Saturday, January 17, 2026

 

Our Cousin, Brigadier General Dan Goldfuss

 Nadene Goldfoot                                     


Maj.-Gen. Dan Goldfus: The IDF's hero of Khan Yunis and destroyer of Hamas's tunnels

IDF Maj.-Gen. Dan Goldfus considers that his breakthrough in overcoming Hamas’s tunnel warfare is not about a single moment in which he had an epiphany but the result of hard, exhaustive work.  

Dan Goldfuss (Hebrew: דן גולדפוס; born December 28, 1976) 50 yrs old,  is an Israeli major general serving as the commander of the IDF Northern Corps and the Multi-Domain Joint Maneuver Array.

He previously served as Commander of Gadsar Nahal, Shayetet 13, 931st Onyx Battalion, Nahal Brigade, and The Fire Formation.

Biography

Goldfuss was born and raised in Jerusalem. His parents were South African Jewish immigrants to Israel. He grew up religious but became more secular later in life. He enlisted in the IDF in March 1995, and volunteered for Shayetet 13. He completed the warrior course training in the Shayetet, and took part in the fighting in southern Lebanon, among other things he was part of the rescue force in the Ansariya ambush. 

He is on our family tree, being a Goldfus/fuss.  I found his position. We started off to my knowledge as Goldfus.   Then his line used Goldfuss-probably depending on where they were living.  Our line anglicized our surname into Goldfoot when in England. 

Based on the context provided in Daniel Gordis’s Israel from the Inside substack from March 15, 2024, the "Goldfus issue" refers to Brigadier General Dan Goldfus, who broke IDF protocol by criticizing the political leadership during a live statement, demanding they be "worthy" of the soldiers fighting in Gaza


FRIDAY (3/15):  We had planned to post about Anita Shapira’s take on Ben-Gurion in times of crisis, but the Goldfus issue is more urgent. We’ll get back to Professor Shapira.

We bow our heads over our resounding failure on October 7(2023), but at the same time we push forward, carry out operations at the highest level of quality, protect our values, and attain many achievements on the battlefield.

Even that opening to Goldfus’ comments, which were apparently not approved in advance by the IDF, was controversial. For in taking full responsibility for the abysmal failures of October 7, he intentionally and wordlessly moved the spotlight to Netanyahu, who has refused to do so.

But if the opening was subtle, what followed was not. Speaking to the government, Goldfus said:

But you, you need need to be worthy of us. You need to be worthy of the soldiers who lost their lives. You need to be worthy of the reservists who don’t care what [political] side they are on, and fought and fight alongside each other.

In a clear smack at the extremists, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, to whom Bibi is now beholden because he let them into the chicken coop as he constructed his coalition in December 2022, Goldfus said:

From my heart, I ask of you to be together, united, push away the extreme, and adopt the togetherness. Find what unites. We on the battlefield found it, and we will not give up on it.

“Make it worth [it],” Goldfus added in English, noted the Times of Israel.

That’s what we hear every week, every time we bury yet another soldier. Another young soul, often a husband or a father, and certainly a son, likely a sibling. We hear, “We need to be worthy of these sacrifices.”

We say it week in, week out. Even as we know we’re doing nothing of the sort.

Writing on his website, The Madad, Shmuel Rosner captured the mixed feelings of many thoughtful Israelis. In ordinary times, what Goldfus did might well have gotten him fired. But these are not ordinary times, and if there was ever a moment when Israelis need people who will speak truth to power, it is now.

So Goldfus may well get a pass.

Here’s part of what Rosner had to say.

Masthead of the Madad website

Brigadier General Dan Goldfus should be fired, but not in our world

Image
Shmuel Rosner (Photo: X.com)

When a Brigadier General in the IDF turns to the political leadership and says the sentence “You must be worthy of us,” we need to read between the lines. When he calls on them to be worthy, he’s intimating that he thinks they are not worthy.

And of course, he is right: the Israeli political system, with very few exceptions, has not been able to meet a simple task. Get together, get serious, to show calm, show maturity. The warriors bravely stood up, the commanders stood at the head, the generals took responsibility and moved to live on the battlefields. The politicians—at least many of them—continued with politics as normal. … Ben-Gvir makes a play, Dichter flexes a muscle, Sa’ar calls a dramatic press conference. Well, really, that’s what the soldiers were waiting for on the battlefield: for Sa’ar to split from Gantz. Another political show …

The Brigadier General is right. And so is the Chief of Staff who intends to call him in for “clarification”. Because a lieutenant colonel should not tell the political leadership that it is not worthy. And if he said that, he shouldn’t continue to wear a uniform. But Dan Goldfus will probably continue to wear a uniform. The political system cowered at his feet yesterday … Interior Minister Moshe Arbel: “I embrace and embrace every word.” Every word? He just told you that you are not worthy.

