President of Clearvision Optical aka The Pickle. Thoughts on business, life observations, news, and family
Joined March 2013
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David Friedfeld retweeted
His father carried him into Buchenwald hidden in a sack.
He was 3 years old, and the SS were not supposed to know he existed.
Joseph Schleifstein was born in March 1941 in Sandomierz, Poland, while the town was under German occupation. His parents, Israel and Esther, kept him hidden in cellars and dark corners, because the Nazis took away small children who were too young to work.
Then the family was deported. His mother was sent to Bergen-Belsen. Joseph and his father were sent to Buchenwald, in Germany.
At the camp, small children and the old were sent away to be killed. So his father, a leather worker, put the little boy inside the big sack that held his tools, told him to keep absolutely quiet, and carried him in.
With the help of other prisoners, his father hid Joseph inside the camp. He spent his fourth birthday there.
According to his story, the guards did eventually find him. Instead of killing him, some of them made the little boy a kind of camp mascot. When senior Nazi officials came to inspect, he still had to disappear.
In April 1945, American soldiers liberated Buchenwald. Joseph remembered that day with joy: he no longer had to hide, there was more to eat, and the Americans gave him "lots and lots" of rides on their tanks and jeeps.
He and his father went looking for his mother. They found her alive in Dachau, and after the war the family started over in New York.
Joseph worked for AT&T for 25 years. He did not talk about Buchenwald for decades, not even to his own children. Then a film came out about a father who hides his little son in a concentration camp, Life Is Beautiful, and an archivist came across his old file. A search for the real boy began.
They found him living quietly in New York City.
David Friedfeld retweeted
In 1942, a drunk German officer sat at dinner and bragged about the Jewish woman he had selected from the brothel the Nazis had forced open in town. He said her name out loud. The Tunisian Arab sitting across from him stayed calm, smiled, poured more wine, and finished the meal. Then he drove the officer home, sped through the dark streets, and knocked on a door close to midnight. That night, he hid 25 people for four months. He never spoke about it again.
His name was Khaled Abdul-Wahab. He was 31 years old, a wealthy Muslim Tunisian who had studied art and architecture in New York and spoke fluent German. Nazi officers trusted him. They invited him to their dinners.
Tunisia was the only Arab country directly occupied by Nazi Germany during the war. Jewish families were pushed from their homes. More than 5,000 Jewish men were sent to forced labor camps. Yellow stars marked every chest.
That December night in the coastal town of Mahdia, Khaled listened as the officer boasted. The woman he named belonged to a family Khaled had known all his life.
He left immediately. He drove through the night. He knocked on their door at midnight.
Pack nothing. Come now.
He gathered 25 people — mothers, fathers, cousins, and children — and drove them nearly 20 miles to his family farm, hiding them inside the olive press, stables, and storage buildings.
This was not one brave act. It was four straight months of courage.
He fed them while supplies grew scarce. He kept babies quiet. He trusted his servants to stay silent. When German soldiers arrived to count Jewish families, the hidden people pinned yellow stars onto their clothes and stood motionless. When the soldiers left, the stars came off again.
One night, a drunken soldier wandered onto the farm and discovered them. An eleven-year-old girl hiding under a bed watched him laugh and threaten to kill everyone there. Then Khaled appeared. She remembered him her entire life as a guardian angel. He calmly walked the soldier outside, took away his weapon, and sent him off the property.
Nobody on that farm died.
In May 1943, British forces liberated Tunisia. All 25 people returned home alive.
Khaled went back to a quiet life. He married, raised daughters, painted, and worked in government service.
He never told anyone what he had done. Not his wife. Not his children. No one.
He died on September 4, 1997, at the age of 86. His story was buried with him.
Ten years later, his daughter Faiza was sitting in a café in Paris reading a Sunday newspaper when she came across an interview with an American historian describing a Tunisian Arab who had hidden 25 Jews in 1942.
The historian mentioned her father by name.
She was 45 years old and had never heard the story before.
She contacted the historian. One of the children saved on the farm had left behind 83 pages of testimony before her death. Every detail matched.
“I rediscovered my father,” Faiza later said.
