Esther Jungreis was eight years old when, as an inmate of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp, starved and humiliated, she would hear the daily shouts of the Nazi officers: "Line up, you Yudishe shwinehunt [pig-dogs]!"
And, as she obeyed their commands, little Esther would think: "I'm glad I'm a daughter of the people who stood at Sinai and sealed a covenant with God to be his eternal people and live by his Torah. I'm glad I'm not a daughter of this nation of brutes."
"The atmosphere in Europe today is just like it was in 1938. In every country I went to, Jews told me that they are afraid."
This summer, Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis, one of the most charismatic speakers in the Jewish world, did a speaking tour of Europe. "I'm sorry to tell you," she declared last week in a Jerusalem interview, "that the atmosphere in Europe today is just like it was in 1938. In every country I went to, Jews told me that they are afraid, that they are experiencing virulent anti-Semitism."
Her words are underscored by last week's judicial verdicts in France of the Muslim thugs who tortured Ilan Halimi to death because, in the words of the gang leader, "he was Jewish." Most of the co-defendants got off with such light sentences that France's Minister of Justice was embarrassed into calling a retrial. But perhaps even more ominous was the audacious statement of the French prosecutor, who accused the defendants of turning "normal anti-Semitism into hateful anti-Semitism." What, indeed, defines the line between "normal" (therefore ostensibly acceptable) anti-Semitism and the "hateful" variety? Had his Muslim attackers killed Ilan without torturing him for 24 days, would that have been acceptable in 21st century France?
"Europe is becoming Eurabia," Rebbetzin Jungreis avows. "The continent is being dominated by radical Muslims who are vehemently anti-Israel. And," she cautions, "anti-Israel means anti-Jewish. It's politically correct today to be anti-Israel or anti-Zionist, rather than anti-Semitic. But if anyone has any doubts about the intentions of radical Islamists, just remember Daniel Pearl. He was not a settler, nor an Israeli, nor even actively involved in Judaism. In fact, he was married to a non-Jew. What was his crime? What his murderers made him say before they decapitated him: ‘I am a Jew.'"
The word "afraid" cannot be applied to this petite powerhouse of a woman, who at age 73 can speak on four different continents in a week and whose teaching, writing, and counseling schedule, on less than three hours of sleep a night, would wear out a person half her age. Yet, as a Holocaust survivor, Rebbetzin Jungreis is clearly troubled by a sense of déjà-vu as she regards a world silent in the face of rising anti-Semitism.
"Before and during the Holocaust, there was not one nation who spoke up for us. And today there is not one nation speaking up for us. The whole world is negotiating with despicable dictators. The more vicious the Muslim nations become, the more olive branches are thrown at their feet, and the more pressure is placed upon Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. This pressure emanates not only from traditional anti-Semitic sources, but from our American government as well. The concessions that Washington demands of Israel are nothing short of suicidal. And yet, very few seem to care. Additionally, the administration has given the green light to Iran's nuclear power program, provided, of course, it is used only for peaceful purposes! If it weren't so tragic, it would be laughable. Don't they realize that we....nay, the entire world, heard Ahmadinejad openly proclaim his intention to wipe Israel off the map?"
The Iranian dictator's canards differed from Hitler's similar diatribes only by replacing the title "Juden" with "Zionists."
Rebbetzin Jungreis cites Ahmadinejad's September, 2008, speech to the United Nations General Assembly, in which he proclaimed: "The dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are a miniscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the US in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner... This means that the great people of America and various nations of Europe need to obey the demands and wishes of a small number of acquisitive and invasive people. These nations are spending their dignity and resources on the crimes and occupations and the threats of the Zionist network against their will."
Although the Iranian dictator's canards differed from Hitler's similar diatribes only by replacing the title "Juden" with "Zionists," not one member nation of the United Nations (except Israel) walked out of Ahmadinejad's speech. In fact, points out Rebbetzin Jungreis, Columbia University invited Ahmadinejad to speak. "Can you imagine inviting Hitler to speak at Columbia University?" she asks ruefully.
The very night following his U.N. invective, Ahmadinejad appeared on Larry King Live. Rather than challenging Ahmadinejad's accusations, Larry King (himself a Jew) amiably asked his guest, "How old are you? You look so young, but you already have married children." Rebbetzin Jungreis, her voice soft but her eyes flashing fire, declares: "I would have asked him some very different questions."
