Let’s take another look at antisemitism.
First the bad news: As long as there is one Jew alive there will be antisemitism.
Now the good news: As long as there is one Jew alive there will be antisemitism.
According to the number of Jews in Roman times, there should be 200 million Jews, today. There are 14 million. If Jews were an animal species we would be declared an endangered species and a protected habitat would be found for us. Oh, wait. We found one: Israel.
I suggest that instead of only responding to Jew hatred with counter statements, facts, and exhortations, let’s sing and dance! Let’s celebrate the fact that we are here: still here, despite the thousands of years of trying to kill us. We, the people, who gave the world the ethic that makes freedom possible; the ethic that decrees all people are born with equal intrinsic value and ALL life is sacred. For this ethic we have been attacked. It is this ethic that riled the Nazis for they knew they were superior to all others and today we are up against another ideology that proclaims itself superior: Islam.
As long as one Jew is alive, Jew hatred will be all over the world, in places where no Jew lived. If ever there was an irrational hate, hate for the Jews is it.
The next time universities put on their Israel Apartheid Week, let’s stand in front of them and dance the Hora. Havah Nagilah, “Let us rejoice.”
Let us rejoice, let us rejoice
Let us rejoice and be glad
Let us sing, let us sing
Let us sing and be glad
Awaken, awaken brethren
Awaken brethren with a cheerful heart.
We will never again go gently into that good night.
Celebrate life – Jewish life. We are here and we are not going away. Dance and sing: that is the best way to give the haters the finger.
When you hear “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea” – requiring the extinction of Israel, sing and dance in front of them: To Life:
“Here’s to our prosperity. Our good health and happiness. And most important,”
To life, to life, l’chaim
L’chaim, l’chaim, to life
Here’s to the father I’ve tried to be
Here’s to my bride to be
Drink, l’chaim, to life, to life, l’chaim
L’chaim, l’chaim, to life
Life has a way of confusing us
Blessing and bruising us
Drink, l’chaim, to life
God would like us to be joyful
Even when our hearts lie panting on the floor
How much more can we be joyful
When there’s really something
To be joyful for
To life, to life, l’chaim
May all your futures be pleasant ones
Not like our present ones
Drink, l’chaim, to life
To life, l’chaim
L’chaim, l’chaim, to life
To us and our good fortune
Be happy, be healthy, long life
And if our good fortune never comes
Here’s to whatever comes
Drink, l’chaim, to life
We are the proverbial pea under the Jew-haters mattress. Forever irritating them.We will continue to irritate the Jew – haters, as we have for millennia because we refuse to give up our ethic; we refuse to walk away from our God. While the Jew haters call us Nazis and demand that the world boycott divest and sanction Israel as if it were an apartheid state like South Africa, or America during the Jim Crow years, we will continue to live as proud Jews, contributing to the well-being of all people, no matter race, colour, creed, religion or sexual orientation, rich or poor. We, the Jewish people, will continue to live and prosper and develop great inventions to help our fellow human beings. We will always choose life.
So bring on your hate, your conspiracy theories, your blood libels. We aren’t going away. Ever.
Instead we will dance and sing in the face of your irrational, never-ending hate.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
