Into The Abyss
NEW BREED
I
Jerusalem
don't want to be too drab or
melancholy, but then again, I
have to be to describe the situa-
tion that Israelis find them-
selves in at this moment.
What do you sing to your chil-
dren as they go to sleep at night?
The children that live in Old Kata-
mon, my yuppie Jerusalem neigh-
borhood of young singles and young
families, now go to sleep regularly to
the rhythmic beat of artillery fire
and gunshots.
It's amazing how musical it sounds,
when you will convince yourself of
anything in order to fall asleep.
Have you ever heard a car door
slam and then watch as people walk-
ing along the street jerk their necks
toward the sound, like a rodent sens-
ing a snake? Come to Jerusalem, we
have it all.
But what am I saying? We are the
ones at fault in this whole mess. ..f I
believe what the world is telling me,
then I, and all my neighbors, are sac-
rificing our security and relatively sta-
ble lives because we enjoy shooting at
little kids who have snipers standing
behind their shoulders.
As a matter of fact, 10 minutes
ago, the Palestinian news just
announced that our planes are drop-
ping sweet little poisoned candies over
their kids' schools.
That's right, how could I forget:
My latest reserve army duty wasn't
spent in the desert preparing for a
possible chemical onslaught by our
friendly Arab neighbors. Instead, I
was standing along a conveyor belt in
Israel's largest candy factory, with the
rest of Israel's soldiers, injecting little
pieces of candy with poison.
Where does the absurdity stop?
Shoah Reminder
I can think back to my days at the
University of Michigan during Holo-
caust Awareness Week.
Going through those lectures,
hearing about the absurd lies the
German Nazi government told the
people — that the Jews were plan-
ning to take over the world, that we
were kidnapping their children to
Doron Spilman is a 1996 University
of Michigan graduate and an alumnus
of the Jewish Federation of Deb. )it-spon-
sored Project Otzma. He made aliyah in
January 2000. his parents are Geral-
dine and Murray Spilman of Orchard
Lake.
DORON
SPILMAN
Special
Commentary
bake their blood
into our
Passover matzah.
All the while,
the "innocent
German victims"
were bloodying
their hands,
bashing in the
heads of our
babies, and
sending a third
of our people
through the
chimney of their
death factories.
I would walk out of those lectures
crying and thinking to myself with
relief, "Thank God, the world has
moved on, we survived and it Can
never happen again."
Well, I'll tell you what: When I
turned on the news on May 8 and saw
that two of our boys, aged 14 and 15,
were found in a cave having been lit-
erally stoned to death — only then to
hear the Palestinians saying that we
are bombing their schools with bags of
little sweet poisoned candies — I can-
not, no matter how hard I try, find
from page 38
the last century. "Unfortunately, some
of the potential talent has been lost to
industry, to the professions and tech-
nology. Perhaps younger people today
are not willing or able to devote the
time to leadership roles in our com-
munity, or don't appreciate the
importance of maintaining a strong
and united American Jewry."
Not so the mega-leaders. Whether
driven by ego or altruism, they have
shown a willingness to devote time,
energy and funds to the cause of the
Jewish people. What's more, their
contacts with government and inter-
national leaders are impressive, and
can be enormously influential. But
in bolstering those connections,
there is a danger that the ties
between our own community and
our leaders can grow further apart,
and that top leadership positions will
appear off limits to all but a handful
of mega-millionaire machers (major
donors).
Like most things in life, there are
tradeoffs here. But it's important to be
mindful of them, and to work toward
cultivating leaders who not only fund
Jewish life, but live it as well.
that sense of relief that the world has
moved on, or that it can never happen
again.
I feel like I am walking into an
abyss. To my right is the world yelling
at me to give up everything I care
about in this country, and to stop
massacring my neighbors. To my left
are Palestinian children, who have
been brought up to believe that their
surest path to eternal bliss is to
explode their little bodies while stand-
ing next to as many of my people as
possible.
Before me it is almost completely
dark, if not for a small light that I can
sense more than see. It is the light
whose brilliance depends upon two
things: our collective memory, and
our collective action. We must all
remember that painful lesson we
learned some 60 years ago: that as
Jews we must never rely on anyone,
but ourselves to ring out our cries to
humanity and to God.
It does not matter how you do it,
whether you write to your senator,
send a check or come to Israel, just
don't forget and don't be silent.
❑
❑
What Israel Means To Me...
Bernard "Bernie" Moray
C.E.O. of Gorman's
While serving in the U.S. Army during World War II,
I was exposed to my first real encounter with anti-
Semitism. This encounter made me realize that
even in America, we Jews, are not immune from
acts of bigotry. For me, Israel is a Jewish nation. It
offers itself as a homeland, a place where the
Jewish people can flourish. It helps reinforce to the
world that Judaism is alive. My wife and I are fortu-
nate in that we travel to different places around the
world. One of our most memorable. trips was when
we participated in an intergenerational mission to
Israel with our family and I still remember those
wonderful moments with the grandchildren. And I
can't help but think, that the reality of Israel today
as a viable nation has made it easier for my grand-
children to be Jewish in America.
AEON
A1111.11111
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2001
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