Political Correctness

November 20, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

No Matter How Deep Antisemitism Runs, It Must be Uprooted!

It is one thing to expose the vile monster of global antisemitism week after week, but beyond the exposure, we must make an effort–at least individual if not corporate–to fight it. As a result of our voices and actions, in some cases, we can nip it in the bud or even reverse it. An encouraging–and yet limited– example of this, is what happened at CNN a few days ago in a statement made by senior anchorwoman Christiane Amanpour. My intention is not to freely bash Ms. Amanpour, but rather to analyze her statement and apology in the scope of the current rise in antisemitism.

During the second week of November, she made this statement, ” This week 82 years ago, Kristallnacht happened. It was the Nazis’ warning shot across the bow of our human civilization that led to genocide against a whole identity, and in that tower of burning books, it led to an attack on fact, history, knowledge and truth. After four years of a modern-day assault on those same values by Donald Trump, the Biden-Harris team pledges a return to norms, including the truth.”

She received a lot of criticism and days after, at the end of her program, she issued this apology, “and finally tonight, a comment on my program at the end of last week. I observed the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, as I often do. It is the event that began the horrors of the Holocaust. I also noted President Trump’s attacks on history, facts, knowledge and truth. I should not have juxtaposed the two thoughts. Hitler and his evils stand alone, of course, in history. I regret any cause my statement may have caused. My point was to say how democracy can potentially slip away, and how we must always zealously guard our democratic values.”

Much was said in those two short statements. First, I must commend Ms. Amanpour for remembering the defining events of Kristallnacht. As a Jew who lost members of my family in the Holocaust, I make a point of remembering AND telling the current and future generations about the atrocities of Kristallnacht and how it triggered the Holocaust. Beyond the initial acknowledgment though, the statement quickly turned caustic. I find it interesting that Ms. Amanpour spoke of genocide against a whole identity, but couldn’t see herself using the words “Jews” or “Jewish.” It seems that whenever used in a positive context or to describe victimhood, people seem to shy away from such words, but when needed to describe “crimes against humanity”, “occupation of Palestinian land” or “colonization”, the word easily roll off one’s tongue. Another case of double-standards?

She was spot on, about the genocidal agenda, but she could only speak of an “identity” and a tower of burning books. The reality was that thousands of buildings, including many synagogues, were leveled, not to mention the death of over 100 Jewish people. But then, Ms. Amanpour described the massacre as “an attack on fact, history, knowledge and truth.” While there is an element of truth in that statement, it looks like these values were listed to facilitate a connection between Nazi ideology and Trump policies–a connection that is truly NOT based on fact, history, knowledge and truth. The fact is, Kristallnacht was an organized pogrom and boycott against the German Jewish community. It was all about the genocide of European Jewry. Her words appeared to be an attempt at minimizing and distorting the Holocaust.

The facts are that no other US administration has done more for Jewish people and other minorities than this current one. But was seems to be implied here is that President Trump has been leading an attack on fact, history, knowledge and truth against Americans across the board. This is a view that, while promoted by much of the more liberal media outlets, doesn’t justify comparing President to Hitler and his genocidal agenda.

Ms. Amanpour almost immediately received a lot of criticism from across various communities and issued an apology within a couple of days. The people spoke up and called CNN which resulted in the aired apology. Was she compelled, led, or forced to do so we do not know, but her apology was almost as damaging as her initial libel. She properly summarized Kristallnacht as “the event that began the horrors of the Holocaust” and even though she clearly said that she should have not compared Trump to Hitler, she still equated Trump’s policies to “attacks on history, facts, knowledge and truth.”

My concern is that Ms. Amanpour’s statement has graver consequences than a statement followed by an apology. It is a symptom of a deeper problem that I have tried to expose in the past. I see four issues in that apology:

• Her diatribe was not an isolated incident: She regularly accuses Israel of crimes not committed, based on her personal wrong assumptions about history and the geopolitical situation in the Middle East. She has gone as far as calling Jewish people terrorists and children murderers in 2008 on CNN when, in an interview, she stated “And, although the number is small, there are terrorists — Jewish terrorists, including some who would even kill Palestinians children.”

• Her diatribe unequivocally exposes her real mindset: I have said this before, the very fact that someone would be willing to make such comments about the Jewish people, or any other people for that matter, shows that it is part of their mindset. It is always good when they apologize, but these apologies are usually short-lived and often overshadowed by the next libel. The very fact that Ms. Amanpour thought to compare President Trump to Hitler is the bigger problem.

