Quotes About "Palestine"


Remember: Israel is bad! Its existence keeps reminding Muslims what a bunch of losers they are. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"There will be no peace until they will love their children more than they hate us."

-Golda Meir-
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'If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more ‎violence. If the Jews put ‎down their weapons ‎today, there would be no ‎more Israel'‎

~Benjamin Netanyahu~
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"Peace of us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all out war, a war which will last for generations.

~Yasser Arafat~
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Throughout his authorized biography (Alan Hart, Arafat: terrorist or peace maker) Arafat asserts at least a dozen times: "The Palestinian people have no national identity. I, Yasser Arafat, man of destiny, will give them that identity through conflict with Israel."

~ Yasser Arafat ~
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"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel. For our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of Palestinian people, since Arab national interest demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism".

~ Zahir Muhse'in ~

Sunday, January 15, 2023

The Truth About the Temple Mount

Thursday, February 13, 2014

10 Absurdly Crazy Jewish Conspiracy Theories

Few people in history have been the target of conspiracy theories as often as the Jews. From well-poisoning to take-over-the-world plots, the Jews have it all planned—according to racists and conspiracy theorists. Yet in the vast potpourri of already-crazy Jewish conspiracies, a few have stood out due to their sheer insanity. These are conspiracies so insane that even the most fanatical believers would find them hard to believe.

10. The Stab-In-The-Back Legend

According to this myth, Germany lost World War I not because of the lack of soldiers and resources, but because the nation had been “stabbed in the back” by conspiratorial organizations at home. Militarists and right-wing groups—and, later, the Nazis—maintained that these organizations effectively broke the fighting will of the people and caused the Germans to accept the humiliating terms of the armistice. The ones who singlehandedly engineered the collapse of the German war effort were none other than the Communists, Jews, and various defeatists. The Jews were particularly vulnerable—for the Germans they exemplified the perfect traitors, just like Judas Iscariot. Of course this legend was just a ruse to find a scapegoat for Germany’s impending military defeat. Although the German army remained highly organized and even occupied large swaths of enemy territory near the end of the war, they lacked enough reserves and material to defend it. Conversely, fresh American troops were reinforcing Allied lines and were in the process of retaking German-held areas. Rising casualties, a flu epidemic, and an economic blockade also added to the German woes—simply put, they were just in no shape to continue the war any further.

9. Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty Brought Diseases To Egypt

Remember when a Saudi cleric announced that women who drive risked destroying their pelvises and ovaries? As it turns out, he wasn’t the only one who excelled at putting his foot in his mouth. Back in August 2012, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood named Ahmed Subei stated in an interview on Iranian television that Egypt’s Camp David Accords and the resulting peace treaty with Israel increased the incidence of diseases among the Egyptians. Since the peace treaty of 1979, more Egyptians have been afflicted with “endemic diseases, such as various types of cancer, hepatitis, and kidney infections.” Subei attributed this to the influx of pesticides from Israel to Egypt, which he believed led to the gradual deterioration of the country’s agriculture and the current trend of diseases. To solve this dilemma, he recommended that the Egyptian government review and amend the “unfair” provisions of the treaty. In spite of their regular anti-Semitic slurs, the Muslim Brotherhood itself isn’t immune to such conspiracies—the group itself is alleged to be an Israeli front.

8. Host Desecration

Host desecration—one of the oldest (and most serious) accusations against Jews—refers to the alleged Jewish practice of desecrating the host (or bread) used by various Christian groups that represented the body of Jesus Christ. The Jews would mutilate the host in a manner similar to Jesus Christ’s torture and crucifixion. Accusations against the Jews began after the Catholic Church established the doctrine of transubstantiation in 1215. Afterward, Jews were frequently charged and persecuted for this practice. Later on, the accusation became the perfect excuse for people to kill and expel the Jews from the community. The Reformation of the 16th century alleviated the suffering of the Jews somewhat—when the Protestants denied the doctrine of transubstantiation, the whole thing became moot and academic. However, isolated cases of host-desecration accusations continued well into the 19th century—the last known incident happened in Romania in 1836.

7. The Kosher Tax Conspiracy

According to believers of this conspiracy, kosher-certified foods are one way the Jews collect money from unwitting consumers around the world. Proceeds then go to Israel and various Jewish organizations for their nefarious purposes. In the West, the belief in a kosher tax took root during the 20th century, when Jewish organizations gave out kosher certifications to food manufacturers. And since kosher-certified foods are priced higher than non-kosher ones, well, that extra money has to go somewhere. Unfortunately for conspiracy theorists, the truth couldn’t be any more mundane. While kosher-certified foods are indeed expensive, virtually all the profits go to the manufacturer. A small portion goes to the salaries of the kosher-accrediting organization’s members (most groups work as non-profit). Historically speaking, a kosher tax has existed before—on the Jews themselves. Several European states imposed different variations of the kosher tax on the Jews. The Russian Empire in particular established the Box Tax—so called because the Jews had to put their money in a collection box.

6. Israel Caused 9/11

No, it wasn’t the US government who attacked the World Trade Center in New York; it was Israel—or at least that’s what a good number of Muslim conspiracy theorists believe. According to them, Israel initiated the attacks with the hope that the West would launch a military intervention against what they perceived to be rogue Islamic states. Rumors of the Israeli connection began shortly after the attacks when Middle Eastern newspapers cited a report that said some 4,000 Israelis did not go in to work at the Trade Center on that fateful day. They also pointed out the extremely low casualty rate the Israelis took in comparison to other nationalities in the attack. In reality, the 4,000-person figure represented the number of Israelis believed to be in the vicinity of the attacks. Also in stark contrast to the low-casualty rumor was the fact that hundreds of the dead or wounded during the attack were of Jewish origins. Sadly, the figure became subverted by some Muslims who did not want to face the fact that it was Islamic terrorists who spearheaded the attack that took thousands of innocent lives.

5. Jews Keep Switzerland Neutral

Ever wondered how Switzerland has managed to remain neutral, avoid major wars, and still remain such a rich and powerful country? Apparently, it’s all thanks to the Jews. A Saudi journalist named Fahd ‘Amr Al-Ahmadi wrote that the Jews were the moving force behind Switzerland’s centuries-long neutrality. He contended that Switzerland provided the perfect place for the Jews to hoard their wealth and plan their next move for world domination. Through their machinations, Switzerland became a neutral and extremely wealthy country while the rest of the world burned around them. As with most conspiracy theorists, Al-Ahmadi left out a few important notes, most notably the fact that Switzerland connived with the Nazis during World War II in order to remain neutral. That collaboration included harsh laws against Jewish refugees and the storage of ill-gotten Nazi loot.

4. Judeopolonia

Will there really be a future Jewish homeland in Poland? In a book written by Polish writer Julian Niemcewicz in 1858, by the year 3333 A.D., the Jews will have total control over Poland through deceit and treachery. Judeopolonia—as it will be known—will consist of Jews ruling over the Gentiles from their capital of Moszkopolis (formerly Warsaw). The bottom of the new social order of Judeopolonia will consist of the rest of the Polish population. The aristocrats especially will be forced to serve the Jewish ruling class. Judeopolonia will be run like a dystopian wasteland—all buildings and structures will either be defaced or destroyed, while the streets will be littered with dirt. The book sparked great paranoia against Polish Jews for several years. A similar fear rose up during the pre-World War II years with the belief in “zydokomuna,” or a Jewish-Soviet collaboration—a fear made more realistic after the Soviets fought and occupied several parts of Poland in the 1920s and ’30s.

3.  The Andinia Plan

Argentina is another alleged preferred destination for a Jewish state. According to the Andinia Plan, the Jews mapped out Patagonia in Argentina for the creation of an independent Jewish Republic of Andinia—effectively, a state within a state. The main author of this belief—an Argentinian politician named Walter Allende—alleged that during the 1970s, the Israelites were searching for a second Jewish homeland far away from the turmoil in the Middle East. Argentina, with its large Jewish population, would have been the perfect settlement. During the reign of the military junta, large numbers of Jews were often abducted and tortured because of their supposed invasion plan. As Jews, they were subjected to greater physical and psychological abuse than usual—one form of torture involved the jamming of small animals into the bodily orifices of Jewish prisoners. All told, more than a thousand Jews disappeared, along with several thousand dissidents, during that time period.

2.  Jerry The Mouse Is A Jewish Invention

At some point in our childhood, most of us have watched at least one episode of Tom And Jerry. Although the show did have its fair share of controversies (including some politically-incorrect episodes), the lighthearted cat-and-mouse capers have remained a hugely popular (and relatively harmless) show for generations of children. Enter Iranian professor Hasan Bolkhari, who basically ruined it for every kid on the planet when he implicated Jerry as nothing more than a tool for the Jews. In a lecture he gave in 2006, Bolkhari outlined his belief that Jews created Jerry for the purpose of changing how Europeans perceived mice. According to him, Europeans began calling the Jews “dirty mice” during the Nazi era. To counter this, the Jews created the show and have been using it ever since to flip the common perception of the “stupid” mouse. Maybe this revelation also justifies the totally insane fatwa issued by a Saudi cleric that called for the killing of not only Jerry, but Mickey Mouse as well.

