe from florida and then jude p benjamin i think you Okay chat says paper clips might have helped paper clips might have helped what? What do you want me to do with the paper clips, mate? Louisiana, uh, you know, I think one of them was half safari. The other one's full safari in the 1850s These are the most these are the first political jews in the united states in terms of jewish men of politics Right, and they're safari jews. I then we have supreme court So when there were relatively few jews in the united states the jews did not try to throw their weight around politically or our jews went up Tremendously politically involved But when millions of jews came in from eastern europe in the late 19th century then Then jews became much more politically active. So we do that which we're good at we do that which we excel at we You know we wield power when we have the power when we don't have power We're just a tiny Tiny tiny minority then you know, we're not going to try to throw weight around politically Same with muslims when muslims are less than two percent of the population Of a country they're not they don't tend to be politically active or politically disruptive but as the percentage of the population climbs then Then these minority groups start becoming much more assertive. So there's never been a country Where jews comprise say five percent of the population or more and the country just hasn't been torn into By uh, quote unquote anti-semitism or just simply group conflict Because when jews can comprise say five percent or more of a population then they can effectively form a nation within a nation So too with muslims whenever muslims attain five percent Or more of a given population Then there's tremendous cultural conflict because muslims then form a nation within a nation and they become increasingly assertive So tiny defenseless group does not tend to be Assertive, but when you have a growing group that starts to dominate whole communities It will become much more assertive and distinctive End of politics right and there's so far to jews. Uh, then we have supreme court justice Benjamin Cardoso in the 20th century We think in the united states of like, you know jews and judaism as like germany poland russia eastern europe And that's demographically true, but so far to jews. We're here early and the further back you go The more they are a thing in terms of like the history of jews in the united states It's um, it's fine. Just in the way early a week. So almost all high achieving jews rush ganazi It's just overwhelming. It's like If you take say the most influential the most famous the highest achieving the richest 100 jews of the 20th century You'd find that 98 percent would be ashkenazi And just in the way early we talked about this kind of safari jews Going to morocco and absorbing the ancient jews of morocco in a similar way You've kind of got a story about safari jews being on the ascendancy in say new york and in the u.s And then ashkenazi coming in and kind of just culturally You know dominating you see this they're waxing and waning across the across the world in different And so that's not a uniform story. So what I find Really interesting about your your pieces. Um, you know a lot of jewish Ascendancy is basic basically comes down to hitching, you know the wagon What's the translation of which word mate? Which word do you want to an ascendant? People at the time so they send it with the ottomans and then You know the kind of ottoman jews descendant with the ottoman kind of empire and then jews happen to be In in brazil and then made their way to new amsterdam and now new york and happened to kind of arise with an ascendant us and then it kind of works the other way where you've got You know forgotten jewish communities that basically disappeared in the east because they they failed to kind of You know ride those currents And so do you want to kind of Pay a picture of that the kind of ascendancy and then the kind of disappearance of various jewish communities Which are kind of which people don't focus on as much Yeah, well, I mean so for example the islamic world obviously had a lot of jews before 1956 I think uh, you know a lot of the expulsion state to the 50s, you know at whatnot So these jewish communities for you know before Probably I mean before 1500 almost certainly the majority of the jews in the world lived in either spain Or the islamic world the vast majority, right? So these were communities that had certain status and they also as I said earlier So they served as go-betweens up until about like a thousand a day or so There's this friday night jewish community those probably originally based on a version So I'm thinking about nathan coughness's depot hypothesis used to explain jewish influence So much of its high average jewish IQ part of it is geography Part of it perhaps is a particular temperament that there are some personality types that are more likely to achieve success in the world And then I think a large part of jewish influence would be that they're located in the united states So united states is the dominant great power in the world And so jews in the united states they are they are going to punch above their weight in terms of World cultural economic Influence because they're part of the most powerful nation in the world So jews are particularly concentrated in new york city Which is I often had talked about as the greatest city in the world So if you're a large substantial part of the greatest city in the world You're very likely to punch above your weight in terms of economic cultural and political influence Their trade networks went all the way from idli into china And so you know during the period the high tide of islam Jews were you know, we would call them a subaltern community But they had a role and as demies they were protected even once if they paid tax And so obviously they were subject to periodic persecution But in general they were tolerated and they used that toleration to their you know benefit Whereas you know