Opinions

The Holocaust is the systematic mass murder of European Jewry and others by the Nazis.
The term Holocaust literally means a fire that causes total destruction. Yehuda Bauer, one of the world’s most eminent historians of the Holocaust, differentiates between the term genocide and Holocaust by defining the term genocide as partial murder. While there have been numerous instances of genocide, the total annihilation of a people was never an officially sanctioned purpose of a national government as it was in Nazi Germany. It is precisely this which differentiates the Nazi action against the Jews from other genocidal attempts against a people.
The Nazis wished to conquer the world and therefore threatened the very existence of every single Jew in the world. The principle target of the Nazis was always the Jews. Yes, it is true that as many as 50 million human beings were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. The Nazis destroyed the lives of Gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally disabled, Jehovah’s Witnesses, communists, socialists, trade unionists and religious opponents. But it was only the Jews who were singled out for the Final Solution.
On Nov. 9, 1938, mobs burned synagogues, destroyed Jewish homes and businesses, vandalized Jewish hospitals, orphanages and cemeteries, and dragged thousands of Jewish men, women and children into the streets, where they were beaten and humiliated. The Germans later called this night “Kristallnacht” — The Night of Broken Glass — because of the tons of shattered glass that scattered throughout German cities after it had taken place. The Jews began to call that date the beginning of the Holocaust because of the tremendous violence that started on that night and grew even more dreadful as time passed.
On Nov. 7, 1938, the Third Secretary of the German embassy in Paris, Ernst Von Rath, was murdered by Herschel Grynzpan, a 17-year-old German-Jewish refugee. Herschel wanted to avenge his parent’s expulsion, together with 15,000 other Polish Jews from Germany to Zbonszym. The Nazis used the murder as an excuse to start the mobs and riots that began the “final solution,” the extermination of Jews.
The German government attempted to disguise the violence of those two days as a spontaneous protest on the part of the Aryan population. But in reality, Kristallnacht was organized by the Nazi chiefs and their thugs with technical skill and precision. The Nazi chiefs commanded the Gestapo and the storm troopers to incite mob riots throughout Germany and Austria.
Kristallnacht marked the beginning of the plan to rob the Jews of their possessions for the benefit of the Reich and then to sweep them forever from the German scene. Thereafter, Jews had no place in the German economy, and no independent Jewish life was possible with the dismissal of cultural and communal bodies and the banning of the Jewish press.
During Kristallnacht, more than 1,100 synagogues were destroyed, as well as 7,500 Jewish businesses and countless Jewish homes. Several hundred Jews were killed and 30,000 were arrested and sent to the concentration camps at Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald and Dachau, where thousands more died. Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s Berlin reporter called that night, “the worst outbreak of anti-Jewish violence in modern German history.”
Today, many historians can trace a pattern of events before that night that suggest such an atrocity was to happen. In 1933, when the Nazis took power, German anti-Semitism adopted quasi-legal forms. One of the new anti-Jewish forms of action, which had begun with the Nuremberg laws of 1935, included the separation of the Jews from the daily structure of German life. Jews systematically were deprived of civil rights and isolated from the general populace through humiliating identification measures. Nazis boycotted Jewish shops and took away their jobs. Jews were declared the value of their possessions. Civil Service and police often arrested and forced them to sell their property for a pittance.
How could the entire world stand by and allow such a disaster to occur? The fascist or authoritative regimes in Italy, Romania, Hungary and Poland were governments who approved of this pogrom and wanted to use the pogrom as a case to make their own anti-Semitic policies stronger in their individual countries. The three great Western powers — Great Britain, France and the United States — said the appropriate things but did nothing to save the Jews. In the late 1930s, Hitler told the world to take the Jews, but there was just no one willing. Even in our own country, President Roosevelt and his administration kept on expressing their shock over the terrible events in Germany and Austria, but when it came time to act and help save the refugees by bringing them to the United States, the government refused and replied by saying that they had no intention to allow more immigrants to enter.
Looking back at Jewish history, every Jew should be cautious and alert to any hints that might be seen now. Kristallnacht teaches us many things. Among them that we must remain vigilant and not permit even the smallest seed of anti-Semitism to take root.

