כ״ז לחודש השביעי תשע״ה
This video was going around the Internet. When I first saw it making the rounds, I just figured that it was another one of those silly, hasbarah, "please like us!" videos.
Boy, was I wrong.
I recommend watching this video, if for no other reason than to see just how wrong I was.
(Tip: Emergency Aliya Now Facebook Group)
Esser Agaroth (2¢):
After only two minutes into this video, I found that it was more than just your typical documentation of university campus, Jew-hatred. This was personal.
I picked up on the hints (00:13), and allusions to Alpha Epsilon Pi, the college fraternity of which I am a brother/alumnus (ΞΔ '87).
Please read the writing on the wall. It may seem to be trickier to read than the writing on walls in England, France, Sweden, and the rest of Europe. But, you owe it to yourselves to look at it, and look at it hard.
Just like Henry from Cal. Berkeley says, "It doesn't show up in the newspapers, because it's to be expected."
This video really got to me. It tugged on my heartstrings, and it tugged HARD. In fact, the video really upset me to the point of tears.
I am the one in Israel. I am the one on the front lines. I am the one who heard sirens this summer, and had to go into the bomb shelter. I am the one who survived an attack from a suicide bomber. I am the one North American Jews are always saying they are worried about, they are frightened for, they are praying for.
And yet, you are all the ones who are in danger, and I am the one worrying about you, and praying for your safety. This video was only the tip of the iceberg.
So much for silly, "Jewish leaders" who insist on proclaiming that...
“...our reality, as American Jews, is that we are not a community under siege. Let us say it plainly: the anti-Semitism that is festering elsewhere poses no danger to us.”Such "leaders" are not leaders, but rather clowns (See Rash"i on Gen. 25:19).
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| Swastikas painted on the AEPi House, Emory University, just after Yom Kippur (Photo: @AtlantaSmiles/Twitter) |
And, even if you are sick and tired of listening to "aliyah rhetoric," and have no interest in hearing about "God and Torah stuff," I am obligated to get in your faces with it, anyway,...yet again, as it says...
The U. S. and Canada are not your true homelands. They are only temporary places where we were able to find refuge, during our exile.לֹא תַעֲמֹד עַל-דַּם רֵעֶךָ (ויקרא יט,טז)Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor (Lev. 19:16)
It does not matter how successful we have been at battling anti-Semitism, fighting for your religious and political rights, asserting our place in North American society, and making great contributions to it. It is still the exile, and being exiled from our only true homeland is a punishment.
The doors began opening gradually just over 100 hundred year or so. They were flung open in 1948/תש״ח, propped open in 1967/תשכ״ז, and further stabilized in 1973/תשל״ד.
Unfortunately, many Jews have been having trouble seeing this, seeing that the door has been opened for them personally. And so, they have been receiving some help from above to find the door, with a little, painful nudge here and there.
Please, may these nudges not have to get too painful, in order to get the message across.
It would be an oversimplification to call these kicks in the pants "anti-Semitism." It goes much deeper than that.
Aliyah is not "giving up," nor is it "running away." It's "running to...."
Jake from the University of Southern California [USC] says, "Antisemtism, hatred of the Jewish People, of Israel, is real. And I can only hope that in the future we will be able to get through it together."
Jake..., fellow brothers,... the only solution is aliyah. This is the only way we will be able to get through it together.
ΕΣΠΟΝΔΑ
2 comments:
The problem with universities is that they present themselves as communities rather than as schools. With all the extracurriculars, with all the free time spent wandering around campus, with all the living in residence the university becomes one's home in a sense and in this case it's a hostile domicile.
Far better for Jewish students to do as I did. I showed up for class, studied in the library with classmates and went home right after. There could have been a large Jew-hating protest every day and I'd have missed it because I was too busy studying.
We have to use the university instead of trying to be part of its milieu.
I think it depends. Sure, I believe that the "community" approach is not only to prevent protests against the university, keep everyone under control, and indoctrinate them.
However, some university's have (18 year old) students from far away, who may benefit from having a community provided for them,...some.
In my case at UCLA, a mostly commuter school, the Angelinos had their niche already established, and provided their expertise to those of us from LA. We didn't just have a university, we had a town, the neighborhood of Westwood.
If you were from out of town, you latched onto the countless locals, or went off exploring on your own, like I did.
My mother was at a free speech protest at Cal., Mario Savio, 1959. So, when I told her about the anti-Apartheid protests of the mid-80's, and the breaking into the UC Regents meeting, her response was, "About time."
Of course, those protests saw the beginnings (resurgence?) of "Zionism = Racism" hitching a ride on the anti-Apartheid sentiments.
My parents believed that activism was part of my university education. So, I pretty much stayed informed as to which protests/demonstrations were going on.
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