The Holocaust was the Ultimate Antisemitism Act

The dysphoria of being Jewish.

The brutality of the Holocaust was a crime against men, women, and children. It was a crime against humanity. It was a crime against God. ~ President Donald Trump

Antisemitism, is 2000s the 1930s all over again, getting worse.

January 27 is officially International Holocaust & Heroism Remembrance Day, the day you must search your soul as to why humanity allowed Nazi-Germany to perpetrate crimes against humanity, the worst in human history. It is the day every human being on earth must say, right out loud and mean it, ‘NEVER AGAIN.’

But if they do say ‘NEVER AGAIN,’ do they mean it?

Lord Jonathan Sacks

In September 2016, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks addressed the European Parliament on the dangers of Antisemitism. Here is what he said in his speech ‘The Mutating Virus – Understanding Antisemitism.‘

“The hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews. That is what I want us to understand today.

It was not Jews alone who suffered under Hitler.

It was not Jews alone who suffered under Stalin.

It is not Jews alone who suffer under ISIS, AL Qaeda or Islamic Jihad.

We make a great mistake if we think that Antisemitism is a threat only to Jews. It is a threat, first and foremost, to Europe and to the freedom it took centuries to achieve.

Antisemitism is not about Jews, it is about Anti-Semites. It is about people who cannot accept responsibility for their own failures and instead have to blame someone else.

Historically, if you were a Christian, at the time of the Crusades, or a German after the First World War, and you saw that the world had not turned out as you thought it would, you blamed the Jews.

That is what is happening today. And I cannot begin to say how dangerous it is. Not just to Jews, but to everyone who values freedom, compassion and humanity.

The appearance of Antisemitism in a culture is the first symptom of a disease, the early warning sign of collective breakdown.

If Europe allows Antisemitism to flourish, that will be the beginning of the end of Europe.

Antisemitism means denying the right of Jews to exist collectively as Jews with the dame rights as everyone else. It takes different forms in different ages.

In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated for their religion. In the 19^th and early 20^th century, they were hated because of their race. Today, they are hated because of their nation state, the state of Israel.

It takes different forms but remains the same thing: the view that Jews have no right to exist as free and equal human beings.

In every single country of Europe, without exception, Jews are fearful for their or their children’s future.

If this continues, Jews will continue to leave Europe, until, barring the frail and the elderly, Europe will finally have become Judenrein (Free of Jews).

When bad things happen to a group, its members can ask one of two questions:

One, “What did we do wrong?” or two, “Who did it to us?” and the entire fate of the group will depend of which it chooses.

If it asks “What did we do wrong?” it has begun the self-criticism essential to a free society.

If it asks “Who did it to us?” it has defined itself as a victim. It will then seek a scapegoat to blame for all tis problems, and classically, this has been the Jews.

Antisemitism is a form of cognitive failure, and it happened when groups feel that their world is spinning out of control.

Antisemitism happens when the politics of hope gives way to the politics of fear, which quickly becomes the politics of hate. This then reduces complex problems to simplicities.

It divides the world into black and white, seeing all the fault on one side and all the victimhood on the other. It singles out one group among a hundred offenders for the blame, the argument is always the same, we are innocent; they are guilty. It follows that if we are to be free then they, the Jews or the state of Israel, must be destroyed.

That is how the great crimes begin.

Jews were hated because they were different. They were the most conspicuous non-Christian minority in a Christian Europe, Today they are the most conspicuous non-Muslim presence in an Islamic Middle East.

Antisemitism has always been about the inability of a group to make space for difference. No group that adopts it will ever, or can ever, create a free society.

The hate that begins with Jews, never ends with Jews.

Antisemitism is only secondarily about Jews. Primarily, it is about the failure of groups to accept responsibility for their own failures, and to build their own future, by their own endeavours.

No society that has ever fostered Antisemitism has ever sustained liberty, or human rights, or religious freedom.

Every society driven by hate begins by seeking to destroy its enemies and ends by destroying itself.”

Since the end of the Holocaust antisemitism was a zone one avoided entering into.

The State of Israel was established and was immediately attacked by the Nazis of the Middle East – the Arab nations. Israel was attacked and prevailed, not once and not twice. The world, again, could not rid itself of the Jews, who were winning again and again, in many aspects. And so, the world went, again, the antisemitism way, vilifying Israel, lying about the Jewish state, and thus lying about Jews, and attacking the Jewish State with any assault weapon they could find.

And so, 75 years since World War Two ended, antisemitism, collectively against Israel and individually against Jews, is on the rise, sawing Jewish lives and creating, unease, even dangerous, habitation atmosphere for Jews, wherever they live.