1.  The Jews Dominated The Slave Trade

Were the Jews responsible for New World slavery? The Nation Of Islam seems to think so. In their book, titled The Secret Relationship Between Blacks And Jews, it was the Jews who financed the operations that saw millions of African natives shipped from their homes to the Americas up until the Civil War. From the ports to the ships, the Jews were in control of everything—not only that, but they also personally owned thousands of slaves and vast plantations. Accordingly, the NOI contended that without support of the Jews, the vast slave network would have essentially collapsed on itself. Several scholars disputed the NOI’s assertion and stated that the participation of the Jews in the slave trade was “minimal” at best. While some Jews did own slaves and engaged in the trade, their involvement paled in comparison to that of the Europeans. Also conveniently forgotten was the fact that the Jews themselves were subjected to slavery multiple times throughout their history. Conclusively, while the Jews were guilty of slavery, they were not the only ones—virtually everyone was in on this horrid practice at some point in time.

Read More: Listverse.Com

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Israel Apartheid Week: One Big Anti-Semitic Lie

Anti-Israel students and faculty hold “Israel Apartheid Week” (IAW) every year to try to persuade others that the Jewish state acts as an apartheid regime. The movement is nothing more than an attempt by its anti-Semitic organizers to delegitimize the Jewish state. By harassing Jewish students and Jewish organizations, IAW “activists” spread falsehoods and hate speech about Israel. Even though this movement is based off hatred and lies, it is growing and must be countered. See examples below of how IAW acts as an anti-Semitic movement and how different individuals and organizations stand up to it: - GIYUS (Give Israel Your United Support) has a short article and video that describe how Israel Apartheid Week is a form of anti-Semitism. The author explains that during IAW, Jewish students on campuses throughout the US experience anti-Semitism from these IAW “activists.” Watch the video as well to hear from current college students about their experiences with anti-Semitism during IAW. - The National Post published a letter to the editor by Jonathan Kay, fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which shows how Israel Apartheid Week is rooted in anti-Semitism and the goal of destroying the Jewish state. He quotes a former supporter of IAW who says that IAW is nothing more than a cult that wants to destroy Israel. Kay also discusses how it is ridiculous that these “activists” are so focused on the only democracy in the Middle East, while Arab regimes all over the region are murdering their own people. Check out the article to learn more about Israel Apartheid Week’s anti-Semitic roots. - YNet News published an op-ed by Dore Gold (President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Israel’s former ambassador to the UN) that counters Israel Apartheid Week and exposes it as a nothing more than hate speech. In addition to IAW being rooted in hate speech and lies, Gore talks about how the Jewish people, as well as the Jewish state, promote the exact opposite of apartheid. Gore discusses how the Jewish people and Israel have always stood up for equality and have always fought oppression; in fact, no nation has done more to fight racism than Israel. Read Gore’s article to learn more about how Israel Apartheid Week is hate speech and how you can fight it. - Stand With Us provides lots of information about Israel Apartheid Week and how to counter it. Specifically, it provides booklets about apartheid and how while Israel is far from an apartheid state, there are many countries (specifically in the Arab World) that do practice apartheid. Click here to learn about the Arab apartheid regimes. Another booklet on the Website contrasts the South African apartheid regime and Israel and proves that Israel is NOT an apartheid state. Fight Hatred.Com

Sudanese Refugees in Israel

For many years, the Arabs in Sudan lived peacefully alongside the native Africans in the region. After a severe drought in the 1980s, the situation deteriorated and African villages were regularly attacked by government forces. In 2003, as a response to the attacks, the Sudan Liberation Army, a rebel group consisting primarily of Africans from the Darfur region of Sudan, attacked government forces in Darfur. In retaliation, the central government in the capital city of Khartoum, armed and funded Arab militias called Janjaweed. They rampaged across the country, murdering native Muslim and Christian African men, women and children throughout Sudan. The militias raped women, burned villages, and terrorized all non-Arabs they encountered. The conflict began in 2003, and today, an estimated 480,000 people have been killed, over 3,200 African villages have been destroyed, and 2.8 million people have been displaced. Nearly five million Sudanese depend on humanitarian aid. In July 2007, the UN Security Council unanimously approved Resolution 1769 which called for a 26,000 member peace-keeping force consisting of 20,000 troops and 6,000 civilian personnel. A year later however, only 9,000 of the authorized 20,000 troops were on the ground in Darfur. Many Sudanese refugees have fled to the Republic of Chad and Egypt. As of December 2013, nearly 275,000 had escaped to Chad and about 18,000 to Egypt, where they continue to suffer from a lack of basic rights and live on the verge of starvation under constant threat of harassment, persecution, and violence from authorities and locals alike. Sudanese refugees began fleeing Egypt for Israel in 2005. They crossed the Sinai on a rigorous and harrowing journey, led by Bedouins who often charged $100-$300 for their guide services. As refugees first began crossing the porous border between Egypt and Israel, Egyptian border police were ordered to shoot anyone they saw and diligently followed their command. Those who managed to enter Israel alive were often wounded or starving. The Israeli military treated those in need of food and medical attention and then detained the refugees. According to a 1954 Israeli law, all infiltrators from enemy states, such as Sudan which harbors terrorists, must be detained until their refugee status can be confirmed. Israel took in less than 2,000 refugees in 2007. Many of these refugees were caught in Be’er Sheva crossing the border. They spent time in prison or detention centers, such as the Ketziot Prison complex which was set up to hold 2,000 refugees in small trailers of the sort used in construction sites. Supporters of the detention camp argued it was necessary to enable authorities to sort all those caught infiltrating Israel through its border with Egypt. Non-refugee infiltrators include an estimated 1,500 illegal immigrants from Africa who came in search of work and hundreds of Eastern European trafficked in for sex trade industry. Many refugees have been sent back to Egypt, where they faced further detention or deportation back to Sudan. Critics claimed Israel violated international law and the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention, which prohibits the expulsion of refugees without assessing their claims for asylum. The UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency’s responsibility is to find a permanent solution for the refugee problem. Israel argued that its small country could not take in more refugees and UNHCR should play a more active role in helping the refugees. Those who were released from detention and allowed to stay in Israel met a harsh reality. Jobs were hard to come by and living conditions squalor. The Hotline for Migrant Workers says 17,000 African refugees have entered Israel via the Egyptian border since 2006, including 5,000 Sudanese migrants, 3,000 of whom were Christians who settled in Israel. Currently about 1,200 Darfuris live in Israel with about 500 in Tel Aviv and the rest primarily working on kibbutzim in the South and in hotels in Eilat. Those who found lives in on kibbutzim and in hotels in Eilat find themselves happier than those in Tel Aviv, where jobs are scarce and living conditions harsh. A rundown bomb shelter across from the central bus station in Tel Aviv has become a home for many Africans until they can find work or proper housing. After granting refugees asylum, the Israeli government’s efforts to help the integration of Africans into society was minimal. Instead, Israeli charities, churches, synagogues, legal and medial aid organizations, and the Tel Aviv municipality lend a large hand. Several organizations help aid refugees in Israel. B’nai Darfur (Sons of Darfur) started in 2007 as a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides social opportunities, health care, education, and cultural programs. They aim to empower the Darfurian, as well as the Sudanese and Eritrean, communities and provide economic aid. The organization was established by some of the first Darfurian refugees to arrive in Israel and began taking roots while its founders were still detained in prison. The organization helps refugees find jobs, learn Hebrew and English, and attend school while and raises awareness of the genocide occurring in Darfur. In addition to absorbing refugees, Israel has sent financial aid for refugees in other countries. By November 2, 2006, the Israeli Government and American Jewish organizations had contributed a combined total of $75,000 USD to assist Sudanese refugees who had settled in UNHCR camps in Chad. In the US, the Jewish American community has been one of the most outspoken and active groups in fighting genocide and lobbying the nation’s leaders. For example, American Jewish World Service and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum founded the Save Darfur Coalition, the biggest raiser of private funds for Darfur in the United States. In January 2014, over 20,000 African migrants and asylum-seekers marched in Tel Aviv in an effort to garner the support of Western governments to denounce Israel's detention policy toward migrants who enter the country illegally, to be recognized as refugees and persuade Israel to stop arresting them and free those currently imprisoned. Protesters marched to the embassies of France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Germany with letters appealing to these countries' support. The protests follow a December law that Israel's parliament approved, which enables authorities to detain migrants without valid visas indefinitely. Since then, more than 300 migrants were arrested and others summons to be detained. Since 2006, approximately 60,000 migrants - mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, have crossed into Israel through the then-porous border with Egypt. After the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Israel began constructing a border fence along its border with Sinai. The fence has dramatically reduced if not completely halted illegal immigration, as of the summer of 2013, and also serves as a counterterrorism blockade. Jewish Virtual Library

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Noam Chomsky: A Jewish Anti-Semite (S.H.I.T Jew)

