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Kislev 5764 • December 2003U.S.A. $3.50/Foreign $4.50 • VOL XXXVI/NO. 10

Kislev 5764 • December 2003U.S.A. $3.50/Foreign $4.50 • VOL XXXVI/NO. 10

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CONTENTS

OBSERVEROBSERVERJewishJewishTHE

COVER ARTICLE

6 Searching for Meaning in the Maelstrom,Rabbi Chaim Dov Keller

A HISTORICAL RETROSPECT

16 Torah Shines Forth From New Haven… and Cleveland,Ari Z. Zivotofsky

THREAT FROM WITHIN

23 Israel and the Jews’ Jewish Problem,Rabbi Yonoson Rosenblum

CHANUKA ESSAY

30 The Chanuka Menora and The King’s Crown,Rabbi Yisroel Greenwald

33 The Beauty of a Sunset, Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk and Mrs. Sheina Elka Falk

BOOKS IN REVIEW

35 Apples From the Tree, by Rabbi Moshe Young,reviewed by Rabbi Avrohom Birnbaum

36 Journey to Virtue, by Rabbi Avrohom Ehrman,reviewed by Rabbi Shimon Finkelman

SECOND LOOKS

38 “Baby Einstein” and the Ashrei Yeladeto Factor

POETRY

37 A Friend from The Past, Mrs. Bracha Goetz

40 Meeting G-d at a Garden Party, Mrs. Bracha Goetz

43 Candlelight, Michelle Borinstein

41 Letters-to-the-Editor

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I. BEYOND HUMAN COMPREHENSION

We live in very difficult times –with terrorism, worldwideanti-Semitism, financial

instability and personal tragediesincreasing on a frightening scale.Searching for order and purpose in acomplicated and depressing period ofhistory while living through it can becompared to searching for meaning inthe maelstrom, a huge whirlpool off thecoast of Norway. If you are caught upin the maelstrom, there is very littlemeaning you can find in it.You are help-lessly trapped in a dizzying situationover which you have no control. Perhapsthat itself is a meaning that Hashem isconveying to us. When everythingseems just fine and we are completelyin control of the situation, He lets us

know that it isnot so: We do not control the world; wedo not even control our own lives.

But there the comparison to themaelstrom stops. There is no situationof hopelessness. Hashem is in charge. Weknow that in His great mercy and wis-dom, Hashem has a plan for the Jewishpeople and for the world. We know thatevery event in human history, whethergreat or small, leads to an ultimate glo-rious resolution.“Kol ma de’avid Rach-mana letav avid – Everything thatHashem does, He does for the good”(Berachos 60b). But how the events towhich we are witness in our own life-time lead to the geula sheleima (ultimateredemption) escapes us.

To reinforce our faith in Hashgacha(Hashem’s ongoing involvement in theworld), let us review the events of Chur-ban Europe and its aftermath. Ourpresent difficulties pale into

insignificancecompared to that awesome peri-

od. Those who lived through it felt theywere seeing the fulfillment of the terri-fying vision of Avraham Avinu: “And ithappened, as the sun was about to set,a deep sleep fell on Avram; and behold– a dread! – a great darkness fell uponhim” (Bereishis 15,12). The Midrash tellsus that the four expressions, (1) dread!(2) a great (3) darkness (4) fell uponhim, refer to the four periods of Galusthat the Jewish people were to endurethrough their painful history: Bavel(Babylonia), Madai (Persia), Yavan(Greece), and Edom (Rome). (MidrashRabba 44,17) We are now living throughGalus Edom, which began with thedestruction of the Second Beis Hamik-dash by the Roman empire and contin-ues through the present day. TheMidrash cites Daniel’s prophetic visionof four fierce beasts, each correspondingto one of the Galuyos. The fourthbeast, far more terrifying and awesome

6 The Jewish Observer, December 2003

Mr. Kirzner of Brooklyn, NY, a member of TheJ.O.’s management board, edited the English trans-lation (from the French) of Rabbi Eli Munk’s TheCall of the Torah, published by ArtScroll.

The following article is based on two presentations byRabbi Chaim Dov Keller, Rosh Hayeshiva of Telshe Yeshi-va of Chicago: One, as part of a seminar for mechanchimon Churban Europe sponsored by Torah Umesorah’s Zechor

Yemos Olam Program in Chicago during the summer of2002; the other, at last year’s national convention of Agudath Israel of America in Stamford, Connecticut. Thisarticle was prepared for publication by Isaac Kirzner.

yl rva ‘h Csub bsa yc

Searching forMeaning

in the MaelstromGaining Strength

and Faith From the TorahRenaissance That Emerged

From Churban Europe

than the others, represents Edom(Daniel 7,7).

During Churban Europe, all thoseevils seemed to have been rolled into one.There was terror, darkness, suffering, anddownfall, and there was no hope andabsolutely no explanation for what wastranspiring. A thousand years of Jewishlife, great yeshivos, Chassidic courts, kehil-los kedoshos (holy communities) weredestroyed in a few short years.

II. PATTERNS IN HISTORY

But the time that has since passedgives us a perspective that we didnot possess earlier. After the

smoke has subsided, perhaps we canbegin to perceive the outlines of a pat-tern, a pattern that should inspireamazement and wonder.

Over 200 years ago, Rabbi ChaimVolozhiner said that America would bethe last station of Torah before the geulasheleima, and he burst into tears. Theauthor of Nachalas David, Rabbi DavidTevel, was present and asked, “ButRebbi, why are you crying?”

Reb Chaim answered, “Oy, RebDovid Tevel, you don’t know howmuch pain this will involve…with howmuch suffering, anguish, and shefichasdamim (bloodshed) this will comeabout….” We witnessed it.

When reviewing Megillas Esther, themiracle that transpired in ancient Per-sia seems easy to grasp. But if you wouldhave lived through it, and stopped thesequence of events at any point, theywould seem to be almost unrelated – aroyal celebration, a search for a newqueen, overheard conspiracies, a terri-ble decree of destruction, insomnia, con-struction of gallows, and the final glo-rious denouement. Only when you putthem all together, do you recognize theextraordinary miracle that transpired.

What had begun with Haman’s evilintent to destroy all the Jews of the Per-sian empire resulted in a miraculousreversal to the point of “la’Yehudim hoysaora vesimcha – the Jews had light andgladness” (Esther 8,16). And with this,“kiymu vekiblu ha’Yehudim – they con-firmed that which they had accepted

before [on Mount Sinai]…” ibid 9,27).From an impending tragedy whichappeared at the time hopelesslyunavoidable emerged a new kabbolashaTorah, an enthusiastic acceptance ofTorah, which changed the course of thehistory of the Jewish people. The megillais called “Esther” because the miracle washidden (nistar) in what seemed a nat-ural course of events.1

The Tochacha Perspective

What we saw during the periodof Churban Europe, whichappeared to us as utter dark-

ness and destruction, beyond under-standing, was part of a miraculous man-ifestation of Hashgacha. And when weunderstand that, we will also understandthat these were not a series of randomoccurrences, but part of a process of thefulfillment of Divine prophecies – asharsh as they were – which in themselvescan give Jews the strength to look for-ward and to hope for the yeshua (sal-vation), which the Nevi’im also foretold.

Each year, we read with dread theSedros (weekly portions) containingthe Tochacha (Admonition), the harshpunishments foretold in the Torah(Vayikra 26 and Devarim 28). And so,when some of those fearful thingsactually happen, we should know thatit is not a random occurrence. Thingshave not spun out of control. Hashemhad told us in advance that this wouldoccur.

If we saw “and the land of your ene-mies will swallow you,” we also saw thefulfillment of the promise: “But despiteall this, while they will be in the landof their enemies, I will not despise themnor will I reject them to obliteratethem, to annul My covenant withthem, for I am Hashem, their G-d”(Vayikra 26,44). And perhaps in under-standing this, we can gain some per-spective, some powerful tools to navi-gate the stormy, troubled waters inwhich we now find ourselves.

