Yisrael - The National Jewish Home or a home for Jews?

 Special thanks Moshe Schwartz who inspired the titular question of this article

Almost three quarters of a century after its birth, who would have imagined that the essence of the State of Yisrael would still be a focus of debate and mostly among Yisraelis?

The subject was brought to my attention a couple of weeks ago. One of my friends told me that her youngest son who is in high school was given an assignment on the issue. Students, she told me, were requested to deliberate on whether Yisrael’s National anthem, “Ha’Tikvah,” which includes expressions to the yearning of the “soul of a Jew” to Zion should be revisited. Following such pondering, the students were instructed to express an opinion on whether its lyrics which, do not mention non-Jews should be modified and include other minorities such as Druze, Muslim, Christians, and others who are Yisraeli citizens.

As a frame of reference, the teacher suggested a few sources. One of them was an article entitled “Lost in Translation – Hatikva in Arabic Too” was written by Gadi Benmark. In it, Benmark evokes that Yisrael follows the example of Canada. There, the anthem, “Oh Canada” was originally written in French, in the seventeenth century when Canada was “The New France.” The British, who arrived much later, explains Benmark, evidently felt that the French version excluded them and hence added an English language version, which is not a translation of the French one. “So now,” comments Benmark, “it is a national universal song that every Canadian, of every origin, can sing proudly.” In conclusion, Benmark suggests that Yisrael duplicates the Canadian experience so that every Yisraeli can sing the version that suits them.

With all due respect to Canada, not only do I consider such an analogy inappropriate, I also deem it an insult.

I am afraid that no matter how one addresses it, neither the French, nor the English possess the same bond to Canada, which is a few hundred years old, as the one that Jews have forged with the Land of Yisrael for over a few millennia. And I am not even touching upon the Biblical connection, as I much as I hold it true, simply because I believe that in today’s geo-political environment, religious arguments are irrelevant. The union between the People and the Land, in the case of the Jews, reflected itself for thousands of years not only in religious rituals and customs. It also paraded itself in Literature, Art, Archeology and documented historical accounts.

Canada, unlike Yisrael, was created in a unilateral move by the British in 1867. The British Parliament then passed the North America Act. Canada was introduced into the family of nations in an arbitrary step by a colonial power. Its purpose, its goal, its core, and its nature were left undefined.

The creation of the State of Yisrael was anything but an arbitrary move by one government. No act of one state, one parliament or a single colonial power decreed its  foundation or created it. Its idea, yes, but not its actual creation.

From the very first moment of the inception of the notion, starting with the Balfour Declaration, Yisrael (AKA Palestine, the artificial name given to it by the Romans in 135 C.E.) was defined as the place where a National Home for the Jewish People, not just a home for Jews, would be erected. The State of Yisrael was decreed as Jewish in its essence and by more than one source.

The Jewish character of Yisrael was further reinforced in the San Remo Accord of 1920 which was voted upon by the Supreme Council of Five that acted as an International Court of Law. It was an International Order, not just an Act of Parliament of one power.

And then, of course there was U.N resolution 181 of November 29, 1947. In it, the family of nations, voted to establish two states in Eretz Yisrael, one Arab, and one Jewish. The Jewish State was born following a democratic vote after a long painful labour period.

Ironically enough, more than the Jews defined the nature of their state, the Gentiles did.

As a Jewish state, the only Jewish state on the globe, might I add, Yisrael should adhere to the designated nature and substance decreed to it. It should keep the blue and white flag with the powerful symmetric Star of David at its center. It should maintain the emblem of the Menorah that adorned the Temple of Solomon and it should keep the words of Ha’Tikvah intact.

If someone feels that certain lines in Yisrael’s Jewish National Anthem are hard for them to digest, I suggest they refrain from singing it. Losing our national identity at the cost of accommodating others is not an option, I am afraid. Turning Yisrael from the Jewish National Home to merely a home for Jews is a risk we cannot afford to take. That is one of the most important lessons that our Jewish history curriculum has taught us.

We cannot and should not allow ourselves to fail that course.

Am Yisraek Chai 

A Miracle called "The Jewish People"

 

“Every day, many a miracle happens to the sons of Israel. Were it not for G-d’s miracles, we should -Heaven forbid! – have perished long ago” – Yonatan Eibschutz

“There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein

Our long and eventful Jewish history is without doubt a testimonial to the first quote. Channukah, but one example, is always reminiscent of G-d’s marvels, past and present. Our entire Jewish existence, I believe, is a unique phenomenon. Each Jew, irrelevant of whether they regard themselves as such or not, is a miracle.

Some Jews, unfortunately, fail to see their lives as such. They are the ones Einstein is referring to in the former part of his quote. Others, like myself, live our lives as Jews “as though everything is a miracle,” as though each and every one of us is a wonder on their own.

Before anyone jumps at me and accuses me of arrogance or practicing some form of  “Jewish elitism,” let me explain.

As many of my readers know, both my parents were Shoah survivors. To have come out of the abyss, from the netherworld, to have survived its infernal fires, to have been reborn, gather the shambles of one’s life and build a bigger better temple, raise a family and rebuild trust in a vile world is miraculous. That, coupled with resuming to live one’s life as though “everything is a miracle,” eventually turns one into a miracle.

The fabric of our Jewish history is woven with many such astounding stories. “Miracle” is our Jewish middle name.