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
If you were a Jew in Europe in March, 1939, and somehow, magically, you knew all the horrors that were about to be perpetrated against Europe's Jews—the ghettoes, the starvation, the cattle cars, the concentration camps, the gas chambers, the death marches--, what would you do to stop it?
This was the question I recently asked a group of American college students being primed for leadership in the Jewish community. One woman raised her hand and answered, "I would alert world leaders."
I replied: "The world leader who was most sympathetic to the Jews was FDR, but as late as 1944, when he knew the worst, even FDR, as we now know, refused to bomb the train tracks to Auschwitz, an act that would have saved hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews." I turned to the group and asked: "How many of you think that the Jews could have been saved by alerting world leaders?" Not a single hand went up.
I invited other suggestions, and a young man offered: "There were mercenary armies in those days. I would have used Jewish money to hire a mercenary army to defend us."
"A mercenary army? Not a single standing army in Europe could defeat Hitler's juggernaut. How many of you think that the Jews could have been saved by a mercenary army?" Not a single hand went up.
"I would have warned the Jews of Europe to flee," a young woman suggested.
"To where?" I asked. "We all know that not a single country in the world, including the United States, was willing to take Jews who could still get out of Germany in 1938. Besides, numerous accounts attest that the Jews who were warned by those who escaped from cattle cars and death camps simply refused to believe that it was possible, in the 20th century, in enlightened Europe, for Jewish men, women, and children to be murdered in factories of death. As we continue to see today, the Jewish capacity for self-deception as to the intentions of our enemies is limitless."
The college students sat there silently, looking grim.
We had just viewed a clip from "The Third Jihad," a documentary about the dangers of militant Islam. "I wasn't really asking you how you could have prevented the Holocaust," I explained. "Really, I was asking you how you'll prevent the next holocaust. Is there anyone here who thinks that diplomatic or military solutions can save the six million Jews of Israel who will imminently face an Iranian nuclear bomb?"
The group was silent.
REBBETZIN JUNGREIS'S SOLUTION
The approaching fast day of Tisha B'Av commemorates the core tragedy of Jewish history: the destruction of the First and Second Holy Temples in Jerusalem. Not only was Tisha B'Av a spiritual tragedy, for the Divine Presence retreated into the inaccessibility we all experience, but also all of the physical tragedies of the 2,000-year exile, all of the Inquisitions, Crusades, pogroms, and holocausts issue from the calamity of Tisha B'Av.
The sages of the Talmud posed a curious question: What caused the Temple's destruction? These sages were chronologically as close to the destruction of the Temple as we are to the Holocaust -- a single generation. They all knew that the Romans had set fire to the Temple. Yet, they understood that whatever befalls the Jewish People is determined by God in response to our own actions. Thus the sages famously concluded that the Temple was destroyed because of our spiritual failure, because of sinat chinam, baseless hatred among Jews.
A loving father will discipline his child when he has to -- not out of anger, but out of genuine care for what's best for the child."
Likewise, Rebbetzin Jungreis points to a spiritual solution for our dire predicament. When asked how Jews today can use the rising anti-Semitism to embrace their Judaism instead of running away from it, Rebbetzin Jungreis replies: "If a Jew tries to escape his covenant with God, then God takes out wanted ads in all the newspapers: ‘WANTED: ANTI-SEMITES TO REMIND MY PEOPLE WHO THEY ARE.' And unfortunately there are always millions of volunteers. In every country, wherever you go, you will find anti-Semitism. No matter what a Jew does, his obligation to the Covenant will pursue him. Many Jews in Hungary before World War II had converted to Christianity. When we were being shoved in the cattle cars a woman was screaming to the Nazi guard, 'I'm not a Jew!' He just pushed her with his rifle butt into the cattle car."
"God is not punitive; He's corrective," Rebbetzin Jungreis explains. "A loving father will discipline his child when he has to -- not out of anger, but out of genuine care for what's best for the child. God is our loving Father. We are experiencing the tragedy of a nation that has forgotten who they are, so God uses anti-Semitism to remind us."
