Be careful what you wish for!

Throughout history, we Jews have “stood out.” We were the first to walk away from the concept of multiple gods. It began when we believed in one God amidst heathens who prayed to clay idols…the sun …the moon and the stars.

Volumes have been written about our love of family and respect for education. The jokes about a mother’s joy that her daughter is about to marry a doctor or lawyer, are as old as the professions themselves.  Dreams were fulfilled when families which fled the antisemitism of Europe, before and after World War II, were able to see their children and grandchildren graduate from college and take their deserved “places” in the lands of liberty and freedom. From the days of immigration and Ellis Island, Jews deservedly found their niche in western society.

We were happy to live side by side with the Christian world and were so relieved when the Vatican decreed that the Jews had not killed their savior after all. We were clearly not to blame and could now be embraced by the remnants who held this grudge against our people for the past two thousand years.

The vast majority of Jewish immigrants chose a version of assimilation. The Reform Judaism movement evolved in Europe in order to retain a connection for those who no longer dressed as Jews, prayed as Jews, or selected the food they ate… according to Halacha. New variations of Judaism evolved to embrace any and all levels of observance…lest we lose our people entirely to “the other.”

We often voted as Jews. Any candidate with antisemitic history was shunned. Anyone who held no grudge against us was embraced. With time, and the birth of Israel as the acknowledge Jewish State… many judged a candidate in relation to his/her views on support of Israel. Pro-Israel political P.A.C.s  (political action committees) were formed to donate to the campaigns of those we viewed as supportive of our homeland…and by extension, of “us.”

At first, intermarriage was looked upon by parents with shame. We must have been terrible parents for our children to want to marry out of the Jewish faith. Our compromises were intended to embrace the western culture while keeping our children connected to their faith and the generations which preceded them. What went wrong?

Our collective dream …was “acceptance.” As we shed our traditions and our identity, we felt like “the other.”  Once they wanted “to marry us,” we knew we had arrived.  Today, 70% of secular Jews in America marry non-Jews.  In Europe it is 50%. In countries like Russia, Hungary, and Poland have an even higher inter-marriage rate. In contrast… the State of Israel has only a 5% rate of Jews marrying out of their faith.

The problem of course, with being almost totally accepted by other faiths, is that we in the process, forget who we are… the essence of what made us unique for generations. We shed along with our customs, attire, cuisine, some of the core values which made us who we are.  Not all of them… just the inconvenient ones.

Fast forward to the present.  Organizations like “J-Street” were created by those professing to be Jews, but denying Jewish heritage and the birthright of the Jewish people to live in the land of their forefathers…the land of the torah… known to the rest of the world as “the bible.” These Israel apologists were embraced by those non-Jews who found them to be “useful” for their own purposes. What could be better for left-leaning politicians, than Jews who did not feel connected to their roots?

We as a people have discovered through the generations, that those we helped to fight the injustices perpetrated against their people … were delighted to accept our moral indignation and use our best legal minds to address and redress the issues… to find compensation and improve their lot. Once achieved, we were just as easily thrown to one side. Unless of course… if we were prepared to be more consumed with their history, culture, disadvantages and suffering…. than with our own.

The “new-Jew” found his/her way to the “top of the bottle of milk”…. To the “cream” of positions on offer. In universities, in medicine, in science, in industry, in business, high-tech, and in politics. We never quite made it to the highest ranks of “society” but we came very close indeed.

We “arrived” …and then much of the world turned against us…. Indeed for “having-arrived.” With the help of technology and evil players throughout the world, the Jews have once again become a pawn in a global game. Encouraging antisemitism in the West… distracts important nations from seeing what is happening that is destroying the fiber of their own societies. This serves the purpose of the enemies of freedom and democracy, who were never before a part of this complicated hatred of the Jews.  China had no history of antisemitism, and yet it has been proven to be fomenting it in Western nations… through their control of media such as “TikTok.”  For the Chinese government… this age-old hatred is a vehicle to distract and weaken their enemy …to make it ripe for its own self-destruction.

Fast forward once again to the upcoming presidential elections in the United States. Those meeting for “drinks” after work are wondering which candidate the Obama-anointed Kamala Harris, will select as her Democrat vice-presidential running mate.

Close to the top of her list of six candidates, apparently, is Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania and a Jew. In the midst of the worst upsurge of Jew-hatred in America in its history… what exactly would the purpose be of selecting a Jewish running mate?  Would it be a form of camouflage … to redirect the discussions away from Kamala’s very left-leaning-socialist affinity and family history, and her lack of vision for the nation she wishes to rule? Would it be intended to show that she is not really a supporter of the Jew-hatred promoted by “Black lives matter” of which she is so fond?

Kamala can do the Jewish people a favor…and select  one of the other five candidates under consideration.

Years ago, I had the opportunity to meet with then-prime minister of Israel, Shimon Peres, having been told by both my mother and father’s side of the family…that we were related to him. It was quite unusual because mother’s family hailed from Germany and father’s came from Vilna in Poland.  Peres’ family also was from the area of Vilna.   I composed a letter with the stories of our families’ connections and handed them to him along with a photo gifted to me from an elder cousin in New York. She told me that her father and Peres’ father were cousins. It was a photo of her father and the father of Shimon Peres in front of the palace in Budapest. I showed the photo to Peres and he confirmed that it was his father in the photograph. He shared that the king of Hungary had asked his father to become the minister of finance for his nation. His father declined the offer, citing the following reason: He explained that should the economy falter, it would be blamed not just upon himself, but upon all the Jews of Hungary. He was unwilling to take on that responsibility, but offered to advise the king on his financial decisions, from the sidelines.

This story has always remained in the back of my mind as a warning to all of us who curry favor from those who may find us useful today and expendable tomorrow.  We Jews must always be cautious when lusting after recognition and power. When we compromise our own identity for the benefit of others, we ignore the debt we owe to our ancestors who suffered and gave their lives so that we, and future generations will thrive. We of all people, must be very careful when considering “what we wish for.”