On COVID, “Holocaust Education”, “Book burnings”, “The Jews”

In the life of a Jew who just wants to be left alone to enjoy the summer, there is always something — every day. It really is crazy.

By Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer 4.8.23

My readers and I enjoy a long-time reciprocal understanding: In return for putting up with me, my florid prose, wondering where I am flying with my article but amazed that I always manage to land there, and sustaining my occasional puns, readers gain a unique honest insight into what goes through the mind of a simple authentic Jew.

Not a George Soros “Jew,” who is despised in Israel and by mainstream Jews everywhere, whose involvement dates back to helping his Nazi protector take inventory of seized Jewish property. Not a Bernie Sanders “Jew,” who is a Communist, honeymooned in Soviet Russia, publicly expressed enthusiasm over Soviet bread lines, and now allies with Jew haters Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and other cobras of their ilk. Not moronic intersectionalist “Jews” like Ben and Jerry, who epitomize the “Palestinian Arab” wing of the sickest of apostate Woke Jews. Not snakes like Ehud Barak offering to hand over parts of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount and plotting to take down the freely elected government of Israel or worms like Ehud Olmert begging foreign governments to choke off support for Israel.

Instead, I offer a glimpse into honest, no-holds-barred thinking of a real Jew who loves G-d the Creator and His Torah and tries to live by His commandments, and really would like to be left alone.

There is so much more to being Jewish than the Holocaust. Like so many of my associates, I am dismayed and appalled by Holocaust museums and trips to Holocaust death camps. I far prefer the image of Israel bombing the daylights out of Jenin, Gaza, and other anti-Jewish terrorist nests. I would rather teach anti-Semites about the raid on Entebbe than the death camps. The Shoah is our national tragedy, as is Tisha B’Av. Entebbe, the Six Day War, and the Independence of Israel are theirs.

After decades upon decades of “Holocaust education” and “Holocaust museums,” the result? America now has more anti-Semitic incidents than ever before. Jew hatred has exploded especially among the Left, particularly in the Black and related DEI/Woke community. Need proof? Ilhan Omar. Rashida Tlaib. Cory Bush. Ocasio. Jamaal Bowman. Kanye West. Prayapal. Louis Farrakhan. Black Lives Matter. OK?

And, really, honestly, be fair: If you were a Black American, reared with a family history and legacy of four centuries of persecution and slavery, great grandmothers raped, married ancestors separated and then coupled like animals with other slaves to procreate new slaves for bigoted masters — honestly, would you be in the mood to sit through mandatory Holocaust education? Be fair. The results speak for themselves.

Outside the Orthodox Jewish community, Jews in America have become so assimilated that they cannot cite authentic Jewish sources or values, so they pin their tail on the Holocaust. That is all they have to show their children. Not Torah. Not Tanakh (the other 19 volumes of the Jewish Bible). Not Mishnah. Not Talmud. Not Rashi or Ibn Ezra or Ramban commentaries. Not Rambam’s MishnehTorah or the Shulchan Arukh (Code of Jewish Law) or the Chofetz Chaim’s Mishneh B’rurah or centuries of rabbinic responsa by Judaic giants like the Chatam Sofer, the Tzitz Eliezer, Rav Moshe Feinstein, Rav Ovadia Yosef.

They have zero — ZERO — Judaism to transmit to their children. Their rabbis’ sermons are about “Gay Rights” and “Gender-Affirming Surgeries” and pronouns. (Is the solution antinouns?) They are so assimilated that they cannot even transmit chulent or chamin, kugel, bourekas, or kichel. All they have is the Holocaust — which they barely grasp.

Child: “Mommy, what does it mean that I’m Jewish?”

Mother: “Hitler and the Nazis killed your Aunt Saydie.”

Child: “Daddy, what does it mean that I’m Jewish?”

Father: “Hitler and the Nazis killed your Uncle Leibel and your aunt, Tanta Zelda.”

Child: “What are Nazis?”

Father: “Here, let’s watch the Keshet 12 interview of Simcha Rotman, the Reshet 13 interview of Netanyahu, and the Kan 11 interview of Yariv Levin. I’ll show you Nazis.”