She illustrates with a searing example: According to the Talmud, one of the reasons God saved us from bondage in ancient Egypt was that we didn't change our Hebrew names. "Fast forward," Rebbetzin Jungreis declares, pointing out that in Germany before the War assimilation and intermarriage were rampant. Most Jews forgot about Hebrew names. They became Otto and Eva. Then, in 1938, Hitler passed the Nuremberg Laws. One of those laws demanded that all Jews must assume a Jewish name, that every Jewish man must add the name "Israel" and every Jewish woman must add the name "Sarah." Thus, if a Jew's name was Otto Schwartzbaum, he had to become Otto Israel Schwartzbaum. Jews had forgotten who they were, but Hitler reminded them.
"Jews had forgotten who they were, but Hitler reminded them."
"Fast forward to 2009," Rebbetzin Jungreis says. "When I speak on college campuses, I give out my books gratis, and I inscribe each book to the recipient. I ask each student, ‘What is your Jewish name?' Most of them reply, "I don't know.' I tell them, ‘You have to find out your Jewish name.' If they don't have a Jewish name, I tell them to go to their rabbi and ask for a Jewish name, or I give them a Jewish name. Because your Jewish name is not simply a name. Your Jewish name is your roots, your heritage, your identity. Through your Jewish name you are linked to your life's mission."
A few years ago, she was invited to meet with ministers of the Hungarian parliament. One of the ministers asked her: "Are you angry?"
Rebbetzin Jungreis inquired, "What do you mean?"
The minister explained: "During the Holocaust, this same Hungarian parliament passed all those anti-Semitic laws."
The Rebbetzin replied: "We are not a nation that indulges in anger. But let me tell you a story. My ancestors in ancient Egypt suffered slavery and degradation. If you had asked who has the greater chance of surviving the millennia, the Israelite slaves or the Egyptian empire, everyone would have laughed at you. But all that is left of the Egyptian empire is relics in the British Museum, and we, the Jewish People, are still here. And this holds true for all the mighty empires of the world, from the Babylonians to the Romans. The great Roman Empire killed hundreds of thousands of Jews. The Emperor Titus built a victory arch in Rome to commemorate the conquest of the Jews. I moved through the Arch of Titus going from Hitler's concentration camps on our way to freedom. Hitler claimed to give the world ‘the final solution.' He even built a museum in Prague to exhibit the artifacts of the extinct Jewish people. But his ‘thousand-year Reich' survived 12 years, and we Jews are still here."
Jewish survival, explains Rebbetzin Jungreis, is God's part of the Covenant. Our part is to keep the Torah's commandments.
"If we would only allow a moment of truth to illuminate our hearts," grieves Rebbetzin Jungreis, "we would readily concede our pitiful state. Just consider that we, the nation that taught a pagan world about God, we, the nation that introduced the language of prayer to humanity, we, the nation that has lent meaning to the concept of faith and trust, has forgotten how to turn to God, how to trust Him, how to have faith in Him."
With obvious pain, she quotes a recent article in the New York Times. The article maintained that in these depressed economic times people cannot afford to go to psychotherapists, so instead they go to their religious counselors. A Muslim businesswoman interviewed by the journalist complained that it's difficult to find a good place to pray five times a day when she's in the business world. A Catholic woman complained that the sexual mores of the Church are very restrictive. What was the complaint of the Jewish woman? She finds it very stressful to have a Jewish last name and to be identified with Israel. So she assures her date that she eats pork and that Israel has nothing to do with her. "What has become of us?" laments Rebbetzin Jungreis. "God looks upon His children and weeps."
Rebbetzin Jungreis ends on a powerful note:
"Hitler needed ghettos. I know. I was in one.
"Hitler needed cattle cars. I know. I was in one.
"Hitler needed concentration camps. I know. I was in one.
"Hitler needed gas chambers. I know. I was in one, although that time it sprayed water instead of gas.
"Ahmadinejad doesn't need ghettos, nor cattle cars, nor concentration camps, nor gas chambers. He can accomplish the same thing just by pressing a button. Heaven forbid!"
What will you do to stop him?
Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis is the founder and president of Hineni, and author of four best-selling books: Jewish Soul on Fire, The Committed Life, The Committed Marriage, and Life Is A Test. For Rebbetzin Jungreis's schedule of appearances,click here.
(37) AJ1, March 21, 2015 3:29 AM
ASIA would have welcomed Jews from Germany. Would Israel do the same?
