New York, New York!

I haven't been to every great city, not even close.  I've been to most of America's biggest cities,  and there are some that were really fun to visit.  Sometimes I even imagine myself  living in those places.  However, I must say when it comes to my favorite city, and maybe it's because my family is from there, and maybe it's because of its flaws, but nothing compares to New York City.  New York City is like that sister you have that if you make fun of her,  and point out her many moral and mental shortcomings, it's okay.   However, if anyone else does it, then as the Mandelbaum's used to say on "Seinfeld", it's "Go Time!"

(Yup, it's "go-time"!)  (You Tube)

I often tell people I'm from New York City, but the truth is I was only born there.  I actually grew up in North Massapequa, which is Native American for "Land of many Strip Malls".  Long Islanders like myself, whose family moved from New York City to Long Island have a "love/hate" relationship with "The City".  (I would like to take this opportunity to point out one of the things that makes New York City great.  There's no other place where when people say, "The  City", everybody and I mean everybody knows what you mean.  I live about 20 miles from Albany and it's a fine place, but I have never said, nor have I heard anyone else say when they were on their way to Albany, "Hey, we're going to the city tonight!")  The "City" was such an intimidating place when I was a child, that just the idea of going into New York City to see our family or even to sight-see filled me with excitement mixed with a little bit of fear.  Growing up on Long Island, it always seemed that my friends felt the same way.

The Giant Blue Whale, one of the iconic images of one of the world's great museums, "The Museum of Natural History", a must for any visitor to New York City! (You Tube)

In some ways, the fact that I spent my entire childhood and teenage years in North Massapequa made me somewhat of an outsider in my own family.  As the youngest, I have often heard the stories of how my family and many of my aunts and uncles and cousins and grandfather all lived in the same building at 34 Hillside Avenue in Washington Heights, located in upper Manhattan.  Around the time I turned two, my parents decided it was time to move and buy a house.  We had just moved from Hillside Avenue before my mother became pregnant with me.  Apparently my parents had been sleeping on a pullout couch while my brothers had the one bedroom at 34 Hillside.  We moved around the corner to Bogardus Place, and my parents finally had their own bedroom.  It seemed to have worked out a little too well since shortly afterwards, my mother announced she was "expecting".  My father who rarely could be accused of being selfish when it came to his children had his own announcement to make: "I'm not going back to sleeping on the f____ing couch again!"  Plus, the neighborhood had already begun to change, so it was off to Long Island.

Honestly, I don't think I would have fared too well in our old neighborhood. I'm quite certain that one of the gangs would have eventually bullied me out of my tallis bag. (You Tube)

Many of my fondest memories regarding my father revolve around New York City.  I can remember so clearly the first time he and I went into the "City", just the two of us.  I was in awe when he told me to look up and there was the Empire State Building.  We also took the ferry to see the  Statue of Liberty.  We walked all the way up to the crown (I complained the whole way) and then back down the narrow spiral staircase.  There were so many firsts when it came to "The City".  My first Yankees, Mets, Rangers, and Knicks' games.  There was always that wonderful combination of excitement and danger.  I'll never forget my first Yankee game.  It was at the old Stadium in 1970. The Yankees were playing the Washington Senators.  (Who?)  The Yankee stars of the day were Thurman Munson, Mel Stottlemyre, and Bobby Murcer.  Since he had grown up in the Bronx, my father had no fear of the neighborhood decay that had taken place around Yankee Stadium in what was affectionately known by "New York's Finest" as "Fort Apache".  Waving off the idea of putting his green 1968 Pontiac Catalina in a lot, we parked on the street, only to come back and find a broken antenna.  I'm assuming the replacement of the antenna was more than it cost to park the car in a lot.

Yes, a dubious decision by my father in regards to where he should park his car. (You Tube)

