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Where Memory is a
Curse and Amnesia a Blessing:
A Journey Through Romania’s Holocaust Narrative
Laurence Weinbaum
Romania was largely unaffected by the
historical confrontation that swept Europe in the mid-1990s, resulting in a
reevaluation of many nations’ wartime narratives. During the Communist
period, Romanian society did not face its own culpability in the destruction
of its Jewish community and in the murder of Jews in Soviet territory under
Romanian military occupation. Instead, despite their wartime alliance with
Nazi Germany (which persisted until August 1944), Romanians were taught to
see themselves as victims, not perpetrators. Murdered Jews were seen as
“victims of Fascism” and their deaths were blamed on the Germans alone.
Whatever discussion of the Holocaust that was permitted, usually focused on
the annihilation of the Jews of northern Transylvania that was carried out
by the Hungarians and Germans while the territory was under Hungarian
control. After the 1989 revolution that spelled the end of the despotic rule
of Ceausescu, no positive change in the country’s historiography was
immediately forthcoming. On the contrary, a personality cult developed
around the figure of Marshal Ion Antonescu, Romania’s wartime dictator who
was responsible for the deaths of over 400,000 Jews (and who was hanged for
war crimes in 1946). Not only in extreme nationalist circles, but even in
the political mainstream, Antonescu was generally credited with being the
savior of the Jews who survived his regime. Jews who dared contradict this
version of history were accused of attempting to discredit Romania. In the
summer of 2003, when asked to clarify an official Romanian government
declaration that “within the borders of Romania between 1940 and 1945 there
was no Holocaust,” President Ion Iliescu said that “the Holocaust was not
unique to the Jewish population in Europe. Many others...died the same
way...” He also accused Jews who were seeking the return of their plundered
property of trying to “skin” Romanians. In October 2003, in large measure
due to an international outcry, President Iliescu (who on previous occasions
had not condemned anti-Semitism) announced the creation of an international
commission of inquiry into the destruction of Romanian Jewry, to be chaired
by Elie Wiesel. One hopes that the findings of this commission will help
Romanians shape a new historical narrative that does not whitewash their
forefathers’ own role in the Final Solution.
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A New Chance
for the Original Jewish Self-Conception
Daniel Shalit
Any conceptual system trying to account
for the present bewildering self-destructive tendencies in Israel cannot
deal just with present difficulties, but has to account for the whole gamut
of facts and features of the Jewish historical existence. A partial list of
these features consists of Jewish fate, including destruction, exile,
suppression, attempts at annihilation; the intensity of hatred, contempt,
de-humanization and demonization aimed at the Jewish people; its own
occasional self-refusal and self-hate verging on self-destruction; also,
tendencies for assimilation, radicalism, revolution. In the face of all this
– the longest known national survival; continued creativity (Biblical,
legal, mystical, Hassidic; in Midrash, poetry, and prayer). In the modern
age, the unbelievable institution of the State of Israel – and now, what
seems its wholesale liquidation.
Our suggestion is to reconsider the
traditional Jewish self-conception.
Its core idea is that the Jewish people
is the central site of the dialogue between God and Man, or, in more
mystical terms, a vessel for the conscience of the Infinite Divinity and its
expression in human life – individual, family, social, legal, moral and
political.
Such a project must arouse opposition
from cultures or nations, who are less interested in it, inner opposition
within the Jewish people itself, and, last but not least, resistance within
the individual self. Furthermore, the opposition may be said to be even
metaphysical, since in order for human choice to be free, a system of forces
counteracting the Divine Word must be activated.
***
The Jewish people has, then, a capacity
for infinite receptivity. In order not to apply this receptivity but to the
Infinite, this people must carefully guard itself from more finite
influences, hence its clear self-delineation.
Such a subtle balance between the
Infinite and the human, the universal and the particular, has to evolve
through long preparatory historical stages, which in themselves are far from
balanced and therefore highly vulnerable. At these transitory stages, the
contact with the Infinite may fail, and various negative conditions may be
suffered:
• External and internal oppositions
may arise.
• Self-delineation may become
segregation.
• Self-criticism may give way to
self-negation.
• Infinite devotion may become
radicalism.
• Self-surrender to the Infinite
may be transformed into surrender and dependence on other cultures.