S.H.I.T - Self Hater Israel Threatening
Noam Chomsky is one of the most violent-thinking anti-Semites around today. He speaks at college campuses throughout the world and spreads anti-Semitic messages to students. The hardest thing about combating Chomsky’s messages is that he is Jewish, and he denies his messages are rooted in anti-Semitism, even when he stands up for Holocaust deniers, supports terrorism, and praises genocides.
See below for examples of Chomsky's hate speech and different organizations countering his messages, followed by questions students should ask him when he speaks on campus:
- Nativ Online published an article that outlines Chomsky’s beliefs and explains how Chomsky’s ideas are rooted in anti-Semitism, hypocrisy, and lies.
Here are some examples, the article notes, of what Chomsky says and does that show how he is anti-Semitic and hate-filled:
- Chomsky rejects the idea of a Jewish state and wants the destruction of Israel. He believes Jews do not deserve a homeland, while every other ethnic/religious group in the world does. He believes that Arabs should be able to settle in Israel at will, but Jews should not be able to settle in Arab countries (keep in mind that more than 800,000 Jews were kicked out of Arab countries in 1948).
- Chomsky called the Yugoslavian revolution in the 1990s that included a genocide of tens of thousands of people a “successful social revolution.” This is pure hate speech.
- Chomsky sponsored a party in Israel (Matzpen) that advocates for terrorism. Matzpen partnered with a terrorist group that carried out an attack on an elementary school that killed 22 children.
- Chomsky calls the PLO the “heroes” of the 1982 Lebanon War. Meanwhile, the PLO raped and killed tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians before Israel kicked them out of Lebanon (http://www.acpr.org.il/ENGLISH-NATIV/04-issue/bogdanor-4.htm read the article for details, although the details are very graphic).
- This video talks about an instance where Chomsky defended a Holocaust denier SaveFrom.net. Robert Faurisson (a French professor) published a book denying the Holocaust; Faurisson was then convicted of inciting hate and was kicked out of his university. Chomsky signed a petition that declared Faurisson a “respected professor of literature who merely tried to make his findings public.” Saying this about a man who devotes his career to denying the Holocaust is simply anti-Semitic.
Watch the full video to learn more about this case.
- Werner Cohen, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia, writes about how Chomsky compares the United States’ “war crimes” to the Nazis. Chomsky exhibits pure hate speech here, as the two are complete opposites and he is unable to back up his claims with any reputable sources. Cohen then discusses Chomsky’s connections to neo-Nazis in Europe and how Chomsky has stood up for Holocaust deniers.
Embarrassing questions to ask Chomsky while he is on campus:
1) Many years ago, you signed a petition that referred to Robert Faurisson (a Holocaust denier) as a “respected professor of literature who merely tried to make his findings public.” Would you sign that same petition today if you had the chance to do so?
2) You seem to blame most of the problems in the world on either the United States or Israel, which is exactly what al-Qaida and Iran do. Do you hold other views that are similar to those of al-Qaida and Iran?
3) You have in the past compared the United States to Nazi Germany. Can you explain how the two are alike?
4) The PLO raped, tortured, and murdered innocent civilians in Lebanon for years before the 1982 Lebanon War. Estimates put the death toll of civilians at the hands of the PLO at 100,000, with 250,000 wounded. You referred to the PLO as “heroes” in Lebanon; why do you consider them heroes?
5) In the past, you referred to the Yugoslavian revolution in the 1990s that resulted in a genocide of tens of thousands of people as a “successful social revolution.” What makes this genocide a “successful social revolution”?
Fight Hatred.Com

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

The Most Stupid Conspiracy Theories of Muslims and Anti-Semites

Not long after September 11, it wasn’t uncommon to encounter Muslims chatting on the internet and proclaiming, with apparent sincerity, that Muslims couldn’t possible have pulled off the attacks because, well, Muslims weren’t that smart. Only one group of people were, and those people were… the Jews!! The good news is, some Muslim commentators have condemned 9/11 conspiracy theories. One asked rhetorically: Didn’t Arabs try to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993? Aren’t Arabs capable of flying planes? Aren’t Arabs responsible for suicide operations in Southern Lebanon and in occupied Palestine? Didn’t Arabs come up with the idea of hijacking and blowing up civilian planes in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and then give it up after it turned out that this method failed abysmally in achieving their political goals…?’” Another wrote with palpable exasperation: “The Arabs keep insisting on their innocence and accusing the Mossad of planning the deed with the aim of launching an aggressive war against the Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq… But this tale clashes with the fact that Jews are cowards and do not commit suicide. So the theory was amended, and it was claimed that the Mossad had planned and funded [the operation], and a group from among our innocent young people was deceived and ensnared by the Mossad, and that it was they who carried out [the operation]. “I do not know how long this [Muslim] arrogance will continue. Why don’t we want to acknowledge that these young people were the sons of a culture that is hostile toward the world, not idiots or mad. No one enticed them, and they did not suffer from oppression, repression, or poverty. They carried out the operation because of their belief that it was Jihad and martyrdom. They were our young people and our sons, and they were our responsibility.” The bad news is that these condemnations were more frequently heard in the years following the attack. If anything, belief in “9/11 conspiracies” has increased in the intervening years. That doesn’t mean we should give up debunking these theories at every opportunity. However, we have to acknowledge that we are trying to educate people who, in many respects, either cannot or will not change their minds, no matter how much evidence we present or how much mockery we employ. 1) Jewish Leaders Deliberately Engineered The Holocaust As anyone who has ever had to listen to one knows, racists aren’t the most logical of people. So when a crazy anti-Semite comes out with a theory along the lines of “the Jews deliberately caused the Holocaust,” sadly some people actually take notice.The theory goes that an international cartel of evil Zionists planted Hitler in Germany, with specific orders that he become a world-class douchebag and slaughter six million of their coreligionists. Just think about that for a minute. It’s like an extract from the idiot’s guide to casual racism: Take a group of people you hate, add a historical “bad thing,” and try and claim the first group caused it. Only they’ve somehow missed the part where it needs to make any rational sense. When you’ve gone this far down the conspiracy theory chain, there’s really nothing you can say to change the minds of those who believe it. No matter how slowly and patiently you go over the historical evidence to suggest they’re talking crap, they’ll still insist that Jewish/Zionist bankers engineered the Holocaust, which didn’t kill that many people anyway, simply to justify Israel’s something-something-something anti-Semitism. That’s it: If there’s any conspiracy theory dumber than this one, I don’t really want to hear about it. 2) Sandy Hook Was An Israeli Attack Late last year, Adam Lanza took a gun into Sandy Hook elementary school and proceeded to commit one of the worst atrocities in US history. All told, 26 people died, including 20 children. In the face of such a pointless tragedy, mouth-breathers everywhere naturally decided it had to be a conspiracy.Chief among these soulless idiots was former GOP gubernatorial candidate Michael Harris, who claimed the massacre had been carried out by Israel as part of a revenge attack. Rather than just being a lonely, stupid kid, Adam Lanza was a fall guy whose corpse was used to cover up the involvement of Israeli death squads, while Obama (obviously) knew about the whole thing. Despite the idea that Israel would murder American children for an unspecified reason being literally insane, the theory continues to do the rounds both online and in the official Iranian press. As a concept, it’s idiotic. As a response to the murder of 20 children, it’s downright offensive. 3) The Protocols of the Elders of Zion I haven’t much to add to the thorough debunking of the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Here’s some background, on the off chance you aren’t familiar with this book: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a forgery made in Russia for the Okhrana (secret police), which blames the Jews for the country’s ills. It was first privately printed in 1897 and was made public in 1905. It is copied from a nineteenth century novel by Hermann Goedsche (Biarritz, 1868) and claims that a secret Jewish cabal is plotting to take over the world. (…) The Protocols were published in 1920 in a Michigan newspaper started by Henry Ford mainly to attack Jews and Communists. Even after they were exposed as a forgery, Ford’s paper continued to cite the document. Adolf Hitler later used the Protocols to help justify his attempt to exterminate Jews during World War II. Alas, news of the debunking hasn’t reached many areas of the Muslim world. And even if the facts were presented there, the Protocols are such a handy tool I doubt it would make any difference. The book is so popular that it has been adapted as a TV mini-series for broadcast in various Muslim countries. 4) Sharks Attack In December 2010, several shark attacks occurred off the South Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. Following the attacks, in an interview on Tawfik Okasha's popular but controversial Egypt Today TV show, a Captain Mustafa Ismail, introduced as "a famous diver", alleged that the GPS tracking device found on one of the sharks was in fact a "guiding device" planted by Israeli agents. Describing the conspiracy connection to Israel as "sad", Professor Mahmoud Hanafy, a marine biologist at Suez Canal University, pointed out that GPS devices are used by marine biologists to track sharks, not to remote-control them. Egyptian officials suggested that the attacks were due to overfishing, illegal feeding, the dumping overboard of sheep carcasses, or unusually high water temperatures. 5) Birds carrying Israeli tracking devices and tags Birds (as well as other animals) are often tagged with GPS tracking devices or identification bands to record their movements for animal migration tracking and similar reasons. Ohad Hatzofe, an avian ecologist for the Israel's Nature and Parks Authority, said the idea that tagged birds are used for spying is absurd, and stated that "Birds and other wildlife belongs to all of us and we have to cooperate... Ignorance causes these stupid beliefs that they are used for spying" Animal spies to Israel.... And so it goes on... and on... and on... 6) Israeli Sex Gum and the Sodas of Doom Given strict Islamic rules about food consumption, it isn’t surprising that a number of conspiracy theories concern food, drink — and even chewing gum: Hamas suspects that Israeli intelligence services are supplying its Gaza Strip stronghold with chewing gum that boosts the sex drive in order to “corrupt the young,” an official said on Tuesday. Last time I checked, sex was still, you know, where babies come from. Are more Palestinians really in Israel’s best interest? (Silly me: even that “side effect” must be part of the Jews’ cunning plan. I’m just too stupid to understand the nuances.) Many Muslim conspiracies involve big brand names, like Coke and Pepsi. In some cases, these theories hold that these soft drinks contain forbidden pork products: According to a report published in Jordanian magazine, the head of Delhi University’s Science and Technology Center , Dr. Mangoshada scientifically proved that the key element in Pepsi and Cola contains extract from the intestines of Pig which causes cancer and other deadly diseases. The Indian university conducted tests on the impact of drinking Pepsi and Coca Cola which proved that drinking them lead to more rapid heart rate and low pressure. Also drinking 6 bottles of Pepsi or Cola at a time causes instant death. Other conspiracy theories take advantage of the habit mentioned above, of seeing things that aren’t there, in this case in the products’ logos: some Muslims believe “Pepsi” is an acronym for “Pay Ever Penny Save Israel” or that “Pepsi” really spells “Israel.” I guess if you haven’t invented anything important in the last thousand years, the next best thing is to slander those who have. 7) Zionist Conspiracies The Anti-Defamation League lists Zionist conspiracies including spreading poisons (Jan 1995, Al-Ahram), spreading AIDS (Al-Shaab), blood rituals (June 1995, Al-Ahram), leading an international conspiracy against Islam (March 1995, Al-Ahram), and creating the myth of the Holocaust (Dec 1995-Feb 1996, Egyptian Gazette). Conspiracy theories holds the Jews responsible for killing Lincoln and Kennedy, and causing the French and Russian revolutions. Zionists are seen as a threat to the world. A widespread conspiracy theory after the September 11 attacks blamed Israel and Mossad for the attacks. 8) Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG) Zionist Occupation Government or Zionist Occupied Government (abbreviated as ZOG) is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that holds that Jews secretly control a given country, while the formal government is a puppet regime. The expression is used by antisemitic groups such as white supremacists in the United States and Europe, ultra-nationalists such as Pamyat in Russia, and various far-right groups, including some in Poland. One early appearance of the term was in 1976 in an article, Welcome to ZOG-World, attributed to an American neo-Nazi Eric Thomson.[a] The term came to the attention of a larger audience in a December 27, 1984 article in The New York Times about robberies committed in California and Washington by a white supremacist group called The Order. According to the newspaper, the crimes "were conducted to raise money for a war upon the United States Government, which the group calls 'ZOG,' or Zionist Occupation Government."

