Progressive success: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
I loved watching Megyn Kelly. I thought she was bright and certainly beautiful.Then she sort of faded as she seemed to believe she could drink her own bathwater. Then she moved to NBC which I never watch. NBC overpaid to entice her to move and she failed to attract the audience they needed to justify the cost. Now NBC wants to stop the bleeding. I believe she is getting a raw deal.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
You decide. (See 1 below.)
Being Jewish, I have often considered myself an "underdog." I have not allowed this attitude to hold me back /deter me. In fact, it has spurred me on in a variety of ways.
One way has been to be more sensitive to a person being unfairly attacked /intimidated even if they are partially to blame for that of which they are being accused. I see piling on as bullying and it raises the hair on the back of my neck. It is anti- Semitism without the religious overtones.
Many of my progressive friends constantly attack Trump for his "non presidential" manner. The mass media folks can find nothing positive in his presidency and, even if/when they can, they immediately follow their faint praise with harsh unfounded accusations. My defense of Trump , as I have said many times, is not an apology for his mistakes, his inappropriate demeanor and his over board commentary. What ticks me off is these same people, who attack Trump, never spoke out when Obama, those in his administration and under his thumb, did the same or worse.
When I find balance it raises my sense of what is credible. Without balance, I am willing to reject what I otherwise might be willing to accept. And so it has been with Trump's attacks on anti-Semitism and his comment about 'had the synagogue protected itself the tragedy might have been averted.'
Both were correct. He was not blaming those in the synagogue but was bringing common sense attention to a failing that is as true of the Pittsburgh Synagogue's Board as my own here in Savannah. We are great at reacting but fail to embrace that old dictum " An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of care." Knowing that hate walks the street it is irresponsible not to protect a place where people congregate. The failure is due, all too often, to the up front cost.
I commend the local JEA for taking significant measures. Probably because it is a school as well and houses children.
Progressives would rather vote and spend for welfare than do so on the military. This might convey a message of social conscience but it is stupid, unbalanced and provides an opportunity to attack those as heartless and then the inevitable occurs and the pious do gooders avoid their share of the blame. This disgusts me frankly. It offends my conservatism.
Also, overriding Democracy may make one feel good but it results in an unspeakable breakdown of civil order.
Trump haters cannot bring themselves to separate and apportion and that, I find, is what I would expect from those I deem are "despicables" and what they hear from me is what they expect from a "deplorable."
Until they can bring themselves to being balanced and avoid hypocrisy, I will continue to distrust their "sincerity" and their out sized and indefensible attacks because, without balance, they too are the ones creating the atmosphere about which they piously protest.
Trump has many warts but he would not have been elected president had Hillary's "deplorables" reached a boiling point. We are sick and tired of the progressive's failed policies, we are fed up with their PC'sim, we do not believe America needs to be obsequious nor do we believe America is without fault. We are tired of being told everything is relative, no one is responsible for their own behaviour, law and order is old fashion, those who protect us are hateful and you know the rest.
We are willing to believe Ms. Ford may have been accosted in her life time but reject false accusations or those lacking proof. We believe in the rule of law and that you are innocent until proven otherwise and not by words but solid evidence. We are tired of the game of character assassination, of attacks on the wealthy simply because they have wealth. This is divisive and not in keeping with fair play. It may win votes and stir passions but it is destructive.
We believe America should come first but that stance allows plenty of room for exceptions and modification and when Trump is called a nationalist would you want a president to campaign by saying he seeks to govern or wants America to be otherwise? There comes a point where the middle, like the guy in the movie, yells out:"I can't take it any more." This is why Trump sits in The White House and his tactics and campaign strategy were clever and better than his opponents but since the "despicables" cannot accept their defeat gracefully and maturely, like "pissy fanny children" they seek to destroy Trump's success using his own faults as their battering ram.
I am unabashedly disgusted with their bias and hypocrisy. When they bring themselves to accepting reality, deal fairly with the consequences and put their shoulder to the wheel to "Make America Great Again" then, I will give credibility to their argument because it will have a ring of truth and balance to it and until such time I will continue to look askance and distrust their motives.
