When Presidents Curse At The Jews
Going back to the 1940s, top U.S. officials have said ugly things about Jews and Israel. U.S....
Going back to the 1940s, top U.S. officials have said ugly things about Jews and Israel. U.S....
A few weeks ago, I had the unfortunate necessity to spend Shabbos with my daughter in a hospital. And while I am aware that a tremendous amount of political news broke over the past few weeks, I would like to take a break from politics to discuss my experience as an Orthodox Jew spending Shabbos in Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, Long Island. Thank G-d, my daughter is fine, and she received excellent care while in the hospital. Most of what was done was precautionary, and by now the incident is behind us. Also, I would like to make the disclaimer that I am not reviewing the hospital and its staff for their medical prowess; this is just going to be analyzing Winthrop as it relates to being shomer Shabbos in a hospital.
Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed close to 400 individual cases of measles in 2019. CNN reported that this is the second-largest number of reported cases since 2000, when the disease was declared to be eradicated. Here, in the Jewish community, we often hear about cases in our communities of individuals traveling to Israel and unfortunately bringing back the virus with them. However, these cases are not restricted to the Jewish community. The CDC reports that in addition to New York and New Jersey, measles outbreaks (defined as three or more cases) are ongoing in California and Washington State. Individual cases have also sprouted in 10 other states across the country.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned from her post in the Trump cabinet. To say that her tenure was controversial is putting it mildly. However, for some reason, any time there is any news surrounding the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol, or ICE, a national discussion about immigration reform automatically ensues. Regardless of how you personally feel about the former secretary and her policies, you probably believe that our current immigration system is broken and needs a tremendous overhaul.
In Aalst, a small city northwest of Brussels, Belgium, the Carnival parade, which takes place on the Sunday before Lent, is one of the main events of the year, where people are made fun of and drunkenness is the order of the day. But this year, the floats presented were especially distasteful. One float carried two giant figures of Orthodox Jews with pei’os and large hooked noses sitting on bags of money. Another group of people paraded with white hoods and robes depicting the Ku Klux Klan. This is supposed to be funny, but I don’t see any humor in the depicting of Jews in that manner.
In December of last year I wrote a column outlining what I think would happen if the Mueller report came up with no evidence of collusion with Russia. Here is an unedited excerpt of that column: “If the report comes back with no proof that Donald Trump was involved in collusion with Russia during the 2016 campaign, the left will still believe he is guilty and the right will be convinced he’s innocent. In these days of ‘making the data say what you want it to say,’ it’s much easier to manipulate a narrative than numbers. Since we already do it with numbers, it shouldn’t be so difficult to do it with the Mueller report. The report will undoubtedly show many wrongdoings by the Trump campaign, and even if there is nothing in the report showing collusion, Democrats will still have the opinions of ‘well, he didn’t collude, but I knew he did something.’”
January 27 has been designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, as a day the world vowed never to allow anti-Semitism and hate to occur again. Yet, it’s been 75 years since the liberation from the Shoah, and one would think that the world would have learned a lesson or two in how to keep hate from raising its ugly head. But that is not the case. Hate and anti-Semitism have spiked all over the world. There was a time when those who harbored negative feelings against Jews understood to keep them to themselves. Now things have changed, unfortunately, for the worse. People seem free to spout their ugly venom publicly without any conscience or remorse. Attacking Jews is now socially acceptable across every ideological spectrum.