Khaled was nominated for Israel’s highest honor given to non-Jews who saved Jewish lives. He would have been the first Arab to receive it.
The committee declined, saying he had not risked his own life enough.
Faiza answered with a line history should never forget:
“My father opened his home to Jews. They did not open theirs to us.”
Today, the 25 people Khaled saved have hundreds of descendants living across Israel, France, America, and Tunisia. The little girl hidden beneath the bed grew up, moved to Paris, and built a family of her own. None of them would exist if Khaled had stayed silent that night.
He had everything to lose. He acted anyway. Then he spent the rest of his life saying nothing about it.
The world nearly forgot him twice. Now you know his name.
David Friedfeld retweeted
WHEN AN ALIEN VISITED EARTH AND DISCOVERED HUMANITY'S OLDEST HATRED
An alien arrived on Earth and asked humanity:
“Whom do you hate the most?”
Many shouted: “THE JEWS! ISRAEL!”
Confused, the alien studied human history.
It discovered an ancient people persecuted, expelled, massacred, and nearly exterminated. Six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
Yet they survived.
The alien learned that Jews constitute barely 0.2% of humanity, yet their contributions to medicine, science, technology, and civilization are extraordinary.
Then it discovered Israel.
A tiny nation producing medical breakthroughs, agricultural innovations, and technologies benefiting millions worldwide.
The alien returned with questions:
“You hated Jews when they had no homeland. You accused them of controlling nations while denying them basic rights. You murdered them for being different.
Now they have a tiny country, and suddenly that country is responsible for everything wrong with your planet?”
The alien paused.
“Perhaps the problem was never the Jews. Perhaps humanity simply needed someone to blame for its own failures.”
I am Muslim. Criticize governments, challenge policies, demand accountability.
But stop disguising ancient antisemitism as moral superiority.
Hatred is not justice. Obsession is not principle.
Mansoor Laghari
Proud Muslim Zionist
#FightAntisemitism #StandWithIsrael #MuslimZionist
David Friedfeld retweeted
This really is one of @BillMaher’s best-ever monologues, and I don’t say that just because I got a namecheck. Tldr: Socialism is what old people already get and young people want a piece of it.
David Friedfeld retweeted
Her son, an IDF soldier, lies on life support.
She is in her 70s. Her world is collapsing.
Yet her only concern was that I, a Muslim visitor, should not leave hungry.
This is the strength of a Jewish mother. This is Israel.
#Israel #IDF #AmYisraelChai #Humanity #Courage #Truth #StandWithIsrael #JewishPeople
blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-mo…
David Friedfeld retweeted
Israel is a country of 10 million people. It holds 0.12% of humanity on a territory the size of Wales. And in 9 of the last 10 years, it has been the subject of more international news coverage per capita than any other country on Earth — double to quadruple the rate of any Western democracy, 7 - 16x more than Canada, 50 - 137x more than Brazil, 200 - 600x more than India. In 2024, 1 out of every 50 news articles published anywhere on the planet, by outlets outside Israel, was primarily about Israel — and in absolute terms only the United States, a country 34x its size and the world's hegemon, was the subject of more.
profound.af/center-of-attent…
David Friedfeld retweeted
It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say. But that’s exactly what the Trump Administration is doing to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
To understand why this is so appalling, it’s important to know the facts. Congresswoman Omar came to this country with her father when she was 12 years old. Five years later, her father became a naturalized citizen. If Ilhan had been 18 at the time, she would have had to apply for citizenship separately. But because she was 17, she became a naturalized citizen automatically.
Congresswoman Omar went on to graduate from college, work as a community organizer, become the first Somali-American legislator elected to public office in the U.S., and win a seat in Congress. There, she has been one of the Trump Administration’s fiercest critics, which has led the president to repeatedly single her out as someone who he believes does not belong in this country.
Now the Administration is actively trying to deport Congresswoman Omar, seemingly based solely on the unsubstantiated theory that she was actually 18 when her father was naturalized, and therefore is not a citizen. Federal agents have raided her home, confiscated personal records, and seized her phone — all to try and uncover a nonexistent smoking gun from 20 years ago that will somehow make their case.
