SITTING ON SUITCASES

     I have heard this phrase several times in recent days and it is one of the most frightening phrases ever. What does it mean and why is it so disheartening, to put it mildly? Basically, it means that one is so unsure of one's place in the world, where one lives, where one has made a home, that one has suitcases packed, mentally and in reality, ready to go, perhaps in a hopeless and desperate search for sanctuary, often to no avail.
     Most recently it has been used with reference to the Jews of Britain. Contributing greatly to a country that once threw them out and burned them as heretics, British Jews have felt safe, secure in their home and country. Lately there has been a steep rise in anti Semitism there, so bad, so deep within the fabric of the country, that the Chief Rabbi felt he had to break tradition and speak of the vote, to condemn Corbyn and his vicious unapologetic hatred of Jews, of Israel, of anyone who actually defied that feeling of his. Not that Johnson is much better, but at times one has to pick the lesser of two evils.
   But British Jews are now sitting on their suitcases, unsure, rocky in their home country, in their very homes and businesses. As are the rest of European Jews. They too are sitting on their suitcases as the violence and the level of anti Semitism rises in a steep line. French Jews can now give advice to their fellow Jews as they have been living like that for a long, long time.
     Go back through history and you will find that same suitcase life among Jews, never sure, never safe, never decided about acceptance. But the question now is different. Where does one go when the entire world appears to have no place for you and your family? Where does one go when families must breakup in order to find security? How does one soothe the surviving Holocaust victims as they see the world once again, one more time, turn to this vicious hatred? Will sitting on suitcases be enough?
    Yes, I know, there are so many desperate refugees today that why should we feel that Jews have a greater hold on the suitcase life? Perhaps it is because ,for example that even as the Rohingya are banned in Malaysia, they are not in other countries and there are Moslem dominated countries that can have room for them. The same for other immigrants, for at least refugee camps and materials and food are provided for them, even as sad as the situation is. But if the viciousness of anti Semitism is raised and rising all over, even here in the USA where three times in one year Jews have been targeted for death, been slaughtered in synagogues, been attacked on the street, in their businesses, then where do we go? It appears that all the inns of the world have been and will continue to be shuttered to them.
     Then comes this executive order from one of the most vocal and vicious anti Semites ever - Trump. Basically, he gives credence to the fact that Jews are a race, a nationality and says this will help oppose discrimination against them. But will it? First of all, an Executive Order is not an etched in stone law and can be done with boom! Second, what does it mean to be designated as a race? Does that give Hitler's vicious theory justification, that the Jews are a race and if so, it is then okay to blame them for the ills of the world? If being a Jew is a race, then how do we account for the so many different faces of a gathered world Jewry  to be seen in Israel, with black, Asian, mixed, Arabic, Hispanic and plain old faces all belonging to the Jewish "race"?
     And yet, Jews are one, all over the world, which was why last night there was a round of applause when it was announced at a gathering that Corbyn was defeated. That is why most Jews will support Israel, the ancient homeland, the country which will never throw them out.  
     So where do Jews stand now? Well, they are not standing. They are sitting on their suitcases, all over, in trepidation as to the future and their role and place in it. The old adage that a smart Jew had his passport in order, while the wise one carried it in his pocket, appears to have grown more relevance of late, and yes, mine is in order.
     If anyone can explain these things to me, I would be ever so grateful, though I sincerely doubt that anyone can. Hatred is illogical. It is destrucitve. It destroys the values once held to be of definite need for a good life, for a moral life, and trashes all the progress humankind has made. It elevates the lowest elements of society and it matters not whether this element be of high or low economic status. Hatred infects without care for class.
     One thing all should know. First, that Jews will not stand by, meekly, or in possible hope of possible survival if unjust laws are obeyed. Been there, done that, and no more. Second, we at least have a place to go, even if that place will also be attacked, but at least we will be together. Third, there will be a run on suitcases, as all those who do not follow in the hateful and destructive path set by those awful beings will find that suitcase and that passport necessary for them as well.
     Are Jews a race? Are we a religion? Are we a nationality? Does it really matter in the bottom line? I do not think so, for we are what we are, and those who do not like that, or us, or are jealous of our achievements and gifts to mankind - and see Mark Twian for that - will say and do whatever they want. Perhaps it is time that we think of buying suitcases for them, telling them there is no place for them here, in a country which appreciates the contributions of Jewish people through the millenia, tell them to pack it up and get the hell out of town.
     I truly do not know the answers. All I do know is that I am frightened for the next generations, should this globe of ours make it through all the abuse we have done to it. What will happen to them? Will we look back in three years, in five years, and wonder why we did not see the truth and use those suitcases or fight back? Only the good Lord knows and right now He ain't talking to his wayward children of the earth, is he? More likely the Devil, don't ya' think!