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Jewish Quotes AND Quotes about Jews

Famous Judaism Quotes Quotations

*** “I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations ... They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more and more happily than any other nation, ancient or modern.”

- John Adams, Second President of the United States
(From a letter to F. A. Van der Kemp [Feb. 16, 1808] Pennsylvania Historical Society)
(See the Jewish impact on the world)

*** “This is an exceedingly strange development, unexpected by all but the theologians. They have always accepted the word of the Bible: In the beginning God created heaven and earth… [But] for the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; [and] as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

- Robert Jastrow
(God and the Astronomers [New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1978], 116. Professor Jastrow was the founder of NASA’s Goddard Institute, now director of the Mount Wilson Institute and its observatory.)

*** ”...If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky way. properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and had done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it.

The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”

- Mark Twain
(“Concerning The Jews,” Harper’s Magazine, 1899
see The Complete Essays of Mark Twain, Doubleday [1963] pg. 249)

*** “If we were forced to choose just one, there would be no way to deny that Judaism is the most important intellectual development in human history.”

- David Gelernter, Yale University Professor

*** “It is against their own insoluble problem of being human that the dull and base in humanity are in revolt in anti-Semitism. Judaism, nevertheless, together with Hellenism and Christianity is an inalienable component of our Christian Western civilization, the eternal “call to Sinai” against which humanity again and again rebels.”

- Herman Rauschning, The Beast From the Abyss, pp. 155-56

*** “If we had lived in the second millennium BC, the millennium of Abraham, and could have canvassed all the nations of the earth, what would they have said of Abraham’s journey? In most of Africa and Europe, they would have laughed at Abraham’s madness and pointed to the heavens, where the life of earth had been plotted from all eternity ... a man cannot escape his fate. The Egyptians would have shaken their heads in disbelief. The early Greeks might have told Abraham the story of Prometheus ... Do not overreach, they would advise; come to resignation. In India, he would be told that time is black, irrational and merciless. Do not set yourself the task of accomplishing something in time, which is only the dominion of suffering. On every continent, in every society, Abraham would have been given the same advice that wise men as diverse as Heraclitus, Lao-Tsu and Siddhartha would one day give their followers: do not journey but sit; compose yourself by the river of life, meditate on its ceaseless and meaningless flow.”

“The Jews started it all—and by ‘it’ I mean so many of the things we care about, the underlying values that make all of us, Jew and Gentile, believer and aethiest, tick. Without the Jews, we would see the world through different eyes, hear with different ears, even feel with different feelings ... we would think with a different mind, interpret all our experience differently, draw different conclusions from the things that befall us. And we would set a different course for our lives.”

- Thomas Cahill, The Gifts Of The Jews

*** “Mankind, East and West, Christian and Muslim, accepted the Jewish conviction that there is only one G-d. Today it is polytheism that is so difficult to understand, that is so unthinkable.”

- T.R. Grover, The Ancient World, p. 186

*** There is a famous story in which the Kaiser asks Bismarck, “Can you prove the existence of God?” Bismarck replies, “The Jews, your majesty. The Jews.”

“The Jews, however, are beyond all doubt the strongest, toughest, and purest race at present living in Europe; they know how to succeed even under the worst conditions (in fact better than under favorable ones) by means of virtues of some sort, which one would like nowadays to label as vices-owing above all to a resolute faith which does not need to be ashamed before “modern idea…

It is certain that the Jew, if he desired-or if they were driven to it, as the antisemites seem to wish-could now have the ascendancy, nay, literally the supremacy, over Europe; that they are not working or planning for that end is equally sure… The resourcefulness of the modern Jews, both in mind and soul, is extraordinary…”

- Friedrich Nietzsche
German Philosopher (1844 - 1900)

*** “Asked to make a list of the men who have most dominated the thinking of the modern world, many educated people would name Freud, Einstein, Marx and Darwin. Of these four, only Darwin was not Jewish. In a world where Jews are only a tiny percentage of the population, what is the secret of the disproportionate importance the Jews have had in the history of Western culture?”

- Ernest van den Haag, The Jewish Mystique
(New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1971, pg. 13)

*** “Energy is the basis of everything. Every Jew, no matter how insignificant, is engaged in some decisive and immediate pursuit of a goal… It is the most perpetual people of the earth…”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German dramatist, novelist and poet (1749 - 1832)

*** ”...whatever other qualities Jews may posses, likable or the reverse, no one who knows them well can deny that they are personally interesting. By that I mean, specially alive, alert, quick at comprehending people or events and at making pungent or witty comments on them… One might at times find the rather hothouse family atmosphere, with it intensities and frictions, somewhat trying, but one could be sure of never being bored.”

- Ernest Jones - British psychoanalyst (1879-1958)

*** “For the Jews have long been in revolt not only against the Romans, but against humanity; and a race that has made its own life apart and irreconcilable, that cannot share with the rest of mankind in the pleasure of the table nor join in their libations or prayers or sacrifices, are separate from ourselves by a greater gulf than divides us from Sura or Bactra of the most distant Indies.”

- Philostratus - The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 3rd Century CE Teacher

“The Jews proved not only unassimilated, but inassimilable, and… the demonstration that this was so proved one of the most significant turning points in Greek history, owing to the gigantic influence exerted throughout subsequent ages by their religion, which not only survived intact, but subsequently gave birth to Christianity as well.”

- Michael Grant,From Alexander to Cleopatra: the Hellenistic World,
(New York: Charles Scribner & Sons, 1982., p. 75)

*** “The dispersion of the Jews was both a boon and a bane; their nation was disjoined, but their culture was enormously enhanced. Whereas a unique omneitic outlook set the Jews apart from other peoples, a common language, literacy and learning bound the disparate Jewish communities together and provided a firm foundation for further creativity. The exercise of this multifaceted creative propensity rebounded to benefit not only the societies that harbored the Jews, but all humankind.”

- Samuel Karlinsky, The Eight Day - The Hidden History of the Jewish Contribution to Civilzation (Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1994.), xviii.

*** “Wishing to make Speyer into a city, I thought to increase its honor a thousand fold by bringing in the Jews.”

- Bishop Ruediger - Huozmann - 1084

*** “So prominent was the Jewish role in the foreign commerce of Europe that those nations that received the Jews gained and the countries that excluded them lost in the volume of international trade.”

- Will Durant, The Story of Civilization - The Reformation. (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1953)

*** “The preservation of the Jews is really one of the most signal and illustrious acts of divine Providence… and what but a supernatural power could have preserved them in such a manner as none other nation upon earth hath been preserved. Nor is the providence of God less remarkable in the destruction of their enemies, than in their preservation… We see that the great empires, which in their turn subdued and oppressed the people of God, are all come to ruin… And if such hath been the fatal end of the enemies and oppressors of the Jews, let it serve as a warning to all those, who at any time or upon any occasion are for raising a clamor and persecution against them.”

- Thomas Newton - British Clergyman: Bishop of Bristol (1704-1782)

*** “The brief legal emancipation of Jews during the Napoleonic wars released unparalleled economic, professional, and cultural energies. It was though a high dam had suddenly been breached.”

- Amos Elon, The Pity of It All - A portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch 1743 -1933 (New York: Picador, 2002) pg. 6

*** “For the Jewish impact on humanity has been protean. In antiquity they were the great innovators in religion and morals. In the Dark Ages and early medieval Europe they were still an advanced people transmitting scarce knowledge and technology. Gradually they were pushed from the van and fell behind, by the end of the eighteenth century, they were seen as a bedraggled and obscurantist rearguard in the march of civilized humanity. But then came an astonishing second burst of creativity. Breaking out of the ghettos, they once more transformed human thinking, this time in the secular sphere. Much of the mental furniture of the modern world too is of Jewish fabrication.”

