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ROSH HASHANAH 2 5782
The World's Oldest Virus
2 Corona viruses are speaking. One says, “I have to find someone to infect so I can be fruitful and multiply.”
The 2nd says, “How about that man?”
The 1st answers, “He’s not available. He’s stayed home for the last 18 months, having his groceries delivered to his front porch, never going outside and having no one visit.”
The virus says, “How about that woman?”
The 1st answers, “She is not available. She’s been social distancing, wearing a mask, using Purell, and washing her hands constantly.”
The 2nd finally says, “How about that man? He’s out demonstrating with the crowds, not wearing a mask and not socially distancing. He’s speaking out against immigrants, against blacks, and most vocally, against Jews. Look, he’s carrying a sign saying, ‘Jews will not replace us.’”
“I cannot infect him.”
“Why not?”
“He already has a virus.”
My friends, today I want to talk about the world’s oldest virus. It’s been around longer than corona, longer than Ebola, longer than HIV. It has killed more people than the black death and the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic. It was 1st manifest when Amalek attacked the Jews from the rear as they were leaving Egypt for no other reason than that they were Jews! It was perhaps best articulated by the Persian villain Haman who said, “There is a people who dwell apart, and their customs are different than everyone else.” There are periods of time when this virus lies dormant, and other periods when it becomes virulent. And we are in the midst of one of those virulent times.
Only just a few years ago it looked like anti-Semitism had all but disappeared in America. In fact, 10 years ago I spoke about a new phenomenon—about how being Jewish was so cool—as we heard in Adam Sandler’s famous “Hanukkah Song” describing how many famous people are really Jewish. Let me read you a bit from my Rosh Hashanah sermon that year: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes picked the name Suri—a Biblical variant of Sarah—for their daughter. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt named their daughter “Shiloh”—after the Biblical city where the Tabernacle was placed by King David. We have Madonna studying Kabbalah, not holding concerts on Shabbos and visiting Israel for Rosh Hashanah. Mattisyahu, a Lubavitcher Chassid clad in black hat and tzitzis, is now atop the rap music charts. There were 2 Orthodox contestants on “The Apprentice.” On the “National Spelling Bee” 2 of the words used for the contestants were: Yizkor and Hechsher. The Wall St. Journal reports that non-Jewish children in Long Island are asking for Bar/Bat Mitzvah parties so that they can also be lifted on a chair and celebrated…
What in the world is going on? It all leads to inescapable conclusion that Jewish is really cool.
Bari Weiss this year wrote: We are born in the most fortunate time for all of the Jews. The hospitals, colleges, country clubs and law firms that Jews established since they were shut out of the others had evolved into the very best in each industry and the envy of all. We have representation on the Supreme Court—and of course the Attorney General Merrick Garland. More than 10% of the Senate is Jewish. For generations Jews were outsiders and today, we are insiders.
Nevertheless, amidst all these gains—or perhaps because of them—anti-Semitism has surfaced yet again, and in a big way. Only 10 years after writing that sermon, being Jewish is not so cool anymore. Jews constitute just 2% of the US population, but, according to the FBI, they’re now the victims in about 60% of religious-based hate crimes! And we see on Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok subtle and not so subtle anti-Semitic rants reaching hundreds of millions of people, and anti-Semitic physical attacks by common street thugs.
For most of my career, I’ve asked the question: “Can it happen here?” And when we refer to “it” we all understand. “It” is part of a phrase that our people—no matter where they lived, under whatever circumstances—have found themselves asking: can “it” happen here? This summer with Jews and Jewish institutions attacked in Skokie, NYC, Los Angeles and Sacramento and elsewhere, many American Jews are wondering: Can “it” happen here?”
After 9/11, it was because of the threat of radical Muslims. Then it was because of the threat of the extreme right following the Nazi march in Charlottesville, the shooting up of synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway San Diego. This summer we discovered that a lot of our friends on the left are not really our “friends.”
Unlike the right extremists who publicly declare, “The Jews will not replace us,” those on the left say it has nothing to do with Jews. It’s only Israel that is the problem. During the Gaza war, we saw Jews attacked eating outside kosher restaurants in Los Angeles, with attackers attacking only if they admitted they were Jews! In NYC, pro-Palestinian protestors knocked off yarmulkes and beat up Jews while waving Palestinian flags and chanted, “Death to Jews,” or screaming “From the river to the Sea,” which calls for the destruction of the one Jewish country on earth. One cannot help but echo the headline of a Bret Stephens NY Times column: “Anti-Zionism isn’t anti-Semitism? Someone Didn’t Get the Memo.”
Here are a few examples:
· Hamas shoots 4000 rockets at civilian targets in Israel and for retaliating—as any other country would—Israel is accused of genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, suppressing human rights, disproportionality, child killing?
· The International Criminal Court condemned Israel. The U.N. Human Rights Committee condemned Israel. Nothing usual about that! But Yale University Student Council came out against Israel! California Teachers Union came out against Israel. NYU professors came out against Israel. What’s going on? What’s the connection with their organizations and Israel?
· In June there was the Chicago Dyke March, promoting a Pride event. To do so, it produced a banner showing a woman holding a burning American and Israeli flags. Why they’re burning an Israeli flag at a Dyke March in Chicago is beyond me! Listen to this, that very same week there was a gay pride march through the streets of Tel Aviv, attended by over 100,000 people. Try pulling off a march like that in any Arab country where in any of them, same sex relations are illegal.
