Britannia Radio

The Bombshell Of Ancient Judaism

From the desk of Friedrich Hansen on Wed, 2012-04-18 08:46

Joseph B. Soloveitchik

On Good Friday I was a guest at an orthodox Seder evening in my local Synagogue, which is located somewhere at the far end of Germany between the three corners of Germany, Poland and Tchechia, where the echoes of the bygone era of communism won’t die. As everywhere in Germany these days this small Jewish community is dominated by Jewish refugees from Russia whose religious credentials and rituals where all but extinguished by Stalinism. By contrast the Rabbi got his orthodox training in Israel and works this bunch of secularized Jews, seemingly unable to remember any of the traditional cants, with utter devotion. This moving scene offered a lively demonstration of what it takes to get a civilization running. Jewish exceptionalism having survived over three thousand years nearly everywhere around the world has been utterly extinguished only in the Soviet Paradise of Russia. As sure as the German national socialist brand of secularism aimed at the physical termination of Jews the Russian international socialist brand aimed at the spiritual extinction of Judaism. In Germany today the remains of both secularizations are epitomized in a poem by Nobel Laureate Gunter Grass, who warns us of all nations about Israeli aggression threatening the rest of the world with annihilation.

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