"Mommy, Why Do People Want to Kill the Jews?"

Just the other day I asked my 15-year-old son if he'd like to visit the National Holocaust Museum. He had a few days between the end of school and the launch of his summer plans. Our last visit to the museum has become something of a family "joke": A decade ago I took him (age 5) and his older sister (then 7) to visit the children's section of the museum. Although that exhibit is geared to a more youthful audience, it was still nightmarish and chilling to such young imaginations.

Called "Remember the Children: Daniel's Story," the exhibit tracks the fate of an ordinary German schoolboy who is eventually deported with his family to Auschwitz. You begin in a replica of the boy's bedroom--just like any other, comfortably furnished, with toys, books, mementos--and then proceed through a series of rooms that re-create the rise of German anti-semitism, from the cracked shop windows of Kristalnaacht, to the typical quarters of a family now living in the ghetto, and eventually to the concentration camp itself. The journey is narrated by poignant, and often harrowing, excerpts from the boy's diary, a la Anne Frank.

My children could not sleep properly for weeks afterwards. My husband (born Jewish)--who'd not received an advance warning of our little excursion--was flabbergasted that I would think that this had been a good idea. Still imbued with the zeal of a convert, I insisted it was important for our children to understand this aspect of their religious heritage. It being 1998, antisemitism--especially in North America--seemed as much a thing of the past as the grainy black-and-white photographs depicting trainloads of passengers in old-fashioned dress, being loaded to their doom.

My husband shook his head. "Yes, it's never too early to let them know how loathed Jews have been." He suggested a corrective field trip to the Israeli embassy, where they might glimpse more positive images of Jews defending themselves. I bristled--but guiltily (isn't that emotion also integral to the Jewish identity?). It was stupid of me. For years I regretted the ghastly pictures I'd imported into my children's minds.

Now fast forward: The little boy who once asked, plaintively, grasping my hand, "Mommy, why do people want to kill the Jews?" is now taller than I. He recently (as in, during the most recent conflict in January) accompanied our Rabbi on a tour of Gaza and visited with Israeli victims of suicide bombings and other acts of terror. Post 9/11, he's witnessed the rise of worldwide, and often officially sanctioned, antisemitism in cities where we once thought it had been eradicated--London, Paris, Berlin. Closer to our home in D.C., he's watched cement barricades go up around the Jewish schools he attended in pre-K and elementary. The playgrounds are now screened from the street. The front classroom windows are darkened so as to impede visibility from the outside. We no longer remark on the police cruiser that sits outside our shul on major Jewish holidays: private security is now as central to the celebration of Rosh Hashanah as apples and honey.

So when free time arose this week, I proposed he and I go back to the museum so he could see it through more mature, less vulnerable , eyes. He was keen to visit this time--and ribbed me again about inflicting it upon him when he was so young.

We were thinking of going today or tomorrow. It's a good thing that we procrastinated. Who would have imagined that the sentiments we'd once thought were so safely encased as historical exhibits would blast forth and shatter through the museum itself?

And what would I answer now to my son's haunting question: "Mommy, why do people want to kill the Jews?"

Comments

[Lucky777s]

If you are serious about your son finding out why, then have him look on the internet for about 1/2 an hour.

[Lucky777s]

Why do people hate Jews? Just look at a website like VNNforum, Stormfront or ThePhora (net). It may make him feel uncomfortable, but if you genuinely want to answer that question for him, it's a good place to start.

[ebaack]

Danielle, did your son and Rabbi visit Israeli jails holding the Shministim (who are) young Israeli conscientious objectors, young Israelis who refuse to join the IDF? These are young Israeli heroes whose ethics do not permit them to participate in the "wretched policy of the oppressor towards (Palestinian) civilians." Another of the Shministim testifies, “I am convinced that it is no one but ourselves who determines that it is our fate to live by the sword. There is another way, which is not the way of war. This is the path of dialogue, of understanding, of concession, forgiveness, of peace."

And for holding these "radical" ideas of dialog, they are imprisoned.

These young Israeli heroes, Israel's HOPE, give their testimonies at http://december18th.org/ .

[robbep]

This is rich, may I ask the same question as your son who does want to kill jews? Does the act of one sick racist mean that a group of people desire to kill all jews? People may disagree with Israeli policies but not even the Arab countries are advocating the killing of jews. The few Arab groups that are fighting against Israel are fighting the occupation of their country. So where does this why do people want to kill the jews come from? This is another example playing the role as victim and anyone who disagrees with you is an antisemite. Curiously, these articles are propping up when the US is drawing the line on Israeli settlements.

[JustMyThoughtJoe]

I would like to know what she answered to her 5 year old son and what she said recently.

