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'Never again' requires unity

Debbie Israel
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH STATE
May 8, 2009

The TV program "CSI" recently did a very nice Holocaust memorial episode called "Yahrtzeit". The episode was about some current Nazis who were selling "souvenirs" on the Internet -- like lampshades made from Jewish skin and jewelry and other items stolen from Jewish concentration camp victims.

There was one actor (who himself is Jewish) who played a character who had been living as a Jew, raising a Jewish son, but in truth was a Nazi who decided at the end of World War II that, discretion being the better part of valor, he ought to pretend he was Jewish. When he was finally confronted with the truth, he said, under his breath, in German, "We should have killed them all."

I thought that it was particularly ironic that this actor was playing this part. This actor is one of those "Israel is evil and we should help the poor downtrodden Palestinians" sort of Jews. To me, this sort of Jew is a traitor to our people, our land and also to God.

Why, you might ask? Because here they come, trumpeting on Yom Hashoah how terrible the Holocaust was. But they act as though we Jews are the "new Nazis". We sing at the seder on Passover, in the song "V'Hi She'amda" that "... Not just one has stood against us to destroy us, but in every generation, they stand against us to destroy us. And the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hands."

The Nazis were not the first to try to destroy us. Unfortunately, they're not the last either. We are facing a growing number of people who believe the Islamist propaganda that all evil in the world is caused by us, by the Jews. We 15 million Jews in a world of 6.5 billion people are causing all the troubles of the world.

For every Jew in this world, there are approximately 100 Muslims (according to a Muslim cleric who claims there are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world). For every Jew in this world, there are approximately 133 Christians. For every Jew in this world, there are approximately 433 people.

So why is it that the world feels the need to hate us so much? Why is it that the entire world focuses on a tiny little country, about the size of New Jersey, which is the homeland of such a small minority of the world's population? Why do even some Jews hate themselves and other Jews and their own nation and land?

It is because we are here on earth to bring truth and justice to the world. We are here to promote the concepts of freedom and equality, of equal justice for all, of truth and goodness and Godliness. We are here to tame the evil of the world. But the evil of the world doesn't want to be tamed. The evil of the world wants to hide and point a finger at others, lying about who is, in truth, evil. They lie about who is, in truth, the cause of the suffering of the Palestinian people because it is they themselves.

We need to remember the post-Holocaust cry of "never again!" We need to stop the Holocausts of today (the homicide bombers in the world, the fear people have of offending people who are offended by our very existence, the murders in Darfur and other places in the world, to name just a few) by protesting, by getting our senators and representatives to push for support of Israel and other victims of Islamism, by writing letters and columns and talking to people.

We need to support our own people who are fighting the evil in the world. We need to support Jewish causes financially (when you send out those checks, don't send them to our enemies) when we can, especially in these uncertain economic times. And we need to stop thinking that the Holocaust is in the past. Remember, "... Not just one has stood against us to destroy us, but in every generation, they stand against us to destroy us...." We need to do our part to stand with God to stop the Holocausts of this generation. And we need to be united.

Debbie Israel is a graphic artist (see Cafepress.com/compugraph2 for some of her work) and tutor living in Highland Park.