“It Is Burning”: A Reminder of our Past and Present

It is burning, brothers, it is burning.
Our poor little town, a pity, burns!
Furious winds blow,
Breaking, burning and scattering,
And you stand around
With folded arms.
O, you stand and look
While our town burns. 

Mordecai Gebirtig was a Polish-Jewish poet and songwriter who wrote one of his most memorable Yiddish songs in 1936: “Undzer Shtetl Brent!”; “Our Town is Burning!” The song (full lyrics at the end) was written following antisemitic pogroms in Poland. To this very day, its words echo as a prophecy of the impending Holocaust, which tore through European Jewry shortly thereafter. Its telling words and ominous warnings were largely ignored at the time by the intelligentsia, only later to become popular in the Krakow Ghetto and far beyond, inspiring resistance against the abominable Nazis and sung by many in other camps and ghettos.

The powerful words of this song come to mind as later this month, on January 27, the world will commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Along with the commemorative events, in many of which this song is a part, the words “Never Again” make their annual appearance as we remember the Holocaust. And yet, despite these annual commemorations and attempts at education, antisemitic events such as the one at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, and too many others like it, keep on happening and even intensifying as time goes by. It casts a dark shadow on our efforts to educate and raises the horrible question: Could it be that Never Again and the accompanying formalities have become just that, formalities? Are they nothing more than a lullaby for humanity? Have they turned into mere background noise? Into a sort of elevator music that carries no meaning, just playing along only to be ignored and forgotten as soon as the elevator doors open?

The sad truth is that antisemitism has reared its ugly head in the United States and around the world in recent decades and not only has it happened more often, but also it has become normalized, ignored, forgiven.

Take Trayon White, for instance. White is a Democratic member of Washington D.C.’s City Council who announced he intends to run for mayor of Washington D.C. In 2018, he posted a Facebook video accusing “the Rothschilds” of controlling the climate to make money. He has also made donations to the Nation of Islam, whose notorious leader, Louis Farrakhan, is a well-known antisemite. He has since mumbled a half-apology and taken a tour of the U.S. Holocaust Museum, which he symbolically abandoned half-way through the tour. Yet he’s still vying for the lofty position, and his candidacy is considered like any other. Could you imagine a candidate making anti-black or anti-Latino comments and getting away with it the way Trayon has? No. And justifiably so. Such a candidate would have been “cancelled” as soon as they uttered such words. Yet, when it comes to the Jews, all is allowed, and all is forgiven. Never Again? Think again.

Antisemitism has also paved itself a path of political and social legitimacy through the ploy of using Israel, the one and only Jewish state, as a cover.

Only last month, in Dec 2021, Zahra Billoo, a prominent CAIR leader, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, gave a speech in Chicago. In her address, she asked attendees to focus their attention on not only the extreme right-wing but also on “polite Zionists, including the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Federations, Hillel, and Zionist synagogues.” “I also want us to pay attention to the polite Zionists. The ones that say, ‘Let’s just break bread together,’” Billoo said. In her words, she pointed the finger at the Jewish community, marking its institutions and synagogues as enemies, so why wonder when they become the target of such antisemitic attacks?

Her words drew much anger from the Jewish community but not much beyond. When targeting the Jews goes unpunished, violence is certain to follow. CAIR was quick to denounce the antisemitic attack in Texas “as an unacceptable act of evil,” words that sound hollow against the backdrop of Billoo’s past statements as well as those of her peers. “Israel” and “Zionism” proudly play the role of code words for Jews in today’s political and social discourse, where antisemitism is allowed to roam freely and uninterrupted.

So, what can be done, so many of us ask? The warning bells are ringing. Never Again is a right and just demand we should make of all around us—of mainstream society, of states and local governments, of politicians and the media, of our friends and colleagues.

So, what can be done, so many of us ask? The warning bells are ringing.

But it should also be a demand we make of ourselves.

Zack Singerman is a young student at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School. His grandmother is a congregant at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh who was spared during the horrendous antisemitic attack there a few years ago. However, Zack was awakened as a result of the murderous attack. It was then that he decided, as an 8th grader, that he could keep quiet no more. He realized the importance of standing up tall as a Jew. He found his voice and founded Gen Z Jews: Fighting Anti-Semitism, whose mission is to educate his fellow students and community on what antisemitism is and how to counter it.

Zack decided he would keep quiet no more, and so should all Jewish community members. Gone must be the days when Jews listen in on a conversation, a lecture or a business talk and keep quiet in the face of blatant, naked, ugly antisemitism. Don’t rock the boat, too many of us tell ourselves. It’s just a joke. We should just let it pass, and it will disappear, vanish into thin air. The problem is that it never does. Instead, it further circulates in the body’s bloodstream and persists until it brings about its demise.

We cannot afford to keep quiet anymore.

The bells are ringing all around us and the red bulbs flickering against our very eyes. Heed the warning, Gebirtig’s song implores us, as he laments the fact that while “furious winds blow … you stand around with folded arms … stand and look while our town burns.”

Make some noise, Jews.

“It Is Burning”

It is burning, brothers, it is burning.
Our poor little town, a pity, burns!
Furious winds blow,
Breaking, burning and scattering,
And you stand around
With folded arms.
O, you stand and look
While our town burns.

It is burning, brothers, it is burning
Our poor little town, a pity, burns~
The tongues of fire have already
Swallowed the entire town.
Everything surrounding it is burning,
And you stand around
While our town burns.

It is burning, brothers, it is burning!
You are the only source of help.
If you value your town,
Take up the tools to put out the fire,
Put out the fire with your own blood.
Don’t just stand there, brothers,
with your arms folded.
Don’t just stand there, brothers,
Put out the fire, because our town is burning.

(Mordecai Gebirtig, April 4, 1877-June 4, 1942, murdered by the Nazis in the Krakow Ghetto)

Shahar Azani is a former Israeli diplomat and Senior Vice President at JBS.