The Netherlands must be world champion standup comedy but it’s not competing because it’s kept a secret, as I’ve written before, at length. Its grandmaster in political satire was Wim Kan. He had the following text about Man’s landing on the Moon. He was never mild on Nazis. And many jokes deal with how small and powerless the Law Countries are (after dominating the seas, centuries ago). Those also work for Israelis.
Did you see the first pictures of Earth taken from the Moon? Beautiful! Finally, humans cut to size.
Come, look, I told my wife, I clearly see the Netherlands – but that was the whole of North and South America. Too bad.
And now we landed on the moon, everyone wants the credit. The Americans say: This are our boys. The Germans say: This is our Werner von Braun. And the British say: But he first practiced on us (the V2-s).
The Chinese are not allowed to know that they landed on the moon. No, no. They have censures. They are forbidden to know.
Sometimes, I think, maybe the Chinese have been on the moon too but that we have censorship but that we don’t know that we have censorship – that would be awful.
Then there are people who say: But they have no rockets for that. But they don’t need them. If every Chinese stands on the shoulders of another one, they can touch it.
Then people say: Eat more Chinese then. But my wife and I can hardly eat one Chinese – that doesn’t really help.
It now turns out that Von Braun was not the only Nazi scientist, by far, working securely in the US.
A whopping 118 Nazi scientists and their families were living it off, helping the US to ballistic missiles it needed for its Cold War.
Israeli (of all nations) film makers now will write a television series about this, called “German Moon.”
Did the US ever apologize for this shielding of war criminals?
It seems that the US very seldom formally apologizes. Here are five gigantic WW II-related outstanding atrocities.
1. Nuclear bombs on two Japanese cities. While not bombing the railroads to Auschwitz and other places of mass destruction of Jews “because of possible collateral damage.” The former is a racist war crime; the latter is anti-Semitism and looking away from genocide. Make that 2 apologies.
3. Closing its doors for Jews fleeing and returning from the Nazis, while welcoming Nazis who would come in handy. The former is purely anti-Semitic; the latter is abetting war criminals. Make that 2 apologies too.
5. IBM helping Nazi Germany mapping Jews and other non-Aryans. Not as side effect of their know-how but specifically traveling to Hitler to sell its expertise on this, streamlining the Holocaust in Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Romania, Switzerland, and other Nazi-occupied countries.
But the Germans were the bad guys so the US must have be pure, no?
Looking forward to this series setting some of this history straight.
Don’t assume that Nazis had to be imported into the US. They’re there home-grown too. (This one claims that German pride must lie in denying historic responsibility for the Holocaust. Instead, of course, the road to pride is to reject its Nazi past and Nazi thought.)
Yet, no stain on the soldiers of the Allied forces, including US’ers, who gave and risked their lives to help and save people far away suffering under the Nazis. (Allied pilots flying over Auschwitz asked authorization to bomb it. They gladly would have but permission was denied. Often anti-Semitism sits the strongest with the establishment, not with the masses!) They’re amazing selfless humanists and should not be held accountable for their countries’ leaders appalling political decisions!
MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. *
As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. *
This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Of the 15 (!) books he has in mind, the next two are about homosexuality in Judaism and new rabbinics. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2600 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog that also may contain updates to Times of Israel posts, to which one may subscribe, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. *
He's getting ready to publicize books on: "Free Will, "Judaism and Homosexuality, "His parents in the Holocaust, "Judaism, "A New Torah Translation and "A New Hebrew Grammar, "Co-Counseling, "Vegan Facts, "Immortality, and more. *
Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He agrees that in a post-truth world, that's irrelevant, but then this is for the record. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. *
Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. *
Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. *
He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. *
He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. *
He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. *
His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. His posts are spell, grammar, and style polished by AI, but all written by himself. *
To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. *
His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1