Finance Minister Smotrich: “This is not the time for clarifications” [DG - of the sort Halevi was going to call Goldfus in to hear]. Nir Barkat: “His words are accurate.” Is that so, Mr. Barkat? Did you do anything at all to make his words even a bit less accurate?

There is an irony here that one cannot help but note: Israel has no options but to fix failure with other failures. … In a reformed world, the politicians would behave differently. In a reformed world, Goldfus would not have dared to express himself like that. In a reformed world, if he had expressed himself like that, he would have been asked to take off his uniform the next day. But we live in a broken world. It is impossible to punish the outstanding officer, when the failure of his conduct is dwarfed by the failure of which he warned. …

Listen to what he said: “I ask you to be united together, to push the extremism and embrace togetherness.” Now think: who does he mean when he says “extremism”, who is he talking about? Let’s try a guessing game: do you think he means Eisenkot? Moshe Arbel? Yoav Gallant? … Or maybe other politicians, whose names we will not name, because we all know who they are.

And what did Goldfus mean when he said, ”make sure everyone takes part”. Here, this is a question for Finance Minister Smotrich, who is doing everything [DG - by continuing to finance the Haredim] so that not everyone takes part. And this is a question for Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is busy these days concocting a political stew, the goal of which is to save the coalition and reject any move that the ultra-orthodox leadership opposes—that is, to torpedo any move that could trigger a process in the end of which “everyone will have a share” [DG - having the Haredim serve in the army].…

It seems that nothing worked properly in the IDF on October 7th (2023), yet the public trusts the IDF. Why? Because of the patience, modesty, and determination evident on the faces of the commanders. Because they are not busy with PR antics, saving themselves from impeachment or criticism, with assessments by cynics for the investigative committees, or assessments by arch-cynics to prevent the investigative committees.

That’s precisely the problem. And to return to the image we have already used: in a reformed world Goldfus the citizen would be appointed leader, and Goldfus the officer would be asked to resign. In our world one can only dream of Goldfus the leader, and all that remains is to keep Goldfus the officer. 

Let them continue to flatter him, the hypocrites and the schemers.

Resource:

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7896552/6804044900558192509


# posted by Nadene Goldfoot @ 1:33 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, October 14, 2025

 

Maurice Goldfoot's Silver Falls Wholesale Meats' And His Father, Nathan's Trek to Portland, Oregon

 Nadene Goldfoot

                                                                             

Maurice Goldfoot's cattle truck, running from Ontario, Oregon's Goldfoot's feed lot to his Silver Falls 
Meat Packing Co. on Columbia Blvd.  Maurice's father was Nathan Goldfus/Goldfoot of Portland, b: 1869 in Telsiai, Lithuania and d: Portland, Oregon July 19, 1912 in a horse and wagon accident.  He was
Nathan "Nokhim Avram"Abraham" Goldfus/Goldfoot.  Maurice's only son was David Alan Goldfoot, PhD, psychologist, practicing in Wisconsin and Texas.  
.
Several factors fostered the acceptance of Jews suggested by these political achievements. The timing and composition of Jewish migration was key. Jews first arrived in Oregon in 1849, just years after the first Overland immigrations brought resettlers to the region. The vast majority, like Goldsmith and Wasserman, were immigrants from German lands; but rather than coming directly to Oregon from Europe, most spent years elsewhere in the United States before following the Gold Rush west and establishing merchandising networks anchored in San Francisco and extending north to Oregon. Those who settled in Oregon brought with them knowledge of English, familiarity with frontier society, and connections to San Francisco-based trade networks that positioned them well to join with fellow pioneers and help create new communities.

In 1869, Bernard Goldsmith, an immigrant Jew from Bavaria, was sworn in as the mayor of Portland. Two years later, he was succeeded in office by his friend, countryman, and coreligionist, Philip Wasserman, a former state legislator who would later serve on the city’s school board. Jews comprised only about 0.5 percent of Oregon’s population in the late nineteenth century, yet Goldsmith's and Wasserman’s political achievements were hardly unusual. At least seven Jewish mayors served towns across the state, and others held statewide office, served in the legislature, and sat on city councils and school boards. Between 1877 and 1911, Joseph Simon, a German Jew, served on Portland’s city council, in the state senate, in the U.S. Senate, and as Portland’s mayor.

-There is no indication of any other name for Moshe in the Lithuanian records, though he surely had one. Chaim Yitzchak is totally different than Moshe. It seems unlikely to me that this could be the same person. It is possible that Nathan's widow mis-recalled the name of her father-in-law, whom she presumably did not meet (though she was also a Litvak, so perhaps the families knew each other), but this is unlikely. This discrepancy is really mysterious. I spent a little time researching a family with the name Goldoft/Goldovis from Merkine. There was a Nokhim, born around 1870, whose father was Itsko and there was an earlier Khaim, so this Itsko could have been Chaim Yitzchak. But the relationship would be too distant from the Dublin family for you to have confirmed a 3rd cousin relationship, so this situates your grandfather within the Dublin family. 