• Her apology was only skin deep: Ms. Amanpour probably got called in by her boss and asked to issue some kind of an apology to preserve ratings and control the justified ire of the Jewish community and of many other people of goodwill. Her half-baked apology didn’t sound sincere, and that is very sad.

• Her words don’t seem to put her job in jeopardy: Outside of this recent half-baked apology, claiming that she regretted having made her comments, her repeated diatribes have not been taken back or even put her CNN anchor’s position in jeopardy. She has repeatedly denigrated Israel and promoted the Palestinian narrative with no consequences affecting her job.

At the end of the day, I still think that it is a good thing that her libel was exposed for what it is and that she was forced to issue a statement of apology. Even if she wasn’t sincere, she needed to be exposed for her ignorance of history–willful or not– and blatant antisemitism.

• We must teach historical truth to others, especially our children and regardless of how uncomfortable any part of history was.

• We must show our Jewish community support when they are being attacked either verbally or physically.

• We must refrain from character assassination as retribution, no matter how frustrated and angry we might become.

• We have to stop believing that this doesn’t concern us if it is not directly affecting us personally.

• Ignorance should never be used as an excuse, especially in the age of instant communication.

• We cannot remain silent on the assumption that one voice will not amount to anything.

The Bible is actually clear about this as we read in Proverbs 24:10-12, “If you are slack in the day of distress, Your strength is limited. Deliver those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back. If you say, “See, we did not know this, Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work?”

Not to speak is to speak, not to act is to act, and to look the other way turns us into co-perpetrators. We all have a choice!

October 16, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

80 Years After the Warsaw Ghetto…Danger Will Robinson!

In a recent article that I wrote, I went over the results of a US survey made with the millennials and Gen Z community. The results were terrifying. One of the questions posed had to do with the ability to name a death camp or a ghetto. Incredibly, 48% of all respondents were unable to name anything, and in some states, it was as high as 60%. Historically, Auschwitz and the Warsaw ghetto are the most known names within that category, and yet half the people didn’t have a clue at all.

This month we remember that eighty years ago in October 1940, in Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto was established. But what is it exactly that we remember, for those of us who do remember? So much can be said about the Warsaw Ghetto, and so much can be learned from what happened there and how it happened. To be sure, the concept of the ghetto didn’t get invented by the Nazis to control the Jewish population, but it was simply re-introduced and “put on steroids” so to speak!

The word ghetto or geto is Italian for “foundry” which is the area where the first ghetto was organized in Venice, Italy in 1516 in the district known then as Gheto Vechio, some four hundred years before the Warsaw ghetto. The large Jewish community that had been expelled from Spain in 1492 was moving to Italy to relocate, and the Venetian community decided to keep things separated for better control. You can still visit the Venetian ghetto area to this day.

Fast forward to 1940. The Nazi Party is struggling to control the Jews. Holocaust historian and author Raul Hilberg explained that there was a progression in how the world got organized to first control and eventually get rid of its Jews, “Since the fourth century after Christ there have been three anti-Jewish policies: conversion, expulsion and annihilation. The second appeared as an alternative to the first, and the third emerged as an alternative to the second.”

While the final solution concentrated on the complete eradication of European Jewry, the institutionalization of the ghetto paved the way and helped to organize that step. Forced conversions and forced baptisms of the Jews to Christianity had been attempted for centuries and had resulted in the loss of many lives. Expulsion seemed to be a good option for those who wanted to get rid of the Jews. It had occurred in Europe on many occasions (England in 1290, Hungary in 1349 and 1360, France in 1394, Austria in 1421, Spain and Sicily in 1492, Portugal in 1497, Nuremberg in 1499, Naples in 1510 and Milan in 1597.)

But for Hitler and his Nazi murderers, expulsion didn’t yield the results expected. Things had to move further along and much faster. Ghettos started to get organized by the Nazis all over Europe as early as 1939. Jews were rounded up and sent to controlled and enclosed areas. Many smaller ghettos were started across Europe, with the first large metropolitan ghetto in Lodz in April of 1940, closely followed by the Warsaw ghetto in October of 1940. Erected brick walls and barbed wires formed new boundaries for various Jewish communities that would have to survive in their new communal prisons.

