When Bret Stephens Was Absolutely Right
In his recent ‘State of World Jewry’ Address, Bret Stephens emphatically declared that the priorities of the organized Jewish community needed to be reorganized. To the horror of many, Stephens declared most of the massive funds presently devoted to fighting Antisemitism, should be redirected to the Jewish edification of the broadest sense of the term. Defeating Jew Hatred, he asserted, is a chimerical objective. It has relentlessly beset and pursued the Jewish People since (at least) the fifth century BCE, as related in the Book of Esther (in a form remarkably similar to its modern iteration). Sometimes it is more obvious, and more virulent and deadly. Other times it retreats into the shadows, allowing Jews an sense of normalcy and tranquility. However, Jew Hatred inevitably reemerges in all of its ugliness, often from totally unexpected quarters.
It would be far better, more constructive and more authentically Jewish if our response to Jew Hatred was centered upon deepening and expanding the quality of our Jewish lives and identities. In this way Jews have total agency, and will acquire the elan and fortitude to withstand the haters and give meaning to our lives.
While listening to Stephens’ speech, I immediately recalled events that anticipated and embodied his message. They were described by a beloved teacher of mine, Rabbi Dr. Isaiah Wohlgemuth זצ”ל, who was the last rabbi of the German Jewish community of Kitzingen in Franconia. During Kristallnicht, he was arrested by the Nazis and interned in Dachau. Subsequently, he was expelled from Germany. He made his way to Boston where he taught for over 40 years at the Maimonides School and in the Summers at Boston Hebrew College (where I was privileged to have him as a teacher).
In the introduction to his book, the author took the occasion to recall the response of his fellow Jews to the rise of Hitler יש”ו and the Nazi seizure of power in 1933.
The Jewish people have faced persecution throughout the ages, and each generation has overcome many difficulties. There have, however, been several periods in history when Jewish communities have flourished. Those periods can be referred to as “Golden Ages of Judaism’…I, surprisingly, have classified the years from 1933-1939 as another Golden Age in Jewish history. You might think it strange to refer to those years as a Golden Age. Are they not the beginning of the Hitler period, years of tragedy, the years that immediately preceded the Holocaust?…
The most significant aspect of this period, however, was our ability to study Judaism and observe the great spiritual heritage of our ancestors. The political oppression of those years might have frustrated most people in the world, but it did not frustrate the Jews in Germany who, in spite of all the obstacles, difficulties and hardships, dedicated all their free time to learn Torah in he widest sense of the word….Suddenly, everyone in my congregation wanted to learn תורה שבכתב (the written word of Torah) and Torah שבעל פה (the oral law). They wanted to attend class in the many fields of Jewish scholarship….The most assimilated Jews wanted to make up for their lack of knowledge of Jewish studies. There was a tremendous search for knowledge that was unequaled in all Jewish history…(xxxv-xxxvi; the entire memoir is very much worth reading).
German Jewry was the most integrated, accomplished and in large sectors, assimilated Jewish community up till that time. And yet, faced with unparalleled hatred, persecution and an unknown future, Jews from across the denominational spectrum turned inward to the sources of its soul and identity. Intuitively, they knew what Bialik had said fifty years earlier, in his poem ‘If you truly desire to know’: ‘If you truly desire to know the spring, from which your slain brothers drew, in days of calamity such strength…then betake yourself to the House of Study.’
This is the message that Bret Stephens echoed….and Jewish History bears out the truth of his words.