Think about that. The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president. And it’s not the first time this has happened. Under President Trump, the Justice Department has repeatedly gone after those he considers his political enemies — from the Attorney General of New York, to the former head of the FBI, to members of the Federal Reserve.
In those cases, the prosecutions either stalled or were dismissed for having no basis in law, and the same is likely to happen in this case. But not before Congresswoman Omar’s life has been turned upside down, her legal bills have piled up, and she’s been forced to spend time fighting unsubstantiated charges instead of serving the people of Minnesota.
The fact that any president, or any administration, is willing to engage in such transparent efforts to intimidate someone should outrage all Americans, regardless of how they feel about Congresswoman Omar’s political views. Because if this becomes the new normal, there’s no reason to believe it will stop with her — or that future presidents, in either party, won’t do the same.
David Friedfeld retweeted
President Herzog is right to speak out against extremist violence in the West Bank. These attacks are reprehensible and indefensible, and they cause enormous damage to Israel. A full investigation, followed by prosecution, is essential. The perpetrators do not represent the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria.
I just called Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine, who was brutally attacked by violent rioters on Friday.
As President of the State of Israel, I strongly condemn this outrageous and shocking violence, both the terrible attack on Heidi and other grave incidents of violence, such as what took place today in Taybeh.
I expressed my deepest sorrow to Heidi and apologized for what she went through.
The despicable behavior of the perpetrators of this attack does not represent the citizens or the values of the State of Israel.
Israel is a democratic state governed by the rule of law, and it must act with full force against every form of violence. Each incident is being thoroughly investigated, and we await the findings.
All government, security, and law enforcement authorities must use every means at their disposal to investigate thoroughly, apprehend these lawbreakers, and bring them to justice with the fullest extent of the law.
On behalf of the entire nation, I wish Heidi good health and a speedy recovery.
David Friedfeld retweeted
Marco Rubio wants the West to rediscover what made it great.
But what truly distinguishes Western civilization is not its military power or national pride, as Rubio suggests, but its intellectual and political traditions.
My take:
David Friedfeld retweeted
Incredible find!
A Jewish person living in Egypt around 475 BCE wrote about Passover on a piece of pottery.
The inscription, written in Imperial Aramaic, is now housed in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It was discovered on the island of Elephantine in Egypt, home to a Jewish community during the Persian period.
In paraphrase, the letter conveys a message along these lines:
“To Hoshaya. Greetings! Take care of the children until Ahutab arrives. If the flour has already been ground, prepare a small amount of dough until their mother returns. Let me know when you will celebrate Passover, and tell me how the baby is doing.”
Although brief, this inscription contains one of the oldest surviving non-biblical references to the festival of Passover, demonstrating that Jews were celebrating it nearly 2,500 years ago.
Consider the historical context. It was written approximately 700 years after the Exodus from Egypt (according to the traditional biblical chronology), about 110 years after the destruction of the First Temple, and roughly 60 years after the return to Zion from the Babylonian exile.
The Nation of Israel Lives
David Friedfeld retweeted
Hola, soy palestino. 🇵🇸
Y como la honestidad es poco común en mi política, permítanme confesar algunas cosas.
1947. La ONU me ofreció un estado. Junto a Israel. Fronteras, independencia, reconocimiento. Dije que no. Mis líderes prometieron que la guerra "arrojaría a los judíos al mar". En cambio, lo perdí todo y lo llamaron catástrofe. No porque no me ofrecieran un estado, sino porque lo rechacé.
1948–2025. Los estados árabes podrían haberme integrado, dado derechos, pasaportes, dignidad. En cambio, me encerraron en campos de refugiados durante generaciones, para que siguiera siendo un arma contra Israel. Construyeron palacios para ellos y cárceles para mí. Me usaron como propaganda, no como personas.
1967. Tras otra guerra perdida, podría haber construido un estado en Cisjordania y Gaza. En cambio, insistí en "ni paz, ni reconocimiento, ni negociaciones". Tres noes. Cincuenta años después, sigo sin Estado. Resulta que el rechazo no paga el alquiler.
