So the article was about tracking consumer or human trends and deriving meaningful information from the statistics.  People with customized car colors tend to take better care of their cars because they see the cars as a placeholder for themselves and thus “love” their cars more.  The color they referred to in the article was orange, for all you UT grads trying to resell your funky colored Elements.

The article made a lot of sense but the part at the end that snagged my attention (beyond even graduations in San Jose) was something about Israelis voting for Belarusia/ns in international competitions.  Thousands of Belarusian Jews immigrated to Israel and retain an allegiance to their former country.

Intriguing.  So I started to read about the connection.  First, my immediate prejudice was confirmed–the history of the way Jews were treated in Belarus is wildly painful.  Sentences that have a clerical efficiency catch your eye.  Sentences about people being rounded up and shot by the millions.  The rictus of evil that could make mass destruction a human system.  I can’t even bear to make it a proper sentence.

So first out with it.  How extraordinary is it that people who came from a country where their families were decimated by murder still are so loyal to that country that they vote for it in international competitions?  I would be voting for Spain, Belgium.  Monaco.  Relations between Israel and Belarus are not that great because Lukashenka keeps making antisemitic remarks.  Extraordinary.  (No learning curve for Mr. Lukashenka?  probably the opposite.  I am afraid if he keeps making the statements he must be playing to some crowd, somewhere…)

But enough about politics, hate and loyalty.  The best part about Belarus is the list of Jewish people who come from there.  Understand that if this is the list of some of the famous Belarusian Jews, there are probably a bunch of other non-famous Belarusian Jewish people who are equally wonderful.  These are my favorites:  Marc Chagall, Menachem Begin, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Chaim Weizmann, Shimon Peres, Irving Berlin, Naum Akhiezer, Bella Chagall, Issai Schur, Yitzak Shamir, Lev Vygotsky, and the founder of Zale’s, Morris B. Zale.

Diamonds.  Treasure.  The symbolism is lovely, and the list is much, much longer than my abbreviate version which veered toward people I knew or people I knew because of home school.  My favorite three favorites in a list that should not have favorites are Chagall, Ben-Yehuda, and Vygotsky.  I will explain only Vygotsky.  In educational theory Vygotsky is a super star because he has a theory that is called Vygotsky plus one.  The theory states that we learn best at the  level one above our own.  So if we  pray, play tennis, or dialogue with people who are a little better than we are, they teach us, they raise our level.

Thanks for raising my level.