Much to my dismay, though, some fellow Jews continue to regard our existence as the first part of Einstein’s words suggest. “We were always meant to be a small nation,” told me a Jewish acquaintance once when I bemoaned that we are losing too many Jews to assimilation. According to her, there is nothing miraculous about our two thousand years of enduring, persecution, pogroms, discrimination and forced conversion. These were, if I follow her logic, merely some milestones to ensure that we fulfilled our destiny to remain a small nation. What a slap in the face of our Jewish heritage such a view is. In her perspective, so it seems, we are just like everyone else, just a nation among the nations with no unusual history, no unique set of beliefs and no Torah. She is, of course, entitled to hold that belief.

I, however, refuse to prescribe to that kind of a notion. I believe in miracles.

I consider my parents’ survival and the survival of many of our Jewish brothers and sisters through hard and dangerous times, a miracle. Moreover, to have been born to a miracle, by default, makes one a miracle. I am a daughter of two miracles. Hence, my birth, my gift of Life is, itself, a miracle.

Furthermore, I hold the view that a miracle should never be wasted. To preserve one’s life as a miracle, one needs to recreate miracles, spend their time on this earth, strive relentlessly and act constantly in a way that would keep the miracle going.

In the words of our wise Talmud, “Hope for a miracle but don’t depend on one.” (Megillah 7b)

In other words, miracles do not just happen. One should never depend on them.

In my words, one should keep the faith, never give up and create a fertile ground for miracles to transpire. That, too, as our few millennia old Jewish history, has proven, is attainable .

May this Channukah season be full of miracles and every blessing to all

Barking (deliberately) at the Wrong Tree

The following article appeared in Hebrew in Israel Hayom on 30.07.2019 following the murder of a young gay Arab man by a family member. It was written by Tal Gilad. I decided to translate it into English for the sake of the English speaking segment of the Israeli population who are not entirely familiar with the antics of the Israeli Left.

Screaming about gay rights and blaming, even by merely hinting, the religious establishment or the entire Israeli society and holding it responsible for the stabbing of an Arab boy by his family, is akin to demonstrating in front of the Knesset against the crime level in the favelas of Rio De Janeiro.

It is impossible to ignore the obvious: the attack is related to the cultural characteristics of the Arab society. However, anyone who will express it explicitly, will be automatically accused of racism. On the other hand, there did not seem to be a problem to accuse the whole Hareidi society of the terrible murder of Shira Banki, may she rest in peace, despite the fact that among the Hareidi community there does not exist a culture of murder for innumerable “justifications,” starting with family honor and ending  with nationalistic revenge.

For some reason, when one deals with the Arab citizens of Israel, the attitude towards gays is not considered an essential problem that needs an intensive treatment.

On the contrary, one must walk on eggshells in order not to offend them. One should avoid talking about motives, education and mentality.

This globalism, the “we are all guilty,” version, is hypocrisy. Dancing  half naked in the streets of Tel Aviv, you will not change by one inch the kind of education a child gets in the Arab society just as you would not be able to change the level of crime in Rio or the rotation of Earth. These are barks at the wrong tree, except the tree is selected deliberately.

Why? Because the concern for gays clashes with the selective principle of “honoring the other.” On the one hand, there is the constant dwelling on women’s rights. On the other, the right of Arabs to degrade women and demand that they cover themselves with burkas because “it is a cultural matter.” The Left is so tolerant that it does not relate to Arabs as rational people who are supposed to blend and become part of in the country in which they live, but as a remote tribe in the Amazon forests whose life style should not be disturbed by giving it a pair of jeans which might spoil the idyllic nature.

Had we been dealing with a Hareidi boy, the Left would have united in an outrageous demand for a pogrom in Benei Brak. However, when we are dealing with a segment where murder for the sake of family honor or revenge are part of its rule of thumb, suddenly it is forbidden to call the child by its name. I do not know exactly how to process the data in the bug full and contradictory politically correct software.

Obviously, it is also convenient. After all, the Left really does not wish to solve problems. It loves them, seeks them, creates them if in lack of them, thrives on them and benefits from them. This is the essence of the Left, to protest and be furious. Perhaps it is better that way. The position in which the Left is in a festival of abstract theater and the Right is in government -  is pretty normal. The Right is rational and knows that two plus two is four, and the Left demonstrates against it since it is racist that two plus two is four.

At the bottom line though, it will not help to look for the coin under the lamplight merely not to offend the  darkness.

The "just-not-Bibi" Party

The following article appeared in Israel Hayom on March 18, 2019. It was written in Hebrew by Tal Gilad, who is a regular columnist there. Like all of his article, this one is excellent and we decided to translate it into English so that the its very important message is extended to include a wider readership.

Though it is too early to determine, it seems that cracks are forming in the initial commotion surrounding Blue and White. It should not surprise us as we are not talking about a political movement that grew from grassroots. Rather, we are talking about an artificial plant that looks good until one touches its leaves and discovers that they are made of plastic; something that was hastily put together in order to win first prize in an exhibition except, it does not have roots.

The adage attributed to Lincoln (some say it belongs to the founder of the Barnum Circus), “you can fool all of the people some of the time, or some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time,” fits perfectly in the case of Blue and White. How long can such a rickety structure last, without a clear agenda other than “we are for good and against evil?” How long can conflicts between the four heads – which have emerged - be avoided.

The older parties – Likud, Labor, Meretz, Shas, The Jewish Home and others – grew out of the public, out of a need and on an established ideological basis with very clear goals.

Blue and White is not even a party of antithesis; it is a list of patches and ranks. It is made up of people who do not always share the same views or their political and economic stance. Their only common denominator is “just-not-Bibi.”

How will they run a state with such a world view? Will they offer a “just-not-Bibi” economic plan, build a “just-not-Bibi” security policy, conduct “just-not-Bibi” political discussions and foreign relations?

