Hillary Clinton vs. Oppression

In a recent statement written by Hillary Clinton, she talked about how she wanted to work to eliminate anti-semitism in the United States, and how this paralleled how in the times of our slavery in Egypt, when Jews were treated poorly.  She said that she wanted to ensure that those who did not have a voice on their own got someone to speak for them in the media.  She mentioned that it is our moral obligation to give hope and to give help to those who are in need of it.  She also talked about how Israel's safety is non-negotiable, and that we can not make the mistake of being neutral in this conflict.  In a time of increasing anti-semitism, it is refreshing to see a prominent figure in today's society speaking out against it.
In today's society, there seems to be concerning levels of anti-semitism, so when someone as important as Hillary Clinton mentions that we need to fight it, it is somewhat refreshing.  Jews around the world need to do what we can to combat this 'epidemic' of anti-semitism.  To see Jews being attacked on college campuses is sincerely worrying, and just to see anyone being oppressed is concerning.  Even though we, as Americans, have almost all of what we need, we need to work to help those who don't.  Even if not everyone has everything, when someone important brings up the issue, it feels like we are at least making a good start.

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/fighting-oppression-inequality-and-injustice-on-passover/

The Ultimate Sacrifice

This week, in class, we've been discussing the six-day war.  Yesterday, in the morning, we went to Ammunition Hill, and learned about what happened there, as well as in other places that were important to the six-day war.  Of all of the important sites from the six-day war, we talked about how ammunition hill was among the most dangerous.  They were walking through long, thin trenches, and one person had to be outside the trench and cover them.  While the people inside the trench were in much danger, the death of the person outside the trench was almost certain.  And yet, we heard survivor accounts that said that, whenever the leader pointed at someone and told them to get out of the trench, everyone who he asked to do that did it without fail.  Now, we all may agree that it is important that everyone has a home.  However, would any of us be willing to jump into almost certain death to defend our right to have a home?  To do that requires an extreme courage and an extreme determination that not many of us have.  Luckily, we have grown up in a time when there already is an established Jewish state, but if there wasn't, would any of us be willing to give up our lives for it?  For these people, the answer was yes, but for any today, I have doubts that it would be the same.

Free Speech vs. Morons

Today, I read about a somewhat troubling article about a recent speech by the mayor of Jerusalem.  The mayor, Nir Barkat, was speaking at SFSU, when a group of pro-palestine protestors yelled him off the stage and into a corner with the people who came to actually listen to the speech like civilized human beings.  Now, I am all for free speech.  And perhaps these protestors will use the excuse of "we were speaking against something we disagree with".  If they do, their argument is fundamentally incorrect.  This is obstructing free speech, and not allowing people who want to actually listen hear.  Protest when it doesn't obstruct someone's constitutional right.  It frustrates me that these people could be so frustrated that they refuse to not only let themselves listen to him, but also refuse to let other people listen to him, even if they want to.  These morons are acting like little children and not allowing people to speak because they disagree with them.

http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/77319/sfsu-president-promises-full-investigation-after-protesters-disrupt-jerusal

Violent vs. Necessary

Today, we went to an old, no longer in use prison in Jerusalem, and walked around while learning about the movement for Israel's independence.  We learned about the four different military groups during the movement for independence, the Palmach, the Hagana, the Lechi, and the Etzel.  Each group had a different strategy.  The Palmach were the strike force in case of a Nazi invasion, the Hagana used self-defense, the Etzel was a mix of self-defense and attacking, and the Lechi was a somewhat extreme group who used the "whatever it takes" approach.  While there were many disagreements between the groups, one major one was when the Etzel decided to blow up the King David Hotel, killing 91 British soldiers.  What is notable about this is that the British left one year after, and most likely, this event was one of the reasons.  An ongoing debate is if this was the right method of resistance.  In my opinion, it was the necessary thing to do at that point.  We had been asking the British to leave for years, but our requests fell on deaf ears.
While some, like me, see this as a necessary action, others, such as David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, see this as unnecessary and too violent.  They might say that killing would just make the British control us more, or make them angrier thany  before.  While these are both valid points, we had been under British control for far too long, and they even restricted immigration during the time of the Nuremberg Laws.  This effectively prevented a multitude of Jews from escaping the Holocaust and potentially survive past World War 2.  At this point, we could no longer let the British stay in control of Israel.  It did not seem like other methods were effective enough, and so this was a necessary action to take.  Though it was violent, it was needed.

