We are going to begin with a “game” called name that
anti-Semite. I’ll give you a quote, you
tell me who said it.
“There is a group of people scattered throughout your
kingdom whose customs are different from everyone else’s and who do not obey
the king’s laws. It doesn’t make any
sense to tolerate them.”
Name that anti-Semite….Haman
Don't think that one can fight against disease without
killing the cause, without exterminating the germ; and don't think that one can
fight against racial tuberculosis without taking care that the peoples be freed
of the germ of racial tuberculosis. The effect of Judaism will never disappear
and the poisoning of the people will not end unless the cause - the Jews - are
removed from our presence.1
Name that anti-Semite…..Hitler
These Zionists are “bloodsuckers who attack the Palestinians, these warmongers
are the descendants of apes and pigs.”
Name that anti-Semite…..Morsi
“The very existence
of the Zionist regime is an insult to humanity.” "The Zionist regime and the Zionists are
a cancerous tumor. Even if one cell of them is left in one inch of
(Palestinian) land, in the future this story (of Israel's existence) will
repeat."
Name that anti-Semite…..Ahmadinejad
Does it worry you that two of the individuals quoted are
still spreading their hateful messages today as leaders of two Middle Eastern
nations? Does it worry you that much of the world isn’t outraged when such
statements are made?
Hatred of Jews is an old story. It existed before we ever were born and
judging by the two statements I read
last to you, it will not be ending soon!
Joseph Telushkin and Dennis Prager, in their book, Why the Jews, suggest
that there are five possible responses to anti-Semitism.
#1: We can assimilate into the larger society and give up our
Jewish identity.
#2: We can live among larger number of Jews in the Jewish
State of Israel.
#3: We can convert many non-Jews to Judaism.
#4: We can fight anti-Semitism through all possible
political and physical means.
#5:We can Influence non-Jews to live according to the moral
values espoused by ethical monotheism.
Assimilation might have worked as a means of avoiding anti-Semitism
until Hitler redefined Judaism as a race. Until the Holocaust, one could
renounce Judaism, convert to another religion, and be spared from the sword.
Unless a racial definition of Judaism occurs again, assimilation would work for
individual Jews to avoid being subjected to anti-Semitic actions on the part of
others. However, assimilation of all Jews
forgets that in order for anti-Semitism to be resolved, Judaism must still be
in existence.
When Theodore Herzl thought about solving the problem of
anti-Semitism he noted that living in the land of Israel would allow Jews to
live in their own land where they would not be persecuted for being Jews. Herzl thought that by not having to live as a
“nation within a nation” the need for Jew haters would be eliminated! Although individual Jews may feel the sting
of anti-Semitism less when living in Israel, one would have to be blind not to
notice that hatred for the Jewish State is wide-spread.
The idea of seeking converts to Judaism as a means of preventing
anti-Semitism is seen as a 4 pronged approach.
“First by increasing the number of Jews, the Jews become stronger and
less likely to be attacked. Second it ensures that many non-Jews have Jewish
relatives. Third serious conversions
ideally spread Jewish values. And
fourth, by making it known that Jews welcome converts, Jews can help destroy
such anti-Semitic beliefs like Jews think they are an inherently superior race
or that Jews are ethnic chauvinists.”
Whether this is a true idea or not, it is not our reality mostly because
Judaism stopped actively pursuing converts when anti-Semites actively started
pursuing Jews!
The ADL and the Simon Wiesenthal Center are best known for
effectively following the actions of anti-Semites. Think back to the days when we here at
Tifereth Israel would be updated about the actions of the posse commitatus in
Nebraska. We have learned to answer
Holocaust deniers, how to use media watches to flush out anti-Semitic
statements. We have lobbyists who speak
up about our desires to support the continued existence of the State of Israel
but we also have individuals who would want others to believe that the Jewish
lobby controls Congress.
The fifth premise suggested by Telushkin and Prager is that
Jews can only combat anti-Semitic outbreaks by actually combating the cause of
Jew-hatred. They feel that only “morally strong societies will not be hostile
to Jews and Israel.” Our job as Jews is
to help produce societies, no matter where we live, that also find anti-Semitic
acts to be abhorrent. Our role of
spreading ethical monotheism to the world, should not be for the purpose of
converting all individuals to Judaism, rather to help establish a world based
on the idea that morality is not relative.
No matter by what name one calls his/her G-d, we believe that there is
one G-d for all of humankind and that G-d demands ethical behavior of all
people. Righteous individuals of all
political spectrums, religions, and ethnicities should realize that what begins
as anti-Semitism often goes on to target other groups. Tyrannical regimes don’t stop with Jew
hatred, they move onto any group that strives for democratic values of freedom
and equality. Perhaps that is why America and Israel have equally become
targets of hatred around the globe.
I look forward to celebrating Purim with many of you tonight
as we remind ourselves that we must continue to acknowledge that all Jews are
responsible for one another and pray that G-d will give us the strength to
speak out against anti-Semitism and the hatred that often moves on to include others
who value freedom, democracy, and equality.
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