Recognizing the Armenian Genocide

Been a while since previous blog entry.

Yes, I have been following the events back in the USA, as have almost all of the expats here in my social circle.  Quite frankly, I have had little to add that is new or novel to the comments in the blogosphere or the social media (or, for that matter, out on the street).

I have now encountered a news thread that has not been on the front pages of the MSM, nor, for that matter, has it gotten big time billing in the alternative media.  It is an international political issue, it is an action I personally applaud, and I believe that it needs to get more airing.  Therefore, it is blogworthy by my standards.

Here in Israel, the Education, Culture and Sports Committee of the Knesset has recognized the Genocide committed by the Ottoman Turks against the Armenians in 1915, and has urged the full Knesset to follow suit.

 The sentiment in the street here has long favored such a move on an official level, but political considerations have precluded it.  Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, the situation had been one of enmity with Arab neighbors (i.e., Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc.).  It therefore was essential for Israel to maintain political and commercial ties with Turkey, a nation which, although essential Muslim, was not Arab, and, for its own reasons, wished (and still wishes) to have influence in what had been territory under its governance.

Now that Turkey is no longer the secular Turkey as envisioned by Kemal Atatürk, and Turkey is simultaneously purporting to normalize its relations with Israel following the Mavi Marmara affair, while at the same time giving shelter, aid, and comfort to terrorist organizations, Israel can now also engage in similar inconsistencies.

I, for one, would like to see the full Knesset officially endorse this one.  The world was silent when the Turks committed this atrocity in the fog of World War I, and I believe that their allies, the Germans, got some inspiration and ideas for their own World War II atrocities from the Turks' example.

Monkey See, Monkey Do!

The "That was 10 years ago" Dhimmi

Discussion, en passant, at shul this evening: Obama's nomination of Samantha Power as his next UN Ambassador.

Guy No. 1 (who, whatever his many other issues may be, is an unabashed Jewish nationalist):  "She's bad news!  She said that Israel should be invaded by America."

Guy No. 2:  "Come on!  That was ten years ago!"

Me:  "Hey, Hitler was 65 years ago!  Why don't we ignore him also?"

Guy No. 2:  What does Hitler have to do with Samantha Power?  The President has nominated her we should accept his decision.

[The Rabbi walked in, so the conversation ended.].

Some people are more accepting of enslavement than others!

The Language of Thanks

I do not have a particularly high tolerance for those "all news, all the time" radio stations, but this past week they were a very necessary evil on account of the traffic reports every 10 minutes. From the information thus obtained, we were able to avoid some real, major league traffic jams by modifying our planned travel routes during the Thanksgiving holiday.

I am very thankful for the right to hold and to express my personal beliefs and opinions. At the Thanksgiving dinner held at my brother-in-law's house this year, my wife's two nieces each made clear that, if either were ever to come into power, such a freedom of expression would be strictly limited to those beliefs, opinions and viewpoints that are consistent with their own, to the exclusion of all other perspectives. I, on the other hand, made it clear that they would not be able to abridge my freedom of expression without a fight (to the chagrin of my host and hostess). Perhaps if I am lucky, those two young ladies will continue to not speak with me for some time to come.

One of the seasonally news stories making the media rounds this Thanksgiving was the meeting between Sara Marmurek and Wladyslaw Misiuna at JFK Airport. Wladyslaw saved Sara's life from the ravages of the Nazis, and we heard the Thanksgiving "human interest story" of Sara the grateful Holocaust survivor once in just about every 10-minute news cycle as we traveled and tried to ascertain the traffic conditions. The story of the reunion between the two has even gone international.

But listen to the audio-video clip. Note that Sara is an immigrant to America! Note that her original language was Polish! Note that the Polish language has less in common with English than some other languages, including the one spoken directly south of the United States's southern border. And, most significantly, note that Sara can speak English!

If Sara can learn English and become a functional American, why can't all these other people learn English?