Oslo, década de 1990. Israel dijo: «Intentémoslo». Me dio autonomía. Armas para la policía. Miles de millones en ayuda. ¿Qué hicieron mis líderes? Robaron el dinero, armaron milicias y lanzaron una intifada. Atentados suicidas en lugar de escuelas. Cohetes en lugar de fábricas.
Gaza, 2005. Israel se fue por completo. Sin colonos, sin soldados. Tuve la oportunidad de convertir Gaza en un Singapur mediterráneo. Voté por Hamás. La convirtieron en Mogadiscio junto al mar. ¿Miles de millones en ayuda? Túneles, cohetes y palacios para sus líderes, mientras mi gente come comida enlatada en la oscuridad.
¿Democracia? No he tenido elecciones en casi 20 años. Hamás mata a los disidentes en Gaza. Fatah los encarcela en Cisjordania. Mis líderes cancelan elecciones porque están demasiado ocupados luchando por el poder.
Religión. En lugar de construir un futuro, pongo a clérigos en televisión enseñando a los niños a odiar a los judíos. Glorifico a los "mártires" que hacen estallar autobuses. Crío a mis hijos con canciones de sangre y fuego en lugar de libros y ciencia. Cambio la esperanza por la guerra santa.
Mundo árabe. Los regímenes árabes me llaman "hermano". Pero pregúntenles cuántos palestinos pueden vivir libremente en Líbano, Siria, Egipto o Kuwait. Me excluyen, pero celebran mi muerte, porque mi muerte es su excusa.
Absurdo. Sigo diciendo que quiero "construir un estado". E irónicamente, justo al lado está Israel: el vecino que construyó una democracia próspera, una potencia tecnológica, granjas en el desierto, ciudades de polvo. Sin petróleo, sin riqueza infinita, solo coraje. Podría haber aprendido, copiado, colaborado. En cambio, elegí la envidia y la rabia.
Obsesión antijudía. Podría haber aceptado a los judíos como vecinos. Podría haber dicho: "Dos naciones, dos estados". En cambio, repito: "Del río al mar". En lugar de exhibir el honor, la hospitalidad y la rica cultura árabe, mostré solo la cultura de la espada: la ira, el extremismo y la sangre. En lugar de gritar salaam (paz) a los israelíes, grité muerte a los judíos. Y luego finjo sorprenderme cuando los israelíes no confían en mí, cuando están enojados, decepcionados y convencidos de que no quiero coexistencia en absoluto.
Responsabilidad. Culpo a Israel de todo. Siempre. ¿Mis líderes roban miles de millones? Culpa de Israel. ¿Hamás dispara cohetes desde hospitales? Culpa de Israel. ¿Glorifico la muerte más que la vida? Culpa de Israel. La responsabilidad no es mi fuerte.
Soy palestino.
Podría haber construido una nación, muchas veces. Elegí el rechazo, la corrupción y la guerra sin fin. Podría haber vivido en paz con Israel, pero elegí vivir a la sombra de su destrucción.
Así que sí, soy una víctima. Pero con demasiada frecuencia, soy víctima de mis propios líderes, de mis propias decisiones y de mi propia negativa a abandonar el odio.
Y esa, querido lector, es la tragedia que nadie quiere admitir.
David Friedfeld retweeted
Asaf Rejuwan, one of the Israeli survivors of flight 1073 wrote on Facebook:
״I don't usually post on social media, but today I felt something burning deep inside me that I simply had to share.
Ever since the incident where the terrorist's attempt to hijack the Flydubai flight was thwarted, there has been a lot of coverage in the media, and I’ve been asked many times what factors I believe prevented the terrible disaster that could have befallen our people had that despicable terrorist succeeded in his plans.
Today, I think I received a very special and interesting answer to that question. Naturally, after the incident ended and we landed safely on the Land of Israel, I felt the need to thank many people... the passengers who cooperated, my lioness of a wife and all the mothers and fathers who protected their loved ones, the children who stayed composed, and every Israeli passenger on that plane.