12/5/08 "Nathan' Not listed on ancestry.com UK incoming passengers 1878-1960, though many other Goldfoots are in there. http://tinyurl.com/668qq5. 
3/2/17:  Not listed on "Maryland, Baltimore Passenger Lists, 1820-1948.    
Died at age 39 years 11 months 14 days in horse and wagon accident in Portland, Oregon.
4/13/11 Feb 21, 1893 married in Dublin, Ireland.  By June 14, 1893 was on ship headed for Winnipeg listed as single. 
Winston Churchill was born  in 1874, and  
Nathan Goldfoot b: 15 August 1871 in possibly Telsiai, Lithuania or Ukraine, Russia and died 19 July 1912 in Portland, Oregon.at age 43.  
Nathan is found on the www.findmypast.com list having left Liverpool, England, Londonderry (Irish port) bound for Quebec and Montreal in 1893 at the age of 22.  If the age is correct, he was born in 1871 and not 1874 as I have thought.  

Nathan was born at the worst period in Russian history.  The 1880's was another dark period of rising anti-Semitism, expulsions from large cities and many other general restrictions.  It was mandatory for Jews "to keep the same names that had been entered in the vital records."  1881 saw Alexander II assassinated causing antisemitism. Jews were traders and artisans since Middle Ages and were now restricted in Russia including much of Poland. in Pale of Jewish Settlement.  Serfdom was in Russia until 1861.  In 1891 22,000 Jews in chains led from Moscow and St. Petersburg to the Pale. 

 It was hard to leave Russia.  They had to cross borders illegally into Austria/Hungary, then to Vienna or Berlin.  In Hamberg, Bremen and Rotterdam, thousands tried to find passage to America, standing in long lines.  Then they crowded into steerage for 2 to 4 weeks of seasickness and hundreds sharing a toilet.  In 1904 20,000 people did not pass the inspection and were sent back to Europe.  Between 1881 and 1910 1.5 million Jews emmigrated to USA.  Of that 1 million were from Russia.    Most Eastern European immigrants destined for Oregon stopped on the Lower East Side before traveling by train across the country to Portland.  Others came more directly because relatives or families had already settled here.
Pograms in Russia=age 9
May Laws of Jewish Discrimination, age 10

Grandfather Nathan "Nahum" came over to the U.S.A in 1896  ? when he was 24 years old.(according to census information or death certificate.   He died at age 40 years 11 months 4 days.  That would be two years after being in Quebec.  
  He was born on August 5 or 15,  1871 according to www.findmypast or 1874 on a Saturday.  It is possible he was born in Telsiai, Lithuania, commonly referred to as "Russia."  

According to the Goldfoot family in South Africa, they came from the Ukraine in Russia.  On the 1910 census he said he was born in 1872.  When he died, his wife was not told about the accident as it was Shabbas.  She learned about it later.  He had money hidden, and she never learned where it was.
Lithuania lies in the eastern Europe, on the coast of the Baltic Sea. In the north Lithuania borders with Latvia, in the east and south with Byelorussia, in the south-west with Poland and with the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation.

12/20/08 I found him in Quebec arriving in 1893 on ship Parisian.  Reference RG76; microfilm C-4539.  He contracted to get off at Winnipeg.  He was number 29520 on the ship of 8 men and 2 women passengers.  Parisian was the 1st large steamer of the Allen Line taking immigrants to Canada.  It weighed 5,359 tons and sailed first on May 1881.  It took 13 1/4 days from Liverpool, England to Canada and took 18 days from Glasgow, Scotland. 
His name, Nathan, and Natan is a Jewish name from the ten Polish Provinces of Kalisz, Kielee, Lomza, Lublin, Pietrkow, Plock, Radom, Siedlce, Suwalki, and Warsaw.  Poland was partitioned in 1772, 1792 and 1795.  Then it was part of Russia.  Nathan must be the anglicized name.  
Naum\Nakhim\(Nahum 1:1) Variants: Nakhim (L), Nokhim (L,P,V), Nokhum (L), Nukkhem, Nukhim (P,V) Nukhimche(P).  (L )means Lithuania, present-day Lithuania and northern Belarus.  (P) means Poland, the 10 Polish provinces, and (V) Volhyn, present day Zhitomir, Rovno, Luts'k and Volyn regions.  

Some earlier history causing the Pale of Settlement where Lithuania was :  

On  December  23,  1791,  Empress  Catherine  of  Russia 
issued  a decree  restricting  Jewish  habitation  to  specific 
 areas. 
This  decree  applied  to  White  Russia  (Byelorussia),  the 
Ukraine  and  other  areas  taken  in  the  partition.  After  
the   Third 
Partition,  the  decree  was  extended  to  include  the  newly 
acquired  territories  along  the  Baltic  Sea.  Thus  was  born 
 the 
Pale  of  Settlement,  the  area  where  Jews  were  allowed  to
  live; 
an  area  that  stretched  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Seas
. 

