User:Zozoulia

About me


Zozoulia is an American-born Israeli. He has been a Wikipedian since 2006 and is primarily, but not exclusively, a WikiGnome.

Having spent a lot of time in Washington, D.C., he appeared way back when as a student extra in The Exorcist, stood in the snow at the second inauguration of Richard Nixon, almost slammed into the rear of Ted Kennedy's car when the Senator stopped short without warning and double parked in front of the home of Rep. Peter Frelinghuysen Jr. on N Street in Georgetown, was across the street from the White House in Lafayette Park during the signing of the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty, was invited twice into the Oval Office, attended a joint session of the United States Congress, was stuck in traffic in trying to get onto Key Bridge when Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the Potomac River, and watched from the bleachers at RFK Stadium when the Washington Senators forfeited their last game to the New York Yankees and again when Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann was sacked and his career came to a sudden end. (Coincidentally, Joe and Zozoulia's father were both raised in South River, New Jersey.)

Activists, community leaders and lobbyists
Tova Ben-Dov, Arye Carmon, Tom Dine, Amiram Goldblum, Alan Gross, David Harris, LaDonna Harris, Malcolm Hoenlein, Amélie Jakobovits, Jeremy Jones, Si Kenen, William Korey, Yechiel Leiter, Nadia Matar, Yisrael Medad, Winifred Meiselman, Michal Moda'i, Abie Nathan, Ruth Popkin, John S. Ruskay, Israel Singer, Alon Tal, Mowafaq Tarif, Penina Taylor, Bernice Tannenbaum, David Wilder, and Gordon Zacks.

Actors, directors and producers
Hy Anzell, Louis DiGiaimo, Blake Edwards, Hannah Fidell (when she was in diapers), Sandy Frank, William Friedkin, Steve Greenberg, Rita Karin, Amos Kollek, and Noel Marshall.

Architects
David Cassuto, Ada Karmi-Melamede (who co-designed the Supreme Court of Israel in Jerusalem) and Fariborz Sahba (who designed the Lotus Temple in New Delhi and the Terraces of the Shrine of the Báb in Haifa, both of which I've toured).

Artists
Sam Barsky (when he was a baby), Leon Bibel, George Segal, and Mindy Weisel.

Athletes
Amit Ben Shushan, Ron Blomberg, Tal Brody, Steve Kaplan, Judy Melick, Moshe Ohayon, Aulcie Perry, and Orlando Phillips.

Attorneys and jurists
Justice Gabriel Bach, Alan Baker, Jeremy Bash (I was friends with his parents and knew him when he was a kid), Lisa Bernstein, Prof. Yehuda Zvi Blum, The Hon. Sir Bernard Eder, Eugene R. Fidell, Justice Arthur Goldberg, Prof. Philip Hamburger, Prof. Milton R. Konvitz, A. Leo Levin, Nathan Lewin, Alfred H. Moses, Meir Rosenne, Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, Judge Abraham David Sofaer, Howard Squadron, Justus Weiner, and Marc Zell.

Authors and public intellectuals
Yehuda Amichai, Aharon Appelfeld, Geoffrey Archer, Yariv Ben-Eliezer, William Peter Blatty, Ze'ev Chafets, Joseph Churba, Susie Fishbein, Reuven Gal, Ralph Giordano, Zev Golan, Dr. Dore Gold, Daniel Gordis, Hillel Halkin, Yossi Klein Halevi, Yoram Hazony, Matilda Koen-Sarano, Moshe Lazar, Michael Lerner, David Makovsky, Jesse Mann, Larry McMurtry, Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, Joshua Muravchik, May Murr, Selma Mushkin, Emmanuel Navon, Dov Noy, Gustavo Perednik, Joan Peters, Danielle Pletka, Daniel Polisar, Walter Reich, Avital Ronell (she was a grade ahead of me at Rutgers Preparatory School), Susan Weidman Schneider, Avraham Schwartzbaum, Moshe Shaul, William Stevenson, Alvin Toffler, Ben J. Wattenberg, Dr. Shalva Weil, Dr. Brian Weiss (my father taught him math at South Brunswick High School), Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Elie Wiesel, and Herman Wouk.

