As Rosh Hashanah approaches, I had a pre-written column prepared to go. Yet minutes before I published it, I received an email with the words of somebody so much more eloquent than I will ever be.
At the last minute, I decided to shelve my own column and “outsource” my column today.
I have said many times that my father is a Holocaust survivor. His story is compelling, but he chooses to stay quiet and live his life his own way.
The writer of the column I am spreading is also a Holocaust survivor. He is choosing to speak out loudly.
I encourage Jews to do this while we still can. There is a very real possibility that one day we will never be able to speak up again. This is not crying wolf. The Holocaust did happen. The words “never again” mean something to me.
Today’s column was written by Rami Kaminski, MD, founder and director of the Institute for Integrative Psychiatry in New York City. I have never met him or communicated with him in any way.
His column is entitled “Why I Am a Bad Jew.”
With that, I present the heartfelt and important words of Dr. Kaminski.
“For centuries, we lived in Berdichev. In the brutal Ukrainian winter of
1941, SS soldiers arrived there and rounded up eighty-seven members of my family – babies, young adults, octogenarians – stripped them naked, marched them to a nearby ditch, and executed them. Their lifeless bodies fell silently into a mass grave.
Like most Jews in Europe, my family ‘cooperated’ with the Final
Solution. They did not resist or fight back. Six million Jews were
slaughtered in a period of four years. They received little sympathy
while they were still alive and hunted down like animals. There was no
public outcry because the Holocaust fit the world’s narrative for Jews
during the past 2000 years: a people destined to be persecuted and
slaughtered.
During their two millennia in the Diaspora, Jews were not known to
resist. There are few recorded instances in which Jews turned against
their host nations or retaliated against their murderers. Instead, the
survivors – if there were any – were expelled or left for another place.
The murdered were regarded as ‘good’ Jews They accepted their fate
helplessly, without resistance.
This narrative of the Jews has played out on the historical stage with
boring monotony: Jews get killed because they are Jews. Nothing novel
about it. After the Holocaust, however, the world, disgusted by this
particularly ghoulish period of history, accorded some sympathy for the
Jews.
Media commentary about the ongoing Gaza War reveals the world has now reverted to its pre-Holocaust perspective. Today, the only good Jew is a powerless Jew willing to become a dead one. The Zionist Revolution is to blame. It changed everything. Jews re-created their own country. The Arabs attacked the new Jewish state the day after independence and promised to complete Hitler’s genocide. In succeeding decades, the Arabs attacked again and again. Strangely, the Jews, many of them refugees from Arab nations, adopted a surprising, new tactic: they fought back.
With Zionism, the Jews stubbornly refused to follow the centuries-old
script. They refuse to be killed without resistance. As a result, the
world has become increasingly enraged at their impertinence.
The recent events in Gaza and Mumbai make this plain. In 2005, Israel
eliminated all Jewish presence in Gaza making it ‘Judenrein,’ and handed it over to the Palestinians. Left behind were synagogues and thriving green houses. The Arabs looted and destroyed them literally the day after Israel’s withdrawal was complete. Where these structures once stood, the Palestinians built military bases and installed rocket
launchers to shell Israeli civilians. To date, some 7,000 missiles have
fallen on Israeli cities and towns, killing and maiming dozens, and
sowing widespread terror. Medical studies reveal nearly all Jewish
children in the communities bordering Gaza suffer from serious,
trauma-induced illness.
The Gazan Palestinians then elected Hamas to lead them. Hamas proceeded to kill or imprison their political rivals, and its leaders, true to the Hamas charter, were unabashed in clearly stating their aims: they will not stop until they achieve their Final Solution, kill all the Jews,
take over the land of Israel, and establish a theocracy governed by
Islamic law.
As killing Jews for being Jews has been a national sport for centuries,
Islamic militants are justified in believing they are merely fulfilling
historical tradition in Argentina, India and Gaza. Surely the Jews in
Mumbai did not occupy Gaza. They were tortured and killed just for being Jews. And predictably, in the eyes of the world, they immediately became good Jews, just like my murdered family in Bertishev.