***
Such pathology may weaken and destroy
any normal nation, but the Jewish people is apparently not normal in any
normal sense; it is somehow protected against external malice and even
against its own failures. There is always a way of turning all the falls
into lessons and regaining the original relation to the Infinite.
So much for the traditional
self-conception; for millenia it was not only a mere conception but a source
of vitality. It certainly deserves to be translated into contemporary terms
and to become once again a fount of powers for healing.
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Anti-Semitism:
Integral to European Culture
Manfred Gerstenfeld
Anti-Semitism is an extreme form of
hate, not to be confused with criticism.
The
resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe after the Holocaust suggests that it
has become embedded over many centuries in its societal mindset and behavior
and is thus integral to European culture.
That many Europeans condemn, dislike or
are indifferent to anti-Semitism does not contradict its deep roots in
European culture, as statements of mainstream politicians, media and leading
intellectuals prove. Also, varying types of anti-Semitic feelings are
expressed in polls. The anti-Semitic wave of the last few years, mainly but
not exclusively focused on Israel, suggests that it is impossible to
eradicate this deep-seated irrational attitude in European society.
New European anti-Semitism often
originates from youth. This indicates that it is an anti-Semitism of the
future rather than the past and thus likely to become stronger.
The European Union’s attitude toward
anti-Semitism is double-handed. With one hand, by its discriminatory
anti-Israeli declarations, the EU plays the role of arsonist, fanning the
flames of anti-Semitism. With the other, it also serves as fireman by
trying, at the same time, to quench the flames of classic religious and
ethnic anti-Semitism. France is paradigmatic of this widespread attitude.
A major change in EU policies is
required to combat European anti-Semitism more effectively. This will have
to be based on better data collection and political, legislative as well as
educational action.
The central elements of Europe’s
anti-Semitism are so major and so manifold that Jewish organizations can no
longer limit themselves to protesting against individual cases of
anti-Semitism. A systematic “Europewatch” to monitor extreme politicians,
institutions, media and intellectuals has to be undertaken.
Attitudes toward the Jews have often
been an indicator of the health of a society. Making Europeans aware of this
is a further important step in the battle to mitigate anti-Semitism.
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Rabbis in the Holocaust:
Captains of a Sinking Ship
Esther Farbstein
The article deals with the works of two
rabbis who lived during the Holocaust period; one, the manuscript of a
Hassidic master in the ghetto; the second, of a congregational rabbi written
in a labor camp.
Rabbi Kalonymus Shapira, the “Piascesna
Rebbe”, was known before the war both as an educator, the writer of “The
Students’ Obligation”, a basic volume in Hassidic education, and as a lover
of the Land of Israel.
During the Nazi occupation, he resided
in the Warsaw Ghetto. His home was open for prayer, assistance and advice,
and each Sabbath he delivered sermons which afforded encouragement and
faith. During the deportations, he worked in Schultz’s shop, which was known
as the “Hassidic masters’ workshop”, where rabbis studied Torah in the guise
of “workers”. He was murdered in Bodzin, in the Lublin District, on November
2, 1943. His collection of sermons are considered the last Hassidic
manuscript in Poland.
The Rebbe continued to formulate
Hassidic philosophy in the Ghetto, calling to find God in every situation,
as “there is no place that He is not present.” God is also present in the
human soul and his suffering, and a time of suffering can be a time of
intimacy and integration with the “pain of the Divine Presence”; suffering
is a connection based on the shared fate of man and his Maker. Similarly, he
called to find God through “love of the fellow Jew”, through empathy and
assistance to others. His sermons deal with the meaning of suffering and
they include various responsa which developed in light of existence in the
Ghetto. In an addendum to the book, the Rebbe emphasized the uniqueness of
the Holocaust, the fact that the Jews had never before suffered anything
like it. And when there were no more words and no more Hassidim, all that
remained was the final prayer: “Please, God, have mercy and do not delay our
redemption, and God will have mercy upon us and deliver us in an instant.”
Rabbi Yehoshua Moshe Aharonson, the
rabbi of the village of Sanik, wrote the second manuscript discussed in this
article, during his internment in the Kunin concentration camp, from March
1942 until late August 1943.