· It’s not just the Chicago dykes…As the National Women’s Studies Association proclaimed: “Palestinian Solidarity is a Feminist Issue.”
· It’s gotten so bad that even the air is against us! The Sunrise Movement, which describes itself as: “Building a movement of young people to stop climate change,” announced in May: “We are in solidarity with Palestinians.” What’s their connection?
Is Israel really guilty of genocide against Palestinians? Do you know that there are more Arabs living in Israel now than in 1948 when Israel was created? The Arab population hasn’t been “cleansed,” it’s been expanded! Apartheid? Go explain why Israel sent Mossad agents to Ethiopia to rescue thousands of black Falasha Jews, resettling them in Israel. It was the 1st time in the world that Blacks were taken out of Africa to freedom and not slavery! Or that last month Israel sent rescue squads and aid to Haiti—a predominantly black country—following 2 deadly earthquakes.
Is Israel an apartheid country?
· Go and explain that 17% of Israeli’s doctors and 25% of the nurses and over 40% of the pharmacists are Arabs.
· Go tell people that while this past June, here in the U.S. we celebrated the 1st Muslim becoming a Justice on the Federal Court, in Israel there’s been a Muslim sitting on the Israeli Supreme Court for the last 20 years!
· You want more? How about this: the Chief Medical Officers at Pfizer and Moderna, where the COVID-19 vaccines were created, are Jewish. One studied at the Weitzman Institute, the other at Ben Gurion University. So, try to explain why 25% of the British people believe the Jews created the Coronavirus!
It’s irrational; it’s unbelievable. That’s the nature of hate. What can we do when supermodel Bella Hadid—with 50 million followers on Instagram—tells the world we’re killers?
The world’s reaction is nothing new. We’ve seen this movie before. But most painful for me was that, as 4,000 missiles rained upon Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, 100 rabbinical students from the Conservative and Reform movements signed a public letter accusing Israel of apartheid and calling on American Jewish communities to, “hold Israel accountable for the violent suppression of human rights!”
Israeli television showed a video of a 10-year-old child, Ranana, saying, “Every siren makes me cry and feel sad. Just so you know, my army is strong. However, this does not protect me from being afraid. Since I was born, I live in fear. Since I was 6, I have been going to therapy.” And 100 rabbinical students here in America ignore her and shed tears for the Palestinians?
Would you belie it if I told you that many American Jews are now joining the fray? It’s astonishing that when asked (poll by the Jewish Electorate Institute) if they agreed or disagreed with the statement, “Israel is an apartheid state,” 25% of American Jews agreed! Additionally, 34% agreed with the statement: “Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is similar to racism in the U.S.”…and 22% agreed that, “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians.” Really?? Genocide??
Do you know why we don’t wear leather shoes on Yom Kippur? It’s because the Midrash tells us that Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery on Yom Kippur for a pair of shoes and sat down to eat their lunch. Their brother is screaming, begging for mercy not to be left to die at the bottom of a pit; and they sit down and eat?
Now I understand it. I understand it because 100 rabbinical students have now done the very same thing—Jews not listening to the cries of their brother. You want to criticize Israel? Fine. Every Jew in Israel criticizes Israel! But not while 4,000 rockets are raining down upon them!
“Let’s be realistic,” David A. Harris—executive director of the American Jewish Committee—wrote, “Given its longevity, anti-Semitism in one form or another is likely to outlive us all…at least, however, the ability of Jews to stand up to anti-Semitism is greater today than it ever has been.” And he’s right! We can fight it, but we must speak out forcefully and never let up. Let me ask you, when was the last time you said publicly or just told someone that you are a Zionist!? And we must do that especially with our children—so many of whom are grossly ignorant of the dangers of anti-Semitism.
Dr. Martin Luther King jr. responded when approached by a student who attacked Zionism: “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews—and you’re talking antisemitism!”
I say to all who want to attack Israel and Jews: Israel and its Jews have taken a barren land and made it bloom again. It has taken an ancient Hebrew language and made it speak again. It has taken a nation decimated by the Holocaust and made it live again. As someone once put it: People smarter, more efficient, better equipped and more dedicated than they failed to destroy the Jewish people. And if the Germans couldn’t do it, then the Palestinians or Iranians are never going to be able to do it. Let them see where the Jews were 7 short decades ago and think about where we are today. Let it sink into their heads—and into the head of every other Palestinian and Arab and Ayatollah and Hamas leader and neo-Nazi.
They ripped the gold from our teeth and yet we’ve built a world leading high-tech country. They say we went like lambs to the slaughter, but now we have a country of our own that is a nuclear superpower. If Auschwitz couldn’t destroy us, they never will.
My friends, Gd promised (Gen. 12:2) Abraham that his children will be a blessing to the world. We have fulfilled that promise in our generation in almost every field of human endeavor—from high tech to agriculture to medicine and science. Let the world not forget, however, the beginning of that verse that Abraham’s children will be a blessing to the world: “I will bless those who bless you; and him who curses you I will curse.” 5 Arab states are beginning to appreciate that and have signed the Abraham Accords with 6 more in negotiations. We have not yet seen the full fruits of Israel’s labor to bring blessings upon the world. This can only come when the world will leave us in peace to create. Who knows then how much blessing we will bring the world? May this be Hashem’s will in the New Year. Amen!
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