The ghettos were somewhat organized with occasional, Jewish traffic in and out of their limits, with special authorizations from the Nazis. The Jewish people did their best to maintain a semblance of communal life. Schools were organized and even synagogue services took place. But things started to deteriorate very rapidly. Food became scarce, living conditions were extremely crowded and sanitation was insufficient at best. Typhus and other infectious diseases started to plague the ghettos, and the death toll became very high. Over 43,000 people died inside the Lodz ghetto, and 76,000 within the Warsaw ghetto before the summer of 1942.

In a sense, the ghettos became clearing houses for the “final solution to the Jewish question”, a euphemism for the total destruction of the Jews of Europe. Since the Jews were not leaving fast enough and the ghettos were bulging at their seams, something else had to be done to rid the world of the “Jewish virus.” Slowly but steadily, the Nazis started to deport the Jews out of the ghettos to the death camp of Treblinka, only 50 miles away.

Two heroes of the Warsaw ghetto are worth remembering. The first one was Mordekhai Anielewicz, the young leader of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB) who led the Warsaw ghetto uprising. This was the largest Jewish revolt during World War Two, which inspired others of the sort in various ghettos and camps. He is remembered as the symbol of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust.

The other hero was a Polish-Jewish historian named Emanuel Ringelblum. He managed to chronicle Jewish deportation and ghetto life. His records were preserved inside tin boxes and large metal milk cans. They were respectively recovered in 1946 and 1950 and have provided the world with over 25,000 artifacts documenting the Holocaust and life in the Warsaw ghetto. This was a priceless find made possible by the selfless desire of a Jewish man to document the horrors he had to live through. Such courage!

What will happen to this crucial part of history if the proponents of the “Cancel Culture” movement had their way? I can only imagine! But there is something that we need to come to grips with even today. I believe that even though we are not seeing the brick and mortar walls being erected with barbed wires around Jewish communities, ghetto life is lurking again. The purpose of a ghetto is to separate, ostracize and control a group of people. Could it be that the global Jewish community is being rounded-up into a virtual ghetto?

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is working hard at accusing Israel of apartheid, colonization and human rights abuse in an effort to ostracize the Jewish people. No physical walls are necessary, just paint the Jews into the unwanted camp.

The Campus Intifadas are indoctrinating our young people into believing that Israel murders Palestinians every day and inviting pro-Palestinian apologists to lecture on US campuses. Jews are excluded from the marketplace of ideas, ironically enough, under the guise of freedom of speech. No physical walls are necessary, just paint the Jews as the oppressor and the rest of the student body will gladly denigrate them.

The myriads of antisemitic acts all over the world are a constant reminder of the danger that Jewish people run, simply for “being Jewish” Cemeteries are being desecrated, synagogues set on fire, diatribes and libels are posted online on all social networks (even though Facebook and Twitter finally agreed to block and cancel Holocaust deniers on their platforms.) No physical walls are necessary, just accuse the Jews of the ills of the world, and the world will gladly pass judgment and inflict the verdict.

When the ghettos proved not to be enough for those who hated the Jews with every fiber of their beings, Jewish extermination became the next logical step. No “Cancel Culture” demagogue will be able to prove otherwise. Today, the Jewish people are no longer in a ghetto between four walls topped by barbed wire, but it can easily be argued that we are being ghettoized by the media, politicians, the entertainment industry and even some of the churches. I dare not imagine what’s next if indeed we do cancel culture and we let history repeat itself!

“Indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, and in a free society,
some are guilty, but all are responsible.”
Abraham Joshua Heschel

October 2, 2020 By Olivier Melnick 3 Comments

We Must Work Together to Stop the Tragic Decline of Holocaust Awareness!

I have written many articles on this topic over the last two decades, and if I am again compelled to write another one, it is because of the importance of the topic, especially at this time in our history. What really compelled me to sound the alarm one more time, is the recent publishing of a survey by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. The U.S. Millennial Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Survey, which is the first-ever 50-state survey on Holocaust knowledge among Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) and Gen Z. (born between 1997 and 2012), yielded some terrifying results. Additionally, that same survey gave us some insight on the rest of the adult generation.

This is the very first survey that was done for all 50 states of the union and as such, is much more comprehensive that the previous ones. Frankly, I was hoping for results that would show some hope as to the knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust, since I, along with many other organizations have worked tirelessly at exposing the gruesome details of this somber part of human history. I was shocked with exactly the opposite…things are getting much worse. To be sure, historical revisionism and Holocaust denial have been very problematic way before the “Cancel Culture” movement was a thing. We all should remember the 1996 law suit filed against historian and Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt by David Irving. She “dared” to call him [rightfully] a Holocaust denier who among other things, claimed that Auschwitz did not have any gas chambers. She and her publisher won the case, but the battle was far from over!

