The time to sit quietly while those who hate the Jewish people raise their voices is over. It's time to speak up. It's time to take action. It's time to let the world know that we are not so comfortable here in the diaspora that we are waiting to be stepped on.
Let me be clear. This blog is NOT a call violence. This is a call to ready ourselves so that when evil comes out of the shadows to strike at the Jewish people, it will be met with an overwhelming response.
Are we outraged, bother, even slightly annoyed? I may be a bit skeptical but I'm not buying the whole, "I didn't notice the giant red swastika on his chest."
As for the "JH" on her dress, I am absolutely sure that it does not stand for Jew Hater or Jew hunter.
All speculation aside, the real issue is that nobody seems to care. This is the same singer who was at the music awards and upon receiving her award, she was interrupted my another singer during her speech and it was all she over the news. What a travesty! How dare she be interrupted while receiving an award.
When this comes out, the silence is deafening. The same victim of rudeness that occupied the headlines is barely worthy of a media mention when she poses with a swastika clad party goer.
A Torah in One Hand and a Gun in the Other. A quote originally credited to Rabbi Meir Kahane, of blessed memory, which makes a very powerful statement. Although I have never heard him speak about this statement in particular, I have given it a tremendous amount of thought. It is a statement of seemingly militant origins, but upon deeper investigation we can find profound insight and amazing clarity. It seems to me that this is more than a statement of simple militancy. It’s about balance and about walking down the middle of the road. Not too far to the left and not too far to the right. To me, this is the essence of what I stand for and believe, and no single statement could describe better what I strive for, not only for myself but for the Klal; for all of those who are members of the Nation of Israel.
The Klal seems to be divided into two main camps in regard to the protection and defense of the Jewish people. In one camp are those who believe that all we really need is our tefilla, our prayer. These people are not concerned that a physical component is necessary, and believe that Hashem is the protector of the Jewish People. I must be completely clear that I do believe that in the end Hashem is ultimately the protector for the Klal, but I do not believe that this is the answer in its entirety, as I will explain.
The second group seems quit zealous in their desire to defend Am Yisrael , the Jewish people with all of the resources they can muster. These include guns, Knives and things that go boom in the night. This group seems to remove Hashem from the equation, and is focused almost exclusively on the militant aspects of our protection.
To truly grasp these ideas of balance and to put them into perspective we need to look at each hand individually. Although I feel that the hand holding the figurative Torah should come first on the grounds of giving honor to Hashem and His divine wisdom, I am going to discuss the other hand first. I am going to initially discuss the hand holding the gun primarily for the sake of structuring this article in such a way as to make my point as clearly and easily as possible.
The gun hand. There is a halacha, a Jewish law, that states that it is not permitted to rely on Hashem to do a miracle. We have a responsibility to do our part to protect ourselves. Furthermore, the Torah prohibits us from standing by while our brother’s blood is shed. We are required to not only save our own lives, but the lives of those around us, other members of the Klal. If we cannot rely on a miracle, then clearly we are required to do our part. What that part is exactly may take many different forms; be they a gun, a self-defense class, or whatever the individual finds fits them best. We all have a responsibility to do our part to defend ourselves and our neighbor. Additionally, there is a gemorrah that states that if a man comes to kill you, you should wake up early and kill him first. This is a primary source for the idea that we may respond to imminent threats with the force necessary to protect ourselves. I have spoken to a great many individuals who believe that this is the permission to perform a variety of aggressive, if not violent, acts.
This is the physical side, the side of strength in our own ability to protect ourselves and those around us, and often this is the side that can snowball out of control. We can rationalize and justify a great many things that otherwise would not be an option for us as long as we are acting out of the righteous concern for our lives and the lives of our children. A seemingly primal feeling can well up inside of us as we start to think about military action and the preservation of the Klal. Even killing prospective enemies based on their hatred of the Jewish people can become a rational line of reasoning once we start down this road. After all, if they hate us, doesn’t that constitute an imminent threat? The fact that so many teach their children to hate us and want us dead can lead to the conclusion that children should not be spared from our wrath.
Thankfully, In His infinite wisdom, The Holy One, blessed is He, has not only given us laws that require our action to defend the Klal, but he has given us the Torah in its entirety in order to reign in the animal side within us and to bring balance and clarity to our lives. Of course, we must be ready to defend ourselves, but we should not forget that we are a Nation of priests and princes of the Nation of Israel. There is no gun on its own that has worth without it being used as a kli, a vessel to be used in the context of Torah. Every one of our actions must be done in accordance with the will of G-d, and that means that the Torah is not what only balances but puts the entire “gun Hand” into perspective.
We must be focused on the commandments given to us on Mount Sinai, focused on our tefilla, in touch with our relationship with Hashem, and what it means to be a light onto the nations, including our own Nation. It is only through Torah, Mitzvot and our connection to Hashem that we protect ourselves from becoming animals ourselves, caught up in the frenzy of the self-righteous madness. It is this connection and our constant reflection on this relationship that gives any value to the hand holding the physicality of a firearm. We should never forget that in the end, it is, was and always will be Hashem who ultimately protects the Jewish people, and our readiness and willingness to fight and to protect Jewish blood from spilling into the streets is only the “not counting on a miracle” part of the equation.
