Rabbi Berel Wein

Rabbi Berel Wein Loyalt� hese post-Pesach weeks are seemingly always act against the and not in the spirit of current civi- marked by special commem- interests of Israel when in power and lized society. orative days meant to pre- later write books about why their Tserve some vestige of important peacemaking efforts bore no substan- When Yehoshua bin Nun entered the Jewish memory for later generations. tial fruit. There are therefore many Land of Israel with the Jewish people Thus Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jews – and certainly many more non- millennia ago, the Tanach records Memorial Day for the Fallen Israeli Jews – who would simply wish to for us that he encountered a stranger Soldiers and Israel Independence Day erase the past century of Jewish and (who later turned out to be an angel all somehow convey an identity with world history and start all over again sent by Heaven). Unaware of his iden- the Jewish people and its history to as though none of it ever happened. tity or his intentions, Yehoshua asked new generations that have not expe- him only one question: “Are you with rienced the actual events these days In the real world though, the fate of us or are you with our enemies?” commemorate. the Jewish people as a whole is inex- Apparently there is no middle ground tricably bound to the wellbeing of allowed in answering this question. It Unfortunately, the Day of Remem- the Jewish State of Israel. Almost half poses the harsh reality of Jewish life brance for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of the world’s Jews live here and to a and does not allow for the illusions of Terror needs no memory recall, great extent, it provides the teachers, of a utopian, even-handed, collater- for it is a continuing reality in Israeli scholars, political and social leaders al-damage free, moralistically perfect life. However, the alienation of a large for the entire Jewish world. Thus, but unobtainable world to interfere section of world Jewry from its faith, attachment and loyalty to the exis- with the stark and truthful answer practices and traditions has created a tence of the State of Israel would seem required to this question. Loyalty to dangerous state of amnesia amongst to be a self-understood requirement our Torah and its commandments, to this group. There are already Jews in the societies of all types of Jews. our fellow Jews the world over, to our who are Holocaust forgetters, even Land and State, are the guarantees of doubters, who wish the whole subject Sadly, this is not present even here our survival and continued accom- of the Holocaust to be forgotten and in the State of Israel itself. Reading plishments. It may be old-fashioned ignored. Enough already! is their cry. some of Israel’s newspapers, listen- to espouse loyalty in today’s weird This will eventually lead to Jewish ing to portions of the radio or view- world but loyalty to the concept of Holocaust denial in the name of sol- ing television programming would loyalty itself is an inextricable compo- idarity with the more radical “pro- convince an alien visitor from Mars nent of Jewish life. gressives” of the Western and Moslem that Israel is the chief villain of the world. world and responsible for all prob- lems currently facing humankind. As far as Israel Independence Day is The entire concept of Jewish loyalty concerned, there are large sections of has become foreign to large sections the Jewish world that pay it no heed of Jewish society. It is not taught in out of theological, political and deep many Jewish schools here and abroad, psychological motives. The Jews of it is absent from the programming the far Left call the creation of Israel of Jewish organizations operating a “mistake,” and many of the Jews of on many college campuses, and it is the ultra-Othodox religious right absent in the spirit of many nominally Rabbi Berel Wein is Senior Rabbi of consider it to be a false messiah. The Jewish households. In fact, loyalty is Beit Knesset HaNassi in Jerusalem and Jews who are in foreign governments viewed as being anachronistic, passé Director of the Destiny Foundation 12 | .

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