Bankers and economists
Prof. Avishai Braverman, Dr. Michael Bruno, Dr. Wendy Lee Gramm, Dr. Liora Meridor, and Gary Perlin.

Foreign
Guillermo Ardizone, Mohammed Bassiouni, Robert Andrew Burns, Thomas J. Dodd, Jr., Abid Hussain, Alan Keyes, Fernando Morán Calvo-Sotelo, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, Alfred H. Moses, Marwan al-Muasher, Miloš Pojar, Fernando Valderrama Pareja, David Welch, and Charles Woodruff Yost.

Israeli
Moshe Arad, Colette Avital, Yehuda Avner, Alan Baker, Yoel Barnea, Uri Bar-Ner, Yossi Ben-Aharon, Irit Ben-Abba, Shlomo Ben-Ami, Yaffa Ben-Ari, Ilan Ben-Dov, Eliyahu Ben-Elissar, Oded Ben-Hur, Nissim Ben-Shitrit, Barukh Binah, Yoav Biran, Yehuda Zvi Blum, Ran Curiel, Reuven Dafni, Avigdor Dagan, Simcha Dinitz, Rafael Eldad, Yitzhak Eldan, Yoram Elron, Oded Eran, Tamar Eshel, Yoram Ettinger, Ephraim Evron, Yossi Gal, Ehud Gol, Dore Gold, Shmuel Hadas, Yehoyada Haim, Victor Harel, Zvi Harry Hurwitz, Bruce Kashdan, Yaakov Kedmi, Ishmael Khaldi, Haim Koren, Naphtali Lau-Lavie, Itzhak Levanon, Gabby Levy, Alon Liel, Netanel Lorch, Uri Lubrani, Eviatar Manor, Reda Mansour, Gideon Meir, Sallai Meridor, Boaz Moda'i, Ilan Mor, Asher Naim, Ya'akov Nehoshtan, Amira Oron, Yigal Palmor, Avi Pazner, Martin Peled-Flax, Alon Pinkas, Ron Prosor, Tsuriel Raphael, Meir Rosenne, Elyakim Rubinstein, Tamar Sam-Ash, Chaim Shacham, Nachman Shai, Daniel Shek, Aviv Shir-On, Shimon Stein, Akiva Tor, Shemi Tzur, Ruth Yaron, and Moshe Yegar.

Entrepreneurs
Yosef Abramowitz, Dror Bin, Zell Kravinsky (a second cousin), Adam Montefiore, Leo Noe, Jeff Pulver, Stef Wertheimer, Gordon Zacks, and Zohar Zisapel.

Foreign
José Domingo Arias of Panama, Dainius Kreivys of Lithuania, Miguel Ángel Moratinos and Javier Solana of Spain, Marwan al-Muasher of Jordan, Dan Nica of Romania, and Dr. George William Vella of Malta.

Israeli
Shulamit Aloni, Moshe Arens, Benny Begin, Yossi Beilin, Shlomo Ben-Ami, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Mordechai Ben-Porat, Avishay Braverman, Eitan Cabel, Eli Cohen, Arieh Dulzin, Abba Eban, Michael Eitan, Avi Gabbay, Mordechai Gur, Tzachi Hanegbi, Isaac Herzog, Shlomo Hillel, Uzi Landau, Tommy Lapid, Dan Meridor, Yitzhak Moda'i, Yitzhak Navon, Zevulun Orlev, Gideon Patt, Amir Peretz, Rabbi Yitzhak Peretz, Yaakov Peri, Amnon Rubinstein, Moshe Shahal, Nachman Shai, Silvan Shalom, Natan Sharansky, Efraim Sneh, Yair Tzaban, and Ezer Weizman. All the above were Members of Knesset but are unlisted in that category.