This is their empty, vapid Jewishness rooted in Nothing Jewish. Reform rabbis so devoid of Torah that, on the holiest day of the year, they have nothing more inspiring to offer their Temples of Fools than to chant Ruth Bader Ginsburg judicial opinions in lieu of Holy Writ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fZV_ZJMsZI&t=13s&ab_channel=TempleNerTamid

So they make endless movies about the Holocaust. Construct endless museums about the Holocaust. And the docents at their Holocaust museums compare what the Nazis did at Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and so many other death camps to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the wrongly decided Roe v. Wade or an Israeli government voting that, like judges in all other civil democracies, Israeli Supreme Court justices have to follow enacted statutes and precedential judicial holdings, not their personal opinions.

So why don’t more people get exposed to what real Jews with real Jewish values think and say? Because the media simply black them out. That way no one will see them.

Let 250,000 rally in Tel Aviv supporting the Netanyahu government and judicial reform, and the media suddenly cannot cover the demonstration because their cameras and reporters are at an anti-government rally less than half the size elsewhere. They promote “Pride Parades” in Jerusalem while covering up news that the polls and surveys they love so much actually show that vast majorities of Jerusalemites do not want such desecrations there. And don’t expect a news analyst to suggest, maybe, let’s avoid offending Jewish sensibilities and re-route the next Jerusalem “Pride Parade” through, oh, Shuafat or Silwan or Sheikh Jarrah (where they would probably be stoned).

But life goes beyond the left media. And, in the life of a Jew who just wants to be left alone, mind his own business, and enjoy the summer like everyone else, there is always something — seemingly every single day. It really is crazy. No complaints, mind you. Just sharing an insight into how crazy it gets:

It is morning and one turns to the day’s latest news, expecting to read about Ukraine and Russia, milk and meat prices and inflation, and Nasrallah’s latest chest-pounding bloviations from ten meters underground. The usual stuff.

And then the daily “Jew thing.” It’s crazy — like every day. In just one week:

1. Some Arab Muslim in Sweden — Sweden! — has a tantrum. No, not — as I first assumed — because he is the only Swede who is not blonde. Rather, because some Swedish idiot who immigrated there from Iraq burned a Quran — which is a despicable thing to do — this Arab who came to Sweden from Syria, decides he is going to burn a Jewish holy book. Got that? The holy book of Islam is burned by an Arab from Iraq. So, in response, an Arab from Syria is going to take it out on the Jews. And this is happening in Sweden. To top it off, the government of Sweden gave him a permit.

2. Another day, same week. It is announced that the socialist leftist ceremonial president of Israel would be addressing the U.S. Congress and meeting with Biden. You would think “The Squad” of Woke leftists in Congress would cheerfully greet him at the airport and make him an honorary Squad member. Instead, Ilhan Omar, Somalia’s gift to America, whose biography includes having married her brother, states “there is no way in Hell” she will attend the speech. And Omar certainly knows her way around Hell. Next, Rashida Tlaib, the House “Palestinian,” follows suit. Then Ocasio, etc. In other words: Yes, we love where he stands on issues, but he is a Jew from the country of Jews. So “no way in Hell.”

3. Another day, same week. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is running for president because everyone else is, tells someone that COVID was engineered to target White people and Black people. That covers the field, right? No, of course not. He adds that COVID does not harm three population groups. First, the Chinese. OK. Who else? The Finns. Not Huckleberry and family. Not the part of a fish with scales. But the Finns. Or, to paraphrase Omar, “No way in Helsinki.” And the third group? But of course: Ashkenazi Jews. (It emerges that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. actually is a strong supporter of Israel. Which leaves the obvious reassuring inference: he simply is a nut with a crackpot COVID theory that conflicts profoundly with this.)

Ultimately, “Holocaust education” and Holocaust museums fail. With all that “education,” the world remains full of Kanye Wests, Whoopie Goldbergs, Arab Muslim book burners, Squads, and Crackpots on the loose, many in the same week. The problem with “Holocaust education” is that it pathetically assumes people will identify more lovingly with Jews as Victims. And that is the poison of Leftist ideology: Victimology. Jews certainly have had some rough goings and may again.

But Victimology is not what has sustained Jews through 3,300 years. Torah has. Victory does. Pesach celebrates victory over Egypt. Charoset. Hanukkah over the Greeks. Sufganiyot. Purim over the Persians. Oznei Haman. There are no foods for Victims except hard-boiled eggs dipped in ashes. That is for us internally, not for others.

Jews are not victims. That is not the message of authentic Jews. Jews are eternal. Israel is eternal.

And so this insight into the daily life of an authentic Jew. No complaints whatsoever. It is part of the deal we signed onto at Mount Sinai. Let’s see what crops up tomorrow.