I am not rejecting progressive's right to hold different views, though I might think them dumb. I am simply in search of balance and am of the opinion that capitalism, our constitutional republic has served us well and am suspicious of those who feel otherwise. Furthermore, I challenge their lack of evidence. I am also willing to call them out because I believe their attacks on Trump are subtle attacks on what I believe in and threaten not only my Americanism but lay the foundation for attacks on me and are as much to blame for The Squirrel Hill's as anything they protest. (See 1a, 1b, 1c and 1d below.)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lou Weiss is a fellow memo reader and friend of my son. He is also Bari's father.
This also from a dear local friend and fellow memo reader: "I held off reaching out to you knowing that you would be Swamped with inquiries. I already knew from my sources that no Orthodox Schul's were impacted. Parenthetically the Lubavitch shu'ls have congregants who are armed( an appropriate response to the church shootings in Texas and Charleston ). "Tree of Life" was a leisurely five minute walk from our house and although we were not members, we knew people who were. None of them were injured or killed but my trainer in Pittsburgh knew five of the slain and is still dealing with that today.
It truly is a sad day, B----"
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sent to me by a cantankerous lovable friend and fellow memo reader: https://www.washingtonpost.com
We have the best government money can buy. Since the dollar is basically worthless draw your own conclusions.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Prager's Newest Video
Illegal Immigration: It's About Power
Historically, Democrats supported strong borders because they knew American workers could never compete with illegal immigrants. Now, they support “open borders.” Why the drastic change? Tucker Carlson, host of Tucker Carlson Tonight, explains.
++++++++++
Dick
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1)Democrats didn’t care when Madonna said she had thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.
1a) Amalek Comes to Pittsburgh
1)Democrats didn’t care when Madonna said she had thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.
Democrats didn’t care when Kathy Griffin posed with a mock severed head of President Trump.
Democrats didn't give a shit when Peter Fonda said that Trump's 10 year old son should be raped.
Democrats didn’t care when a Broadway Play depicted the assassination of President Trump.
Democrats didn’t care when Johnny Depp said, “how long has been since an actor assassinated a President”.
Democrats didn’t care when Snoop Dog and Eminem made music videos about assassinating President Trump.
Democrats didn’t care when dozens of people were shot to death at a Jason Aldean concert.
Democrats didn’t care when Congressman Steve Scalise was shot at a baseball game.
Democrats didn’t care when Robert De Niro said “somebody needs to take out Trump”.
Democrats didn’t care when Carole Cook said “Where’s John Wilkes Booth when you need him?”
Democrats didn’t care when Republican candidate Rudy Peters was attacked by a man with a switchblade.
Democrats didn’t care when a Republican Party Office was set on fire.
Democrats didn’t care when Eric Holder said “When they go low, we kick ‘em”.
Democrats didn’t care when Trump family members received suspicious packages in the mail.
Democrats didn’t care when Secretary of Defense James Mattis received death threats.
Democrats didn’t care when Maxine Waters said “you get up in their face at the mall, in restaurants, at gas stations and you tell them Republicans they’re not welcomed anywhere”.
Democrats didn’t care when Sarah Sanders and her family were harassed at a restaurant, instructed to leave and chased down the street.
Democrats didn’t care when Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was harassed and chased out of a Mexican restaurant.
Democrats didn’t care when Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s life was threatened and he was chased out of a restaurant.
Democrats didn’t care when Attorney General Pam Bondi was harassed and chased out of a theater.
Democrats didn’t care when Rand Paul was attacked and beaten up in his own yard.
Democrats didn’t care when two Republican senators: Rob Portman of Ohio and John Boozman of Arkansas were attacked in their own yards and on their own doorsteps.
Democrats didn’t care when a 71-year-old female staffer for California Rep. Dana Rohrbacher was knocked unconscious by an angry group of liberal protesters.
Democrats didn’t care when a North Carolina GOP office was firebombed by an angry mob of liberals.
Democrats didn't give a rat's ass when 22 members of their House caucus refused to disassociate themselves from arch Jew hater Louis Farrakhan.
Democrats didn’t care when Hillary Clinton said “we can’t be civil to Republicans until Democrats return to power”.
For over two years Democrats have encouraged hate, harassment, vandalism, acts of violence and even threats of assassination.
Now these two-faced, lying, disgusting pieces of garbage and their revolting, dishonest, corrupt media lackeys are whining and sniveling about how the president is responsible for the Pittsburgh massacre.