Governors
Gerald L. Baliles of Virginia, Mario Cuomo of New York and Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. of Maryland.

Historians and biographers
Arthur Arnheim, Prof Haim Beinart, Prof. Shlomo Ben-Ami, Prof. Ofra Bengio, Michael Berenbaum, Edwin Black, Prof. Jules Davids, Prof. Thomas J. Dodd, Jr., Prof. Adam Ferziger, Sir Martin Gilbert, Zev Golan, Rabbi Dr. Bertram Korn, Prof. Raphael Israeli, Dr. Robert Kagan, Shmuel Katz, Dan Kurzman, Netanel Lorch, Prof. Mordechai Nisan, Prof. Ralph Nurnberger, Prof. Yehoshua Porath, Prof. Carroll Quigley, Dr. Barry Rubin, Prof. Moshe Sharon, and Dr. Efraim Zuroff.

IDF officers
Ehud Barak, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Moshe Fogel, Eival Giladi, Raanan Gissin, Ami Gluska, Mordechai Gur, David Hagoel, Chaim Herzog, Amiram Levin, Menachem Meron, Amram Mitzna, Uzi Narkiss, Yitzhak Rabin, Micha Ram, Ariel Sharon, Dan Shomron, Uri Simhoni, Efraim Sneh, and Ezer Weizman.

Foreign
Martin Agronsky (and his son, Jonathan Agronsky), T. D. Allman, Luigi Amicone, Barbara Amiel, Javier Arenas, Peter Arnett, Richard Behar, Mithat Bereket, Bill Beutel, Lisa Beyer, Charlie Bird, Ian Black Wolf Blitzer, Ed Bradley, Jörg Bremer, Zev Brenner, Peter Brinkmann, Henryk Broder, Ethan Bronner, David Brooks, Fernanda Câncio, Eleanor Clift, Gisela Dachs, John Dayal, Arnaud de Borchgrave, Wilhelm Dietl, Yves Derai, Lyse Doucet, Kimberly Dozier, Cordelia Edvardson, Steven Emerson, Charles Enderlin, Rowland Evans, Don Feder, Clara Ferreira Alves, Robert Fisk, Glenn Frankel, Eric Frattini, Robert I. Friedman, Plàcid García-Planas Marcet, Barton Gellman, Kjell Gjerseth, Miguel Ángel Gozalo, Xavier Graset i Forasté, Linda Greenhouse, Hank Greenspun, Hanspeter Gschwend, Clyde Haberman, John Hart, Caroline Hawley, Chris Hedges, Sarah Helm, Gerard Henderson, Abel Hernández, Hadassa Hirschfeld, John Hockenberry, Richard C. Hottelet, Jeff Jacoby, Steffen Jensen, Josef Joffe, Marvin Kalb, Larry King, Dr. Martin Komárek, Dr. Arrigo Levi, Élisabeth Lévy, Dana Lewis, Peter Limbourg, Dafna Linzer, Sam Lipski, Dave Marash, Tom Marr, Werner Meyer, Alberto Míguez, Chris Mitchell, Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, Alfred Muller, Kristen Munksgaard, Conny Mus, Jens Nauntofte, Leonard Ornstein, Dr. Leo Pavlát, Robert Peston, Karl Pfeifer, Rolf Porseryd, Andrew Potter, Jorge Ramos, Ángela Rodicio, Ana Romero Galán, Carol Rosenberg, Gary Rosenblatt, A.M. Rosenthal, Carlo Rossella, Christopher Ruddy, Stephen Sackur, Tapio Sadeoja, Felipe Sahagún, Ulrich W. Sahm, Antonio San José, Stephen Saunders,  Élisabeth Schemla, Geoff Schumacher, Hershel Shanks, David Shukman, Hanna Siniora, Bret Stephens, Péter Szakonyi, Ned Temko, Cal Thomas, Stéphane-Xavier Trano, David Twersky, René van den Berg, Max van Weezel, Barbara Walters, Jackson Weaver, Eric Weiner, Debbie Whitmont, George Will, Bruce Wilson, Lennart Winblad, Bob Woodward, Diego Yanez,  photojournalists Bill Biggart (a victim of the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center), Ed Kashi and Peter Turnley, editorial cartoonist Steve Benson, and documentary filmmaker Danny Ben-Moshe. And (literally) thousands of others who don't (yet) have Wikipedia entries. Permit me to note in that context the names of the late Bill Bell of the New York Daily News and Lance Gay of The Washington Times and Scripps Howard, two true gentlemen.

