Homelands In Exile*

 

Frederic Brenner has photographed Jews and their communities in scores of locations throughout the world, mainly during the latter part of the nineteen hundreds, and then invited others to write of their impressions of what these photographs impart. From Yemen to Morocco, to the darkest places of the resurgent Russian social experiment, from China to Tajikstan, to the favored places in France, Italy and America, he presents images of the Jewish accommodation to their environments. The message is that wherever Jews have landed, however their accommodation has played out, however long they have inhabited where they have landed, they have often remained a foreign presence in those environments.

 Jews have been made to feel as strangers in those environments because, often, they have been made to feel that way by their neighbors. Despite their efforts to fit in, they have been made feel as strangers because their neighbor have been educated that way, because their practices and attitudes differed so from those of their neighbors, and, because of the history, Jews have been raised to feel that way. Time after time, in place after place, Jews have lost their lives because of that antagonism. Even in America, where tribal origins were not the basis of statehood, in spite of their economic prominence in some industries, full acceptance has been denied in many ways.

Many have, over time, attempted to assimilate into the dominant resident populations to escape this history. Is it not  a sign of wisdom to seek pain avoidance? Was it just happenstance or opportunity? Was it a sign of weakness or strength?

For the past seventy-five years Jews have succeeded in re-establishing themselves in the homeland n which they could trace their origins for thousands of years, the land of Israel. Billions of people follow a religion which was founded in the name of a Jew who preached in that place. Jews have grown their presence there from a few, to a few hundred thousand, to a nation with a population today of ten million. There are so many countries in the world with much smaller populations. Yet, now in 2024, the home for half of all those claiming to be Jews alive in the world today, some countries and groups are denying Jews the right to their nationhood. In the name of that opposition, Jews, wherever they are located, are being made to feel unsafe. All Israel’s efforts to find an accommodation with their neighbors  have come to naught since their opposition’s base case is the disappearance of the state. Its history since its establishment has been a series of wars of defense. Israel has concluded that it alone can assure its own survival at whatever bitter price. The innovations it has developed to ensure this has led many to seek out its technologic advances in many fields for their own purposes.

The resurgence of the antisemitism unseen since the thirties has swept the planet. It has been led by Islamist with a world Jihad agenda on a base which has been present for thousands of years, since their dispersal by the Roman legions. Since those times, with hatred fostered by a religious drive to punish them for their adherence to their independent religious path, Jews have been punished for their independent path. Despite the contributions Jews have made to human betterment out of all proportion to their numbers, hatred of Jews has persisted. The brilliant success of an independent national state has only fueled this hatred. Israel is now being denied the right to defend itself against those forces which seek to ensure it ceases to exist.

Once again, Jews, wherever they are, find they are in exile in every homeland where they have sought refuge, sometimes for hundreds, even thousands, of years. Their presence has been almost eradicated in many Arab countries. Where Islamist immigration has occurred elsewhere, Jews find themselves under Jihadist threat, with some of their neighbors contaminated by historic hates of longstanding, joining in.

Jews have only one homeland they can count on and that is Israel. It has shown it will do whatever is necessary to protect its citizens even in the face of the most powerful nations in the world. It possesses even nuclear power to back up its deterrent power. None can hide from its capacity to retaliate for any blows it must take in this role. Developments in the world only reinforce the wisdom of those who founded and developed the miracle of Israel’s birth. The phoenix is offering gifts to the world even as it arises out of the fires of challenge.

·         DIASPORA: homelands in exile voices-Frederic Brenner,2003, Toppan Printing Company. Japan