2--.THE BULLETIN—Thursday, June 24, 1976
Perspective'-
A STATE IS NOT ENOUGH
The author is o senior Isroei Defences Forces Officer, several times wounded in action ond cited for valor; and working for odoctorote in Modern Jew^ ish History.. The following is hisisumming-up of a discussion by a group of officers on how they see their task in the army of the Jewish State, held late in. the summer of 1973 ond subsequently published in "Moor-ochot." The portion reprinted here wos tondensed ohd translated by Moshe Kohn.
BY HENRY LEONARD
- I SHOULD LIKE to discuss, two days of^e Israel calendar: Martyrs arid Heroes^ Remembrance Day and Independence Day^,; /two days which were^ not handed down^ to' us by our forefathers but were fixed ' by our "own generation and which, together, symbolize our people's past and future.
The first of the two days is generally referred < to   as  Holocaust Day (Yom Hasho'ah), though its official nanie is Yom Hazikaron. Lasho^ah Velaigvura (in -English:^ Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day). The writings on the subject continue to teach   that, "Holocaust" means  the Six? Million going "as sheep to the slaughter" while "Heroism" .means the revolts of the ghettos and the resistance oif.the Jewish partisans; In the schools and youth movements we were taught that the ghetto revolts retrieved the honor of the Jewish People. Studies have been written with the intention Qf proving that thie proportion^ of fighters and insurgents among the Jews J was greater than,,among other, nations. I nations. :   ^ .
= '1 have doubts about all that.. The ghetto ' risings^ for all thei|: grandeur, teach us nothing about' 'thd^Hqlockiis't' br about "Jewish" traits. In the Holocaust Jews lived and vdied like human beings. There werdv^good people and bad among them^^heroes and cowards. The terrible thing about the.'Holocaust isn't that Jews -died in -one way or another, but that ■ civilized nations and a silent world condemned an entire people to death.
THE REVOLT of the ghettos was a revolt of those who wanted to take their own revenge, while most ^f the others left the task to coiyiing generations. The death of the^ghetto fighters was no more honorable, than the death of the other ^ Jews  and  is   not proof that Jews are better than other people. Death while bear-ing arms is^no more honorable than any ^ kind of death in which a person holds on to his principles, to his liiimanity. A Jew wiapping himself in his 'Tallit' (prayer shawl) as he goes to his death ^ and a Jewish mother walking with her. children to the gas chambers and soothing them have no less dignity than a fighter in the Warsaw <xhetto.
Many .of the Holocaust survivors, who -had no opportunity - to fight in Europe, fought in the War of Liberation and folight well. They fought when there,was a point in doing so and they went "as sheep to the slaughter" when fighting was futile. .
it is sometimes hard to understand why we . indulge in so ^ much self^justir fication over what happened in the Holo^ caust. I think this stems -from t the way our education has accustonied us to thinking about the Diaspora. We were taught that we in Israel are better than the "Galuf (Exile) Jew, who was a debased, humiliated, servile type and therefore developed negative traits, whereas we are proud, erect and free. I question -the validity of this myth. The 'Ga'lut' Jew, was, indeed, persecuted and suffered, but he never regarded hiinself as a lesser creature; the Jews always considered themselves superior to their neighbors and in their hearts were always proud and erect. We created , an image of.the 'Galut' Jew to suit us,.*
so that we might feel ourselves superior to him. Our good attributes we ascribed to our. own achievements and the bad we blamed on the legacy of our ancestors. But often the opposite was the case.
WE BEAR ARMS and defend our homes and families with them not because we * re better: people  than our  ancestors but because we enjoy an enormous advantage over ithem: the opportunity \to bear arms in defence of our existence. In the conditions;;^ in which our 'Galut ■ forebears lived the' c possession of arms was pointless, so they sought other ways' of safeguarding their;v wellbeing and their existence as Jew$g ways which were particularly suitedl to the circumstances of each period ;and place.
It is an honor for us to bear arms in defence of our existence and the values ;  we* hold dear, but our fathers and brothers in the Diaspora were and" are no less :   honorable than us when, in the pasti they .  found . ways suited to the circumstances . of their places and times and when, today, they find other means^ of defending ^themselves, preserving their identity and helping the State of Israel.
