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Shalom 2012 03 March.Indd Jewish Peace Letter Vol. 41 No. 2 Published by the Jewish Peace Fellowship March 2012 RICHA R D DEATS Two Stories of Courage, Hope & Compassion Praying at Auschwitz • Visiting the Land of the Enemy Isfahan’s Sio-She Pole bridge Stefan Merken: ‘The One-Eyed Man’ Larry Derfner: Attacking Iran Isn’t Worth It Jeremiah Haber: Being ‘Pro-Israel’ Today Bernard Avishai: Uri Avnery, Ben Dunkelman and 1948 and After Murray Polner: War Crimes ISSN: 0197-9115 From Where I Sit Stefan Merken In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king s an American Jew, growing up and attend- voices are loud, and he stresses that antiwar Israeli voices ing a Conservative synagogue, I learned what it was must also be heard. to be a part of the small minority of Jews in America. For those concerned about Israel’s future, the possibility AI am old enough to remember my parents talking with pride of US involvement, and regional stability, now is the time to about Israel and the pain and suffering, joy and euphoria, of let your voices be heard. We need to let others know that not Jews finally forming a homeland. all Americans — Jewish and non-Jewish alike — support a In our February issue JPF published its statement, “Pre- war with Iran. We would certainly like to hear your views, emptive Military Action Against Iran’s Nuclear Facilities,” too. trying to draw attention to the beating of war drums on all Also in our current issue are two perceptive essays by sides, and calling for diplomacy rather than war. Richard Deats. The first, “Praying at Auschwitz,” is about In this issue Larry Derfner, an Israeli-based correspon- joining a convocation/march to Auschwitz in 1995, and a dent, writes about the tense Iran-Israel situation and the pos- second, “Visiting the Land of the Enemy,” is about making sibility of war. Derfner is very frank and honest about the peace with your enemy and not just with your friends. possible outcomes if Israel should attack Iran. Prowar Israeli Enjoy this issue. After you read and digest it we’d love to hear from you. Your reactions, agreements or disagreements Stefan Merken is chair of the Jewish Peace Fellowship. are always welcome. Y Just Off the Press Congratulations to JPFer E. James Lieberman, MD, and Robert Kramer, Ph.D., on publication of their book, The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank (Johns Hopkins University Press). A rich primary source on psychiatry, history, and culture, the book is a cogent and powerful narrative of early psychoanalysis and its two most important personalities. Jewish Peace Letter Published by the Jewish Peace Fellowship • Box 271 • Nyack, N.Y. 10960 • (845) 358-4601 Honorary President Rabbi Philip J. Bentley • Chair Stefan Merken • Vice President Rabbi Leonard Beerman Editors Murray Polner & Adam Simms • Contributing Editors Lawrence S. Wittner & Patrick Henry Established in 1941 E-mail: [email protected] • World Wide Web: http://www.jewishpeacefellowship.org Signed articles are the opinions of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the JPF. Illustrations: 1 • Photo by Shahab Maghami, via Wikimedia Commons. 3 • Tulio Bertorini (tbertor1), Flickr, via Wikime- dia Commons. 5 • Shervin Afshar, via Wikimedia Commons. 6 • Dagan: Israel Defense Forces/Flickr, via Wikimedia Com- mons; Gazit: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, via Wikimedia Commons. 9 • Via Wikimedia Commons. 11 • incredible images4u.blogspot.com/2010/01/defending-leningrad-ww2.html. 2 • Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter March 2012 Jewish Peace Fellowship Stories of Courage, Hope & Compassion Richard L. Deats I. Praying at Auschwitz n August 1995, the fifti- eth anniversary of the end of World War II and the Obeginning of the atomic age, the Nipponzan Myoholji, a Japanese Buddhist religious order, sent out a call for an eight-month Interfaith Pilgrimage for Peace and Life that would begin at Auschwitz and end at Hiroshima. Auschwitz was the evil center of Hitler’s demented plan to exter- minate the Jewish people (ninety percent of the one and a half mil- lion persons who died there were Jewish; there were also many Poles, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other Christians). Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the targets of the first use of atomic bombs — both cities wiped out in lightning flashes that ushered in the atomic age and the nuclear arms “Arbeit Macht Frei”: The main gate of Auschwitz I race that has spread like a malig- nant growth across the world and that continues today, en- to counter the hate and violence in the world. dangering us all. On the last night of Hanukkah, to the mournful beat of I joined with two hundred others from many nations Buddhist drums, we slowly processed to the infamous en- who came for the convocation. For eight days, Japanese Bud- trance of the Auschwitz camp, where the sign over the gate dhist monks and others prayed and fasted on the selection says, Arbeit Macht Frei (Work brings freedom). platform where World War II arrivals at Auschwitz-Birkenau In a deeply moving Hanukkah service, German priest met their fate: immediate death or slave labor. At this place Herbert Frohlich played the flute and Julius Lester, an Af- of immense cruelty and suffering, the monks prayed during rican-American Jewish professor, sang a mournful nigun (a cold December days for an outpouring of great compassion wordless Hasidic chant). We lit hand-made menorahs — over one hundred of them — and placed them in front of the gate. Richard L. Deats grew up in the segregated South As the tiny lights blazed in the dark, Rabbi Everett Gendler and has spent his life working for peace, justice and freedom of Massachusetts reminded us that “The soul is the candle of through nonviolent change. “Praying at Auschwitz” and “Vis- the Lord.” All believers, he said, are called to let their lights iting the Land of the Enemy” appear in his latest book, Stories shine to banish the darkness of the world. While the candles of Courage, Hope & Compassion (CreateSpace, 2011), cour- burned, a few drops of rain fell like tears of God and of those tesy of Richard L. Deats ([email protected]). who died there, calling us to cry out: www.jewishpeacefellowship.org March 2012 Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter • 3 Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from who were not born.” Rabbi Weinberg reminded us that “The one above, like gentle rain let the skies drop it down. Let who destroys one life, it is as if he had destroyed the world; the the earth open and salvation bud forth; let justice also one who saves one life, it is as if she had saved the world.” spring up. (Isaiah 45:8) On a brass plaque at Auschwitz are the often-quoted words of the philosopher George Santayana: “Those who Later in the week, we visited the barracks and crematoria of cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Yet the vast killing fields that stretched to the horizon. We remem- our addiction to violence and war against one another and bered those who suffered and died in the Holocaust — Jews, Poles, against the Earth has not been broken, nor has the callous- Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others who had ness that turns away from the suffering of our brothers and incurred the wrath of the Third Reich. American Rabbi Sheila sisters, whether across the hall, across the tracks or across the Weinberg said Kaddish (the prayer for the dead) at Crematorium world. Let us pray that we will turn to compassion and make III. As we sang and prayed and wept, candles of remembrance our lives a pilgrimage for Life. were lit “for my father, Julius Fleish”; “for a kind Gypsy woman who always gave people cigarettes”; “for my fellow Jesuits, fifty I have set before you life and death, blessing and of whom died here”; “for my aunts Greta and Freda”; “for those curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descen- with no one left to remember them”; “for all future generations dants may live. (Deuteronomy 30:19b). II. Visiting the Land of the Enemy itzhak Rabin, when prime minister of Israel, logue, as well as talks with Iranians we met in shops and at was criticized by many for meeting with the Pales- cultural sites, and that we passed on the street. People were tinians. This tough, old, battle-hardened general re- generally astounded — and cheered — to learn that we were Ysponded by saying, “You don’t make peace with your friends. Americans. Eager to use their English, they spoke of their You make peace with your enemies.” desire for peace and friendship. We often quoted President I have pondered his words a lot and have come to believe Dwight Eisenhower — like Rabin, a former general — who they point the way through many of today’s conflicts. Openness eloquently spoke of the need for peace among the nations. and dialogue can help us move forward in dealing with our ad- We visited an ancient Armenian Orthodox cathedral versaries. I tested this out on a Fellowship of Reconciliation visit and a stunning synagogue in Tehran, where a teacher of Jew- to Iran in 2006 with twenty-two other peacemakers. ish children told us about the country’s constitutional repre- Going there was initially fearsome, because the United sentation in parliament of three major religious minorities States and Iran have been at loggerheads since the Iranian — Christians (with three members of parliament), Jews and revolution of 1979. Generally, we knew the bad things about Zoroastrians (with one each). Jews and Judaism were seen this regime, but it was difficult to learn about the good things positively as part of the Abrahamic tradition, but Zionism of that culture and people.
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