My Mother, a Holocaust survivor, experienced inhumanity to man that I would wish on no one. She raised me with tikkun olam (meaning committed to making the world a better place, that I must leave the world a better place).
My Father, a Holocaust survivor, experienced inhumanity to man that I would wish on no one. He raised me that one day America would also throw us Jews out and we should always be prepared to leave.
Growing up in a small town, Branszczyk, Poland, my Mother had a non-Jewish best friend, who, when the Nazis came for my mother, tried to save her life, made arrangements for her to be hidden from the Nazis with a cousin on a remote farm and accompanied her there so she arrived safely, kept her family’s personal items for my Mother, and returned them when, after the war ended, my Mother went back to Branszczyk, that was cleansed of Jews but for my Mother. Every one of her parents’ best friends who had also been given personal items to hold for them pulled guns on her and threatened to kill her if she did not leave. . . without what they stole from her now murdered family.
My Mother and Father were convinced Nazis or those like them would return.
They were both right.
Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis. The world was silent even knowing about the concentration camps, the several enormous killing camps and the 44,000, yes, 44,000 concentration camps. Jews were slaughtered, experimented upon without anesthesia, tortured in ways you would not want to know, raped, branded, and I could go on and on.
The Nazis did not only kill Jews.
The Nazis, among others, killed
Homosexuals
Blacks
Disabled and those with Mental Health Problems
Trade-unionist
Roma (minority group)
Poles
Russians
Other Europeans and citizens of every country they occupied
And Americans
Do you not care about any of those groups the Nazis targeted either?
The Palestinians could have created a paradise in Gaza as an example of accomplishment with the immense amount of financial support they received from the world but instead Hamas, a terrorist regime and machine in hospitals, schools, homes, and underground tunnels exists in Gaza. Hamas uses Palestinians as a cover, using their own community as human shields to kill, destroy Israel, and take everything and kill everyone else there too. Terrorists only care about terror.
Despite October 7, 2023, the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust, when the terrorists brutally tortured, raped boys and girls, burned alive and in ovens and massacred babies, children, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, beheaded human beings, killed and blew up young people at a music festival, kidnapped more than 200 including babies (!), and did this to human beings, Christians and people of all faiths, from 33 countries (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Thailand, France, Napal, Argentina, China, Romania, Austria, Brazil, Belarus, Philippines, Peru, South Africa, Australia, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, Turkey, Germany, Mexico, among them) that were Jews or associated with Jews, were helpers of Jews . . . and the Hamas terrorists were joyful in the massacre. Hamas terrorists, like the Nazis, like Isis, are trained to be killing machines.
The world has been attacked by Hamas. Over 200 hostages of several nationalities, including Jews, are still held by Hamas. And the U.N. condemns Israel?
October 7, 2023, the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust. So much of the world is silent. So much of the world condemns the Jews.
As a child of Holocaust survivors, I should not be surprised that antisemitism is alive in the world, and Jews are again a target to destroy and wipe from the face of the earth. The truth is most painful.
My brother has always told me that Israel must exist as the rest of the world either does not care about the Jews or wants the world to be rid of Jews. We Jews must have a place in our only historic homeland. We are seeing that now. Antisemites in the United States and all over the world are speaking and acting loud and clear. They are out in the open. We Jews are in danger everywhere. The truth is most painful.
Avi Lewis in “Dear world: I don’t care,” The Times of Israel,” October 30, 2023, speaks the truth that is most painful. As a fellow human being, please read it in its entirety.
Near the beginning of his post, Avi Lewis says World “I know you wouldn’t tolerate any of the things they did to us if they would’ve done it to you,”. . . . and “I know you would do everything to eliminate such pure evil if you experienced it yourself.”
“. . . .I don’t care that you’ve rallied for Palestine as part of your march for LGBTQ rights, trans rights, workers rights, socialism, climate change, intersectionality, Black Lives Matter, fighting Islamaphobia and ‘all forms of racism’
Your gullibility would be laughable if it wasn’t so hypocritical. None of those things exist under Hamas.”
And near the end of his blog post, Avi Lewis says:
“For the first time in 2,000 years we are organized, we are motivated and we will defend ourselves”
“We fight for light over darkness”
“Morality over evil”
“Not that it matters to you – but we will stick to the rules and hold the high moral ground not because you expect it from us, but because they are a value for us”
“We will do so ethically and thoughtfully, for we are the People of the Book”
“Our power and strength are our necessity, because the alternative for us is:
Be’eri, Kfar Aza, Pittsburgh, Toulouse, Farhud, Hebron, Birkenau, Belzec, Babi Yar, Kristalnacht, Kielce and Kishinev.”
Avi Lewis ends with:
“It doesn’t matter what I do, you’re not going to change”
“It doesn’t matter how I act, because your issue is with who I am”
“Now I’m going to block out your noise, and do what it takes to win this war”
“Today
Finally
I no longer care.”
My Mother taught me to think about my non-Jewish friends. My Mother said to me, if you have a non-Jewish friend, you must evaluate if when the Nazis come again would they be like her best friend was to her. . . .and how she was to her best friend in her life. Would any hide me when the Nazis come again.
We human beings are of one world. You may identify with one or more of the groups above, tortured and murdered by the Nazis or Hamas or Isis. You are a target too. . . just not first on the world terrorist list.
This is not the first time I have quoted, “First They Came,” by Pastor Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
With little joy,
Mema
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