re-won by our grandchildren
Europe and America
European culture, science, learning, architecture, and art - as well as the memory of freedom struggles against oppression and persecution - lived in the hearts of men who carried them to America.
At the end of WWII, allied tanks carried hope into Europe’s occupied cities and US soldiers threw open the death camps, bringing to light the unbelievable horrors by man against man. America did not stop there, but infused money and means to rebuild Europe, enabling its cradle-to-grave social benefits.
Following the fall of the Third Reich, devastated post-war Europeans flocked to movie theaters and internalized Hollywood’s portrayal of the American Dream, and its message of the individual’s ability to fulfill aspirations.
What about the Jews?
Darkness descended on Europe with the disappearance of its Jewish communities, and lights went on in America as Jews arrived, heartbroken but determined. Once more, as so often in the past, they put down roots, learned a new language, worked around the clock in sweatshops to send their children to school, supported their communities, and lived by the principle of leaving the world a better place. Where institutions were closed to them, they set up their own to absorb talented Jewish youth (e.g. Mount Sinai Hospital), which in time became leaders in their field.
6 million Jews took unborn generations of human potential into the gas chambers with them. Had Europe held on to its Jews, European countries might have become the world’s innovators and problem-solvers.
The Blight of Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism does not make sense and may well be a blind jealousy towards the "rich kid on the block."
In the Bible 4000 years ago, God spoke to an important, affluent man in Haran, named Abram (Abraham) saying: Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; Be thou a blessing.
So, Abram took his family, servants and accumulated wealth and went to the land of Canaan, where God said to him: Unto thy seed will I give this land.
Here we see the three main ingredients of Zionism (Leo Rennert – American Thinker):
- The quest for a specific, well identified piece of land
- The quest for nationhood in that special land
- The quest to create an exemplary society
The biblical narrative, its veracity reinforced by archeology, was deeply embedded in the Jewish people as they established roots in the Promised Land, spanning thousands of years. Not even the powerful Romans were able to sever the Jews from their homeland, and there has been a continuous Jewish presence in the Holy Land from Roman times until today.
During 2000 years of the Diaspora, Jews developed a portable religion and universal philosophy that enabled them to cope with different cultures and survive atrocities, while unwelcome guests in their adopted countries.
Jewish philosophy contains a wealth of wisdom that enables humans to thrive in the wonderful garden called Earth:
- Question everything: There is no glass ceiling and the Jew may argue his case even with God (Fiddler on the Roof).
- Innovation: The Jew experiments, and if something does not work out, starts over.
- Live life: Jews (Israelis in particular) understand that safety is an illusion, so each peaceful moment needs to be lived to the full. The most common greeting in Hebrew is "Shalom" = Peace, and when toasting a glass of wine, one says: "Lehayim" = To life.
- Humor: No container can hold the tears shed by Jews at the hands of their oppressors, yet a sense of humor is the hallmark of Jewishness.
And so there is. "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve," said W. Clement Stone. This is what makes living in Israel so addictive. Being part of a vibrant Jewish community, where a new idea will always find a listening ear, is wonderful.
What has the World Lost Due to Anti-Semitism?
Historically, all powers that tried to destroy the Jews have disappeared. But Jews are still here - fresh shoots sprung from the Holocaust's ashes. As people walk through the Land of the Bible, they speak, sing, joke, and grieve in the ancient Hebrew language - entertaining, inventing, and winning Nobel prizes. The Jewish philosophy of leaving the world a better place has created a well spring of ideas, innovation, free thought, and an unstoppable energy, lubricated by humor against the backdrop of a universal awareness that man is both capable of much good and of extreme evil.
The World’s Laboratory
Jews (and Israel) have been the world’s laboratory since they first appeared on the global stage.
- Inspiration:
- Abraham’s ability to act on an epiphany. - Deliverance from Annihilation:
- Exodus from Egypt - still celebrated during Passover in Jewish households - gives hope to those living under tyranny.
- Expelled from the Iberian Peninsula by the Spanish Inquisition, Jews built thriving, contributing communities throughout the rest of Europe.
- After the Holocaust, survivors took their knowledge, skills, and positive philosophy to other countries, where they once more became loyal, contributing citizens. - Courage & Skill:
- The valiant fight against oppressors like the Romans.
- Over 30,000 Palestinian Jews volunteered to serve in the British Armed Forces in WWII - reentering hell to help the allies free Europe - determined to save fellow Jews from Nazi clutches.
- Israel plucked hijacked civilians out of Entebbe.
- Israeli pilots destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor and the nuclear site in Syria, when no other government dared do so. In fact, world leaders, afraid to confront Iran head-on, obliquely suggest that Israel's young warriors may again need to risk their lives to save the world from nuclear disaster.
- The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) protects Israeli citizens - maintaining a strict moral code, while spearheading the international fight against terror. - Rebirth:
- The Land of Israel - Within 60 years since the latest attempt to anihilate them, Jews have created a vibrant, contributing, democratic society on a sliver of land the size of New Jersey, surrounded by hostile neighbors. Working feverishly under a black cloud of international condemnation, Arab guns, rockets, suicide bombings, and vicious lies - Jews are again a light to the world in science, technology, culture, agriculture, water and tree conservation, solar energy, ...the list goes on.
- March of the Living | Never Again - Each year Jews from all over the world carry Israeli flags, as they retrace the steps of 6 million relatives and other Jews, torn from warm homes and brutally murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and elsewhere in Europe.
Lessons Ignored
What might the world have learned from this lab experiment called "Israel and the Jewish People"?
- The spirit is a light inside each and every human being - resilient and able to withstand the worst humiliations, physical cruelty, loss, loneliness, and fabricated lies. It cannot be snuffed out. It cannot be defeated. Its flame will always rekindle with new hope and energy.
- People can rebuild their dignity and thrive, even under the direst of circumstances.
- Hope is never lost: The Jewish people were dispersed for 2,000 years, praying "Next year in Jerusalem," and once again have a homeland they can defend.
- Life is an amazing gift. Each person can choose to be a positive influence and leave the world a better place, while adhering to a moral code that upholds human dignity and freedom.
The world has chosen to ignore the lessons of an honorable ancient people, still living under a constant threat of extinction.
Instead, anti-Semitism convinced Europe to attempt what the strongest powers in history failed to do – eradicate the Jewish People. As a result, instead of the Jews in their midst, Europeans got a primitive, cruel 7th century religion in every living room.
For the first time in a long time, daughters could be worse off than their mothers, as the spirit of Sharia law may force them to live like Saudi and Taliban-ruled women.
Political correctness (a.k.a. moral laziness) has allowed freedom to slip through Western fingers. Freedoms people died for till recently, may well have to be re-won by the West's grandchildren.
Terror Must Not Win
Acts of terrorism have become part of modern life with no country immune – in fact, this threat has already arrived in complacent European and American cities, only to be matched by what goes on in Iraq and Afghanistan today, or worse.
To their shame and detriment, instead of standing up when terrorism was an embryonic threat, the West chose to put its head in the sand of appeasement, forcing the Jews to learn fast, how to handle Arafat’s promise (which he kept) that “civilian blood would flow through the streets.”
While the world was preoccupied with condemning Israel, validating anti-Semitic lies, and pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into corrupt Arab pockets (the worst financial investment ever), Jews simply kept busy building a modern nation that has its innovative finger in almost every technological and scientific pie.
Jews will not disappear. Centuries of hardship and suffering have steeled the Jewish psyche, and strengthened the resolve to embrace life and thrive.