---Jeremy Akerman
1a) Amalek Comes to Pittsburgh
Eleven Jews were murdered Saturday in their synagogue. I knew five of them.
By Lou Weiss
There are not so many of us Jews in the world—something like 0.2% of the population—so we pride ourselves on punching above our weight. We introduced some of the foundational ideas of Western civilization: the sanctity of human life, uniform morality, freedom, concern for the downtrodden, the weakend.
Sadly we are also above average in attracting evil people who hate what we stand for. This murderer, like all anti-Semites, resents the ideas that we carry in this world. Concern for the downtrodden? Who’s more downtrodden than a refugee?
The archetype for all anti-Semites is Amalek. His cowardly specialty was picking off the old, weak and infirm stragglers at the back of the Exodus pack. Saturday’s murderer was Amalek brought to life, as he mainly killed old and mentally challenged members of all three of the resident congregations.
For a couple of years, I was the head of a congregation that merged with Tree of Life; for many years I was a late-arriving regular at the Shabbat morning service that was attacked. I knew five of the people who were murdered. They were more than good and lovely people. They were the stalwarts who would show up on time and help out.
Rose Mallinger, 97, would always be there, sitting next to her sister. Saturday she was next to her daughter Andrea who, like the whole family, is possessed of a permanent smile. Andrea was shot. Rose was murdered.
Cecil Rosenthal, 59, knew my wife from childhood. He had special needs and a youthful exuberance. His younger, thinner brother, David, had a more serious mien and spoke less. He too had special needs. Like his older brother, he was murdered.
Irv Younger, 69, was a sweet man with a shock of white hair who would do anything that needed to be done at the shul. Murdered.
Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, was a member of Dor Hadash, a synagogue that rented space in the social hall. A family doctor, he escaped the initial assault and returned to help the survivors. He was murdered.
Because we are so few, we feel pain when a Jew is in trouble anywhere. When someone is killed by a terrorist in Israel or held captive in the former Soviet Union, it is very much our business. We are used to making calls to see if our friends or relatives throughout the world were hurt in an attack. Now it is our turn to receive those calls.
What happened to our wonderful, close community Saturday has now become the business not only of Jews but of all civilized human beings. The heartbreak will never go away. The best way to honor the people who were murdered would be to emulate their decency and goodness.
In last week’s Torah portion, we read about how Abraham bargained with God to preserve the occupants of Sodom. Beyond their signature activity, the Sodomites committed real crimes related to their treatment of strangers. Abraham asks for God’s forbearance if he can find 10 good men in the city. He couldn’t, and subsequently 10 became the minimum number for a Jewish prayer service. The number of Jews murdered at the Tree of Life Saturday was 11.
Mr. Weiss is a Pittsburgh carpet salesman.
1b)The Oldest Hatred
All good Americans stand in solidarity against anti-Semitism.
By The Editorial Board
The massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh is an awful reminder that there are human hatreds far more virulent and ancient than those that animate our current political divisions. The killer of 11 human beings on the Sabbath Saturday morning was an anti-Semite who was out to kill Jews.
“All Jews must die,” alleged killer Robert Bowers yelled as he burst into a religious service and opened fire. As our friends at the New York Sun note, anti-Semitism is not aimed at Jewish behavior, or support for Jewish immigration, or support for Israel. Robert Bowers simply hated Jews.
This irrational hatred is one of humanity’s oldest and manifests itself in murder almost daily in the Middle East. Jews are killed simply because they are Jews, as they have been throughout history. This is why millions have sought refuge in a Jewish state, Israel, and also in the religious protections embedded in the Constitution of the United States.
The outpouring of support and grief for the victims of the Pittsburgh massacre is a reminder of America’s unique role as a refuge for the world’s religious. Muslim states often persecute non-Muslims as well as Muslims who do not share their brand of Islam. China persecutes people of all faiths. America protects them.
The U.S. has seen an increase in anti-Semitic acts in recent years, according to the Anti-Defamation League. But there are still fewer in America than in most of the rest of world, and the sources of anti-Semitism range across the political spectrum, including some on the right like Robert Bowers but also from the pro-Palestinian left, especially on university campuses.
In America the most stalwart supporters of Israel and the Jewish people are evangelical Christians and orthodox Catholics. Perhaps this is because as people of faith themselves they know what it is like to be mocked and shunned in a popular culture that is increasingly secular, often aggressively so.