Which headlines will we see – the government discussed the budget and reached a consensus on “just-not-Bibi” ? In response to the Trump plan, the spokesperson to the government announced that we have only “just-not-Bibi” comments?

What is known about Blue and White is the clear Leftist tendencies of one of its heads and the populist tendency in every direction of the second head. Even its selected name is typical of efforts by the Left to sway voters – just like waiving the Israeli flags during a demonstration (lest they may be regarded as enemies of the state), just like the Clint Eastwood Show show which they are pumping now, as if they are about to launch a powerful attack against Gaza.

Seems like a cumbersome effort to play the new Rabin, kind of the New Left. Of course, they would not have any other consideration – strategic or economic – except for blood in their eyes, or whatever sounds good to the nervous voter.

Each one of the four seems unreal, in a way that even Lapid stands out among them. Ganz is distressed at the mere thought that he might be elected and then will be forced to act or understand what subsidies mean; Lapid is not worried, he will explain to him that subsidies are beautiful goddesses in the Greek mythology; Ashkenazi….ok, let’s move on; and Ya’alon acting as the Right wing fig leaf. Something induces discomfort with this foursome that toils so hard to look like part of the crowd that is out to have a good time.

Why not debate them on the heart of the matter? Gladly, but they must determine first what the heart of the matter is. If the four of them travel together in a car, they probably share jokes. However, when someone raises a political issue – “Guys, we have agreed, no politics.”

Those, Like Yisrael and Trump, Who Are Doing It....

“Those who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt those doing it.” – Chinese proverb

Giving up on an idea, a venture, or on unraveling a difficult issue can happen when one is tired. It can also happen when one is uninspired or confused.

Who among us has never been in that situation which can be frustrating or daunting? It happens to everyone at some stage in their life. Giving up might in many cases be the only option left for them.

Unfortunately, there are also those who outrightly brush off any efforts to try and tackle an issue before they even examine it. They do it claiming no matter how one addresses it, it simply cannot be done. Whichever the reason, this is one way to solve a problem or rather to perpetuate it.

Fortunately for mankind, there are those who choose to persist, overcome challenges and roadblocks standing in their way to achieve their goal. They do it despite all the voices that try to discourage and dissuade them from acting or doing and prefer to keep the status quo. They have the "Chutzpah," the fearlessness and desire to dare, remain hopeful, have faith and not resort to the easiest way out of doing nothing.

It reminds me of a story I once read. Its lesson, I believe, a very important one. Let me share it with you.

It tells the story of two twins, one was a pessimist and always complained about anything. The other was an optimist and always looked for the good in everything as optimists generally do. On one of their birthdays, their parents decided to give the pessimist the most expensive of presents. These included a T.V., a computer and other gifts that would make any other child joyful. The optimist twin received a pile of horse manure which he found on the floor in the middle of his room.

As expected the pessimist complained about each gift. Nothing was good enough for him. The optimist, on the other hand, ran through the house as if looking for something. He was cheerful, happy and smiling.

“Why are you running through the house?” his parents asked him in surprise, trying to stop him. “What are you looking for?”

“The pony that you bought for me,” answered the happy young boy. “I am looking for the pony.”

And you know what? I believe that one day he will find his “pony,” provided no one succeeds in interrupting him when doing it.

The lesson is clear.

Thirty years ago, in the 1980’s, Former President Ronald Reagan proposed a Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). It was nicknamed “Star Wars.”  All those who prescribed to the attitude of “it cannot be done” mostly because of political oriented blindness came out yelling “it cannot be done.”  Yet Yisrael, persisted and engaged in “doing it” and eventually managed to do at least part of it and with that the ability to protect a country from missile attacks (Thank you for reminding me of that Roger Froikin).

Fast forward to the present. Merely six months ago, no one believed that the US would move its embassy to Yerushalayim. It happened. Only several weeks ago, the West Coast of the US was under imminent threat of a nuclear attack from N. Korea. Few if any believed it was doable. They mocked, belittled and laughed at President Trump, again either because of political orientation or media influence, for his desire to bring that threat to an end and doubted that it could happen. A few days ago, an agreement between the two countries was signed.

President Trump may not have yet found the pony but only a few traces of it. However, through his determination, diligence and at the rate he is moving and doing it, while focusing on his goal, he will one day. 

Some of us are not only Jews, we are also Jewish

This article was written jointly by Roger Froikin and Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks

As far as we are concerned, there is a difference between the two. They are not always one and the same.

A Jew, according to the Oxford definition is “A member of the people and cultural community whose traditional religion is Judaism and who trace their origins through the ancient Hebrew people of Israel to Abraham.”

We are not going to enter a debate here on who is a Jew. This definition merely addresses what a Jew is.

That same source defines Jewish as :” Of or relating to the Jews or their culture or religion.”

What begs to be concluded from these two definitions is that in order to be Jewish, one needs to be a Jew first. To be born a Jew or to become a Jew, one is automatically admitted into the Covenant that G-d entered with Avraham.

The Abrahamic Covenant is an unconditional Covenant. G-d made promises to Avraham in Bresheet (Genesis) 15:18-21. That Covenant which requires nothing of Avraham deals mainly with the dimension of the Land that G-d promised to him and his descendants. The rite itself as described in Bresheet 12:1-3 reinforces the notion that it is an unconditional one as it is G-d alone who passes between the pieces of animals after causing Avraham to fall into a deep sleep. The sign of this Covenant is the Brit Mila, the ceremony of circumcision (Bresheet 17:9-14). All males in the Avrahmic line were to be circumcised so that they bear a lifelong mark of it upon their flesh. Any descendant of Avraham who is denied or refuses circumcision was naturally declared and destined to be outside of G-d’s Covenant. Entering the Avrahamic Covenant is one of the conditions of being a Jew.

