Bet you think I am talking about something here, with UCO, but I am not. I am talking, or rather, writing, about a far more important topic - that of the rising anti Semitism - and not just over there in Europe and the Middle East, but right here in the good old USA. Yep, right here in America, and I am not talking about the nutjob sects that live in the woods and mountains of Idaho or wherever, but of our supposedly well informed and educated future leaders, those kids who are in college and university all throughout the country.
The University of California campuses are rife with the strain and shouts of anti Semitic remarks. It is there on the campuses of the California State University as well, but not to as much a virulent level, and it is even in the fairy tale world of Disney where a visitor had to be ejected for pushing someone and calling her a name.
The new anti Semitism has become PC as it took on the disguise of anti Zionism, but wait a bit at any demonstration and the anti Jewish remarks,the name calling, will emerge with the same viciousness and nastiness of a good Nazi. Ask any student on the campuses of Ohio State, Brandeis, University of Michigan, and on and on about their experiences and feelings. Many are now frightened to wear a Magen David (Jewish star) or a kippah on their heads. Many are intimidated and afraid to come to pro Israel rallies for fear of the physical abuse and the verbal filth that is thrown at them. If you think this is a figment of my imagination, just read the NY Times article about it from yesterday's paper or go to Google or Youtube or wherever or whatever search engine you use and see for yourself.
Let us even talk about anti Zionism. Why should that be ok? Why are Jews forbidden a state of their own? Because the countries of the world are so welcoming to them? NOT! Because they are safe in all the other countries of the world? NOT! Because the refugees of Jewish ancestry from the Arab world are recognized as such and are promised restitution for their resources and wealth left behind as they fled and/or were thrown out from lands where they had resided for thousands of years, pre dating the Moslems? NOT!
The BDS movement, to boycott Israel and its products is simply another manifestation of anti Semitism. It is also counter intuitive for by boycotting, thousands of Palestinians are thrown out of work if the factories and farms close down, but you see, sense does not have a place here, only hate, hate, hate.
And if one counters with the argument that there are Jews who participate in these rallies, professors who spout off speeches in class about this, who intimidate their students, make them afraid to speak up - well, answer the questions on your own. There are always quislings in any situation, always self hating people who think they will be safe if only they cooperate, hence the members of the Jewish police and the Judenrat in the ghettoes, the kapos in the camps and the Jews here who think they will be exempt from consequences if only they shout long and hard enough to make people forget their origin.
Well, it does not work, as those of the WWII era discovered, and it will not work here either. Hatred is hatred and do not think that we, here in our little enclave, are exempt for these feelings and statements. I have been the target of filthy anti Semitic remarks and have heard others make comments at the pools and in the lobby of the Clubhouse waiting for a show. It is here, it is everywhere, no hiding from it.
So what is the answer? G-d help me, G-d help all of us, but I do not know. I worry for my children and I certainly worry for my grandchildren and their world. I question why this has to happen again and again and the question is not why G-d allows this, but why man allows this, for it is a manmade hatred, not G-d given.
That is why the Holocaust Remembrance Days are of utmost importance, why the remaining survivors must tell their stories, why the memories of WWII and Hitler and his Nazi henchmen and even the help of those ordinary citizens who stood there with their arms raised and their throats aroar, or the French police who so eagerly rounded up the "alien" Jews and then their own citizen Jews, or the Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Polish, etc., citizens who participated in the mass murders of the Jews of their towns, who sold the hiding Jews and the heroes who hid them to the Nazis - all this must be remembered.
And remember we must for hatred does not stop once begun. It needs constant fuel, constant targets, lest it feed upon itself. If the people of the world, if the nations of the world, are not yet at the point where they can disagree in a civilized manner, then at least let them disagree on the issues and not with poisonous words, thoughts and deeds. If not, we are left with what we have now - a growing hatred, a growing use of vicious behavior towards and with the enemy - beheadings, torture, and more- of the use of children as slaves, soldiers and sex objects, of the growing rape and kidnapping of women and even young girls.
Where and when does this end? In a Mad Max world? In our own version of a zombie apocalypse where we forget that we are humans, supposed to represent the hope of the future and instead destroy ourselves? (And no, while I love the zombie shows, I am talking figuratively).
How do we keep our humanity? How do we remember that we are all on this little planet together and must keep it as one or we will lose it as one? Again, I do not have the answers, but dear Lord, we must try. We must.
No comments:
Post a Comment