THIS MORNING I OPENED AN EMAIL from Chabad that asked me What is the remedy to such senseless hatred?! What can we possibly do to eradicate it?
The answer: The Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory, answered this a number of times, with clarity and conviction:
Boundless love.
The rebbe za”l was a wise man, a great man and he did wondrous things for Judaism, fanning a failing spark in some who forgot – or never knew – anything about who they are.
But this time I think the rebbe, עה”ש, is wrong.
Love did nothing to prevent the shoah.
Love did nothing to prevent the slaughter in Pittsburgh.
What is needed, I believe, is more JDL than ADL.
JDL – the Jewish Defense League, http://www.jdl.org/ – takes a different stance.
It is a stance that most Conservative, Reform, and other non-observant Jews – read liberals – will refuse to even consider.
(That is not entirely fair. I know of at least one Conservative congregation where a few congregants are armed – and proficient with their weapons.)
JDL’s position is anathema to the liberals, be they Jewish or not. To quote from the JDL’s home page:
There is a war being waged against Jews on all fronts.
The JDL is committed to stemming this tide and combating it with every legal tool available to us.
Therefore we are urging all Jews to become legal firearm owners.
Meet at your local synagogues, Jewish community centers, and places of gathering.
Practice gun safety, form gun range groups, apply for legal firearms permits.
Study Torah and the actions of our historic leaders who stood up to the anti-semitism of their times.
The battle is not new. It has been continuing for centuries.
The JDL is NOT suggesting Jews go on the hunt for Jew haters.
The JDL is NOT suggesting Jews become aggressors.
The JDL is NOT suggesting Jews become “quick draw cowboys” or that we should bring back the old west as portrayed by Hollywood.
What the JDL IS suggesting – no, what the JDL is telling Jews – is that we must take responsibility for ourselves.
My First Born is a policemen. He tells me that that there simply are too few police to be everywhere or even to respond within a minute or two. This is in the U.S. Things are worse in Israel vis-a-vis police to population ratio.
I think the LESSON of the JDL is appropriate: DEFENSE.
Defense and vigilance. Better, vigilance and defense.
Defense in proportion to the threat.
The Torah clearly states לא תרצח 1 – don’t murder. (There is a different Hebrew word for “kill.”)
The Talmud, on the other hand, states clearly: If a man comes to kill you, kill him first.”
Basically, the Talmud is approving self-defense, even to the point of a “presumptive strike” if there is no question about the attacker’s intent, e.g., entering a synagogue with a rifle and pistols shouting that he “wanted to kill Jews”2 is sufficient, at least in this scrivener’s mind, to establish the intruder’s intent.
The murderer published numerous posts about HIAS3 on the Gab social network, and appeared to ascribe to the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that Jews were financially supporting an invasion of immigrants into the U.S. In particular, he frequently ranted about the caravan of Honduran migrants heading to the U.S.-Mexico border. He posted a list of HIAS’s partners on Gab, including Dor Hadash.
Congregation Dor Hadash is a member-led congregation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, an affiliate of the Jewish Reconstructionist Communities.4 Its members had been holding services in the Tree of Life synagogue.
The murderer had posted his feelings on the Gab blog site, a site that eventually banned him and, allegedly, informed the FBI of the man’s posts. WHEN the FBI was warned remains a question. (Did the FBI fail to prevent yet another massacre?)
HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, was founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in 1881 to assist Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe, HIAS has touched the life of nearly every Jewish family in America and now welcomes all who have fled persecution. 5
BLAME IT ON TRUMP
Aljazeera reports that Jewish leaders in Pittsburgh, including the former president of the Tree of Life synagogue, said US President Donald Trump is not welcome in the city because of his rhetoric against minorities.
A letter published by Behind the Arc*, which describes itself as a movement for progressive Jews, said Trump would not be welcome until he distanced himself from white supremacists.
"For the past three years your words and your policies have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement," the letter read, addressing the US leader directly.
“Yesterday’s massacre is not the first act of terror you incited against a minority group in our country.”6
At the same time, NBC News7 reports that Jeffrey Myers, rabbi of the Conservative Tree of Life congregation, said he would welcome President Trump if he chose to come to Pittsburgh, while the synagogue's former leader, Lynette Lederman, said she felt strongly that he should not come. She said "He’s the purveyor of hate speech. The hypocritical words that come from him tell me nothing," Lederman continued. "We have people who stand by us who believe in values, not just Jewish values, but believe in values, and those are the not the values of this president, and I do not welcome him to Pittsburgh." It must be noted that Ms. Lederman was a lay leader and not a rabbi or authority on Jewish law.
The rabbi who was presiding over services at a Pittsburgh synagogue when 11 people were gunned down said Monday condemning hate isn't enough — those in power need to lead by example.
When asked what message he would like to send to President Donald Trump, Myers said, "We turn to the leaders of our country, and we’ve gotta stop hate."
"And it can’t just be to say we need to stop hate. We need to do, we need to act to tone down rhetoric," he said.
“Nationalist”
The leftist immediately decided he meant he was a “white nationalist.”
That is not what he said and clearly, at least clearly to anyone who listens to what he says and watches what he does, "white nationalist" is not what he meant.
He is a “nationalist” in that he is for the nation; another way of phrasing his campaign hat: Make America Great Again (MAGA).
According to CNN8, the president told a crowd that globalist is someone who "wants the globe to do well" at the expense of the country, Trump made it clear he's not one of those.
"You know what I am, I'm a nationalist. Use that word," he roared, as the crowd erupted in cheers of "USA! USA!"
According to Merriam-Webster9, when Trump said he was a “nationalist” he was claiming loyalty and devotion to a nation especially : a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups
If anyone sees the word “white” or any other racial, cultural, or religious attribute there, their vision is different that mine.
Sources
* The organization is BEND THE ARC, not BEHIND THE ARC. Behind the Arc is a Facebook basketball site (https://www.facebook.com/behindthearcmag/) One more thing Aljazeera got wrong.
1. Exodus 20:13;
2. http://tinyurl.com/y8qh7hrl
3. Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
4. http://dorhadash.net/
5. https://www.hias.org/history
6. http://tinyurl.com/ybxu7tnn
7. http://tinyurl.com/ycunselr
8. http://tinyurl.com/y7l25pt2
9. http://tinyurl.com/yagvawpv
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