Spare the world ongoing false analogies and crocodile tears, shed, each year, for the Six Million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, by those who support anti-Semitism and the war on the Jewish state, Israel.

In Israel and Jewish communities, the world over, they commemorate the Holocaust &d Heroism Day, Yom Hashoah V’Hagvurah, on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, this year will fall on May 2, 2019; the rest of the world marks this commemoration on January 27 of each year, which marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, in 1945.

Indeed, at least in theory, efforts to remember the Six Million Jews deliberately murdered or died due to the circumstances into which they were forced, are commendable. However, much of what has been and will be said on that gloomy day will do little good to fix or stop the rising antisemitism trend and perhaps even do some harm.

In the United Nations (UN) halls and in some world capitals, there is always that well-intention-ed, heartfelt and appropriate, proverbial caution calls against hatred and intolerance of all kinds, all are seeking to extract a universal message from this explicit, all of humanity’s tragedy. With all those ceremonial gestures, there are those terrible questions hanging that come up every year.

We can certainly ask what, so far, the institutionalization of Holocaust remembrance has accomplished? Has it accomplished just reinforcing the pain-relieving attempt and conclusion that the Nazis were wicked and that the sufferings they caused to their victims was horrific, or we have and are accomplishing more?

In this case, we can certainly not question the magnitude of the generation of survivors’ achievements. Here we can certainly not question the magnitude of the scholars and activists who, since the end of WWII have worked tirelessly to create museums, programs and a vast body of literature all have taken on the commitment to ensure that the Holocaust is never forgotten, it is ‘NEVER AGAIN’!

We can certainly ask whether the multiple material, of all sort and pointing fingers, about the Holocaust has turned it to become a mainstream, empty metaphor for anything we think is dreadful, irrespective of how inappropriate the reference may be.

We can certainly ask whether the present disinterest, sometimes objected to, in the security of the Jews is the reaction, the cause derived from the, maybe over the top, salutation to the sufferings of Jews in the past.

We can certainly ask, is the belief that words and acts of anti-Semitism are permissible so long they are done in the name of anti-Zionism, anti-Israel.

With all the calls, in the past few decades, to eliminate genocide and atrocities, there have not only been numerous instances of other genocidal massacres-i.e. in Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur and Syria-but we now also witness an alarming rise of anti-Semitism in the world.

When, nowadays, world leaders drag the Holocaust, Nazism, and Hitlerism into their insincere rhetoric, such behavior undermines any remaining belief that the lessons have or could ever be learned.

When, nowadays, lip service has at times being paid to the “responsibility to protect” innocents from genocide, we must admit that very little was done and being done to prevent these eminently preventable tragedies, and there is no reason to think that this lack of responsibility will change when, next time we face it.

Ocean of Tears Is Not What Will Save the Soul

Each year on January 27 and on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, or any other day when the Holocaust is mentioned and stories about what happened from 1933 to 1945 are told, ocean of tears is poured from the eyes of people who are surviving victims, their children and others who can fathom the immensity of the tragedy. However, these tears cannot and will not save a single soul from a similar doom if all humanity is willing to do is to talk about it and then go on about life as if the words said few minutes ago had no meaning or were erased.

If we are to give any real meaning to the words, to our ongoing attempts to embed these events in the deepest consciousness of the world, then the words must be accompanied by meaningful action[s].

When, nowadays, so many people, from all walks of life, use the terms ‘Holocaust,’ ‘Nazi,’ ‘Hitler’, as a metaphor or are equated with false analogies, the meaning of all that relates to the subject ‘Holocaust’ and Nazism’ evil; has been cheapened.

When people in the United States equate, in some way, illegal immigrants seeking an illegal entry into the country, or are trying to evade the law after they have already entered, to the Jews fleeing Nazi Europe, this comparison is not only absurd it is a disgusting falsehood. Summoning the plight of 20^th century doomed European Jewry to justify the desire to oppose the enforcement of America’s immigration laws simply undermines both the appalling distinctiveness of the Holocaust and any understanding of what is at stake for USA future.

Not disregarding all the contemporary talk about the Holocaust, the nowadays most insidious aspect is the effort to discuss it all outside of the context of the ongoing campaign to continue antisemitism and the murderous assault on the Jewish people.

Dead Jews, those long dead in past tragic atrocities, are not seen as directly connected to the current ongoing Middle East onslaught on Jews. More so, it is those living Jews, especially those who are defending their lives and their homeland, Israel, who are not that well-respected as human beings and so are supported.

Nowadays, we are witnessing the rising tide of Antisemitism; the snake has risen its ugly anti-Semitic head, sweeping across the world.

