Dr Chaim Bernard lives in Tel Aviv, Israel. He wrote this piece which deserves a stop and read it read. It was originally published as a letter to the editor in the European edition of the New York Times. Read it all. Stop. Speak what you feel. Let's stop this madness.
European Edition of The NY Times (don't miss a word)
Letter to the Editor (appearing in the European Edition of The New York Times)
Give me a yellow star!
"A dreary, cloth patch sewn in the shape of a Star of David that every
Jew was forced to wear in Nazi Germany along with every country the
Germans conquered; every country in Europe, some even allied with
Germany; every culture looking to expose the hated Jew.
A yellow star worn by both my parents, while you, Europe, were standing by.
That's what I am to you: The guilty Jew. The filthy Jew. The stealing
Jew. The disgusting Jew. The less-than-human Jew. The Jew that can
only do wrong – bomb innocent Muslim children - for that is, of
course, all we do, all we ever aspired to as a nation, a race.
The yellow star was forced on us. Rammed down our throats. It stood
for dishonor and was associated with anti-Semitism, as you probably
know. It was to be a badge of shame like
Hawthorne’s Scarlet letter. But 6 million times worse.
Give me a yellow star.
I want to wear a yellow star above my left breast where six million of
my brothers and sisters were forced to don one. I want to walk around
with a yellow star on every solitary piece of clothing I own. On my
Armani suit, my Nike sweatshirt, Ralph Lauren sweater, my Champion
hoodie, my Diesel jeans, my South Beach biker jacket. I’ll even wear
it at the beach on my bare chest if I have to.
I want to walk down the streets of Paris near the Marais and be seen
by you European anti-Semites. Outside the Great Synagogue of
Stockholm, the Torah Center in Bruxelles, the Anna Frank Memorial in
Amsterdam, the Holocaust Museum in Berlin, outside the Sigmund Freud
House in London.
I want all of you to see me with it and hear you say:
"Hey, here comes the Jew; he’s not just like the rest of us . He’s
just a dirty Jew. A mass murderer. He kills Muslim children and then
uses their blood for matzah, just like the rest of the Jews. They
carpet bomb innocent people. They are useless except for their
knowledge, their Nobel prizes, and their success. They kill children,
those Jews. Don’t you know? It’s the Jews who own Hollywood, the
media, the banks. They’re the scum of the earth. They steal. Hitler
was right. Let’s go spray-paint swastikas on his grandparents’ graves.
Let’s go beat him up. Let’s kill him. Let’s murder a rabbi in Miami
or Bruxelles."
I want that yellow star.
Europe, to me that yellow star is a symbol of almost everything I
stand for. It’s a symbol of surviving evil. It’s heritage and
knowledge. Tolerance and optimism. It’s strength and confidence in the
face of the weakness and insecurity of those not being taught well
enough what their mothers should have taught them.
That yellow star is education, resilience.
It’s right over wrong, and it is life.
It is testament to all who tragically died wearing it, so that their
future surviving brothers and sisters know never to be afraid of who
they are again. Never to be silent again, never to apologize for
surviving. Thanks to them and indeed, for them, this yellow badge
ceased being a badge of shame a long time ago. It's my badge of honor.
I survived your indifference, your stupidity, your inhumanity, your
hatred, and your ignorance. (edited)
It’s a star that blinds out any other emblem that preaches hatred. It
drowns out the form, shape and color of swastikas, the black flags of
ISIS and Al Qaeda, and the green of Hamas or the yellow of Hezbollah.
Before being herded off to the gas chambers around 70 years ago, Jews
wearing their yellow star were hearing ‘Kill the Jews’, ‘Heil Hitler’,
‘The only good Jew is a dead Jew’, ‘Stealing Jew!’ – and all that,
before being ostracized from their communities, stripped of their
belongings, property, identities, humanity and eventually, their
lives. They were hearing Words. It happened in many other countries
too. Like my father’s country. A country he was expelled from for
being a Jew. For being a dirty Jew.
It - Always - Begins - With - Words.
The same kind of words we’re hearing now here on your social media. On
your streets. At demonstrations. In conversations. Words that have
nothing to do with Israel; Palestine; Politics; The Middle East or
anything. You might not be all too happy with ISIS and Hamas, but if
you aren’t trying seriously to expose them for who and what they are,
then you’re not part of the solution, but part of the problem. You
know nothing about your own history, nothing about the Islamic
conquest of Europe from the year 626 until this very day – the holy
Jihad, followed by the Islamic Caliphate.
The world’s abuzz right now with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic words.
Anti-Semitic words that Jews like myself are used to. I’m talking to
you, Dieudonné; Mel Gibson; Roger Waters. And the rest of you ignorant
Jew-haters. And I’m talking to you, radical Islamic leaders, standing
behind your pulpits preaching lies and hate and division in the name
of Allah.
And to you – 'innocent' bystanders in Europe:
I’m talking to you -- supposedly liberal minded people – friends of
mine, even – who spend way too much time talking about Israel fighting
for its existence in a defensive war, “disproportionately” ( as if the
bombing of Dresden, the killing of Bin Laden, the invasion of Berlin
by the Russian Army never happened) but very little talking about the
hundreds of thousands being murdered in Syria. In Iraq. About people
being murdered for being followers of any other religion save Islam.
Very little talking about ISIS taking over the Middle East; displaying
severed human heads on spikes; shooting people in ditches by the
thousands; beheading journalists on YouTube. Very little time talking
about Syrians being gassed or a semi-literate peasant turned Turkish
Prime minister spewing the kind of virulent anti-Semitism which ends
with only one thing.
And don’t forget 9/11, London’s 7/7, Spain’s Madrid train bombings or
the Boston Marathon bombing, while you’re at it.
Take a good hard look at my yellow star. Look at where it came from.
Look what was done after we, the Jews, were forced to wear it and then
ask yourselves, are we doing the same to others? Us Jews? Us Israelis?
Are we Jews hellbent on exterminating people? Is that really what we
want? Or are others doing that which you think we’re doing! – others
you refuse to be vocal about nor condemn with a simple post or click
of your 'like' button.
Here is what the German cleric, Pastor Martin Niemöller wrote: “First
they burned their books and their synagogues, and I didn't speak out.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I was not
a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out
for me”. He wrote these lines in 1933 - too late – and he referred to
the Nazis.
But these words ring equally true in view of over 10% of the
population in France now being Muslim, over 8% in Germany, over 6% in
England; the neo-Nazis in virtually every European country, or the
Nazi, Udo Voigt holding a seat in the Civil Rights Commission of the
European Parliament.
I, for one, Europe, am not going anywhere...
Never again.Though some might wish it -- NEVER AGAIN!
For anyone else reading this from afar, who might agree with what I’m
saying, Jews and non-Jews alike: don’t feel sorry for me, my family,
my friends. Don’t feel sorry for us. We're fine and we’re not afraid,
and we’re here to stay.
Don’t be afraid for us, Europe, because I’m not intending to be a
victim. None of us are. And I hope you aren’t either, despite the
warning signs.
My yellow star is staring extremism in the face.
Am I cool with the yellow star? You’re damn right I am, totally!"
2 comments:
A Haiku response.
Y'shua despised
brother Jew despised what next
Y'shua arose.
Today is National Haiku day. I found your verses and said out loud, "Now that's worth reading!"
It makes us think. It says something with passion, maybe a little rage, then maybe some smiles. I DO deeply abhor the counting of syllables, so I refused to count these. I don't wanna know if the Haiku Police would approve.
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