The
killings at the Tree of Life synagogue struck the heart of me as it did
other Jews and non-Jews alike. Again, I must analyze the why of it
digging deep into my knowledge of historical antisemitism as well as my
personal experience with it as a Jew.
One
of the best and most precise analyses of the history of antisemitism is
a video history entitled "The Longest Hatred" shown on PBS a number of
years ago. Hatred of the Jew simply for being born Jewish and simply
for carrying the Jewish genetic heritage in one's blood has been a
longstanding indictment levied by many antisemites against all Jews even
against Jewish children and a rationale for some to eliminate their
perceived threat by murdering them. Adolph Hitler, the anti-Semite
supreme, even went so far as to believe eliminating Jewish children was,
perhaps, his most important goal so that Jewish children would not grow
up to be Jewish adults and infect the white supremacy of Aryan
Christian culture. It was to this end that he was most ardently
committed.
"The
Longest Hatred" I think can be divided into sections that led to the
ultimate slaughter of the six million of the Holocaust in the modern era
and even to the slaughter of 11 innocent people whose only crime was to
worship at the Tree of Life in synagogue in Pittsburgh on Shabbat (the
Jewish sabbath.) Its etiologic rationale was stated or perhaps inferred
within the New Testament itself which in pertinent part blamed Jews for
the killing of Christ, the Christian God. This was, perhaps, the most
incendiary indictment of all since one had to understand what the
killing of God meant. It meant to those who believed it then and
incredulously, today, who believe it still is the overturning of all
that was and is to them good, moral and right. What could be worse than
the killer of God? It mattered not that the Jews did not kill Christ,
if in fact, Christ existed, but we know the Romans and not the Jews used
death by crucifixion especially for those whom they deemed guilty of
sedition as their supreme modus operandi of execution.
Through the centuries, of course, this accusation ebbed and other
rationals for the killing of Jews became prominent.
The
children of the Jewish diaspora or the fleeing of Jews because of
persecution to the European continent from the Middle East carried this
poignant indictment with them and it morphed into others. The Jews of
Spain were commanded to convert to Christianity and if one, after
conversion, practiced Judaism secretly one could be Inquisitionally
tortured and ultimately killed. Those who refused to convert were
walled off into Jewish ghettos where they were allowed to be Jews but
also to practice much needed money lending for Christians. Money
lending has morphed into the sin of an alleged Jewish globally
controlled cabal seeing to take over the world. Christians of the
Medieval period were not allowed to lend money so the Jew became a
necessary economic implement to improve a nation's economic worth. This
indictment has been the most enduring, insidious and down right moronic
rationale used today by modern day antisemites. The nefarious nexus
between the Jew and money was born and has not died. The antisemitic
word of the day is "globalism," an attempt by antisemites to indict
George Soros, Bloomberg and other wealthy Jews for a conspiratorial
control of the world. The fact that the Mercers, the Koch Brothers and
many other non Jews control the Republican Party through their money and
huge unlimited contributions are not, of course, considered. The
lengthy history of antisemitism through the ages can be summed up for
brevity. It is you cannot live among us as Jews, you cannot live among
us, and, finally, you cannot live.
My
own personal experience with antisemitism includes these historically
lengthy prejudices. In third grade at eight years old a Catholic girl
walked up to me and said "The Jews killed Christ." I did not know what
she meant and the teacher who also was Catholic did not disabuse her of
that notion; later, a neighbor also Catholic told me the same thing.
"The Jews Killed Christ." A Jewish friend of mine said defiantly "No,
the Romans did" as I breathed a sigh of relief. Years later when
working a friend of mine at lunch told me about the great bargain she
had gotten at a store by "Jewing the guy down." In my incredulity and to
avoid controversy I said nothing. I would not say nothing today. And
so it proceeds over centuries the often told same old societal
affliction. We can choose to say nothing or by our actions which
include voting for those who profess a kindness and empathy of which the
Republican Party has little.
To all of you I ask you to VOTE Democratic and to RESIST the Trumpian fascism of our time!