Israeli
Yaakov Ahimeir, Yosef Ahimeir, Carl Alpert, Orly Azulay, Razi Barkai, Aharon Barnea, David Bedein, Oded Ben-Ami, Ron Ben-Yishai, Daniel Bloch, Barry Chamish, Nitzan Chen, Uri Cohen-Aharonov, Henrique Cymerman, Uri Dan, Amnon Dankner, Ilana Dayan, Uri Dromi, Michael Elkins, Dr. Isabella Ginor, Caroline Glick, Aryeh Golan, Linda Gradstein, Oded Granot, Erol Güney, Shraga Har-Gil, Haim Hecht, David Horovitz, Jerrold Kessel, Shalom Kital, Eduard Kuznetsov, Mark Lavie, Gad Lior, Rafi Mann, Dan Margalit, Lutfi Mashur, Yisrael Medad, Moshe Milner, Nissim Mishal, Oren Nahari, Amir Oren, Arieh O'Sullivan, Dan Patir, Alon Pinkas, Elimelech Ram, Louis Rapoport, Ari Rath, Gideon Remez, Yoram Ronen, Ze'ev Schiff, Micha Shagrir, Shmuel Shai, Haim Shibi, Shimon Shiffer, Yair Stern, Gadi Sukenik, Dvora Waysman, David Witzthum, Ehud Yaari, Haim Yavin, Adir Zik, pianist-turned-editor David Bar-Illan, photojournalist David Rubinger, editorial cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen, and documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici.

Mayors
Moshe Abutbul of Beit Shemesh, Marion Barry of Washington, D.C., Aliza Bloch of Beit Shemesh, Shlomo Bohbot of Maalot-Tarshiha, Ruvik Danilovich of Beersheba, Eli Dayan of Ashkelon, Dr. Martin Dobkin of Mississauga, Ontario, Yosef Goldberg of Metulla, Aryeh Gur'el of Haifa, Ron Huldai of Tel Aviv, Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem, Amram Mitzna of Haifa and Yeruham, Ron Nachman of Ariel, Eliyahu Nawi of Beersheba, Ehud Olmert of Jerusalem, Moti Sasson of Holon, and Dov Tzur of Rishon LeZion.

Medical Professionals
Dr. David Applebaum, Dr. Martin Dobkin, Prof. Andrew Eder, Prof. Mervyn Gotsman, Prof. Charles A. Hufnagel, Prof. Daniel H. Lowenstein (known back then as "Rock"), Dr. George William Vella, Prof. Alan Kadish, Prof. Avraham Rivkind, and Dr. Brian Weiss.

Members of Congress
Rep. Michael D. Barnes of Maryland, Sen. Birch Bayh of Indiana, Sen. Clifford P. Case of New Jersey, Sen. Thomas Eagleton of Missouri, Delegate Walter E. Fauntroy of the District of Columbia, Sen. Fred R. Harris of Oklahoma, Rep. Wayne Hayes of Ohio, Sen. Chic Hecht of Nevada, Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman of New York, Sen. Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, Sen. Henry Jackson of Washington, Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, Sen. George J. Mitchell of Maine, and Sen. Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island. I also corresponded over a number of years with Hamilton Fish III.