Yesterday, I was part of a group of passengers interviewed for an international channel. As each passenger went into detail about how they experienced the flight, we realized something very important- something you only understand when the dust settles and you get into the small details during intimate conversations among yourselves.
We realized that every single passenger on that flight had a role, every passenger on the flight had a role.
One passenger was responsible for communicating with Israel's security services
I discovered there was a passenger on board who provided a mobile hotspot and made sure to share it with others
Another female passenger sat and recited Psalms
A passenger made sure to pass along headphone cords to tie up the terrorist
Passengers kept track of where we were going to land using GPS maps
An Australian passenger was the only one on the plane who could make calls back to Israel from an enemy country (Saudi Arabia)
And the list goes on... And, of course, the amazing Yaniv, the wonderful Tzvika and Tali, the hero Shota, the great man Or, and many other great friends who lent a hand.
I had no doubt that after such a great miracle, I would be attending synagogue on Saturday morning to recite the Birkat HaGomel (the prayer of thanking the God of Israel after a lifesaving miracle)
I am not a religious person. I believe in God in my own way, and I don't usually look for signs in everything. But today, something happened that completely astonished me. Completely by chance, today in the synagogue I read from Parashat Devarim (Deuteronomy 33:26):
"There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to help you, and in His majesty rides the skies."
אֵין כָּאֵל יְשֻׁרוּן רֹכֵב שָׁמַיִם בְּעֶזְרֶךָ וּבְגַאֲוָתוֹ שְׁחָקִים
I read the verse, stopped, and got goosebumps, and so did all the other worshippers who knew the story and understood why I was there with them.
After everything that happened on that flight, after the fear, after the storming of the terrorist, and after realizing how thin the line between life and death really was- finding myself facing those exact words, "rides the heavens to help you," was a moment I can hardly explain.
I don't know if it was divine providence, a coincidence, or simply a moment that took on a profoundly deep meaning for me. But today, in the synagogue, as I recited Birkat HaGomel, I felt mainly one thing:
Thank you. Thank you for life. Thank you for the miracle. And thank you for the privilege to stand here and tell the story.
Am Yisrael Chai 🇮🇱״
David Friedfeld retweeted
Leonard Cohen, “Who By Fire,” London 2008, a song based on the traditional Jewish High Holy Day prayer Unetanneh Tokef, about who might not make it to next year and how.
David Friedfeld retweeted
She never called her family to say goodbye. Instead, Sara Low used her final 30 minutes to make sure the FBI knew who attacked America.
Trapped at 30,000 feet with no weapon, 28-year-old flight attendant Sara Low held the only tool that could expose the 9/11 hijackers to the world: 14 numbers memorized in her head.
When terrorists stormed the cockpit of American Airlines Flight 11, chaos erupted in the cabin. Flight attendant Amy Sweeney scrambled to grab an onboard airphone to alert the ground team, but hit a devastating wall - she didn't have a calling card to bypass the system lock.
Without her wallet on hand, Sara stepped forward. She didn't have plastic, but she had clarity. She had memorized her family’s AT&T calling card digits.
Sara handed those numbers to Amy, unlocking a lifeline to the ground.
For the next 20 minutes, Amy stayed on the line with American Airlines flight services in Boston. Because of Sara's calling card, the FBI received its very first concrete intelligence of the day: exact seat numbers of the hijackers, physical descriptions, and their movements in the cabin.
While Amy relayed the critical data, Sara spent her final half-hour moving terrified passengers toward the rear of the plane, shielding them from danger.
Sara had the means to use that airphone. She could have called her parents. She could have said a final goodbye to her sister.
She didn't. She chose to make sure the world would know the truth instead.
True heroism isn't defined by muscle or weapons. It’s defined by presence of mind in the face of impossible terror - and the selfless decision of who that mind chooses to serve.
#archaeohistories
David Friedfeld retweeted
I've served in two White Houses and in Congressional leadership, and I can tell you when the last time a CEO or an industry at large asked to be regulated: never. That's what makes Dario's letter so striking — it's an admission that we're driving down a dark, winding road on wet pavement with the headlights off. And where's President Trump? Looks like he nodded off again. It’s time to turn the lights on, put both hands on the wheel, and regain control before it’s too late.
