Shalom Pollack – Back on Track

 

Thirty-three years ago Rabbi Meir Kahana was assassinated just after he had delivered a speech in NY, pleading with Jews to come home.

Jews were always the only thing on his mind., acting on behalf of Jews, and pleading with Jews.

As an adolescent in Brooklyn in the sixties and seventies I  lived in the vortex of his activities and grew up with his presence.

When Jews in "changing " neighborhoods began to be the punching bag of Black antisemites and the police and Jewish establishment did nothing, Rabbi Kahane established the "Jewish Defence League".

Jews were the prime target and not any other ethnic group. Why?
One reason was that other groups minded their own business and did not try to save the Blacks. Another reason was that Jews were known not to be armed or aggressive, unlike the Goyim, Italians, Poles, and Irish. They did not have the Jewish tradition of defending themselves with words.

I was a supporter and even took part in patrols defending defenseless Jews.
It was not a hypothetical situation for me as my grandfather who escaped pogroms in Poland was almost killed by  "urban youth" when he did not have money for them as he walked to shul on Shabbat.

Today, the inevitable anti-Semitism that Rav Kahane warned about can no longer be wished away. The growing lump has come out from under the rug and is filling up the entire room.

It is America today.

I remember my Brooklyn College days,it was the closest thing to a Jewish establishment. Both my parents and siblings attended. It was our college.

In the early seventies the policy of "open admissions" invaded the idyllic sanctuary
Soon the "Black Panthers" together with their  Communist allies (there was no Muslim or "Palestinian" presence then) began to intimidate and push the Jews out of public spaces, especially in "SUBO" the beloved student lounge and cafeteria.

It was our hang-out and they were determined to kick us out.
Jews were powerless and leaderless as the college ( mostly Jewish) administration did nothing.

That is when Rabbi Kahane arrived with his boys.
There was a pitched battle with objects flying on both sides.
His message was received and the Jews felt safe once again. Of course, the administration condemned his violence as did all the impotent Jewish organizations but we Jewish students loved him. He gave us Jewish pride.

Fast forward to the plight of Jewish students on campuses today.
There is no Rabbi Kahane to challenge the hordes of anti-Semites on the campuses where Jewish students hide behind locked doors and are left to their unkind fate at the hands of a growing Muslim threat. There is no future for Jews on American campuses. End.

Rabbi Kahane was assassinated by an Arab bullet but much before he was murdered by an arrogant bloated, ungrateful Jewish establishment.

I also remember that he refused to remain silent in the face of the oppression and liquidation of two million  Soviet Jewish brothers and sisters.  There was no time to wait.
As a boy, he witnessed the inaction of the Jewish establishment during the Holocaust - and its results. He promised himself, never again. His brash and sometimes violent campaign against the  Soviet evil empire eventually embarrassed the Jewish establishment into action and the gates of the Soviet Gulag were open.

When he moved to Israel in 1971  he saw an existential threat to the Jewish state.
The secular Jewish state was methodically destroying the Jewish soul of the country and for its source of strength and survival

He understood that without a soul the body dies.
He warned that without a Jewish soul, identity, and pride, we are blinded to the Arab ( especially Israeli citizens) enemy that will pounce on us without mercy when ready. He, more than anyone else, understood that we, in an unstoppable deterministic process find ourselves in the situation we do today. He saw the inevitable clearly and did not stop warning and pleading, pleading and warning...

Again he was shunned and maligned by all the experts and reasonable elites who warned that he was just  "rocking the boat", maligned and persecuted by everyone. Everyone.

But was his experience any different from the prophets of old?

The very same discourse in days of old was played out then as they were in our own time. Then it was  Jews like  Isaiah and  Jeremiah who cared and pleaded and warned the same sneering audience.  In our time, his name was  Rabbi Kahane.

With their calls and warnings ignored, it was only  "sudden" unexpected catastrophic events that brought Jewish history back on track.

shalompollack613@gmail.com
tour guide and author
"Jews, Israelis  and Arabs"