“For
a brief moment have I forsaken you, and with abundant mercy shall I gather you
in. With a slight wrath have I concealed My countenance from you for a moment,
but with eternal kindness (love) shall I show you mercy… For the mountains may
be moved and the hills may falter but My kindness (love) shall not be removed
from you… says the One Who shows you Mercy, Hashem.” Isaiah 54:7-9
Not long ago I read a story that took
place shortly after the Shoah. It was
the Shabbat of Ki Tavo in a shul in Brooklyn where the Rebbe of
Sanz-Klausenburg was officiating:
“When I arrived… I was amazed by the sea
of black and white swaying figures… all newly immigrant Holocaust survivors. It
was said about the Rebbe that, although his wife and thirteen children had been
murdered, he had not sat shiva for any of them. He preached that those still
alive must be saved before one could be allowed the luxury of mourning the
dead. The Rebbe himself was among the last to leave Europe. I took a seat directly
behind the Rebbe… the prayers were the most intense I had ever experienced…
“As the Torah reader began to chant the
weekly portion – when he came to the passage known as “the chastisement”, the
Tokheha – the curses that would befall the Israelites… in accordance with the
time honored custom, the Torah reader began to chant this portion in a whisper and very quickly. Suddenly a
sound came from the Rebbe… he said only one word - hecher, louder!
“The Torah reader immediately stopped
reading... did the Rebbe actually say, ‘louder’? Would the Rebbe go against the
custom of Israel… the reader apparently decided that he had been mistaken and began again in a whisper… the
Rebbe then turned to face the
congregation, banged on the lectern, his eyes blazing: ‘Ich
hob gezogt hecher, I said louder’ he shouted out, ‘Let the Master of the
Universe hear. We have nothing to be afraid of. We have already received all
the curses… Let the Almighty hear and let Him understand that the time has come
to send the blessings!’…
“…this time the Torah reader began to chant the curses loudly and in a much
slower cadence… after Aleinu, the Rebbe once again turned to the congregation,
but this time with his eyes conveying deep love. ‘Mein tayere shvester un drider, my beloved sisters and brothers, the
blessings will come, but not from America!’
G-d has promised the blessings after the curses, but they will only come
from the Land of Israel. Let us pack our
bags for the last time…” (As told by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin) Not long after, the Rebbe led his congregants
to Israel where they settled in Netanya and there he became involved in
establishing Laniado Hospital. Israel became the source of our people’s
blessing. Tzvi Nussbaum smiled.
As we look ahead to what will undoubtedly
be a very challenging year for Israel and our Jewish people, once again
American Jewry is facing “deja vu all over again” – (gotta give it to
Yogi). As it was coined in the days of
Roosevelt – TGFR, thank G-d for Roosevelt, today the liberal American Jewish
love for being a Democrat has seemingly
replaced TGFR with TGFO, thank G-d for
Obama. Since taking office the relationship between President Obama and Prime
Minister Netanyahu has been a continuous series of public confrontations and
conflicts. To state the obvious, the relationship between America and its
alleged closest ally in the Middle East has been strained. If liberal Democratically aligned Jewish
American supporters of Israel are honest with themselves, this certainly wasn’t
what they expected when 78% of Jewish Americans voted for Obama in 2008. Recent
polls have shown that Congressional Republican support for Israel to be at 74%
while Congressional Democratic support for Israel is at 52%, almost 50% lower.
Most recently at the Democratic Convention, many Jews were shocked that the Democratic platform
position from just four years earlier
had been changed and that Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was
initially taken out, along with the unambiguous statement that Hamas was and
still is a terrorist organization. An obvious question should be was the
alleged “800 pound gorilla” AIPAC aware of this, and if not why not. AIPAC, we
have been told, has close ties to the higher ups and decision-makers of the
Democratic Party. Why was it kept out of the loop, or was it. The truth is that
this is reminiscent of Obama’s speech at AIPAC when he stated for the cheering
crowd that Jerusalem will remain the undivided capital of Israel, got his
applause, only to “clarify” his statement the very next day.
Any
people with ears to hear, eyes to see, with a Jewish-Zionist heart and a
love of Israel, can see clearly that there have been a series of problematic confrontations
between the President and the Prime
Minister over the last 3.5 years as the centrifuges are spinning and while the Arab/Muslim Spring has turned into the Arab/Muslim
bloodbath. While all this Arab/Muslim
mayhem is going on, and the regions tensions are increasing, shouldn’t this be
a time when America and Israel clearly show the world there is no daylight
between the two.. The question is where does the liberal Democratically
supporting Jewish community stand in its real support of Israel. Is it willing to go to bat for Israel this
time or has nothing changed in the last 73 years, and if that is the case, that
nothing has changed stop building these
trophies to American Jewish guilt called Holocaust Museums and stop debasing
the words Never Again. And Tzvi will
kindly ask you to remove his picture from museum walls.
