Author: jpf_24rvpl

[Content has been cleaned and formatted for WordPress, but is too long to include in full here. The original article discusses a Holocaust survivor’s perspective on using the term ‘concentration camps’ to describe current U.S. border detention facilities, drawing parallels between historical events and contemporary immigration policies while maintaining focus on the treatment of children.]

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” attributed to Gandhi and often accompanied with his picture, has attained the cultural currency of an indisputably wise pronouncement. Appearing on sweatshirts, bumper stickers, and countless posters, the pronouncement seems to be Gandhi’s retort to what is by implication the harsh, futile, destructive Old Testament injunction to render justice by taking “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” and “life for life.”

What is a suitable Jewish response to Gandhi’s apparent repudiation of this cornerstone principle in our foundational text? Do we reject the “eye for an eye” principle of the Hebrew Bible as barbaric and outdated? Or can we find a way of rationalizing it?

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Europe:

Germany experienced a 20% increase in antisemitic incidents in 2018, including swastikas, insults, arson, assault, and murder. 89% came from the far right, with additional hostility from Muslims. France saw a 74% increase in antisemitic incidents in 2018 (541 incidents). Both countries face antisemitism from the left regarding Israel. European Jews are increasingly moving to Israel, particularly French Jews.

United States:

FBI reported a 37% increase in antisemitic hate crimes in 2017. The Tree of Life Synagogue attack in Pittsburgh (October 2018) became the worst antisemitic attack in U.S. history, with 11 Jews murdered during Shabbat services.

Washington State:

Hate crimes rose 78% between 2013 and 2017, ranking ninth nationally for increases. Seattle experienced a nearly 400% increase since 2012, with 521 reported hate crimes in 2018. These were motivated by racial (60%), religious (21%), and sexual orientation (16%) animosity.

Holocaust Awareness:

One-third of Europeans surveyed knew little or nothing about the Holocaust, with 25% believing Jews had too much influence in conflicts, business, and finance. In the U.S., 41% of Americans (66% of millennials) didn’t know about Auschwitz. 31% of Americans and 41% of millennials believed 2,000,000 or fewer Jews were killed in the Holocaust, while 22% of millennials were unsure about or hadn’t heard of the Holocaust.

Hate Crime Trends:

U.S. hate crimes increased 17% in 2017, targeting blacks (50% of racial hate crimes), Jews (58% of religious hate crimes), Muslims (19% of religious hate crimes), Latinx, and LGBTQ persons.

They have been ignored, as soldiers and as veterans. Unlike the returning servicemen of earlier wars, they have not been celebrated in film or song; there are no more victory parades. Born at a time of rapid political, social, and technological change, reflecting both the hopes and anxieties of the post-World War II years in which they came to adulthood, these young men left military service filled with doubts about the kind of war they were forced to fight, about their country’s leaders, and about the sanctity of their America.

Regardless of their convictions about the war, practically every veteran I spoke with indicated in a variety of ways his suspicion that he had been manipulated; the government was nothing but a faceless ‘them.’ Since little will be done until the war ends, the case for peace now is even greater, and the appeal for eventual amnesty much more valid, especially when one remembers what these new ‘criminals’ did not do. They did not rebel against their country, they did not commit treason or openly take up arms. Their sole offense, if it is an offense, was in cherishing freedom so highly that they refused to submit to a draft or military service in a war their morality and their ethics would not let them accept.

With the recent passing of Murray Polner this year on May 30th, the Shalom Newsletter editorial board greatly misses our long-time friend and dedicated Jewish Peace Fellowship contributor and editor. We greatly miss his insights, his warmth, and his compassion. There will never be another Murray Polner.

In speaking to an old friend who has worked with JPF over the years, he tells me that he is part of Veterans for Peace. They are doing counter-recruitment in the schools and young people seem to be getting the message. Their message is creating enough of a stir that the military recruitment folks are complaining to the school system. This seems like a good sign.

The editorial board of Shalom needs your help. This would be a great time to send us interesting articles you find in reading the news, or that you write and would like to share. Please remember that the JPF has a vision statement that we on the editorial board try to honor and stay on track.

Peace groups across the country are suffering from the same single issue with which the JPF is suffering: the lack of new, young members. It appears that young people have lost interest in getting involved in peace groups. We would love to hear from you with any suggestions you may have regarding ways in which to reach out to the younger generation and get them involved. Perhaps through social media which seems to be where they receive much of their information. So please let us know your thoughts on this.

Recently my wife and I were invited to a dinner party for friends we had met at schools our son attended with their sons. By now our son has graduated from college and is out in the world working, but some of these parents still have high school-aged children.

I was talking to a small group at my end of the table when the subject of politics and the two wars we are fighting arose. I mentioned that I thought it far from inconceivable there could eventually be a draft again. Conversation stopped. All eyes were upon me to explain.

I said that with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the U.S. flexing its muscles in our weekly exchanges with Iran, with the situation with North Korea, and with Yemen, the U.S. is over-committed with the small fighting force we have now. It seemed to me that there was no other way to insure a large fighting machine except by committing ourselves to a draft again.

The parents sitting around me were not happy with the prospect of a draft being reinstated, especially with their children at risk. The all-voluntary army we have now seemed to be a better situation with these middle-class families, who wanted to spare their children the horrors of war.

I mentioned the ‘fairness’ of a draft which reaches into all neighborhoods and draws on young men and women to fight our wars. One distraught father responded that a draft would be so unpopular it would never fly. A woman who has three sons in their late teens said that usually a Democratic president is the one who puts a draft back in place, and that she was going to make sure that her sons were not going to go to war. She reassured those at the table that she would send her sons to Canada if need be.

