November 5, 2024

Eighty-six years ago this week, a series of pogroms took place in Germany. More than 1,000 synagogues were burned, their pews destroyed, sacred Torah scrolls, and holy books set aflame. More than 7,000 Jewish businesses were ransacked and 30,000 men aged 16-60 were arrested and sent off to newly expanded German concentration camps. These pogroms were given a fancy name, Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass), and it is by that name that they are best known. 

Over the past 30 years the Germans have ceased to refer to Kristallnacht as Kristallnacht but as the Reich pogroms of November 1938. Crystal is beautiful, and has a certain sound and delicacy to it, but the “Reich pogroms” tells the much deeper truth of sanctioned violence against the Jews. 

Synagogues were often built in triangulation with the Cathedral and the Protestant Churches to indicate that Germany was a pluralistic, multi-religious community and the synagogues that were built were an expression of the great progress that the Jews had made within Germany. By building buildings of significance, Jews made their presence and their prominence manifest. 

What the Nazis were doing that night was to essentially show the most physical, the most public way imaginable how far they were willing to go, what price they were willing to pay, to tear the Jewish community out of the fabric of Germany.

What the Nazis were doing that night was to essentially show in the most physical, the most public way imaginable how far they were willing to go, what price they were willing to pay, to tear the Jewish community out of the fabric of Germany. 

How did the German synagogue function under Nazism?  On Monday it became a theater because Jewish actors could not perform on the German stage.  On Tuesday it became a symphony hall as Jewish musicians were dismissed from German orchestras. On Wednesday it became an opera house, because opera singers needed a place to earn a living. During the day the synagogue served as a school, for Jewish children expelled from German schools. Their teachers were often professors, writers and artists struggling to survive in a new world. The art teacher might be a world-class artist; the music instructor, a concert pianist. The Jewish school was the safest place for a Jewish child; yet the most dangerous part of the student’s day was walking to and from school. Harassment was routine, bullying was accepted, violence was sanctioned. Teachers turned their back even when they did not overly encourage the violence. 

On Monday morning the synagogue became the place for the distribution of welfare. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, classes were convened in the synagogue teaching Jews mobile professions, because the best way to survive, the best way to leave is if you had a mobile profession so you could earn a living in the country to which you must immigrate. Synagogues were a training center for a generation en route to exile.  

The synagogue was also a place where you taught people who didn’t know what it really was to be Jewish.  The synagogue remained a place where prayers were recited, but prayers took on a new meaning. 

Hour after hour on Kristallnacht the pace of the pogrom intensified, and minute by minute the damage toll increased. No Jewish institution or business or home was safe. The terror directed at the Jews was often not the action of strangers but neighbors. Some brought their children to see the burning synagogues, just as an earlier generation in the American South brought children to lynchings and just as only three years later ordinary men and women in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and in other former Soviet occupied territories brought their children to see the “Holocaust by Bullets,” the execution and burial in mass graves of Jewish neighbors and even friends. 

In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, the Jews in Germany were left without their synagogues. Many had lost their businesses and their homes. The concentration camps of Buchenwald, Dachau and Sachsenhausen were overflowing with new Jewish inmates. Most Jews were without illusions. Jewish life in the Reich was no longer possible. Many committed suicide. The most desperate tried to leave. Unwanted at home, Jews had only a few havens abroad. They could not stay and yet they had nowhere to go. 

The American response to the 1938 pogroms was interesting if not fascinating.  By 1938, America understood and had embodied the value of freedom of religion. No other event garnered such universal condemnation. From the extreme right to the extreme left, leadership in the Catholic, Protestant and every other form of religious denomination condemned Kristallnacht. If you are setting a synagogue up in smoke, you are destroying freedom of religion.  

By attacking the synagogue, the Nazis were attacking not only the heart and soul of the Jewish community, but they were also attacking the institution that had responded to the catastrophe. The Nazis deprived Jews of anything roughly resembling a public life or a communal life.  And they violently ripped them out of the presence of German society.  

In 2024, what are the implications of remembering the November 1938 pogroms in the post-Oct. 7 world? 

• The synagogue remains the most important symbol of the Jewish presence in a society.  

• An attack on a synagogue is an attack on all society. 

• Synagogues must be secured not only by self-protection but by civil society which regards freedom of worship as an essential, indispensable component of a free society. The same is true for Hillel Houses in the center of campuses and for other Jewish buildings. 

In Europe, synagogues have become seemingly armed camps, protected by the police and even the military. We cannot allow that to happen in the United States. 

• Civil society must hold.  In the aftermath of the worst antisemitic killings in American History, the Tree of Life Synagogue murders, civil society took control; political leaders, police officials, religious leaders and communal leaders all came together. The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Pittsburgh Penguins put Jewish Stars on their uniforms, the World Series paused for a Moment of Silence, and the Pittsburgh Gazette printed the Kaddish on its front page. Haters cannot win, if those who do not hate join together to defeat them. 

• Mayors and Governors, police chiefs and district attorneys, moral leaders and community leaders must take the lead, and Jews must call upon their friends to step forward. 