President Trump says he’ll visit Pittsburgh, and well he should. That trip would be a statement of national solidarity with the victims and against anti-Semitism. This being 2018 in America, the political left nonetheless jumped immediately to shift blame for the murders from the killer to Mr. Trump. The Washington Post ran off multiple pieces on the theme. No matter that Mr. Trump’s daughter has converted to Judaism and she and her husband are raising their children in the faith.
Americans would do well to ignore this toxic habit of political blame for murderous acts by the racist, anti-Semitic or mentally disturbed. We are all responsible for our rhetoric, and that includes Mr. Trump, as well as Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder.
But the blame artists are distracting attention from the real sickness, which in this case is anti-Semitism, a hatred that goes back millennia. That is the toxin to banish as much as possible from American life, even if it can’t be purged entirely from human souls.
1c)ANALYSIS: HOW SHOULD TRUMP ‘EXTRACT THE POISON OF ANTISEMITISM?’
Later he tweeted, “This evil antisemitic attack is an assault on humanity. It
will take all of us working together to extract the poison of antisemitism
from our world. We must unite to conquer hate.”
Should US Jews be barricading themselves inside their synagogues, the
way many European Jews do, because antisemitism is a foregone
conclusion? Or should there be an active effort to eradicate antisemitism?
The practical answer is both. American Jews should be doing what they
have to do to keep themselves safe, whether it’s putting bulletproof
windows in their institutions, hiring more guards, or whatever else security experts recommend.
Many were outraged by Trump’s original comment because it reeks of
victim-blaming. It’s true that this is not the first shooting at a Jewish
institution – the deadly shooting at a Kansas Jewish Community Center in
2014 comes to mind, as do countless recent incidents of vandalism around
the US – but we in Israel know well that having guns around, while helpful,
does not prevent all casualties.
The real problem is not the lack of guards, it’s the need for guards.
Antisemitism has been on the rise since 2014 – meaning before Trump
became or even announced that he was running for president – but spiked
by nearly 70% in 2017, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
The vast majority of Jewish Americans did not vote for Trump and do not
support him. Less than half (46%) supported his moving the US Embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, so even his most dramatic pro-Israel move
seems unlikely to move the needle on Jewish political support.
Yet, the killer in Pittsburgh was under the impression that Trump is in the
thrall of a Jewish conspiracy and working to promote some kind of Jewish
agenda. Those ideas don’t come from a vacuum.
The idea of Jews being an “infestation,” as the killer called it, go as far
back as the Book of Esther, in which Haman described “a certain people
scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples.... Their laws are
different from every other people’s and they do not observe the king’s laws;
therefore, it is not befitting the king to tolerate them.” Haman’s proposed
solution to the “Jewish Problem” was “to destroy, to slay and to exterminate
all the Jews.”
In more modern times there is Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which
originated in Eastern Europe and was repackaged and published in the US
by Henry Ford as The International Jew. That conspiracy theory of sneaky
Jewish domination was re-purposed by Charles Lindbergh of the America
First Committee in an effort to keep the US out of World War II. “America
First” is one of Trump’s favorite slogans.
And that is not the only way those ideas have been floated from the very
top of the American political pyramid in recent years.
Trump has repeatedly called Jewish critics (and others) “globalists” –
meaning they’re not putting American interests first – and made the
particularly horrifying assertion that there were “nice people” among white
supremacists. There’s also his fixation on George Soros who, it must be
said, should not be immune from criticism, but has become an antisemitic
bogeyman on the scale of the Rothschilds.
The Left is not immune to dog-whistling, either: The Obama administration,
for example, implied that Jewish opponents of the Iran Deal in Congress
were warmongers who had dual loyalties. This is, in a way, almost more
sinister than Trump’s statements, in that the statements could come off as
much more innocuous but still have antisemitic overtones.
While we cannot read either of their minds, it seems absurd that Obama
or Trump is an out-and-out antisemite. But their intentions are almost
beside the point.
