Last week’s Torah portion of Balak should have been a timely shot in the arm for anyone attuned to the subject of curses – ancient and modern.
This particular episode, when our Israelite ancestors were confronted with potential hate and incitement, recounts the obsessive efforts made by our adversaries to thwart the march to sovereignty. It is eerily reminiscent of later and in particular, current campaigns aimed at the very same objective.
In this Biblical account, the strongest and most prominent opponent of the Israelite march to the Promised Land, Balak, believed that by employing the services of the most revered non-Hebrew prophet of his time, he had found a potent secret weapon. This plan could have succeeded. The reason it did not was that Bilam kept getting messages from a “higher authority” telling him not to curse the assembled Israelite tribes. Even his donkey knew better, and thus at the end of the day, he ended up blessing the Israelites.
Ultimately, the real threat came from disunity and an addiction to the lure of false deities with all their immoral excesses.
What was true then is even more valid today.
In each succeeding generation after the encounter with Balak and Bilam, we have faced countless waves of curses and campaigns to besmirch, slander and ultimately attack Jews.
We have also, unfortunately, experienced times when internal dissension and self-loathing have resulted in self-destructive warfare.
Unlike in Biblical times, today’s vilification can spread instantaneously thanks to modern communications
Whereas once upon a time, Jew-hate was transmitted from political and religious leaders to followers and then from adults to the next generation, today’s infection of this virulent virus can be acquired by the youngest and most vulnerable child via social media.
Ecclesiastical authorities are no longer required to preach hate and incitement against Jews.
A generation that is not only historically ignorant but also theologically uninvolved now receives its “enlightenment” from a myriad of sources. Thanks to the power of instant access, any poisonous lie and accusation can be circulated instantly around the globe to all sectors of society.
Whereas once it took great efforts to disseminate hate, nowadays the same incitement can be communicated at the press of a button.
The Germans refined this technique by using newspapers and the radio to brainwash and condition a whole population. All it needed was a sustained campaign of vilification, and the poisonous seeds lurking in the undergrowth germinated with devastating results.
The Soviet Union employed the same techniques to target, eliminate political opponents and purge Jews and other undesirables from the “workers’ paradise.” It also instituted as Government policy for the first time that Zionism and Zionists were “enemies of the State” thus officially embedding these crimes as part of everyday life for the beleaguered Jewish community.
Soviet alliances with Arab countries and revolutionary terror groups meant that fighting against the Jewish national movement and Jews became a “one-stop” campaign.
There had always been Arab and Islamic opposition to renewed Jewish sovereignty in Ottoman and British Mandate Palestine. The Soviet Union now gave it official sanction and bequeathed to succeeding generations the seeds of a plague which has now metastasised into a lethal international pandemic.
This is the situation we face today on every continent.
The type of naked Jew hate which is now manifested was once hidden under the guise of anti Zionism. It used to be common for the haters to claim that “we have nothing against Jews and Judaism. It is only the Zionists we hate.” There are still a few, especially self-loathers, who insist that Israel and Zionism have nothing to do with Judaism. These include fringe cults who are waiting for some messianic messenger to give the word, and others who still believe that they are safe in exile in an increasingly hostile world.
It is painfully obvious, except to the demented minority, that cursing against Jews and a reborn Jewish sovereign State is now becoming a universally accepted policy.
One does not need any Royal Commission to discover the uncomfortable truths behind the current torrent of abuse.
The late Chief Rabbi of the UK and Commonwealth, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l, pinpointed the malady many years ago.
“Assimilation is no cure for antisemitism. If people do not like you for what you are, they will not like you more for pretending to be what you are not. Jews cannot cure antisemitism. Only antisemites can do that, together with the society to which they belong. The cause of antisemitism is a profound malaise in the cultures in which it appears. It happens whenever a society feels that something is badly amiss, when there is a profound cognitive dissonance between the way things are and the way people think they ought to be. People are then faced with two possibilities. They can either ask what did we do wrong and start to put it right or they can ask who did this to us and search for a scapegoat. Antisemitism is a sickness and it cannot be cured by Jews. It is also evil and those who tolerate it when they could have protested are accomplices to evil.”
One need only look to the recent past to see the validity of these wise words.
The evil tide will not be reversed anytime soon, if at all, as a result of the flailing and politically correct gestures being debated by commissions and committees in various democratic countries.
Increased security and converting Synagogues, schools and communal buildings into fortified “no go” zones may be necessary, but they are not the answer to guaranteeing safe Jewish lives.
Attacks on Brit Mila and Shechitah will do nothing to safeguard Jewish continuity in threatened countries.
Withdrawing into self-imposed ghettos guarded by armed security is retreating back to the times of the Inquisition, Cossacks and Nazis.
Pulling up the drawbridges and letting the “anti” mobs have free rein will only escalate the hate. If confronting the haters is too risky or likely to attract unwanted attention, one has to ask, “Where are the authorities?” If their rhetoric is merely hot air and designed to placate, the time has arrived when Jewish resistance must step up a few gears.
Cancelling solidarity and personal visits to Israel is no answer to either political double standards or blatant political hypocrisy.
Naming and shaming those guilty of intimidation and vilification should be the order of the day instead of politely sweeping these people or groups under the carpet.
Above all, making your voices heard is an urgent necessity.
It is time to speak up when you see political parties and leaders making alliances with those advocating boycotts and demonisation of Israel.
Mamdani, the anti Zionist mayor of New York, stated that he does not recognise Israel as a Jewish State. With the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, one would expect a volcanic response to his inciting rhetoric. Masses of Jewish protesters should be out on the streets making their revulsion heard. When one realises that a large number of Jewish voters actually cast their ballots for him, one can see the validity of Rabbi Sack’s assertion that failing to protest and combat evil is making them accomplices.
Another example of how silence is acquiescing to evil can be seen in the deafening non-response to Trump’s love affair with the latter-day Ottoman sultan. Erdogan, who has emasculated any opposition, is in full-blown anti-Israel/Zionist/Jew hate mode. Hosting and supporting the Hamas terror group is bad enough. His latest outburst should convince even sceptics that something rotten is cooking in Turkey.
“Israel must be stopped. This is the duty of humanity and all those who stand on the side of humanity. We must not allow history to repeat itself.”
Presumably, he is lamenting the end of the Ottoman Empire and the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in its homeland.
Despite these and other clear malevolent intentions, the US President had no shame in declaring: “Erdogen is a strong man. Everything I have ever asked him to do he has done. He is a strong member of NATO. I’m probably going to do something that will make him very happy.”
No wonder Erdogan and terror associates feel emboldened when they can see the US President cozying up to them.
A clearer example of tolerating potential and the development of evil is hard to find.
History proves that cursing Jews is a losing proposition.
It is a pity that many today still do not realise where it inevitably leads.
Michael Kuttner is a New Zealander who, for many years, was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.