• Religious leaders must also step forward. Freedom of religion must mean freedom for all religions including Jews. 

• If a swastika is painted on a Jewish building, a priest, a minister, an imam and all civil leaders must join hands with the rabbi in cleansing the building and jointly removing the stain.  

• We may not allow our friends to become indifferent, and certainly, not compliant 

• If powerless Jews in 1938 Germany were not passive, powerful Jews today dare not remain passive, or worse yet, be reluctant to exercise their power and call upon their friends. 

• We dare not accept this level of antisemitism as the “new normal.”  

So we remember. 

• We remember with pride the role of the synagogue and the prominence of the synagogue in German society.  

• We remember the cruelty that was inflicted on Jews 86 years ago. 

• We remember the bystanders who watched the synagogues burn and who brought their kids to watch the synagogues burn.   

• We remember the outrage of the world that did not step up to do something serious about the situation.  

• We remember the courage of the Jews who understood they had to get out and that got out, and the despair of the Jews who knew they had to get out and couldn’t find a place to go. 

• We remember sadly that this was only the beginning: the beginning of the end. 

And as a post-Oct. 7 society, we must resolve to make this the end to the explosive antisemitism we are experiencing today.

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Dr. Michael Berenbaum is educational consultant to ASHER, the American Society for Holocaust Education and Remembrance.  

According to Ham-mihan newspaper on Oct. 28, 2024, Kourosh Ahmadi, an international affairs analyst close to the Iranian regime, stated in an interview: “Tensions [in the Middle East] will continue only if Israel’s policy is to destroy the Axis of Resistance, while Iran seeks to defend it.” Following Israel’s attack on military targets in Iran, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, remarked, “Some believe that refraining from producing certain weapons that provoke arrogant powers, including missiles, can bring security for Iran [read: the Iranian regime]. But this false notion essentially instructs the people and officials to keep the country weak to ensure security.”

The Regime’s Role in Regional Destabilization

On the first day of the war in the Middle East last October, few believed the Iranian regime was the driving force behind the conflict. However, the Iranian opposition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), based on 45 years of experience resisting a regime that masks domestic repression with external wars and crises, declared that the heart of warmongering lies in Tehran.

After the 2022 uprising, the Iranian regime teetered on the edge of collapse and depended on conflict and crisis in the region to survive. It turned to foreign wars to prevent another uprising and avoid being overthrown by the Iranian people and their resistance. In a speech on Oct. 23, referring to Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, and Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, Khamenei said, “If it weren’t for Yahya Sinwar and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the fate of the region would have been different.” Germany’s Foreign Minister stated, “It is absolutely clear that [the Iranian regime] is behind these attacks.” In its 45-year history, this regime has not seen a single moment without war and bloodshed, either in the region or within Iran itself.

Hezbollah’s Role in the Region

Among the Iranian regime’s proxy forces, which have expanded its warmongering, crisis-exporting, and terrorism in the region and even into parts of East Africa, Hezbollah holds a unique position. Hezbollah has been involved in various international assassinations, such as the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon and the attack on the Jewish community center in Argentina, and it has also played a critical role in training and coordinating resistance forces for terrorist acts and warfare. Hezbollah took part in the final coordination between Hamas and other forces involved in the Oct. 7 attack, and in Syria it served as the backbone of proxy forces that brutally suppressed the Syrian people, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Hezbollah has also been heavily involved in drug trafficking, generating substantial revenues while establishing ties with criminal gangs, providing a strategic advantage to the regime.

The Strategic Deadlock of the Iranian Regime

The Iranian regime is compelled to support its proxies and will not abandon them unless in absolute weakness, as war and crisis are essential to the regime’s survival. However, continuing this support risks direct confrontation with Israel, which would inevitably spark popular uprisings. Moreover, the path to a nuclear bomb has been effectively closed, as crossing this red line would bring irreversible consequences.

The Policy of Appeasement Toward the Regime

For the past four decades, the European Union and the U.S. have pursued a appeasement policy of dialogue with the Iranian regime despite the regime’s severe human rights violations, which, according to the U.N. Special Rapporteur’s July 2024 report, amount to genocide and crimes against humanity. This policy has granted the regime international impunity.

Ignoring the regime’s interference and terrorism in the region has led to visible consequences: A significant portion of the Middle East is in flames. With its unchecked terrorism, the regime has turned Europe into part of its battlefield. From June 2018 to June 2024, Iran was responsible for at least 11 attacks in Europe, including an assassination attempt on Professor Alejo Vidal-Quadras, former vice president of the European Parliament.

The religious dictatorship also collaborates with organized crime groups to expand its terrorism, making the regime an immediate threat to European and global security. Continuing this policy leads directly to the crises we are now witnessing in the Middle East.

A Democratic Alternative as the Key to Regional Peace

For over four decades, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has served as a democratic alternative to the regime. This coalition brings together various political, ideological and religious orientations, united by a shared goal and a rejection of all forms of dictatorship, whether under the Shah or the mullahs.

