I AM JEWISH
I am Jewish, the book in which Jews state their reactions and reflections on the last words of Daniel Pearl who was murdered by his muslim captors. As I began reading the book I found myself shocked at what was said in the preface. According to Judea Pearl, father of the martyred Jew, Danny’s statement, “I am Jewish” meant “’I come from a place where one’s heritage is the source of one’s strength, and strength is measured by one’s capacity to accommodate diversity. Because it is only though diversity that we can recognize common humanity” (italics mine). Diversity? Common Humanity? Those are the reasons why are people suffered for millennia? So that we may take hands with our Black and Hispanic and Muslim neighbor? That is why the Jew lived in the shtetl, separated from larger society? In order that one day a Jew may say that recognition of common humanity is what makes a Jew? I hate to inform any liberal readers that Jews have never sacrificed themselves in order to accept the diversity of other peoples and unite all people into a so called “common humanity.”
Jews did not sacrifice themselves in order to forge common bonds with their gentile neighbors. Jews sacrificed themselves for precisely the opposite! Jews sacrificed themselves in order to keep the gentile away from Judaism. It was in order to maintain Judaism’s separatist identity that Jews sacrificed themselves. Judaism does not teach us to love diversity rather it teaches us to love the Jewish people and the Jewish land. While showing that we love our own first may anger some of the nations of the world, we cannot stop. We must understand that Jewish needs come first, because we cannot demand of our neighbor to give for such causes, just like he cannot command us to give to his Church.
While we may be bother by the hatred of the Jew, we will not end that hatred by showing that we are the same as them. They know we are different and they don’t believe us when we shout that the Jew is the same as all other people. The only ones fooled by our teaching of diversity is our children who truly believe that they are the same as the gentile and that therefore there is no need to be Jewish. That believe that they are indeed no different from the Christian and the Black and the Muslim. The Black knows that we are different, the Muslim knows we are different, why do we refuse to tell our children we are different? Why won’t we accept that we do have a purpose in this world? That we are right and that the rest of the world is wrong? That in order to be Jewish we must separate ourselves from the rest of the world and not simply include ourselves in the jungle of nation’s that exist on this earth. We are different and holy. We must understand that when one says “I am Jewish” he is not saying that he accepts diversity instead he is drawing a barrier between himself and the rest of the world. He is saying I belong to a people that was chosen by G-d to be a “Light unto the Nations,” a people that is united by a common bond wherever they may currently reside, a people that knows that ultimately when it comes time to fight, it can only rely on its own. We must accept not diversity, but the separatism that is the reason why judaism has lasted all these years while other nations have perished. We must understand that only when we teach our children true Judaism will the embrace and love the Jewish religion and the Jewish people.
Today we see young Jews preaching that the acceptance of diversity is what is necessary for man’s existence. That only when we recognize the many cultures and backgrounds that we come from can we begin to break down barriers between people. The young Jew has begun with himself and he has decided to destroy that which makes him separate and special. He has indeed broken barriers between himself and his Christian brother, his Black brother and his Hispanic brother. He saw no reason to be Jewish, because religion simply divides man and fails to promote unity of man, which is the goal of all people.
I pity this Jew, for he has never learned Jewish history. He has never felt the pride that I feel when I scream unto the world “I am Jewish!” He has never realized that there is a G-d and he is is a Jewish G-d, the G-d that took the Jewish people out of slavery and the G-d which established the modern day State of Israel. The young Jew knows nothing of his history and his people and therefore he sees no connection to them and no reason to remain a Jew.
Who is to blame for the creation of this Jew? To blame our those who allow him to believe that there is nothing special about Judaism. That there is no Jewish difference that transcends bagels and lox. Worst of all are those of us who make up racist lies about Judaism. Those who say that Judaism is special because of its ethics are the worst of all racists. All religions have ethics, our’s are not so unique, our’s are not so different from the Muslims’ or the Christians’. The young Jew wants a real reason to be Jewish and when his parents and his Rabbi’s have no answers he realizes that there is no reason to be a Jew.
What can we do as Jews to save our disillusioned youth? How can we return him to his people? The answer is surprisingly simple. We must be honest. We must show our youth that we believe in all of the Torah as holy and that we do observe the mitzvot to the very best of our ability. We must show our youth that are Jewish values take precedence over all other values be they liberal, conservative or American. We must teach our youth that we care about our own first because we have no right to demand of others to care about us. That we help the Jew in South America before we help the non-Jew, not because we are racist but because no one else will help him. We can only expect to win back our youth when we are prepared to return to Jewish values and Jewish traditions.
Topic: "I AM JEWISH" reactions to Daniel Pearl (Read 4159 times)