The primary reason for anti semitism in the west was because of Christianity. Much of Asia in the late 1930's onwards were colonized by western powers who held Christian beliefs and thus were powerless to help the Jews. The problem however is not about Jews or anti semitism. The Rohingya people are now being subject to genocide and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. i urge members here to speak for the group with same passion that they speak out against anti semitism.
(36) michelle, June 28, 2010 6:56 PM
Baseless hatred
Thank you, Rebbetizin for this wonderful article. The simple solution to this problem is that all of Israel-meaning the Jewish people in thier entirety, needs to have peace-- within ourselves-- in accepting one another. The sad fact, as evidenced by the American Indians, is prior to the new colonist arrival, they were also not united. It took the terrible decimation of these tribes to finally unite, as evidenced today. We must learn from them, and unite ourselves,no matter what. We must stop the "separtion mentality". Hear Oh Israel
(35) Miriam, May 19, 2010 12:26 AM
Peace
I respect all our people who suffer during the holocaust, but my father who was a survivor told me now its a peace time we have to respect everyone does not matter religion color etc and we have to talk for a peace process.
(34) ROB, August 2, 2009 5:32 PM
"Can you imagine inviting Hitler to speak at Columbia University?" she asks ruefully. Essentially THEY DID:
Columbia rolled out the red carpet for a senior official of Adolf Hitler’s regime. The invitation to Iran’s leader may seem less surprising, but no less disturbing, when one recalls that in 1933, Columbia president Nicholas Murray Butler invited Nazi Germany’s ambassador to the United States, Hans Luther, to speak on campus, and also hosted a reception for him. Luther represented "the government of a friendly people," Butler insisted. He was "entitled to be received ... with the greatest courtesy and respect." Ambassador Luther's speech focused on what he characterized as Hitler's peaceful intentions. Students who criticized the Luther invitation were derided as “ill-mannered children” by the director of Columbia’s Institute of Arts and Sciences. per Rafael Medoff: Columbia “Invites Hitler to Campus” --As it Did in 1933 Source: Released by the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies (9-20-07)
(33) Silky Pitterman, July 31, 2009 5:45 PM
Because he was a Jew
David Pearl was made to say the he was a Jew. Although he was born in Israel and therefore an Israeli, the media (who knew this fact) never said anything about Israel and neither did the Moslems who killed him. It was not anti-Israel. It was old fashioned anti-Jews.
(32) Anonymous, July 31, 2009 5:46 AM
Daniel Pearl was Israeli. His father was born and raised in Bnai Brak.
(31) Rivka, July 31, 2009 1:08 AM
to Beverly Kurtin
Jews who fought back in Germany were also killed - look at the Warsaw Uprising, look at Lodz. The only answer is to realize that we are not in control, even with plenty of guns. Only acknowledging the overwhelming power of Gd will help -- that and moving to Israel where your guns will become part of the answer.
(30) avrom friedman, July 30, 2009 8:29 PM
Amazing
The Rebbetzin never fails to tell it like it is. Yishar Kochaich!
(29) Jeff Knight, July 30, 2009 7:14 PM
We must take notice of these warnings!!!!
We must turn to G-d and pray!!! We must be prepared to make a stand!!!!
(28) Anonymous, July 30, 2009 6:28 PM
Very important article.
I agree 100% with Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis. All Jews should read this article and learn something.
(27) Ben (Los Angeles), July 30, 2009 5:58 PM
Watch the movie (OBSESSION)
We should not stay silent and repeat the history like in WW II . There were people who warned about the rising of anti-semitism but most didnt pay attention and accused them of trying to scare people. The DENIED and we sadly saw what happened. DONT LET THAT HAPPEN again. WE SHOULD EDUCATE PEOPLE JEW AND NOT-JEW.