That is the balance; the taking responsibility for our safety combined with the boundaries of Torah that protects us from forgetting we are princes of G-d’s holy Nation and need to act accordingly. We must stand strong for the klal in both body and in spirituality or we miss the point entirely. Torah without our willingness to do for ourselves, to the best of our ability, is relying on a miracle to save us. A strong defense without Torah will almost certainly lead us into a snowball of action turning us into animals. And Torah in one hand and a gun in the other, with a focus on our place before Hashem, leads us to the balance that opens the door for Hashem, the true protector, to shield his Nation and fight by our side.
The following is from an article originally posted on November of 2008. This is the complete article except for the paragraphs at the end asking for donations. If you are interested in learning more about JTF.org please visit their website.
Although the article is several years old, its relevance is as important today as it was in 2008.
Why Jews Must
Oppose Gun Control
(Originally published byJTF.ORGon November 25, 1998)
A little Jewish boy in the doomed Warsaw ghetto
"Every Jew a .22" was a slogan coined by HaRav (The Rabbi) Meir Kahane, zecher tzadik livracha (may the memory of this saint be immortalized). HaRav Kahane actually preferred other guns to the small-caliber .22, but used this slogan because it rhymes.
The concept that every Jew must possess firearms and know how to use them is not a new one.
"Jews, learn to shoot!" right-wing Zionist leader Zeev Jabotinsky exhorted the Jews of Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.
But many European Jews were horrified with the notion of Jews bearing arms. So European Jews remained unarmed and defenseless, and when the Germans and the many other European Jew-killers came to murder them in the Holocaust, the Jews were easy targets as usual.
In pre-Hitler Weimar Germany, the Jews frantically pushed for strict gun control legislation.
Germans, especially in rural areas, were enraged over this attempt to take their weapons. Hitler and the Nazis campaigned on a promise to protect the "historic German right to bear arms."
Hitler promised that he would void all "Jew-inspired anti-gun laws" if elected Chancellor.
Of course, Hitler and the Nazis broke their promise when they did actually seize power in 1933. One of the first things the Nazis did was to seize the vast majority of guns which law-abiding citizens had in their possession.
But the point here is that gun control efforts by the Jews were instrumental in giving Hitler crucial ammunition which helped him to take over Germany and implement the Holocaust.
Furthermore, if the Jews had listened to Jabotinsky and were all armed and fully trained, it would have been far more difficult to annihilate them.
When there were only 50,000 Jewish men, women and children left in the Warsaw Ghetto, these heroic Jews who finally decided to resist held out longer against the German Wehrmacht than all of cowardly France, which had a larger standing army than Germany but surrendered almost immediately to the Nazis. Even though the Jews were divided and fighting among themselves until the end, with their home-made weapons they killed several thousand German soldiers and bogged down the German Army for weeks.
Imagine if millions of Jews, fully armed and trained, had put up this type of resistance.
We know from the resistance put up by other groups targeted for annihilation during World War II, such as the valiant Serbs, that ferocious
armed struggle frustrated German plans to wipe them out.
But the Jews always make the wrong decisions. The Jews always trust those who wish to destroy them and mistrust those like Jabotinsky who come to save them.
When Rabbi Kahane urged Jews in America to arm and train themselves, he was condemned in the same manner as Jabotinsky.
Imagine if during the Crown Heights pogrom, the Hassidic Jews had listened to Rabbi Kahane. Would the black Jew-haters have been able to rampage and murder in a Jewish community for four days and nights with no resistance? Would Yankel Rosenbaum have been murdered if he had drawn a .45 on the black Nazi mob that came to murder him?
Gun control laws accomplish a number of things, and all of them are terrible. They take guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens so that it becomes impossible to defend one's home or business from murderous criminals. These fascistic laws also ensure that the only people in society who will be armed will be the violent criminals, since they will obtain their illegal firearms no matter what the law says.
These laws, which self-hating Jewish traitors like our new Judenrat Senator, Schmuck Schumer, play such a prominent role in passing, also cause tremendous anti-Semitic resentment.
Worst of all, these laws render Jews who wish to defend themselves helpless in the face of numerous mortal threats that very much endanger the American Jewish community.
The Kahanist Jews and righteous Gentiles of JTF oppose all laws that in any way limit the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Such laws are unconstitutional, un-American and immoral.
The article below represents a perfect example of what I hope to convey on this blog. We need to be aware that we live among those who wish the Jewish people harm. These cowardly acts committed in Chicago are the roadsigns that warn us of road hazards ahead. All we need to do is have the common sense to not dismiss this as an isolated incident. After all, isolated incident after isolated incident, week after week creates a pattern. Last week in Calabasis, this week in Chicago, and next week in, well we'll have to wait and see about next week but we can be sure of one thing. Next week there will be another attack on another Jewish target and we will have one more road sign to warn us of what's to come. I suggest we stop ignoring the signs, prepare ourselves and unite as a klal to be ready ourselves for what is to come.