There is another Covenant that every Jew enters either upon birth or when becoming one. It is one that has shaped Am Yisrael and our Jewish people into who we are today. It is the Mosaic one, the one we entered with G-d at Mount Sinai. Unlike the Avrahamic Covenant, this one is a conditional one.

A Law school professor might call it a “contract of adhesion” in which the terms are presented as non-negotiable and to be accepted by the people. G-d presented His law to Am Yisrael at Mount Sinai as described in Shemot (Exodus) 19:5. Their response was acceptance, saying, “נעשה ונשמע " We shall do and we shall hear!” (Shemot 19:8).

The Mosaic Covenant sets Am Yisrael and the Jewish People apart from other nations. It is in understanding the responsibilities and values that are inherent to the Covenant at Mount Sinai, being motivated by them, identifying with them and acting consistent with them, that turns the Jew into Jewish. It is important to note here, that though some of the values such as social justice and moral code dictated to Am Yisrael, at Mount Sinai are universal, Judaism itself is not universal. It belongs to Jews and Am Yisrael only.

Now, we would bet people reading this so far expect the next paragraph to include an endorsement that Jews become more religious. No, that is not the intent of this essay. Nor is the intent to define who is a Jew or what Judaism is beyond the statements above.

Instead, the idea is to alert Jews to a problem. There are those Jews who have excluded themselves from the Jewish People representing themselves as Jews, when often they are not under normative and historical Jewish definitions. These Jews represent their motivations as Jewish when they are not. These Jews claim their values as Jewish when they are not.

This not a new phenomenon. Only the titles have changed. Throughout history, when Jews have been a minority or under foreign rule, there have been those Jews who saw it in their best interest to join with the powers that be and the group they ruled. They did it, and too often, to prove their allegiance (sometimes required, sometimes not) to their new “friends” by opposing the interests of the Jewish People, by actively negating – or reinterpreting – their connection to the Jewish people.

For instance, in Iberia, between 1200 and 1500, some Jews converted to Christianity so as not to be persecuted. When the Inquisition came in 1492 (1496 in Portugal), many of these converts became the most anti-Semitic people in Christian Spain. Torquemada, the first grand inquisitor, is one example.

In the late 19th Century and early 20th, many Jews in Europe, in an effort avoid being subject to exclusion and persecution, converted to Catholicism, seeking safety and security in a change of ideology, dumping their Judaism for what appeared to them to be “universalism.” Other Jews joined political movements, socialism, communism, trading Judaism for these universalist movements, as if to hide and seek safety in a universal ideology.

Today, we see some Jews acting similarly, but with a bit of a change. It is no longer necessary to hide that one is a Jew. Thus, instead of denying that they are Jews and in order to fit in, they reinterpret what Judaism is and turn it into universal secularism. This way, they create the fiction which allows them remain Jewish under the claim that the ethics of Judaism are indistinguishable from the latest liberal universal definition of secularism. In short, they leave Judaism and Jewish concerns and interests behind to become the Jew who is a believer in whatever the latest fashionable approach to secularism is. Liberalism and all its clichés of the day has become their religion, though they falsely label it Jewish.

So how is this modern manifestation different from the former Jews who were anti-Semites in post 1492 Spain, for example ? Not at all. So, for instance, when we see a “Jewish Voice for Peace” sidind with those who call for the destruction of Yisrael and the murder of Jews, we need to understand what they are. When we see an organization like B’Zelem in Medinat Yisrael (Israel) make an effort to damage Yisrael’s security and give aid and comfort to those that wish it destroyed, because they worry about what Europe thinks, we’ve seen it before.

We have all seen these online debates in which some far left wing Jew that claims to be pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist is called a Kapo by those who oppose him. Not only is that kind of characterization unfair and inaccurate, but it is perhaps not strong enough. “Kapos” became Kapos, because they were trying to survive often when the alternative was death. Those who claim the title “Jew” today, but who ally themselves with anti-Semites, who support murderers of Jews, did not take that position for their own safety or that of their families, but for other reasons that are not nearly as noble. We believe that they are worse than Kapos by any measure.

Frankly, the Jewish nation does not need people who choose to endanger the Jewish people in favor of some left-wing universalist clichés. The Jewish People does not need those who want to solve their psychological and sociological problems by damaging the future for the rest of us. The last thing the Jewish People needs is the kind of Jew who laughs at Jewish heritage and dismisses it in some misguided effort to be liked by gentiles.

In the Passover Hagaddah, there is the allegory of the 4 sons. One of them asks, “what does all this mean to you” as if excluding himself from Judaism, its Heritage, history and its ethical and moral standards. It is those misguided Jews, we believe, that the Hagaddah addresses.

So what should the Jewish people do about these “Jews in Name Only” ?

The first step is to understand what we started this essay with --- that a Jew can choose to be Jewish or not. We, Jews, first and foremost, need to understand that merely being a descendant of the Avrahamic Covenant does not automatically make one a party to the one made at Sinai. Wishing our Jewish brothers and sisters a happy and blessed Pesach.

A Conflict of Loyalty

Years ago, when I first became an American citizen, I had to take the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. I remember how disturbed I was then when the thought of “What if the U.S. and Yisrael ever enter a political conflict,” occurred to me. I decided to push that thought away as far as possible into the creases of my sub consciousness.

Fortunately, it laid dormant for a long time until several years ago.

Comically enough, though, it was not so much the actions of America or the U.S.  government and its policies vis-a-vis Israel, Medinat Yisrael that served as the catalyst or the wake-up element for its disturbing resurgence. Rather, it is the American Jewish community that has brought that troubling thought of conflict of loyalty back into life.