Good Jews would wait until Hamas has weapons enabling its members to
achieve their ultimate goal of absolute mass murder. Those enraged by
Israel’s defensive military action insist Hamas uses only ‘crude’
rockets, as if Qassams were BB guns, and military inferiority were
somehow equivalent with moral superiority. In fact, Hamas now has
Iranian-supplied Grad missiles which have landed on Be’er Sheva and the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
Westerners have had only sporadic exposure to the indiscriminant killing
in the name of ‘holy war’ which Israel has lived with for years.
Memories of 9-11, Madrid, and London have dimmed. This is not because
the Islamic militants made a careful choice of weapons. They simply have not yet acquired nuclear bombs. Once they do, the West will develop a less detached view about the Islamists’ professed intentions for the ‘infidels.’
The only enlightened people in the civilized world who actually get it
are the Israelis. They’ve not had time for detached philosophical
ponderings. They’ve been too busy confronting the reality of Islamic
fundamentalism.
Soon, Iran will have nuclear weapons. It will give them to Hezbollah and
Hamas. Today, Jews must take a position: either be ‘good’ Jews willing
to be slaughtered without resistance, or be “bad” Jews who defend
themselves at the cost of being pariahs of our enlightened world. Good
Jews would wait for another six million to be murdered, and pick up to
leave for another country to start the cycle again. The bad ones refuse
to go calmly into the ditch.
I confess: I’m a bad Jew.”
Rami Kaminski, MD, is Director and Founder of the Institute for
Integrative Psychiatry in New York, a not-for-profit organization aimed
at evaluating current psychiatric services and how they integrate with
medicine, such as the mutual effects between medical and psychiatric
conditions. Prior to that, Dr. Kaminkski was the Commissioner’s Liaison
to Families and Community and Medical Director of Operations at the New
York State Office of Mental Health. Dr. Kaminski also holds an academic
position as Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University. He
earned recognition in 1990 from Mt. Sinai Hospital as Physician of the
Year, and received the Exemplary Psychiatrist Awards from the National
Alliance for the Mentally Ill. Dr. Kaminski’s research explores
neuropsychiatric aspects of brain disorders, such as Alzheimer and
Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders, as well as
psychopharmacology of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. He
was for many years Director of The Schizophrenia research Unit at Mount
Sinai Hospital in NYC. Dr. Kaminiski also served as the Medical Director
of the PMHP and consultant to the committee in charge of developing the
Special Needs Program.
As a poem says, I will absolutely not go calmly into that good night.
My family did not survive the Holocaust and bring me into this world so my Jewish generation could be complacent and allow us to be exterminated like rats again.
When people say they want to wipe you off the face of the Earth, do not take the gamble that they are bluffing.
Iran must never…ever…ever…be allowed to have the bomb. Anything and everything must be done to prevent this.
May every Jew heed Dr. Kaminski’s words.
To those who oppose the right of Jews to exist, this Rosh Hashanah I offer only two simple words.
Never again.
eric
I certainly wouldn’t argue with most of what Dr. Kaminski’s saying. I did kind of chuckle at the notion that the “only enlightened people in the civilized world who actually get it are the Israelis.” That doesn’t even make sense as the Israeli’s themselves are quite divided over all this. There’s also something amiss about his historical analogy. Yes, Jews have been attacked by Muslims in other lands, but not before the establishent of Israel and not with much severity for “centuries” “by Islamic militants,” at least not nearly with the severity of the of the attacks by the Christian world during that time. It’s not that the “Zionist Revolution is to blame,” but without it, none of the problems they have there today would exist. It’s just the way it is. The Jewish refugees really hadn’t anywhere else to go. The West, even immediately after the Holocaust were not nearly as sympathetic as the good doctor asserts.