The journal is written in fluent, rich
Hebrew, and the memoirs are written in Yiddish. Among the descriptions of
Jewish suffering and Nazi cruelty, existential, Jewish law and moral
dilemmas, which faced the rabbi and the Jews in the camp, are intertwined.
Some relate to daily life, like the eating of proscribed foods, matters of
prayer and burial and some dealt with genuine questions of life and death,
like formulation of deportation lists for the Germans and the question of
suicide. The rabbi describes the circumstances, the ruling and his feelings
as an arbiter of Jewish law in a concentration camp.
A comparison between these writings
enables one to get a sense of the range of Jewish leadership during the
Holocaust. Each one represented not only a different type of authority,
communal and inter-communal authority, but also provided for his
congregation in that spiritual realm characteristic of his leadership during
their times of trouble. Thus, even when the bedrock of their existence
collapsed and they were exiled with their flock, each held on to the essence
of his role, one as a Hassidic intellectual, providing encouragement and
consolation; the other as an arbiter and leader, serving as role models who
practice what they preach.
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Tank
Tops and Heavy Metal:
Armor’s Enduring Appeal on the
Middle Eastern Battlefield
Rand H. Fishbein, Ph.D.
Far from being a relic of the past, the
heavily armored main battle tank is redefining its place on the modern
battlefield. From Iraq and Afghanistan to the Palestinian territories, the
tank is displaying a new versatility that has once again propelled it to the
forefront of ground combat. A renaissance in technology has made the
venerable tank not only more lethal and maneuverable, but more survivable as
well.
The Middle East continues to serve as
the principal proving ground for new armor technology with countries like
Egypt, Jordan and Iran engaging in major upgrade programs. The US remains
one of the principal tank suppliers to the Arab states, recently announcing
that it will provide the latest version of the M1 Abrams tank, the A2, to
its allies.
Israel, by contrast, stands at a
crossroads in tank acquisition. With its defense budget under increasing
strain, there is mounting pressure from the government to terminate
production of the Merkava tank. Doing so, however, would have a crippling
effect on the nation’s defense industrial base and most assuredly on the
ability of Israel’s military leaders to address the growing threat of urban
insurrection now gripping the country.
It is imperative that the government
commit to an economic rate of Merkava tank production of at least 50
vehicles per year to ensure a viable armor industrial base. Legacy systems
should be upgraded, where appropriate, and a robust research and development
program for armor maintained.
The Merkava remains an essential part
of Israel’s export economy, generating income not only from the sale of
defense products and services overseas, but from the diffusion of technology
into the civilian sector as well.
The advent of more lethal anti-tank
weapons, attack aircraft and long range smart weapons has not diminished the
value of the tank. Rather, it has emphasized the need for greater
survivability and lethality on the modern battlefield. The ability to seize
and hold ground will forever remain at the heart of winning strategy. The
Middle East theater is no exception.
As Israel’s adversaries continue to
improve their offensive systems it is imperative that the Jewish state not
forget some of the hard won lessons of its past. Both quality and quantity
are both essential components of victory in a war environment characterized
by high attrition, beyond visual range engagement and the need for precision
strikes. The heavy tank is an answer to each of these requirements, and as
such, should remain an effective fighting tool well into the 21st
century.
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Chomsky’s War Against Israel
Paul Bogdanor
Noam Chomsky, the linguistics professor
and extreme left-wing activist, is one of the most prolific Jewish opponents
of Israel and Zionism. This article explores the salient features of
Chomsky’s anti-Israel discourse: his sophistical argument that a Jewish
homeland cannot be democratic; his commitment to the creation of a
revolutionary socialist federation in which Jews will be a subjugated
minority; his apologetics for Arab extremism; and his depiction of Israel as
a terrorist state which is prepared to risk a global “final solution” for
the sake of establishing “Jewish dominance” throughout the Middle East. The
article documents Chomsky’s political fanaticism and his systematic
falsification of facts, evidence, sources and statistics. It concludes by
examining Chomsky’s wider hostility to his fellow Jews, including his
scurrilous attacks on the American Jewish community and his notorious
endorsements of Holocaust deniers.
This article is an abridged version of
a chapter to be published in Peter Collier and David Horowitz, eds., The
Anti-Chomsky Reader (Encounter Books, 2004, forthcoming). Reprinted by
permission.
