Sadly, though, the hearts of the vast majority of our people have yet to be touched and Jews are disappearing in the melting pot of assimilation and intermarriage.
And now it is not only our individual spiritual lives that are at risk but our national life too, as our beloved Israel is being threatened once again.
Amazing how we fail to learn from history. I am not referring to our ancient past but to that which transpired in the middle of the 20th century when Chamberlain, the British prime minister, proudly and happily announced to the world that the deal he struck with Hitler would guarantee peace. Did people really believe him? Were they so naïve?
I discovered a long time ago that people believe what they want to believe. We see this same phenomenon unfolding with the Iran nuclear deal.
To those who console themselves with the thought that if push came to shove the democratic nations, led by the United States, would come to the aid of Israel, I can only say that I recall the same hope resounding among the Jews in Europe as they heard the ominous sound of Nazi boots marching on the cobblestones accompanied by the shouts of “Death to the Jews.”
But even as the Allies were winning the war and bombing German strategic sites and factories, they never attacked the concentration and death camps. Even the railroad tracks that enabled the cattle cars packed with our doomed people were off limits. Until the very last moment, the machinery of those camps was working overtime, snuffing out the lives of our people.
And if anyone is still, at this late stage, naïve enough to put any faith in the UN, I would suggest a crash course in the history of the League of Nations. Is there any real difference between that inept and hypocritical organization and today’s UN?
Once again we are hearing the same demented cry of the Nazis, only this time it’s “Death to Israel; death to America.”
Was it only yesterday that Jews celebrated the resurrection of Israel? Can it be that once again the specter of evil is looming over our heads? What is our solution? What is our strength? And how can we harness that strength so that it will bring about the salvation of Am Yisrael, in both an individual and national sense?
How do we present our case? How do we explain our right to the land of Israel? That is the challenge we all must contemplate and respond to.
(To be continued)