This article was originally published by Israel Resource News Agency. Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg is chairman of the New York Board of Rabbis Holocaust Education Committee and the author of several books, including “The Holocaust as Seen through Film” and “The Holocaust Haggadah.” Visit www.bernhardrosenberg.com.

For the first time…

As a Jew, I honestly have been processing my own response to the tragedy in Pittsburgh and I have been unsure how to react or what to say and do.
This week, I worked at the JFS Food Pantry at the Jewish Community Campus, a volunteer position that I’ve been doing for several years. For the first time ever (including after the shootings several years ago), I felt some insecurity while waiting out front for shoppers to drive up to load their cars. For the first time, I saw the armed security guards that walk the building and drive the campus grounds in a different light. For the first time, I saw the groups of children in the playground (Jewish and non-Jewish) from the day care program and worried. For the first time, I saw the kids from the Hebrew day school and worried. What’s become of our country, our world, our lives?
I see a president who enables racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, and worse. I see a complicit Congress full of Republican hypocrites afraid to call out the overt racism, etc., that has become a daily occurrence.
I’m worried. I’m not sure what to do other than vote and worst case, to leave.

Jeffrey Roitman
Overland Park, Kansas

Last Shabbat (Oct. 27), the world witnessed the deadliest act of anti-Semitism in North American history. This Shabbat, Jews are responding with its greatest show of solidarity.
The Jewish community is witnessing an unprecedented rise in anti-Semitic acts in America, up 57 percent in 2017. And, in the aftermath of the lethal attack at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, the Jewish community is are also witnessing an outpouring of support — showing that “out of the fires of desperation burn hope and solidarity.”
Peace-loving citizens from every corner of the globe, clergy from every religious sector, political leaders from both sides of the ocean and both sides of the aisle — are uniting with the Jewish community for Solidarity Shabbat across the continent.
What do Jewish Federations do when the unspeakable happens? They stand together. First and foremost, as a people. And as the Federation Movement.
From Toronto to Tampa. Montreal to Minneapolis. Cleveland to Corpus Christi. Federations across the continent are participating in Solidarity Shabbat: Stand With Pittsburgh. The Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City invited the community to join #ShowUpforShabbat.

#ShowUpforShabbat Participating Congregations Nov. 2-3, 2018
(Contact individual congregation for times)
Congregation BIAV
Kehilath Israel Synagogue
Congregation Beth Torah
Congregtion Beth Shalom
New Reform Temple (Friday, Nov. 2 only)
Congregation Ohev Sholom
Congregation Kol Ami
The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah (Friday, Nov. 9 only) Rev. Adam Hamilton of the Church of the Resurrection will join the B’nai Jehudah that evening, along with members of his church, to celebrate Shabbat. All are welcome.

Rabbinical Association stands in solidarity with Jews of Pittsburgh

We, the rabbis who comprise the Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City are heartsick at the tragic loss of life in a Pittsburgh synagogue; a horrific, hateful event that occurred as our fellow Jews were coming together to celebrate Shabbat, and celebrate a baby naming. We mourn this tragedy, and in this moment offer our support for all who grieve.
Whatever action will come in response in the days and weeks to come, today we pray and grieve our loss. As we say in our tradition: May G-d, (and our community) provide comfort to all who mourn, as the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem have been comforted in the past.

The Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City

Why are we talking differently now?