The mystery of Jewish sufferingthroughout the ages was expressed byDavid Hamelech in the words: “Mish-patecha tehom rabba, Your judgmentsare [like] the great depths of theocean” (Tehillim 36,7). Humanunderstanding cannot hope to plumbthe depths of Hashem’s judgments,which we witnessed. But we also saw“tzidkas’cha keharerei eil, Your right-eousness is like the mighty moun-tains.” Our faith in the toweringrighteousness of Hashem, His good-ness and His mercy, which wereobvious in the aftermath of theChurban, should give us the strengthto endure the tehom rabba of Hisjudgments. For we survived, asHashem had promised.

In the Gemora (Megilla 11a), we findthat Shmuel used the verse of comfortfrom the Tochacha, cited above, tointroduce the study of the Megilla. Heobserved that the verse was fulfilled inspecific periods of Jewish history, whenHashem dispatched His shlichim(agents) to insure Jewish survival in each

The Jewish Observer, December 2003 7

1 Esther min haTorah minayin? “Ve’anochi hasteirastir panai…” (Chulin 139b).

Hashem’s Hashgacha works in inscrutable

ways, and that which seems to be

completely bad can be the vehicle for great good

and serve as the means to achieve it.

generation. Thus, the beginning of theverse, “I will not despise them,” refers tothe time of the Kasdim (Chaldeans),when Hashem’s agents were Daniel,Chananya, Mishael, and Azarya. Thiswas the time of the Galus Bavel, a ter-ribly bitter period for the Jewish peo-ple, but Hashem did not take away theruach hakodesh (holy spirit) that comesthrough the study of Torah. Daniel,Chananya, Mishael, and Azarya weresent to help us survive.

The next phrase, “nor will I rejectthem,” refers to the era of the Greeks,when Hashem’s agents were ShimonHatzaddik and Matisyahu and his sons,the Chashmonaim.

“To obliterate them,” refers to the timeof Haman in ancient Persia, whenMordechai and Esther were chargedwith the Divine mission. The verse con-tinues, “to annul my covenant withthem, ” referring to the time of theRomans, when Hashem provided thescholars of the School of Rebbi, and thesages of subsequent generations.

Finally,“for I am Hashem, their G-d”is a reference to the Time to Come, whenno nation or people will be able to dom-inate the Jewish people.

As Ohr Hachaim explains, whenHashem assured us that He would notdespise us and He would not reject us,nor would he annul His covenant withus – that covenant was the Bris HaTorahwhich guarantees the survival of the Jew-ish people. Without Torah there is noJewish people, and without the Jewishpeople there is no Torah. The fact thatHashem never abrogated the BrisHaTorah was manifest in every gener-ation by His dispatching wise andrighteous people to ensure our salvationthrough Torah. He never abandoned us,nor will He.

III. PREPARING THE WAY

Ramban calls Sefer Shemos, “SeferHagalus Vehageula – The Book ofthe Exile and the Redemption.”

The Book begins with a listing of thenames of the Children of Israel whocame to Mitzrayim (Egypt), concludingwith, “And Yoseif was in Mitzrayim”

(Shemos 1,5). One of the messages ofthat statement is that the Jewish peoplewere able to survive that galus becauseYoseif was in Mitzrayim. The ShelaHaKadosh explains that by having cometo Mitzrayim in advance,Yoseif preparedthe way by introducing a force for moralstrength in that land of immorality. Ineffect, he defeated the Sar shel Mitzray-im (the heavenly being that ruled thedestiny of Egypt), thus ensuring thatwhen the children of Yaakov wouldcome, they would not be swallowed upby the culture of that decadent society.

Yoseif himself said as much when herevealed himself to his brothers: “And G-d has sent me ahead of you to insureyour survival in the land and to sustainyou for a great deliverance” (Bereishis 45,7). By then, Yoseif understood his mis-sion in going down to Mitzrayim,although at the time of his arrival, hehad no way of understanding what washappening to him, or why.

Yoseif continued, “And now, it wasnot you who sent me here, butHashem; He has set me as a father toPharaoh, and as a master of his entirehousehold, and as a ruler in the entireLand of Mitzrayim.”

On the surface, Yoseif was talkingabout sustaining the Jews in a time offamine. But the Shela Hakadosh says thattheir ability to survive Galus Mitzrayimwas dependent on much more thanmaterial sustenance. Their moral andethical survival was secured by the pat-tern of behavior that Yoseif had estab-lished there – behavior that became amodel and a guideline for subsequentgenerations. By resisting the seductionsof Potifar’s wife when alone in Mitzray-im, Yoseif triumphed over the Sar shelMitzrayim. That spiritual victory earnedYoseif his designation as Yoseif Hatzad-dik, and he became Hashem’s agent torule over Mitzrayim. And the power ofthat victory gave the Jewish people thestrength to leave Mitzrayim in triumph(beyad ramma), as well as to surviveother galuyos yet to come.

Another observation about that firstgalus: When Yaakov prepared to leave hishome for Mitzrayim, “He sent Yehudabefore him to Yoseif, to show the way

ahead of him to Goshen” (Bereishis46,28). Rashi cites the Midrash thatYehuda was directed to establish a BeisTalmud (House of Study). Yaakovunderstood that surviving the challengesof Mitzrayim required a yeshiva. This,too, was a factor in Klal Yisroel’s survivalthrough the galuyos that lay ahead.

The First Torah Scholars In Bavel

This pattern obtained in subse-quent galuyos. The last king inYerushalayim before Galus Bavel

was Tzidkiyahu, who reigned for elevenyears before Nevuchadnetzar brokethrough the city walls and destroyed theBeis Hamikdash. But Tzidkiyahu was notthe first king to be taken to Bavel inchains. The previous king, Yehoyachin,was taken into captivity by Nevuchad-netzar’s armies, together with the royalhousehold, his army, and one thousandTorah scholars, referred to as “hecharashvehamasgeir” (Melachim II 24,16).

The Gemora (Gittin 81a and San-hedrin 38a) points out that Hashemcaused the final destruction of Yerusha-layim under Tzidkiyahu to occur twoyears before originally decreed. This has-tening of the calamity was an act ofcharity to the Jewish people (see Daniel9,14). Rashi explains that Hashem thusensured that the Torah scholars ofYehoyachin’s exile would still be alive inBavel to teach those who followedthem. They followed the pattern set byYehuda, who had prepared the way inGoshen in that initial galus.

The Four Captives

Another example of key individ-uals’ preparing for the migrationof later exiles is the episode of the

Four Captives, which occurred sometime after the destruction of the SecondBeis Hamikdash, as is recorded in SeferHakabbala. While small communities ofJews could be found in other places,none rivaled the Torah scholarshipfound in Bavel. Yet, Torah knowledge inBavel was already in decline. Four lead-ing gedolim (eminent Torah scholars) ofBavel were passengers on a ship that was



captured by pirates in the MediterraneanSea. One was Rabbeinu Shemaryahu,who was ransomed by the Jewish com-munity of Alexandria, Egypt, andbecame its leader. Rabbeinu Chushielwas put ashore near Morocco, where hebegan the building of the great Torahcenters of North Africa. RabbeinuMoshe and his son Rabbeinu Chanochwere brought to Spain. Both were ran-somed by the Jews of Cordova, trigger-ing the growth of a great Torah centerthere. (The fourth is unknown.) And so,through the mercy of Hashem, thepending decline of Bavel was offset bythe building of Torah in new places onan expanded scale.

IV. THE REBUILDING OF TORAH AFTER THE CHURBAN

This pattern was repeated in ourown generation. Sadly, we saw thefulfillment of Hashem’s words to

Moshe:“And it shall be that… great evilsand troubles will overtake them”(Devarim 31,21). But we also saw therealization of the other words in thesame verse: “… the Torah will not beforgotten from the mouths of their chil-dren.”We have witnessed this in our owndays – in America, in Eretz Yisroel, inEngland, as well as in other parts of theworld.