My father had a peculiar sense of humor.  Sometimes he liked to drive through his old neighborhood in the Bronx with my mother and I,  and basically  scare us half to death.  (The Neighborhood had not held up well) One of his favorite haunts was "Yonah Schimmel's" down on the lower East Side of Manhattan.   "Yonah Schimmel's" is a "one-trick pony", but what a trick it is!  They make fresh knishes of every variety imaginable.  When you walk in, it's like walking into the "turn of the century".   The lower East Side had been where many Jews from eastern Europe had come to settle back in the late 1800s and into the early 20th century.  As these families began to improve their lot in life, many of these Jewish immigrants began to move out, and slowly but surely, the neighborhood began to change.  The infamous "Bowery" pushed right up to the lower East Side.  My father every once in a while got a "hankerin'" for knishes, the way Christopher Walken gets a "hankerin'" for more cowbell!  We would double-park (of course) outside "Yonah Schimmel's" and my father would walk in and buy a "gross" of knishes while my mother and I fearfully watched the world-famous "Bowery Bums" come up to our car, asking for change and "cleaning" our windshield.  My father would come out and chase them away, and then proceed to eat a boiling hot "jelly and cheese" knish.  While he went about complaining about how he had just burned the roof of his mouth, I would say, "Dad, aren't you scared of the bums?"  He would laugh and say that there was nothing to worry about since all they did was drink, so they were weak.  Worked for me.

Was this really worth risking my mother's life as well as my own??? Hell yeah! (Getty Images)

Not to sound like Henry Hill at the end of "Goodfellas", but now it's all different.  I'm not going to say I miss the dirt and the graffiti and the high murder rate, because nobody would.  In fact, when my wife and I lived in Flushing from 1987 through 1993, New York City was averaging over 1200 murders per year. (That's about 3 per day for those of you who took non-regents Math.)  Interestingly, right around the time we moved to the Capital Region, the murder rate dropped considerably, down to 333 as recently as 2013.  I'm sure that's just a coincidence.  Actually, you can probably point to a combination of an improved economy in the 1990s as well as  more aggressive police work which began under Mayor Rudolf Giuliani.

Times Square circa 1970. Say what you want, these theaters weren't exactly lacking for customers. (You Tube)

Times Square today...the Disney Version...Yawn. (You Tube)

Disney came in during the 1990s, bought all of the Real Estate in Times Square and it is now forever changed.  Times Square used to be safe enough during the day, but then when the clock struck midnight, the streets were taken over by quite a different element.  Today, you probably have a better chance of being mugged in fake New York City in Las Vegas than you do in Times Square.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not against revitalization, or safer streets.  I just wonder if New York City is losing its unique qualities.

It's a shame that it took the "9/11" attacks to wake this nation up and appreciate that New York City is one of our national treasures, and one of the great symbols of our nation.  Whether you are talking about the skyline, or the ethnic neighborhoods, the restaurants and bars, to its history or even the Stock Market, there is no other place like it.  So let everybody hate on New York City, the success of the Yankees, the thuggish-incompetence of the Jets, the historic ineptitude of the Knicks, the traffic, the cost of living.  New Yorkers are the one group who not only can take it, they thrive on it.  Fugettaboutit!

Now that's a bold statement! (You Tube)

Listen to your inner immigrant.

My wife and I, going on 27+ years of marriage have found it most enjoyable to sit next to each other on our love seat almost every night in the family room.  We are not necessarily doing the same thing or even doing a whole lot of communicating as we involve ourselves in whatever work/hobby/game/task that might be presently occupying our time.  For example, it is late Sunday afternoon as I commence to write today's installment of the "Hoffman Files".  While I pursue my hobby, my wife is studying for a test for some sort of certification she is hoping to earn.  I call it, "Together, but separate".  (Not to be confused with "Separate, but equal", perhaps the worst Supreme Court decision ever rendered.)  Sometimes though, we do hit upon something that we both do "together".  For instance, we both like to play "Scrabble" on-line.  Many times we are not playing against each other, but at least we are doing the same thing.  A few years ago, we both embarked on a journey right on our love-seat at the same time, but separately.  This "journey" was a virtual trip through time.  We both started researching our ancestry, seeing if we could learn more about our ancestors.  Not surprisingly, we only had to go back two generations to find that our ancestors actually came from somewhere else.  They were...gasp!!! Immigrants!