Last week Jewish Federation leaders met in Israel for the annual General Assembly. So why is this GA different from other GAs? Because the theme was “We Need to Talk.” Until now when we dialogued with Israeli leadership it was, “how can we help each other?” Jewish Federations always have been, and I’m glad to state, still are, profound supporters and partners of Israel, helping in whatever way it can.
This conference focused on trying to improve relationships on several issues. Some issues were settlements, the Nation State declaration, asylum and the dominance of the ultra-Orthodox on the personal lives of Israelis.
I have previously voiced in The Chronicle my opinion settlements are not an obstacle to peace. I stated that when proposals were made to substantially vacate settlements, those offers were rejected by Palestinians. On the other matters, we are entitled to voice our opinions while recognizing that we are not part of the Israeli Knesset. To press on these matters is to take the position that most Israelis do not know how to govern themselves.
The most sensitive of these issues concerns the status of the Conservative and Reform movements in Israel. Why is it that one cannot accept the historical and current demographical history of the State of Israel? The State was founded by secular Jews. Most Israelis remain secular. Others originate from Europe or Arab countries and have little, if any, knowledge of Jewish progressive movements. The challenge should continue to be directed at the ultra-Orthodox or have massive numbers of Reform and Conservative Jews make Aliyah, though that’s not likely to happen.
Here’s another thought. Why was there only little attention given to the 70th anniversary of the State? There was an opportunity to celebrate. Despite the hostility of many nations, many wars and continuing acts of terrorism, Israel thrives and contributes technological, medical and  agricultural knowledge to the world while continuing to accept immigrants (37,000 in 2017).
One of the central questions raised was the increasing alienation or indifference of young Jewish Americans, most visible on university campuses, to Israel. That includes Jewish faculty. Birthright Israel is a response to this. Much more needs to be done by us in the USA cooperating with Israelis.
Perhaps my perspective differs from the current leadership of Federations. I had been involved in the rescue and resettlement of Jews since the early 1950s, they were Holocaust survivors, Romanians, Hungarians, Greeks, Russians, Poles and Ethiopians. My experiences began when no country welcomed Jewish refuges (the USA only a limited number). “Next Year in Jerusalem” became “This Year in Jerusalem.”
I identify with the Israeli woman that lost two sons and addressed a GA audience. She declared that they died protecting Israel and the Jewish people. I quote an old United Jewish Appeal slogan, “We Are One.” We must be.

Sol Koenigsberg
Overland Park, Kansas

Be active advocates for Israel

To my Jewish friends, particularly you young adults, who do not appreciate that Israel’s safety and security is important to your own safety and security, and to those who do appreciate this but fail to do anything proactive to help Israel survive and thrive: Wake up! The anti-Semitic demon has escaped the sewers and shadows of America, as it has in Europe, and as it has in the Middle East, and in the United Nations. Very clearly it now has a growing presence on our own college campuses. While it is a beautiful thing that many of our non-Jewish neighbors are appalled at anti-Semitism and would like to see it stop, the demon is nevertheless widespread, and is growing, rampant online and openly expressed in public. Anti-Semitism is clearly on the rise everywhere and by every measure.
So, please reflect on how much more emboldened this evil will become, and how it might affect you and your family if the Jewish State of Israel is destroyed or even weakened or isolated and can no longer be a safe haven for Jews from everywhere. Please, stop for a moment and ask yourself if the standing and safety of Jews in America and elsewhere is tied to Israel’s standing and safety. We in the Jewish world have to be active advocates for Israel, and for a strong relationship between our countries, as best we can in our own personal sphere of influence. We can no longer be complacent or sanguine. We cannot allow the political issues of the day to turn us away from our support for Israel and the Jewish people. If we are not for ourselves, who will be for us? If not now, when, folks?

Victor A. Bergman
Overland Park, Kansas

(Editor’s note: This introduction and “Prayer for the City” was written and offered by founding Congregation Beth Torah member Roshann Parris after Kansas City Mayor Sly James spoke during Yom Kippur morning worship at the Reform congregation in Overland Park.)

