Despair

Years after the Holocaust, as conflict rages in the Mideast, has Poland become safer for Jews than Israel?

By Richard S. Moline
Director of College Outreach (KOACH)
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism

I never quite understood the significance my parents and grandparents placed on Pearl Harbor Day. Clearly, the attack on Pearl Harbor was horrific (no, I still haven’t seen the movie) and most certainly led to America’s full-scale involvement in World War II. And certainly, FDR’s famous "a day that will live in infamy" speech was dramatic, but to me, frankly, it was history.

This year, it’s all come into focus. It’s made me think about how this generation will communicate the horrors of 9/11 to our children and grandchildren. Will it be history for them just as Pearl Harbor was for me? And if it’s not going to be another paragraph in a history book, what, exactly, do I want to communicate?

This may seem like a non-sequitur, but give me some slack for a minute. For years there has been a program called the March of the Living. Some of you may have participated. The trip has brought young people to Poland for a tour of concentration camps and for a look at what happened to a flourishing Jewish community in Poland prior to the Holocaust. It has focused on the depth of that community and the tragedy of its destruction (another time, perhaps, we can discuss the Jewish community in Poland today).

From Poland, the trip went to Israel to experience what literally arose from the ashes. To witness, as HaTikvah says, an "am hofshi ba’artzeinu," a free nation in our own land. Participants went from darkness to light, from the horror of the Shoah to an "or hadash" - - a new light – the State of Israel in the Land of Israel. This is our uniquely Jewish answer to despair (Jewish history is replete with similar responses to tragedy).

I was saddened to learn that while the March of the Living is continuing this year, organizers have decided to cancel the Israel portion of the trip (although some local groups will be continuing on their own). It made me sad for two reasons. The first is that we’re in a position to question travel to Israel at all (again, another discussion). The second is the message – and this will bring me back to September 11.

The admirable message of previous March of the Living trips is precisely what I’ve indicated above; that in spite of the terrible hardships and blasphemy, we Jews have survived because we have a rich, powerful heritage. Judaism isn’t a relic that dies under duress; it is an enduring and complex lifestyle, which provides hope when we’re in despair, comfort when we’re in distress and incredible joy to those who embrace it.

What’s the message this time around? Is it the incredibly stimulating challenge of Jewish learning? Is it the feverish dancing on Simhat Torah? Is it Shabbat dinner with family and friends? Is it the introspective nature of prayer and the creativity and vibrancy of the modern Jewish world?

Or….

Is it the message that Poland is now safer for Jews than Israel? Is it that we now see a death and destruction that was, and we fear for it, once again? I dare say that one of the reasons we have survived is that while we may despair from time to time, we temper it and overcome it with hope, with faith and with the knowledge that Jewish history teaches us that time and time again, we have overcome, we have done more than simply survive and we have created civilized responses to tyranny. If March of the Living felt the need to cancel out on Israel, then they should have cancelled the whole trip. To do less, regardless of the follow-up they plan on doing elsewhere, is the wrong message - - one which can cause serious harm.

Which brings me back to 9/11. While I hope future generations will look upon our Day of Infamy as vile, repulsive and tragic (insert a few of your own adjectives here), I don’t want it to be solely a message of despair. We must continue to rise above that despair by continuing to perform acts of hesed (lovingkindness) and by continuing to develop our own civilized response to savagery. It’s our job as free citizens. And it’s our obligation as Jews.

[Posted 4/12/02]