As many here know, I care about my fellow Jews, first and foremost, wherever they are but I can only speak about those who live in the US. I have been following the American Jewish community for many years, first as one of its members and later as an outsider who had strong connections to it through family and friends. I was unhappy with the way those ties unfolded themselves to me.

I initially saw some cracks in Jewish unity and loyalty to our Jewish culture and heritage when I worked as a Hebrew and Sunday School teacher at one of the northern California synagogues. As part of my duties, I instructed a course entitled “Jewish customs and traditions.”

One day, I decided to dedicate the lesson to “Jewish Contributions to World Civilization.” Listing all the achievements and major contributions of Jews to the world was a good way, I felt, to start as I was hoping to instill great pride in young American Jews. “So, you see,” I concluded, “Jews have given many gifts to the world.”

“And so have Catholics,” answered one very outspoken student.

I was taken back by that response. “That is true,” I did not hesitate to say. I chose my words very carefully as I was trying to decipher the reason behind this unexpected comeback. “Of course, Catholics have contributed much to world civilization,” I continued, “but this is a Jewish class in a synagogue. “ I could feel my blood temperature rising. “Let Catholics discuss and teach their contributions to the world in their churches, in their Sunday schools. Do you think they bother to discuss the gifts of the Jews in their Sunday schools?” I calmly said, still trying to control myself.

I was proud. I was even more proud when I walked uprightly into the Rabbi’s office to meet with some angry parents.  Though I knew I had a job to keep, I was ready to face them and defend my position.

“We teach our children to be universal,” the head of the PTA started.”

I did not linger with my response. “How can we and our children be supporting the contributions of others if we are ignorant of our own?” I challenged them. “Dear Rabbi,” I said as I turned to face him, “you lost your eye as you were walking alongside Dr. Martin Luther King in Montgomery Alabama when you joined their fight for civil rights. Where are you and your loyalty to our people when they need the support for their rights to educate their youth to be proud of their heritage? How can we support the good fight of others when ours is still raging?” He smiled and ,lowered his eyes.

That was forty years ago. Little seems to have changed.  Now, as then, some of our Jews feel the need to fight the battles of others while neglecting the future of their own. Moreover, that support, on more than one occasion, is done while sacrificing our own on the altars of justice and universality.  

Why are Jews so keen to be like everyone? When will our fellow Jews realize that their loyalty should be primarily to Jews and Judaism, our heritage and our essence? After all, are not these values the ones that have kept us going for over two millennia? So why are we struggling so hard to, seek approval and recognition? Should the world not love us and be grateful to us for some of our gifts, ones that we shared so readily with it?  Why are Jews so eagerly  willing to give slices of our own in return for that approval, for that love, for being accepted and supported? Why are some of us so ready to betray the memory of those who died while protecting those values? What will it take for our fellow Jews to understand that we are not like everyone else, that we cannot be like other nations?  

We cannot, not because we are better, not because we are worse but because we are different.

A free People is a People free of conflict. As long as the internal conflict of loyalty in Judaism continues, we will never be free. We may well have physically left the Diaspora but the Diaspora, as it seems, has not yet left our souls.

Shabbat Shalom.

The Hellenists among us

 The term "Hellenism" which literally means, "to speak Greek," or "make Greek," refers to ancient Greek rule and history and covers the period following the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE and the rise of the Roman Empire. It ended in 31 BCE.

 To many, "Hellenism" denotes ancient Greek Culture and is mostly perceived as that period in history where Greek language, Culture, Literature, Art, Architecture, Science, Philosophy and Erudition prevailed. 

The Hellenistic period had deep influence on the Eastern Mediterranean area, which was under Greek rule for a long time. That, unfortunately, also included Eretz Yisrael.

I say, "unfortunately," because in many spheres, this cultural phenomenon had a lasting and devastating impact on Judaism and the thought process of our Jewish People, an impact that is felt until this very day.   In almost every way, Hellenism and Judaism were culturally diametrically opposed in terms of mankind’s place in the world, the role of personal responsibility, man’s relationship with G-d, and the concept of and role of hope.

The effects of Hellenism on the Jewish population were felt as early as the year 200BCE. At that time, there surfaced a group among the Jewish population called Mityavnim, meaning Hellenists. Its members, most of whom were those closest to the Greek rulers and eager to please them, adopted Greek culture and way of life, which was foreign to the Jewish one in almost every way. Their practice of it reached such a degree that, almost unvaryingly, it replaced their Jewish culture and Jewish identity. One example of the extent to which these individuals were willing to go in order to be accepted as Greeks or Hellenizers, relates to one of the most central practices in Judaism, circumcision. 

Ancient Greeks, as we all know, were great believers in practicing the art of nudity. That was demonstrated in sports, which were done in the nude.  Bathhouses in ancient Greece were popular and, likewise, were attended in the nude. Circumcision was not among their practices. Therefore, in order to avoid embarrassment and be accepted as an equal and "Good Greek," Hellenized Jews "underwent painful operations-at a time with minimum anesthetics-to restore their foreskin and appear Greek…" Naturally, those who were ignorant of Jewish life and tradition fell easy prey to Hellenism and some of its positive aspects. "Others, however, became vicious self- haters." Among the latter group, many detested their Jewish brethren and thus became willing collaborators, ones who were ready to help them in their attempts to eradicate Judaism in Eretz Yisrael and replace it with their "more enlightened pagan culture of theirs."  (http://www.jewishhistory.org/the-hell-in-hellenism/).  

