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Why Us? There is a classic story about a Jewish professor living in Germany during the early years of the Nazis. He is walking along the street when he is set upon by brownshirted Nazi brutes. They beat him unmercifully, and finally the leader of the gang grabs him and shouts "Who is responsible for the war?" The old man looks up through his broken glasses and answers "Jews and bicycle riders." The toughs look confused. "Why the bicycle riders?" And he answers "Why the Jews?" Why the Jews indeed. Unfortunately, this story is no longer just a reminder of past horrors in an earlier, terrible time. Antisemitism is back, and again becoming fashionable. Perhaps it never really left... In the past weeks we have heard the minister of France in England-an ambassador!-call Israel "an [expletive deleted] little country." There have been violent antisemitic attacks on Jews in France, Belgium and Germany. On Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, there was a concerted press campaign-which was celebrated on a many a college campus in the United States-to declare that the Jewish Holocaust had been somehow invalidated by a so-called "Palestinian Holocaust" taking place now, perpetrated by "Jewish Nazis". On the remote Mediterranean island of Djerba an ancient Jewish synagogue was attacked by a truck bomb, killing and maiming local Jews and tourists. And, of course, a concerted, top-directed Palestinian campaign of suicide bombings using weapons-grade explosives has continued to target civilian children, women, and men in shopping malls, restaurants, and busses. This violence is not really about Israel. It is about a resurgence of antisemitism, the hatred of Jews for being Jews. Whether you are a hawk or dove on Israeli politics, whether you think Ariel Sharon or Shimon Peres is the best leader for the Jewish state-or neither-you cannot miss the simple fact that throughout the world Jews and Jewish institutions are being attacked now. What connection does a rabbinical student, beaten brutally in Germany, have to the TzahaI (the Israeli army)? What link is there between a kosher restaurant in Paris and the battle between terrorists and soldiers in Jenin? For that matter, even in Israel itself, what military use is there in murdering Jews at a Passover Seder or Russian Jewish teens at a disco or families at a wedding reception, all of whom have been killed by homicide bombers in the past few months? These attacks, and even the general media campaign that seems focused on absolving such massacres as some sort of inevitable and acceptable result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, are antisemitic in character. They rarely are aimed at military targets, or at armed men or at anyone who can protect herself. They are designed solely to kill Jews, and to ensure that Jews cannot live "normal" lives in their own country. And any acceptance of that strategy constitutes antisemitism and irrational Jew-hatred of the first order. It is antisemitism of a type we have witnessed many times before, in league with St. Ambrose, Torquemada, Chmielnitzki, Hitler. And when the Arab nations support it financially they are endorsing antisemitism in a sick and twisted way. So what can we, as Jews, do about it? Well, we have seen this before, and that helps us know how to respond. First, we must admit what is going on now. Denial-which is a form of appeasement-will only encourage the antisemites in their activities and their abuse of the media's openness. Kol Yisrael areivim zeh bazeh-each Jews is responsible for every other. We are being personally attacked when Jews are attacked anywhere. Second, we must speak up, in letters and emails and radio talk shows and in all the ways in which our own country's opinions are formed. If you see or hear a program that is biased against Jews, that presents Israelis as monsters or denies the Holocaust, that reports on the massacre of Jewish civilians as some sort of political protest, answer it. Write them, call, stop sending money to the organization (NPR comes to mind right now). Insist that there be appropriate coverage, that antisemitism be portrayed for the sick virus that it truly is. Third, we should contact our elected representatives, thank them for their support of Israel, and ask them to condemn the antisemitic violence we are seeing all around the world. You can contact them by email-their addresses are in this bulletin, on a flier-or by snail mail, or you can phone them. They pay attention to their constituents, and you can help them decry the hate crimes occurring now, and work to prevent more from occurring in the future. And, finally, you can help by supporting those Jewish causes that aid the victims of such attacks, and that speak out for Jews everywhere. In Israel there is an organization, Magen David Adom, the Jewish "Red Cross", that has been overwhelmingly overburdened by attacks on civilians in Israel. You can contact them directly at their ARMDI National Headquarters, 888 Seventh Avenue, Suite 403. New York, NY 10106. Their phone is toll free, (866)632-2763, or (212) 757-1627. Their fax is (212) 757-4662. Their E-Mail is info@armdi.org. Send them a check. Being Jewish is a privilege and a joy. And sometimes it is a profound responsibility. Please act on that responsibility now. B'Shalom v'rei'ut, in peace and friendship, |
