By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — In today’s report, we have published a number of stories that you might expect to see in a Jewish publication: Israel’s President Reuben Rivlin is meeting with political leaders about who best can form a coalition government. A columnist worries about what might come out of proposed discussions between the U.S. and Iran, which is Israel’s sworn enemy. A movie recounts the Nazis’ plot to flood the U.S. and Britain with counterfeit money. An investigative reporter tells of IBM providing some of the tools necessary for the Nazis to carry out the Holocaust.
On the other hand, there are some stories in our report that do not focus on issues of direct impact on the Jewish world., but which, I would argue, are indeed important to our community: U.S. authorities are fighting back against anti-Asian crime. Arkansas is wrestling with transgender rights. Protesters in Myanmar have organized clapping rallies to protest the military government. An activist in Ghana wants the Internet to offer materials in his native language, which is spoken by some three million people. A Republican congressman gratuitously referenced the 9/11 attacks to criticize Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a congresswoman of Muslim faith who had nothing to do with those attacks.
So why do I publish such articles? What do they have to do with the Jewish community? I refer you to a saying attributed to the great sage Hillel, which every member of our community would do well to memorize. “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And, if not now, when?”
With antisemitism on the rise, it is tempting to stay laser focused on stories that impact our community, but we must resist the temptation. Those who complain how few people helped Jews during the Holocaust (although the Righteous Among the Nations surely did), need to follow the same moral high road that we wish others would have followed during our time of peril.
If it were important for others to speak up and act in our behalf, then surely it is just as important for us to come to the aid of other imperiled peoples — whether they be transgender youth, pro-democracy forces in Myanmar, Asian-Americans under attack, a congresswoman with whom we may disagree on many issues, or a linguistic activist who wants his people’s tongue — which is a key to their culture — recognized.
True, none of these people face anything like the Holocaust, but in the early stages of Nazism, very few people — if anyone — believed Jews could become the victims of the greatest mass murder in history. It started off small, and because not enough people, nor nations, opposed the Nazis’ genocidal notions, it grew to monstrous size. Let’s try to squelch discrimination against any other people while, in relative terms, it is still small.
We Jews cannot live in a silo, concerned only with the plight of people of our own faith. It is fortunate that we have organizations that firmly believe it’s our duty to comfort the afflicted. Among these organizations are the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks hatred and offers programming to counteract it, and Jewish Family Service and HIAS, which reach out to refugees and other migrants to help them get settled in the United States. Good for them!
As San Diego Jewish World‘s editor and co-publisher, I am committed to the philosophy enunciated so long ago by Hillel. I am of course a fierce, committed defender of our fellow Jews, whenever as Jews, we come under attack. I am also determined to bring before our community the cares and needs of other peoples, to which I believe we will respond positively.
All of us need to be for ourselves, but not only for ourselves. Right now!
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Donald H. Harrison, editor of San Diego Jewish World, may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com