A poignant piece full of feelings during this terrible conflict that brought out the violent antisemitism not only at the US university, but all over the what we used to call the “civilised” world. My wife and I also saw Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner yesterday in our living room in Tel Aviv. And I was thinking how much easier it would be if we could just open a passage through the sea and have only all Hamas and Jihad terrorists drown there. But that is not possible. Watching the Ivy League students in their protests based on ignorance I wonder if these same students would protest against the allied bombing of Dresden and demand humanitarian aid to the suffering Germans?
To me as a faraway observer this is what stands out. The guilt of the innocent civilians losing lives while one defends their families and future, on the other hand the celebration post the massacre of innocent civilians. Maybe I have take a side subconsciously but what Hamas did and perhaps supported by Iran is what led to this tragedy. If Iran had the military that Israel had and if Israel was on the receiving end I fear what would have transpired. I dare say we would have seen no protests by Arab world or the university students for that matter.
A terrific column. It perfectly reflects the conflicting feelings a lot of us are dealing with in macro and micro terms. It's hard to believe the utter stupidity on the part of the protesting college students. I feel sorry for the lives of the Jewish and non- Jewish kids and professors whose college experience is forever tainted by the hate being directed at them, and the resulting fear and danger they face instead of the joy of intellectual and personal growth. Where is a Moses when we need one?
So insightful and poignant, an important much needed read by an excellent journalist.
Less a celebration and more a reminder that the struggle never ends. Shalom
A poignant piece full of feelings during this terrible conflict that brought out the violent antisemitism not only at the US university, but all over the what we used to call the “civilised” world. My wife and I also saw Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner yesterday in our living room in Tel Aviv. And I was thinking how much easier it would be if we could just open a passage through the sea and have only all Hamas and Jihad terrorists drown there. But that is not possible. Watching the Ivy League students in their protests based on ignorance I wonder if these same students would protest against the allied bombing of Dresden and demand humanitarian aid to the suffering Germans?
To me as a faraway observer this is what stands out. The guilt of the innocent civilians losing lives while one defends their families and future, on the other hand the celebration post the massacre of innocent civilians. Maybe I have take a side subconsciously but what Hamas did and perhaps supported by Iran is what led to this tragedy. If Iran had the military that Israel had and if Israel was on the receiving end I fear what would have transpired. I dare say we would have seen no protests by Arab world or the university students for that matter.
A terrific column. It perfectly reflects the conflicting feelings a lot of us are dealing with in macro and micro terms. It's hard to believe the utter stupidity on the part of the protesting college students. I feel sorry for the lives of the Jewish and non- Jewish kids and professors whose college experience is forever tainted by the hate being directed at them, and the resulting fear and danger they face instead of the joy of intellectual and personal growth. Where is a Moses when we need one?
Very resonant piece Elise. Thank you.
Here is a poem I wrote before going to a Seder Monday
Just wrote this
Passover 2024
Tonight as every passover
i will go to a seder
Seder in Hebrew translates to “order”
This year feels different
Contradictions seem to underline every thought we have in these strange unpoetic days
There is no order
Days and nights are
Filled with confusion and grief
This is the night we are to celebrate the exodus of the Hebrew people
From
Egypt where they were
Enslaved beaten and murdered as they built monuments to Pharaohs
Tonight we will sing “ where under every vine and every fig tree we shall live in
peace and unafraid”
This fig tree is a tree whose roots know no ownership but can share its plump fruit with both Arab and Jew and there can be enough for both
Each craving the sweetness of a tender touch and the warmth of the beginning of a simple spring morning
But as through the centuries
There is famine and pestilence in the land and the plagues we read about from the Hagadah say “it would have been enough” still exist
We repeat Dayenu but the plagues only multiply and do not not diminish
Trauma is in the blood of the many and there is no respite
To the destruction that
Modern day Pharaohs have brought upon thousands of innocents
Showering bombs without cessation
Children maimed
Searching for mothers Buried breathless under rubble never to love again
Parents waiting for hostages to be released after a siege that took away the belief that finally a homeland was safe
No one is safe
The blood of many veins tainted with trauma that will not heal
Tonight i will sit with people
As fractured as i feel
We will read from the Haggadah and instead of the Joy of a holiday that celebrates rebirth
There will be profound grief for the loss of order
No seder possible
My throat will be dry and catch there will be
Just Weeping
For the sorrow of the pain that my people are inflicting on those who are hungry homeless hurting
Have no solace that is possible to soothe the agony that hate has wrought on the other.
The only solution is peace
That is why the heart must keep on pumping
Until people understand
They must each taste the succulence of the sweetness of the fig together
Only then can we sing “that we will live in Peace and Unafraid”
Barbara Buloff
4/22/24