Righting Wrongs!

I am in such a rage, I do not know where to turn. When I assess all the positive things that Jews have contributed to humanity, and contrast that with the treatment my people have undergone as recompense, I understand neither humanity nor God. Indeed, there is no justice, and there are no grounds to believe in the God whose worship the Jews have championed. If not for their belief in God how could there be Jews? If not for their belief in God, how could there be a Jesus? If not for Jesus, how could Jews have inherited the political lie of the Catholic Church, and its descendants, that his fellow Jews Killed him? If not for that, Jews would not have faces millennia of murder, forced conversion, exclusion and persecution. And Islam’s Mohammed followed suit because we would not his version of the story we have been telling. These wrongs have never been righted, nor can they ever be righted.

Out of this crucible of trial by fire and sword, hate and exclusion, remnants have survived over the centuries since Jews left their native land. Treated as strangers everywhere they landed, they forged a culture which shed individuals of extraordinary talent, wisdom and ingenuity out of all proportion to their constantly winnowed numbers among the populations where they sojourned. Hated wherever they went, often condemned to living conditions which shortened the life-spans of those who managed to survive, Jewish communities spawned individuals who were called upon by these populations to address problems in ways they could not find answers to themselves. When Jews were at last liberated from the restrictions of the ghettoes, the contribution which Jews began to make to the welfare of their communities exploded across the whole range of human activity. Yet, hatred of the Jews, official and random, remains a fact of daily life for Jews everywhere, in one form or another.

As a youngster I grew up in Canada, in an environment when discrimination was a fact of daily life. There were places to live where no Jew could find property. There were jobs where Jews could find no employment. There were courses in University where entry of Jews to study was limited.  One of my childhood acquaintances , the product of a Jamaican father and a German mother lived in similar circumstance. We often spoke of our aspirations for future advancement. He had a talent for drawing. If I had a talent for anything, it was not obvious.

Thirty years later, the overt antisemitism was not apparent. I was a professional economist with a flourishing career. My father had risen from shoveling coal to being a home-study engineer in charge of a cold-storage plant. My friend was a successful artist with paintings for sale in galleries. When I  met him, however, he asked me to never mention his humble beginnings. A further forty years on, we re-engaged and had a number of debates regarding issues in the public domain.

When I mentioned some of the contributions Jews had made to humanity, making particular reference to the recent discoveries made by scientists in Israel, they appeared of little significance to him. He cautioned me at being too tribal, indicating that national origins were irrelevant. Then he stated that the creation of Israel was a world blunder.  This incident came to mind because my friend passed away a few days ago. Be careful what you say when God is listening!

The contributions being made in Israel are a case in point. Faced with all the challenges Israel has faced, its survival was a miracle. The current rallying of nations around the world to support the Ukraine was not in evidence when Israel confronted the armies of seven invading Arab countries, in addition to internal terrorism, at the time of its birth in 1948.

An arid country it converts sea water to fresh water with solar power. That solar power fills much of its energy needs as it lacks natural resources. It is a pioneer in agricultural techniques that it markets to the world to conserve water. It commits the world’s highest percentage of the national budget to research and development, funding medical and technological advances that are being used around the world. Its medical advances have enabled the halt to walk, the deaf to hear and the blind to see. It used its entire population to test out the best methods for controlling the COVID-19 pandemic.

No emergency anywhere in the world lacks an Israeli team if their aid is welcome, and they are often the first on the scene to save lives. It is second only to the U.S in the number of new patents registered each year. It is a haven for any Jews in distress around the world, no questions asked. Its initial Jewish population was 800,000, now after almost seventy-five years, it is over six million, in a country of over nine million, most of the balance being Arabs with full citizenship. Yet some, even many, will consider all this a blunder! And we face challenges to our survival wherever we are located.

The outsize contributions made by Jews in every field, out of all proportion to their numbers, is a matter of public record. The explanation for it is what is puzzling. My conclusion centers on the nature of the Jewish community in the diaspora, and now in the Israel national consciousness. Communities inherited their format as dictated by religious authorities in ancient Israel, each community being responsible for the needs all its inhabitants, children’s education and care for the poor included. This was re-enforced in the diaspora by hostile  surroundings, with internal literacy and educational priorities being in stark contrast to what existed in those. Most important, I believe, was a Jewish sense of common destiny, each Jew knowingly accepting responsibility for the welfare of one’s fellows.

When Jews entered the wider world, this drive was transmuted into an urge to be of service to the public as a whole. And these feeling dictated the choice of careers and the values of Jewish entrepreneurs. The community priority on education did the rest in the pursuit of excellence.

Our wrongs will not be righted. We must earn our satisfactions from our accomplishments!