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Sharon and the Media – The Unholy
Alliance
David Bukay
The “Disengagement Program”, hurriedly
submitted by Sharon, without government approval or Knesset deliberation,
was conceived in the sin of competing with Yossi Beilin’s “Geneva
Agreement”, and it stands as a sword of Damocles over us, despite the fact
that it was rejected by an impressive majority of the members of the Likud.
It is a unilateral, hasty, escapist political maneuver, whose objectives are
unclear; its result dangerous and its systematic thinking and strategic
logic are lacking. Did Sharon devote any thought at all to what would happen
after such a panicky flight? Would terrorism end and Palestinian society
moderate and cease being a lynching society, which sanctifies blood and
death?
Israel has learned nothing, and the
syndrome of frightened flight from Lebanon, which bears a large measure of
responsibility for the outbreak of Arafat’s September 2000 terrorist war, is
recurring. Hizbullah, from which we “disengaged” in Lebanon, has
vigorously entered the Palestinian Authority arena and is the foremost
leader, operator and initiator of terrorist acts. Israel fled Lebanon,
however Lebanon has not fled from it and Israel will withdraw from Gaza,
however Gaza will not withdraw from it and will continue to attack it.
The Israeli media, which established a
“mutual admiration society” coalition with the messianic Left, provided
Sharon with maximum exposure to disseminate his messages, in order to
facilitate the successful adoption of his proposal. With a long series of
contentions, we systematically refute his positions, in order to expose his
“pack of lies” camouflaged in the “emperor’s new clothes”. Especially
conspicuous is the disparity between Sharon’s declarations and President
Bush’s letter to him and that unsupported pretension further strengthens
those disparities.
Finally, we raise a series of questions
designed to prove that it is highly probable that Israel’s strategic
situation is liable to further deteriorate in the wake of the implementation
of the disengagement program, and enumerate several dimensions of that
process internally, regionally and internationally.
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The Radicalization of
Israeli Academia
Solomon Socrates
Academic extremists maintain a very
high profile in the Israeli, Arab, and world media and have had an impact
far beyond their actual numbers. Examples of their influence are plentiful,
from the negotiations cooked up by two academics that produced the Oslo
Accords to the rewriting of the textbooks used in Israeli schools to reflect
the Arab point of view. Israeli journalists tend to follow their lead and
take their clues from the tenured extremists (note, for example, how the
media and then the PLO turned Katz’s otherwise obscure M.A. thesis into a
cause celebre). Even more important, the extremists have an impact on
events and emotions in the Middle East by encouraging those seeking to
destroy Israel as well as demoralizing the Israeli public, thus weakening
its ability to defend the country.
The most surprising thing about all
this is that Israel’s academic extremists do all this damage while being
funded by the Israeli taxpayer and by Jewish contributors from around the
world, most notably in the United States. (University students pay only
about 15% of the costs of their education, with the remainder coming from
these taxpayers or donors.) Donors making philanthropic gifts to Israeli
universities do so to assist with the Zionist enterprise; obviously, such
persons will want to think twice before permitting their funds to further
promote anti-Israel extremism.
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Jewish Self-Degradation and its Misuse by Anti-Semites
in Contemporary
Germany
Susanne Urban
In the last few years, a steep rise in
anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism as well as anti-Americanism has been observed
throughout Germany. This development started nearly parallel to the “Second
Intifada” in 2000 and took a steep increase after 9/11 and the War in
Iraq. Anti-Semitism on various levels – from subtle to open – is expressed
by intellectuals, in the media, at public gatherings, in politics, schools
and universities. The best means to assure that it will not be considered
anti-Semitism but “only criticism” of Israel is to quote or interview ,
above all, leftist Israeli and/or Diaspora Jews who underline this hostile
attitude. Another statement which is constantly repeated, is that because of
the Holocaust, Germans have to side with today’s victims – and therefore
with Palestinians in general.
But the German tendency to side with
Israelis or Jews who are not only critical about Israeli politics but who
are full of self-hatred is obvious. The “New Historians” are surprisingly
not only those who gain most of the interest of anti-Zionists in Germany,
but journalists and other public figures who are popularizing the topic of
being anti-Zionistic.
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