Poland Essay

Poland Essay

Many people would say that the Holocaust was the most evil thing to happen to the world, and one location it affected more than many others is Poland.  Poland, where there was a thriving Jewish community before the Holocaust, ended up with a miniscule one after the war.  Though the Jewish community in Poland today is almost nonexistent, there are still some sites that represent life, such as Krakow, and a couple that also represent death, like Maydanek.  During the Holocaust, there were many different people who rebelled against the Nazis, and committed Iberleben (rebellion), such as Janusz Korczak, a caretaker of children, and Immanuel Ringelblum, a historian.  It is also the job of those still living to never let ourselves forget what happened then, and to always keep the memories in our heads, so we never lose the knowledge we’ve gained.  Though Poland was certainly not utopia for Jews before the war, the Nazis made it a living hell for everyone in it, but luckily we are able to study what was left behind and learn about it.

Judaism today is one of the smallest major religions that exists, but before the Holocaust, there was a large Jewish community in Eastern Europe.  One site that truly represents this pre-Holocaust life is the city of Krakow.  Today, there are 5 synagogues still standing in Krakow’s old Jewish district from before the war.  If there were 5 synagogues in one small area, there were enough Jews for 5 synagogues.  There were even multiple types of Judaism concentrated into that small area.  One very famous Rabbi buried in Krakow is Rabbi Yom Tov, who was known to be a very intelligent scholar of Judaism.  One story about him is that, in Krakow, there lived a rich man who was known for not giving any money to the community.  So it was logical that, when he died, they could barely get a minyan together for the funeral.  However, when the hospital noticed that they didn’t get new medicine, and other people stopped getting support, Yom Tov realized this rich man had been helping secretly.  He then requested to be buried next to this guy who nobody had liked.  This site makes you feel happy, that even during the Pogroms and everything, people still managed to form a thriving Jewish community, although it was put to an end when the Nazis came to power.  Although there was plenty of life before the Holocaust, there was also plenty of death during and after.  One particular site that represents this is the concentration camp of Maydanek.  Though not as many people died there as at some of the other camps, it was still a spot what a multitude of Jews were executed.  One particular story is that, close to the end of its existence, the Nazis brought out 18,000 prisoners and told them to dig trenches to “defend” the camp, and then shot them all.  What is extremely ironic about this is that 18 is a number that is supposed to represent life in Judaism.  This place just leaves one with a sense of eeriness, and it makes you worried about what is happening in the world, and if something like this could ever happen.  It seems almost impossible that there was such a thriving community before, and over two thirds of it was killed.

During the Holocaust, though many people were far too scared by the Nazis to do anything to fight back, there were some people who did rebel in their own ways against the Nazis.  One such person is Januzs Korczak, who was a caretaker for kids before the war.  When the war started, his friends offered to get him out of Poland, but he said that he had to stay and help the children.  During the early years of the war, he ran an orphanage, and what was unique about his orphanage is that the kids made most of the decisions.  He treated the kids as his equals, as opposed to as lower than him.  When the Nazis were leading him and the kids to their deaths, he had them go with dignity.  Now, while some might say this is cowardice, there is so little anyone could have done, that to show the Nazis that their torture won’t work is a very legitimate form of rebellion.  Another form of rebellion some might consider unusual is that which was done by Immanuel Ringelblum.  When the war was nearing a close, the Nazis tried to destroy everything in order to cover up everything.  Ringelblum started collecting everything he could in order to document this period.  Were it not for him, we may not have much evidence about this period at all.  Thanks to his bravery in collecting artifacts, we now have valuable information on the Holocaust.  Though neither of these strategies is the most typical strategy for rebellion, they are both very effective ways to show the Nazis that we will not take this lying down.

