A haven from persecution

By Rabbi Michael G. Cohen

I grew up in the 1980s and ’90s, a time when Holocaust survivors started to wonder what their legacy would be for the next generation of American Jews. The award-winning movie, “Schindler’s List,” debuted in 1993, and inspired Holocaust survivors to speak anywhere and everywhere they could to share their heroic — and sometimes tragic — stories.

As a young and impressionable boy, I learned that even the most rational and liberal, democratic nation is susceptible to a tyranny of the minority and the subsequent persecution of its citizenry.

As an adult, I find myself with a small but ever-present, deep-seated fear that another liberal democracy might just be one political narcissist away from turning on a minority of its population. Don’t get me wrong. I love my country. I fought and bled for my country. And I am not naïve enough to think that its government is impervious to hate groups seeking power and control.

I am ashamed to admit it, but when I look at artwork to hang on the walls of my house, somewhere in the back of my mind, a small voice wonders what it might be worth if I needed to sell it quickly and flee to another country.

I watched the news as a reporter spoke about an issue in Lower Manhattan. As she spoke, behind her a man walked back and forth with a large sign that read, “The Jews control the USA.” If the Holocaust has taught me anything, it is that marginalized groups in general — and specifically Jews — are not safe in a land where they are not the majority.

Israel has its problems. It is not a perfect country. More often than not, Israel is brought up in the news cycle for something controversial. Fighting is too common of an occurrence on the streets of Israeli cities.

In my first year of rabbinical school, I lived in Jerusalem. I spent most of my final exams in a bunker, listening to the sirens warn us that rockets were inbound. Again, Israel is not a perfect country. But then again, no country is.

Regardless, I am a staunch supporter of Israel’s right to exist because, as long as Israel exists, I have a place to turn if my right to exist becomes threatened. Israel is a work in progress. It is imperfect — as all nations are. What is perfect about Israel, however, is its unwavering position to serve as a refuge and as a haven for any who seek asylum from persecution and harm.

I love the architecture in Jerusalem, the sunset over the Golan, the lighthearted joy people feel on the beaches of Tel Aviv, and the serenity that envelopes Israel on Shabbat. Israel is a wonderful and magical country. And for millions of Jews around the world, its existence represents a haven that is immune to the type of political and religious persecution we learned about from Holocaust survivors so many years ago.

Israel has its very own Stonehenge, an ancient stone circle called Galgal Refa’im with massive rock walls that jut 8 feet into the sky. The stone structure is around 5,000 years old, and is made up of some 42,000 tons of basalt stone. It was only discovered in the 1960s.