I was quick to respond that Canada would not be an option anymore, that the Canadians were not going to accept draft-evading American young men and women if there was another draft. I then mentioned Wrestling with Your Conscience (available from the Jewish Peace Fellowship office); I told them that it is an invaluable manual which outlines the laws and what to expect in case there is another draft. Also this booklet outlines and explains the process of applying for Conscientious Objection status.

I also mentioned that a new version of Roots of Jewish Nonviolence will soon be available from the JPF. But the most interesting part of the evening was the conversation which followed when someone brought up the idea of how antiquated the concept of war is.

This comment stirred others to ask questions such as: What are we doing in Iraq anyway? What can we accomplish in Afghanistan that the Russians couldn’t do in the 20 years that they were stuck in that quagmire?

When Murray Polner and I decided to re-edit the Wrestling with Your Conscience booklet and to release a new edition (with some of the old essays still included) of Root of Jewish Nonviolence, did I really believe there will be another draft? I’m not sure. But rather than protesting a draft we should be protesting the American involvement in these wars.

Please help get the word out that both Wrestling with Your Conscious and Roots of Jewish Nonviolence are available and they can be ordered from the JPF office.

The publication of the second edition of The Holocaust and the Christian World couldn’t be more timely. Holocaust scholars were stunned last year by the results of the April 2018 survey of Americans and the Holocaust, according to which 31% of all Americans believe that two million or fewer Jews were killed during the Holocaust, while 41% of Americans cannot say what Auschwitz was. Additionally, 22% of millennials haven’t heard or are not sure if they have heard of the Holocaust.

The volume’s contributors are among the leading Holocaust scholars of their generation. Two impulses drive the text: the frank admission of the role played by Christianity in the Holocaust and the current project of completely ridding Christianity of all anti-Judaism. They paint the institutional anti-Judaism of Christian churches, the negative depiction of the Jewish people in Christian preaching and liturgy, and the process by which the Jew became ‘the other.’

Although the authors clearly state that Christianity cannot be seen as the cause of the Holocaust, they nonetheless convince readers that Christianity prepared the way and then allowed it to happen. As a result, the Shoah is accepted here as part of Christian history, indeed as ‘a Christian tragedy.’

Having clearly established the anti-Jewish bias of traditional Christianity, the text then moves to the contemporary task of ridding Christianity of its anti-Judaism. It explains what has been done since 1945 and what still needs to be done now in the 21st century. The book’s authors offer several strategies to strengthen interfaith dialogue and enable Jews and Christians to move forward together in hope.

The authors discuss the importance of Holocaust education, developing Christian liturgy on the Holocaust, and the faithful observance of Yom HaShoah. They examine problematic New Testament passages and their antisemitic potential, address issues of conversion, and emphasize the churches’ responsibility to condemn criminal acts by legitimate governments.

The text concludes with discussion of Pope Pius XII and the announcement that Vatican archives regarding his pontificate will be opened for consultation by researchers in March 2020. The Holocaust and the Christian World never seems excessively accusatory, recognizing that responsibility lies in the present, in the creation of a world where another Auschwitz would be unthinkable.

On Feb. 22, 2019, a federal judge in Houston, TX, ruled that requiring only men to register with Selective Service is unconstitutional, violating the equal protection clause. The decision comes as a government-appointed Commission studies Selective Service and is expected to make recommendations to Congress on the future of draft registration within a year.

Constitutional challenges to a male-only draft date back to the Vietnam era. In 1981, the Supreme Court ruled that a male-only draft was not unconstitutional because women were excluded from combat. However, over the past 38 years, women’s role in the military has expanded, culminating in the 2015 Obama Administration decision to open all combat positions to women.

The National Coalition for Men case has been pending for several years. While the group takes no position on whether there should be a draft, they argue that if one exists, it should apply equally to both genders. This ruling does not automatically require women to register with Selective Service, as only Congress has the authority to extend the law. The registration requirement for males between 18 and 26 continues, and the ‘Solomon’ laws penalizing non-registration remain in force.

Public comments are being accepted at inspire2serve.gov/content/share-your-thoughts. For more information or to register comments, visit centeronconscience.org or contact CCW at 1-800-379-2679 or 1-202-483-2220.

What does a normal person do with the really bad news that we hear and read in the newspaper or on the evening news?

We are constantly bombarded with news of death from war in Afghanistan and Syria, immigrants young and old drowning trying to reach safety, young students dying from school shootings, people dying from natural disasters and fires. How does an individual deal with all of this and still remain sane?

Dr. Robert J. Lifton dealt with this issue for years and he has come to understand how the human mind copes with these terrible atrocities. He calls it psychic numbing. When we hear about terrible events and see the suffering, it causes our mind to eventually block the ability to feel it any longer. In other words, the human spirit can only take so much bad news before it numbs itself.

When Dr. Lifton was interviewing Japanese survivors who had been in Hiroshima when the bomb fell, he said they would describe the experience they had. ‘I saw this array of dead and dying people around me. But suddenly I simply ceased to feel anything.’ It was as though the mind shuts itself off.

We do the same with the news we hear on a daily basis. Too often those of us who are trying to better the world in so many different ways are caught up in being critically aware of the atrocities that are being committed and those who suffer the most from these atrocities. I am sure many of us cease to feel the full impact of the suffering in order to be able to cope.

As I sit and write this, the first news is coming in from New Zealand about the shooting in the mosques. I turned on the TV and was able to see the families of those who had died trying to cope with the loss. I can feel their pain and would reach out to them if I could. It is just such atrocities that we have come to deal with too often. This is why we work to make a better world.

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