is a place where a populace is "concentrated". Let me digress just a bit. I was born during WWII and my high school coach, Larkins, was a Colonel in the war and was one of the libertors of Birchnau, if my memory serves. He was also my senior Government/Health instructor. I recall to this very day, how, one day, he told us about his experiences in the liberation of the camp and how horrified he was. There was strong sympathy for the creation of the state of Israel and if it were at the cost of the A-rabs, so what? They were only Muslim heathens anyway! It was later, after I moved to the BIG city, Cleveland, that I came into contact with Palestinians and then heard their story. It was almost as if the Israelis did to the Palestinians what was done to them over the centuries in Europe. Notice I said, almost as if. It was like the Palestinians now got the shitty end of the stick and became the whipping boys for what had happened over the centuries.
I am of Hungarian ancestry and my surname on my birth certificate is: Tobias. We were raised Christian. Mom and dad got divorced in 1945, when I was just over 2 years old and I was raised by her family, Connecticut Yankees all. When I began doing my genealogy, I began to suspect that my Hungarian Tobiases were in fact, Jewish. I found no records in the Christian churches of any Tobiases going back to 1710. Then, one day, I was on Ancestry and noticed a small sidebar about Central European Jewish family records. Curious, I checked it out and discovered that there was an 1848 census taken in Austria-Hungary that was only of Jews because they had lead the 1848 revolution. Clicked on it, and there, were tons of Tobiases!! Aha! A long mystery that I had long suspected was indeed true! The next time I was in Ashtabula and visiting my Hungarian relatives, I told them of my discovery, expecting a lot of gratitude. Well, the shrieks drowned out any highway noise. Their absolute insistence that in no way were they Jewish was overwhelming. I am of course, now persona non grata at those family gatherings.
I have always been a firm believer in the Constitution and in the equality of all persons. I strive not to have any centric ideas about any groups of peoples. The reason for that is that when it is realized that from a DNA point of view, all males are descended from a man who lived about 74,000 years ago in Central Asia, then you realize that all of us males are cousins at the basic level of our being. All other stuff is just overlay. When you understand that the man standing next to you, regardless of what you may think of what comes out of his mouth, is indeed, your relative, you regard them in a different way.
Case in point: when I moved with my love to his home town here in Upstate NY, I didn't think I was related to anyone around me. But, when we started working on our roots, we discovered that we were related four times! Indeed, since his death, I have discovered two more relationships. And because of his family's living here for over 200 years, I discovered that I was related to many others also. When it became known in the general community, people regarded me in a different manner, just as I regarded them in a different manner. How we treat our brothers is important. Palestinians and Israelis are indeed, brothers.
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