Speaking of Euro mania

http://www.jewishworldreview.com | A fortnight ago, those geniuses of governance and history at the helm of Romania regaled us with the claim that the Holocaust had bypassed their borders. This was to absolve themselves of moral and financial indebtedness. A species of international furor ensued, to which I was asked to lend my voice. I declined, loath to dignify their idiocy.

What, book and arrest them for capital flight of fancy? Give them a path to our pathos? Better to let them bathe in their bathos. A watched pot never boils; left unnoticed, they would stew in their stupidity, cool in their cupidity and eventually vaporize in their vapidity. Best ignored.

But now Chapter Two (ironically coming long after Chapter Eleven). Predictably, when in conflict, the only thing Romania can beat is a retreat. After some hasty research, they revised their revisionist history and retracted, announcing that indeed Romania had pursued "policies of discrimination and extermination which constitute the Holocaust".

Well, to overlook an insult is noblesse oblige, but to overlook an apology is gauche. So, as a great-grandson of King David (family tradition to that effect), I will address myself to the unruly unclassy ruling class and graciously write a letter accepting their apology.

To The Prime Minister Of Romania,
Well, prime and Romania in the same sentence seems oxymoronic. Indeed, your recent public pronouncements have merged the oxy with the moronic. Yours is a government rightly called a sovereign - two top dogs pounding baloney and eighteen mutts shilling. Oops, sorry for talking down to you, but I have to look down at you and my Mom said to watch my language.
Do we accept your mea culpa? Sure. Because we understand that you are more to be pitied than to be censured. It must be frustrating to be you. You guys took your best shot at us and we are still standing. Not just standing, but standing so tall that you are dwarfed. All your glorious suzerainty does not add up to the majesty of one jewel in our crown of achievements.
Who can blame you goons for waking up some mornings and thinking there was no Holocaust? How is it possible? How can you take a bite of six million out of a small nation and they prosper as if nothing happened?
The famous Midrash makes the statement that had Reuben known the Bible would report his effort to save Joseph, he would have never left the scene without his brother safely in tow. Had Aaron known the Bible would report his cheerful greeting of his brother, he would have brought a marching band. So, too, our Sages concluded, we should remember that our lives may be written up in history, and invest them with passion and greatness.

In that vein, in all humility, let me say this. The Jewish People of the last 58 years have been heroes of Biblical proportions. For every great scholar, for every great artist, for every great scientist that you wantonly destroyed, we have generated another, and another. Remember that poor stateless folk that you so gleefully tormented? A scant few years later we had a proud state, dominant in its region. Who do you think would win a war between Israel and Romania?
All this was accomplished, too, after 1900 years of exile, having reinvented ourselves as a Diaspora nation, repaying host peoples like you with a boon of economic and artistic enrichment while you harbored resentment and spread opprobrium.
It's not just that we have recovered 58 years later. We bounced back overnight. In fact, we acted immediately as if nothing had happened. Six million deaths, millions more surviving riddled by debility and trauma, millions more trapped behind the Iron Curtain for decades, millions in Israel surrounded by bellicose Arabs, and the Jewish People did not skip a beat, producing a steady stream of scholars, artists, scientists, politricians and - the glue that holds them all together - philanthropists.
Do you realize that there are more full-time students of Talmud today than at any time in the 1500 years since it was compiled? Do you understand that we have created two entirely new schools of wide-ranging music, Israeli and Modern Jewish, with thousands of titles? Do you appreciate that we have turned Jerusalem into a cosmopolitan city of over a half-million, something predicted in numerous Midrashic sources? And so on and so forth, a parade, a cascade of creativity and vibrant nationhood.
Most amazingly, perhaps, we have succeeeded in establishing a vital statehood while maintaining the thriving international presence for which we have always been noted.
Indeed, we can look directly into the eyes of Abraham, Moses, David, Hillel, Rabbi Akiva and Maimonides and declare, "We have preserved your legacy and we have lived your dream". We continue to live, as does their legacy and dream.
Nor have we given up on the world. We still believe, against a mountain of nauseating evidence to the contrary, that Mankind is close to correction, learning to live in peace and truth.
We conclude with the words of an old neighbor of yours, who had more courage and grace than your entire nation.
"Dear G-d, that these should never end-
The world, the sand, the sea,
The sound of water, the prayers of men,
The thunder of heaven.
Oh, Lord, that these things shall never end-
The sand and the sea,
The sighing of the little river,
The lightning in the skies-
And man's belief in man-to-be."
Thus true greatness, Hanna Senesh, may God avenge her blood. Thus true pettiness, the government of Romania. OK, apology accepted. Now get out of here before I change my mind.

JWR contributor Jay D. Homnick is the author of many books and essays on Jewish political and religious affairs. Comment by clicking here.

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