... •   .' '
IT IS CUSTOMARY to say that when the State , of Israel came into being, it straightened   the   babk  ot the Jewish People. The State and its achievements are presented as a zenith of Jewish history ■r-. the State of Israel transformed the destiny of the Jewish Peopte. and it is once again a nation like all the other, sovereign states.
I question all that. The State'of Israel didn^t straighten the back of the Jewish People; when the Jewish People straightened its back, it established the State of Israel. The Jewish People's awakening in the past century, expressed itself in the establishment bjf the State of Israel and in the struggle, of Diaspora/ Jewry for their survival as a people. The, Jews of the Diaspora .continued their struggle for survival/no Jess energetically than Israel continues hers.
Israel's wars, thien, and the struggle of the Jews- of the Diaspora merge into one supreme effort of thp Jewish People to preserve its identity and existence in the modern world.  , ,
I don't know whether we really are a culmination of Jewish history. True, we have gained political Sovereignty, but our culture ^nd bur spiritual values have, in the process, become inferior to tho of our forebears in the Diaspora. Israel was built by pioneers ahd immigrants who came here as young people, and whose spiritual  and, intellectual  baggage was mainly acquired er created in the Diaspora. In Eretz Yisrael they were busy mainly with material construction, and the higher ' our buildings grew, the more our values shrank; most of our Jewish spiritual aristocracy remained in the Diaspora. So when millions of Jews perished in the Diaspora^ ' inost of the bearers of the Jewish People's cultural and spiritual legacy perished with fliem.
(Continued on ^age 4) See: A STATE ES NOT ENOUGH
Keeping informed ess«Rtiol today
Dear Mr. Kaplan; -I carefully peruse, each issue of The Bulletin and never fail to find two or three articles which I deem invaluable to my knowledge and understanding of both Judaism and Israel. .
/.Today, especially, it is unwise, to say the:least, for any Jew to be cut off'from the' flow of news for even so brief a period as a week or two.
• One statement, one act, one decision, can. turn the Jewish world .topsy-turvy.fovernight.: To keep informed means to keep on _guard.
Neither the headlines. Ibf any paper nor television spot news is adequate to the task, although both    are    often    the total
sourcie 'of a Jew's knowledge al^t what, is happening in Israel,;-in particular, or the Jewish world in general.
CHARLES J. LEVIN, ^ ^ Los Anceles.
Ikom the TALMUD '
Qodjound do,vejssel^to hold a blessing for Israel, only pteace.
Uktzin^end o'fTaimud.
Endorsed Appeols
Canadian ORT - Vancouver Men's Membership Cmpgn .....Jane 15-JuIy 13
Social Calendar
Befh Israel General
Meeting .........June 28
Pioneer Women Adoption ' Luncheon............. June 30
. Endorsotions ore published o« o Bulletin community .servtce; : Errori or omissions con be corrected onU by Jewish Commuhity Fund t.. Coun< .cil. Ph. 261.8101.—THE PUBLISHER.
— DEATHS 1976__
CECIL GOODMAN - June 15
MORRIS, GUREVICH June 18
SIMON LAPIDUS June 18
UmA WEISZ^ June 18
NGRMAN^GREENSTONE' June 20 L
.A» another Bulletin community'Mr* Vice feature, Oeelhs will ba pub. lished weekly «* they are rasit-tered^THE PUBLISHER.
kemmSer The Sabbafh
Sabbath begins. Light candles
Friday, June Z5, 9:02
Sedra Schlach Lecha, Numbers
Sabbath ends, Havdallah^ June 26, 10:02
Friday, July 2, 9:01 Sedra Korach, Numbers-Sabbath ends, Bfavdallah . July 3, 10:01
JEWISH CALENDAR. (LUACH) 5736 - 1976 : -Rosh Chodesh -t - -
*    Tammuz ^___j.--i..^..June Z9.
Fast of Tanmiu^ .._____; July 15
Tisha B'Ab , -Ai.:. -Ang.u 5.
Tu B'Ab _______...Aug. II
Rosh Chodesh Elul i.Aug. 26
Rosh Hashanah ____.-SepK 25
\Yom Klppur .._.Oct. 4 All hoildayt btfin fha pracetfins .avc-ot sundown.' -
wssnm Bwum
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Thursday, June 24; 1976
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