- Paul Johnson
(Christian historian, author of A History of the Jews and A History of Christianity pg. 585-6)

*** “For many people during many centuries, mankind’s history before the coming of Christianity was the history of the Jews and what they recounted of the history of others. Both were written down in the books called the Old Testament, [the Torah] the sacred writings of the Jewish people ... They were the first to arrive at an abstract notion of God and to forbid his representation by images. No other people has produced a greater historical impact from such comparatively insignificant origins and resources ...”

- J.M. Roberts, History Of The World

*** “The Jew lends himself easily to Communism because it enables him to devote himself to a high cause, involving all of humanity, characteristics which are natural to him as a Jew.”

- Edmund Wilson - U.S. literary critic and author (1895-1972)

*** “People often avoid making decisions out of fear of making a mistake. Actually, the failure to make decisions is one of life’s biggest mistakes.”

- Rabbi Noah Weinberg, 48 Ways To Wisdom, Way #4

*** “Some people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has appeared in the world.”

- Winston Churchill - Prime Minister of Great Britain

*** “Our survey of three and a half millennia of Jewish history is closed. But the story which we have set ourselves to tell is unending. Today, the Jewish people has in it still those elements of strength and endurance which enabled it to surmount all the crises of its past, surviving thus the most powerful empires of antiquity.

Throughout our history there have been weaker elements who have shirked the sacrifices which Judaism entailed. They have been swallowed, long since, in the great majority; only the more stalwart have carried on the traditions of their ancestors, and can now look back with pride upon their superb heritage. Are we to be numbered with he weak majority, or with the stalwart minority? It is for ourselves to decide.”

- Cecil Roth, A History of the Jews
(Oxford University: Shocken Books, 1961) pg. 423

*** “Small minds discuss people. Average minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas.”

- Unknown

*** ”...it would be a mistake…to ascribe to Roman legal conceptions an undivided sway over the development of law and institutions during the Middle Ages… The Laws of Moses as well as the laws of Rome contributed suggestions and impulse to the men and institutions which were to prepare the modern world; and if we could have but eyes to see… we should readily discover how very much besides religion we owe to the Jew.”

- U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in his The State

“In the facades we put on for others we demonstrate our potential; through our children we reveal our reality.”

- Lawrence Kelemen, To Kindle A Soul p. 195

*** “It’s not how much or how little you have that makes you great or small, but how much or how little you are with what you have.”

- Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch
(Horeb, vol. 1, pg 46)

*** Intolerance lies at the core of evil.
Not the intolerance that results
from any threat or danger.
But intolerance of another being who dares to exist.
Intolerance without cause. It is so deep within us,
because every human being secretly desires
the entire universe to himself.
Our only way out is to learn
compassion without cause. To care for each other
simple because that ‘other’ exists.

- Rabbi Menachem Mendle

*** “Intelligent people know of what they speak; fools speak of what they know.”

- Minchas Shabbos Pirkei Avos 3:18 / Ethics Of The Fathers

*** A renowned genius once asked a student, “What are you watching when you sit on a hillside in the late afternoon as the colors turn from yellow to orange and red and finally darkness?” He answered, “You are watching the sunset.” The genius responded, “That is what is wrong with our age. You know full well you are not watching the sun set. You are watching the world turn.”

- Jeremy Kagan, “The Jewish Self”

*** “The entire purpose of our existence is to overcome our negative habits.”

- Vilna Goan, Commentary to Mishlei 4:13

*** Rabbi Zusha used to say: “When I die and come before the heavenly court, if they ask me, ‘Zusha, why were you not Abraham?’ I’ll say that I didn’t have Abraham’s intellectual abilities. If they say, ‘Why were you not Moses?’ I’ll say I didn’t have Moses’ leadership abilities. For every such question, I’ll have an answer. But if they say, ‘Zusha, why were you not Zusha?’ for that, I’ll have no answer.”

Until today (1888), no people has succeeded in establishing national dominion in the Land of Israel. No national unity, in the spirit of nationalism, has acquired any hold there. The mixed multitude of itinerant tribes that managed o settle there did so on lease, as temporary residents. It seems that they await the return of the permanent residents of the land.

- Professor Sir John William Dosson
Modern Science in Bible Lands, London: Harper and Brothers, 1889, pp. 449-450.

*** “If a Jew doesn’t make Kiddush (to sanctify himself by maintaining a distinctly Jewish lifestyle), then the non-Jew will make Havdalah for him (by making the Jew realize he is truly different).”

- R’ Chaim of Volozhin

*** Most people are servants of their passions, but the truly free person is the one who can control his desires. When the sages taught “Only one involved in Torah is truly free” (Pirkei Avos 6:2), they meant to say that only Torah allows one to free himself from the shackles of desire and to truly exercise free choice. Without Torah, one is not free at all, he is a slave, controlled by a master foreign to his better instincts. While intellectually he might have correct ideas of how to live, ultimately his master - his passion - will force him to act otherwise.

Excerpt from: The Torah Treasury pg. 146

*** This people are not eminent solely by their antiquity, but are also singular by their duration, which has always continued from their origin till now. For, whereas the nations of Greece and of Italy, of Lacedaemon, of Athens and of Rome, and others who came long after, have long since perished, these ever remain, and in spite of the endeavors of many powerful kings who have a hundred times tried to destroy them, as their historians testify, and as it is easy to conjecture from the natural order of things during so long a space of years, they have nevertheless been preserved (and this preservation has been foretold); and extending from the earliest times to the latest, their history comprehends in its duration all our histories (which it preceded by a long time).

- Pensees by Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952 - Paragraph 620, p. 285

*** Only if you have some knowledge of the human sacrifices, the vicious temple rites, the degrading superstitions and customs that were practiced . . . can you realize how much the modern world owes to the Hebrew prophets, whose monotheism and moral teachings entered into Christianity and Islam….

- from Ancient and medieval history,
by Carlton J. H. Hayes and Parker Thomas Moon.
New York: The Macmillan company, 1929.

*** “All that is thought should not be said, all that is said should not be written, all that is written should not be published, all that is published should not be read.”

- Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgenstern of Tomashov (the Kotzker Rebbe)

*** “Certainly, the world without the Jews would have been a radically different place. Humanity might have eventually stumbled upon all the Jewish insights. But we cannot be sure. All the great conceptual discoveries of the human intellect seem obvious and inescapable once they had been revealed, but it requires a special genius to formulate them for the first time. The Jews had this gift. To them we owe the idea of equality before the law, both divine and human; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of human person; of the individual conscience and so a personal redemption; of collective conscience and so of social responsibility; of peace as an abstract ideal and love as the foundation of justice, and many other items which constitute the basic moral furniture of the human mind. Without Jews it might have been a much emptier place.”

- Paul Johnson
(Christian historian, author of A History of the Jews and A History of Christianity)

*** “Death is merely moving from one home to another. The wise man will spend his main efforts in trying to make his future home the more beautiful one.”

- Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgenstern of Tomashov (the Kotzker Rebbe)

*** “No ancient people have had a stranger history than the Jews. ... The history of no ancient people should be so valuable, if we could only recover it and understand it. ... Stranger still, the ancient religion of the Jews survives, when all the religions of every ancient race of the pre-Christian world have disappeared ... Again it is strange that the living religions of the world all build on religious ideas derived from the Jews. .... The great matter is not “What happened?” but “Why did it happen?” Why does Judaism live?”

T.R. Glover
(The Ancient World, Penguin, pp. 184-191)

*** “This one book (the Bible) ... has attracted to it, and had concentrated on it, vastly more thought and has called forth more works, explanatory, illustrative, apologetic, upon its text, its meaning, its geography, its theology, its chronology, its evidences, its inspiration, its origin, than all the rest of the literature of the world put together. An immense bulk of the world’s literature owes its origin to this book.”

- Carlyle B Heynes in The Bible, Is it a True Book

*** “The world says that time is money, but I say that money is time. In order to earn enough money to satisfy his desires, one must sacrifice inordinate amounts of time. For me, that sacrifice is too great.”

- Chofetz Chaim

*** “What is the Jew?...What kind of unique creature is this whom all the rulers of all the nations of the world have disgraced and crushed and expelled and destroyed; persecuted, burned and drowned, and who, despite their anger and their fury, continues to live and to flourish. What is this Jew whom they have never succeeded in enticing with all the enticements in the world, whose oppressors and persecutors only suggested that he deny (and disown) his religion and cast aside the faithfulness of his ancestors?!

The Jew - is the symbol of eternity. ... He is the one who for so long had guarded the prophetic message and transmitted it to all mankind. A people such as this can never disappear.

The Jew is eternal. He is the embodiment of eternity.”

- Leo Tolstoy
(What is the Jew?
quoted in The Final Resolution, pg. 189, printed in Jewish World periodical, 1908)

*** “There is a striking point that runs through Jewish history as a whole. Western civilization was born in the Middle East, and the Jews were at its crossroads. In the heyday of Rome, the Jews were close to the Empire’s center. When power shifted eastward, the Jewish center was in Babylon; when it skipped to Spain, there again were the Jews. When in the Middle Ages the center of civilization moved into Central Europe, the Jews were waiting for it in Germany and Poland. The rise of the United States to the leading world power found Judaism focused there. And now, today, when the pendulum seems to be swinging back toward the Old World and the East rises to renewed importance, there again are the Jews in Israel…”

- Professor Huston Smith
The Religious of Man, New York: HarperCollins, 1989

*** “When we scan the diaspora of Jewry over the entire globe and throughout the entire civilized world, we are surprised to see that this Nation, which is almost the most ancient in the world, is in truth the youngest in terms of the land under its feet and the sky above its head. As a result of the relentless persecutions and forced expulsions, most Jews are but recent new-comers to their respective lands of residence. Ninety percent of the Jewish people have lived in their new homes for no more than 50 or 60 years! (The Jewish People) are dispersed throughout over 100 lands on all five continents.”