The remaining generation of Holocaust survivors is rapidly dying off, leaving behind them whatever testimony they can. Much has been put on audio and video tapes by the Steven Spielberg “ USC Survivors of the Shoah Foundation.” It includes my father’s testimony recorded in 1997. Then, there is the powerful and visually stunning, on-going work of the “Holocaust and Antisemitism Foundation” based in New Zealand. That is just two of the great organizations dedicating time and resources to educate their audience about this part of history that we all wish we could forget but absolutely cannot afford to. We must also acknowledge groups like Maccabee Task Force and Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, dedicated on exposing the lies of the BDS (Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions) movement.

So, now we need to take a look at the results of that survey. According to their website, “The Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Study was commissioned by the Claims Conference. Data was collected in the United States and analyzed by Schoen Cooperman Research, with a representative sample of 1,000 interviews nationwide and 200 interviews in each state with adults ages 18 to 39 via landline, cell phone and online interviews. Respondents were selected at random and constituted a demographically representative sample of the Millennial population across each state. ” Their website provides a lot of details about the survey state by state with answers to several related questions. Here are some of the questions that were asked to an audience of mostly millennials and Gen. Z, making the group 39 years of age or younger. The results are extremely alarming.

• Can you name one concentration camp or one ghetto?
Nationally, 48% couldn’t name one camp or ghetto out of 40,000 of them in Europe and North Africa. In some states the number was as high as 60%.

• What is Auschwitz?
56% of all millennials were unable to identify the most known death camp: Auschwitz-Birkenau. As to the other less known but still historically relevant such as Dachau, Treblinka, Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald, only 1-3% could identify them.

• How many Jews died in the Holocaust?
It is important to remember that overall, a total of 12 million people died in the Holocaust. Additionally, the number of millennials who didn’t know that six million Jews died in the Holocaust was a scary 63% nationally, as high as 67% in some states. Most respondents thought that two million or less died.

• Jews caused the Holocaust?
I cannot fathom why such a question would even be on the survey, and yet, 10%-19% of respondent believed that the Jews were responsible for the Holocaust.

• Should we continue teaching about the Holocaust?
64% of all millennials and Gen. Z believed that Holocaust education should be mandatory in school and 80% believed that the Holocaust should still be taught to prevent it from happening again.

• Have you noticed Holocaust denial on the social networks?
While most respondents didn’t blatantly deny the Holocaust, many of them (49%) have witnessed it on the social networks. As high as 70% have also seen Nazi symbols on the networks and in their own communities.

These statistics are frightening! But, at the end of the day, if nothing is said or done about them, they remain numbers. Even the six million Jews murdered in the camps have been transformed into an impersonal large number of casualties with no names. That is a contributing factor in the “Holocaust fatigue” and the indifference shown by many.

If a global catastrophe such as the Holocaust can become such a parenthetical event in the chronicles of human history, what is to happen to all other important events of the modern era? If such an indelible stain on the human psyche can be slowly but increasingly erased from history, what is to happen to other negative milestones on the spectrum of the human race? When you compound ignorance of the Holocaust and its peripheral history with the current push for denial, revisionism and antisemitism, the damage is much greater. Think about it, how can one debunk a lie or defend factual truth if one has very little if any, knowledge of what really happened?

As I already mentioned, Holocaust survivors are dwindling down. Today, they are in their eighties and nineties, many of them not in very good health. Within the next decade, survivors will be hard to find, and at the rate of disinformation and denial, the Holocaust will have become a myth. How tragic! But when it comes to education, it is never too late. Here are some ways it can be accomplished.

• Visit a Holocaust memorial/museum
The most comprehensive is probably Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. But, even in the United Sates, many major cities have their own Holocaust museum. The one in Washington D.C. is undoubtedly the most comprehensive of the US based ones. You can find one to visit in 31 of the 50 US states. You can also visit one in many other countries besides Israel.

• Visit a Camp
While this involves traveling is will be a bit more costly, but I recommend that people visit a camp like Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland or Dachau in Germany. I went to Auschwitz in the winter of 2010. This is where my grandfather died. I was a defining moment for me. The place is eerily quiet, and the air is thick with memories and visual clues of so much unnecessary death. A visit to the remains of a camp will sear the truth and the dark legacy of the Holocaust into your memory for the rest of your life.

