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CANADIAN   JEWISH   REVIEW
April 17, 1959
Enslavements Ancient And Modern: Passover Brings The ---------��Bondman A Chance To Be Free------�   .'
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"And if the Holy One, blessed be He, had not brought out our forefathers from Egypt, then even we ourselves and our children and our children's children would still be in bondage . ... "
Early in the course of the Seder Night this dramatic note of new and perpetual relevance sounds its alarm. Indeed, the Passover story is a beautiful one, in broad outline if not perhaps its detail, a great moment in Jewish and human history, a tale full of intrinsic __as .well as subsequently� attached moral messages. But above all it -is a story jwhich matters, which does and must make a difference, which is alive and relevant to you and to me, to every Jew, in all lands and age's. Not just a record of a journey once made, but a map and compasses for the journeys of our own exis-tence7~rf Gfod
hallmarks of bondage are absent. Yet are we entitled to say that man is free, the Jew is free, our individual selves are really at liberty?
In the most basic, literal, down-to-earth sense Pesach celebrates political freedom. The right oJ individuals and communities to determine their own destiny was at stake. In Pharaoh's discomfiture the inevitable downfall of all tyrant? and dictatorial regimes is implied. And this reassertion of human� freedom^ so -the "spirit of this festival teaches, depends equally on
ancestors, then even we ourselves would still be slaves.
But aren't we slaves?
The Pharaohs are dead; the methods of suppression and torment have altered; the obvious
God and the dedicated endeavour of men.
Where does enslavement exist in our contemporary world? Most obviously, in that huge chunk of territory and humanity behind the Iron Curtain. We know all too sadly well how millions are deprived of the privilege of deciding where to live, what work to do, how to worship, what to think and say and teach. No technological attainments or economic advancements may blind one to the fun-
damental barbarity of a system that degrades man to a robot in theory and practice alike. Human beings of many races, colours, cultures, religions are fed into the soulless grindmills of a doctrinaire, mechanistic, cruel dogma this very day. We shall think of them all, with sorrow, with compassion, and with an undying hope, as we rehearse this year the great archetype of all liberations.
And in the vast, awakening continent of _Africa, jtoo, slavery -is still the fate of human multitudes. Slavery in the full, literal sense of the word, in Angola and Mozambique. An oppression and exploitation that is every bit as vicious, stupid, and horrible in our proud fellow-Dominion, the Union of South Africa, where the very word equality means treason. A thinly disguised form of racist hypocrisy and domination in the Central �African Federation and Kenya; economic enslavement under French, Belgian, British banners. And the man-made plight of the grandsons of Africa on this, our own continent. But elsewhere too:
not last among them the Arab millions, kept in feudal subjugation by their own bldbd brethren . . . When we recall the ^slaves of Pithom and Ramases, we must think of the present-day oppressed in Irkutsk, Budapest, Johannesburg, Bulawpyo, Alabama, and Saudi Arabia as well, praying and (if we can) working for their deliverance.
Not so many years ago we should have had to include our 4>wn Jew^ ish people among the still-enslaved. The nightmare of war-time Europe and the post-war North African pogroms cast their fetters of fear and force on our own brethren. By God's grace, that epoch seems to be over. Yet can we say that Jewry, as Jewry, is truly free today?
One must be very naive to fail to notice the present-day symptoms of Jewish bondage even in free countries. People can be psychologically mind-cuffed in the midst of full civil franchise and social emancipation. A tiny instance may be illuminating. Not
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major cities a young man publicly criticised some leading clubs and the Stock Exchange for not admitting Jews, as members. The Gentile reaction was what could be expected: applause by some,
dislike by a few, disinterest by the large majority. But the Jewish public? You ought to have seen them. Squeaks and squeals of fright, almost panic, ajl over. Yes, yes, of course it is true, but dare we say it out aloud? Can we gain anything by it? Isn't the right way of dealing with such issues the dignity of total silence? Aren't there more urgent problems to confront right ?ow? The whole ' pitiful battery. of double-talk,
lic-relations-rubbish, feeble ratiocination, personal mudslinging applied to squashing a single, tame, factually correct statement.
What does this indicate if not an inner, mental enslavement, domination by an unworthy cowardice and stupid fear, the worst trait of a ghetto-crippled mentality? The pathetic hankering after "being well liked", at any cost, by an and everybody, is but an outward expression of an underlying spiritual condition of tin-freedom. It manifests itself, too, in the exaggerated cliquishnesa and introversion of much Jewish activity, but equally, in the servile imitation of every aspect of The Others, the majority, by too many Jewish individuals and groups.
To support Israel materially and spiritually, to admire wholeheartedly her tremendous achievements