Hello from Winstone

[winstone]

     I am new to this forum, but not to BAR. I love the banter, and HS way of showing many of us who are not Biblical scholars the excitement and wonder of digs and finds in ancient Palestine and Modern Israel. I even made a trip to these areas due in large part to BAR acticles.
      As a jeweler, I was a guest of the Israeli "First Colored Stones Congress" in Tel Aviv in 1983. We were meeting to help setup ethical practices dealing with colored stone enhancements. Major gem dealers from all over the world met for over a week to discuss "trade practices."
      I took what I learned and was a contributor to the 16 CFR 23 "Guidelines for the Jewelry Industry" as they relate to "truth in advertising in the United States. We also rewrote the code to be in Plain English, it effects all parts of the USA market, from miners, importers, dealers, wholesalers, suppliers, jobbers, jewelers, and to the public as well as set a standard used in American Courts of Law.
      Using a similar language with well defined terms helped to change our industry into an equal playing field.
      I was able to spend a month in the Middle East. I went looking for beauty, to learn from my hosts, and to find the good in these experiences. I met dear Jewish people, Good Arab people and Kind Christians.
      I used the HS or Hershel Shanks method as my guide. Not to pre-judge others, but to accept them as they are, not the way I wanted them to act. We are all children of the Laws of Moses, yet, sometimes we foreget that in G_d's infinite wisdom, we unwashed were also h_s creature children.
      I have been away from BAR for a long time. I wonder if HS would have a section of Biblical reciepes. Being from Texas we have what is called Tex-Mex food. It is food that Anglos and Chicanos serve that is a border food. Neither represents the actual quisine of the original foods, but is a mix of cultures and thus a new form of food preparation.
      I wonder if there is a culinary tradition of "Jecrab" foods used in Israel today? I have made a new word using JE + C + RAB which was shortened from Jew + Christian + Arab food. When one eats food from another culture, and adds to that rich combination of food preparation, then many of the misunderstandings, mistrust, and prejudices fall away.
   What did the Ancient Jews eat? What is Kosher? Is Kosher the same now as in earlier times? I have discovered that many of what we were told were Spanish influences in Southwestern foods actually came from the Moors. The Moors had occupied Spain for centuries. Is Palestinean food similar?
     Today, as a Anglio Catholic, I do not think about eating a begal, or eating a refried beans cooked Mexican style. Yet, if we look at the history of regional foods, how they were prepared, and can make modern dishes like those of old, maybe just maybe we can get beyond those invisible barriers that seperate peoples of differnent faiths?
      I met devout Jews. Men who have the same devotion to their faith as any of my people from my tradition. In America, in my own family, we do not hurt people who do not believe as we do. My parents survived Hitler times. Many of my mother's family died at Dachau concentration camp for hiding Jewish neighbors. Not everyone was a Schlindler. Many Christians were caught by the Nazis and many were killed in these hell holes. Would we do it again? You bet, because the value of a human life is worth  far more than political ideas. Going to Israel was swell. I met many wonderful people there, visited many good families, and sketched my way across this tiny country.
      Anyway, here I am, a jeweler, GG, with a BFA and BS from University of Texas at Austin. I am 67 years old, and have the joy and the luck to become one of the new members of BAR forum. We can learn so much from BAR and share our insights that may enrich the experiences of others. 
      Lastly, my Texas hat is taken off to Hershel Shanks, whose leadership, wit, and fair dealing makes BAR an exciting publication. My real name is Alan Winston Smith, I go by Winstone to give credit to my profession of being one of those consumer advocates for the jewelry industry. Win + stone = winstone.
      My father was the late, Dr. Hubert Winston Smith, LLB, MD. HS uses what many American Judges as well as Attorneys use. They present the facts without junk science, and allow the jury to determine what is true or false. A good judge does not lean one way or another, but keeps the issues in focus. Shanks does much the same. We readers are the "jury" and our intellect, understanding, and ability to grasp the issues presented by BAR requires that we take what is presented with a "grain of salt" and use our sense of logic to make conclusions of our own . This form of dialogue is rare in a world of polical hype, and mis-information. Thank you again HS for making BAR a reality...... winstone

[Admin1]

Hello, and WELCOME, Winstone!

[Elijah]

Welcome too.
I hope you do well in your interests here (following your father). Do share comments on what I write. I sharpen what I beleive by the debates. I am blunt, I apologize for it. But it counters teh shame I feel when everyday I feel I have played shy somewhere, or tucked tail, or didn't defend. So I speak real big at times to make up for the times I fail most... and that I regard is being like most the world in the same failings to take a stand.