The Holocaust as an Excuse

What was Jack Barouh's rationale for tax-cheating? He blamed it on the Holocaust!

Barouh's parents fled the Nazis, and that experience, Jack claims, led him to hide his assets in a UBS Bank Account in Switzerland in case the Nazi regime returns.

Jack got some jail time instead of the home detention his attorney had requested.

I shall not now get into the psychological issues regarding Holocaust survivors, other than to say that they can be very, very difficult people to deal with. Ditto for their children. But there are plenty of survivors and children of survivors who are far, far more grateful to the United States, where they found life and freedom, than Jack Barouh. The one who comes to mind is a woman I once had the challenge of supervising, an Auschwitz survivor who could easily have gone out on a mental disability, but who insisted, from sheer gratitude, upon remaining employed by the U.S. Government. And I knew another woman, whose family got out of Beograd just 3 weeks before Hitler's army marched in and started killing the Jews and others, who had the brains, beauty and personality to work anywhere she wished, but who, out of similar gratitude, remained employed by various agencies of the U.S. Government (including the IRS).

I personally know plenty of other Holocaust survivors and children of Holocaust survivors who are/were employed by the Internal Revenue Service. They certainly are not buying Jack's explanation. Nor, for that matter, am I.

Yahrzeit Boards

With few exceptions, every synagogue has one or more memorial plaque boards, (or "Yahrzeit Board," to use the Yiddish terminology) where the names of the departed are engrossed. They come in diverse styles, but typically, one donor underwrites the big board, which is then filled in with individual bronze plaques bearing the name and date of death of the deceased. Usually (but not always), there are light bulbs which are illuminated on the anniversary of the death, and also on holidays such as Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. In America, this information is typically in both English and Hebrew.

They are usually purchased by a family member, anyone with the funds and inclination can provide a plaque; in my own congregation, a few of us chipped in for a plaque for an upstanding community member who had suffered severe business reversals resulting in the loss of his home, and whose widow, we knew, could not afford the memorial recognition befitting her husband.

Even the reprobates among us are given the due respect of a memorial plaque, not so much to honor them as to signify the sanctity of life. I'm sure that the commissioning of the infamous gangster and snitch Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel 's memorial plaque for the Bialystoker Synagogue's yahrzeit board did not diminish in the least the posthumous punishment no doubt now being inflicted upon Bugsy, which he so rightfully deserves.

A synagogue's yahrzeit board often gives great insight into the character of the congregation. Which is why I often go out of my way to read each and every name on the board when I am in a synagogue that is not my own.

Today, for example, my wife and I were guests at a wedding held at a synagogue. So as not to go bonkers from the din of the dancing and music, I got up and walked around, and when I entered the main sanctuary, I read all of the names on the several yahrzeit boards there. This particular congregation has amongst its membership a large number of people who survived the Holocaust of Nazi Germany (and now, children and grandchildren thereof), and indeed, their founding rabbi himself was a survivor. This is reflected in the memorial plaques. For one thing, there is a whole wall in memory of the Holocaust, not unique but neither is it particularly common. And some of the individual bronze plaques on the yahrzeit board are for Holocaust victims. There is more than one plaque with multiple names, memorializing a family that was killed by the Nazis. One plaque, in fact, has four or five names and, in Hebrew, states that the date of their death and place of burial are unknown, and therefore, Yom Kippur, the holiest date of the year, will be celebrated as their yahrzeit day (my wife's grandfather did similar with his parents, whom he was unable to convince to leave what is now Moldova, and who disappeared during the war).

But the congregation also has a number of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, and this is also reflected on the yahrzeit board. In such regard, I saw a familiar name amongst the brass plaques. I saw a plaque with the name "Eugene Marshalik," who, you will recall, was a New York City Auxiliary Police Officer (and immigrant from the former Soviet Union) who died in the line of duty on 14 March 2007. And so, the demographic shift from Holocaust survivors to immigrants from the former Soviet Union is apparent on the synagogue's yahrzeit board.