Nothing that I write here is reallynew. But because it is so well known, wetend not to understand it. Before men-tioning only a few of the many agentsthat Hashem dispatched to achieve thefulfillment of His promise, I shouldemphasize that when we speak of Chur-ban Europe; we are speaking of a gen-eration of kedoshim, who sacrificed theirlives, and we are speaking of a genera-tion who were mekadeish Hashem intheir lifetimes by carrying out the mis-sion with which Hashem entrustedthem. The unique individuals whoarrived before, during, and after WorldWar II cherished what had beendestroyed, and recognized that it wastheir sacred duty to rebuild. They werenot willing to accept anything less thanrestoration of the study and observanceof Torah to the same level as that which

had been lost, to the extent that washumanly possible. There were so manythat it would be impossible to even thinkof beginning to catalog all of their greatnames. I tremble at the thought thatomissions may be misunderstood as aninsensitivity to their greatness.

America

In America, the process of preparingthe ground in advance began almosta hundred years ago. When the first

Torah pioneers came to America, theyfound a land where Torah was virtual-ly non-existent, a land immersed inmaterialism, a spiritual wilderness. RebShraga Feivel Mendelowitz arrived onthese shores in 1913. After several yearsin Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Con-necticut, he was called to Yeshiva TorahVodaath in Brooklyn in the 1920s, laterfounded Torah Umesorah, and hasbeen called the father of chinuch (Toraheducation) in America.

He founded the Mesivta high


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school in Torah Vodaath and lateradded on a beis midrash. He suc-ceeded in engaging Rabbi David Lei-bowitz as Rosh Hayeshiva from 1926to 1933, who then founded YeshivaChofetz Chaim, now flourishing inQueens. Reb Shraga Feivel broughtRabbi Shlomo Heiman from Bara-novitch, who served as Rosh Hayeshi-va until his passing in 1944, and thenengaged Rabbi Reuvain Grozovskyand Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetzky. Bythe time those fleeing the destructionof World War II arrived, they founda Jewish community able to receivethem.

In 1937, Mr. Mendelowitz (as hepreferred to be addressed) had sentsome students to Europe – foremostamong them, Rabbi Gedalya Schorr– to draw from its wellsprings ofTorah knowledge and spirit. OtherAmericans had also gone to EasternEurope to study in yeshivos duringthe 30s – including Rabbi MordechaiGifter, Rabbi Yehuda Davis, RabbiAvigdor Miller, and Rabbi NossonWachtfogel – and returned to maketheir mark on American Torah life.Great Roshei Yeshiva came to Amer-

ica during the decade before World WarII – such men as Rabbi Moshe Feinstein,who became the poseik hador, RabbiYaakov Yitzchak Ruderman, who found-ed Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore,

Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner, who built upMesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin, and RabbiAvrohom Kalmanowitz, who broughtover the Mirrer Yeshiva to these shores.Rebbetzin Vichne Kaplan, who cameduring that period, revolutionalizedchinuch habanos by founding the BaisYaakov movement here. Rabbi AaronKotler said regarding Rebbetzin Kaplanthat were it not for her, it would beimpossible to have kollelim in America,for who would marry the b’nei Torah?

With the onset of the War, the smallstream widened. It is not possible in thislimited space to do justice to all of thecourageous Torah visionaries Hashembrought to our shores. Mentioning a fewnames can indicate the blessing that was

given to this barren land. Among thegreat luminaries of those early years wereRabbi Aharon Kotler, Rabbi Elya MeirBloch, the Satmar Rav, the Klausen-berger Rebbe, and the Bobover Rebbe.When these heads of yeshivos and greatChassidic leaders came, Mr. Mende-lowitz was there to assist them.

Rabbi Aharon Kotler introducedthe kollel concept as a way of life. Asthe Brisker Rav said, “Hashem did usa great kindness by sparing RebAharon.” Before Reb Aharon came toAmerica, the idea of young mendevoting themselves to Torah studyafter marriage was considered out-landish. Because of the efforts of thisone inspired man, it has now becomethe standard, resulting in generationsof Torah scholars. As soon as RebAharon arrived in America, he devot-ed himself fully to saving the Jews ofEurope. He then established BeisMedrash Govoha in Lakewood,whose talmidim established yeshiv-os and kollelim all over America. He– in close association with RabbiReuvain Grozovsky – was the activistbehind Agudas Yisroel, and foughtmany battles for the honor of Torah,all the while immersed in Torahstudy.

* * *When Rabbi Elya Meir Bloch and

his brother-in-law, Rabbi ChaimMordechai Katz, came to the UnitedStates, in 1941, they called a meetingof Telshe alumni in the Broadway


Rabbi Elya Meir Bloch Rabbi Aharon Kotler

Central Hotel in downtown Manhat-tan for the purpose of opening a TelsheYeshiva in America. Reb Elya Meir said,“You view us as refugees in flight for ourlives.” He then referred to the story ofYonasan, son of Shaul, who arrangeda signal with David to warn him ofShaul’s fury. Yonasan would shootthree arrows and then send a boy tofetch them, “If I say to the boy, ‘Behold,the arrows are beyond you,’ then go, forthis is a signal that Hashem has sent youaway” (Shmuel I 20,22). Yonasan chosethe word “leich” (go), not “berach”(flee). David was not running away. Hewas sent on a mission as directed byHashem. “By the same token,” Reb ElyaMeir emphasized, “we’re not refugees.We have been sent on a shlichus (mis-sion) from Hashem to build Torah inAmerica.” Eventually, he and Reb Mot-tel founded the Telshe Yeshiva in Cleve-land, which now has offshoots inChicago and Riverdale.

In the manuscript of one of his shi-urim, he apologizes for not havinginvestigated a particular issue as muchas he would have liked. He explains that“just two hours ago, I heard of the lossof my loved ones” – the death of his wifeand children, his brother, and thedestruction of the Telshe Yeshiva. Hecontinues: “If somebody will ever readthese words, I ask him not to think thatI’m an unfeeling person, even thoughI am writing Torah after hearing thisnews. In the first place, it had alreadyentered my mind that this had hap-pened. Besides, I feel that this is not atime when a person can worry about hisown problems. The first order of busi-ness has to be eisek haTorah – engage-ment in the profound study of Torah.Of what consequence are the problemsof the individual compared to theneeds of the klal (community)? This isa time to build.”

* * *The Satmar Rav got out from

under the noses of the Nazis, with sto-ries of nissim. The same is true of thesurvival of the Bobover Rebbe, theVizhnitzer Rebbe, Rabbi YonosonShteif and Rabbi Joseph Breuer. Eachescaped with nothing except deter-

mination, and went on to build greatmosdos – thriving institutions andcommunities. When the Satmar Ravarrived in America, by the first RoshHashana, he had seventy people.Today, Satmar mosdos serve many,many thousands.

* * *The Klausenberger Rebbe spent

the war years in the camps, carryingsacks of concrete while reviewingentire volumes of the Talmud byheart. He gave courage to his fellowprisoners, people who were very farfrom the traditional congregants ofhis home town, serving as a father tothem. He stayed on in the DP campsafter the war to help rehabilitatethem; only when they were settled didhe come to America. He then imme-diately embarked on rebuilding theKlausenberger court and its mosdosof Torah in the Williamsburg sectionof Brooklyn, subsequently in UnionCity NJ, and Netanya in Eretz Yisroel.All of these pioneers started in a new

land with essentially nothing – exceptsiyata deShemaya (the help of Heaven)and their dedication to the task ofrebuilding Torah.

The survival of the entire MirrerYeshiva, later transplanted to Amer-ica and Eretz Yisroel, was an obviousmiracle from Hashem. There was anextraordinary window of opportunityin Lithuania from October 1939 toJune 1940, when the Germans werepoised on one side, threatening death,and the Russians on the other side,threatening spiritual destruction. Itwas then that the Russians turned thecity of Vilna over to Lithuania, andthe Polish border was opened. Dur-ing that brief time, 20,000 Jewishrefugees came to Vilna, of which 2500were from various yeshivos. Throughthe mercy of Hashem, many gedolimused Vilna as their launching pad toobtain visas to the free world and thusescape the war zone.

Miraculously, the entire MirrerYeshiva, 250 strong, escaped com-pletely from under the shadow of theNazis and the Communists, and ulti-mately found a haven in Shanghai.


Upon arrival, they found the mag-nificent Bais Aharon Synagogue inthe middle of the business district ofdowntown Shanghai, an institutionthat Sefardi Jews had built, which atthat time was used primarily for Min-cha services. It was essentially empty,waiting for its new occcupants, witha dining room large enough toaccommodate 250 people.

