People

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Neo Nazis discover they are Jewish.

Warsaw, Poland (CNN) -- Pawel sits in the synagogue learning the Torah, praying and getting advice from his rabbi.
He appears to be enjoying a happy life married to his childhood sweetheart and the mother of his two children.
But he and Ola have traveled further than most -- from hate-filled neo-Nazism through the shock and anger of learning their heritage was Jewish to taking their place in the synagogue as Orthodox Jews.
They met at school in Poland's capital, Warsaw, when they were 12, but as their teen years passed Pawel first and then Ola grew into the neo-Nazi scene.

At 18 they married and a few years later Ola was nagged by a conversation with her mother that she barely remembered -- something about Jewish roots.
She found her answer at the Jewish Historical Institute, which says it has collections documenting 10 centuries of Jewish experience in Poland.
While there she said she felt compelled to also check Pawel's family history -- and he too came from a Jewish background.
"Something told me to... It was unbelievable -- it turned out that we had Jewish roots. It was a shock. I didn't expect to find out that I had a Jewish husband," she said.
"I didn't know how to tell him. I loved him even if he was a punk or skinhead, if he beat people up or not. It was a time in Poland when this movement was very intense."

Reeling from the news, she had to return home to her neo-Nazi husband and tell him of their Jewish heritage.
There were 350,000 Jews in Poland after World War II -- about 10 percent of the Jewish population before the war.
In the 25 years after WWII ended the overwhelming majority left to escape persecution by the Soviet-controlled government.
For those who stayed, their Jewish heritage was hidden often even from their own children.
It provided a culture where anti-Semitism could thrive and in 1980s Poland, Pawel was embracing the hate festering in the concrete tower blocks of Warsaw.
When Ola brought home the documents to show Pawel his own history, he rushed to confront his parents, and they told him the family secret.
"I was a nationalist 100 percent. Back then when we were skinheads it was all about white power and I believed Poland was only for Poles. That Jews were the biggest plague and the worst evil of this world. In Poland it was thought at the time anything that was bad was the fault of the Jews..." he said.
"Emotions, it is difficult to describe how I felt when I found out I was Jewish... my first thought was what am I going to tell people? What am I going to tell the boys? Should I admit it or not? I was angry, sad, scared, unsure."
Over time, Pawel's anger and confusion subsided and he approached Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich.
Speaking in the synagogue where he now worships, Pawel said: "The mirror was a big problem. I couldn't look at myself. I saw a Jew. I hated the person in the mirror then I grew accustomed to it, came to terms with it somehow.



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Vocabulary.

synagogue = jewish church, religious place for jews.
Torah = Jewish religious book
pray = a religious act/ 'ask' God for something. In Christian churches you close your eyes and hold your hards together.
advice = help/ suggestions
rabbi = Jewish 'priest'/ leader.
appears = seems, through our impressions
childhood sweetheart = somebody we have loved since being a child.
further = a longer/bigger distance (not physically in this sense)
most = most people, the majority of people
heritage = tradition/ history, patrimony.
Jewish = being a Jew. (semite, Israelite, hebraic)
Orthodox = according to the book, 'true', 'official', traditional
teen years = 13- 19 years of age.(thir'teen'= teenage years)
grew into = became, developed into
nagged = (in this context) remember again and again, can't forget, haunted by.
barely= hardly (not at all), not at all, not really. (Be careful 'Hardly' not the same as hard)
roots = where we come from, our origins, family background
compelled = (feel) forced to do something
background = personal history
find out = discover
punk = a group of people who follow a particular music and attitude, spiky hair, anti-establishment
shinhead = group who shaves their head (very short hair) nationalistic, very right wing + racist/anti-race.
reeling = suffering from
WWII = World War 2 (Hilter etc)
overwhelming= much more than (the majority)
provide = give
anti-semitism = being against/anti jew. Jew hater
thrive = grow/develop quickly
embracing = welcoming
festering = growing (negative - like a bad smell)
rushed = move quickly, run
confront = directly ask (often with emotion)
Poles = Polish people, people from Poland
plague = a disease / illness that kills quickly (14th century)
evil = The opposite of very, very good (religious)
I found out = discovered
admit = (in this context) tell the truth
confusion = to not know/understand what is happening.
subsided = go away/ leave/ disappear
approached = go to
worship =  to love (God), pray to God
to come to terms with something = to accept. (something difficult.)

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  World's 'smallest' man tours Big Apple.

A Nepalese teenager who is set to be  declared the planet's smallest person got the big star treatment Tuesday on a tour of New York. 

Crowds at Times Square jostled for a glimpse   of Khagendra Thapa Magar who at 17 is the size of a baby and has stopped growing

The Nepalese teen was making his first visit to New York as part of a publicity trip organized by a freak-show museum in the States.
Wearing a white shirt and tiny grey jacket, Magar smiled shyly, blinking at rows of cameras and the vast neon billboards at Times Square.


But his translator, Min Bahadur Rana, said Magar was in many ways a normal teenager.




"He's very happy. He laughs a lot. He wants a girlfriend -- a big one, not a small one," Rana said. "He wants to be a doctor. After school, he wants to study."

During an evening out on the town Monday, Magar developed a particular interest in New York blondes. "He's fascinated with blondes because there are virtually no blonde women in Nepal.

 After posing alongside a life-sized figure of the tallest man in history -- the 8-foot-11-inch American Robert Wadlow -- Magar stopped at Times Square and was to have lunch at a famous deli and go up the Empire State Building.


The big question is that do you think this is exploitation or not?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com (Story + Pictures)

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Vocabulary...

Big Apple = New York
is set to be = is about to, is almost, at the point of, on the verge of
declared = (officially) said to be
jostled = push
a glimpse = a quick look
growing = to become bigger as we get older
publicity trip = a special journey / voyage to promote / advertise something
freak-show = a special exhibition to show abnormal/strange/bizarre/crazy people or things.
States =  USA, America.
tiny = very small, mini, miniscule 
shyly = timidly, not confidently, quietly, self-consciously
blinking = open and close your eyes quickly (because of the flashes from the camera.)
vast = very big
neon = electric light
billboards = advertising boards, publicity boards, boards that show different products in the street.
laughs = what we do when something is funny.
fascinated = very interested
virtually = almost, very nearly, just about
posing = to position yourself specially for a photo
alongside = next to
figure = model, (plastic) statue
deli = delicatessen, specialised food shop (often quite Jewish in New York.)


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