click to enlarge. My great-grandfather is listed as the "sgan sheni", the vice president.
My father shared this with me a few days ago. It is an announcement by a group that my great-grandfather was a member of calling for a Jewish "commonwealth" in Palestine. It makes me sad, but I am trying to imagine why he did this. 1933 was the year the Nazis seized power. He was a member of this group, as well. Perhaps he thought that the state would only be on land legitimately purchased from Palestinians. He may not have known of the exploitative way the land was purchased from the Ottomans. He may not have conceived of the genocide about to ensue. I may seem to be making excuses. I never met the man (he died in 1938), but since most members of my family are communists, anarchists, progressives or anti-racists, this doesn't sit easy. My husband said instead of posting it, I should research the organization and try to learn more about why he would support this. He doesn't understand blogging. I am interested in everyone's reactions.
It's sad to think that even in the United States Jews felt that they needed a homeland, to solve the "Jewish problem". And this was 1933, before the problem became their Holocaust. It is sad what happened to them, and sad that they ended up dispossessing most of the natives of Palestine. I wonder how your grandfather would feel today about Israel.
ReplyDeleteI remember going on a trip with my family as a kid -- we went to Missouri or maybe Tennessee and visited some remote relatives. What impressed me was that they had a Confederate sword mounted on the wall, as if to glorify the old south & all that came with it.
ReplyDeleteIt means nothing
ReplyDeleteMojo, I don't think he was planning on living there himself. He was a successful businessman here (what happened to that gene?). He wanted to set it up as a refuge for European Jews. I hope he would have realized the tragedy that Israel has become, but perhaps he would have been so traumatized by the holocaust that he is unable to appreciate others' suffering.
ReplyDeleteI don't find it surprising really and I don't think it can all be blamed on unfortunate circumstances, such as the rise of Nazi Germany and/or the manifold and awful ways Jews have been persecuted throughout history. Driving for the creation of a Jewish state on territories which were populated for centuries by people not considered really people, is also an expression of classic European colonialism. After all, Zionism is the product of 19th century European mentality and culture, and it carries within the seeds of Western racism, which were planted in the spirits of most people whose worldviews were typically European. And by most people, I mean not just those who were politically reactionary, but also most of those who were liberals, communists and anarchists as well. Unfortunately, racism is not a political ideology strictly speaking, and it spreads across the political spectrum with no regards for ideological preferences. It was just a "natural" part of the Western mind during your grandfather's years. It was a subtext that permeated the whole culture, to the point it became almost invisible.
ReplyDeleteNobody should apologise for something their ancestors did. Of course, by the same token, nobody has a right to be proud of anything their ancestors did. More difficult, because we all like a little reflected glory.
ReplyDeleteSame with politicians, apologising for slavery or something while blithely sanctioning current inhumanities. The Pope apologising for the crusades - what's that about?.
Anyway a lot of us older folks fell for that propaganda in the the wake of the Hitlerian genocide - "making the desert bloom" - it was the Fertile Crescent for Jasus' sake - but I accepted it without question.
It took the '67 June war to wake a lot of us on the British left that this wasn't the David and Goliath scenario we'd been sold. It was a militaristic state not the kibbutz-style experiment in egalitarian communal living the western press was peddling.
There were a lot more Zionists pre-1967, most were non-Jewish, and many were leftists.
So why shouldn't an affluent Jew, observing the rise of Nazism in Europe, want to create a refuge for his co-religionists (and mishpoche). Palestinian land was being sold to Jews at the time. It all would have made sense then.
it's ok, my mother is an Orientalist who fell in love with "exotic" Egypt.
ReplyDeleteMolly,
ReplyDeleteI am sure that if I were to look into my family's history, I would fnd things that would be disturbing.
I might even possibly have Jewish relatives and not even know it...
Such is life in America, we eventually lose track of our roots and our family identities...
The most important thing is that you and your family are now trying to see the truth of the matter and support it. Trying to figure out what your grandfather was incorrectly thinking at the time won't change the truth of the matter you are now supporting.
I may personally detest Zionism and Israel, and be in support of legitimite resistance to Israel, but I do not hate Jews. And I wish that more Jews would wake up and stop living so paranoidly in the after math of the Holocaust, that has been used as an industrialized weapon in Zionist circles to keep fellow Jews and non-Jews in line so that they will continue to overlook Zionism's racist nature and the Zionist's racist actions...
All religious fantasies are inherently dangerous, but the ones that seem the most virulent are the monotheistic type. They are primarily the molding of some supreme being to excuse the actions of any specific group. Than there are those who have no leanings of this sort whatsoever, that cling on to get they want. Forming multiple societies for whatever purpose, sometimes good and sometimes bad. You would think with the good experiences of assimilation and the benefits people would not do these things (such as our experience in America), than you would be wrong - but Zionism was formed at the very seed assimilation, before many would see the present benefits accumulate.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately there are two different types of reactions to suffering, one is the never again form so I will do it to others harder, and the other the never again therefore I will subject no one else to these atrocities. You can either become helpful to humanity or a plague.I see monotheisms as a destructive form of fantasies, playing to peoples visions of grandeur, at the expense of others - living in a destructive fantasy land (along with those who are just along for the beneficial ride).
http://www.singingfool.com/Title.aspx?publishedid=33768&st=Send%20Me%20Your%20Money%20-%20Suicidal%20Tendencies
ReplyDeleteAll the same
I really cannot say I under stand where you are coming from v, as I do not see monotheistic religions in the same way that you do...But than I guess my belief in a One God Creator and your disbelief in Him is where we begin in our differing interpretations of monotheistic religions ....
ReplyDeleteThe same
ReplyDeletehttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6621908278614449486&ei=yp_0SeuuL6Os_AGQ65zYCQ&q=the+final+insult&hl=en
Well than Marion, you need to do some study of world history
ReplyDeleteI am talking about my interpretation of the One God Creator for all mankind in Monotheistic religion versus yours v...
ReplyDeleteI am not talking about those followers of the Momotheistic religions who had interpreted the One God Creator in their own selfish image so that they could justify committing autrocities against others...
Well Marion, I am afraid you are a little hard pressed for anything else - if it is some form of biblical kind of god, or those written about in further written word. This is because the very discription of the god is the very thing I am speaking about, in these so-called inspired writings. I mean with this propensity why should some sort of god be discussed at all?
ReplyDeleteHats off to Great-grandpa Meyers
ReplyDeleteand the great victory of 1948.
And if you would cry over the fate of the Palis,
try to shed a few tears for the victims of the Moslem conquest.
Mike, thanks for giving us a real time display of the idiots who would support this tragedy (or is it "costa"?).
ReplyDeleteYou mean events which took place 1000 years ago? Ah! Ok! I'm shedding a tear right now! Thanks!
ReplyDelete.
Look Mike(bushtheliberator)...Honestly, how could anyone take you seriously with posts like this one?
ReplyDelete.