Thousands of talmidim of theMirrer Yeshiva in America and EretzYisroel, as well as of many otheryeshivos, are the direct beneficiariesof what was preserved by their rosheiyeshivos and rabbeim who were ofthat select group in Shanghai.

Eretz Yisroel

The Yishuv Hayashan (old settle-ment of chareidim) in Eretz Yis-roel had served as an unbroken

link with the distant past. But in the1930s, the Yishuv was under siege. Thenew wave of Socialistic and secular Zion-ism was attempting to redefine Judaismas a nationalistic concept, threatening toreduce Torah to a cultural curiosity. Thecurrent expansion of the Torah worldthere had already began with the arrivalof Rabbi Eliezer Shulevitz in Eretz Yis-roel in 1922, when he laid the ground-work for the founding of the LomzaYeshiva in Petach Tikva (1924). And

Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer arrived fromSlutzk, Russia, to head Yeshiva EitzChaim in 1923. In addition, the Alter ofSlobodka (Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel)established his yeshiva in Chevron in1924. After the Arab massacre there in1929, the yeshiva relocated in Yerusha-layim, where it is still thriving.

The Chazon Ish (Rabbi AvrahamYeshaya Karelitz) came to Eretz Yisroelin 1933. The first question he askedwhen he stepped off the boat was not,“Where am I going to sleep tonight?”;but, “What are local practices regard-ing terumos and maaseros (tithes)?” Heunderstood that Hashem had sent himto Eretz Yisroel for a purpose, and heimmediately set about guiding agri-

cultural activities on a solid halachabasis. He became the patron of yeshiv-os throughout the land, and was thearchitect of Bnei Brak, as an Ir Torah– a City of Torah. When Ben Guriondecided to discuss religious conflictsstemming from policies of the newState, he went to the Chazon Ish. TheChazon Ish told him, “When a fullwagon and an empty wagon are on acollision course, the full wagon takesprecedence. Our wagon is full with ourhistoric legacy, while yours is empty.”

If the Chazon Ish was the architectof Torah in Bnei Brak, the PonevezherRav (Rabbi Yoseif Kahaneman) was thebuilder of Torah in Bnei Brak and othercities. The Ponevezher Rav had come toEretz Yisroel in 1940. The inspirationto establish a yeshiva came to him at theheight of the war, when General Rom-mel was leading the Nazi armies acrossNorth Africa to the boundaries ofEretz Yisroel. The Rav lay in Jerusalem,stricken with a serious throat ailment.Doctors had given him strict orders notto speak, but news of Nazi atrocities didnot allow him to remain silent. The Ravforced himself into a sitting position,and – in a voice faint, yet conveyingspiritual strength – said, “The Lithuan-ian peasant is lazy by nature, but whenharvest time comes, he becomes invig-orated. And when he sees clouds on thehorizon, the thought of his crop beingruined by rain sends a sudden burst ofenergy through his bones. One canhardly recognize the lazy farmer of yes-


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Yeshivas Mir in Shanghai

terday.” In a voice charged with emo-tion, the Ponevezher Rav continued,“Now is the time. I will immediatelybegin the task of reestablishing the Pon-evezher Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. Stormclouds hang overhead. There is notime to waste. We must act now.”

Some in the room protested, “Pon-evezher Rav, are you making a yeshi-va while Rommel is invading?”

He replied, “That’s when we have tobuild Torah!”

And so he started – with fivetalmidim.

On another occasion, when he wasdescribing his ambitious plans forrebuilding all the yeshivos of Lithuania,his listeners told him, “PonevezherRav, you’re dreaming!”

He answered, “True, I am dreaming,but I’m not sleeping.”The Jewish population grew dra-

matically in the mid-40s as a result ofthe horrific events in Europe, but thechareidim were in danger of being over-whelmed by the new forces. Miracleswere needed – and Hashem providedthem. From the charnel house ofEurope came visionary leaders andbuilders like the Chebiner Rav, the ImreiEmes, the Beis Yisroel, and Reb AreleBelzer. Members of the Mirrer Yeshivacame to Eretz Yisroel from Shanghai afterthe war, to be led by Rabbi Lazer YudelFinkel and Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz.

And who can describe the tremen-dous effect of Torah giants like theBrisker Rav, who escaped with nissim

from the Nazis, stood at the helm of thebattles for clear Daas Torah, and reestab-lished, with a small group of talmidim,that which is today the crowning gloryof the Brisker yeshivos? How can oneassess the awesome impact on theTorah world made by Harav ElazarShach and the Steipler, who laterbecame the recognized leaders of theOlam HaTorah after the Chazon Ish andthe Brisker Rav?

England

For hundreds of years, England wasa Jewish backwater. Torah presencewas minimal.But the Hashgacha that

brought Torah visionaries to America andEretz Yisroel was also active here,at the edgeof the abyss that was Europe. RabbiEliyahu Eliezer Dessler came to Englandin 1925 as a private rebbi. With theapproach of the Churban, he turned intoa different person. He built the GatesheadKollel, an institution that was destined toenergize Torah observance in the entirecountry and to provide Rabbanim,Dayanim and Roshei Yeshiva for WesternEurope after the war. It also spawned thefounding of the Gateshead Yeshiva and the other outstanding Gateshead institutions.

The Hashgacha also brought RabbiMoshe Schneider (who established ahigh-level yeshiva in London), RabbiYechezkel Abramsky, Rabbi EliyahuLopian, Rabbi Leib Lopian, and RabbiLeib Gurwicz to England. Through the

efforts and impact of these gedolim, Eng-land became an achsanya shel Torah, hostto Torah institutions.

Rabbi Dessler writes to his children,as recorded in Michtav Me’Eliyahu:“You should know that we’re living ina time of churban. Even though the pic-ture of that tremendously rich past ofours is still alive, and we see it beforeour eyes, it’s not there. The spiritualwealth that we had has left us. The pres-ent is empty. The wealth of the yeshi-va, that true aspiration for gadlus(greatness in Torah learning), thatlomdus (scholarly depth), that yirasShamayim (piety), that hartzigkeit(warmth) – they’re gone. The kedoshimare gone. The kedusha went with them.What should we do now? Should we killwithin ourselves those sparks of life thatare left? No! No! No! By no means!”

And so he emphasized his unshak-able commitment to rebuilding thatwhich had been destroyed. He saidthat maybe we could still bring backthe kedusha. If we truly feel that wecan, then we have not died. If we canresuscitate that longing for life, thenwe’re alive.

V. DIVINE BLESSINGS AFTER THE DESTRUCTION

When one considers all of theindividual circumstances thatbrought these great men to

America, Eretz Yisroel and England, oneis forced to conclude that a tremendous


The Chazon Ish, with Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler Reb Shraga Feivel Mendelowitz

siyata d’Shmaya (Divine assistance)was involved – on a global scale. Hashemdemonstrated after the Mabul (flood ofNoach) that He does not want thedestruction of the world that He creat-ed. And so He blessed the rejuvenationof life on earth. Churban Europe was theMabul of our day. We are the benefici-aries of the subsequent blessing. We needonly look to see it.

We are not dealing here merely with

a period of reconstruction. In thestrictest sense, European Jewry wasnever reconstructed. What we havewitnessed in our time is an historic ful-fillment of the Divine havtacha (prom-ise) to transplant and enhance Torah, incertain ways even surpassing what wasin Europe.

In the period before the First WorldWar, the Chofetz Chaim spoke of theyerida (decline) of Torah study and liv-ing in Europe2. Then World War Iwrought havoc with all the commu-nities of Europe, followed by a down-ward spiral of Yiddishkeit between thetwo wars. Yes, the yeshivos blossomed.The numbers of talmidim (students),however, were small, and in no waycomparable to the numbers we havetoday.

Yet the eichus (quality) was impres-sive, producing genuine gedolim(giants of Torah scholarship and lead-ership). Our generation has yet to wit-ness similar eichus of Torah greatness.In kammus (quantity) – the largenumbers of b’nei Torah – pre-WarEurope paled by comparison withwhat now exists in Eretz Yisroel andAmerica.