Several key factors have enabled this resistance to stand firm against the regime and drive change in Iran, including a belief in the separation of state and religion opposing the ruling fundamentalism, long-term resilience at any cost, broad social support, and principles of humanity and equality that strengthen unity among diverse segments of Iranian society, including Shiite and Sunni Muslims, non-Muslims, and oppressed ethnic minorities. This alternative aims to establish a republic based on gender equality and autonomy for ethnic minorities — a country free from executions and torture, and a nonnuclear Iran in peace and solidarity with its neighbors and the entire world.

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Hamid Enayat is a political scientist, specializing on the topic of Iran, who collaborates with the Iranian democratic opposition.

Fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers no doubt consider Freddie Freeman a hero for his MVP performance in the World Series. But with Veterans Day approaching, all Americans should take a moment to appreciate the valor of a former Dodger less well-known to today’s baseball aficionados — Moe Berg, a catcher who spied for the U.S. during World War II.

Morris Berg was born to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents in a tenement on East 121st Street in Manhattan on March 2, 1902. At seven, demonstrating a passion for both the game and secret identities, he played for a Methodist Church team under the pseudonym Runt Wolfe. 

After graduating Barringer High School, Berg played shortstop for Princeton, where he majored in modern languages. He and another teammate would communicate on the field in Latin.

As Nicholas Dawidoff details in “The Catcher Was a Spy,” his definitive biography of Berg, after graduating magna cum laude in 1923, Berg was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers (known then as the Robins) and batted .186 in 49 games. St. Louis Cardinals scout Mike Gonzalez notoriously coined the phrase “good field, no hit” after watching him play.

Continuing to balance his intellectual and athletic interests he then spent the winter studying philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1926, as a student at Columbia Law School, he joined the White Sox and shifted to a catcher after the team’s first three options were injured. The move, and Berg’s enigmatic nature, were praised by legendary manager Casey Stengel, who remarked, “I call him the mystery catcher. Strangest fellah who ever put on a uniform.”

In 1929, Berg hit a career-high .288 in 106 games and received two votes in balloting for the American League’s Most Valuable Player. That was his hitting peak, however, and he retired after 15 years with a lifetime batting average of .243. One teammate quipped, “He can speak ten languages, but he can’t hit in any of them.”

In the meantime, however, Berg leveraged his athletic abilities in support of America. In 1934, while in Japan on a goodwill tour alongside all-star teammates Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, Berg, who had learned Japanese, took home movies of the Tokyo skyline that were eventually used in General Jimmy Doolittle’s 1942 bombing raids on the Japanese capital following the attack on Pearl Harbor. 

Following his 1939 retirement as a player, Berg remained a committed patriot. He undertook an undercover assignment as a sports ambassador in Latin America under the auspices of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs – a U.S. government agency dedicated to countering German and Italian propaganda efforts in Latin America. He parlayed that opportunity into a job as an officer in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, in 1943. 

At the OSS, his missions included posing as a businessman in Switzerland and being dropped behind enemy lines in Italy to make contact with an Italian atomic scientist. Also fluent in German, Berg was assigned to potentially assassinate the leading German physicist and Nobel Prize winner Werner Heisenberg, in Zurich if Heisenberg indicated during a lecture there that Berlin was close to developing an atomic bomb. (Germany wasn’t, so Berg didn’t kill Heisenberg.)

At the OSS, his missions included posing as a businessman in Switzerland and being dropped behind enemy lines in Italy to make contact with an Italian atomic scientist. 

In 1945, Berg was selected to receive the Medal of Freedom, the top honor given to civilians during wartime, from President Harry S. Truman. The citation read: “Mr. Morris Berg, United States Civilian, rendered exceptionally meritorious service of high value to the war effort from April 1944 to January 1946. In a position of responsibility in the European Theater, he exhibited analytical abilities and a keen planning mind. He inspired both respect and constant high level of endeavor on the part of his subordinates which enabled his section to produce studies and analysis vital to the mounting of American operations.” 

Though Berg declined to accept the award, his sister later did, later donating it to the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

When his contract wasn’t renewed by the government, Berg struggled financially. In 1960, he agreed to write a book about his peripatetic life, but the project collapsed when the editor realized Berg was not Moe Howard from comedy troupe The Three Stooges. 

Berg’s dual passions for espionage and baseball remained unabated, however. In 1969, Dawidoff writes, Berg “probably” played a role in providing Israel with 100 military helicopters in an effort to aid an American ally, and might have met Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Three years later, minutes before he died at the age of 70 on May 29, 1972, he purportedly turned to a hospital nurse and with his last words asked: “How did the Mets do today?” They had won. Berg’s baseball card today is the only one on display in the CIA Museum.

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Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern is Senior Adviser to the Provost of Yeshiva University and Deputy Director of Y.U.’s Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought. His books include “The Promise of Liberty: A Passover Haggada,” which examines the Exodus story’s impact on the United States, “Esther in America,” “Gleanings: Reflections on Ruth” and “Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land: The Hebrew Bible in the United States.”