Dayenu

Dayenu ... on Passover we sing a sing about all the things jews are grateful for. So, I have modified it. After each stanza, there is a word Dayenu .. it would suffice.

1. The French. The French Enlightenment inspired our founding fathers to create the world's first democratic state. The French navy and confrontations with France in Europe provided the necessary military balance for an American victory in the war for independence.

without French ideas it is hard to imagine that the new country of America would have accepted us as ordinary citizens.

Dayenu

2. The English for giving rise to religious sects that found a state church intolerable. also the English for the development of a middle-class and the creation of the industrial revolution.

the absence of the state church and the availability of industrial war were critical factors in the success of Jewish immigration into the United States.

Dayenu


3. The English for losing the American war then teaching us a lesson (poorly learned) in 1812. The same English for standing up to Hitler until we finally came to her senses.

Dayenu

4. the American natives for their generosity and tolerance of all of the newcomers.

Dayenu

5. Chinese workers and Irish workers for a building the TransAmerican Railway. the presence of large numbers of workers of other ethnic groups, was very important for Jewish immigrants ability to enter the burgeoning American middle class.

Dayenu

6. Northern liberals for opposing southern slavery. Southern intellectuals for supporting freedom from religion and freedom from monarchy.

although large-scale immigration of Jews did not begin until after the Civil War, changes wrought by that warcreated great opportunities for American Jews.

Dayenu

7. Canada for resisting American invasions and, in the part of Québec, trading at Montréal smoked beef.

Dayenu

8. Africans for giving us jazz.

Dayenu

9. Lakota, Pueblo, Seminole, and others all of the native resistance movement for giving us all a lesson in bravery. as American Jews support the bravery of the Israelis and resisting the "greater" Arab population, we should be inspired by the bravery... I'll pay it failed effort to do that of the Native American resistance.

Dayenu

10. Jews and Roman Catholics for levening the American church with something other than flat bread. somehow Jews and Catholics occupied the same ecological niche in American society. The KKK hates us both. Real estate covenants restrict us both. we both have too many seats on the Supreme Court.

Dayenu

11. Muslims for holding together the world of the intellect until Europeans progressed beyond barbarism.

Dayenu

12. The Dutch for being the first to support the American Revolution and for creating the model for quarterly government. and the Dutch for providing refuge from the Spanish Inquisition. Sephardim arriving via Holland were this nation's first Jews.

Dayenu
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