As a young man I often wondered how the Jews in Eastern Europe could have been so blind to what was happening all around them. Even as the attacks happened, as their rights taken away, their humanity stripped, many still believed that was the worst it could get. It wouldn't get any further. Civilization will come to its senses. A part of…
As a young man I often wondered how the Jews in Eastern Europe could have been so blind to what was happening all around them. Even as the attacks happened, as their rights taken away, their humanity stripped, many still believed that was the worst it could get. It wouldn't get any further. Civilization will come to its senses. A part of me understands their disbelief. But another part of me, that part that has watched culture here in the US over the decades, thinks there something else. It is that people on the secular left, are leftists or progressives first, Americans second, Jews third. Or maybe it's Jews second, Americans third. It's hard to know. But...it's a free country. They can be what they want. That said, the reality is that the world will come for them anyway. It doesn't matter how they see themselves. The world sees them- us- as Jews first. We need to recognize that.
I wondered about this as a young man. And I swore I would not be of a Jewish generation that would be walked into a cattle car. But as a young man I moved to the right simply based on what I was seeing years ago from the left. And through life lessons from my grandfather- my Zeyde, who had found his way from the pogroms of the Ukraine, through Europe and somehow made it to the US.
I don't wish bad things on the progressive Jewish community here in the US. But yes- they have been part of the problem. They have nurtured and helped create this vast monster that is now out of control. The mix of Marxism and antisemitism is not a surprise, it is not a new concept.
So, on this I would say I wish all safe passage through this period and this life. But, it is well beyond the time for some to rethink the positions they've held for many years. Playing nice to bad people wielding bad thinking because you think your 'niceness' can overcome their 'bad' is wishful thinking. Know them fo
Maybe I'm sensitive to this issue since my father was a Holocaust survivor, but it is important to recognize that the overwhelming majority of those European Jews had nowhere to go. The U.S. was closed to immigrants and other countries accepted very few.
Palestine, where there was a significant Jewish community that could have taken in hundreds of thousands, was rocked by the Arab Revolt from 1936-39, whose main objective was an end to Jewish immigration. The British authorities finally acquiesced to Arab demands in May 1939, closing the last escape hatch from Europe.
Of course there are many perspectives on this. And importantly, I was not there. I did not have to live through it. I apologize to you and to your father (or his memory). I mean no insult to him. What he went through was something I cannot even imagine. Somehow, my grandparents, got out ahead of it. I'm blessed in that. But what those in Europe went through then is the lesson we have to learn for today. When we see this evil raising its head again, there cannot be any equivocation. What we're seeing in the streets of London, New York, Toronto, on our university campuses, from the mouths of our own Democratic Congresspeople, from the podium at the UN...this is madness. We- all of us- have to see it and know it for what it is. And...once again, there is nowhere to run. So now we must stand and fight.
I don’t take your comment as any insult to his memory at all. It is difficult to imagine those circumstances from this far away. However we have their experience to learn from and you’re right that in spite of that, many American Jews on the left seem to think their progressive bona-fides will keep them from harm. I doubt it will help any more than the medals German Jews received fighting for the Kaiser.
We should recognize that the people the USA is supporting in Ukraine are, quite literally, the direct descendants of the Nazi converts of WW2 that committed those pogroms. This is fact, not a lie or misrepresentation.
Actually, it both a lie and a misrepresentation. While antisemitism exists in Ukraine, Zelensky is Jewish and most Ukrainians are more interested in building a viable nation and being free from aggression by the brutal and vicious Putin.
As a young man I often wondered how the Jews in Eastern Europe could have been so blind to what was happening all around them. Even as the attacks happened, as their rights taken away, their humanity stripped, many still believed that was the worst it could get. It wouldn't get any further. Civilization will come to its senses. A part of me understands their disbelief. But another part of me, that part that has watched culture here in the US over the decades, thinks there something else. It is that people on the secular left, are leftists or progressives first, Americans second, Jews third. Or maybe it's Jews second, Americans third. It's hard to know. But...it's a free country. They can be what they want. That said, the reality is that the world will come for them anyway. It doesn't matter how they see themselves. The world sees them- us- as Jews first. We need to recognize that.
I wondered about this as a young man. And I swore I would not be of a Jewish generation that would be walked into a cattle car. But as a young man I moved to the right simply based on what I was seeing years ago from the left. And through life lessons from my grandfather- my Zeyde, who had found his way from the pogroms of the Ukraine, through Europe and somehow made it to the US.
I don't wish bad things on the progressive Jewish community here in the US. But yes- they have been part of the problem. They have nurtured and helped create this vast monster that is now out of control. The mix of Marxism and antisemitism is not a surprise, it is not a new concept.
So, on this I would say I wish all safe passage through this period and this life. But, it is well beyond the time for some to rethink the positions they've held for many years. Playing nice to bad people wielding bad thinking because you think your 'niceness' can overcome their 'bad' is wishful thinking. Know them fo
Maybe I'm sensitive to this issue since my father was a Holocaust survivor, but it is important to recognize that the overwhelming majority of those European Jews had nowhere to go. The U.S. was closed to immigrants and other countries accepted very few.
Palestine, where there was a significant Jewish community that could have taken in hundreds of thousands, was rocked by the Arab Revolt from 1936-39, whose main objective was an end to Jewish immigration. The British authorities finally acquiesced to Arab demands in May 1939, closing the last escape hatch from Europe.
Of course there are many perspectives on this. And importantly, I was not there. I did not have to live through it. I apologize to you and to your father (or his memory). I mean no insult to him. What he went through was something I cannot even imagine. Somehow, my grandparents, got out ahead of it. I'm blessed in that. But what those in Europe went through then is the lesson we have to learn for today. When we see this evil raising its head again, there cannot be any equivocation. What we're seeing in the streets of London, New York, Toronto, on our university campuses, from the mouths of our own Democratic Congresspeople, from the podium at the UN...this is madness. We- all of us- have to see it and know it for what it is. And...once again, there is nowhere to run. So now we must stand and fight.
I don’t take your comment as any insult to his memory at all. It is difficult to imagine those circumstances from this far away. However we have their experience to learn from and you’re right that in spite of that, many American Jews on the left seem to think their progressive bona-fides will keep them from harm. I doubt it will help any more than the medals German Jews received fighting for the Kaiser.
We should recognize that the people the USA is supporting in Ukraine are, quite literally, the direct descendants of the Nazi converts of WW2 that committed those pogroms. This is fact, not a lie or misrepresentation.
Actually, it both a lie and a misrepresentation. While antisemitism exists in Ukraine, Zelensky is Jewish and most Ukrainians are more interested in building a viable nation and being free from aggression by the brutal and vicious Putin.