• Watch a movie or program
Many movies have been produced in the last 75 years on the topic of the Holocaust. Those that are well researched, documented and narrated are well worth your time and will powerfully supplement or replace your visit to a camp or museum. . Schindler’s List (1993), remains a solid and well researched piece of work that many people should watch. Another less known worthy documentary is the 1955 work by French Director Alain Resnais, Night and Fog (Nuit et Brouillard), powerfully documenting the horrors of the Nazi murder factories. It was made only 10 years after the Holocaust and should be required viewing in American schools.

• Read a book
Even more books have been written on the topic, and many of them have become classics that should also be required reading in schools. An absolute must read is Night, the autobiographical book by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. Additionally, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” also sheds great light on the horrors of that era. I would also recommend the classic scholarly work by Lucy Dawidowicz The War Against the Jews: 1933-1945, documenting Hitler’s obsession with the complete destruction of European Jewry. For a more in depth overview of antisemitism with great insight on the Holocaust, few have surpassed Robert Wistrich massive volume A Lethal Obsession.

None of us can do it all, but all of us can do something. We must educate ourselves and share what we learn with our younger generation. Most of them have no frame of reference by which to gauge the information they are being fed on campuses, in the media and on the social networks. Millennials great hunger for social justice often blinds them to the facts. At the end of the day, the best platform for unbiased education is in the home. Holocaust awareness starts as a family unit discusses the horrors of that era and exposes their children to the truth as graphic and disturbing as it maybe, with respect to various age groups, evidently. By the way, this is a fight that Jews and Evangelicals need too fight together against a common enemy.

One of the main reasons for such frightening statistics on the Holocaust and the Jewish people is because the topic is avoided or greatly watered down. But it is not just about the Holocaust, it is about human nature and our propensity to inflict pain and suffering to others if it can further our own selfish agendas. Not everybody will support this kind of violent hatred of other people, but by ignoring its power and its reach, we all are paving the way for history to repeat itself. My commentaries on the Holocaust might sound like a broken record to some, but as long as we get statistics like these, you will keep hearing my concerned voice.

September 11, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

The Danger of Antisemitism by Omission!

Too often, people have a propensity to ignore issues if they feel that they are not directly concerned or if the issues are far enough from them geographically or otherwise. People might think, ” the riots and protests are not my neighborhood, so I am ok!” or ” the fires are not putting my house in danger, they are too far, we are safe.” Unfortunately, apathy can be part of human nature to the point where we ignore the obvious if the obvious doesn’t affect us at a critical level. At least critical to us.

So, many people will reason with themselves and think, “I am NOT antisemitic, but I am also NOT Jewish!” People will quickly claim that they don’t hate the Jews, that they don’t wish them any harm at all. They will also agree that antisemitism is wrong, and yet they will not hesitate to look the other way when acts of antisemitism are committed. Hurting Jewish people directly, verbally, or physically is antisemitism by commission while ignoring their troubles is antisemitism by omission. They are both wrong!

In the early 1940s, Maurice Weinzveig, my Russian maternal grandfather was hiding in the cellar of our Paris residence. He knew that Paris had become very dangerous for a Jew without naturalization papers. He had to keep quiet and hidden for a while to protect his life and that of his wife and daughter (my mother.) Unbeknownst to Maurice, a gentile neighbor who worked for the French police and who was secretly in love with my grandmother, wanted to get rid of her husband, “the Jew.” He called the Gestapo and let them know that there was a Jew hiding in his building. They came, they took him, they sent him to Auschwitz, and he perished in the smokestacks of the Nazi factory of death.

When the Gestapo showed up at our residence, the guilty neighbor stayed home behind closed doors. Incidentally, he lived long enough so that I would meet him as a young kid. Nobody could prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that he had called the Gestapo, but the whole building knew that it was him, so he never paid for his crimes. He even had me sit on his lap a few times as a little boy. I get chills down my spine when I recall those moments. He was guilty of antisemitism by commission.

But what about the numerous neighbors in the same building who witnessed all the raucous movement up and down their building? They chose to remain silent, discreetly observing behind the privacy of their window blinders, as if they couldn’t do one thing to prevent the two Gestapo officers from apprehending my grandfather. Some feared for their lives and that of their own families; others felt powerless against the Nazi regime. How many were thinking, “I am not Jewish; this is none of my business?” Hard to say. The truth is that they became apathetic bystanders, and a bystander who does nothing only facilitates the crimes of the perpetrator. See something and say or do nothing… and that my friend, is antisemitism by omission.

