On Monday, December 8, 2014 5:07:35 AM UTC-8, Brooklyn1 wrote:
> If you are not Jewish, I cannot even begin to explain it to you.
>
> This goes back 2 generations, 3 if you are over 50. It also explains
> why many Jewish men died in their early 60's with a non-functional
> cardiovascular system and looked like today's men at 89.
>
> Before we start, there are some variations in ingredients because of
> the various types of Jewish taste (Polack, Litvack, Deutch and
> Gallicianer). Sephardic is for another time.

From the 13th to the 15th centuries, most countries in Western Europe:
England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal expelled their Jews.
(Under Ferdinand and Isabella of Columbus fame, Jews -- and Moors -- could
remain if they became Catholic. However, informers would rat on those who
continued to refrain from eating pork, or those whose chimneys did not
emit smoke from cooking fires on the Sabbath. The Inquisition was set up
to determine if these Sephardis had sincerely converted, or were merely
pretending.)

But one country welcomed Jews -- Poland -- for their skills and their
business ability. And Jews dwelt happily in Poland -- barring the occasional
clash -- for 500 years. Early on, Poland merged with Lithuania into
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, when the price of marrying Queen
Jadwiga of Poland was conversion of Lithuania to Christianity. Thus
Polaks and Litvaks.

But Poland was not militarily strong enough to stand off its neighbors,
and so bit by bit was divided up and swallowed by its neighbors. The
Austrian Empire grabbed off most of Galicia. Russia seized Lithuania
and what is now Ukraine. Germans took western Poland. Poland was
briefly reunited after WW I before Germany and the Soviet Union once
again split it.

> Your family dog responded to commands in Yiddish.

The biggest topic of discussion with my friend's dog was "Did he make?
Do you have to make? Etc."