Between the wars in Europe, theprestige of the ben Torah had sunk verylow. The fact that so many b’nei Torahmarried late was a symptom of thiscondition. Nobody wanted to take aben Torah! In our times, the conditionshave become totally reversed. A youngman in the chareidi community seek-ing to get married today feels socialpressure to identify himself with con-tinued Torah learning.

Not only was Torah transplantedfrom Europe to America and Eretz Yis-roel, but there was a tremendousupsurge in kevod haTorah (the honorof Torah). In terms of numbers,Europe had no yeshiva comparable toPonevezh or Mir in Eretz Yisroel, orLakewood in America, with theirthousands of talmidim. One wouldhave to go back to Talmudic times tofind numbers and kevod haTorah com-

parable to what exists today.And who ever encountered a baal

teshuva in Poland? Now, thankfully,people are returning to Torah in greatnumbers. Even people who had noconnection to Torah are “returning.”This trend has been accompanied andnourished by an explosive growth inJewish publishing. Torah learning hasbeen made available in every language,and in forms that are accessible toevery aspiring student.

When you put all these pieces of thejigsaw puzzle together and recognizewhat has emerged from the Churban,it contributes in some measure to alle-viate the nagging doubts raised by thatperiod of history. The downward spi-ral of the abanddonment of Torah wasreversed, and we are perhaps beginningto catch a glimmer of Hashem’s plan.

Ramban (end of Parshas Bo) dis-tinguishes between a nes nistar and anes nigla – a hidden miracle and onethat departs from the laws of nature.However, when a nes nistar occurs withthe entire nation, it becomes a nesmefursam (an obvious miracle). Thisdoes not make it into a nes galuy (openmiracle), such as the miracles of theTen Plagues in Mitzrayim, but it is nev-ertheless a miracle that can be recog-nized by all. We are dealing here withnothing less than a nes, an obviousmanifestation of Hashgochas Hashem(Divine Providence), the likes ofwhich has not been seen for, literally,centuries.

VI. VIEWING THE ENTIRE TAPESTRY

To each Jew who survived theChurban of Europe, we couldapply the words of Akdomus, “If

all the seas would be filled with ink…,”it would be impossible to transcribewhat that one person went through –the humiliation, the despair, and themiracles. The pain was unbearable, butin spite of this and in many cases,davka because of these trials, manyexperienced tremendous chizzuk, andemerged to new greatness.

If this can be said about individu-als, what should we say when we scan


2 This was published in his Sefer Chomas HaDas.See “A Time to Build,” JO May ’02 for a full quo-tation.

the entire wondrous picture of theemergence of Torah after the Churban?

Looking closely at sections of a tap-estry, one’s view is limited, but whenone steps back, one can appreciate theentire picture. And so it is when welook back from the vantage point of 60years of Jewish history, we may betempted to focus on individual, seem-ingly unrelated events. But when wepiece it all together, the overwhelming,breathtaking panorama of what hashappened becomes evident. While thepattern is clearest in America, Eretz Yis-roel, and England, the growth andintensification of Torah Judaism is aworldwide phenomenon. We see it inAustralia and South Africa, WesternEurope, South America, even in theformer Soviet Union. Before the bi’asGo’eil (the coming of the Redeemer),there must still be a fulfillment of thosemomentous words: “And the glory ofHashem shall fill the entire world.” Tillthe light of the Shechina (Divine Pres-ence) emanates from the Beis Hamik-dash, that holy light has been and willcontinue to be spread throughout theworld by Klal Yisroel and the Torah inGalus.

VII. LIGHT FROM DARKNESS

What conclusions can we drawfrom all this? What lessonscan we glean for our own

troubled times? Moshiach has still notarrived. We are still in an eis tzora, introubled times. But we must under-stand that we are in the middle of aprocess. We know that the finalredemption will surely come. We haveno idea of when or how it will comeabout. But this we do know; Hashem’sHashgacha works in inscrutable ways,and that which seems to be complete-ly bad can be the vehicle for great goodand serve as the means to achieve it.

If we were complacent about ourmaterial prosperity, and smug about ourspiritual attainments, Hashem is send-ing us a message to arouse us from ourtorpor. He is letting us know that we arenot in control, and that we have to takecontrol, so to speak, by asking ourselves

what is really important in our lives:What does Hashem want from us, andwhat do we want from our children?

And we have to be hlyptl hlvag Cmvo

(follow recounting redemption withprayer). When we recite the beracha of“larsy lag” and give thanks to Hashemfor redeeming us from Egypt, we haveto follow it immediately with tefilla.For from realization that Hashemsaved us from what seemed like inex-orable servitude, we can put our faithand our trust in Him, and pray forfuture salvation.

If in our days we witnessed the res-cue of our people from completeannihilation and saw a spiritual ren-aissance emerge from the ashes of anawesome cataclysm, we can hope andwe must pray that He will in His infi-nite mercy save us from our presentdifficulties. Let us strengthen our tefil-los for Acheinu kol Bais Yisroel hanes-sunim betzara. And let us hope that,speedily in our days, we will be zochehto ryat Nvyx li sdu rva, and that then wewill understand how that light camefrom the darkness which we sufferedfor these long millennia. ■


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YeshivasBais Pinchos

1951 New Central Avenue, Lakewood, NJ 08701732-367-2880 • Fax 732-364-5258

Ponevezher Rav, Rabbi Yoseif Kahaneman


I. SOME OF THE HARSHEST CRITICISM

Perhaps the most extraordinaryaspect of the current assault onIsrael in the court of public opin-

ion is the degree of participation of Jewsnot only in criticism of specific Israelipolicies but in the delegitimization ofIsrael’s very existence.

For many Jews, the term “Jew”denotes only abstract, universal ideals,such as “social justice.” They feel no spe-cial connection to other living, breath-ing Jews, nor to Israel, the only countryin the world with a majority Jewish pop-ulation. Israel makes them uncomfort-able both as an expression of a collec-tive Jewish identity and of Jews actingwithin the messy, morally ambiguousterrain of the real world. Israel challengesthe universalist, self-identity of such Jews.And when Israel itself becomes the objectof worldwide opprobrium, they findthemselves in the distinctly uncomfort-able position of being identified with aJewish collective with which they have

no desire to be associated. In response,they often lash out against Israel.

Meanwhile, within Israel itself, largenumbers of secular Jews who professallegiance to the Zionist ideal of Jews asactors on the stage of history, neverthe-less seek to denude the state of any attrib-utes of particularistic Jewish identity.Their goal is to render Israel a completelysecular state devoid of any identifyingJewish characteristics. Never before hasa political party dedicated to the com-plete secularization of the Israeli publicsquare wielded the balance of politicalpower to the degree that Tommy Lapid’sShinui Party does today. Perhaps notcoincidentally, as the assault on the tra-ditional aspects of Jewish identity hasgained momentum in Israel, so has theassault on Jewish collective identity, asexpressed by the State of Israel, gatheredsteam in the international community.

Exhibit A

At a recent gathering of the Jew-ish Funders Network, billionaireGeorge Soros, one of the world’s

largest donors to charity (though noneof his philanthropy goes to Jewishcauses), was asked about the resurgence

of anti-Semitism in Europe. His expla-nation was short and crisp: “The poli-cies of the Bush administration and theSharon administration contribute tothat.” Change those policies, and anti-Semitism will decline; fail to do so, andanti-Semitism will continue.

Soros was careful to note that he iscritical1 of “those policies” – presumablyboth those of the Sharon and Bush gov-ernments, but failed to similarly con-demn expressions of anti-Semitism.Reading Soros’ remarks, one could notavoid the feeling that he views the resur-gent anti-Semitism not only as a natu-ral response to American and Israelipolicies, but as a justified one as well.2

THREAT FROM WITHIN Yonoson Rosenblum

Rabbi Rosenblum, who lives in Jerusalem, is acontributing editor to The Jewish Observer. Heis also director of the Israeli division of Am Echad,the Agudath Israel-inspired educational outreacheffort and media resource.