[Lisa Guest - Huffpost Blogger]

Does anyone else get a headache reading all of this? If religion is the "opiate" of the masses, it is also the caffeine... Considering every religion believes in peace, why do men continuously kill in the name of God? On the gate in Dachau it says, "NEVER AGAIN." Yet it continues to happen every damn day and usually few people bristle or care or coordinate efforts to stop it. I hate to throw the baby out with the bath water, but until something changes I find no reason to support any religious organization or religious leader. Rigid belief systems got us into this mess and won't get us out of it.

[CricketGirl]

to which one can only say... amen.

[PegeOne]

All this talk about Christianity being the source of anti-semitism is nonsense! Anti-semitism has existed since biblical times, as when the Jewish people were made slaves by the Egyptian Pharoh to when Jewish Queen Esther intervened to save the Jewish people from the systematic slaughter by the Persians around 400 B.C. Besides, today the biggest supporters and best friends of the Jews and Israel are Evangelical Christians (ask any Jewish person living in Israel), while the most hate for Jews and Israel comes from the far left.

[Lobo-4]

http://www.sodahead.com/question/415739/is-obama-alienating-israel-at-the-expense-of-the-muslim-world/?page=10&new=1&scroll=1#post_15188435

Take a look at this, people are going nuts

That’s why the hate has to stop

Stop hating Jews

Stop hating Palestinians

Stop waiting for the end of time hoping that the entire world will be plunged into unbelievable misery

Start loving each other!

Support our President in his attempt at bringing peace and good sense back in to this troubled world.

Let’s have positive examples posted about people helping each other even their so called enemies.

Let’s begin to celebrate man’s humanity

[garymc8]

ABSOLUTELY ABSURD. THE LEFT HATES JEWS? IT CLEARLY COMES FROM THE FAR RIGHT RELIGIOUS EXTREMISTS.

[courtb]

Yes, I see, it was the right who protested the Gaza war and chanted "death to Jews"?

[wonder88]

gary, you are in denial. The judeo- christian religion is very pro Israel

[wonder88]

pege, you are so right!! Christians and jews need to unite

[OliverTwist]

The answer to the question "why do people want to kill the Jews?" is summed up nicely in the book "Constantine's Sword" which is about the history of Christian antisemitism starting approxiamately from the time of Paul.

But what is going on in the middle east with Arabs and Jews - Semites all - is something else and for that conflict both the right question and the right answer are certainly different - although the complication of the overlaping influence of the ongoing Christian Crusades complicates the considerations

[unitron]

Well said, sir! People don't seem to realize that the anti-Jewish sentiments of the Third Reich, or for that matter, "whites only" social clubs that didn't define "white" broadly enough to include Jews, had nothing to do with any sympathy for non-Jewish residents of the area south of Lebanon and east of Jordan, and that persons nowadays who think that those known as Palestinians got a raw deal aren't necessarily Neo-Nazis.

[Subby]

Why do people hate jews?

The jews are special. Not only are they a self identified separate ethnicity/race, they also practice a separate religion with a rich rich history with their own language (Hebrew). If this wasn't bad enough, the religion they practice is at direct odds with the two largest religions, Christianity and Islam.

Maybe because of this very fact, they form close communities, which fosters business, professional, social and familial success. So of course being successful, people have an additional reason to hate them.

They are a bigots wet dream.

A similar case is the chandala caste in Hinduism. They are perceived as a separate race and only permitted to worship certain gods. So already the hindu tradition has figured out that the two pronged marginalizing forces of racial segregation and religious self-identification are excellent ways to keep people down.

That's why Jews keep on popping up, they are good signs of racial and religious intolerance. (which Chris rock highlighted in a funny routine)

Also to be Jewish is NOT a nationality because they have no nation. (2000 year old nation doesn't count). But you can be an Israelite.

One can self identify oneself as Jewish in the sense of a community or cultural identity, being a Jewish atheist here makes sense.

But you cannot be a racial Jew, because DNA evidence and modern genealogy disproves almost all of that. It is really a religious term people mix up with being a cultural Jew.

[Michael Pollack]

Jews do have a nation. Israel.
Judaism is not at odds with Islam and Christianity. There are many common beliefs and values, and all three share the same common ancestor, Abraham.
And being Jewish is very simple, either you converted or your mother is Jewish. Just because you like bagels and lox, and occasionally use the word schtik, that does not make you a "cultural Jew," there is no such thing.

[Tuckerndfw]

You are a Jew if your mother is Jewish?

Abraham had no female children, nor did his son Isaac, or grandson Jacob (aka Israel).

The "children of Israel" (Jacob) were 12 men, not women. They had 4 different mothers, none of whom were descended from Abraham.

So, how was the "Jew gene" passed down by women beginning with Abraham when Abraham had no female children?

