PEKUDEY 5784
We Are Not the Jews of Auschwitz
In many ways, what Hamas did on October 7th brought Jews closer together. There has been an increase in synagogue attendance and Torah study. We still carefully watch for any news of the war in Gaza and of the fate of the hostages. We have raised record numbers of dollars for our fellow Jews in need in Israel.
We have seen Jews stand up tall for the Jewish people like Montana Tucker—I spoke about a few weeks ago—wearing a huge yellow ribbon at the Grammys that said on behalf of the hostages, “Bring Them Home.” But sadly, at the Academy Awards last Sunday, I didn’t seen anyone wearing even a small yellow ribbon on behalf of the hostages. It’s not as if there are no Jews in Hollywood. Have the hostages been forgotten already? Instead, we were given Jonathan Glazer.
Jonathan Glazer, the Jewish director of the German language Holocaust film, “The Zone of Interest,” won an Oscar at the Academy Awards last week for Best International feature. And while accepting the award for a film about the suffering of his people, he turned his back on his people!
Glazer read his prepared remarks from a piece of paper, indicating that he prepared and meant every word. This is what he said: Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization.
I ask you Jonathan, do you mean to refute your Jewishness? The Jews who thought they could refute their Jewishness during the Holocaust ended up in the same gas chambers as those who proudly held on to their Jewish identity until their last breath. You spoke about the Holocaust being hijacked. However, it is you hijacking the Holocaust and your Jewishness in order to come across as some kind of noble champion of human rights willing to take on his own people.
“Zone of Interest” is, nevertheless, a really good film about the family of Rudolf Hoss, the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp where more than a million Jews were murdered. The movie shows how Hoss and his family lived in a house right outside the camp—living as though life was normal, as if the death of a million Jews right outside their door wasn’t happening even though screaming and distant sounds of bullets could be heard, and smoke from the smokestack incinerating Jewish bodies could be seen. The film is about the banality of evil!
“The problem is,” notes Ben Shapiro on his inciteful podcast, “that Jonathan Glazer is the villain in his own movie, and he doesn’t know it. He wins the Oscar and uses the Holocaust in order to attack the State of Israel for defending itself against genocidal anti-Jewish terrorists.” Glazer has moved in line with a Hollywood that has decided to root for Hamas.
You could see it in the red pro-Hamas ceasefire pins so many celebrities were wearing at the Oscars. Celebrities like Mahershala Ali, Mark Ruffalo, Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell and Ramy Youssef. More than 400 artists have signed a letter calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
When celebrities call for a ceasefire, what they really mean is that they want Hamas to survive in Gaza. Hamas is currently holding 134 hostages. We don’t know how many of them are still alive or dead. They’re holding men, women, elderly, and babies. The women who have been release have told us that they were raped again and again. Hamas throws gay people off buildings. When people wear ceasefire pins to put pressure on Israel, they are ignoring the fact that it is Hamas that has rejected every ceasefire proposal. Hollywood may be disconnected from reality, but, unfortunately, they do have an impact on what people think.
When Glazer said, “All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say look what we did then, but rather look what we do now,” did he really mean to say that Israel is now engaged in what the Nazis did then at Auschwitz? Do you know that thousands of Palestinians before October 7th were driven by volunteer Jews—some of whom were slaughtered on October 7th—to hospitals in Israel when they were ill?
There is one comparison to the Holocaust that is indeed appropriate. Read the Hamas founding Charter and you’ll see multiple statements calling for the killing of Jews—not just Israelis, Jews!
In my early years in Atlanta, I wrote a letter to the Atlanta Constitution decrying how it praises Holocaust memorials on the one hand while it is so critical of the State of Israel on the other. I lamented that it shows how it loves “dead Jews” but not the Jewish state. Of course they didn’t print it!
Dara Horn has recently written a book with a similar uncomfortable title: People Who Love Dead Jews. Dara Horn’s point is that for many, the best Jews are the ones that are silent and dead. The ones that are living and standing up to defend themselves are the ones that make those like Jonathan Glazer uncomfortable. He can use the silent dead Jews of Auschwitz to win an Oscar while simultaneously ignoring the live Jews slaughtered in Gaza.
When people pull out their “as-a-Jew-card” to rip on Israel’s defending itself, invariably these are people who know next to nothing about Judaism. Do they go to shul? Do they eat kosher? Do they observe Shabbat and Jewish Holidays? Do they study Torah? How much time do they spend in the Jewish community? How much do they really care about being Jewish?
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on FaceBook and X commented referring to Glazer’s Oscar: Jonathan Glazer holds his tiny golden calf [a great reference to his Oscar idol]. Talk about exploiting the holocaust. He wins an Oscar for a Holocaust movie only to trivialize the memory of the 6 million victims through whom he found Hollywood glory. He should go immediately to Auschwitz, get down on his knees, and beg the forgiveness of the ashes of the 6 million for comparing the Nazi crematoria to the IDF self-defense against gang-rape and decapitation. He is guilty of the most disgusting moral turpitude.
How dare you compare the 2? You fool. The whole purpose of Israel’s war in Gaza is to make sure THERE ISN’T A 2nd HOLOCAUST so we don’t need more of your films because Jews actually remain alive. HAMAS HAS ONLY ONE INTENTION. GENOCIDE OF JEWS.
And to add to our feeling of betrayal this week by fellow Jews, Senator Chuck Schumer announced with stunning grandiosity: My last name is Schumer, which derives from the Hebrew word Shomer, or “guardian.” … As the 1st Jewish Majority Leader of the United States Senate, and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in America ever, I also feel very keenly my responsibility as Shomer Yisroel—a guardian of the People of Israel.
I knew and admired Schumer when I lived in Brooklyn. I even had him speak in my shul several times—especially on behalf of Soviet Jewry. But through the years he continued to disappoint me in his support for the Jewish people. And what he proceeded to do this week is far from being a guardian of Israel. He demanded that Israel—a democratic US ally—hold elections to get rid of Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been saying out loud what most Israelis believe— rejecting the idea of Palestinian state. He then threatened Israel: If Prime Minister Netanyahu’s current coalition remains in power after the war begins to wind down … then the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course.
What chutzpa! Israel is a democracy that decides for itself who its leaders will be and when. Truth be told, you’d have to search high and low for a minyan of Israelis—right or left—who support a 2-state solution. It’s just not going to happen.
Let me end with a word to Jonathan Glazer and Chuck Schumer from Megilat Esther (4:13-14) which we will read on Purim next Saturday night. Mordecai tells Esther to go to the King to plead for her people who are to be killed by the wicked Haman. Mordecai cautions her NOT to hesitate: Do not imagine that you would be able to escape … any more than the rest of the Jews. For if you persist in keeping silent at a time like this, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews, from some other place while you and your father’s house will perish.
My friends, the good news is that the Jews of today are not the Jews of Auschwitz. We have our own state. We are not silent. We are not invisible. October 7th has only made us stronger and more united. Jonathan Glazer and Chuck Schumer, have some real pride in your people—there is truly much to be proud of—and stand up to be real guardians of Israel. Amen!
|