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In reply to the discussion: Holocaust survivor speaks out for Gaza. Amazing statement. [View all]TygrBright
(21,022 posts)Our neighborhood was an interesting mix, and right up the street from us was a small home-based Synagogue of an orthodox group. Kids being kids, and somewhat dumb, my friends and I made a lot of noise on Saturday mornings when the funny-looking folks who were different than us congregated there.
My mother told us to pipe down, they were going to church, and how would we like it if a bunch of noisy people interrupted Mass? (Truthfully, I wouldn't have minded... but I sorta got the point.) But, being kids, it didn't stick and we were repeat offenders.
My mother (I think now after some consultation with the Rabbi and his family) decided that rather than doing extra chores or docking my allowance, I'd have to learn about what went on at the Synagogue. The Rabbi was really very nice. He didn't try to explain theology or anything like that. He just noted that although they worshiped on a different day, the Synagogue was the same for the Jews as our Church was for our families, and patiently answered questions about why it just looked like an ordinary house from the outside.
And in so doing, he noted that Jews had been persecuted for being different for many hundreds of years, culminating in the horror of World War II and the concentration camps.
Later I got to know other members of the community (there was a FABULOUS deli in the neighborhood...) and became interested in Judaism. I read books, and studied, and was deeply impressed by the quiet determination of neighbors who were involved in the Civil Rights struggles of my childhood, the Anti-Defamation League (back then, Jews could be barred from clubs and openly discriminated against in employment and other areas,) in Union organizing and support of labor, and in the DFL party.
So many of them seemed to share a sense of higher purpose in making the world a place where such things as the holocaust could never happen again, to ANYONE.
I think they would stand beside Mr. Moskovitz.
sadly,
Bright
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