"Jew" was a nationality (Judean), not a "race." A nationality that no longer exists.

Currently, Jews are members of a religious cult called Judaism, but they are not born Jews, they must accept Judaism as their religion. Same as Christians or Muslims.

Jews have not been the only group persecuted over time, that is just part of their mythology which they actively promote to legitimize their mythology.

Zionism is an extension of the Christian Crusades.

The problem is with people who promote a book of mythology as a history book. And, then, proceed to wage wars based on those myths.

And, repeat those myths (e.g. "Jews are a race") as fact.

[Abo]

It is sad that we can memoralize the horror that visited the Jews but we must hide the visual evidence of the barbarity visited upon the Muslim Arab.

Why do we demonize the Muslim Arab and why are thousands upon thousands of their lives slaughtered not even worth mentioning?

[antaeus]

Anyone who's lived in Europe knows that Arab suffering is mentioned all the time. As for America's historic pro-Israel bent, is that so hard to understand? Israeli culture strikes Americans has much more congenial than Muslim culture. As a gay person, would I feel more comfortable in a country that had tolerance for its gay population, or where the existence of gays were both simultaneously denied and punished by death?

[Abo]

"Israeli culture strikes Americans has much more congenial than Muslim culture".

So, Europeans--whether they are Gay or Straight acknowlege the suffering of the Palestinians, for example, but not the Americans, because so many of the despotic tyrannies that we set up and call "our friends" persecute homosexuals and women?

[Khazen]

Any person who wants to kill Jews is a murderous son of a bitch. No excuses. It is Israel, however, that makes life difficult for Jews around the world. It kills women and children and people blame the Jews. The Jews are innocent. It is the Israeli governemnt alone that is to blame.

[ignorantAmerican]

Jews in America often support Israel. How does this make them innocent?

[courtb]

So all the Saudis should be held responsible for the hijackers on 9/11?

[courtb]

And I meant American Saudis, although it could apply to any Americans who practice Islam or Arab Americans who support the countries of their ancestors.

[wonder88]

ignorant, your name is very fitting.

[brianadler]

Many Christians supported Hitler, but you'd never blame Nazism on Christians. It is a logical fallacy to say that because some Jews in America support Israel, they are to blame for the Israeli government's choices. Even many Israelis do not support their govts oppression of Palestinians, just as many Americans did not support the war in Iraq.

[glorialovelace]

People who invoke that so-called argument -- Jews in America often support Israel, so they are therefore blameworthy as a group -- are using it to mask their own anti-semitism.

[lastpost]

Aren’t there at least two ways to resist oppressors?

1/ Act in an alternative way, and thereby demonstrate the inefficiency and wastefulness of that ideology and its methods.

2/ Adopt and maintain a similar approach, and thereby infer legitimacy to those actions.

I may rid the world of another. But what advance has been made, if I become him?

[jcwtts1]

Wonderful philosophy, but how about simply put, defense against aggression. How about, your back against the wall, you do what you must so that your children can live. Maybe not live in peace, but simply live.

J

[Thabit]

So are you saying that the Palestinian struggle to simply live in the land of their fathers is justified? cool i agree with you

[ZenJu]

I am an Israeli. The movement to restore our people in our historic homeland, Zionism, began in the mid-1800s, but we've never forgotten our ancient home in the many centuries of our exile and wandering. The Shoah (or "Holocaust") was NOT the reason for Israel's creation. Nor was it by UN declaration; the British Mandate of 1917 and the League of Nations mandate (just after the First World War) recognised that the Jewish people had the right to create a national home in the Land of Israel, way before the UN was even established. The British (and the French) played the Muslim Arab world against us for political reasons, which is tragic: Arabs and Jews are cousins. We have much to share.

In recent years, it has become fashionable for Jew-haters to disguise their racism with clever camouflage: "Oh, I'm not anti-Semitic, just anti-Israe­l/anti-Zio­nist." Sorry, that won't wash. It's one thing to criticise the actions of the Israeli government; I do that often. But what's often done is to question our very existence, our legitimacy as a people. That's racist. And it's such talk that fuels the actions of extremists and haters.

Let's see if this gets posted. So far it hasn't worked. I wonder?

[arvay]

No sensible person questions the right of Israeli Jews to exist.

What a growing number question is the existence of Israel as a Zionist state, a state that must remain Jewish. Like South Africa was once determined to remain white.

This insane act by a disturbed individual will be used to try to discredit anyone who has this view, as you're doing. It's no more relevant than the crazy Jewish gunman who shot up the Dome of the Rock a few years ago.

Sorry, but we're contemptuously rejecting this cheap attempt to discredit our views, which, like those who try to use the Holocaust as an excuse for imposing Israel on the unwilling Palestinians, actually dirties the memory of those who were murdered.