Much of that hate for Jews is masked as “criticism” of the State of Israel or the ill-thought-out term ‘Zionism,’ the anti-Zionism trend.

The members of the movement and the advocates for the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction Israel) , seeking to eliminate the Jewish state, talk a cynical lie with their claim of innocence of any anti-Semitic belief or intent. Their ideological war, seeking to deny the rights to Jews, which they would not dare deny any other people, is by definition an act of bias against Jews, and therefore, anti-Semitic.

It is deeply alarming and discouraging that the process, by which expressions of anti-Semitism are fig leafed with commenting about Israel, has been legitimized. When the use of classic anti-Semitic labels and figuratives-i.e. “dual loyalty” and Jews “hypnotizing the world,” and there is the backing of the BDS, even by members of Congress-occurs without them suffering any consequences and with impunity, we must know it is time to say, something must change and fast.

We need to agree that the only real memorial to the Holocaust is the State of Israel

The rhetoric about the victims of Hitler’s crimes remains hopeless if it is not connected to a promise and action to fight back against boycott campaigns that are integral to a process of marginalizing the state of Israel and much affects Jews living in the Diaspora; or having a strong opposition to the terror committed against Jews in the name of the “Palestinians.”

And therefore, all the breast-beating about the Holocaust from world and organizations’ leaders, every January, is often intolerable because so much of it simply ignores the basic truths.

Those who speak on January 27 must know that the only real memorial to the Holocaust is certainly not a statue or a museum about the Shoah that were erected, in large numbers, around the world. The actual memorial is the State of Israel, the only guarantor of the future of the remnants of the Jewish people, whom Hitler tried to wipe out and exterminate and was only partially successful. The hypocrites, non-Jews and Jews alike, who give a pass to contemporary anti-Semites, because they share their political beliefs, or those who seek to undermine or attack the Jewish state and its supporters, have no business opening their mouth about the Holocaust.

Iran Hitlerism Threat

Since the Islamic revolution took over the Iran of the Shah, this Islamo-Nazi country has been threatening to wipe Israel off the map. Iran has advanced its territorial influence with the goal to surround Israel with proxies seeking to help Iran to wipe Israel off the map. This is a genocidal, Holocaust type threat

It is time for the UN member states to take a stand against the theocratic-autocratic, Nazi type regime of Iran.

At the United Nations’ hall anti-Israel rhetoric is the standard. Yet, the UN commemorates the Holocausts with some meaningless speeches.

In Europe animatism is buried, layer thin, under the Europeans’ pretense they have eradicated their centuries’ long antisemitism sentiments.

In Britain, the Labour Party has gone back to England’s antisemitism old ways, when they expelled all Jews from the land. In England, centuries ago, along the locals’ anti-Semitic trend, Jews acquired a reputation as extortionate money lenders, which made them extremely unpopular with both the Church and the general public. In 1290 King Edward I of England (Longshanks) issued an edict expelling all Jews from England. Lasting for the rest of the Middle Ages, it would be over 350 years, in 1656, when the edict was formally overturned. This edict was not an isolated incident but the culmination of over 200 years of conflict on the matters of ‘usury’ of which Jews were falsely accused.

Recently, when asked if Jeremy Corbyn, British Labour Party leader, is anti-Semitic, Lord Carey of Clifton, former Archbishop of Canterbury, recognizing Israel as a wonderful, sophisticated, democratic society, surrounded by undemocratic nations, had that to say: “The weakness of his statements can give the impression that he is. That deep down he’s someone who doesn’t like Jewish people. Christians are partly to blame for high levels of anti-Semitism in the U.K.”

Apart from the Jewish Homeland, Israel, the United States remains the main safe sanctuary for Jews. But as it gradually being revealed, the United States is steadily losing this brand. Anti-Israel and Antisemitism rhetoric is now resounding in the halls of the US congress.

Remember, it is NEVER AGAIN – Ultimate Antisemitism

Especially on International Holocaust & Heroism Remembrance Day, our hearts are always with every man, woman, and child who was abused, tortured, or murdered during the Holocaust.

In remembering these men and women-those who perished and those who survived-we strive to prevent such suffering from EVER happening again.

Any denial or indifference to the horror of this chapter in the history of humankind diminishes the essence of all men and women, everywhere, and invites a possible repetition of this greatest of all evil.

The post-Holocaust imperative, “Never Again” cannot be just empty words.

“Never Again” is not standing idly by and/or remembering-in any and all profound and lasting ways-the evils of the Holocaust. It is also to stand for the preservation and security of the Jewish people and to the betterment of all mankind.