Our Sages warned at the time about Hellenism invading Jewish thought, how it would pervert how Jews thought of themselves and of their own beliefs, how Hellenism was like a disease that would leave the Jewish People sick and how difficult it would be to rid ourselves of this sickness.

Now, let us fast forward into the present.

If we replace ancient Greek and Hellenism with The New Israel Fund (NIF) and their agenda of a New Middle East, an agenda that is foreign to Jewish culture and traditions then we reach the unavoidable and unfortunate conclusion that history, in this case, Jewish history, repeats itself. For how else can one describe organizations such as "Breaking  Silence," or "B'Tzelem," both of which are funded and supported by (NIF) and other entities whose sole purpose is to remove the Jewish essence of Eretz Yisrael, but self- hating Jewish collaborators?  For people to so want to appease and conform to the beliefs and interests our their enemies is sick.

How else or what else can we call those who loathe and despise anything Jewish and in their efforts to blend with the "in" crowd are ready and willing to sacrifice their brethren, their Jewish core on the altars of modern day Hellenism?

But there is yet another kind of Hellenism, one that stems not from self- hatred but from misplaced gratitude to the non-Jewish supporters of the Jewish people and political Zionism (the movement established by Herzl at the end of the 19th century). That kind of Hellenism stems from the fear of losing that support of the world that is so void of love for Jews.

We should be happy and thankful for the support others show us.  Nothing is wrong with that.  Everyone wants and needs friends in this world.   But, here’s the interesting question.  “Friendship”, real friendship, means accepting us for what we are, respect for our traditions, our beliefs, our security, our rights.   Those who are really friends will not try to change us, not try to redefine us in ways alien to our traditions and beliefs, nor impose things on us for their own benefit.

There are, sadly, those Jews, however, who have adopted Hellenism, replacing Judaism and the noble concept of honest Jewish gratitude, out of some mistaken fear of losing friendship and needed support, and in the process seem willing to shed some underlying fundamental principles in our few millennia old Jewish tradition and leave them in the hands of those who are, for now, friends. Many of those who claim to be our sincere friends and sincerely love us, are rarely familiar, if at all, with what Judaism is all about, and through really no fault of their own try to define us, our beliefs, our traditions, in terms that are familiar to them and alien, to a degree, to what our tradition teaches us. 

We are not going to accuse people of having evil intent.  We don’t see evil in this.  We see misguided.  We see something akin to Stockholm syndrome.  Two Thousand Years of persecution and deprivation has an effect of making a people vulnerable to being liked, eager to seek approval, but let’s not fool ourselves.  Approval and being liked that comes from giving up what you are and copying those who you fear might not like you, is not acceptance. It is surrender.  

Surrender cannot be allowed to define the Jewish Future. Jews and Am Yisrael are here to stay regardless of what either group does or says.  How difficult our journey will be depends on how well we guard what we are and grow by our own beliefs and traditions as we alone can define them.  Regardless, our fate is known, sealed and proven. We are an eternal nation, no matter what!

Chag Sukkot Sameach to all of you.


Written jointly with Roger Froikin.

“Zionism,” the Hellenistic misapprehension of what Jews believe

        

                                                                                

This article was written together with Roger Froikin

We are tired of others defining us, Jews. We are dissatisfied with non-Jews trying time and again to tell us what we should believe in or not believe in. Moreover, we are fatigued of others interpreting our essence through their eyes, with modern day spectacles and using terms that are foreign to us, to our culture and to Hebrew, the only language that can and has defined the Jewish belief system.

Yes, I am referring to yet again, to the much discussed, used and abused term “Zionism.”

According to Merriman-Webster, the origin of suffix “ism” as in the term “Zionism” is “Middle English-isme, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French, partly from Latin – isma (from Greek) & partly from Latin.” None of these languages are even remotely related to Hebrew, the only language that has and should continue to define anything that is part of the Jewish world.

A Hellenistic and thus a heathen name has, unfortunately, been given to and is used to define a noble Jewish concept. A magnanimous several millennia old Jewish/Hebrew idea that expresses the strong connection that only Jews have had to Eretz Yisrael has been adapted by those who call themselves friends of the Jews, those who support the right of Jews for a Homeland in the Land of their forefathers

Make no mistake, we appreciate that support. We know that many have gone out on a limb to fight for Jewish right to make Herzl’s political movement an ongoing reality. Thank you.

We are not letting, however, Hellenism and foreign cultures define us. We cannot. Moreover, they cannot.

For generations, Jews have taught their children that the difference between Hellenism and Judaism was that the Hellenists, though they contributed to science and culture, were mostly interested in extolling sports and the beauty of the body and physical prowess and a narcissistic view of life while Judaism emphasized the intellectual pursuits, Torah, and community.

The problem is that this definition of Hellenism is not what so frightened or sages.  What they feared most was not that Jewish boys would go out and be sports fans, but that Hellenistic thoughts and definitions would invade and replace Jewish thoughts, conceptions, and definitions of Jewish history and literature and even of the Torah.

Hebrew is a Semitic language and cannot easily be translated into a European language because it constitutes a very different construction.  When one thinks in Hebrew, when one reads Torah in Hebrew, one thinks, subconsciously, in terms of word relationships and metaphorical meanings which add many dimensions to the text, Reading Torah in translation to Indo-European languages, losses all those constructive relationships subtle meanings, a loss of all of its essence.

It is noteworthy to mention that in the 4th century C.E., seventy-two Jewish scholars were coerced by the Greek King of Egypt, Ptolemy II Philadelphus to translate the Torah into Greek. This mistranslation is known as the Septuagint. Until today, we Jews mourn each year this this tragedy.

