Things I Never Understood, Things I don’t Think I’ll Ever Understand, and Things That Have Become Clearer About Being Jewish and Israel As I Age
- Mema
- Apr 30
- 6 min read
Updated: May 2
Being raised Orthodox Jewish in a Jewish enclave in the outskirts of a borough of New York City, Far Rockaway, to Holocaust survivors, I was isolated and insulated. I thought the whole world was Jewish, however, divided between those who survived the Holocaust and were lucky enough to become Americans, and those who have been born American and had no clue as to how lucky they were.
Israel was a far-off land that I was lucky enough not to have been brought to because of the intervention and humanity of President Eisenhower when he was the general in charge of the European theater. See blog post, “Preserving Family History Leads To Much Less than Six Degrees of Separation with President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Future Connecting With the Significant Past.”
Being brought to America as a baby from Belsen Displaced Persons Camp in Germany, my earliest recollections were dark, painful, and scary about being Jewish. My parents’ experiences in the Holocaust came through their daymares and nightmares, which I was too young to understand. I felt the screaming, the crying, the fear, the angst.
My brother and I were jewels; we were the future of Judaism. We were symbols that Hitler and the Nazis did not succeed in wiping Jews off the face of the Earth. Every celebration included that acknowledgment. Every achievement included that acknowledgment.
Our past was dark and our present was full of trepidation. Life and death, survival was and remains the theme. Nazis or those like them could easily come again at any time. According to my father, we needed plans for escape and we needed plans for safety. We needed to be prepared if and when America joined the legions of civilizations from which we Jews needed to flee. These two needs for plans have followed me my entire life. I always have a hiding place in my home and am alert as to escape plans wherever I am. I am fortunate have not one, but two, dear non-Jewish friends who have expressed that they would hide me, knowing that need inside me. As now a Boomer, that still brings calm and resonates with me. Yes, in America and as a naturalized American citizen, I need that security. My Mother’s non-Jewish best friend helped her find a place to hide. My upbringing taught me that Jews have been perpetually persecuted and are perpetually in danger.
By now the world has heard, and, in his last year’s Passover speech, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated all of the cultures and civilizations that tried to wipe out the Jews. Those do not exist anymore and we still exist. Not only do we exist, we thrive.
I wrote a blog about Alan Dershowitz’s theory that Jews survive when we have tsuris (troubles), and we were in danger because we did not have any current tsuris. October 7 happened and again we united, somehow addressing his thesis. See blog post, “In the Midst of Worldwide Jewish Tsuris (Troubles), This Jewish Grandmother Adheres to Extinguishing the Darkness By Focusing on Light and Moral Clarity.”
However, today, all around America and all around the world Jews are being threatened and persecuted again for just being Jewish. Antisemitism seems to have always been present, but now is vocal and dangerous for Jews. Again. The Hamas terrorist attacks and horrific crimes of October 7 were forgotten immediately after on October 8 and all that remains is rampant anti-Semitism. I am now only beginning to hear that possibly those who planned October 7 also planned the October 8 responses against Jews.
I have never understood antisemitism. We Jews are a small minority of only 15 million people in the world. We have been repeatedly persecuted, tortured and murdered. I guess I will never understand it.
There is one thing I now understand that I did not understand before.
For generations, Israel has tried to make peace with its Palestinian neighbors. I understand now that this is an impossibility. The neighbors have turned down every offer of creating a two states solution, many previous offers more generous than those proposed now. I know now it is because the only acceptance of settlement will be if the Jews leave Israel and there are no Jews, no Israel, only one Palestine. It seems nonnegotiable, not to the Jews that there be that there be a two state solution, but to Palestinians. Palestinians, who have been radicalized for generations, have only one goal—kill all the Jews.
Safety and security. We Jews have had 5785 years to work on safety and security. I guess there is still work to be done. In my life, I have gone from being Orthodox Jewish to Reform Jewish to Spiritual Jewish, believing in the protection and miracle of God, Hashem, like that Passover Speech of the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, giving all the glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Mr. Nethanyahu said:
"Only 70 years ago the Jews were led to the slaughterhouse like sheep.
60 years ago we had no country or army.
Just a few hours after its creation, seven Arab countries declared war on our small Jewish state.
We were only 6500 Jews against the rest of the Arab world, without any Israel Defense Army (IDF).
No powerful air force, just brave people.
Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, they all attacked us at the same time.
The country that the United Nations gave us was 65% desert. The country was in nowhere!
35 years ago we fought against the three most powerful armies in the Middle East, and we swept them away, yes... in six days.
We have fought against various coalitions of Arab countries, which had modern armies and many Soviet weapons, and we have always defeated them!
Today we have:
*A country
*An army
*A powerful air force
*A State whose economy exports millions of dollars
*Intel - Microsoft - IBM develops products for the whole world.
*Our doctors receive awards for medical research.
*We have numerous Nobel Prize winners in all areas.
We have made the desert bloom, we sell oranges, flowers and vegetables to everyone.
Israel has sent its own satellites into space! Three satellites at the same time!
We are proud to be in the same range as: the United States, which has 250 million inhabitants. Russia, which has 200 million inhabitants, China which has 1.3 billion inhabitants. Europe (France, Great Britain, Germany), with 350 million inhabitants. Those are the only countries in the world that send objects into space! Israel is now part of the family of nuclear powers, with the United States, Russia, China, India, France and Britain.
We have never officially admitted it, (but everyone knows it): only 60 years ago, they led us, ashamed and desperate, to sacrifice!
We have the smoking ruins of Europe fresh and we won our wars here with less than nothing. We have built our little "Empire" from nothing.
Who is Hamas to want to scare us, to intimidate us? You make us laugh!
Easter was celebrated; Let's not forget what it is about.
We have survived Pharaoh.
We survived the Greeks.
We have survived the Romans.
We have survived the inquisition in Spain and the pogroms in Russia.
We have survived Hitler.
We have survived the Germans.
We have survived the Holocaust.
We have survived the armies of seven Arab countries.
We have survived Saddam.
We will continue to survive today's enemies as well.
Think about any other time in human history! Think about it: for us, the Jewish people, the situation has never been better! Let's face the world.
Let us remember: all the nations or cultures that once tried to destroy us, today no longer exist and we still live!
Egypt?
The Greeks?
Alexander of Macedonia?
The Romans? Does anyone speak Latin these days?
And the Third Reich?
And look at us:
Bible Nation
the slaves of Egypt,
we are still here.
And we speak the same language! Before and now! The Arabs don't know it yet, but they will learn that there is a God! ....as long as we maintain our identity, we will be here forever!
So we apologize for not worrying.
For not crying.
For not being afraid.
Things are good here.
They could certainly be better.
However: don't believe the media because they don't say that parties are still happening, people are still living, people are still going out, people are still going out to see their friends.
Yes, our morale is low. Because? Only because we mourn our dead, while others rejoice in the spilled blood. That's why we're going to win in the end.
He never sleeps or will never sleep...the guardian of Israel...HaShem, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
And I quote Elie Weisel:
“As a Jew, I need Israel. More precisely: I can live as a Jew outside Israel, but not without Israel.”
Yes, we shall survive, with
Joy,
Mema