“It should be remembered that in 1939,
Senator Robert Wagner (D-New York) and Rep. Edith Rodgers (D-Massachusetts)-two
Christians jointly introduced
legislation providing for the non-quota admission of 20,000 German Jewish
refugee children to the United States… while Jewish organizations … refused to
press for its adoption. Stephen Wise,
President of American Jewish Congress, specifically pressured some of his
colleagues in American Jewish leadership to refrain from public agitation on
behalf of the Wagner-Rodgers bill… At
hearings in 1939, Sidney Hollander, president of the National Council of Jewish
Federations, had no illusions about the desperate plight of Germany’s Jews…
with neighboring countries already crowded with refugees and far off lands able
to absorb but a limited number, nothing lay ahead but extermination.”(Medoff, The Deafening Silence, p57).
Yet
perhaps the words that should be remembered most from the various witnesses who appeared in
front of the Congressional committee for immigration in 1939 was Stephen Wise’s
testimony, “If there is any conflict
between our duty to those children and our duty to our country, speaking for
myself as a citizen, I should say, that our country comes first, and if the
children cannot be helped, they cannot be helped, because we should not
undertake to do anything that would be hurtful to the interests of our
country.” (Medoff, the Deafening
Silence, p 58) In Jewish leadership’s mind, knowing that these children
faced certain death, saving 20,000 Jewish children would somehow be “hurtful to
the interests of our country”. Tzvi Nussbaum, hears the words of cowardice from
American Jewish leadership. The quisling Wise stands not alone in Jewish
history. There have been others before him, there will no doubt be others after
him. Tzvi hopes they will learn, but he knows courage for diaspora Jewish
leadership has always been in short supply.
And here we are today 73 years later and
it seems that the liberal American Jewish community has again learned little from history. For 14 years Iran had told the world that it
has been building a nuclear bomb for the expressed purpose of destroying
Israel. The Prime Minister of Israel
asked for a meeting with our President –and a Jewish member of Congress, Henry
Waxman (Jewish D-Calif) responds, “I don’t think it’s necessary for the
President to rearrange his schedule… I don’t think it was appropriate for the
Prime Minister to publically get into a dispute with the President of the
United States (during his re-election campaign), since we’re both very closely
working together to impose sanctions…”
which most involved believe
haven’t worked and will not work. And
then we have Barney Frank (Jewish D-Mass) – “The Israelis have to consider
American public opinion.” Really, Israel has to take into account American
public opinion when the survival of Israel is at stake... yet in chimed the”
little old cookie-maker stand by your man” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
with “… the United States is not setting deadlines with regard to Iran”, to which
Netanyahu responded by saying, “The
world tells Israel to wait, there’s still time and I say wait for what? Wait
until when? Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines
before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.”
Shortly thereafter on September 13, 128
Republicans sent a letter to the President urging him to
reconsider… “We are astounded by your refusal to grant this request to one of
our closest allies at such a critical time for that region. The rejection of
this request represents disturbing treatment of a vital partner and illustrates
a lack of regard for the indispensable relationship between the United States
and Israel… which is essential to our national security.” The silence of the
Congressional Democrats, the silence of the Conference of Presidents
of Major Jewish Organizations, and the silence of the “800 lb. gorilla
of lobbying”, AIPAC was deafening. But as foreign relation hearings got underway
in Congress to investigate what happened in Libya the public now knows that the
White House had a lot on its plate two days after the slaughter of an American
ambassador and three other Americans in Libya. There was much work to do to try
to attach blame. Susan Rice, Ambassador
to the United Nations, the go to spin doctor,
would five days later go on every Sunday news program to blame the
attack on a little known four month old
video satire rather than the Administration’s incompetence when it comes to
foreign affairs. All those apologies, the
bowing and kumbayah sensitivity-trained moments of tolerance and understanding
of Islam just didn’t quite get translated.
American embassies in Egypt and Libya were up in flames. It’s scary when
you think about just how incompetent and out of touch this Administration has
been over the last four years when it comes to the Arab/Muslim world. Having thrown so many former allies
under the bus, there can’t be that much room left, but Israel might just be wondering if there’s
room for just one more, and asking themselves
what the President meant when he said he would be more flexible after
he’s re-elected. Tzvi is now smirking…
he seems to be thinking that not much has changed in the last 73 years. What
has American Jewish leadership learned, if anything. The four letters of 1939
have changed from TGFR to TGFO – just another four letter word.
Tzvi is disappointed. For all his
popularity he had hoped he would have made a difference but he now realizes
that the truth is American Jewish leadership has tried to assuage its guilt for
their cowardice during the Shoah by building Holocaust Museums – showing how
much they care and trotting out the worn out platitude of Never Again – but the
obvious question is do they really believe.
I walk into my office each morning – Tzvi
greets me with his look of fear and confusion. Tzvi Nussbaum is seven years
old. He is wearing a cap and short pants. A Nazi soldier with a rifle stands over him.
Tzvi’s arms are raised over his head.
Miraculously he will survive the war but he will never survive the
betrayal of American Jews and the American Jewish leadership. Hopefully Israel
will have learned some things don’t change… Hecher,
louder… maybe self-absorbed American Jewish “machers” can’t hear… HECHER.
No comments:
Post a Comment