- Leschzinsky
“The Jewish Dispersion”, pg. 9 (Heb.) click here for history

*** “The struggle for world domination is between me and the Jews. All else is meaningless. The Jews have inflicted two wounds on the world: Circumcision for the body and conscience for the soul. I come to free mankind from their shackles.”

“When over long periods of human history I scrutinized the activity of the Jewish people, suddenly there arose up in me the fearful question whether inscrutable Destiny, perhaps for reasons unknown to us poor mortals, did not, with eternal and immutable resolve, desire the final victory of this little nation.” (Mein Kampf, p.64)

*** “The Ten Commandments have lost their validity… Conscience is a Jewish invention. It is a blemish like circumcision…”

- Adolph Hitler
(Herman Rauschning, Hitler Speaks, p. 220) (click here for more)
(click for why do people hate the Jews?)

*** “The preservation of the Jew was certainly not casual. He has endured through the power of a certain ideal, based on the recognition of a Higher Power in human affairs. Time after time in his history, moreover, he has been saved from disaster in a manner, which cannot be described excepting as ‘providential.’ The author has deliberately attempted to write this book in a secular spirit; he does not think that his readers can fail to see in it, on every page, a higher immanence”

- Cecil Roth, Oxford University
(History of the Jews, New York, 1963, p. 424)

*** “I have already explained with clear proofs that the soul is the dominant factor in the nature of the Jew. For example, being stiff-necked is one of the bad qualities that Jews have. Practically speaking, that means that Jews refuse to accept criticism and will not listen to corrective advise. This is in fact because they are not essentially materialistic. Only something which is materialistic is readily altered. Consequently Jews are very resistant to change and will not accept the advise of others. Further, the Rabbis say (Talmud - Beitzah 25b) that they are the most aggressive and pushy people.”

- Maharal of Prague (Rabbi Yehuda Loewe, 1526 - 1609)

*** “Israel’s great achievement, so apparent that mention of it is almost trite, was Monotheism. It was an achievement that transformed subsequent history….One may raise the question whether any other single contribution from whatever source since human culture emerged from the stone age has had the far reaching effect upon history that Israel in this regard has exerted both through the mediums of Christianity and Islam and directly through the world of Jewish thinkers themselves”

- from The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man,
by H. and H. A. Frankfort, John A. Wilson, Thorkild Jacobsen, William A. Irwin

*** “The Jews have played an all-important role in history. They are pre-eminently an historical people and their destiny reflects the indestructibility of the divine decrees. Their destiny is too imbued with the “metaphysical” to be explained either in material or positive historical terms.

I remember how the materialist interpretation of history, when I attempted in my youth to verify it by applying it to the destinies of peoples, broke down i the case of the Jew, where destiny seemed absolutely inexplicable from the materialistic standpoint. And, indeed, according to the materialistic and positivist criterion, this people ought long ago to have perished. Its survival is a mysterious and wonderful phenomenon demonstrating that the life of this people is governed by a special predetermination, transcending the processes of adaptation expounded by the materialistic interpretation of history.

The survival of the Jews, their resistance to destruction, their endurance under absolutely peculiar conditions and the fateful role played by them in history; all these point to the particular and mysterious foundations of their destiny…

The historical not only represented man’s external relations, but that it might also reveal the very noumenon and essence of his being. The peculiarity of Jewish destiny consists in its incommensurability with either the pre-Christian or the Christian era. Scientific criticism applied to traditional Biblical history can neither discredit the universal role played by the Jews nor offer a satisfactory explanation of their mysterious destiny. Nor does this criticism grapple with the absolutely peculiar tie existing between the Jews and the ‘historical,’ and their extraordinarily intense feeling for history.”

- The Meaning of History by Professor Nicholai Berdysev
Moscow Academy - London 1935, pp. 86-7


Simple to Remember

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Why I No Longer Hate Israel

Portuguese blogger explains why he changed his views, fell in love with Israel

By Romeu Monteiro - Ynet News

I’m a 22-year-old Portuguese gay activist and PhD student. I’m not Jewish, Israeli or even religious, but I am a Zionist and strong supporter of Israel, and I want to explain why.

My story begins at the age of nine, when I went to the school library to get the Diary of Anne Frank. I had no prior idea about the Holocaust and I could not comprehend such persecution. I had never met a Jew, but I was raised to see other people as similar to myself.

The book’s story haunted me: This girl, slightly older than me, hiding for years, confined, isolated, being persecuted for who she was, constantly fearful of being discovered... How horrible; how could this have happened?

A few months later, I discovered I was gay. I was 10 and in Anne’s attic: Confined, isolated, hiding who I was, fearing what would happen if I was discovered... I felt strongly identified with Anne and the Jewish people, and this feeling never abandoned me.

Shortly after, the second Intifada started. I began seeing Israel, a country which I knew almost nothing about, on the news constantly, for the worst reasons. I learned that the Jews had invaded Palestine after the Holocaust to get a country and were occupying and controlling the native Palestinians who lived in the remaining land.

The TV showed us these people blowing themselves up inside buses and cafes and I, like most people around me, thought: “How desperate must someone be to kill themselves like this? How could the Jews go from being oppressed to oppressors? Have they not learned the lessons of History?” I grew up loving the Jewish people but hating Israel.

In 2008, when I was 18 and in college, I found myself criticizing Israel and the Gaza Strip blockade in a YouTube video about the death of Rachel Corrie. I got an answer from an Israeli commenter about my age, who wrote that there was no blockade, as several trucks were crossing into the Strip daily.

This greatly confused me and I asked him to present me with his arguments in defense of Israel. I said I would change my mind if they were convincing. He wrote me a long message, telling me about the massacres of Jews in Palestine before Israel existed, the wars of extermination, and the indoctrination for hate of Jews and Israel in the Middle East, among other things, which he compared to several examples of the humanist character of Israel and its society.

I read it all and, after verifying the information, I was convinced...

Angry and betrayed

My world shook. I became aware that I was making unfair judgments and spreading hate and false propaganda about Israel... I was sad with myself and I felt angry and betrayed that I had trusted so much in organizations I thought were fighting for peace, equality and against prejudice, like I saw them doing for gay rights.

I realized I was being fed ignorance and hate by people who were, at best, as ignorant and prejudiced as those they were "fighting" against while believing themselves to be enlightened individuals and making me believe it too...

I read more and more about Israel, and I became fascinated with the amazing story of a people who, against all odds, had managed to survive and remain united through centuries of persecution, fight for their homeland, rebuild their country and revive their language - just like a phoenix rising from the ashes, striving for freedom and peace.

I realized Israel is a democratic, tolerant, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, rapidly developing nation. A place I could live in free and more accepted than in my home country, and the only place I could safely set foot at in the Middle East.

I found myself in love with Israel, something I never thought I would do and never really want to be.

In 2010, there was the flotilla incident. Suddenly, all media were reporting about Israel. The news reports were grossly distorted and I knew I had to do something. I found myself arguing about it with professors at the university and I started sharing videos of the IDF through my Facebook account.

I thought I would be risking much socially, but I knew it was a matter of justice, as someone had to tell the truth and not allow Israel to be demonized with no right to defense once again. After the flotilla I kept posting pro-Israel stuff, and had serious and even ugly discussions about this issue with several people.

Each discussion revealed more ignorance and double-standards and made me a stronger Zionist and supporter of Israel and its people. I thought I was the only one defending Israel but I gradually discovered other people doing it.

Once, a friend whispered in my ear: “I am also more on the side of Israel... but, please, don’t tell anyone!” She was scared to voice her opinion, and this reinforced my conviction that I had to be vocal about my defense of Israel; I was speaking for many people who were afraid to do it.

At the end it’s a matter of justice. If there’s a people that fights for its right to self-determination and to live in peace, I will be on their side. If there’s a group that is demonized by prejudice and ignorance, I will fight prejudice and ignorance with them. If there’s a culture whose main values include tolerance for different sexual orientations, races and religions - clashing with another one that educates for intolerance and hate - I know which side I'll support.

I am a Zionist and I support the right of the Jewish people to self-rule and to life in peace, like I believe every thinking human being should.

Romeu Monteiro is an electric engineering Phd student at Carnegie Mellon University. You can see his blog here.

Muslim, Zionist and Proud

His father praised Hitler, but Kasim Hafeez writes about love for Israel, Jewish people By Kasim Hafeez - Ynet News I am a Zionist, a proud Muslim Zionist, and I love Israel, but this was not always the case. In fact, for many years I was quite the extreme opposite. I experienced the high levels of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity taking place on British university campuses, because I was the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel activist. Growing up in the Muslim community in the UK I was exposed to materials and opinions at best condemning Israel, painting Jews as usurpers and murderers, and at worse calling for the wholesale destruction of the "Zionist Entity" and all Jews. In short, there was no accommodating a Jewish State in the Middle East. To grow up around this constant barrage of hatred directed at Israel has a massive effect on an individual’s own opinions. More disturbingly, many of these people weren’t radical or extreme, but when it was about Israel the most vicious of rhetoric poured out, coupled with the casual anti-Semitism that seemed too prevalent, when the phrase "stop being a Jew" used as an insult. My father, however, was much more brazen in his hatred, boasting of how Adolf Hitler was a hero, his only failing being that he didn't kill enough Jews. By the time I had reached 18 I was completely indoctrinated to the fold of radical Islamism. My hate for Israel and for the Jews was fuelled by images of death and destruction, set to the backdrop of Arabic melodies about Jihad and speeches of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah or Osama Bin Laden. These views were reinforced when I attended Nakba Day rallies, where speakers predicted Israel's demise as Hezbollah flags were waved proudly in the centre of London.