(26) Yocheved,Jerusalem, July 30, 2009 9:11 AM
Live as a proud, grateful Jew
As I spend this Tisha B'av as a proud and grateful Jew in this Holy city, I agree (again) with the Rebbetzin's message. I understand grief and I understand miracles.NOW is the time for Jews all over the world to remember who WE are. To avoid another catastrophe we must simply respond differently. No fear-fear is a lack of faith. Where we come from is not Aushwitz, though it's part of our story. Where we come from is what the Rebbetzin says-We are the nation that changed the world by introducing the idea of the ONE G-d, concepts of prayer,blessings,gratidude. We are the nation who solidified an codified ideas of justice and love for our fellow man. We changed the world!!! Now we have come back to our ancestral home to continue to make this world better. Even our so called enemies in the area have a much better life as a result of our return. To my fellow young Jews. Find out who you are- who you really are. Do not listen to the lies about it. Who We are are who You are is the most challenging , exiting story of humankind! Be part of it and BE PROUD OF IT.
(25) Anonymous, July 30, 2009 6:44 AM
Death to this racist
He is a hooligan, he should be stopped while still early (is it still???), they shouldn't have to regret after the next holocaust!
(24) A Jew, July 30, 2009 3:31 AM
To Beverly
You keep a shotgun at every entrance and one concealed on you and you think you're not living in fear? You just have yourself fooled into thinking that you can do something about it. What if an entire group- like the military- would show up with their weapons? Could you hold them off? Would you try?
(23) Anonymous, July 29, 2009 11:57 PM
So powerful!
Truly a powerful commentary! G-d help us, and may this be the last Tisha b'Av in exile.
(22) yael, July 29, 2009 6:47 PM
Not live in fear?????
How can you honestly say that you don't live in fear when you have a shot gun at every door leading outside. sound to me as if you live not in fear but in terror.
(21) Michael, July 29, 2009 2:26 PM
straight out of Megilat Ester
Ahmadinejad's September, 2008, speech to the United Nations General Assembly sounds like Haman talking to Achashveirosh about getting rid of the Jews. "The dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists" May this not be the case!
(20) , July 29, 2009 2:24 PM
While we mourn Jerusalem, they mourn Babylon! Gd runs the world! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32198058/ns/world_news-washington_post/
(19) Sarah, July 29, 2009 3:07 AM
Also in America
I just got an email with this link on it. It's basically about this woman who lives in Texas. Once she was in Walmart and a woman yelled at her to go where she came from! and people say these things can never happen here in America. Unfortunately these things are happening. Wake up calls we can call them. It's scary but true!!!!
(18) Beverly Kurtin, July 28, 2009 11:59 PM
Live not in fear
No, no, no. A thousand times no. I refuse to live my life in fear. That was one of the reasons that our people were so easily found and taken to the camps. They were paralyzed with fear so badly that they might as well have been sheep heading toward the slaughterer. Our ancestors lived in constant fear and stress. From the day we were led from the house of bondage in Egypt, we’ve had to look over our shoulders. We are the only nation that still around from the days we left Egypt. The downside to that is that is that we’ve spent a bundle of energy being afraid. So what is the answer? Speak softly and carry a 12 gauge shotgun. When Jew-hating neighbors moved next door and began a campaign of terror, telling us, “You’re going to find out now who runs this neighborhood and the first thing we’re going to do is get rid of every Jew, starting with y’all.” Then their blood froze in their veins, as they heard the sound of a shot gun being cocked. “Now do you know who is running the neighborhood?” Then the sound continued around the neighborhood. Although most of the neighborhood wasn’t Jewish, the message was clear: Punks not wanted. Jews and other decent people need to start arming themselves so “NEVER AGAIN” becomes a reality, not just a nice comfortable motto. I refuse to live in fear and so does my community When the Sergeant of the Police Department asked us if we were armed we answered in the negative. He told us to get armed. I now carry a concealed weapon (licensed, of course) and we have a shotgun at every door that leads to the outside. I am NOT going to live in fear, not will I permit my family or neighbors to live in fear. You may think that I sound like a rough kind of person; I’m not. I hope to never pull a trigger, but I, once again, refuse to live in fear.
(17) benjy, July 28, 2009 10:09 PM
holy rebetzin
may u have cont. good health,& merit to see the mashiach ,&the holy temple vey very soon. ive alaways been inspired by ur words since i was a child, untill today. thank you b. [a ffb]
(16) Sheyna Gerbakher, July 28, 2009 6:10 AM
Plea
Please my brothers and sisters, lets not shoot ourselves. Let us hear and awaken to our Tati's pleas for us to return to Him and to Eretz Yisroel, If we will but hear His cries, then He will in return hear ours, but if we do not heed His call, there will be a price to pay indeed. We should all be awakened and strengthened against our enemies and with that see the coming of Moshiach, Bimheyra B'yameinu!!! Amen!
