Jews are being attacked throughout the West. If governments do not not take corrective measures, they may find themselves without their Jewish communities.
Judenrein and Judenfrei were terms used by the Nazis to describe areas under their control in which no Jews were left—and thus “empty” or “free”. One can see the term Judenfrei in a document from the Wannsee Conference that summarized the disposition of 11 million European Jews prior to implementation of the Final Solution. One might note that while Israel is 20 percent Arab in population, all proposals for a Palestinian state demand that there be no Jew present in it.
Probably one of the biggest mistakes that I make every day is perusing the news websites in the morning. Within just a few minutes today, I gleaned the following:
A 74-year-old Jewish man in New York was spat upon and harassed by one of the city’s many Hamas supporters.
A Jewish member of the Australian parliament had his offices burned down in Melbourne.
Thugs tried to kidnap Jewish children in London while being taken for a walk by their father.
Since Jews first came to Europe after the Roman conquest of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel, they have been subjected to a great deal of abuse. From formal state policies not allowing land ownership to organized pogroms, Jews for two millennia have taken abuse. But Jews have not fled. However much Jews suffered from governmental harassment or local religious persecution, Jews have done their best to live and grow. I could see from my parents and their friends that one of the most painful aspects of Hitler’s plans for the Jews was to make them a formal enemy of the German state. German Jews for the most part felt very connected to their country and were quite patriotic. I have one of two Iron Cross medals from my grandfathers. The other one was thrown by my late maternal grandfather into the Atlantic as their steamer left German port. “If they don’t want me, then I don’t want them,” were his words when he sent the medal down to Davy Jones’ Locker.
The recent explosion of antisemitic activity in ostensibly liberal Western countries definitely has not occurred in a vacuum. The immediate driver for the hatred on display in large cities and on manicured university lawns is Israel’s war in Gaza. Unless one buys into Israel deserving the murder of 1,200 civilians and soldiers, then it was Hamas that started the war. Yet, it is Israel and the Jews who are taking the punishment in the West meted out by Hamas-supporting Muslims and their friends on the left. Any casual association with Jews or Judaism (and not necessarily Israel) is reason enough to be verbally assaulted, threatened, pushed around, or have fake blood thrown on the house, as happened to trustees of the Brooklyn Museum. It is open season on the Jews, who for the most part hunker down and pray that this storm, like its many predecessors, will pass.
Western politicians and police forces have not taken the threats to Jews seriously enough to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators. It would take about ten shoplifters in California to be either shot or put in jail for ten years to stop the multi-billion dollar thefts occurring there; similarly, if those who harass Jews or put antisemitic statements on statutes were looking down a thirty year jail sentence or irreversible deportation, things would change quickly. Like Hamas, their fanboys are cowards. Of course, the hatred in their hearts would not move an inch. But the real threat of jail time and destruction of one’s personal and professional life would be enough to get 90 percent of the perpetrators out of the overt Jew-hatred business.
Unfortunately, much of the hate occurs in liberal cities and countries, and as such, officials are loath to prosecute minorities or revoke visas if the criminals are guests in their Western host countries. They would rather coddle the antisemites than prosecute them. And while Jews will do their best to survive—including hiring guards, putting up security cameras and having local patrols, some will decide that they have had enough for themselves and their kids. I know people who have moved here during a shooting war out of the belief that people hate Jews everywhere; at least in Israel, one knows who the enemy is and the government is actually quite involved in preventing violence against all of its citizens, including its Jewish majority. A potential war with Hezbollah may temporarily reduce aliyah to Israel, but I doubt that it will stop it completely. People are looking around and wondering if they have a future in the countries that their families have called home for generations.
If one wants to know what Judenrein countries look like, you have plenty of options on the menu. There are of course all of the poor and technologically-backwards Arab countries who drove out their Jews in the 1940s. You have China with its totalitarian government as well as its satellite, North Korea. Wherever Jews have set up communities, they have participated in the economic and social life of host countries. Many Jews served in their countries’ armies in every war. Someone once told me of a French Jew who shot a German soldier in World War I. When he went over to the man he shot, he heard him saying a Jewish prayer that one is to say before death. Needless to say, the French soldier was devastated that he had killed a fellow Jew but he understood that he had done his job as a soldier of his nation. Jews play a part in the success of the countries in which they live. Allowing them to be attacked with impunity, especially by foreign visa-holders, is a disgrace. If the Jews one day just pack up and move away, don’t think that you will have a better country for it. Whom do you want: the Jews or the loser Hamas-supporters? In short order, you may have to choose.
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