O pinion
The Era of ‘Never Again’ is Ending Axelrod
BY ERIC ROZENMAN
FILMMAKER STEVEN
Spielberg told NBC News he
thinks society must take the
possibility of genocide more
seriously now that it has in
the past generation. In an
interview marking the 25th
anniversary of Schindler’s List,
Spielberg referred to the mas-
sacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of
Life synagogue and warned
that “hate leading to genocide
is as possible today as it was
during the Holocaust.”
He was behind the curve.

The era of “never again” is end-
ing in Western Europe, fading
in North America and never
penetrated the Middle East.

Relentless demonization of
the Jewish state renormalizes
demonization of Jewish people.

Examples of post-Nazi geno-
cide and attempted genocide
abound, including Muslim
Indonesia’s seizure of largely
Christian East Timor, the
auto-genocide perpetrated by
Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge, sup-
pression of southern Sudan’s
Christian and animist Darfur
region by the government of
the Muslim north, the mur-
der of much of Rwanda’s Tutsi
minority by the Hutu major-
ity and today’s oppression by
Myanmar’s Buddhist majority of
its Rohingya Muslim minority.

Two post-Holocaust mass
murders of Jews already have
been attempted.

In 1948, five invading Arab
countries committed to the
destruction of the fledgling
Jewish state. The United States
no sooner became the first
nation to recognize Israel than
it slapped an arms embargo on
the region. Though intended
to diminish general tensions,
in practice the move undercut
Israel, since the other side con-
tinued to receive British arms
and advice.

In 1967, Israel preempted
a potentially overwhelming
attack by Egyptian, Syrian and
Jordanian forces mobilized
18 FEBRUARY 21, 2019
on its border. Afterward, the
philosopher Eric Hoffer noted
that “had [Egyptian President
Gamal Abdel] Nasser tri-
umphed … he would have
wiped Israel off the map and no
one would have lifted a finger
to save the Jews.”
Today, Iran builds ballistic
missiles and seeks to develop
nuclear warheads for them,
functionally asserting that “the
Holocaust never happened
and we intend to finish it.”
The European Union, smarting
at American insistence that it
re-impose economic sanctions
on Tehran at the expense of
trade, has sought a way around
potential penalties.

Nazism obsessed over
racially inferior Jews destroy-
ing the German people. The
accused Pittsburgh murderer
fantasized that pro-immigra-
tion Jews threatened “his peo-
ple.” The man charged with
mailing letter bombs to prom-
inent Americans reportedly
wanted “to go back to Hitler
times.” The U.S. “alt-right” —
also described as the “alt-re-
ich” — imagines the Israeli tail
wags the American dog.

Not entirely dissimilar,
leaders of the Women’s March
movement demand that Jewish
activists check their white
privilege and apologize for
the Jews’ racist suppression of
black and brown people.

From medieval allegations
of “Christ killers” to contem-
porary indictments of Jews as
killers of Palestinian Arabs,
those who portray Jews and the
Jewish state as demonic — as
Louis Farrakhan did yet again
shortly after Pittsburgh — serve
to reopen “the Jewish question.”
As in, what shall be done with
this never quite assimilated,
always stubborn people?
Infinitely adaptable,
ever-enduring Jew hatred —
today regressing to its pre-Aus-
chwitz mean through the
gateway drug of anti-Zionism
— retains its eternal answer:
the elimination of Judaism
and those who proclaim it.

Among polite circles, like
those who insist they are never
anti-Semitic, “only anti-Zi-
onist,” marginalization and
social-cultural re-ghettoiza-
tion will be sufficient.

The original ethical mono-
theism, with its damned
“thou shalls” and “thou shall
nots,” contradicts the West’s
increasing secular fundamen-
talism just as it called into
question Christianity and
then Islam’s claims to super-
session. Including this small
chosen people with their tiny
promised land in that now-
you-see-it, now-you-don’t mul-
ticultural rainbow remains one
diversity too many.

