Yes, El Salvador. Not exactly (or even approximately) a tourist mecca, but a mecca of sorts to delegations organized by American Jewish World Service (AJWS), a rapidly growing and growingly effective organization devoted to connecting Jews and Judaism to the developing world.
There is a gathering hysteria in the American Jewish community that is dangerously self-destructive. Life as a Jew these days may not be — is not — a bed of roses, but neither is it a bed of thorns. Yet to hear some in our community tell it, thorns are all there are.
Consider: George Soros, the multibillionaire and philanthropist, spoke on Nov. 5 to a meeting of the Jewish Funders Network. In response to a question about the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, he responded that \”the policies of the Bush administration and the Sharon administration contribute to that.\”
Can there be any doubt that he is right?
The conventional explanation for Israel\’s more controversial measures, including, in particular, the security fence under construction and the new marriage law passed by the Knesset, is that these are responses to the ongoing conflict.
What have our military expenditures to do with the state of the states? After all, we are a long way from the guns vs. butter arguments, when we used to show how many new schools or hospitals could be built for the cost of one new aircraft carrier.
Plato described democracy as \”a charming form of government.\” Well, perhaps in ancient Greece there wasn\’t much else to charm away the days.
The rituals are familiar by now. The sudden bulletins; the footage of chaos and shock and devastation; the anxious wait for the casualty list; the statements of condemnation; the statements of justification; the insane competition over who gets the \”credit;\” the haunting search for the tiniest bits of remains; the funerals; and the reprisal. And here, the community rallies, new missions are announced, once again we\’re told that \”now more than ever\” our solidarity is needed, we hunker down. And then the wait begins again, for though the other shoe has dropped, there is another, and another. This conflict is no two-legged monster, it is a damned centipede and we are nowhere near its end. Not for nothing is this called \”terrorism.\”
Scholars will doubtless continue to debate Franklin Roosevelt\’s actions — and inaction — regarding the Holocaust. What did he know? When did he know it? Didn\’t he care, or did he really believe that the best and quickest way to help the Jews was, as he repeatedly argued, to win the war?
Rose Freedman has died.
Her death at 107 years of age has been widely noted, for Freedman was the last living survivor of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire, a calamity that claimed 146 lives. Just months ago, she was featured in a PBS documentary, \”The Living Century,\” which told not only of her experience 90 years ago, but also of the remarkable life she led thereafter. That life — as The New York Times put it — was both \”colorful and courageous,\” right up until her last days in her home in Beverly Hills.
Africa is not much on our minds these days. We have obviously been preoccupied by America\’s election and by Israel\’s chaos.
The Jewish world is seething with resentment. Our current narrative is both familiar and depressing.
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