Shanah Tovah, fellow congregants. Thirty years ago this year, a small group of us sat in Hal and Carol Sader’s living room to dream a dream of a new congregation, a new community.
These 30 years later, we could hardly imagine this magnificent and peaceful place we share today; we could hardly imagine the impact we as a congregation could have on social justice institutions within our region, where we have together worked to repair the world we live in. And we could only imagine that we would have the privilege of welcoming the mayor of the largest city in our region on this, the holiest day of the Jewish year.
Mr. Mayor, in your honor, we are creating our congregation’s very first prayer for our city, inspired by you. We honor you for all you have done not just for Kansas City, but for and with the mayors of dozens of cities in the region. Indeed, you are a living example that all boats can rise under inspired leadership.
And we honor the hundreds of mayors you’ve served as national chairman as you’ve worked to make our country a place in which we can all — each and every one of us — feel safe … and proud … and respected … and inspired. And so, Mr. Mayor, today, we offer our first “Prayer for the City.” This one’s for you.
Lord, thank you for creating a passion — a fire in the belly of our city’s public servants — so that we can harvest their selflessness as they seek to make for us a better region.
We pray for Mayor James and all those mayors, city council members, county executives and so many others in service to our communities, that they may be guided by both their heads and hearts as they devote themselves passionately to the best interests of our community.
We pray for the remarkable, selfless men and women who put their lives on the line 24 hours a day — the police and firefighters and EMS first-responders (several who are with us this day) — not only in Greater Kansas City, but in the Carolinas and Puerto Rico and Florida and California and in the City of Chicago — each and every day.
They show up to work so that we can go to sleep each night feeling protected and safe — even as their own families go to sleep each night worrying about what morning will bring.
Robert Kennedy Jr. said “Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one person can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills … Few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. And in the total of all those acts will be written the history of a generation.”
We pray that in the year ahead, each of us will find a way, just one way of returning the privilege we all have of living in this city, and in this country. That we find a way to give back to something bigger than ourselves, something that inspires us and stirs our souls to say — I can make a difference, I MUST make a difference. I can make my village, my city, my country a better place.
In gratitude for the service of those to our city and our country, we pray, oh Lord, as we say together, Amen.

Prior to this summer, the longest I had ever been away from home was five days. It was Presidents’ Day Weekend 2018, and I spent it in Orlando, Florida, at BBYO’s International Convention. I was never a sleepaway camp kid — being away from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Ramat Amoona Camp gave me enough Judaism and plenty of time away from home. Yet, ever since I entered high school, I knew, looming in the back of my head, that the summer after sophomore year most everyone in the various Jewish groups that I belonged to would go to Israel.
When I was 10 years old, I bluntly told my grandparents and parents that I had no interest in ever going to Israel. They mostly shook it off and blamed it on my young ignorance, but I never forgot what I told them. I didn’t understand what could be so special about a Jewish country in the middle of nowhere. It would take me six years to finally find out why everyone loved Israel so much.
By the time sophomore year rolled around, everyone was signing up for Israel trips. My friends from USY and BBYO would start group chats just to find out what trip everyone was signing up for. I went along with it all, but I was terrified of going. I was terrified to fly for over 15 hours just to get to Israel, and terrified to spend time far away from home with people I didn’t know. Despite all this, at the very last second, my parents and twin sister convinced me to sign up for a trip, and before I knew it I was booking a plane ticket.
I signed up for USY Eastern Europe Israel Pilgrimage. I would be spending 40 days of my summer traveling through Poland, the Czech Republic and Israel. In the months leading up to the trip, I did my best not to think about it. I knew a handful of friends from Minnesota on the trip and my twin sister was going as well, but still I’d be living with strangers in strange lands. Things kept creeping up to remind me of my extended vacation: buying a CamelBak water bottle, booking tickets for travel between cities and constant emails from the organizers. Eventually, I kissed my family goodbye, and I boarded the first of nine flights I would take this past summer.
After two days of continuous travel, the group of 34 teenagers I was with landed in Prague, Czech Republic. We spent two days exploring the beautiful city that somehow was preserved through two world wars. We walked through ancient synagogues, the Jewish quarter and saw historic landmarks like the Prague Castle. Then, the trip took a drastic turn. Only two days after settling in, we were headed to our first ghetto from the Holocaust.
Nothing hits you harder than driving through the gates of your first ghetto, except for walking through the gates of your first concentration camp. The Terezin Ghetto was haunting. The city within the walls had held several times its capacity, becoming a hotspot for disease and death. While at Terezin, we walked the streets that Jews suffered in many years ago, and solemnly joined to sing in a cellar that had been converted into a secret synagogue. Our time at the first ghetto concluded with a long walk along a river; the same river that the S.S. soldiers dumped thousands of Jews’ ashes into. No one spoke on the drive back.
For the next week and a half, we traveled through Poland, and visited four different concentration camps. Walking through a gate reading “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work sets you free) was difficult.
In Auschwitz, Birkenau, Treblinka and Majdanek, we saw where many of our collective family members had been murdered not too long ago. As difficult as it was, we all were glad we had made the journey together.
When it came down to the decision to take this trip, I was very, very close to not going. I thought I would hate traveling and dislike being away from home for so long with strangers. Looking back, had I made any other decision, I would have regretted it. I met my best friends. I cried, I laughed and I smiled as I traveled through three countries on two continents. I had the best summer of my life.