They sent messages that extremists picked up on and turned into action,
whether that was their intention or not. Extremists chanted “Jews will not
replace us” in Charlottesville, Virginia, and distributed flyers blaming Jews
for the arduous process of getting Brett Kavanaugh confirmed as a US
Supreme Court justice. Iowa Rep. Steve King talked last week about a
“great replacement” of white people with other, apparently undesirable,
types, funded by – who else? – Soros, and he sought the “Polish
perspective” on the Holocaust, minimizing the Jewish one. On the Left,
conspiracists are taking elected office: Ilhan Omar, who said Israel has
“hypnotized the world,” is likely to be voted into Congress from Minnesota
this week, and Leslie Cockburn, who wrote a book about how Israel
1d) Why We Cling To The Tree Of Life
By Ben Shapiro
On Saturday, in a constantly-repeating story as old as the
Jewish people, a Jew-hating murderer decided to slaughter
as many Jews as possible. This murderer shouted the
slogan of Jew-haters throughout time: “All Jews must die.”
While the history of the Jewish people is filled with fractious
division, the evidence suggests that this basic principle was
fundamentally true – and history has treated the Jews as a
closely-bound unit. Jewish identity wasn’t a choice. It was a
reality.
America is the most tolerant and accepting and loving
country the Jews have experienced, outside of Israel, in the
long span of recorded time – but the curse of anti-Semitism
never leaves the Jews. I grew up and live in Los Angeles,
the second-largest Jewish community in the United States;
I wear my yarmulke publicly. I have never felt unsafe. Still,
nearly every Jew is one degree removed from tragedy. In
1991, a synagogue in my community was firebombed. In
1999, a white supremacist shot up a local Jewish
Community Center. In 2002, a radical Muslim terrorist shot
up the El-Al counter at the Los Angeles International Airport,
killing a member of my local community. When I attended
the Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles, our
school was evacuated multiple times per year thanks to
bomb threats; we were located next to the Simon
Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, which was similarly
evacuated routinely.
1c)ANALYSIS: HOW SHOULD TRUMP ‘EXTRACT THE POISON OF ANTISEMITISM?’
Antisemitism has been on the rise since 2014 – meaning before Trump became or even announced that he was running for president – but spiked by nearly 70% in 2017.
BY LAHAV HARKOV
Mourners visit a makeshift memorial outside the Tree of Life synagogue, a day after 11 Jewish worshippers were shot dead in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 28, 2018. (photo credit: REUTERS/CATHAL MCNAUGHTON)
“This is a case where if they had an armed guard inside they might have been able to stop [the shooter]
immediately,” US President Donald Trump said on Saturday, after the Sabbath massacre at the Tree of Life
Congregation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
immediately,” US President Donald Trump said on Saturday, after the Sabbath massacre at the Tree of Life
Congregation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Later he tweeted, “This evil antisemitic attack is an assault on humanity. It
will take all of us working together to extract the poison of antisemitism
from our world. We must unite to conquer hate.”
As often happens with Trump, his comments reflect two divergent paths
that would lead to very different policies.
that would lead to very different policies.
Should US Jews be barricading themselves inside their synagogues, the
way many European Jews do, because antisemitism is a foregone
conclusion? Or should there be an active effort to eradicate antisemitism?
The practical answer is both. American Jews should be doing what they
have to do to keep themselves safe, whether it’s putting bulletproof
windows in their institutions, hiring more guards, or whatever else security experts recommend.
And the US government should be doing more to fight the scourge of
antisemitism.
But the statements made after a massive, tragic shooting like the one in
Squirrel Hill carry more weight than being purely prescriptive, and while
armed guards are not a bad idea, there is a broader discussion that needs
to be had.
antisemitism.
But the statements made after a massive, tragic shooting like the one in
Squirrel Hill carry more weight than being purely prescriptive, and while
armed guards are not a bad idea, there is a broader discussion that needs
to be had.
Many were outraged by Trump’s original comment because it reeks of
victim-blaming. It’s true that this is not the first shooting at a Jewish
institution – the deadly shooting at a Kansas Jewish Community Center in
2014 comes to mind, as do countless recent incidents of vandalism around
the US – but we in Israel know well that having guns around, while helpful,
does not prevent all casualties.
:
The real problem is not the lack of guards, it’s the need for guards.
Antisemitism has been on the rise since 2014 – meaning before Trump
became or even announced that he was running for president – but spiked
by nearly 70% in 2017, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
The vast majority of Jewish Americans did not vote for Trump and do not
support him. Less than half (46%) supported his moving the US Embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, so even his most dramatic pro-Israel move
seems unlikely to move the needle on Jewish political support.
