Two days ago was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, established by the UN as an appropriate day as this was also the day that Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by Soviet troops. Though for decades the State of Israel had a day set aside for this purpose, at least the world was finally beginning to maybe, just a tad, admit that there was such a horror and it was not to be swept under the rug. Ha! Foolish thinking on my part.
Trudeau, in Canada, continued his father's beliefs and managed to speak about the day and its supposed purpose without ONCE mentioning Jews. Since Merriam-Webster defines the Holocaust as often capitalized : the mass slaughter of European civilians and especially Jews by the Nazis during World War II —usually used with the" it is then quite difficult how he can partake in a supposed ceremony without ONCE mentioning the very people whose destruction was the goal, the very black soul, of its existence.
It is difficult to understand how Obama, who NEVER once before this stepped into the Israeli embassy in D.C., never attended any of the dinners or parties there, suddenly thinks he can say "We are all Jews" and that covers it? No, he cannot for it takes more than a statement to truly comprehend what it means, especially once again, to say "I am a Jew". So Obama, spare me your fake statements.
To be a Jew means to always be an other, someone who maybe is accepted into society but the feelings and the mutterings are there. When I read an analysis of Bloomberg's thinking about throwing his hat in the ring, one of the points made and stated is he is a Jew. And yes, that Jew worked his way up to where he is now and has never forgotten his origin or his family. I may not always agree with him but he does have that solid character, to be proud of who he is and from whence he has come. So never mind his donations to all and sundry. Never mind his achievements. Never mind it all for - he is a Jew.
To be a Jew means to have a history over the millennia of persecution, of unease, of uncertainty over the future as far as living, having a job, having a home, being a Frenchman and a Jew and not being suspected of all nefarious deeds, of not becoming a Dreyfus and being persecuted and stripped of one's identity and imprisoned so that the truly guilty could be free. To be a Jew was to have the homeland constantly ripped away from us, the dream stepped on and left in tatters, but it survived and for two thousand years Jews prayed for the return to Zion, to their center, and even in Terezin managed to secretly designate a hidden room as a synagogue and paint on the walls one of the verses of prayer that cries out for the expected return one day to our home, our original home.
To be a Jew was to be told you cannot live here, nor there, and you need to go to Palestine but oh no, you cannot go, for we have decided to deed it over to a mythological group of people called Palestinians who never existed in the first place and are a conglomerate of Arabs who moved into the area from Arabia and Greater Syria in order to take advantage of the jobs being offered by Jews returning to their homeland. Palestine is not even a true name for it is a version of the name Philistine, a group of people from ancient times who lived in the Gaza area, romped militarily over the years into Judea, connected one time with Shimshon, that strong dude whom Delilah messed with and on and on.
Being a Jew was to be told that you must wear this or cannot wear that. Put on that pointy hat, they said in Venice, and get thee behind the gates from sundown to sunup. Napoleon gave the Jews civil rights in France but the hatred and anti-Semitism continued right on down, happily collaborating in the roundup of Jews under the Nazis and the sending of them to their death, all the way through until today.
So finally, being a Jew was being told that no, you cannot live here, nor there, nor anywhere, in fact. The world forgets the contributions of the Jews to the worlds of medicine, law, technology, humanity and literature and it would take too many pages to list it all, the Nobel prize winners, the seekers of truth, but you can find it via your cell phone - thanks to Jews!
So, International Remembrance? Pardon me if I choke a bit on that. Not when the World Medical Association says, "Oh, no, those British doctors who wanted to ban Israelis will not get their way," and then continued to speak of being sure that Israel answered to all complaints. We have other academic associations responding to a BDS movement, many who originate in Britain, that long anti-Semitic history rearing its head openly in a very ugly way. We have it right here in the USA, raising memories of the 20's and 30's when rampant anti-Semitism was the rule and evidently never went too far underground.
And yes, I have had a good life here and I thank the country for taking in great grandparents and grandparents and allowing them to build lives and raise families, to be productive members of society. I know that this is the best country for Jews to live - perhaps other than Israel - but, the but is always there and the hatred is always there and care must always be taken. I can remember chasing down some idiot kids who took my son's kippah off his head when he was four. It is not a long gone sentiment here, far from it.
So pardon me if I get a tad upset when a Jewish person says to me and others that she gets upset when I write of Jews. Well, tough, honey, as no one else forgets so some reminding of proper and incorrect behavior is sometimes needed. And for those of you such as Grace Macklin, Peter Cruise, and those of you who think that you can hide the stink of your hatred under pseudonyms such as "miserable Yenta" - the stink of the hatred flows through and we know who you are, or the coward who uses Anonymous to send his messages of hate - and we know who you are as well - and you tell me to move, go away, leave my home, go hide in the shul, etc., etc., etc. - it was a bit biting as it reminded one of the hatred that exists in some excuses for human beings. You go screw yourself and do it on the way to Hell, for nothing and no one will force me out of my home and certainly not you pathetic imitations of thinking people.
So, yes, I will write of Jews and of Arabs and Sikhs and Christians and the Pope and Putin and David Israel and Obama and the run of candidates and anything else I wish to do for this is America and other than inside Century Village in West Palm Beach there is freedom of speech and freedom of the press and this is my blog. Don't like it? Don't read it. Your loss. My gain.
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