When I was growing up, my maternal grandmother, who was a Holocaust survivor, told us repeatedly that Hitler and the Nazis did not discriminate when they were looking for Jewish blood.
My grandmother strongly warned that we should never assume that they were targeted for being religious Jews. She warned us that we should never assume that integrating with society and/or being a non-religious Jew will save us from being hunted down and persecuted by the enemy.
My grandmother, Ima, as we lovingly called her, explained that they were in the camps together with many other people, including some who hardly knew about their Jewish identity or what it meant to be a Jew. Others had no idea that they had Jewish ancestors. Hitler checked 4 generations back, and anyone who had a Jewish great-great-grandparent, was persecuted. Hitler made many people aware that they actually had Jewish blood.
In the camps, there were religious Jews, non-religious Jews and even Christians who were descendents of Jews. The persecuted included practicing priests whose parents, grandparents or great-grandparents were Jews who have converted to Christianity. Some did so out of pressure from their Christian neighbors. Others reportedly did so for the sake of their children. They were led to believe that their children will have a better life as Christians as they would fit right in with the crowd.
However, as we saw then and as we see now, Hitler and all terrorists do not discriminate! Hitler killed 150 million people, and in total 6 million were Jewish or of Jewish decedents.
In the camps, there were Jews and gentiles, super rich and poor, and higg-ranking officials etc. Many Jews assisted the local Jewish and non-Jewish population alike. (see below about the story of my great-grandfather.)
Now, on October 7, 2023, we saw that blood hungry terrorists like Hamas from Gaza, did not discriminate. They killed everyone in sight, Muslims, Christians, Jews and Atheists.
Hamas killed their own brothers! We heard stories from Muslim on how their family members begged the terrorists in their own language to let them live. These Muslims begged in Arabic to be spared, but the heartless terrorists did not care, they killed their own indiscriminately. A Muslim father publicly described the heartbreaking incident of how he was driving on the road when Hamas terrorists approached their car. They shot his pregnant wife, who was wearing her burka and speaking Arabic, at point-blank range. Their 8-month-old baby was in the back seat of the car.
They killed many Asian foreign workers, many from Thailand, who clearly did not look Israeli. They killed many English-speaking tourists, even when it was clear that they were not Israeli.
Interestingly enough, some of these tourists were here in Israel as agents from foreign pro-Palestinian interest groups, who, for the past year, have been out on the Israeli streets protesting and blocking roads while waving Palestinian flags.
Their excuse for disrupting the country was that they wanted to stop the judicial reform, which would change the way judges are elected. With the new law, the system would match that of America and other democratic countries.
The current old fashion system allows a small group of sitting unelected judges to vote into power one who they decide on. With the new democratic system, the current Knesset members decide which judges best represent their voters’ interests.
For the past year, Israeli intelligence said that foreign groups were paying people in Israel to protest against the Judicial reform in order to ensure that the left leaning communist judges stay in power as they often side with leftist groups who oppose strong punishment for terrorist. In some cases, these judges blocked the military from destroying the homes of terrorists. Especially if the terrorist lived at home with his/her parents. In addition, these judges allowed court cases to be brought by left wing Israeli citizens on behalf of enemies in Gaza. It seems that the Palestinians used the left wing people’s good-hearted attempts for peace to their advantage to collect information on their kibbutzim and later used the intelligence to kill everyone. A list was found in the possession of a terrorist with the home addresses and names of each family.
The leftist parties have been shrinking for many years because they speak very negatively against religious Jews and Israel in general due in part because left leaning political views clash with the Torah. Their children, who were growing up with the rhetoric, chose to move away from Israel, leaving the leftists with little support.
Meanwhile, the God-loving Jews never leave Israel as we live here because Hashem commanded us to, making God-fearing Jews the majority of the country.
One of the kidnapped elderly was a woman named Vivian Silver, 74, she moved to Israel from Canada and lived in the Kibbutz Berri, close to the Gaza border. In one of her videos, Vivian explained that she wa a “Conditional Zionist.” She said that Jews should have their own state only as long as Palestinian have their own as well.
Palestinians were given their own state, it was Gaza. The sitting prime Minister then, against the will of a lot of Israeli citizens, handed it to them in 2005. Immediately after all Jews were forcefully evacuated from their homes and business in Gaza, the Prime Minster suffered a stroke and was in a vegetative state until he died. However, the Palestinians were still not happy with what they already took from the Jewish nation, and they wanted our God given land, especially, the holiest city of Jerusalem.
Vivian said in one of her latest videos that she had a lot of Palestinian friends in Gaza with whom she communicated regularly. She attended marches waving Israeli and Palestinian flags in support of Palestinians in Gaza. (I was unable to find a single video of her supporting or showing compassion of Orthodox Jews.)
Yet, when the terroriss came into Israel, they did not care that she was a so-called “peace activist” for their people.
