Pam Cohen was an instrumental leader in developing American support for Soviet Jews in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Her insights are consistently accurate, and in the current circumstances, chilling.
The piece I’m sending you has been stewing a long time. It’s a product of both experience and contacts with incredible people who are on the front lines of this struggle both here and in Israel.
I want to share it with you.
Please feel free to share this.
Seemingly isolated events are like small pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that, as they fall into place reveal a horrifying picture. You don’t need special 3-D glasses to see the image, but it does require clarity of vision.
Israel’s survival is on the table. There are those in our government, media and international organizations who are convinced that the stability of the Middle East, indeed peace itself, is solely dependent on pressuring Israel to cede more territory than it already has without a quid pro quo. Israel--surrounded by 22 hostile Arab nations and 300 million Arabs--its size equivalent to 1/6th of 1% of the Arab lands and only 1/19th the size of California-- is facing perhaps its greatest crisis. Yet, sadly, a segment of American Jews cannot see the horrifying picture that is emerging from the puzzle pieces. Maybe they prefer to hide their heads in the sand, or maybe, like Europe’s Jews in the 1930’s, to believe “it could never happen.”
My American friends, Arabs are calling for the death of all Jews.
Addressing the emerging dangers, a senator, a great friend of Israel asks, “Where are the American Jews? Why are they silent? Where are their priorities? Why isn’t Israel their number one priority? What can be more important to them than the survival of their own people?”
That is my question. Where are we?
In the 1970’s, 80’s and into the 1990’s, the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews and its local councils throughout the country galvanized American Jews and the Jewish Establishment to put Soviet Jewish emigration on the front burner. We approached the broad issue from a very personal perspective---our relationships with “Refuseniks,” those Soviet Jews who were refused permission. We tied our families, our lives, our future to theirs. If they were not free, how could we be? We were one people, with one past, and one destiny. American Jews who traveled to the Soviet Union to meet Refuseniks were ignited. Today they will tell you it was the most meaningful experience of their lives. A privilege.
Where is American Jewry today?
Although there are unquestionably many exceptions, I believe that the more identified a Jew is with Judaism, the stronger the connection to his or her roots and the deeper the ties to the Jewish people. Rather than identify with Jews who endure illness, poverty, anti-Semitism, and terrorism, many prefer to champion broader humanitarian issues. Obviously, world hunger, women’s issues and environmental issues legitimately require advocacy.
But Jews represent less than 1% of America’s 300 million, and surely the focus should be on protecting and ensuring the survival of the Jewish people and America’s only democratic ally in the turbulent Middle East---Israel.
Rebbetzin Esther Yungreis, a survivor from Hungary, gives riveting lectures throughout the world. She warns America’s Jews to “connect the puzzle pieces” before it is too late. “Wake up,”she warns us.
Let’s just look at a very few glaring warning signs:
As in the 1930’s, the instability of the economies of Europe and the U.S brings the danger of social upheaval. The “victim” and the “underdog” seek social correction and are quick to point an accusatorial finger at the bankers, the Wall Street rich and, eventually, the Jews who “control the world economy.”
The Israel bashing in Europe cloaks pervasive social and political anti-Semitism. For example, as a result of the growing Moslem demographics and the general economic and political climate, several countries have tried, some successfully, to outlaw kosher slaughtering for meat consumption.
- Have you ever wondered why the world’s organizations that advocate for mental health and women's and children’s rights haven’t taken a leading stand in condemning the use of women and children as bombs or human shields?
- Or why they don’t openly protest when small Arab children are taught that it’s good to kill Jews?
- Ever wonder why the United Nations, Europe, and Amnesty International are obsessed with Israel’s determination to protect its citizens from rockets, but aren’t at all aggressive in opposing the ethnic genocide in Africa or more than 3000 murders in Syria?
- Ever wonder why the UN funds 2 Palestinian committees? The UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People in the General Assembly and the Division for Palestinian Rights, a part of the Secretariat, are UN funded propaganda machines that coordinate boycotts, divestment, and sanctions to destroy Israel. They are they only minority in the world elevated to enjoy this status.
The absence of UN condemnation is a patent endorsement of the consistent refusal by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to recognize Israel as a Jewish State, their refusal to recognize Israel’s very right to exist.
Another danger signal is the eruption of "Arab Springs" in numerous countries, which released restraints on the Moslem Brotherhood and other terrorist organizations.
Then there are the explicit public ravings of Iran’s president, who vows to annihilate Israel. His hate-filled speeches echo Hitler, who also broadcast his plans for the Jews.
Of all the threats to Israel and the Jewish people, the most dangerous is the global movement to delegitimize Israel. Justifying the right of Israel’s “friends” to express criticism, it denies the right of Jews to their own land and implements its goals by dehumanizing Israelis and Jews everywhere.
A flagrant manifestation of this process is seen in the successful efforts of the Palestinian Authority to officially appropriate Jewish sites in Israel, converting them to “historic Islamic landmarks” emboldened by their new seat in UNESCO. This highly explosive delegitimization movement has made anti-Semitism, cloaked as anti-Zionism, socially acceptable, even respectable.
Professors, academics, scientists, and social movements express spurious but “deniable” anti-Semitism through their anti-Israel activities. Commercial, economic, and scientific boycotts have become “justifiable” forms of anti-Semitism. A new, dangerous phenomenon is the very troublesome nature of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. In Boston on Saturday, November 5th, the crowd attempted to storm the Israeli Consulate. Fortunately, it was closed for the Sabbath. Another frightening manifestation of the delegitimization movement is “J Street,” a new voice of the Left which undermines Israel’s right to exist under the rubric of “peace.”
Perhaps one of the most insidious currents victimizes what may be our weakest link...our children. The delegitimization of Israel is a conflagration spreading from campus to campus. Far-left leaning professors use their classrooms as bully-pulpits to attack the State of Israel, immune from administrational censure and protected from students who don’t counter the attack because they fear academic reprisal.
Islamist groups on campuses use public areas for crude Israel-bashing, inciting crowds, and violently calling for death to Jews, without interference from campus authorities.
Jewish students, many without Jewish education, lacking facts about the Middle East and the history of Israel, and unable to defend themselves, are victimized twice: once by the virulent hostility and second by the assault to their Jewish identity, their core. Without knowledge of the facts, without direct contact with Jewish organizations, without family or friends in Israel, it’s difficult for them to decipher the left-leaning media. They are left confused---even ashamed and apologetic. They internalize the anti-Semitism around them and justify the assault. After all, how can professors and the media all be wrong?
Sadly, bereft of essential Jewish education, many American Jews, are also bereft of Jewish dignity which comes from having a basic knowledge of Judaism, Israel, and the mission of the Jewish people. Without educational grounding, and left with only "lox and bagel" sentimentality, a sad proportion of American Jews confuse humanistic politics with Jewish values, mistakenly believing that all Jewish values are commensurate with their liberal agendas. The New York Times and CNN are considered the accurate lenses with which to assess the "matsav," the situation in Israel. Not knowing themselves, they could not educate their children, who now face a visceral form of anti-Semitism on the campus and are not equipped to confront it.
Edmund Burke wrote: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
I urge you to take a look at this video.
Become informed.
Learn.
Learn about your history.
Step up!
Click this link to see a powerful film that’s being screened by concerned people all over America: http://stepupforisrael.com/confidential.php The password is: campus1
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