Thank you. My parents were Holocaust survivors. I've lived with this my entire life. I've processed it to death. I spent a week at Auschwitz -Birkenau. I understand.
I had a cognate five minutes of gut turning horror. Not the same, but cognate.
I deployed to Iraq in 2009 and spent most of my time in the Baghdad area. One day, I took a tour of Saddam's Al Faw Palace on the periphery of Baghdad International Airport.
Of course, we had all heard the stories of Saddam and his psychopathic sons committing obscene acts of torture like feeding oppositionists feet-first through industrial shredders. But that's all word-of-mouth, abstract torture porn, isn't it?
My five minutes at Al Faw was the stop by the swimming pool. The Ba'athist thugs did not use swimming pools to swim. In fact, they held no water. The Mukhabarat would chain its victims to the railing by the steps leading down into the empty swimming pool and subject them to grotesque and prolonged torture. The Mukhabarat stained the wall of the pool sickly crimson pink from the hundreds--thousands?--of victims tortured and killed on that little piece of Hell. Sickening, stomach-turning. You can't unsee and you can't forget.
The reports from Sednaya Prison in Syria suggest a similar tradecraft of sadistic torture.
My point--the point of my five minutes of horror--is not to say that the depravity of this sadism happens to others besides the Jews. Rather, my point is that this cognate horror doesn't matter unless the world can blame the Jews.
One professor for whom I taught liked to tell the story of the chef who was asked indignantly by an animal rights activist whether it didn't bother his conscience that he boiled eels alive in his cookery? No, replied the chef, I have been boiling them for years. They are used to it.
Arabs have been torturing and murdering other Arabs for years--centuries! They are used to it. If there are Jews involved, well, that's another matter....
I stood in that same shelter in September. It was one of the most surreal moments of my 63 years on planet earth. Thank you for always bringing us your profound insights. Chag Sameach.
I wrote this after hearing a survivor of the Nova Music Festival massacre speak at the Center for Jewish Life at the University of Pennsylvania. I'm pretty sure I was the only non-Jew in the crowd. I'm so grateful to have been welcomed by the worldwide Jewish community and I will keep fighting for Israel and the Jewish people and all of our civilization until I'm dead! https://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/israel-under-attack
Eve. I was 10. I was watching the Olympics 1972. The lesson to me was that the games went on, because why let some slaughtered Jews spoil the fun. Nobody gave a damn because it was us. We need to outwork and outthink them that hate us. Be well. Lots of us love you Eve.
My Rabbi was incandescent with rage as he spoke from the pulpit when Avery Brundage, president of the International committee, proclaimed after the deaths of the Israeli team members that " The Games must go on". I was 22 years old and will never forget it. You see the Rabbi witnessed Kristallnacht in Vienna in 1938 and knew that when it comes to Jews, the Games always take precedent. It is Chanukah and to the ancient Greeks, the Games along with their gods were far superior to a people who practiced monotheism. For Jews, the term The Games Must Go On was synonymous with those peoples and nations who over the centuries treated them as third class citizens and got on with their lives without a jot of compassion for their Hebrew neighbours. Avery Brundage was an American antisemite. Prior to 1936 when he led the US Olympic organisations, Brundage met with Hitler and his underlings several times. He pressed unhappy US athletes and other members of his committee that the 1936 Games should go on and that the US should join the big party. He got his way and also made sure that some Jewish athletes, who in trials won a place in the team, were barred. He was also a misogynist when it came to women participating in athletics and sought to make personal financial gain from star athletes in an amateur sport. By 1972, when Brundage was THE big cheese of the Olympics, he had form on steroids as far as Jews and Israelis were concerned. The Games should never have gone on and one Jewish hero knew it and went home not just for his own protection but on a point of principle. He was one of the greatest swimmers ever, 9 time gold medalist Mark Spitz.
I also stood in that spot and am forever changed and profoundly disappointed by the on-going silence of friends and colleagues who see themselves as humanitarians and supporters of social justice. Shame on them. Am Yisrael Chai.
Once again, Eve, you write the way I dream of writing.
As for the Houthis, they don't change their clothes without permission from their Iranian masters. Israel needs to hit Iran again. HARD. That is the only way to stop the Houthi attacks.
Please, please keep the light burning, brighter and brighter.
Yes, the criminals are magnified by those who do not scream. Where are the Christians whose people are getting beheaded, forcibly converted under torture, whose churches are burning?
The human right activists who give a pass so as not to be called Islamophobic?
I pray that the light of Chanukah can spread and miraculously, again, change the world for good.
Powerful photo of the schmata Chanukia. We Jews are capable of bringing light to the darkest places. Thank you, Eve.
May your light continue to illuminate and bring light to the darkness
Thank you. My parents were Holocaust survivors. I've lived with this my entire life. I've processed it to death. I spent a week at Auschwitz -Birkenau. I understand.