1 Just how critical can be gleaned from a Wash-ington Post interview, in which Soros describedhow he had made “the central focus of his life”defeating President Bush, whom he described asa “danger to the world” whose rhetoric is remi-niscent of the Nazi slogans Soros heard as a boyin occupied Hungary.2 To Soros’ credit, he is consistent in his blamethe victim approach. Outgoing Malayasianprime minister Mahathir Mohammed has in thepast blamed Soros’ manipulation of currencymarkets for his country’s financial crash and citedSoros as a prime exhibit of Jewish control of theworld. And indeed, Soros expressed his concernfor his own role in the growth of worldwide anti-Semitism.

Israel and the Jews’Jewish Problem


Exhibit B

George Steiner, professor of com-parative literature at Oxfordand Cambridge, and the Norton

Professor of Poetry at Harvard, may beless known to the general public thanSoros, but he is one of the principalarbiters of culture in the English-speak-ing world. Responding to an article inthe Summer 2003 issue of the Israelijournal Azure, “George Steiner’s JewishProblem,” Steiner writes: “To survive,Israel must use torture and systematic

humiliation of its neighbors and ene-mies.”

He goes on to accuse Israel of beinga blot on Jewish history and the privi-lege of being a Jew: “For two thousandyears, we Jews were not in a position totorture other human beings. That wasour incomparable nobility and mission.Israel has taken this immense privilegefrom all living Jews, wherever they maybe.”

Steiner writes as if the force of armsemployed by Israel were an inevitableconsequence of Israel’s existence. It is

not. The conditions imposed on Pales-tinians are a direct consequence of theneed to protect Jews from being blownto smithereens by Palestinians whoprefer continuing to seek Israel’sdestruction over living in peacefulcoexistence.

Exhibit C

Some of the harshest criticism ofIsrael has come from within Israelitself. Much of that criticism has

been expressed in forums and languagespecifically designed to turn Israel intoa pariah nation in the eyes of the world.While the phenomenon of Israeli aca-demics adding their names to any peti-tion castigating Israel, including thosedemanding an academic boycott of allIsraeli institutions and academics, is nota new one, the condemnations of Israeltoday no longer come from the aca-demic fringes, but from leading figuresof the Israeli political establishment.

MK Avraham Burg is a former chair-man of the Jewish Agency and a formerSpeaker of the Knesset. He still enter-tains ambitions of being the Labor Partycandidate for Prime Minister one day.In early September, Burg published “TheZionist Revolution is Dead,” in LeMonde, the Guardian, the Internation-al Herald Tribune, and the Forward. Hisscreed attracted worldwide attention,and, as Burg surely realized it would,now occupies pride of place on anti-Semitic and anti-Israel websites.

Having lost both a “just peace and anethical leadership, the end of the Zion-ist enterprise is on our doorstep,” Burgdeclares. He goes on to place the entireonus “for trampling any chance forpeace,” not on Yasir Arafat’s declarationof war after being offered a Palestinianstate at Camp David, but on “the bru-tality of the [Israeli] occupation.”

Burg provides no context for any ofthe Israeli policies he condemns, suchas checkpoints and closures. One wouldnever know from his account thatnearly a thousand Israelis, the over-whelming majority of them civilians,have been killed over the past threeyears.

Burg mentions suicide bombers onlyto express his understanding: “Havingceased to care about the children ofPalestinians, [Israel] should not be sur-prised when they come washed inhatred and blow themselves up in thecenters of Israeli escapism.” They do sobecause “they have children and parentsat home who are hungry and humiliat-ed.” (Burg is apparently unaware of thesocial science literature exploding theconnection between low socio-eco-nomic standing and becoming a suicidebomber.)

In honor of the arrival in Israel of4,000 delegates from the GeneralAssembly of Jewish Communities, Burgexpanded his tirade against Israel assomething “strange and ugly” in theNovember 14 English-languageHa’aretz. To create an entirely false par-allel between Jews and Palestinians, healleges that Jerusalem schoolchildrentold him that when they become soldiersthey will “kill old people, women, andchildren without giving it a secondthought.”

Presumably Burg is aware that Israelhas yet to produce its first suicidebomber, while there is a seemingly end-less supply of young Palestinians clam-oring for the task. Arabs walk withoutfear everywhere in Israel. No Israeli Jewwould enter any Palestinian town, andmany Israeli Arab villages, with muchhope of coming out alive.

II. EXPLANATIONS

What factors explain the rancordirected at Israel by Jews whoappear to harbor no deep-

seated resentment over being born Jew-ish and are not from the wild-eyed Left?There are no Noam Chomskys in thegroup mentioned above.

For some, despair over the seemingimmutability of Arab hostility to Israelhas led them to place the blame on theonly party deemed susceptible to exter-nal pressure – Israel. And to a largeextent, the ferocity of the hatred beingdirected at Israel and Jews has unnervedmany Jews.

Melanie Phillips, one of England’s

leading columnists, describes the moodin England, but what she writes of Eng-land is equally true of the rest of West-ern Europe. “I no longer feel comfort-able in my own country,” writes Phillips,“because of the hatred that has welledup toward Israel and the Jews…: [A]tpresent it is open season on both Israeland Jews.” The political Left in Englandhas captured the intellectual establish-ment, she says, and promulgates the viewthat “Israel should not exist, that it is aNazi state and that Jews control Amer-ica.” Israel is the only country in theworld whose right to exist at all is reg-ularly questioned in respectable intel-lectual journals, and found wanting.

Tony Judt’s call for the dissolution ofIsrael in favor of a binational Jewish andPalestinian state in the New York Reviewof Books and the Los Angeles Times fur-nishes a good example of how unnerv-ing the recent outbreak of anti-Semitismhas been to Jewish intellectuals. Judt, itis important to note, is no fire-breath-ing Leftist. He is a contributing editor

to the ardently pro-Israel New Repub-lic, and his major academic work is acriticism of the French intellectuals fortheir susceptibility to Communism.

Judt charges Israel with holdingworld Jewry “hostage”:

Today, non-Israeli Jews feel them-selves once again exposed to criticismand vulnerable to attack for things theydidn’t do. But this time it is a Jewishstate and not a Christian one, which[sic] is holding them hostage for itsown actions. Diaspora Jews cannotinfluence Israeli policies, but they areimplicitly identified with them, notleast by Israel’s own insistent claimsupon their allegiance. The behavior ofa self-described Jewish state affects theway everybody looks at Jews. Theincreased incidence of attacks on Jewsin Europe and elsewhere is primarilyattributable to misdirected efforts,often by young Muslims, to get backat Israel…. The depressing truth is thatIsrael today is bad for the Jews (empha-sis added).


One senses that unkind things havebeen said to Judt at faculty dinner par-ties, and he would now like Israel to dis-appear. In his devastating critique of Judtin the New Republic, Leon Wieseltiernoted that Judt had implicitly boughtinto the traditional anti-Semitic frame-work:

The notion that all Jews are respon-sible for whatever any Jews do, thatevery deed that a Jew does is a Jewishdeed, is not a Zionist notion, it is ananti-Semitic notion…. It is the essenceof anti-Semitism… to call its object itscause…. [I]f you explain anti-Semi-tism as a response to Jews,… then youhave not understood it. Your havereproduced it.3

The rancor of recent anti-Semitismexplains, in part, the increased uneasewith Israel on the part of Jews whospend their days among those forwhom Israel’s role as the greatest threatto world peace is a given. But the vul-nerability of certain Jews to fears ofbeing outside the prevalent intellectu-al Zeitgeist is not something new.

Indeed, we have previously noted inthese pages how galling it has been since1967 for Israeli Jews, who view them-selves as people of culture and broad sec-ular learning, to find their country sub-ject to widespread opprobriumwherever people of culture and under-standing gather to discuss the greatissues of the day.4

Already in the heady early days ofOslo, Martin Peretz, a cautious sup-porter, noted the overly great concernof Oslo proponents with world opinion:

These Zionists acted as they didbecause they valued something morethan territory, more even than the pro-tection that territory gives. They want-ed recognition of their legitimacy….This is perhaps a weakness of the Jews,worrying far too much whether oth-ers acknowledge their peoplehood.Avraham Burg, who pronounces the

death of Zionism, with a European audi-ence in mind, is just the latest exampleof that too great concern with the goodopinion of others. Burg also enjoys play-ing the role of Biblical prophet inveigh-

ing against all and sundry from a pointof his infinite superiority, a taste inher-ited from his mentor, the late YeshayaLeibowitz, who was wont to call Israelisoldiers “Judeo-Nazis.”