The awesome site that greeted countless immigrants arriving through New York Harbor everyday...and even she was an immigrant! A French chick no-less. Ooh la laa! (Times Union)

My wife and I both joined "Ancestry.com", and found out many interesting facts as well as the limitations that unfortunately deny curious individuals all of the "tid-bits" that contribute to one's family history.  For example, my wife's family on her father's side is Swedish.  She was able to trace his ancestry on both sides of his family all the way back to the 15th century.  On the other hand, I was only able to trace my Ukrainian family's story back to about 1860.  Why is this you might ask?  Well, the Ukraine has been invaded countless times in its lengthy history.  Destruction, be it accidental or purposeful destroys valuable records, thereby leaving gaping holes in the family trees' of so many who call the Ukraine and let's face it, almost all of Europe, the "Motherland".  Sweden, on the other hand, has  navigated a long  steady course of neutrality. This achievement has left them whole for the better part of the past 1000 years.  No bombs, no ransacking, no pillaging, no Nazis, no Mongol hoards, no Saxon marauders,  no cheesy Danish, no Huns, just calm, tall blondes who enjoy their "glug" and their plush sweaters. (Editor's Note: "Glug" is a Swedish drink, often served at Christmas time.  It is served hot, and made with "PGA", or pure grain alcohol.  And yes, you can burn your house down when making it)

"Yumpin' Yiminity, come and see our pristine hall of records". (You Tube)

"Ancestry.com" as I stated earlier provides some information, but roadblocks are lurking around every corner.  Still, there are some interesting items that a determined and curious investigator can stumble upon.  I found both of my grandfather's Draft Cards from World War One.  I found Census records for both families and I used this to discover my mother's grandfather's name.  (It was Max)  I also found out that my mother's family in 1930 had a boarder in their apartment who apparently was a lounge singer.  My youngest son is an excellent singer, and neither my wife, nor I have any singing talent, nor does anyone else in my family, so who knows?  Maybe  my grandmother, good old Rose Winegrad was up to some  "extracurriculars"?  (Excuse me whilst I go evacuate my upper intestines)

(My mother, the daughter of a Ukrainain immigrant, hawking cigarettes in the family's old-fashioned "Candy Store" in the Bronx.  There was nothing wrong with a 16-year-old promoting cigarettes in 1945, after-all many Doctors' advised their pregnant patients to smoke in order to calm their nerves.)  (The Hoffman Collection)

There wasn't too much beyond 1900 for me to ascertain about my family.  I learned that my father's grandfather on his mother's side was named Jonah.  I don't think he ever made it to America, but my father's "Bubby" Sarah did, living until 1952, finally passing away at the age of 93.  I did find out, due to shifting borders in eastern Europe, that my great-grandmother Sarah was not from the Ukraine, but from Poland.  So now I'm 25% Polish.  (This would explain my cravings for solidarity and kielbasa)

For better or worse, my nephew who has a burning interest in our rather modest family history did some digging into my father's family on my grandfather's side.  What we found out was not too cheery.  Apparently my grandfather or "Poppy Louie" was from a town called Felshtin in central Ukraine.  In those days, Ukrainian Jews identified themselves as Russians.  I know this because on the Census reports, when asked what their place of birth was, all of my foreign born grandparents said Russia, not Ukraine, but Felshtin is or at least was in the Ukraine.  During the Russian Civil War which took place towards the end of World War One, the "White Russians", who favored the Czar and the old order had suffered a defeat at the hands of the "Reds". (Communists)  Taking out their frustrations, they arrived in Felshtin and proceeded to kill 600 Jews, nearly one-third of the population.  Fortunately, "Poppy Louie" had escaped Felshtin several years before World War One.  The story we've been told is that he was a trouble-maker who would strike back at his "Cossack" tormenters.  Apparently, the Czar's horsemen did not take kindly to this and showed up looking to arrest and probably kill him.  Family friends snuck him out, and eventually he escaped to Holland where he hopped on a boat to America.  Great for myself and my family, but not so good for Felshtin, which eventually was conquered by the Nazis.  The Nazis, known for their creativity, put all the surviving Jews of Felshtin into a giant pit, and then bulldozed the victims alive.  Felshtin, no longer exits.

The best thing that ever happened to the reputation of  Nicholas II was being killed and replaced by the Communists, otherwise, we would all remember him as the anti-Semitic incompetent twit that history knows him to have been. (You Tube)

As the grandchild of immigrants, I have mixed feelings regarding the raging illegal immigrant debate that is tearing at our national psyche'.  On the one hand, it seems simple enough.  My grandparents made the arduous trip to America and entered legally, (We even have their Immigration and Naturalization papers) why is it so much to ask today's immigrants to do the same?  On the other hand, many immigrants maintain that it is very hard to enter the United States legally, particularly if you are coming from Mexico.  I don't support illegal "anything", but I'm under the impression that most illegal immigrants are here to work.  The jobs they do, most Americans wouldn't touch with a gun to their heads.  Yes, some illegals are probably up to no good, but I would wager that all of these "sleeper-cells" that ISIS and Al Qaeda have positioned around our country are probably almost all either citizens or legal immigrants, just like the 19 hijackers on "9/11".

