Dear Fellow Jews by Choice:
My previous post seems terribly self-indulgent, especially in light of yesterday’s slaughter at Yeshiva Mercaz Harav in Israel.
I was at a dinner last night where a rabbi led us in Kaddish, after saying how “ironic” it was that the killing came on the Rosh Hodesh of Adar Sheni.
I thought to myself, “that wasn’t ironic. That was deliberate.” The first of the leap-month that heralds special joy for all Jews was chosen at its own kind of statement: your joy shall be your sorrow.
As if that weren’t cruel enough, those who were murdered were mere boys, studying their tradition, practicing their religion. They could not have been more innocent. Oh, wait. Scratch that: they were Jewish.
So, fellow Jews by Choice: I am honored to count you, along with myself, among the hunted, the despised and the maligned. If an innocent boy can be deliberately targeted in Israel, then we all have bull’s eyes on our backs, and over our hearts. It takes a brave soul, a soul that is called, to choose to join that company.
Prayer and contemplation, study and mitzvot and acts of tzedaka are important now; but so is steadfastness of purpose, and the refusal to be intimidated away from being Jewish.
A tough job that will only get tougher.
Let’s hang together, as Benjamin Franklin said, or we shall surely hang separately.
About the Author
David
David was born and raised with a vague understanding that, as a Jew, he was the proud inheritor of a dead spiritual tradition. The synagogue (Reform) was the forlorn museum of that tradition. He didn’t mind supporting the museum, but being forced to attend school in it every Sunday seemed, in childhood, to be harsh punishment for a circumstance of birth. Read More
One of the questions that my rabbi who converted me asked was if I truly understood that by casting my lot with the Jewish people, I would also become a target of those who hate the Jews. He asked me this at least three times and I was then asked this again at the bet din. I told the rabbis that I completely understood that I may be literally putting my life on the line by converting. This was something that I had contemplated before every seeking out a rabbi. I too feel proud to be one of the “hunted” and proud to be a Jew by Choice.
This is something that weighed heavily on me as I first started contemplating conversion…in fact, I had dreams of being back in the ghettos and being hunted by Nazis. I will never be able to understand what drives some people to chose a “category” for hatred, but I am proud to stand with those who are hated against blind persecution.
[…] “JewsByChoice.Org” einen artikel, der mich doch ein wenig nachdenklich gemacht hat: Welcome to the Hunted (by David 7.3.2008) … My previous post seems terribly self-indulgent, especially in light of […]