(15) Linda, July 28, 2009 3:25 AM
I wish to recommend a book written by a Christian, a woman who lived in Lebanon, Brigette Gabriel called Because They Hate. This will be excellent for any American ,especially a Jewish liberal who argues Orthodox Jewry as being against Obama. Also, it will behoove any humane person to heed Rebbetzin Jungreis as she not only experienced the Holocaust, but she also will enlighten any brainwashed person to understand the plight of Jews in the world today. There is and will be no distinction made when anti-Semites attack the Jewish race. It is time to wake up to the precarious situation the Jewish people are facing. The Obama administration willing to share Israel with terrorists who have no place in Israel and ordering the Jews to stop building settlements in our own country is ludicrous.t is time for Jews around the world to unite to prevent a holocaust-yes anti-Semitism is thriving in America on campuses ,and young people need to be aware of all the facts as even in America as the Rebbetzin established, backs have been turned. We need to act-stand together and prevent any harm befalling Jews. We need Israel and time for all to realize that it is the only haven/democracy in the Middle East and without Israel, it will be much more feasible for another holocaust to happen.
(14) isragirl, July 28, 2009 3:12 AM
thank g-d i moved to israel
we moved here nearly 2 years ago and the more i hear about increased anti-semitism the more i am convinced it was the right thing to do. this story about Ilan Halimi is so awful and shocking, and yet it is probably just the beginning again. People in Europe should wake up to this.
(13) Rachel, July 27, 2009 6:07 PM
Judaism yes, Republican party, no
I admire Rebbetzin Jungreis' long history of outreach. I am concerned by her criticism of the present US government, esp. since she has been a known supporter of the GWBush administration. It is no less a tragedy when Iranian resisters of the Ahmedinejad government are tortured than it was when the very first victims of the Nazis -- communists, labor leaders, etc -- met the same fate. Working to improve US relations with other governments does not necessarily mean selling out Israel; as an Orthodox Jew & Democrat, I get tired of the way other Orthodox Jews demonize liberalism in America. Talk about sinas chinam!
(12) Anny Matar, July 27, 2009 4:30 PM
I WAS THERE TOO
Like the Rabbanit Jungreis I was there too, "only" in the ghetto but I arrived in a cattle car to Israel, my home, in 1944 and was taken by the British to Atlit and, after 2months was allowed my freedom. Barbed wire, whether in the Ghetto or in Atlit is the same. I agree with the Rabbanit entirely, we are a people who try to forget and assmimilate into our surroundings just "not to stand out" , to melt into the masses and those who do stand out "the Neturey Karta" go to Iran to support their murderous leader because they don't agree that we should have a state. Had we had a state in the 1930s a Holocaust coudn't have happenned, we would have had a shelter, a country open to all refugees!! F.D. was no less anti-Jewish than Obama is today, he pays up to the Muslims and has little idea the fire he is kindling, a fire that will spread and destroy not build. What can one voice or a million voices do? Not a thing. The only force I believe in is ISAREL, "Im lo any li mi li??" WE SHALL SURVIVE, THIS IS OUR LAND WE FOUGHT FOR IT THOUSANDS OF YEARS and no politician can change this. Of course we need YOUR support and your voices to be heard. Thank you, Rabbanit Jugreis. Anny Matar
(11) Aliza Hausman, July 27, 2009 5:48 AM
The Dominican Republic took in Jews during the Holocaust
In 1938, when no other nation would welcome Jewish refugees, Rafael Trujillo, the Dominican Republic strongman, offered to take in 100,000. Between 1940 and 1945, 5,000 Dominican visas were issued, but only 645 Jews actually made their way to the Dominican Republic. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/sosua.html
(10) Reb. Doris Feinstein, July 27, 2009 4:52 AM
Wake up call
Hashem has directed Ahmindijhad's hand to bring our Jews in from the four corners of the world to bring us out of Golas. Obama's mixed messages should be a wakeup call to American Jews to strengthn Israel with their presence.