I had a cognate five minutes of gut turning horror. Not the same, but cognate.
I deployed to Iraq in 2009 and spent most of my time in the Baghdad area. One day, I took a tour of Saddam's Al Faw Palace on the periphery of Baghdad International Airport.
Of course, we had all heard the stories of Saddam and his psychopathic sons committing obscene acts of torture like feeding oppositionists feet-first through industrial shredders. But that's all word-of-mouth, abstract torture porn, isn't it?
My five minutes at Al Faw was the stop by the swimming pool. The Ba'athist thugs did not use swimming pools to swim. In fact, they held no water. The Mukhabarat would chain its victims to the railing by the steps leading down into the empty swimming pool and subject them to grotesque and prolonged torture. The Mukhabarat stained the wall of the pool sickly crimson pink from the hundreds--thousands?--of victims tortured and killed on that little piece of Hell. Sickening, stomach-turning. You can't unsee and you can't forget.
The reports from Sednaya Prison in Syria suggest a similar tradecraft of sadistic torture.
My point--the point of my five minutes of horror--is not to say that the depravity of this sadism happens to others besides the Jews. Rather, my point is that this cognate horror doesn't matter unless the world can blame the Jews.
One professor for whom I taught liked to tell the story of the chef who was asked indignantly by an animal rights activist whether it didn't bother his conscience that he boiled eels alive in his cookery? No, replied the chef, I have been boiling them for years. They are used to it.
Arabs have been torturing and murdering other Arabs for years--centuries! They are used to it. If there are Jews involved, well, that's another matter....
Thank you
Eve, thank you and Happy Chanukah.
You are a Light. Keep shining.
You are a shamash for many with your voice... yishar koah
chag chanukah sameach
Beautifully written Eve, you are definitely a shining light!
Happy Chanukah 🕎🎗️
I stood in that same shelter in September. It was one of the most surreal moments of my 63 years on planet earth. Thank you for always bringing us your profound insights. Chag Sameach.
Same. All of it. September. 63 years. 💙
I wrote this after hearing a survivor of the Nova Music Festival massacre speak at the Center for Jewish Life at the University of Pennsylvania. I'm pretty sure I was the only non-Jew in the crowd. I'm so grateful to have been welcomed by the worldwide Jewish community and I will keep fighting for Israel and the Jewish people and all of our civilization until I'm dead! https://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/israel-under-attack
Just read your piece 🙏🙏
Thank you Eve, our modern day Macabee, for bearing witness. Happy Chanukah💙
Eve. I was 10. I was watching the Olympics 1972. The lesson to me was that the games went on, because why let some slaughtered Jews spoil the fun. Nobody gave a damn because it was us. We need to outwork and outthink them that hate us. Be well. Lots of us love you Eve.
My Rabbi was incandescent with rage as he spoke from the pulpit when Avery Brundage, president of the International committee, proclaimed after the deaths of the Israeli team members that " The Games must go on". I was 22 years old and will never forget it. You see the Rabbi witnessed Kristallnacht in Vienna in 1938 and knew that when it comes to Jews, the Games always take precedent. It is Chanukah and to the ancient Greeks, the Games along with their gods were far superior to a people who practiced monotheism. For Jews, the term The Games Must Go On was synonymous with those peoples and nations who over the centuries treated them as third class citizens and got on with their lives without a jot of compassion for their Hebrew neighbours. Avery Brundage was an American antisemite. Prior to 1936 when he led the US Olympic organisations, Brundage met with Hitler and his underlings several times. He pressed unhappy US athletes and other members of his committee that the 1936 Games should go on and that the US should join the big party. He got his way and also made sure that some Jewish athletes, who in trials won a place in the team, were barred. He was also a misogynist when it came to women participating in athletics and sought to make personal financial gain from star athletes in an amateur sport. By 1972, when Brundage was THE big cheese of the Olympics, he had form on steroids as far as Jews and Israelis were concerned. The Games should never have gone on and one Jewish hero knew it and went home not just for his own protection but on a point of principle. He was one of the greatest swimmers ever, 9 time gold medalist Mark Spitz.
I also stood in that spot and am forever changed and profoundly disappointed by the on-going silence of friends and colleagues who see themselves as humanitarians and supporters of social justice. Shame on them. Am Yisrael Chai.
Thank you ❤️ for being our voice
yes.
Wow well written. Thank you so much and Happy Chanukah
Once again, Eve, you write the way I dream of writing.
As for the Houthis, they don't change their clothes without permission from their Iranian masters. Israel needs to hit Iran again. HARD. That is the only way to stop the Houthi attacks.
Please, please keep the light burning, brighter and brighter.
Yes, the criminals are magnified by those who do not scream. Where are the Christians whose people are getting beheaded, forcibly converted under torture, whose churches are burning?
The human right activists who give a pass so as not to be called Islamophobic?
I pray that the light of Chanukah can spread and miraculously, again, change the world for good.
Keep these coming