(IsraelNN.com) The Chicago Jewish community was attacked in a number of different locations over the Sabbath, with vandals destroying property and defacing five synagogues and Jewish schools in the city.
Five Chicago synagogues and Jewish schools were attacked. Unidentified men were caught on security video tapes Saturday, breaking windows and writing "Death to Israel" in orange spray paint at several locations.
At the Chabad-Lubavitch Mesivta (high school) in Chicago, security cameras caught two men at approximately 4:40 a.m. vandalizing the building. One spray-painted the side of the building while the other hurled rocks at the front door.
Less than two hours later, at 6:10 a.m. the caretaker of Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation awoke to the sound of breaking glass. He ran to the front of the synagogue and saw two men fleeing the scene. The vandals had also scrawled "Death to Israel" and "Free Palestine" on the walls of the building.
Similar acts of vandalism occurred the same night at Congregation Anshe Motele, Hana Sacks Girls' High School, and the Young Israel Synagogue of West Rogers Park.
Chicago police are investigating the crimes. In addition, they have contacted the U.S. Joint Terrorism Task Force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to help with the probe.
Chicago has been the focus of other anti-Semitic attacks this month as well.
Barely a week ago, the Ida Crown Jewish Academy received a bomb threat in the mail, threatening other Chicago area Jewish schools as well. In addition, on December 29th, a man hurled a firebomb at Temple Sholom, also in the same area.
Hatzolah Of Los Angeles was asked to attend the Pro-Israel rally in LA on the 11th to help with any medical needs that may arise. The request went out the the membership the morning of the event and an immediate response from responders was immediately overwhelmingly positive. It says a lot about a group of individuals who not only on call are on 24 hours a day, seven days week, but are willing and committed to drop what the are doing to see to the safety of others at this very important rally. I think we should all remember to give them a thanks and have them in mind when we are writing those tzedaka checks. Below is a link their website if you would like to make a donation to help keep their supply closets stocked and their radios on.
Like many other protests of Israel's campaign in Gaza, this one ended badly — police had to cool an ugly fight between supporters of Israel and Gaza, breaking up the warring sides as their screaming and chanting threatened to turn into something worse.
But some protesters at this rally in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., took their rhetoric a step further, calling for the extermination of Israel — and of Jews.
Separated by battle lines and a stream of rush-hour traffic outside a federal courthouse last week, at least 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators faced off against a smaller crowd of Israel supporters.
Most of the chants were run-of-the-mill; men and women waving Palestinian flags called Israel's invasion of Gaza a "crime," while the pro-Israel group carried signs calling the Hamas-run territory a "terror state."
But as the protest continued and crowds grew, one woman in a hijab began to shout curses and slurs that shocked Jewish activists in the city, which has a sizable Jewish population.
"Go back to the oven," she shouted, calling for the counter-protesters to die in the manner that the Nazis used to exterminate Jews during the Holocaust.
"You need a big oven, that's what you need," she yelled. Related
Millions of Jews were gassed and burned in crematoria throughout Europe during Adolf Hitler's rule of Germany. The protest organizers, asked to comment on the woman's overt call for Jewish extermination, said she was "insensitive" but refused to condemn her statement.
"She does not represent the opinions of the vast majority of people who were there," said Emmanuel Lopez, who helped plan the event, one of many sponsored nationwide on Dec. 30 by the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism ) Coalition.
Lopez, a state coordinator for ANSWER, admitted there is a problem with anti-Semitism within his organization's ranks. But then he went on to call the supporters of Israel across the street "barbaric, racist" Zionist terrorists.
"Zionism in general is a barbaric, racist movement that really is the cause of the situation in the entire Middle East," Lopez said.
The unidentified woman, who protest organizers said was a Muslim, wasn't the only protester who raised hackles that day. Other demonstrators held signs that said "Nuke Israel," and a number made comparisons to the Holocaust, accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
More than 670 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, have been killed in the 12 days of Israel's campaign in Gaza. At least 30 were killed Tuesday by Israeli shelling of a U.N. school that had been housing refugees. (Israel said its forces fired at militants who launched mortars from that location.)
"This is absolutely inhumane," said Ahmed Suid, who attended the demonstration, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "This is a modern-day Holocaust."
The comparisons of the Israelis to the Nazis has Jewish organizations concerned about a "growing trend" at protests in America, where they say hatred of Israel and Jews is being increasingly preached.
"We're worried about hate speech. We're worried because hate speech eventually leads to pain and suffering and death," said Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, which has been tracking Gaza protests.
"Comparisons of Israel to the Nazis are a deeply cynical perversion of history, an attempt to turn the tragedy that befell the Jewish people into a bludgeon against Israel," he said.
Even though police had to intercede and break up a potentially violent confrontation between the two factions at the Fort Lauderdale protest, organizers called it a success, saying it drew crowds of new activists.
"It was not just an academic exercise . . . not just a protest," Lopez told FOXNews.com. "It's a material force."