It is No Longer 1961

In his coolness to the suffering anddeath of Israeli Jews and his concernto preserve his self-image as exem-

plar of the Jew’s role as a light to thenations, Burg, though no intellectualhimself, typifies long existing trendsamong Jewish intellectuals.5 As far backas 1961, long before Israel became apariah state in the eyes of much of theworld, the young Jewish intellectualswho participated in a Commentarysymposium entitled “Jewishness and theYounger Intellectuals” professed littleinterest in Israel. A few acknowledged,with a certain embarrassment, thatthey rooted for Israel in its wars. But themore common response was to bemoanthe fledgling state’s bellicosity and itsmistreatment of the Arabs, both in the


War of Independence and afterwards.And that was in 1961, when Israel stillcommanded widespread admiration asa doughty David.

The younger intellectuals professedan almost total lack of interest in theirJudaism – either as students or practi-tioners – and no qualms about inter-marriage, either for themselves or theirchildren. (In that, they were a genera-tion ahead of the rest of AmericanJewry.) Whatever was particularisticabout Judaism – for instance, the ideaof Jewish chosenness – was anathema tothem.

If they found anything of value inJudaism, it was the universalistic valuesof justice and morality. But even theseprovided no warrant for continuedJewish existence. Since these values hadbeen widely adopted by the rest of theworld, Jews were no longer needed.

One aspect of their Jewishness, how-ever, the young intellectuals did find

attractive: the image of the Jew as theeternal Other, the critic of societyspeaking truth to power. In short, theJew as alienated intellectual. The Jew’sstatus as victim and exile had, in theintellectuals’ view, uniquely imbuedhim with sensitivity to the downtrod-den. (In identifying the Jew’s essence asvictimhood and exile, these intellectu-als adopted, perhaps unconsciously,the traditional Christian perspective.)

Noteworthy in all this is the degreeto which the State of Israel threatenedthe comfortable self-image of Jewishintellectuals even at that early date. TheJewish people, wrote one panelist, “bytheir patient suffering preserved andnourished the ideal of a world based onuniversal justice.” On that basis, he coun-seled Israel to sacrifice its national

interests for the sake of world peace andsocial justice.

These intellectual trends, alreadyevident forty years ago, find heightenedexpression today in the writings of Jew-ish intellectuals like Steiner and Judt. ForJudt, Israel is a faith-driven ethno-state,and as such, “an anachronism” in themodern world in which “nations andpeoples increasingly intermingle andintermarry at will; where cultural andnational impediments have all but col-lapsed….”6

All that is particularistic in Judaism– endogamy, choseness, a Jewish state –is rejected out of hand. In his novel The


If they found anything of value in Judaism, it was

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3 Steiner does not accuse Jews of being the causeof Jew hatred, as does Judt. But he makes an evenmore stunning claim: He condemns Jews forrevealing man’s ultimate bestiality by virtue oftheir suffering at the hands of anti-Semites, cul-minating in Auschwitz.4 “The Chickens Come Home to Roost: Zionism’sInternal Contradictions and the Peace Process,”Jewish Observer, June 1994, p. 23.5 For a fuller treatment of these patterns of Jew-ish intellectual thought, see “As the IntelligentsiaSees It: The View from Commentary Magazine,”The Jewish Observer, December 1996, pp.17-18.6 Judt chooses to ignore that the Palestinians arehardly exponents of the universal brotherhoodof man and that Jewish nationalism is opposedby a far more exclusivist and virulent Palestin-ian nationalism.

Portage to San Cristobal of A.H., Stein-er goes so far as to put into the mouthof a fictional Adolph Hitler (A.H.) aspeech in which he traces his MasterRace ideology to the Jewish idea of aChosen People.

For Steiner, the great glory of the Jew,“an honor above honors,” is to be aneternal wanderer, the perpetual “moralirritant and insomniac among men.”From that vantage point, the idea of aJewish homeland is a debasement ofwhat it means to be a Jew.

The rejection of Jewish particularismby Jewish intellectuals converges todaywith broader trends in Western intel-lectual life. The nation-state has beenthoroughly discredited in WesternEurope. Nationalism is blamed for thecarnage of the two world wars of the lastcentury, and its cure is supposed to liein the creation of transnational bureau-cracies and arrangements of interna-tional law.

Israel has become, in the eyes ofmany, the emblem of a discredited

nationalism.7 Unlike European nation-states whose national identities wereforged in war and conquest in the dis-tant past, Israel’s creation under fire tookplace in living memory. The constantwarfare that has been a fact of life sinceIsrael’s birth, and the evident pride ofmany Jews in its creation after 2,000years of exile, have caused Israel tobecome the exemplar of discreditednationalism.

If Jews, in the words of University ofChicago professor Mark Lilla, once“were mocked for not having a nation-state, now they are criticized for havingone.” Judt exemplifies this attitude.“The very idea of a ‘Jewish state’ – a statein which Jews and Jewish religion haveexclusive privileges… – is rooted inanother time and place,” he writes.

The dreamed-of future for Israelamong Europeans, writes Lilla, is nolonger of a Jewish nation-state livingpeacefully side by side with a Palestin-ian state, but of some “post-national,post-political order growing up under

permanent international supervision.Not Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadatshaking hands, but Hans Blix zippingaround Palestine in his little truck.”

III. WHY THESE TRENDS MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Both the fear factor and the intel-lectual trends identified abovehave large implications for the

future of American Jewry. Almost allAmerican Jewish youth today attend col-lege, and most of them will find them-selves spending their college years oncampuses where the atmosphere ishighly charged against Israel. As a con-sequence, they will become increasing-ly afraid to identify themselves as Jews.

To be sure, most Jewish studentsalready enter college with a tenuous Jew-ish identity. A University of Chicago stu-dent summed up the matter well inexplaining why Arab and Moslem stu-dents dominate the campus debate onthe Middle East, despite being greatlyoutnumbered by Jewish students. “ThePalestinians are very rooted, unlike theJewish students who generally rangefrom indifferent to apathetic.” After arecent tour of 13 American campuses,Natan Sharansky estimated that nomore than 10% of Jewish students par-ticipate in any form of Jewish activity.

Other small groups of Jewish stu-dents, like the one who threw a pie inSharansky’s face on the Rutgers campus,inevitably spearhead anti-Israeli activ-ities. At a demonstration in HarvardSquare, anti-Israel protestors enactedscenarios of Israeli soldiers humiliatingpregnant Palestinian women at check-points. A high percentage of the “actors”were Jewish.

If men as rich and powerful as George


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7 The joined condemnation of both America andIsrael in Western Europe and on American col-lege campuses derives in large part from the rejec-tion of the traditional nation-state. PresidentBush is reviled as a mad cowboy for refusing tosubject American sovereignty and power to inter-national organizations like the U.N. and to var-ious treaty arrangements. And Israel, too, is con-demned for not submitting its fate to thedetermination of the consistently hostile U.N. andEuropean Union.

Soros and holders of prestigious aca-demic positions like Tony Judt areunhinged by the fear of being identifiedwith their fellow Jews in Israel, how muchmore so college students of an age whenthe need to feel accepted and popular isstrongest. Even the most identified stu-dents find themselves intimidated.A Har-vard Business School student told Sha-ransky that she was afraid to expresssupport for Israel. The mood on campus,she said, was so sharply anti-Israel “thatshe was afraid her open identificationcould cost her, damaging her grades andher academic future.”In the course of histour, Sharansky found such sentimentswidespread.

Jewish students, like their intellectu-al forebears of two generations ago,pride themselves on their intellectualindependence and ability to overcomeparticularistic feelings for their fellowJews (a problem that does not seem tobother their Arab and Moslem fellowstudents). Anyone who attempts todefend Israel to them will soon findhimself being asked to present thePalestinian perspective as well.“How dowe know you are telling the truth andnot feeding us propaganda?” is theinevitable first question.

There is no presumption in favor offellow Jews. I would venture that manyJewish college students found it at leastas credible that the Israel Defense

Forces had conducted a wantonslaughter of defenseless civilians inJenin (falsely reported by the media),as that the IDF took measures that noother army in the world would havetaken – and at the cost of at least 13Jewish lives – in order to minimizecivilian casualties.

