Insight: Something Jewish... ...

Quite some time ago this blogger chanced upon an interesting encounter with a Jew from Israel. Considering it to be a rare opportunity, I took him to task with a few insightful questions. He is an IT guy working for a MNC and visits Singapore once in a while. Let me know if you find the information appealing, though I’m not able to vouch for its accuracy….

Q: “I know a lot of Jews have interesting surnames(?) like Spielberg, Goldstein, What do these mean?”
A: “Stein means stone while berg means mountains. Berg actually has its origins in East European or Slavic culture.”

Q: “Can you tell me more about compulsory military service in Israel?”
A: “ Israelis are normally conscripted to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) after high school education, around 18 years old. (Similar to Singapore’s.) They will have to serve a minimum period of 3 years in the military. But if one became an officer at the end of the said period, he would have to extend his service by another year. So active service period would be 4 years. After that he would be in a reserve unit.” (Don’t think a Singaporean guy will welcome this extension!)

Q: “What can you tell me about George Soros? Is he a good Jew?”
A: “He succeeded what Alexander the Great failed. He conquered the world (financially).”

Just a note: The IDF has been known to be one of the most capable and advanced armed forces in the world, other than the Americans. But this steely reputation was tainted during the recent confrontation with the Hizbollahs. The Israelis were not able to exterminate the missile attacks from Lebanon despite crossing over the borders. It was a great victory for the so-called terrorists.