The Holocaust must be
understood not only as an
event halted by the Allies’
defeat of Nazi Germany in
1945 but also as a process
interrupted. As the survivor
and author Primo Levi put it,
“It happened, and therefore, it
can happen again. This is the
core of what we have to say.”
The words are inscribed at the
entrance to Berlin’s Holocaust
memorial. Twenty percent of French
respondents between 18 and
34 tell CNN they’ve never
heard of the Holocaust. So
does a similar proportion in
the United States. A Labour
Party unit in northern Britain
rejected a proposed resolution
condemning the Pittsburgh
murders because there’s too
much talk of “anti-Semitism
this, anti-Semitism that.”
Today, the spread of neo-Na-
zism and anti-Zionist anti-Sem-
itism makes continued war
against, and potential genocide
of the majority of the world’s
Jews — that is, those living in
Israel — a renewed possibility. l
Continued from Page 16
admitted that, for an instant, she
considered becoming observant.

Jerry Weintraub was a famous
producer and talent agent.

Although he was not a religious
man, in his book When I Stop
Talking, You Will Know I Am
Dead, he reveals some major pin-
tele yid moments. When his father
was ill, he brought him to the
Lubavitcher Rebbe. Father and
son were transfixed as the Rebbe
held the elder Weintraub’s hand.

The Rebbe was incapable of heal-
ing a sick man, but he was able to
provide him with comfort.

I was recently sitting in a
Jewish deli with a friend. His
food order violated Jewish
dietary laws in at least two ways.

I had a half smile as we made
eye contact. He looked at me
and said firmly, “I am a Jew
through and through.” I know
him very well, and his statement
was believable. We both had a
good chuckle — the pintele yid.

If you believe “My Yiddishe
Momme” was written for your
mother; if you get tearful every
time you sing “Hatikvah” or
remember your grandmother
swaying as she lit Shabbat can-
dles; if you can hear a pained
wail in the prayer of a Chasid;
if you feel, as Itzhak Pearlman
does, as he tells Joel Grey,
“klezmer means everything
good;” or if you get chills when
the Israeli flag is raised, you are
not 100 percent assimilated.

In the beginning of the 20th
century, many European Jews
felt obligated to be loyal to either
the Yiddish or Zionist politi-
cal movements. But the Shoah,
among other events, has reduced
Yiddish adherents to a small
number, and Israel is a strong
state steeped in Zionist ideals
and the Hebrew language.

So, instead of choosing one
or the other, I say, “Choose
both!” Ironically, Israel is
in the best position to save
Yiddish culture. It would be
a pintele yid moment for the
Jewish state. l
Sukkot tisch (table).

I recall a story about Isaac
Bashevis Singer. He had just fin-
ished giving a talk in Paris and
was finding his way to a Shabbat
dinner he had been invited to
by strangers. When the door
to the apartment opened, it
all unfolded — the succulent
aroma of the chicken soup, the
beautiful glowing candles, the
warmth of the challah, peo-
ple from different parts of the
world, previously unknown to
each other, hugging lovingly.

Similar scenes occur at
Chabad Houses during Shabbat
dinners throughout the world.

They have something in com-
mon. It is the pintele yid.

Several years ago, I was
walking through the streets of
Jerusalem on a Friday afternoon
with my friend, Eitan. Shabbat
was approaching. Soon the
buses would come to a halt and
Chasidim would fill the streets.

Neither Eitan nor I am reli-
gious. Yet, he turned to me and
said he felt there was something
special in the air of Jerusalem
as Shabbat approached. I could
feel the presence of my zeyda,
after whom I was named —
another instance of pintele yid.

Golda Meir’s path from
Kiev to Milwaukee to Palestine
reflected a person who moved
from the Orthodox religiosity
of her grandparents to the sec-
ular Zionism that resulted in
her being the elected leader of
Israel. But an incident in Moscow
in 1948 resulted in a pintele
yid moment.

As the first Israeli ambassador
to the Soviet Union, she addressed
a Rosh Hashanah crowd of thou-
sands outside the main syna-
gogue of Moscow. The rally was
organized by a local Chabad
organization, and in front of her
was a sea of dancing black-hat-
Eric Rozenman is the author of
ted Chasidim, joining in the rau-
cous chorus of, “Golda, Golda!”
Jews Make the Best Demons:
‘Palestine’ and the Jewish Question. Rejected by many 20th-century
He is a former Washington director Jews, the Chasidim refused to Saul Axelrod is a professor
reject one of their own. Meir emeritus in Temple University’s
of the Committee for Accuracy in
was shaken by the incident and College of Education.