Members of Knesset
Yosef Ahimeir, Colette Avital, Eliyahu Ben-Elissar, Michal Biran, Avraham Burg, Geula Cohen, Ran Cohen, Eli Dayan, Simcha Dinitz, Tamar Eshel, Ada Feinberg-Sireni, Yosef Goldberg, Alex Goldfarb, Meir Kahane, Shmuel Katz, Dov Lipman, Nawaf Massalha, Amram Mitzna, Ron Nachman, Ya'akov Nehoshtan, Meir Pa'il, Uriel Reichman, Dov Shilansky, Alon Tal, Yoash Tzidon, Stef Wertheimer, and Shaul Yahalom.

Members of Parliament
Barry Cohen (Australia), Michael Danby (Australia), Robert Maxwell (United Kingdom), Fiamma Nirenstein (Italy), Rafael Rodríguez-Ponga (Spain), Moses Rosen (Romania), Murray Robert Smith (New Zealand), and Javier Solana (Spain).

Mossad agents and other Israeli intelligence assets
Yossi Alpher, Yigal Carmon, Isser Harel, Nehemiah Levanon, Jonathan Pollard (and all his wives), Shmuel Toledano, and a few others whose names we can't mention.

Playwrights
Dan Almagor and Yitzhak Navon.

Political scientists
Prof. Yonah Alexander, Dr. Dalia Dassa Kaye, Prof. Yehezkel Dror, Dr. Paul Eidelberg, Dr. Daniel J. Elazar, Prof. Jan Karski, Dean Peter F. Krogh, Prof. David Luchins, Prof. Zeev Maoz, Emmanuel Navon, Dr. Harvey Sicherman, and Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg.

Presidents
Fernando Belaúnde Terry of Peru, Frederick Chiluba of Zambia, Luis Alberto Lacalle of Uruguay, Pascal Lissouba of the Republic of the Congo, Hipólito Mejía of the Dominican Republic, Carlos Menem of Argentina, Ronald Reagan of the United States, and Boris Tadić of Serbia, as well as Ephraim Katzir, Yitzhak Navon, Chaim Herzog, Ezer Weizman, Shimon Peres, and Isaac Herzog of Israel.

Prime ministers
Girija Prasad Koirala of Nepal, Andrius Kubilius of Lithuania, Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, John Major of the UK, and Joseph Muscat of Malta (and his wife, Michelle Muscat), as well as Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir (and his wife, Shulamit Shamir), Yitzhak Rabin (and his wife, Leah Rabin), Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Ehud Olmert of Israel. All the above were also Cabinet members and Members of Parliament or Members of Knesset, respectively, but are unlisted in those categories.

Propagandists
Donald Bostrom, Akiva Eldar, Kurt Julius Goldstein, Amira Hass, David Landau, Gideon Levy, Vladimir Posner, and M.J. Rosenberg.

Public servants
Yosef Ahimeir, Jeremy Bash, Hans Brattestå, Yoram Ettinger, Dan Halperin, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Zvi Harry Hurwitz, Ioannis Ikonomou, Yehiel Kadishai, Netanel Lorch, Herzl Makov, Meron Medzini, Uzi Narkiss, Dan Patir, Hyman A. Pressman, Rafael Rodríguez-Ponga, George Reedy, Gary Schaer, Daniel Seaman, Shimon Sheves, Marsha Thomson, and Ornan Yekutieli.

Rabbis
Nachman Bulman, Chuck Davidson, Mimi Feigelsohn, Ilan D. Feldman, Everett Gendler, Yehuda Getz, Daniel Gordis, Naftali Halberstam, Cyril Harris, David Hartman, Baron Jacobovits, Meir Kahane, Yisrael Meir Lau, Maya Leibovich, Mordechai Yissachar Ber Leifer, Yechiel Leiter, Bent Melchior, Yosef Mendelevitch, Ephraim Mirvis, Gad Navon, Pinchas Hacohen Peli, Mordechai Piron, Shlomo Porter, Arie Zeev Raskin, Shlomo Riskin, David Rosen, Michael Rosen, Moses Rosen, Gedalia Dov Schwartz, Michael Strassfeld, Elio Toaff, Asher Wade, Noah Weinberg, Avi Weiss, and Walter Zanger.

