Yellow Stars

My words alone are not enough to address the antisemite, pro Hamas, Jew hating gatherings across the country that have the potential for violence and terror towards Jews. 

The following excerpts from Holocaust memoirs speak volumes learned in the pogroms.

From Anna Molnár Hegedűs’s As the Lilacs Bloomed: One morning, we turned on the radio. This didn’t happen often, since listening to the radio did not give us much pleasure anymore. All we heard was castigation of the Jewish people, to prepare public opinion for future actions. Now, ashen and silent, we listened to the government decree that obliged every Jew, or anyone deemed to be Jewish, to wear a yellow star.

This news had an especially devastating effect on my husband. I kept consoling him that everybody knew we were Jewish long before this and that it really didn’t mean anything that from then on we’d be wearing a sign to that effect. But he could see beyond that. “This is the beginning of atrocities to come,” he said. “This will be followed by decrees that will stipulate what those wearing yellow stars are ‘not allowed’ to do. A visible sign will unleash people’s most despicable emotions and will subject those who wear it to the most brutal insults. This act has moved the Jews outside the protection of the law, and we will become free prey to our persecutors.”

From Leslie Meisels’ Suddenly the Shadow Fell: The German army occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944. Within weeks, they decreed that Jewish people put a cloth yellow Star of David on their garments, which had to be visible so that everybody could see that we were Jews.

The creeping acquiescence of abuses to Jews today are in many ways reminiscent of the precursor of agendas that led to the establishment of ghettos that allowed for easy collection of Jewish people and transporting them to abuse, starvation, and death. Some did not even make it to the camps and were summarily executed in the streets.

Silence is acceptance.  A strong and vigorous push back is called for. Sadly, the lack of consequences allows the protesters to continue the diatribe of hateful epithets.  “Death to Israel”, “From the River to the Sea”, “Death to America”, “Death to Jews”, “We are Hamas”, “Long live the Intifada” and other more vulgar chants.

History needs to be listened to.  The thousands of ignorant protesters idealogically call for a repeat of the 1940s.  The rhetoric of the protesters has devolved to direct calls for death to Jews.  Held up to the Holocaust it is easy to understand the danger if there is no action taken to squash the demonstrations.

It is impossible to avoid the comparison to the “what if” scenario. What if the same mass protests were focused at blacks, gays, Muslims or other segments of the citizenship.  There would be swift denouncement and suppression.  Civic agencies and law enforcement would be mobilized to quell the outbreaks of potential violence. 

It is unconscionable to ignore and be silent.  Whether it is government, civic associations, higher education or just citizens to not stand up to the wrong being perpetrated against Israel and the Jewish people overall allows the creeping evil to continue and magnify.