Against the darkening tide

Members of Kibbutz Sa'Sa. 1948

Today is the second anniversary of Hamas' pogrom against Israeli Jews in 2023, which has led to a devastating war which has destroyed much of Gaza. Of course, Hamas cares not one whit for the deaths and injuries suffered by the people it supposedly represents. Much in the way Vladimir Putin views his subjects as expendable cannon fodder for his greater glory, the Hamas leadership has a similar view of the Gazans under its control.

All across the West, people will come out in commemoration. Not of the dead, raped, and kidnapped Jews. No. They are out in celebration of Hamas' "glorious" attack. (The cruel irony is that Hamas didn't discriminate by religion as to who it targeted.)

But I'm here today to discuss something else. Not the pain which the Jewish people have suffered throughout history, but their resilience.

I think it's safe to say that few other peoples have suffered as have the Jews. Ever since the days of the Romans, they have been strangers in others' lands, tolerated or not, living on sufferance of their hosts. They have been expelled from numerous countries: France, England, Spain, Portugal. When the State of Israel gained its independence, Mizrahi Jews were expelled from all Arab countries, ending a thousand years of a unique civilization and culture. The Shoah was an abomination of humanity. (And Hitler's Arab allies wanted to repeat the genocide on the Mizrahi had the Nazis won the war.)

And yet this people who should have been wiped out by their various conquerors, who should have gone the way of Hittites and Sumerians, instead survived, and thrived in the countries which would have them, despite the oppression, despite the restrictions placed upon them. (Do you ever wonder how Jews became associated with money lending? Because Christian Europe forbade them most trades, or from owning land. And unlike their Christian hosts, Jewish law had no restrictions concerning "usury"; banking was one of the few professions in which they could engage. They were made the scapegoats for something Christians needed, but would not sully their hands with themselves.) The arts and sciences would be vastly poorer without Jewish contributions. 

And now I get personal. Let me tell you why I'm a Zionist.

Growing up on 175th St. in Manhattan, there was a synagogue across the street from my window. Long before I lived there, Washington Heights was a Jewish, Italian, and Irish neighborhood. Then, as is the way with all things, those groups climbed the ladder of American success and moved out, replaced by we newcomers to America. But the synagogue remained, with men and women traveling from wherever they moved to attend shul every Friday.

The synagogue was regularly covered in graffiti. The congregation would paint it over, and then it would return. Now, I was a child, and didn't know much, but I always thought this was wrong. Why was that place of worship tagged, and not my parish church kitty corner from it? (This is New York. Everything is much closer than in my dear, dirty Los Angeles.) And, of course, I grew up in the Vatican II Church, which made rhetorical amends for two thousand years of Christian antisemitism.

Because of this, I have always supported Israel's right to exist. And because of my education in history, I know that its Arab enemies, far from being victims of perfidious Jews, brought about their own comeuppance. The "Nakba" was a result of Arabs refusing the United Nations partition of 1947. And, again, there was no such thing as "Palestine" until the Balfour Declaration of 1917. Then, suddenly, they were a people who had existed on the land since the beginning of time, with Jews evil interlopers. The most ridiculous thing is the assertion that "Jesus was a Palestinian". No. He was a Jew, versed in the Torah. I was told that cultural appropriation was wrong.

Antisemitism is the camel's nose under the tent. When Jew-hate starts to rise, then oppression against all of the Other is not far behind. We're seeing this right now with this regime which currently manipulates the levers of power. It's no surprise that the "Unite the Right" rally in 2017 was focussed mostly on "the Jewish Question". They may hate Black people, Latinos, and other marginalized communities; but they hold Jews in special opprobrium, as the "puppet masters" for all the "mud people". If you don't fight antisemitism, then other calamities will ensue.

This is why standing against it is standing against the darkening tide. But, my friends, I have faith. The three millennia of Jewish survival and thriving is testament to the fact that the dark is a passing thing. Jews should not exist; and yet, here they are, a rallying cry against the darkness. And this is why on this second anniversary of the worst massacre of Jews since the Shoah I say this: Light will prevail. And those who traded in hatred will have their comeuppance.

Shalom.