(Herman Cain was kidding, but I'm not sure everyone got the joke)  (You Tube)

Actually, the United States in 2009 and 2010 saw a steep drop in the number of illegal immigrants coming into the country.  Democrats would like to give President Obama the credit for this.  But the fact is, illegal immigration went down because our economy was in the toilet.  People won't come here if the jobs aren't here, but I don't think that's a practical solution for us all to rally behind.

If we were really serious about stopping illegal immigration, all we'd have to do is audit all the American businesses who recruit illegal immigrants.  Some companies, particularly in the field of meat-packing actually go down to Mexico and recruit illegal immigrants, promising them jobs and safe passage into our country.  You need ID to get a job, are you telling me that if a company really did a thorough background check on an employee they couldn't figure out they were here illegally?  In this world, we know as much as we want to know.

Still, one of the things I love about this country, and one of the themes I try to hammer home to my U.S. History students is that despite the fact that the rest of the world may not love us, or look up to us the way they once did, the belief in the world still exists that if you wish to be granted a second chance in life, for whatever reason, the place to make that happen is still the United States of America.  Nobody whose life is a struggle in Myanmar (Burma) wakes up one day and states: "We need to get out of here and start over, ok everybody, pack your bags we are off to Bolivia." (No offense to the Bolivian people, I'm sure your country is fine, after all, you have two capitals, La Paz and Recife')  We are still the  place that people look to with the understanding that in the United States, social mobility while not easy, is more achievable than anywhere else.  My grandmother on my father's side grew up in a house with a dirt floor, (And not the good kind of dirt.  By the way, do you sweep a dirt floor?) and now all of her youngest son's children are college graduates.  There simply aren't a lot of places around the world where that is the norm.

Not to worry. Your Grandchildren are going to be very successful. (You Tube)

ISIS....Brought to you by Bush and Obama

America has fought a lot of enemies.  Some have been a nuisance such as the "Barbary Coast Pirates" of the early 19th century.  Some have been cherry-picked due to the fact that they were seen as patsies, i.e. Spain in 1898 and Grenada in 1983.  Sometimes our nation has been called on to save the world from fearsome enemies who threatened our very way of life such as Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.  Unfortunately, we have also found ourselves engaged in wars where the enemy is often indistinguishable from those we are attempting to aid, or even worse, our war strategy failed to identify an "end game" for our soldiers to be removed successfully from combat operations.  The Vietnam war as well as our second war with Iraq both proved to be challenging in ways we didn't imagine.  But it is the second Iraq war, impulsively begun by President George W. Bush, and prematurely abandoned by President Barack Obama, that has created unforseen circumstances that may lead us into yet another armed struggle with an enemy that seems to have abandoned all precepts of civilization, and bounced all of the guidelines for how people and nations behave on their ear.

Dreaded ISIS!! (Times Union)

(Oh Mighty Isis!  An Isis I can get behind!)  (You Tube)

Many may wonder, "Where did ISIS come from"?  The genesis of ISIS was the group known as "Al Qaeda in Iraq".  How did they come to be?  Well, the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 under the guise of preventing an attack on our nation and our allies by Saddam Hussein, who according to President George W. Bush was amassing a frightening array of weapons of mass destruction.  There was no evidence that Al-Qaeda was in Iraq before the U.S. invaded.  In order to prevent another "9/11", the United States executed the "Bush Doctrine of Preemptive War" and quickly disposed of Iraqi Despot, Saddam Hussein.  Either due to incompetence or lack of proper planning, "post Saddam Iraq" quickly spun out of control, (Much to the shock and chagrin of Vice President Dick Chaney and Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld) and tragically, Iraq became a recruitment poster for jihadists all over the world.  This collection of extremists came to be known as "Al Qaeda in Iraq".  How horrible were they?  "Classic Al Qaeda" distanced themselves from the Iraqi version, proclaiming them too extreme!  This is like Walter Hudson turning to Haystacks Calhoun and saying, "Buddy, how about a salad"?