Yet, the killer in Pittsburgh was under the impression that Trump is in the
thrall of a Jewish conspiracy and working to promote some kind of Jewish
agenda. Those ideas don’t come from a vacuum.
The idea of Jews being an “infestation,” as the killer called it, go as far
back as the Book of Esther, in which Haman described “a certain people
scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples.... Their laws are
different from every other people’s and they do not observe the king’s laws;
therefore, it is not befitting the king to tolerate them.” Haman’s proposed
solution to the “Jewish Problem” was “to destroy, to slay and to exterminate
all the Jews.”
In more modern times there is Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which
originated in Eastern Europe and was repackaged and published in the US
by Henry Ford as The International Jew. That conspiracy theory of sneaky
Jewish domination was re-purposed by Charles Lindbergh of the America
First Committee in an effort to keep the US out of World War II. “America
First” is one of Trump’s favorite slogans.
And that is not the only way those ideas have been floated from the very
top of the American political pyramid in recent years.
Trump has repeatedly called Jewish critics (and others) “globalists” –
meaning they’re not putting American interests first – and made the
particularly horrifying assertion that there were “nice people” among white
supremacists. There’s also his fixation on George Soros who, it must be
said, should not be immune from criticism, but has become an antisemitic
bogeyman on the scale of the Rothschilds.
The Left is not immune to dog-whistling, either: The Obama administration,
for example, implied that Jewish opponents of the Iran Deal in Congress
were warmongers who had dual loyalties. This is, in a way, almost more
sinister than Trump’s statements, in that the statements could come off as
much more innocuous but still have antisemitic overtones.
While we cannot read either of their minds, it seems absurd that Obama
or Trump is an out-and-out antisemite. But their intentions are almost
beside the point.
They sent messages that extremists picked up on and turned into action,
whether that was their intention or not. Extremists chanted “Jews will not
replace us” in Charlottesville, Virginia, and distributed flyers blaming Jews
for the arduous process of getting Brett Kavanaugh confirmed as a US
Supreme Court justice. Iowa Rep. Steve King talked last week about a
“great replacement” of white people with other, apparently undesirable,
types, funded by – who else? – Soros, and he sought the “Polish
perspective” on the Holocaust, minimizing the Jewish one. On the Left,
conspiracists are taking elected office: Ilhan Omar, who said Israel has
“hypnotized the world,” is likely to be voted into Congress from Minnesota
this week, and Leslie Cockburn, who wrote a book about how Israel
supposedly controls US foreign policy, is leading in Virginia’s Fifth District.
Many have repeatedly pointed out what Trump is broadcasting when he
says these things. Former National Economic Council director Gary Cohn
reportedly resigned in part because of Trump’s “nice people” statement.
And yet, many times since then, including this week, Trump has gone on
about Soros and the globalists in ways that could be understood
dangerously.
Many have repeatedly pointed out what Trump is broadcasting when he
says these things. Former National Economic Council director Gary Cohn
reportedly resigned in part because of Trump’s “nice people” statement.
And yet, many times since then, including this week, Trump has gone on
about Soros and the globalists in ways that could be understood
dangerously.
So while Trump’s tweet about the attack in Pittsburgh and his call “to
extract the poison of antisemitism” are commendable, they need to be
backed up with change.He and many others in the public sphere should
be giving more thought about how they speak about Jews and prominent
Jewish individuals, because the messages they mean to send are getting
jumbled and are being received as antisemitism.
extract the poison of antisemitism” are commendable, they need to be
backed up with change.He and many others in the public sphere should
be giving more thought about how they speak about Jews and prominent
Jewish individuals, because the messages they mean to send are getting
jumbled and are being received as antisemitism.
1d) Why We Cling To The Tree Of Life
By Ben Shapiro
On Saturday, in a constantly-repeating story as old as the
Jewish people, a Jew-hating murderer decided to slaughter
as many Jews as possible. This murderer shouted the
slogan of Jew-haters throughout time: “All Jews must die.”
That slogan has served to justify slaughter in the name of
nationalism, in the name of communism, in the name of
Christianity, in the name of Islam. Indeed, Jew-hatred is
unique because Jew-hatred is infinitely chameleonic.