Royalty
King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía of Spain; Nobuhito, Prince Takamatsu and Kikuko, Princess Takamatsu of Japan.

Scientists and mathematicians
Cyril Domb, Herman Branover, Amiram Goldblum, Ephraim Katzir, Menachem Magidor, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Javier Solana.

Scoundrels
Disgraced Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry (listed above under Mayors), before he was arrested on drug charges and sent to prison; disgraced former Knesset member Alex Goldfarb (listed above under Members of Knesset), who was given a Mitsubishi as a bribe for voting in favor of the Oslo Accords; disgraced but still serving Israeli politico Tzachi Hanegbi (listed above under Cabinet members), who was convicted of perjury; disgraced U.S. Congressman Wayne Hays (listed above under Members of Congress), but not his mistress, Elizabeth Ray (who he put on his payroll as a secretary even though she claimed "I can't type, I can't file, I can't even answer the phone"); convicted Watergate scandal conspirator E. Howard Hunt (we had an extended written correspondence); disgraced USA Today correspondent Jack Kelley, before he was fired for fabricating stories; disgraced media proprietor and former MP Robert Maxwell (listed above under Members of Parliament), before he mysteriously died (and afterwards as well − I attended his funeral); and disgraced former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert (listed above under Mayors and Prime Ministers), who was convicted, inter alia, of bribery in the Holyland case, and his oleaginous, serpentine and bankrupt brother, Dr. Yossi Olmert, who admitted having received money from that bribe and is now a fugitive from justice.

Singers-songwriters-music entrepreneurs
Nissim Black, Donald Fagen (we grew up three houses away in New Jersey), Steve Greenberg (record producer), Ori Murray, Achinoam Nini, Dov Shurin, Ricky Skaggs, Myrna Smith, Marcelo Balsells, Federico Galiana, Alberto Hassán, and Hernando Irahola of the Argentine folk music quartet Opus Cuatro, and the Voca People.

Televangelists
Ben Kinchlow and Pat Robertson.

Victims of terrorism
Dr. David Applebaum and his daughter, Nava Applebaum, who were murdered in the Café Hillel bombing; Meir Kahane, who some consider to be the first American victim of Al Qaeda; 9/11 victim Bill Biggart; and several victims of the 1986 attack on Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul, the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 AMIA bombing. In addition, I've met family members of victims of the Avivim school bus bombing, Ben Yehuda Street bombings, the Jewish Agency bombing, the Hadassah medical convoy massacre, the Ramat Rachel shooting attack, the Munich massacre, the Lod Airport massacre, the Entebbe hijacking, the 1979 Nahariya attack, the 1980 Paris synagogue bombing, the 1982 Great Synagogue of Rome attack, the Island of Peace massacre, the Dolphinarium discotheque suicide bombing, the Patt Junction bus bombing, the 2002 French Hill suicide bombing, the Kiryat Menachem bus bombing, the Hypercacher kosher supermarket siege, and survivors of the Zion Square refrigerator bombing, the Coastal Road massacre and the 1994 London Israeli Embassy attack.

Favorite quotes
''″They call me a loser. I ask you, am I a loser?″'' – Shimon Peres, after losing his sixth attempt to be elected prime minister of Israel, June 12, 1997.

″It depends on what the meaning of the word ′is′ is.″ – Bill Clinton, in his sworn testimony to the Paula Jones grand jury, August 17, 1998.

And in contrast, anything ever said by Sir Winston Churchill, a politician who never prevaricated.