europe in the early middle ages the late dark ages Let's say between like 750 and 1100 or so was kind of a backwater early So ashkenazi jews really only developed in the past thousand years So we don't have any evidence of like ashkenazi jews 2000 years ago But I think most recent theories is that some jewish traders moved from iraq to idli and then they reproduced with italian women And And then they moved north into germany so ashkenazi means I think from From germany But that's that's the like the origins but they only came to It's a prominent starting in about the 13th century and by By the 15th century the majority of ashkenazi jews Which were in europe for earning their living via white collar means which is absolutely extraordinary A hundred or so was kind of a backwater Ashkenazi jews they were doing their thing, but really they're only important in hindsight You know rashi's he's brilliant, but if ashkenazi had not become like 80 90 percent of the world's jewelry by the 20th century I don't think rashi would be as important, you know, honestly as compared to some other rabbis What's fascinating that oh whoops, so maybe rashi was ashkenazi not safari, sorry My mind is is a towering figure in Judaism obviously and he's safari And he and so which which I didn't fully appreciate I think yeah, yeah so jewish descent used to be Patrilineal through the father in ancient times And then in all the chaos around 2000 years ago with the romans the two wars with the romans A lot of jewish women got raped and so the town muted rabbis changed jewish descent to matrilineal But apparently 2,500 3,000 years ago was patrilineal Then during times of rape mass rape of jewish women Jewish descent was changed to matrilineal through through the mother So you're jewish if you're born of jewish mother or if you convert through An established Orthodox Jewish local, which is what I did Yeah, yeah, and so he he was you know his own his whole life story was about decline also So, you know, uh, the Sephardic golden age, you know the ornament of the world Actually, it was you know earlier. It wasn't it wasn't in 1492 like by then There'd always already been waves of massive persecution of mass-conforced conversions a century earlier The jewish community of 1492 was rough. It was a rough community A lot of people were already conversos were already like, you know, descended from jews So I often get the question what does Judaism say about X and Judaism says so many different things about X Okay, so certain time period is just patrilineal descent And then a different time period is matrilineal descent Then we get the rise of reformed Judaism in the past 200 years which uh Which uh went back to Either patrilineal or matrilineal descent So either of your parents is jewish then your jewish is according to their reform conception So like doctrine the messiah, you know all sorts of different You know perspectives within the jewish tradition of how jews produce a systematic theology like the Protestants So Judaism was approximately 3 000 years old before it produced its first work of systematic theology Which was the 13 principles of jewish faith according to my monotheists So christians were already killing each other over systematic theology in the in the first 200 years So right from the birth of christianity they were producing systematic theology In the first 300 years of christianity like all sorts of different creeds Judaism was approximately 3 000 years old before it produced a systematic theology and then it's largely been ignored Right jews almost never talk about theology. It's not an important issue A lot of jews thought you know who the hell is my monotheist come up with a You know code of jewish belief So systematic theology plays virtually You know no important role in Judaism. So there are various rabbis who are propounded systematic theological concepts Just doesn't hold any weight Our Judaism is practice. So when christians talk about God, they talk about it God in terms of systematic theology When jews talk about God, they'll talk about God in terms of stories And you know, it's really really brilliant phase Was near the end of the Umea caliphate of spain of the 900s into 1000s There are some persecutions of some of the typhus states these Islamic principalities But one thing about like, you know, political fragmentation is there's opportunities for groups like jews that are escaping persecution There's always like some place that will like take you right and so there's a period of philosophical inquiry engagement with the outside world So that's one thing about the Sephardi jews that uh, no, there's not always a place that someone will take you such as during the 1930s, right? There are countries that are throwing jews out in their countries that said, you know, we don't want We don't want jews or only a very limited number So no, there's not always another country that will welcome you just like you can get fired from a job and It may take quite a while before you, you know, find your feet in a new employment So that's one thing about the Sephardi jews that's notable is for a period of several centuries They were engaged with the outside world. They were engaged with muslims with christians in these islamic states And so they were So during periods where the outside world is friendly and amenable to jews jews are going to be much more likely to Engage with the outside world when the outside world is hateful towards jews jews will turn with them And so they were part of the culture of iberia as opposed to simply like a sealed off ghetto culture Which to be frank is what the ashtonazi were for most of their history in northern europe And so as someone like mama 90s, uh, he introduced aristotelian thought, you know into the mainstream of jewish thought And theology and that's because he himself was educated as a man of the world and not just a jew You know, he was he was a child of alato Okay, the unit is open. I can go take a hot shower and feel like a mensch again. Bye. Bye