This Hanukkah article by Naomi Ragen, an American born, Israeli author and playwright, resonates with me. I guess that is because of my upbringing and experience. I have known Jews who survived the Shoah (Holocaust) and have seen the numbers tattooed on their arms. From my first trip to Israel in 1968, I still have vivid memories of going to Yad Vashem, Israel's Museum to the Holocaust. The pictures are still etched in my brain. The terror in people's eyes. I am haunted. When asked to take these people in, no country would. Not even our beloved United States. The infamous story of the ship St. Louis that was turned away from Cuba first, sat off the coast of Miami, Florida as negotiations were conducted to let these approximately 900 German Jews into America. Our State Department refused and this ship returned with its human cargo back to Germany. It is needless to say what the outcome of those passengers was. Would the outcome of the Shoah been different if there had been a Jewish homeland for the Jews of Europe to find refuge? I think so.
After the World War II, little Israel was created on less than 20% of the land the Jews were promised at the end of World War I. No one thought that this tiny island in a sea of hate could survive. Not only has she survived but she has thrived. Whether it be through physical battles or constant attempts to deligitimize her, she continues to flourish. I am proud of her accomplishments. Like all of us, she is not perfect. She has flaws but she seems to do a better job than most countries of condemning her own problems. Obviously I could go on and on about Israel and her successes and failures. Ms. Ragen struck a chord with me. I hope that you come away from her article with greater understanding.
Stephen Rosenthal
Jews are Here to Stay
Hanukkah candles reminder to hostile world that we’re not going anywhereby Naomi Ragen
Published: YnetNews.com 12.11.09, 14:10 / Israel Opinion
http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3818432,00.html
Every single Jew living in the land of Israel is a modern day Macabee. Every Jew who has dared to wrench this re-born homeland from a callous world that would deny us Jews our birthright, while championing the birthrights of every other native people in the world - Tibetans, and Palestinians, and South African Blacks-- is a Macabee.
Every Jew sitting in Israel, surrounded by the overwhelming power and numbers and evil designs of the hostile Moslem world, is a Macabee. With every candle we light – whether we are religious or secular – we celebrate those things that hold us together as a nation: our history and our culture and our faith.
We celebrate that these things have not been erased from the world, and are not now relics behind the glass cases of museum exhibits like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, and Samarians. With every light in our window shining out against the dark night we proclaim: We are still here and our very existence is a stunning victory of the weak against the strong, the many against the few, the just, who love and protect life, against the lawless, who have no respect for life.
With every candle we light, we reaffirm all those things that hold us together as a nation and a people: our stubborn disregard for the forces aligned against us, our rejection of the lies told about us, and our unwavering assertion of our history and our right to take our place as a nation among the nations.
We assert that we are in our homeland, the land that was given to us and which we have inhabited – in lesser or greater numbers - from the time we crossed the Jordan with Joshua. That we, descendants of Abraham and that tribe of desert children born from freed Egyptian slaves, remember who we are despite all efforts to make us forget, to convince us otherwise, to rewrite and defile and deny our history and our rights as a native people living in their native homeland.
We are a unique people
We remember not only what we are, but who we are: the torch-bearers of the precious value of human life. Our agony as a nation over the life of one of its precious sons, our willingness to release those who have murdered us without pity so that that son might return to his family and live, that agony unites us as a nation because it goes to the deepest part of our heritage.
No other nation in the world would even consider such a trade. But we do, because that is who we are, demonstrating that we have not been infected and defiled by the values of other nations. We stand unique in all the world, every single one of us.
Because we are alive at this time and in this place, and we have chosen to spend that life in our homeland despite all the dangers and hardships and sacrifices. Because we are Jews and Israelis and together we light a candle, secular and religious, against the vast darkness of the hostile world.
Because with that candle we proclaim: we are a unique people, and we are here to stay.
Happy Hanukkah
Every single Jew living in the land of Israel is a modern day Macabee. Every Jew who has dared to wrench this re-born homeland from a callous world that would deny us Jews our birthright, while championing the birthrights of every other native people in the world - Tibetans, and Palestinians, and South African Blacks-- is a Macabee.
Every Jew sitting in Israel, surrounded by the overwhelming power and numbers and evil designs of the hostile Moslem world, is a Macabee. With every candle we light – whether we are religious or secular – we celebrate those things that hold us together as a nation: our history and our culture and our faith.
We celebrate that these things have not been erased from the world, and are not now relics behind the glass cases of museum exhibits like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, and Samarians. With every light in our window shining out against the dark night we proclaim: We are still here and our very existence is a stunning victory of the weak against the strong, the many against the few, the just, who love and protect life, against the lawless, who have no respect for life.
With every candle we light, we reaffirm all those things that hold us together as a nation and a people: our stubborn disregard for the forces aligned against us, our rejection of the lies told about us, and our unwavering assertion of our history and our right to take our place as a nation among the nations.
We assert that we are in our homeland, the land that was given to us and which we have inhabited – in lesser or greater numbers - from the time we crossed the Jordan with Joshua. That we, descendants of Abraham and that tribe of desert children born from freed Egyptian slaves, remember who we are despite all efforts to make us forget, to convince us otherwise, to rewrite and defile and deny our history and our rights as a native people living in their native homeland.
We are a unique people
We remember not only what we are, but who we are: the torch-bearers of the precious value of human life. Our agony as a nation over the life of one of its precious sons, our willingness to release those who have murdered us without pity so that that son might return to his family and live, that agony unites us as a nation because it goes to the deepest part of our heritage.
No other nation in the world would even consider such a trade. But we do, because that is who we are, demonstrating that we have not been infected and defiled by the values of other nations. We stand unique in all the world, every single one of us.
Because we are alive at this time and in this place, and we have chosen to spend that life in our homeland despite all the dangers and hardships and sacrifices. Because we are Jews and Israelis and together we light a candle, secular and religious, against the vast darkness of the hostile world.
Because with that candle we proclaim: we are a unique people, and we are here to stay.
Happy Hanukkah
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