(9) ruth housman, July 27, 2009 1:24 AM
rising anti-semitism
What you say about rising anti-semitism and such hatred of the Jews is frightening and problematic. I don't really understand a world that has not learned in all these years to embrace an attitude of love towards each other, of respect of the sanctity of all. It seems like an old, stuck story, that just cannot move forward. I am wondering why, after all these years, I keep reading the same stories, about terror, tyranny, bloodshed and hatred around the world. Isn't it time we all got it right? If not now, then when?
(8) Amy Falcon, July 26, 2009 8:18 PM
Poem: "Chains" By: Amy Falcon c. 2009
"Chains" When People are placed by thoughts in chains, It's Only G-d Whose Key Remains. When Links within a circle break, No more pressure can it take. If Water Filled The Common Well, No Need To Buy No Need To Sell. Go Point Your Finger if you will, At others deeds that cause some ill. And so remeber every name, that speaks THE L-RD OUR G-D in vain. But Here UNITE US ALL THE CLASSES, The Jewish Souls still holding masses. Stop this slow degeneration, COME TOGETHER JEWISH NATION!!!!!! And Put The Emphasis On Man, To Pull Together ALL WE CAN. But still inside our fierce brigade, some declare that they're afraid. They speak of where the dark has been, denying Still THE LIGHT WITHIN. Those useless factions there inside, Righteous Indignation, Pride. Have Pulled Our Links To make us break, This Circle's Chain WE MUST REMAKE. By: Amy Falcon c. 2009
(7) Sheyna Gerbakher, July 26, 2009 7:22 PM
Coming Home
The answer is not only physically come home to Eretz Yisroel, but it is to spiritually come home to our Loving father. There are many troubled souls living in Israel today and it is our job to bring them home to our Father in heaven and help them keep HIs Torah. Torah Israel- SINAT CHINAM is the answer and the solution. Beezrat Hashem we should all hear the wake up calls and be zoiche to see the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu, Bimheyra Beyameinu!!!!
(6) Former American Jew, July 26, 2009 4:50 PM
Come home!!
The answer is not hanging in the air. It is here in this Land. You Land of Israel. My Jewish brothers and sisters, COME HOME!!
(5) James Rouben Zarian, July 26, 2009 4:11 PM
Jewish name vs. Bible Name
A very relevant article in our times. The article touches on many aspects of the treatment of the Jewish people by tyrants, dictators and people who have lost their ways - I just want to touch on a very major aspect, albeit a minute part of the article – the Jewish name. I was born in Tehran, Iran and live in the US now and like most Jews in Iran was given two names, a Persian name and a bible name (a Jewish name). The Persian name was used as a legal name and outside of the family circle and the Jewish name, Rouben, was almost exclusively used by all family members, by the rabbi… My comment, which is really a question, is that should we identify our bible name vs. Jewish name? Is not our precious bible (Torah) the very foundation of Christianity and Islam – how can these same people degrade the same names that appear in the first five books of Torah (bible)? Logically, Rouben, may sound Jewish, but it is a bible name and a Moslem and/or Christine that is believer must respect it as such and I am proud to be identified as a person who has bible/Jewish name.
(4) Mary, July 26, 2009 4:10 PM
God and the commandments
The complete destruction of Jerusalem takes place because the people of Israel rejoiced at the suffering of their neighbours, which revealed their own spiritual void and broken covenant to God. Tisha B'Av falls on the three and a half year period of Gods warning.
(3) Don Myers, July 26, 2009 3:23 PM
Man's hate against man must be remembered daily!
This information must be broadcast frequently. Man has a short memory and each generation must be informed and informed again otherwise history is lost or maligned. At some point, and that point is different for each of us, man/woman will prostitue ones self out of greed, blame, selfpreservation or denial of truth, that truth not being what one wants to hear or accept. The exception will always be that small remnant I commend Sara Yoheved Rigler for standing up for Judaism. It is hoped that she will continue to impress on the minds of the leaders in the free nations of the world the history that must be remerbed! Blessings to Sara.
(2) Ruth Braunstein, July 26, 2009 3:15 PM
In dire need of suggestions of what we can do
We need suggestions now, of what we can do to prevent such a calamity. This article really hit home. We need to do something immediately to prevent such a thing from happening. Spiritually it is almost impossible to bring back all these lost souls, unfortunately there are so many.
(1) Anonymous, July 26, 2009 8:13 AM
please read