 The Case for Israel

 Was there a case for Israel? In my mind, of course not, there was no shadow of doubt. Even the most moderate clerics I came across refused to condemn terrorism against Israel as unjustified; the Jews must obviously deserve it, I believed. So what changed? How could I go from all this hatred to the great love for and affinity with Israel and the Jewish people? I found myself in the Israel and Palestine section of a local bookstore and picked up a copy of Alan Dershowitz’s The Case for Israel. Given my worldview, the Jews and Americans controlled the media, so after brief look at the back, I scoffed thinking "vile Zionist propaganda." I did, however, decide to buy it, content that I would shortly be deconstructing this propaganda piece, showing that Israel had no case and claiming my findings as a personal victory for the Palestinian cause. As I read Dershowitz’s arguments and deconstruction of many lies I saw as unquestionable truths, I searched despairingly for counter arguments, but found more hollow rhetoric that I’d believed for many years. I felt a real crisis of conscience, and thus began a period of unbiased research. Up until that point I had not been exposed to anything remotely positive about Israel. Now, I didn't know what to believe. I'd blindly followed others for so long, yet here I was questioning whether I had been wrong. I reached a point where I felt I had no other choice but to see Israel for myself; only that way I’d really know the truth. At the risk of sounding cliché, it was a life-changing visit.


No apartheid state

 I did not encounter an apartheid racist state, but rather, quite the opposite. I was confronted by synagogues, mosques and churches, by Jews and Arabs living together, by minorities playing huge parts in all areas of Israeli life, from the military to the judiciary. It was shocking and eye-opening. This wasn't the evil Zionist Israel that I had been told about. After much soul searching, I knew what I had once believed was wrong. I had been confronted with the truth and had to accept it. But I had a bigger question to confront, what now? I’d for years campaigned against Israel, but now I knew the truth. The choice was obvious: I had to stand with Israel, with this tiny nation, free, democratic, making huge strides in medicine, research and development, yet the victim of the same lies and hatred that nearly consumed me. Doing this is not easy and that’s something that has become very obvious. I have faced hostility from my own community and even some within the Jewish community in the UK, but that’s the reality of standing up for Israel in Europe today. It is not easy, and that’s what makes it so necessary.

 This isn’t about religion and politics; it’s about the truth.

 When it comes to Israel, the truth is not being heard, the ranks of those filed with blind hatred continue to swell, yet many have not been exposed to the reality, away from the empty rhetoric and politically charged slogans they are so fond of. We can change this situation but we need to be strong and united. Israel is not just a Jewish issue - it’s about freedom, human rights and democracy, all the values that Western nations cherish. It’s also about trying to be a light among nations. Israel’s international humanitarian aid work speaks for itself, but if we don’t get the message out there, no one will. We don’t have to be head-bowed apologists leading with :Israel’s not perfect…" - we should never be afraid to say: I am a Zionist and I’m proud. I stand with Israel. Now I ask, will you do that? Kasim Hafeez is a British Muslim and former Islamist who is now a proud Zionist and stands with Israel. He runs www.theisraelcampaign.org and has a blog on this site. He is also on the advisory board of StandWithUs in the UK and recently completed a university speaking tour .

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Everything You Need to Know about Kosher Wine

It’s not your parents’ syrupy sweet beverage any more.

by Maurie Rosenberg

I have enjoyed wine pretty much as long as I can remember. As a child I was allowed only a tiny bit on special occasions like Kiddush and Passover. In college I was not quite, shall we say, as flavor discriminating as I am now, being a wine critic and author of a guide to kosher wines.

Kosher wine has come of age. Gone are the days when kosher wine could only be described as sweet, sweeter and so cloyingly sweet that it hurts my teeth just to think about it. So without further ado, let’s shatter some misconceptions.

1. Wine is not “kosher” because it is blessed by a rabbi.

This might be the most common misconception about kosher products in general. I know of a rabbi who provides a service in his local community, in cooperation with a regional supermarket, by marking the shelves of all the items which have kosher certification. He does this by placing a small sticker next to the shelf label of the appropriate item to make it simple and convenient to identify those products that qualify. One day a woman observed this activity and, startled with the speed with which he affixed the green dots on a group of similar items, commented: "Rabbi, you're saying those blessings awfully fast, aren't you?!"

Kosher wine esnures the absence of problematic ingredients like ox blood.

Kosher means “prepared” – i.e. processed according to Jewish law. When it comes to wine, various ingredients present kashrut challenges including: casein (a dairy derivative), enzymes (from animals), isinglass (from non kosher fish), and even ox blood (exactly what it sounds like). Further, kosher wine must have rabbinic supervision from the time the grapes become juice, up until the wine is sealed in the bottle.

2. Wine is a mitzvah (under certain conditions).

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Kosher wine is prescribed for use in many Jewish rituals: Bris Milah (circumcision), the wedding chuppa (canopy), the Kiddush that begins Shabbat and holiday meals. While most occasions call for just one cup, on the holiday of Purim, wine is the beverage of choice for the festive meal, recalling wine’s significant role in the "banquets" described in the Megillah story. On Passover we are required to drink four cups at the Seder (a challenge for many). As one rabbi said: "Who else but Jews would complain about how much they have to drink?"

3. Enjoy the variety.

Some wines are great for desert, others for a quiet evening of sipping, and others are especially food-friendly with meat, fish or cheese. White wines are generally younger, fresher and fruity with hints of apple, pineapple, pear and the like. Red wines can be full-bodied with notes of black current, plum, tobacco, leather and wild berries, with months or years of aging in charred oak barrels and a big finish. They can be silky and smooth, or tart and astringent, or even perhaps both at the same time. Wines can be cool, sparkling, light and refreshing for everyday or special occasions.

Two thousand years ago, a Talmudic sage said: "The best kind of wine is that which you enjoy." This rabbi might also have been the first known wine critic, as having rated a 200-year-old vintage "of the highest excellence."

4. Israel produces some of the world's best kosher wines.

Drip irrigation enables grapes to thrive in deserts all over the world.

Chalk, limestone, sand and volcanic soil can provide excellent growth medium for premium wine grapes. These conditions are often found in desert climates, which until recently were not sufficiently friendly to reliable vineyards. In the second half of the 20th century, two key developments allowed noble grape varieties to thrive in deserts all over the world:

Stainless steel tanks and refrigeration allow grape juice and wine to be kept cool after the summer harvest in warmer areas, and during fermentation (the process by which microbes, called yeast, eat the sugar, converting it to alcohol and carbon dioxide).

Drip irrigation, a process refined in the 1960s on an Israeli kibbutz in the Negev, allows a hungry world to be fed with far less water (agriculture places the largest demand on our global water supply) and far greater nutrient control. It also provides for consistent results from year to year in places that could not otherwise sustain agriculture.

Israel is blessed with many state-of-the-art wineries that merge a synergy of technology and tradition. Israeli and other kosher wines are now recognized as "world class" from leading authorities, with many regularly receiving the highest awards and recognition.

5. Don't cook with a "cooking wine."

Just because a bottle says "cooking wine" doesn't mean it is better for cooking. In fact, it is usually inferior wine that is not good enough to drink. My rule is: Wine that is not good enough to drink is not good enough to cook with.

When cooking, add wine early enough to allow the alcohol to evaporate and produce a subtle taste (except for fortified wines that you might want to add at the end). Reduce the wine to intensify its flavor; if you cook wine uncovered for 10 minutes, it will reduce to half or less. Use white wine for lighter-colored dishes and red wines for darker meats or stews.

Wine offers uncommon value in a world of ever-rising costs. In 1940 a typical bottle of kosher Kiddush wine cost about one dollar. In today's terms that translates to $12-15 for a standard bottle. Today you can buy many sweet Kiddush wines for under $5, and in the $12-15 range you can find some very good to excellent wine.

6. Wine is good for you, body and soul.

Almost every week there is another story about the health benefits of wine. Is it white wine or red wine, the tannins, anti-oxidant compounds, flavonoids, enzyme releasers or something else?

“Kosher,” with its added levels of supervision and quality control, has established itself in a broad perception as cleaner, healthier, higher quality, and even safer. Of course, the real reason Jews keep kosher is because of our spiritual health. (Hence the term, “soul food.”)

Wine is an exceptional beverage that can be a metaphor for so many profound ideas in life: balance, nuance, integrity. Wine can even be a metaphor for a completed and perfected human life: It starts off as a simplistic and immature product (grape juice represents childhood; it must develop character as it goes through fermentation (struggle represents the challenge of evil); only then does it become the mature product we call wine.

We could discuss this in more detail over a glass of wine. As Tevya sang in Fiddler on the Roof: "Be happy! Be healthy! Long life! Drink, l'chaim, to life!"



Aish.Com

Kosher Wine and Its Rich Flavor Explained

When it comes to kosher wine, there are numerous misconceptions and one of the widest spread one is that this is a certain style of wine. The truth is that just any kind of wine could be made kosher in case it has been prepared according to the Jewish laws of wine making.

Another really popular misconception is that the wine needs to be blessed by a rabbi. It is important to remember that there is no religious blessing involved in the process.

