Grandma's army

  The unreasoning hatred in this world to the Jewish people is one of the great mysteries of the human story. It is the oldest social disease and, unfortunately,   it has again reared its ugly head in today’s society. Assimilation has not proven the answer. In Russia, during the last quarter of the 19 th century, a great number of Jews assimilated, many becoming Christians. Anti-Semitisim didn’t disappear but worsened. The use of the term "pogrom" became common in the English language after a large-scale wave of murderous anti-Jewish riots swept through more than 200 towns and villages in south-western Imperial Russia. As a result of the growing anti-Semitism, between three to five million Jews escaped to the west. The doctor and writer, Leon Pinsker,   believed like many others,   that the spreading of Emancipation and humanism would bring an end to anti-Semitism. When the progroms which erupted, were eventually abetted by the government and defended by the ...

The Five Books of Moses (Pentateuch/Torah) – the basis for the Jewish religion, is meant to be practiced in the context of national existence   in the land of Israel. The Torah anticipates residence upon the Land, as well as exile from it. As opposed to all other religious phenomena in the world, the whole of Israel is both a Holyland and a Homeland . Zionism is Israel’s national ideology. Judaism is a nationality as well as a religion. The text of the Torah reveals that, not only the agricultural and cultic elements are preceded by the introduction: “When you come into the land”. Even commandments such as fairness in business etc., are set in the frame of national existence - with specific reference to the Land. There is also the clear threat of expulsion from the land if these “personal” commands are not carried out. Modern Zionism , building on the longstanding Jewish yearning for a “return to Zion”, began in the 19 th century – right about the time that nationa...

Too often I found myself saying something like,  “ If only I hadn’t done this or that” and them went on to contemplate how very different things would have been, if I had taken note of the word if , stopped to think about what I was doing and changed direction. The most popular poet of his day, Rudyard Kipling, even wrote a poem called if . I can still remember some of the lines by heart and they sum up, for me, the eternal Jewish story: “ If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired of waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating And yet don’t look too good nor talk too wise….. The unreasoning hatred in this world to the Jewish people is one of the great mysteries of the human story. It is the oldest social disease and, unfortunately, it is still ...