At first, she was reported as kidnapped from her home and took hostage to the place where she fought for. None of her “dear friends or activists” who attended the marches with her from the other side came to her aid. Her fate was the same as all others.
After around 6 weeks of war, Silver was found dead. We are still waiting for details at the time of this writing.
There was a mother and daughter duo, Israelis who lived in Chicago, USA. They too were kidnapped by Hamas.
As of now, not much is publicly known about them and their actions while they were in Israel. However, After a short time in Hamas captivity, the mother and daughter were released. A well-know anti-Jewish leader of the American BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement from Chicago took credit for their release. He said that he spoke with his acquaintances in Gaza to ensure their release. At first, the woman’s son/brother denied the man’s involvement. This caused the BLM leader to release all text messages from the brother of the released hostages’ brother, showing that they were in fact in contact.
A day later, the BLM leader said that he spoke with released hostages’ family, who allegedly claimed that they were afraid to publicly be tied to his group for fear of backlash from their family in Israel and the Israeli government. If they were innocent people and not here with bad intentions, and were not here as recruited operatives from the anti-Semitic group, then why would they be scared of anyone? We don’t know, but God knows their true intentions. Hamas certainly did not care about their intentions or actions. When anti-Semites want blood, they do not discriminate, they hurt and/or kill everyone and steal everything possible.
My paternal great-grandfather had a soda factory in Somorja, Slovakia, where they were doing well. Their home was open to all. Jews and local gentiles who were down on their luck came to their home for a warm meal, a bed and financial support.
Yet, when World War Two broke out, not one of those gentiles who were assisted in time of need returned the kindness by helping them in any way. Instead, the moment my great-grandparents and their children were kidnapped from their home by the Nazis, their “friends” and neighbors stormed the home and stole all their possessions, including their business by forcing them to sign documents to hand it over. The thieves refused to return the business after the war.
Imagine hosting people while there were down on their luck only for them to turn on you and celebrate the kidnapping and killing of your entire family, including your wife and children.
At the same time, I must mention that there was a good local gentile who had fear of God and removed the Holy Torah scrolls for the synagogue and took them for safekeeping. The Torah scrolls were returned to the few surviving Jews who returned to the community after the war.
We must remember that God created the world with choice, people have the right to chose, we can choose to be good or bad.
We need to help people in their time of need, we must be nice to all of mankind and each of them are created by God and are His children.
We should not love those who hate God or the Jewish people. As the it says כל משנאיך אשנא
However, we must also remember our history, the Spanish Inquisition the Holocaust and the Hamas massacre, and its lessons.
Many non-Jews hate you and will pounce at the right moment. Self-hating Jews are also dangerous as they are resentful of their heritage and lack of choice in the matter of their Jewishness. Some spend their entire life trying to erase that, and change their reality by hating their own brethren and supporting those who hate us, only to have it backfire eventually.
As we know, the Medrish Sifri Bamidbar 69 הלכה בידוע עשו שונא ליעקב It is well-known that Eisuv hates Yakov. It is a fact, most gentiles hate Jews and will do anything to see us dead no matter what our political views, background or level of religious observance are. This helps us keep apart from the gentiles and not intermarry. When we forget who we are, the gentiles find a way to wake us up and separate us from them as we are supposed to be.
Throughout the Torah we see that Hashem warns us to be good to others, especially the poor, widows and orphans. The Torah repeatedly emphasizes on the importance of peace and harmony between fellow Jews. Hashem says that when there is achdus (togetherness) and love between fellow Jews, we will be strong. However, when the Jewish nation is divided and against one another, we will be weak, and the enemy can be strong.
Sadly, this was reportedly true before the Holocaust, and we have seen this before the October 7, 2023. The entire year there was discontent, arguing and opposition from left and the right. In a move that surprised the nation, there were Jewish politicians who chose to create a government with the Arab party while at the same time refusing to make a coalition together with religious God-fearing Jews.
The Torah tells us to respect our parents and treat them right. The Torah does not put conditions on the parents’ level of Torah observance. (unless the parents orders one to sin then one cannot follow, otherwise, we need to respect them.)
It has been a very long time since the Arab party was in a government coalition. This allowed them access to some military security secrets. There will be an investigation as to who leaked sensitive information to Hamas. We cannot jump to conclusions as of now. However, we know that choices were made when Jews were divided that resulted in terrible tragedy.
We must learn from History, we must be a nation together as one. We must never attend a protest against another Jew. Furthermore, we must learn that our actions have far-reaching effects, therefore we must act as the Torah commands us. Treat everyone with love and caring while at the same time don’t blindly trust people. Know that people can turn their backs on you in a moment’s notice. Also, we must not love those who hate Jews or Hashem, and we need to daven to Hashem to turn their hearts to love Jews and Hashem as Brurya told Rabbi Meir about his evel neighbors.