The wine just needs to be certified as kosher to make sure that the wine is in accordance with the Jewish dietary laws.

The concept of a rabbi blessing the wine is similar to thinking that the USDA blesses the steaks.

There are some rules that need to be kept in mind when preparing kosher wine.

The equipment and tools used in the process must be kosher, meaning that they cannot be involved in the making of non-kosher wine.

The wine must be handled by Sabbath-observant Jews during the entire process, except the case when the wine is mevushal.

The ingredients of the wine must be kosher, including the yeast, gelatin, casein, isinglass and other products used in the process. This is why the majority of the kosher winemakers are using bentonite for fining which is uncommon to regular wine making.

In case of Israel there are some special rules that apply because of the Jewish laws. Naturally these regulations do not apply outside the country. Here the wine has to be at least four years old and the vineyard has to be left fallow once every seven years. The vineyard can only be used to grow grapes and no other agricultural plants.

The reason for which only Sabbath-observant Jews are allowed to handle the wine is that the Jew people didn’t want to have wine that might have been used in pagan religious activities. The non-Jews weren’t really trusted so there was need for someone to supervise the procedures.

The majority of kosher wine is made mevushal, or pasteurized. In case of white wine this happens before fermentation, while in case of red wine, it happens after. In our days this process is a quick one, and without the actual boiling of the wine.

While in the past people have boiled it, in our days there are some other methods as well, to make sure that the flavor will not be altered.

The wine that is usually served at special occasions is mevushal. This happens so because in many cases the caterers might be non-Jews, and if they would handle the wine, it would become non-kosher. The pasteurized wine might be handed by just any person, and it still remains kosher.

To find kosher wine, you will have to be looking for a U inside a circle. This symbolizes that the wine in question is kosher. Also you might find some wine that have a K inside a circle. This symbol also certifies that it is kosher. The K could also be found in a star, and this symbol has the same meaning.



Flavor Red Delight

5 Most Important Things to Know About Passover

Our greatest contributions to the world summarized in five words: memory, optimism, faith, family, and responsibility.

by Rabbi Benjamin Blech.

Scholars have long wondered why Jews who number less than one quarter of one percent of the world – as Milton Himmelfarb memorably put it, "The total population of the Jewish people is less than a statistical error in the annual birth rate of the Chinese people” – have had such a profound influence on almost every field of human endeavor.

What accounts for the remarkable fact that in the 20th century, Jews, more than any other minority, have been recipients of the Nobel Prize, with almost one-fifth of all Nobel laureates being Jewish?

Perhaps it all goes back to the very beginning of the birth of our people and the Passover holiday that we will shortly be celebrating.

Passover conveys five major concepts that became our mantras for how to lead successful and productive lives. They are the five most important things to know about Passover, and to incorporate into every day of the rest of the year. Because we’ve absorbed them into our national psyche for the thousands of years since the Exodus, we’ve been privileged to fulfill in great measure our prophetically mandated role to become a light unto the nations.

They are our greatest contributions to the world and can be summarized in five words: memory, optimism, faith, family, and responsibility.

The Importance of Memory

The Irish Catholic writer Thomas Cahill was so overwhelmed by how the Jewish people literally transformed the world that he authored what proved to become an international bestseller, The Gifts of the Jews. One of the major gifts he credits to Jewish genius is the invention of the idea of history.

"Remember that you were strangers in the land of Egypt." "Remember that the Lord took you out of the bondage of slavery." Remember is a biblical mandate that had never seemed important to anyone else before the Jewish people came on the scene. It was the Passover story that initiated a commitment to memory.

Henry Ford was famous for his belief that "history is bunk." The Ford motor company is also famous for producing the Edsel. And both were probably equally stupid blunders. History is the only way we can learn from the past. History allows us to grow by standing on the shoulders of giants. Make a mistake once, and you’re human. Never learn from what happened before, and you’re brainless. That's why it's so important to heed the famous words of George Santayana that "Those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it."

Memory links our past to our future. It turns history into destiny.

We know how horrible it can be to live without a personal memory of events that preceded. For an individual we have a name for it that fills us with terror: Alzheimer's. It is a disease we fear perhaps even more than death because it leaves us living corpses. Strangely enough, we don't have a similar word for the condition that describes ignorance of our collective past. Knowing what came before is almost as important in an historic sense as it is in a personal one. Only by being aware of our past as a people can our lives become filled with purpose and meaning.

Memory links our past to our future. It turns history into destiny. Learning to treasure it was the first step in our climb up the ladder of greatness.

The Importance of Optimism

To study the Passover story in depth is to recognize that the most difficult task Moses had to perform was not to get the Jews out of Egypt, but to get Egypt out of the Jews. They had become so habituated to their status as slaves, they lost all hope that they could ever improve their lot.

Without hope they would have been lost.

The true miracle of Passover and its relevance for the ages is the message that with God’s help, no difficulty is insurmountable. A tyrant like Pharaoh could be overthrown. A nation as powerful as Egypt could be defeated. Slaves could become freemen. The oppressed could break the shackles of their captivity. Anything is possible, if only we dare to dream the impossible dream.

In the story of America's Great Seal, a particularly relevant chapter is the imagery suggested by Benjamin Franklin in August 1776. He chose the dramatic scene described in Exodus, where people confronted a tyrant in order to gain their freedom.

"Pharaoh sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his head and a Sword in his hand, passing through the divided Waters of the Red Sea in Pursuit of the Israelites: Rays from a Pillar of Fire in the Cloud, expressive of the Divine Presence and Command, beaming on Moses who stands on the shore and extending his hand over the Sea causes it to overwhelm Pharaoh."

The motto he suggested, words based on the Passover story, inspired George Washington and the founding fathers of the American colonies to rebel against their British oppressors: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God."

It was the biblical record of the Exodus that enabled the spirit of optimism to prevail for the followers of Martin Luther King in their quest for equal rights, because they were stirred by the vision of Moses leading his people to the Promised Land. It was the hope engendered by recalling how God redeemed our ancestors that allowed even Jews incarcerated in Auschwitz to furtively celebrate the Festival of Freedom and believe in the possibility of their own liberation.

That optimistic spirit, based on our own miraculous history, is the second great gift we have given to mankind and defines our identity.

The Importance of Faith

A pessimist, it's been said, is someone who has no invisible means of support.

Jewish optimism is rooted in a contrary notion, a firmly held belief that we are blessed with support from above by a caring God. And that faith in a personal God gives us faith in ourselves, in our future and in our ability to help change the world

The God of Sinai didn't say "I am the Lord your God who created the heavens and the earth." Instead, he announced, "I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage." The God of creation could theoretically have forsaken the world once he completed his task. The God of the Exodus made clear He is constantly involved in our history and has a commitment to our survival.

The Passover story conveys that history is not happenstance. It follows a Divine master plan.

Thomas Cahill credits the Jews not only for monotheism but for this additional groundbreaking idea of a Divine being with Whom we share a personal relationship. This, he points out, is key to Western civilization’s concept of personal accountability, conscience and culpability for ourselves and the rest of the world.

The Passover story conveys that history is not happenstance. It follows a Divine master plan. It has a predestined order. “Order” in Hebrew is “Seder” – and that is why the major ritual of Passover is identified by that name. Coincidence is not a Jewish concept. Coincidence is just God's way of choosing to remain anonymous.

Faith gives us the certainty that whatever our present-day problems, history moves in the direction of the final messianic redemption. That is what has always motivated us to believe in progress and to participate in tikkun olam, efforts to improve the world.

The Importance of Family

Passover taught us yet another major truth: the way to perfect the world is to begin with our own families.

God built his nation by commanding not a collective gathering of hundreds of thousands in a public square but by asking Jews to turn their homes into places of family worship at a Seder devoted primarily to answering the questions of children.

It seems all too obvious. Children are our future. They are the ones who most require our attention. The home is where we first form our identities and discover our values.

More even than the synagogue, it is in our homes that we sow the seeds of the future and ensure our continuity. No wonder then that commentators point out the very first letter of the Torah is a bet, the letter whose meaning is house. All of the Torah follows only after we understand the primacy of family.

The world may mock Jewish parents for their over-protectiveness and their child-centered way of life, but they are the ones chiefly responsible for the extraordinary achievements of their progeny.

At the Seder table, the children are encouraged to be the stars and their questions are treated with respect. And that is the first step to developing Jewish genius.

The Importance of Responsibility to Others

One serious question begs to be asked as we celebrate our Divine deliverance from the slavery of Egypt. We thank God for getting us out, but why did God allow us to become victims of such terrible mistreatment in the first place?

A remarkable answer becomes evident in numerous Torah texts. We were slaves in Egypt – and so we have to have empathy for the downtrodden in every generation. We were slaves in Egypt – and so we have to be concerned with the rights of the strangers, the homeless and the impoverished. We experienced oppression – and so we must understand more than anyone else the pain of the oppressed.

The tragedy of our encounter with injustice was in no small measure meant to prepare us to serve throughout all future generations as spokesman for those with whose pain we can personally identify.

The purpose of our suffering was to turn us into a people committed to righting the wrongs of the world, to become partners with God in making the world worthy of final redemption.

We begin the Seder by inviting the hungry and the homeless to join with us. We conclude the Seder by opening the door for Elijah. It is our acceptance of responsibility to others that is the key to hastening the arrival of Messiah.

From earliest childhood every Jew identifies with these five powerful ideas that are at the heart of Passover and its message. And precisely because memory, optimism, faith, family and responsibility have become such vital characteristics of our people, we have been able to achieve far beyond what anyone might have considered possible.



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