On the basis of his recent campus vis-its, Sharansky laments American Jewry’sinability to develop future leadership. Henotes that as Israel’s Minister for Dias-pora Affairs, he finds himself meetingwith the same Jewish leaders as duringhis time as a Soviet refusenik more thanthree decades ago.

But the problem goes a lot deeperthan the production of new pro-Israelactivists among American Jews. Vul-nerable Jewish students – and the over-whelming majority fall into this category– find themselves in the position ofwanting to do everything possible toavoid being identified with Israel. Forsome, that means proving their pro-gressive bona fides by leading theattacks on Israel. And for the largestnumber, it means attempting to denyone’s Jewish identity. At a subcon-scious level, the easiest way to shed one’s

identification as a Jew is to intermarry.8

In sum, to send Jewish students whohave no solid grounding in Jewish textsor observance, and who have not beenraised in communities and schoolscentered around Jewish identity anddesigned to imbue them with the mostintense identification with their fellowJews, is to send them into a war zoneunarmed, and with predictable conse-quences.

Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetzky once saidat a convention of Agudath Israel ofAmerica that the creation of the Stateof Israel had served to preserve the Jew-ish identity of millions of Jews aroundthe world after the Holocaust. Withoutthe hopes raised by Israel’s birth, formany, the mood of despair caused by theHolocaust would have simply been toooverwhelming to continue identifyingthemselves as Jews. It is a painful ironythat the same state that did so much topreserve Jewish identity today providesthe impetus for many young Jews toshed whatever tenuous Jewish identityremains. ■


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It is a painful irony that the same state thatdid so much to preserve Jewish identity

today provides the impetus for manyyoung Jews to shed whatever tenuousJewish identity remains.

8 I do not mean to suggest that the soaring ratesof intermarriage owe entirely or even largely tothe prevalent anti-Israel feeling on universitycampuses, only that such feelings will serve as onemore factor encouraging intermarriage.

The rabbis have taught that theintroduction and subsequentunfolding of a child’s strengths

and weaknesses begin at conception,continuing through the fetal stageand early infancy, into childhood.

A story is told:A young couple brought their

infant to the Rav for a blessing: “Wewant him to grow up to be a big tzad-dik and talmid chacham.”

“You seem to be aspiring for himto achieve greatness,” commented therabbi. “How old is he?”

“Three months old.”“I will pray for his development,

but for maximum fulfillment of hispotential, you should have startedpreparing a year ago.”In fact, we are told that among

Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai’s five pri-mary disciples, Rabbi Yehoshua benChanania was distinguished as “ashreiyeladeto – praiseworthy is she who borehim” (Avos II, 11). The commentariessay that this accolade refers to RabbiYehoshua’s mother’s practice of wheel-ing his carriage into the beis midrashso he could imbibe the influence of theTalmudic discussions taking place

there (see Yerushalmi, Yevamos).Undoubtedly, children absorb

information, learn skills, and form atti-tudes from a very young age, and therehave always been parents who fill theirchildren’s lives with educational expe-riences and inspiring stimuli. Ofcourse, just as there are some whomake a practice of over-feeding theiroffspring, there are those who over-stimulate them. And yet others whodelegate the responsibilities of earlychildhood education and engagementto toys, games, and the all-time elec-tronic baby-sitters, television andvideos. The latest wrinkle in this areawas the subject of a front-page articlein The New York Times, which washeadlined: “A Growing Number ofVideo Viewers Watch From Crib.” Thestory reports, in part:

Half an hour before bedtime,John Hill-Edgar is in his blue boun-cy chair, watching the “Baby Bach”DVD, riveted by the sound of “Joy ofMan’s Desiring” and the pictures ofa toy train, a baby, and a bubble-blowing toy bear.

He is just 7 months old, tooyoung to talk, but like many other

American babies, he has been watch-ing videos from the “Baby Einstein”series almost since his birth.

In fact, more than a quarter ofchildren under 2 have televisions intheir room, according to a largestudy of young children’s mediahabits that was issued yesterday bythe Henry J. Kaiser Family Founda-tion.

On a typical day, the study found,59 percent of children 6 months to 2years watch television, and 42 percentwatch a videotape or a DVD. Themedian time they spend watchingsome form of media or another onthe screen is slightly more than twohours….

According to the study, 10 percentof the babies and toddlers from 6months to 2 years have a televisionremote control designed for children.And 32 percent have videos from the“Baby Einstein” series, created sevenyears ago as a way of exposinginfants to poetry, language, musicand art.

[The story adds:]The baby-media blitz began in the

late 1990’s, on the heels of a flurry of


“Baby Einstein”a n d t h e A s h r e i Ye l a d e t o F a c t o r

publicity about how the earliestyears were the most important for achild’s brain development. Therewas so much discussion of the“Mozart effect” – the idea that expo-sure to classical music made a personsmarter – that Zell Miller, then thegovernor of Georgia, proposed thatthe state give a classical CD to everynew mother leaving the hospital.

[On the other hand,] the Ameri-can Academy of Pediatrics adopted astatement that said children under 2should not watch television and thatchildren of all ages [emphasis ours]should not have a television in theirroom.

“Maybe it should be phrasedmore positively, that children dobest with the maximum free play, themaximum interaction and maxi-mum face time with their parents,”said Dr. Michael Rich, a member ofthe academy’s committee on publiceducation.Apparently, too much passive

watching can have debilitating effectson the viewer. Yet conscientious par-ents may still feel that a home without“Baby Einstein” – or “Baby Shake-speare” and “Baby Newton” – is short-changing its children. After all, thereare many ways in which one canguide and stimulate one’s children’sdevelopment. And by the same token,there are numerous areas in which theresponding child can develop andmature. The visual, the aural, the tac-tile… listening to stories, hearingsongs and singing along… pouring,stirring, mixing, baking… eating,drinking… being held, holding a doll,a hand… touching, grabbing… andwatching.

Jewish homes have always beenaware of the myriad possibilities foracting on these goals. Many parentsdecorate their children’s rooms withGedolim pictures; others sing “AlephBais,” pointing at the letters as they goalong; some mothers give their three-year-olds their own clumps of doughto knead into a challah. There’s story-time on the lap, pointing at pictures inthe book; putting a nickel in the

pushka; singing “Modeh Ani”; sayingShema. The list is endless.

The dimensions in which a childdevelops are also manifold, as he or sheresponds to spiritual influences, expe-riences emotional bonding, developssocial skills, and gains physical dex-terity (e.g., hand-eye coordination).

Most important, then, is identifyingpositive forces and harnessing them,while avoiding possibly debilitatinginfluences. Yes, the environment,beginning from the earliest embryon-ic stages, including sounds, also con-tributes to a child’s development. Nig-gunim and zemiros – melodies andShabbos and festival songs – theirrhythms and harmonies form thebasis of esthetic appreciation andemotional catharsis, laying thegroundwork for responding to musi-cal stimulation in the future. In fact,thoughts and even unspoken motivescan mold the developing neshama inastounding ways.

These are all part of the spiritualdimension of growth. And this facet ofthe growing child continues torespond to its environment, throughthe “Ashrei yeladeto” stage. Yes, RabbiYehoshua ben Chanania undoubtedlylearned, in later life, to associate thesounds of Torah debated and analyzedwith the security and comfort he hadexperienced in his crib, which wasplaced in the beis midrash by hismother with loving care. The soundsof Torah pilpul were his “securityblanket,” and became a source ofcomfort to him in the years ahead. And

who can calculate how deeply thekedusha of his surroundings had per-meated his being, and contributed tohis general readiness – and inclination– for more Torah?

In sum, Rabbi Yehoshua’s mother –and some of our own Bobbes, by thesame token – was way ahead of the lat-est spin on technological stimula-tions. Sensitizing a child and stimu-lating his growth is most effective whenbegun in the cradle, at the neshamalevel. Should one feel that the latesttechnology is a step ahead in some wayor the other, pause for a moment andthink in terms of nurturing a buddingRabbi Yehoshua, and how that was done.

■


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