Ethan Fine is a high school junior who became a Bar Mitzvah and was confirmed at Congregation B’nai Amoona. He is the son of Jennifer and Kevin Fine of Wildwood, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and the grandson of Mickey and Samyra Marks of Overland Park, Warren Fine of Chesterfield, Missouri, and the late Marcia Fine.

“The Immortalists” by Chloe Benjamin, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $26 hardcover, January 2018

Chloe Benjamin is a 29-year-old award-winning author who lives in Madison, Wisconsin. She grew up in San Francisco; her mother was the daughter of an Episcopalian minister; her dad was Jewish; her stepmother is Jewish.
Her father’s family history includes grandparents who came through Ellis Island, fleeing Europe and pogroms. She became fascinated by the ties that bind Jews to other Jews.
When I first read about it, there was something intriguing about the theme.
The premise for this family saga is: what if you knew exactly when you were going to die?
The time is 1969, a Lower East Side of New York Jewish family. The four children of the Jewish Gold family pool their resources to visit a gypsy fortune teller whom they are told can say when you will die.
At the time Simon is 7, Klara is 9, Daniel is 11 and Varya is 13.
The four sections of the novel relate the siblings’ lives, each in order of their predicted death. Benjamin says in a publisher’s interview, “When the siblings receive their supposed dates of death, they make decisions based on that knowledge — decisions they might not have made if they’d never visited the fortune teller.”
The Gold siblings each have different orientations toward Judaism, just as they have different orientations toward their prophecies.
Simon is 16 when he leaves home, moves to San Francisco to be part of the LGBTQ movement, and becomes a ballet dancer.
Klara becomes a magician in San Francisco then moves with her husband and child to Las Vegas.
Daniel becomes a chief medical officer at a military entrance processing station.
Varya becomes a biologist researching anti-aging with monkeys.
Benjamin says she hopes the book “offers solace and companionship in navigating life’s uncertainties, as well as the enduring pull of family. To me, the book is not about dying; it’s about living, embracing as fully and fearlessly as possible what time we’re given.”
When the book was published, reviewers called it “a captivating family saga” (The New York Times Book Review), a really compelling plotline (Wall Street Journal), a “dazzling family love story” and “a literary thriller.”
For this reviewer, it was both powerful and captivating, mesmerizing and disturbing.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, lecturer, book reviewer, food writer and author.

Feinstein abandoned traditions

The description in The Chronicle of Diane Feinstein’s terrible political ambush of Justice Kavanaugh as Feinstein “taking the lead” is deplorable (Jewish candidates in the 2018 congressional elections: The Senate, Oct. 11).
Peggy Noonan, writing in the Wall Street Journal, expressed a decline in public standards of decorum. She added that a significant number of senators no longer even pretend to have class or imitate fairness (certainly including Feinstein). Insistent rudeness and accusatory tones characterized Feinstein’s and other Democrats’ positions. Holding a key letter for weeks then leaking it at a critical time was a despicable act. Feinstein set up Kavanaugh with no evidence, no witnesses and no fair play. Feinstein abandoned traditions of due process to achieve a political goal, in spite of a complete lack of corroboration.
Would it not be appropriate for The Chronicle to provide political balance in the interest of fair play?

David S. Jacobs, M.D.
Overland Park, Kansas