So, some might say, fine, learn Hebrew and read it in Hebrew.  But there is a problem our Sages recognized.  If we view the world through Hellenistic concepts, we also may misunderstand the meaning originally intended in the Hebrew.  If we learn Hebrew from an Indo-European language with its own history, we can be prone to misconstrue the text and its concepts.

Therefore, as the Sages feared, Hellenism’s invasion of Jewish culture changed our Jewish thinking patterns, changed how we defined even what was ours. 

“Zionism” and what we see is being done to it today is but one example of that.

Furthermore, we see some social media activists coming up with their own definition of the word. Moreover, they call upon others to do “Zionist” as if doing those “things” would define us Jews and what our beliefs stand for.

You know what?

You can call yourselves what you want. We cannot stop you. You are welcome to continue to use the Hellenistic use and interpretation of “Zionism.” Keep it as yours, Latin and Greek are your languages, not ours. The suffix “Ism” is part of your cultural heritage, not ours.

Hebrew is ours and we are proud of it. We are no longer “Zionists” because that twisted term that endeavors to describe what you believe we are is yours, not ours.  From now on, in our lexicon Roger and all Jewish males are a “Tsioni”  ציוני   and all Jewish females, a “Tsionit.”   ציוניתFrom now on, we will call our few millennia longing for Tsion ציון  (which you call “Zion”) “Tsionut,” ציונות.

We, as Jews, have earned it. For over two thousand years of sanguineous history, it is only we who have prayed in Hebrew towards Tsion. It is only we who, during all those years of suffering and pain, pledged in Hebrew “Next year in Jerusalem.” It is only we, Jews, who, while in exile from our Homeland, mourned in Hebrew we remembered Tsion and it is we, Jews, who vowed in Hebrew under the Chuppah, at the height of our joy never to forget Jerusalem.

Yes, we Jews cannot tell the world how to define what are Jewish concepts best expressed in Hebrew. We cannot tell them to stop trying either.  What we can do, however, is have the confidence and the right to define what is ours and in our own terms.   A slave people, a people colonized and persecuted by others for 2000 years might have to allow outsiders define us and impose their ways on us, but no more. That needs to come to an end, and as a free people, we, the Jewish people must reclaim what is ours, our property, our culture, our language, and our own definitions of ourselves, and that is “TSIONUT”

For me, it is Yom Ha'Shoah

                                                             


This week, the world marks the International Holocaust Memorial Day. I am grateful to the wide recognition and acknowledgement of the suffering of many, Jews and non-Jews who died in that sad chapter of human history. I pray that mankind learns the proper lessons from its past mistakes and prevents them from repeating them. On this day, I hear and read “Never Again,” the motto of Jew and Gentile alike and I continue to hope.

Here in Israel, we commemorate that appalling and not so distant past on the 27^th day of the month of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar. We call it Yom Ha’shoah.  

Personally, it is that day, not the International one, that bears a deep meaning for me. It is the day that sends quivers through my spine. It is the day that strums the inner chords of my essence and pulsates at the point that only one like myself, a Jew, a daughter of two Shoah survivors can understand.

And before anyone rushes to accuse me of holding myself at a higher level than the rest, let me explain.

The memories of my childhood in the young nascent state of Israel, growing up under the shadow of the Shoah, under the loving care of two broken souls who had barely escaped the inferno, is what has given me that insight and a greater greater awareness of the magnitude of that episode in our history. Being raised on stories about Moishele, and Avreimaleh, Reuveleh and Shulamiskeh, innocent souls whose life was taken at a young tender age is what has bestowed upon me the gift to grasp and appreciate the extent of the atrocious nature of the Shoah.  I share so much with these individuals. Like me, they spoke Yiddish, a language soaked with humour, with mentchlichkyite ( humanness) and Yidishkayit (Jewishness). Like me, they heard Yiddish lullabies and bedtime stories about Biblical and Jewish heroes, the threads that connected their fate with mine.

They were all my family, the family I never got to meet, yet heard so much about. Their fresh memory is tattooed not on my arm but on my heart. They appear in my dreams at night and shine their eternal blessing on our people during the day. Their blood which runs in the rivers of Jewish history cleanses our Jewish Spirit and gives us the strength and the tenacity to go on living.

For many of us, Jews and Israelis, Yom Ha'Shoah is not merely about “Never Again” but rather about Remembering and Reminding. For how can one vow “Never Again,” if one fails to remember what one should never forget and never repeat? 

Yom Ha'Shoa commemorating Heroism, not only victimhood

                                                                                 

“Heroism is endurance for one moment more” – George F. Kennan

Growing up in Israel, in the early days of the nascent state, was heavily overshadowed by the horrors of the Holocaust, more so than it is nowadays. Then, unlike now, those who had lived through it, the Shoa survivors were everywhere.  They lived next door, on the same street or in the same town. Some bore the tattooed numbers on their arms; others had the hollow look and blank expression as if riddled by the reality of their survival.

To some Israelis, many were the lambs that went to the slaughterhouse. To me, they were the victims, the children, the babies and the elderly, those that were helpless and defenseless against the Nazi death machine. They had no choice and we remember each and every one of them always.

Those who did have a choice, however, those that lasted, came out of the abyss, resumed their lives and moved on, were the heroes of my childhood. I listened to their stories of endurance, survival and resistance; I gulped their tales of defeating death and overcoming the impossible. What else can such humans be but heroes?

Here is one such story of heroism and survival.