Rabbi Emil Fackenheim once wrote: “Jews are forbidden to hand Hitler posthumous victories, they are commanded to survive as Jews, lest the Jewish people perish.”  To me, this means that we can not allow ourselves to forget what happened to us during the terrible times of the Holocaust.  If we do forget about it, then we fail to learn from our mistakes of the past, and something like this could potentially happen to us again.  We all need to work to remember this, because if we do not, we run the risk of letting the Nazis win by allowing them to cover up their tracks.  In order to ensure that we do not forget the Holocaust, we must make sure that they teach it in the school systems.  Ensure that people are educated about it from a young age, and that way, they will know about it for their whole lives.  If we fail to educate the general population about this, we run the risk of losing all this knowledge.  I agree with what Rabbi Fackenheim says, in that we can’t let the Nazis win by forgetting about what happened.  Though the Holocaust may be over, it is our responsibility to carry on the memory.

Though it is absolutely awful that the Holocaust happened, we can avoid it happening again by remembering what it was like.  We can think of the sites where there was life, and how happy people were, like in Krakow, and then think of the places where death was abundant, like Maydanek, and how angry everyone was.  If something like this ever does happen again, unfortunately, we can fight back, just as some people did back in the times of the Holocaust, like Janusz Korczak, and Immanuel Ringelblum.  Most importantly, we can never allow the Nazis to win by forgetting what took place and risking it happening again.  We should never even give something like the Holocaust a chance to arise again.  Though the Holocaust was horrible, it is our responsibility to remember it and make sure that it never happens again as long as humanity is still around.

Written Torah vs. Oral Torah

Written Torah vs. Oral Torah

Throughout Judaism, one important debate has been whether to allow followers the flexibility of changing rules or to not make any changes to the rules, with some variations falling in between the two.  Two different versions of the Torah existedThe Written Torah had all the rules set in stone, which meant that they almost entirely unchangeable.  The Oral Torah didn’t have the rules written down, which would allow for change and adaptation if necessary.  Reform Judaism should identify more with the Oral Torah, seeing as both allow for change and permit us to make our own decisions for how to follow Judaism.  Although only the Written Torah still exists, Reform Judaism helps to carry on the tradition of adaptation and change that the Oral Torah started.

Sometimes, a religion can get stuck in the past by only following a set of unchangeable rules that no longer apply to modern society.  Having a set of rules that exists orally avoids this problem.  An Oral Torah is more adaptable, so if society changes, so can the rules.  Also, the Oral Torah gives you an element of choice the Written Torah does not.  If you do use the Oral Torah, though, it can easily be forgotten.  It is also quite difficult to pass down the Oral Torah, making it harder to carry Judaism on.  Though the Oral Torah is very adaptable, it is also quite easy to forget and therefore lose.

The Bible.  The Torah.  The Qoran.  The Vedas. The list goes on and on.  Every major religion has a central religious text that has many of its rules and stories written in it.  The written Torah helps Judaism because it’s much easier to pass down its knowledge than with Oral Torah.  Also, if we use a written Torah, it is impossible to simply forget everything.  However, the Written Torah can not change, meaning the rules can not adapt to changes in society.  Also, because the rules don’t change, they can become outdated or useless.  Though the Written Torah can be very useful in that it is impossible to just lose all the knowledge, it also makes it incredibly difficult to change anything.

One of Reform Judaism’s main philosophies is that it gives you the power to adapt the rules to coincide with modern society, the same way the the Orah Torah did for the Jews a long time ago.  The Oral Torah allowed Judaism to change based on the environment around them.  Because none of the rules were written down or set in stone, they did not last forever.  Reform Judaism is definitely closer to the Oral Torah in that both allow for change within the religion.  Also, when we need to see what the rules are, it is much easier to know the rules in the Oral Torah than in the Written Torah, as there are many more rules in the written one, just like how it is easier to know only the rules that you have chosen, than to know every single one for Judaism.  Throughout its existence, the Oral Torah left room for decision making and enabled Jews to be flexible, just as Modern Reform Judaism does today.

Today, there is an ongoing struggle between Reform and Orthodox Jews over how we should interpret our Judaism.  While one group says that we should always do exactly what the rules say and not change much at all, the other group says that we should adapt and interpret the rules based on modern society.  The Oral and Written Torah each represent one of these groups.  Orthodoxy would identify more with the Written Torah, as the rules are set in stone and almost completely unchangeable.  Reform would be much closer to the Oral Torah, as it allows for change, and permits adaptation.  Though we are all within one religion, how we interpret that one religion and even keep track of its rules can vary from person to person.