Middle East Reporting in America.

JEWISH EXPONENT
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



L ifestyles /C ulture
‘March’ Composer Draws Varied Inspiration
suited my interests and abilities
as a composer ideally.”
Alston, he believes, was
similarly suited to the task.

“It was a wonderful and
profound experience to collab-
orate with her,” Bleckner said.

“In creating the musical setting
for her story I found myself
swept up in the range of emo-
tions it depicts, from pain, to
righteous anger, to defiance, to
joy, and to celebration.”
MUSIC JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
JEWISH COMPOSER
ANDREW Bleckner found
inspiration in both religion
and musical history when he
wrote The Children’s March.

Bleckner and librettist
Charlotte Blake Alston will
perform their original work —
which explores a civil rights-era
historical event — on Feb. 24 at
3 p.m. at Philadelphia Episcopal
Church, and on March 10 at
3 p.m. at Lincoln University.

They will be joined by Singing
City, the SC Children’s Choir,
T-VOCE, the Germantown
Friends School Middle School
Choir and Keystone State
Boychoir’s Anonymous 8.

The Children’s March is a
choral and theatrical piece
about the 1963 Children’s
Crusade in Birmingham, Ala.

On May 2 of that year, more
than 1,000 students, most of them
black, skipped class to march in
the downtown area in support of
the civil rights movement. They
were met with clubs, dogs, paddy
wagons and high-powered hoses,
all under the direction of the
notorious Bull Connor, then the
commissioner of public safety in
Birmingham. The images were
broadcast to millions of televi-
sion viewers around the world,
eventually bolstering the cause
of the marchers. A few days
later, an agreement to deseg-
regate important public spaces
was reached.

It was this radical history
that Bleckner had in mind
when he was commissioned
to compose the music for The
Children’s March back in 2013.

Bleckner, a native of Rockland
County, N.Y., has composed
music for decades. Though he
found much of his inspiration
in the work of Beethoven, Bach
and other luminaries of classi-
cal music, he also found it an
unconventional place.

“When I was in 11th grade,”
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Andrew Bleckner
Alston is also the piece’s narrator.

The Children’s March,
Bleckner said, is not only a
performance that seeks to exalt
a pivotal moment of the Civil
Rights movement, but one
that speaks to “the universal
human story of our fight with
tyranny and injustice.”
“I believe The Children’s
March is, in fact, a sacred jour-
ney,” he said. “It is a march
for freedom and justice, and
the conclusion — a setting of
‘There is a Balm in Gilead’ —
lifts the listener to a higher
spiritual plane.

“In today’s dark times,” he
concluded, “I naturally hope
that listeners will be inspired
to activism against resur-
gent forces of prejudice and
intolerance.” l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
Photo provided
he said, “I read a short book
by Martin Buber that had a
profound influence upon me.

Buber posits that each indi-
vidual has a unique place in
the world, and that we should
find our own path, and thereby
honor God in doing so by
fulfilling our unique path. I
started to learn piano at that
point, and I felt that sitting at
the piano was a form of the
highest prayer possible, that it
was my unique path in which I
could honor God and fulfill my
potential in the universe.”
Bleckner continued to draw
from Judaism as he made his
way through the world of clas-
sical music. He counts a setting
of Psalm 150 for choir and
percussion that he composed
towards the end of his time in
grad school as his first real suc-
cess as a composer. Since then,
he’s become a nationally recog-
nized composer, with numer-
ous fellowships and awards to
his name.

In 2012, he and Alston were
commissioned to write The
Children’s March by Singing
City. Singing City was founded
as an integrated choir in 1948,
and over the years has per-
formed with everyone from the
Philadelphia Orchestra to the
Israel Philharmonic.

“I was so excited when I
learned of the project, because
I felt such a powerful connec-
tion to the story,” Bleckner said.

“The Children’s March project is
both theatrical and choral, so it
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