Of  the  areas  then  inhabited  by  Lithuanian  Jewry,  ethnic 
Lithuania  and  Byelorussia  became  an  integral  part  of 
 Russia 
and  the  southerm  part,  around  Grodno  and  Suwalk,  became 
part  of  the  Duchy  of  Warsaw  (Poland).  Although  Lithuania 
may  have  been  divided,  the  Jewish  Litvak  community 
remained  integrated  until  World  War  I. 

It  has  been  estimated  that,  at  the  time  of  partition, 
 25 
percent  of  all  the  Jews  of  easterm  Europe  were  Litvak
Resource: 
My notes through the years from other genealogists 
https://archive.org/stream/nybc314248/nybc314248_djvu.txt
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/jews-in-oregon/


Labels: , , , , ,


# posted by Nadene Goldfoot @ 9:33 AM 0 comments

Monday, March 03, 2025

 

Mildred Elizabeth Goldfoot nee Robinson Graduates In 1932

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

                                           Mom and Dad on a date 1932-1933, Portland, Oregon

My mother was born in Tigard in 1914, I believe it was.  She didn't finish her education, leaving home and became a  nanny in SW Portland, Oregon with the Gurion family. There she was exposed to a new culture and home with oriental rugs and chandeliers in a dining room.   She also went to a school in Portland at the same time, THE NATIONAL SCHOOL OF COSMETICIANS, Inc.  

Here Mom is with Great Aunt Jessie, sister of our Bubba (paternal grandmother)

Mom was a blue-eyed blonde, 5'6" with English/Irish-Swedish ancestry and had long Betty Grable legs.  It's that that Dad whistled at.  Notice, she's wearing flat shoes.  She was only18 when she graduated Beauty School.  Mom and Dad got married April 29, 1932, so she was just 18 then as well.  I was born when she was 20 in  1934.  


          Mom's Beauty School;  she's in the back combing out a lady's hair on the right.


Affiliated with MARINELLO, Portland, Ore.  

This  certifies that 

                 Mildred Elizabeth Robinson

after meeting all the legal requirements as to matriculation, was admitted and having diligently

pursued the regular courses of instruction as prescribed by the Authorities of the School in the

                       Practical Beautician Training

and after giving satisfactory proof of efficiency in all branches thereof, is hereby awarded this

                       Certificate of Graduation

                   Given this   10th day of January

                  In the year of 1932 under the seal of the school 

            Attest:  Mary Ellen Newman  Neal Anders   Dorothy M. Cole

While walking her charges on 3rd and Lincoln, she passed by the kosher butcher shop that my dad was working in.  He whistled, and a conversation ensued.    They married;  him taking her home to his mother, and Mom becoming a converted Jewish lady.  They eventually moved into the new Ladd's Addition in SE Portland across the Ross Island Bridge, and I was born in 1934.  Lucky Mom never had to work after all that training.  I was the beneficiary of her new found talent!  

She also kept her:

 Certificate of Registration

Oregon State Board of Cosmetic Therapy Examiners

This certifies that Mildred E. Robinson  Tigard, Oregon

Has complied with all provisions of Chapter 399, General Laws of Oregon, 1929, and is authorized to practice

Cosmetology  Hairdressing  Permanent Waving 

In the state of Oregon so long  as all the provisions of said chapter are complied with and annual fees paid.  Under section 15 of this act this license can be suspended or revoked if the licensee fails to keep this certificate on display or violates any of the provisions of this section or permits any violation of the sanitary rules and regulations of the board.  

Dated at Portland, Oregon                                                                   Jean Leese  

                                                                                                               President

January 1932                                                                                       Emma Kalke Haley

                                                                                                                                                      Vice-President

                                                                                                                                                     Frederick U Strufer

                                                                                 Treasurer

  Read this about Marinello   https://www.cosmeticsandskin.com/companies/marinello.php

[Marinello’s] products were used in and distributed through more than 5,000 of the largest and most elegant beauty salons in the country. Marinello did not own these salons but controlled them absolutely.                                                                                             

   Mom started greying early in life, around 29, but she was much older in this picture.  

This shows that back in 1932, people took deals seriously, even graduating beauty school certification.  Every problem was covered and protected by signatures.  

Here's Mom and myself with David's daughter, Michelle, who was born in 1993, so it must be about 1996.  Mom was about 82 years old.  She liked to keep her hair red for a long time.  This was in the yard of her home in Ontario, Oregon.  

                        



Labels: , ,


# posted by Nadene Goldfoot @ 6:17 PM 0 comments

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?