[courtb]

Arvay, do you feel the same way about Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the over 50 Muslim countries on this planet?

[SiberianRat]

I agree, arvay.

[GGMarks]

another thing that fuels extremists is the futility of fighting a very very influential minority --

who has the skills and positioning to advance certain crimes to front page news

while other crimes languish in the ethers

Some hate crimes are just more important than others.....

An abortionist is dead and the story was good for a couple news cycles.

An Arab shoots an American enlistee -- but it really didn't get much traction.

A guard at a holocaust museum is shot and ..... whoa....

24/7 for the cause.... not a bad nights work

[roald]

The abortionist story got more traction than the recruiter because of all the right-wingers who said he should die, before and after the killing. No one said that recruiters should be killed or that the actions of the killer were justified to prevent the recruiter from acting in a way that would cause more people to die.

The killing of the guard story is new. We don't know how many cycles it will last. It may depend on how many people say that the shooter was justified by whatever twisted logic they might use.

My heart goes out to the families and friends of all of all three men, killed by extremists.

[cherry33]

I have to say that seeing how is Israel acted this last time in battling the Gazans was deeply troubling to me. HOWEVER, I will say that I do undertand where you're coming from in feeling that many disguise prejudice w/ anti-Israeli policy talk. I agree that there are and will be many xenophobic people who take the opportunity to hate w/ guise of legitimacy. But, this doesn't make disagreement w/ Israeli policy anti-semitic. Many racists take the opportunity to hate whenever they can, legitimate or not. That being said, I think Israelis deserve to live peacefully, as do the Gazans. And hate comes in any religion or race, as does love. And lastly, thank you for saying that Muslims and Jews are cousins. I have some Muslim background and was brought up to feel an innate "comfort" w/ Jews that is special b/c of that.

[Totbean]

Hang on! You can't get away with that - it just doesn't follow. I'm British and from Northern Ireland to the former colonies, we have performed actions that are simply inexcusable. When we are criticised for Bloody Sunday by the Americans or the Israelis we don't automatically think "oh here we go - another example of anti-British propaganda". Israel does some pretty appalling things. It isn't an evil regime and I'd much rather live there than anywhere else in the Middle East but it does some terrible things all the same in my view. Nixon and Kissinger destroyed Cambodia - a national disgrace in my opinion but I'm not anti-American for saying so nor am I anti-semite because I deplore the treatment by some Israelis of the Palestinans. Its this fear I wrote about earlier - the fear that by criticising Israel you put yourself in the Nick Griffin and Jean-Marie Le Pen camp. Its bloody mad and you are perpetuating that myth.

[BlackYowe]

It is just amazing someone 88 years old could still be filled with such rage and hate. It blows my mind this horrible racist man was born the same year as my Dad and the contrast between the two is amazing. My Father was so gentle, so loving and so excepting of others different than himself. I think he should have been locked up for life after trying to kidnap and this never would have happened.

[ModernTimes1]

People wanted to kill Jews for one reason only. They had no country and thus became persecuted strangers.
People are too vested in the archetype of a Jew as a weaklings ( or universal evil as, switch as needed) who used as a scapegoat whenever occasional required.
Bur now Jews have a country. A small but powerful and a sucessful one.
And the atavistic Jodeophobes of the world will just have to get used to it.

[antaeus]

I only wish the admittedly successful state hadn't welcomed the alliance and support of extremist evangelical Christian groups in the U.S. Any port in a storm?

[ModernTimes1]

Glad you agree on everything else.

[jcwtts1]

It isn't really the support of the evangelicals that they accept, it is America. Part of the reason Israel is strong enough to defend itself is that we both arm them and threaten major aggressors. Hillary Clinton said that we would obliterate Iran if they attacked Israel. The point I am making is that they took the Evangelicals to get to a broader American coalition. When your back is too the sea, and countries talk about pushing you into it, you take what you can.

J

[bnww]

"Powerful" with American taxpayer dollars...

[ModernTimes1]

Fact:Israel defeated combined Arab armies without a single American taxpayer dollar in in 1948 and 1967. Deal with it, bnww

[cherry33]

ModernTimes-
I always knew what you said to be true, but to read it makes it all the more sad. Yes, minorities are always targetted. In Old Europe, Jews were the only major minority - well, don't hold me to it, but I can't think of another off the top of my head except Gypsies, and the occasional Moore. But we know there were no Mexicans or Arabs, so yeah Jew-hatred is age-old and their stereotype is mainly born of the West.

[AZBunny]

"Jews have a successful county" ????

REALLY??? Then WHY are we forking over $2.55 BILLION to them this year???