When asked about what our troops could expect to find once we invaded Iraq, "Rummy" famously replied: "There are known knowns, there are known unknowns, there are unknown knowns, and there are unknown unknowns." It's hard to believe that man who spouted such unassailable logic such as that could have botched the occupation of Iraq. (You Tube)

Iraq was quickly devolving into a nightmare when George W. Bush decided to make one of the better decisions of his Presidency, and fired Donald Rumsfeld.  He then proceeded to bring in the much more competent Robert Gates.  Gates engineered the "surge".  This increase in U.S. troop deployment allowed the U.S. to drive "Al Qaeda in Iraq" out of most of the metropolitan areas in Iraq, and hand control of these areas to the Iraqi government.  However, despite the success of the "surge", a majority of Americans had become disillusioned with the war in Iraq, and were looking for any way for the U.S. to withdraw its troops from harm's way.  Barack Obama ran for the Presidency in 2008 under the premise that he would remove all U.S. troops out of harms way in Iraq as soon as possible, and that he had always been opposed to the war.  A majority of Americans who were suffering from "War Fatigue" and "Bush Exhaustion", (Bush's final approval rating when he left office was 22% according to cbsnews.com) were eager to support Obama's idea to pull the U.S. out of the war.  Obama, eager to keep a campaign promise, began drawing down the number of troops in Iraq, and moved the ones left behind a safer distance from the continuing sectarian violence.  This turned out to be a huge mistake,  since without the backing of U.S. troops, Iraq's army proved woefully unprepared.  As for the Iraqi government, what it lacked in competency, it made up for in its appalling corruption.

Oh Iraq, you started out so promising. (You Tube)

Suddenly, a radical extremist group known as ISIS, (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) or ISIL, (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) emerged from the shadows to take advantage of the "power vacuum" created by the instability and corruption in Iraq as well as the Civil War in Syria.  Their horrific combination of 7th century justice, along with their incredible sophistication regarding the use of social media has made them a most formidable adversary.  They seem to relish and thrive on their ability to do shocking and horrific acts of violence against captured perceived enemies.  They decapitate hostages as well as burn them alive.  They just recently kidnapped over 130 Christians in Syria, and now they have just completed a ransacking of a museum in the city of Mosul.  Some of the artifacts they "gleefully" destroyed were over 2500 years old, and date back to the Assyrians.  These are priceless artifacts that can never be replaced.  Like Stalin, ISIS is trying to erase history and thereby morph it into their own particular version, which is to say that before there was Islam, there was nothing.

(As a history teacher I'm appalled.  All they seem to understand is death and destruction)  (You Tube)

Labeling an enemy evil is the easy part, now, how do we deal with them?  The President is trying to limit them through the air while training and aiding "friendlies" on the ground.  So far this has had some success at limiting their advances, but they haven't really surrendered a whole lot of territory.  Many suggest that the only way to push them back and destroy them is with American combat troops on the ground.  That's going to mean significant casualties.  We have just emerged from 13 1/2 plus years of war, are we ready for more?  What about the Europeans?  Well, we know they never want to get involved.  What about some of our Middle Eastern Muslim  allies? Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia?  How many billions of dollars worth of weapons do they purchase from us every year?  Do they ever use them?  I wonder if some of these nations have ever even tested any of these weapons?

It almost seems like the Middle East spins a little more out of control everyday.  Why is this happening?  Well, nobody wants to say this, but, at least when it comes to the Middle East, Dictatorship works!  It just does.  That is sad of course, especially for people in the Middle East who yearn for freedom and democracy.  Egypt looked like it had achieved a region changing event with the overthrow of the "Despot", Hosni Mubarak.  But when given the vote, the people voted in Islamic extremists.  Their attempt to create a theocracy in Egypt led to the all-powerful Egyptian military to take charge of the government.  Now, Democracy seems like a long way off.

It seems like we are forever attempting to clean up the mess caused by imperialism.  We are resented as a nation for interfering.  We are begged to step in and save innocent victims by others.  We want to help out and crush ISIS once and for all, but who wants to see their sons, daughters, brothers, sisters,  moms and Dads die for that cause?  We love to talk a good game here in America, but somebody's child has to go and do the dirty work.   It's times like these that one starts to envy Switzerland.  They get to sit above the fray.  It's hard to understand the actions and motives of a group like ISIS.  Sometimes students will ask, "Why do they do these horrible things"?  I tell them that you can't put logic to the illogical.  It's beyond our comprehension how people can justify in their own minds such senseless violence.  Not even the recently departed "Mr. Spock" could find logic in the actions of such a group.

"Live long and Prosper". Hopefully, ISIS will do neither. (You Tube)