WIN PEACE NOT WAR




Last week the subject was the Six Day war. A far different war was inflicted upon us six years later. The Yom Kippur war caught Israel completely by surprise since our enemies chose the most holy day in the Jewish calendar to attack us.

The then Prime Minister, Golda Meir, visited the worn- out and filthy soldiers in the front line. One exhausted member of a tank crew asked Golda: “My father was killed in the 1948 war, and we won. Last week I lost my best friend and we’re now winning. But is all our sacrifice worthwhile, Golda? What’s the use of our military power if we can’t win the peace?

After expressing her understanding of his question and her condolences,  Golda Meir added:

In 1948, in this season of the year, I arrived in Moscow as Israel’s first ambassador to the Soviet Union. The State of Israel was brand new. Stalinism was at its height. Jews, as Jews, had no rights. They had been cut off from their fellow Jews for 30 years. Since the Communist revolution of 1917, Stalin had proclaimed war against Judaism. He declared Zionism a crime. Hebrew was banned. Torah study was banned. One was sent to the gulag or Siberia for far less.

The first Shabbat after I had presented my credentials, my embassy staff joined me for services at the Moscow Great Synagogue. It was practically empty, but the news of our arrival in Moscow spread quickly, so that when we went a second time for the festivals, the street in front of the synagogue was packed. Close to 50,000 people were waiting for us – old people and teenagers, babies carried in parents’ arms, even men in officer uniforms of the Red Army. Despite all the risks, all the official threats to stay away from us, these Jews had come to celebrate the Jewish state’s establishment and to demonstrate their kinship with us. 

Inside the synagogue the demonstration was the same. Without speeches or parades, these Jews were showing their love for Israel and the Jewish people, and I was their symbol. I was caught up in a torrent of love so strong it literally took my breath away. People surged around me, stretching out their hands and crying, `Shalom Aleichem Goldele, Gutt yomtov Goldele.` Some cried `we thank the State of Israel.`

And that was when I knew for sure that our sacrifices are not in vain. If they are for the survival of the whole Jewish people, then I believe with all my heart that any sacrifice is worthwhile.”


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