The Jews, however, are not.
Traditional Jewish thought suggests that every Jewish soul
was present at the foot of Mount Sinai when God spoke to
the nation of Israel, born and unborn. The Jews were bound
in an inextricable covenant; we all consented, and we all
became part of that covenant.
While the history of the Jewish people is filled with fractious
division, the evidence suggests that this basic principle was
fundamentally true – and history has treated the Jews as a
closely-bound unit. Jewish identity wasn’t a choice. It was a
reality.
Modernity has obscured this basic truth for many Jews.
The enlightenment allowed Jews to believe they could exit
the Jewish lineage, to abandon the faith of their fathers;
freedom of choice came with freedom to exit. But the world
is not that malleable. Jews, for better or worse, remain Jews.
Every Jew knows this in his or her marrow. When we meet
another Jew, the first thing we do is play Jewish geography:
who knows whom, who is related to whom. That’s the rich
side of being part of a global tribe – everyone is one degree
removed from everyone else.
We’re reminded of that in joy, and we’re reminded of that in
horror.
America is the most tolerant and accepting and loving
country the Jews have experienced, outside of Israel, in the
long span of recorded time – but the curse of anti-Semitism
never leaves the Jews. I grew up and live in Los Angeles,
the second-largest Jewish community in the United States;
I wear my yarmulke publicly. I have never felt unsafe. Still,
nearly every Jew is one degree removed from tragedy. In
1991, a synagogue in my community was firebombed. In
1999, a white supremacist shot up a local Jewish
Community Center. In 2002, a radical Muslim terrorist shot
up the El-Al counter at the Los Angeles International Airport,
killing a member of my local community. When I attended
the Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles, our
school was evacuated multiple times per year thanks to
bomb threats; we were located next to the Simon
Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, which was similarly
evacuated routinely.
So why don’t Jews treat anti-Semitism in the United States as a crisis? Because Jews live with a certain background knowledge: we know how bad things can get, and therefore how good we have it. The Holocaust still exists in living memory; the genocidal screams of tyrants still resonate throughout the Middle East; Jews in Europe are still fleeing the shocking escalation of anti-Jewish hatred in countries from Sweden to France.
But even in the United States, hatred of the
Jews is on the rise. That rise is indicative of a
deeper problem of the Western soul. As
Western civilization tears itself apart, anti-
Semitism comes bursting through the seams.
That anti-Semitism can be fought. It can only be fought by
choosing life.
In that Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday morning, the
Jew-hating murderer rushed into a room in which a brit
milah was taking place: a circumcision ceremony, a
ceremony as old as the Jewish people, a ceremony
welcoming an eight-day-old child into the community of the
Jews. In other parts of the synagogue, different
minyanimwere reading the story of Abraham’s
near-sacrifice of Isaac on a mountain.
Why would Jews continue to inaugurate children into the
most targeted community in human history? Jewish destiny
may be inescapable, but why embrace that destiny? The
members of the Tree of Life Synagogue were shot to death
in a synagogue. So why continue to cluster in synagogues,
fulfilling age-old commandments, the elderly passing down
their traditions to infants?
Because, as the Tree of Life Synagogue’s name attests, the
Torah – the Jewish destiny – is a “tree of life for all those
who cling to it.” (Proverbs 3:18) And we are enjoined to
choose life. That, after all, is the story of Abraham and
Isaac: a story not of God asking Abraham to kill his son, but
a story of God asking if Abraham is willing to place his son
in mortal danger in service to God – and God’s grace in
saving Isaac thanks to Abraham’s commitment. That is the
story of the Jewish people. That is the story members of the Tree of Life Synagogue were reading as they died al kiddush Hashem,
in the sanctification of God’s name.
And that is the story of our civilization. An attack on the
Tree of Life is an attack on all of us – those of us who wish
to imbue our own children with a sense of Godliness in a
dark world, a sense of eternal value in a society eating away
at itself. Inside the sanctuary, all was peaceful on the
Sabbath -- until the gunshots rang out.
The only proper response is the same response Jews have
given throughout time: to fight back. To stubbornly cling to
that which stamps us with the image of God. To fight
darkness with light, untruth with truth, and death with life.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No comments:
Post a Comment