Just the same, the current situation seems to be as he sees it, and it’s very disturbing. Iran continues to build a nuclear arsenal while radically demagoguing Israel. Hamas is one giant, nasty thorn in the side of any foreseeable peace. While I seriously doubt Iran would “give them (nuclear weapons) to Hezbollah and Hamas, it is obvious that Iran intends to leverage that arsenal to marginalize, at best, or dominate, at worst, Israel and it’s Arab neighbors. Given the tensions in the region, nothing good can come out of Iran’s intentions.
What the good doctor conspicuously leaves unsaid is what to do about all this. He seems to be suggesting that the status quo is the only “enlightened” answer. The status quo is obviously unteneble, and things just seems to get worse with each passing year. Rather than just call to patriotic arms, the good doctor should think long and hard about new answers to this problem. He’s obviously a very impressive intellect. Surely he could do better than just cheerlead the status quo.
JMJ
Each year, when I observe my holidays ( I also particated in the Christain Christmas for years), a leader of a country, or militant group, threatens my people’s existence..and there is the usual controversy.
Israel and the Palestinian Arabs..are now in peace talks, to resolve the 100 year old conflict. Hillary Clinton, who is adding her prestige at the 1st meeting in Egypt, says it looks promising, the is momentum.
However, just prior to her statement, the Pales side said it will never accept a Jewish state in Israel..that the so-called refugees have a right to return to the homes of their parents and grandparents, and the borders and Jeusalem will not be compromised..back to 67 and Jerusalem must be relinquished to a Pales state.
None of this bodes well for the peace.
The Pales are also demanding Israel not resume building in the many settlements constructed after the 57 War..or else they will simply walk out of the conference.
Soooo, the Pales Arabs and their Muslim supporters worldwide, have laid down their demands..Israel must ultimately be destroyed.
Eric predicted the scenario..I honestly hoped for a miracle ( we Jews do not believe in miracles per se).
Years ago, I thought Oslo 1 and 2 and Camp David, and Taba, would resolve the problem..with a Pales state being created on most of the W., Bk, Gaza Strip, part of East Jerusalem. I alos believed Arafat would give up the outrageous right of return..which was never meant to be one sided anyway, but a compromise, both sides could live with.
Abba Eban said..the Arabs never fail to fail..he also said, they are
very schrewd.
Yes, they are smart, but at the same time very stupid. They could have had their 23rd country decades ago.
I am reminded of an acquaintence who told me, the Jews cannot win
this war..too few in number, surrounded by 400m Muslims. He forgot the War in 1967, and 1973, when the Israeli army was miles away from Cairo and Damascus within artillery shot.
Tony Blair said on public TV that the conflict is causing anger in the Muslim world, but not the root cause of their anger. I agree.
He also said that Saddam Hussein had every intent to jon forces with
Iran and make nuclear weapons..in addition to other WMD. I agree.
He did not regret the invasion, but decried some lack of foresight about
the insurgens and Al Qaeda., which provoked both Arab groups. i agree.
Now, in Florida, a minister has angered the Muslim world by the book burning (Koran) while Jews/Christians and others are constantly villifed
and threatened. A Jew cannot tour Arabia..and Christian bibles are
verboten.
A mosque is planned (approved by a Jewish mahor), near the WTC.,
while in other mosques..sermons are sometimes heard to kill every
Jew and Infidel (Christian). Fatwas by the thousands have been issued
worldwide alluding to pasages in the Koran..behind rocks and trees.
Yet, again, a Jew cuts his own throat.
Folks, let me say this: I am armed..my friendsd are armed. We will defend ourselves. We will never be hurded by anyone, stripped nakes, and shot at ravines and pits. I can assure doubters of that.
In Israel, a peaceful people, have 500 nukes..ready to fire if
their existence is threatened.
The days of the SS men, the Einsatzgruppen ( killing squads),
German police force 101, Lithuanian and Romanian goon squads,
and French police, are over. There will never be another Holocaust.
Ahmad, are you listening?