We Must Pace the Frontier: I’ve written a new essay on why the AI industry should slow down, with a three-part plan for doing so.
Anthropic is unilaterally committing to the first of these steps. We’ll provide third-party evaluators with permanent, employee-level access to our systems, so that they can verify adherence to our safety measures, report on incidents, and assess models’ alignment during training.
You can read the full post here: darioamodei.com/post/we-must…
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Industries and CEOs have often asked to be regulated. Examples include 19th century railroads, Allstate in 2009, hedge funds and tech companies. washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/305871… fee.org/articles/we-wa… nationalreview.com/corner/be-wary…
David Friedfeld retweeted
This should be pushed far and wide. Watched in every college class in the U.S. Thank you @billmaher The moral confusion is gross. "It is not a genocide, it is a counterattack in a war...Gaza equals genocide is a lie, an easily provable lie (as I have argued from first hand observations in Gaza). The fact that so many democrats go along with it is to me the party's worse moment since they undid reconstruction after the civil war...words have meaning...genocide, kill or try to kill an entire people, you can't just change the definition of genocide to mean counterattack in a war where people including civilians die, that's every war..."
David Friedfeld retweeted
Read this one slowly. I have read it twenty-five times and my hands still shake.
"Are you guys ready?"
"Okay. Let's roll."
9:57 a.m. September 11. Forty unarmed people got up off the floor of a hijacked plane and ran at the men who had murdered the pilots.
Fists on the cockpit door. A drink cart as a battering ram. The hijacker at the controls rolling the plane side to side to throw them down.
They kept coming.
At 10:03, United 93 hit a field in Pennsylvania at 563 miles an hour. Everyone died.
The plane was eighteen minutes from the Capitol.
The man who said "Let's roll" was Todd Beamer. Thirty-two. A software salesman. A Sunday school teacher. Two little boys at home and a wife five months pregnant. He was supposed to be home for dinner.
Now rewind twelve minutes. This is the part.
9:45. He picks up the seatback phone and tries to call his wife. He cannot get through. The call lands on a GTE operator in Illinois named Lisa.
His wife's name is Lisa.
He tells her everything, calmly. Three men. Knives. One with something strapped to his waist. The pilots on the floor. The plane turning east.
Then:
"If I don't make it through this, will you call my wife? Tell her I love her."
"I promise."
He gives her the number. David is three. Andrew is one. The baby is due in January. He has seen the ultrasound. They do not know yet if it is a boy or a girl.
Tell the boys their daddy loves them, he says. Tell them he is proud of them.
Then one more thing.
"Would you pray with me?"
A dying man and a stranger say the Lord's Prayer together. Then the 23rd Psalm.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For thou art with me.
9:55.
She can hear the others now. A vote. A plan. A flight attendant boiling water.
He sets the phone down. He does not hang up.
And she hears him turn to them.
"Are you guys ready? Okay. Let's roll."
She stays on the line long after it goes silent. In case he comes back.
Then she picks up another phone and keeps her promise.
Here is what breaks me.
"Let's roll" was not a battle cry. It was what Todd said to David and Andrew every morning when it was time to get in the car. Shoes on. Let's roll.
The last time he said it, he was getting forty strangers up off the floor of an airplane.
On January 9, 2002, the baby came. A girl. Morgan.
She grew up. She went to her father's college and played soccer there.
Her number was 23.
The last psalm her father prayed was the 23rd.
I do not know if that was on purpose. I do not need to know.
The next summer, every new cadet at West Point shouted the same words at dawn. Always Ready. Let's Roll. A generation of American officers went to war with a Sunday school teacher's last words in their mouths.
His sons are grown. His daughter is 24. His wife never remarried. She wrote a book and named it after the thing he said to the kids.
Three years old. One year old. And one he would never meet.
He said their names into a phone, to a stranger. And then he stood up.
So the next time you say it, to your kids, to your crew, to yourself in the mirror, know where it came from.
A father, in the back of a plane, getting everybody up.
Shoes on.
Let's roll. 🇺🇸