“On the 10th of May 1942, we found ourselves in The Valley of the Shadow of Death, in the midst of a terrible slaughter, in Volozyn, a slaughter whose survivors could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

The loud knocks on the door, which woke me up from a nightmare, were also the explanation for my dream, as well as an omen of the end of the Ghetto in Volozyn. In fact, already a day earlier we had seen that the Lithuanian militia had encircled the Ghetto. They had also been joined by militants from Latvia. We, however, did not understand the meaning of such activities.

At four a.m., the drunken murderers burst into the Ghetto like a storm, firing in all directions and kicking the Jews out of their houses. They then gathered them into a large building and from there took them in groups to the cemetery, where they shot them. On the streets that led to the cemetery, there already lay the dead bodies of hundreds of men, women and children who, through illness or weakness, had not been able to walk, and so had been killed on the way to the killing fields.

In one of the yards of one of the houses, Jewish families had built a hiding place underneath a pile of firewood.

On the night in question, I slept in that house. When the drunken murderers attacked the inhabitants of the Ghetto that early morning, I ran with a few others to that hiding place. We climbed a ladder to the top of the pile and lowered ourselves into it. We then pulled the ladder inside hoping to hide our place. However, our footprints were visible on the grass, which was wet from the morning dew. These led the hooligans to us. They ordered us to come out. One of them even came down into the hiding place and kicked me out along with two others who did not come out straight away.

When I reached the top of the pile, I suddenly jumped onto a nearby roof and then to the ground, and started to run wildly. The hooligans shot at me and hit me in the shoulder. With the last remnants of my strength, I reached a little hut in one of the yards. The hut served as an outhouse. Without much deliberation, I jumped into the hole and sank up to my shoulders in excrement. The murderers would have never thought to look for me there.

In that state, as I was sitting in this hole full of stinking dirt and suffering from my injured shoulder which still had a bullet in it, I was destined to witness, through the cracks of the door of the hut, one of the most devastating scenes in our history.

Next to the large building in which they housed the Jews, there sat a German. His rank was “Gebis Komisar” (district director). He conducted, in the most organized fashion and with much “expertise”, the selection of the groups to be sent to their deaths in trenches which had already been dug in the cemetery.

From amongst the condemned, the Germans selected a few tradesmen to be spared. They were allowed to take their wives. One of the selected was a bachelor. Two women jumped at him, each claiming to be his wife. One had a baby in her arms. The man was allowed to take the woman without the baby. The Germans then snatched the baby from the arms of his mother, threw him in the air and shot him. He fell lifeless to the ground.

The atrocities which I was forced to witness continued through the morning and afternoon. The hooligans then went on their way. One could still hear shots in the Ghetto. Later, I found out that White Russian policemen had searched the Ghetto, shot the people they caught in hiding places, and looted Jewish homes.

At nightfall, I carefully came out of the outhouse hole. I went to the nearest house and climbed into the attic. Injured, dirty, and hungry like a dog, I lay there until Monday morning when I came out of my hiding place to try and find out what was happening. The noise of the crowds and the local policemen who came to loot the empty houses, however, immediately forced me back to my hiding place.

At nightfall, I regained my courage and went into the houses in order to look for clean clothes, and hopefully find a means to tend my wound, which was beginning to bother me. When I crawled out, I heard two shots and then someone shouting in Russian: “Again we shot two Jews” I ran back to my hiding place.

On Tuesday morning I heard someone climbing the ladder leading to the attic. From behind the open door that concealed me, I heard one hooligan telling his friend (who was waiting downstairs) “There is no-one here”. These were local residents who were happy Nazi collaborators.

In the evening, I went down and entered one of the houses. I found a piece of bread and a few cooked potatoes. I also saw there a discarded Sefer Torah in which the looters, it seemed, had no interest. An atmosphere of great sadness and abandonment cloaked me. It added to my loneliness and my heart’s despair.

The following day, I lost all of my strength, and I lay there half alive. The pain in my shoulder was very strong.

On Thursday, at twilight, I tried to come out of my hiding place, but could not move a limb. I managed to crawl to the attic window. In the street below, I saw a woman I knew. I wanted to call her, but I was too weak and too excited to be able to utter a sound. Later, I saw another acquaintance, a man I knew very well. Again, I was too weak to signal that I was alive.

Suddenly, I fell down and fainted.

I woke up to the sound of Yiddish conversation and strong hammering on the door below. Through the attic window, I could see men nailing up the door leading to the house in which I hid. I began to shout: “There is a Jew in here! Open the door!”

The men took me to the house in which the tradesmen lived. There were a few other Jews there who had also miraculously survived. Amongst them was a doctor. He managed, with a simple kitchen knife, to extract the bullet from my shoulder. In that house I also met a good friend of mine. I asked him how he had survived. He told me that the murderers had kept him alive so that he could bury the dead.

He had buried, with his own hands, his parents, his brothers and his sisters along with their children.

The Christian dwellers of the surrounding neighbourhoods told me later that the ground of the big mass grave was moving up and down for a long time after that dreadful day, as many of those buried there were still alive underneath.

I and a few other Jews who were not residents of Volozyn, decided to go back to our hometown, to Olshan. In normal times, it was a walk of about three to four hours. We walked for two days on side-roads and tracks, gripped by the fear of our enemy, which was lurking everywhere.

When we reached Olshan, the Jews there stared at us as if we had just returned from the dead. They had already heard about the destruction of the Volozyn Ghetto. They did not expect to see us alive.”

This hero was my father and this is but one of his heroic experiences during that horrific chapter in our Jewish history. What a blessing it has been to be his daughter, to bear with great pride his endurance “for one moment more,”  his determination to survive, to defy death and live to pass on his legacy to the world. On this day, as on every other day, his blood flows through my veins reminding me of our unwavering Jewish pledge: “Never Again!”