So, how does that concept translate to 2020 and the current multifaceted crisis that we are all in? In other words, what does this have to do with the virus, the riots, the economy, or any other crises we are dealing with as a society? Once again, and very sadly, the thread is Israel and the Jews:

Covid-19: The Jewish people have been accused of creating, causing and even spreading the virus to the world for two reasons: To “take over the world’ and to “monetize” the vaccine/cure that they have developed. This hardly explains how Israel is currently suffering from a huge spike of new cases of Covid-19. One response from antisemites has been to encourage people to infect Jewish people by coughing on them. As early as last Spring, coining the new word “Holocough” made of the two words “Holocaust” and “cough,” antisemites flooded the social networks with the idea. People might say: “But I am not Jewish, so how does that concern me?”

The Protests/Riots: The tragic death of George Floyd precipitated America into regional protests that quickly became uncontrollable riots like those seen in Portland, Oregon for the last three months. Some people found it interesting to spread the rumor that American police officers were being trained by IDF officers in using methods that include the way George Floyd was chocked to death. The group known as US Campaign for Palestinian Rights came up with that unfounded accusation. Additionally, the DOJ is investigating the possibility of ties between the BLM movement and terrorist organizations. Terminology like “intifada” or “from Minneapolis to Palestine, Racism is a crime” are showing up on street signs, graffiti and social networks. Once again, the Jews and Israel are being blamed for the racial unrest, either directly or indirectly. People might say: “Black lives matter, and I am not Jewish, so how does the other stuff concern me?”

QAnon: The strange attraction that people have for the mysterious group known as QAnon is also leading people to blame the Jews. QAnon is some sort of conspiracy theory from an alt-right ideology. It is supposed to ANONymously expose the international Jewish cabal to destroy Donald Trump and take over the world. The fact that it is based on a hoax from 1904–The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion- that has been debunked over and over, doesn’t seem to stop QAnon adherents. They claim that the Rothschilds are behind the whole agenda of controlling the USA behind the scenes. Sadly, they haven’t been denounced more forcefully by the current administration. People might say: “QAnon is just a conspiracy theory and I am not Jewish, so how does that concern me?”

The easiest scapegoat for humanity has been the Jews for the last 2,000 years. Irrational behavior against the chosen people of God has gone uninterrupted for a very long time. The enemy of God and the Jewish people, Satan himself, is turning the irrational into the rational, acceptable and even the expected. But we do not have to accept the irrational blindly. Rabbi, philosopher and activist Abraham Joshua Heschel who marched with Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights Movement said: “Few are guilty, but all are responsible.” I would like to add to that that we can become guilty because of apathy. Jews and Blacks marching together against racism…Those days are gone!

Antisemitism by omission is still antisemitism. It might be watered down because people do not carry the guilt of being the main players in the longest hatred, but it is still dangerous, nonetheless. We cannot afford to remain silent about any form of injustice, period! For some reason, people will fight for various causes when they can be convinced that their voices and actions count for something. When people don’t feel concerned or in danger for their safety or even just for their comfort, they become apathetic. They feel like it is not their fight. But sitting on the fence of Jew-hatred is not an option. Indifference becomes our guilt.

Everything seems to indicate that the biblical predictions about the world going against Israel and the Jews are coming to fruition in our lifetime and rapidly (Zechariah 12:1-8; Daniel 9:27; Revelation 12.) Soon, we will all answer to a higher authority, and the God of Israel who calls the Jewish people the “Apple of my Eye” will not say to us, “don’t worry, you were not Jewish, so, this didn’t concern you!” While salvation cannot be lost, heavenly rewards can. We have a choice!

“If I were to remain silent, I’d be guilty of complicity.” Albert Einstein

August 1, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

There is a precedent for blind conformism, and you won’t like it!

The dictionary defines a conformist as:“A person who uncritically or habitually conforms to the customs, rules, or styles of a group”, and conformism as:” the tendency to adopt the attitudes, behavior, dress, etc, of the group to which one belongs.” In and of itself, conformism is neutral, it is just an action by someone in an effort to fit within a certain community, movement or group. When conformism becomes very dangerous, is when people conform to ideals or rules that are anti-constitutional or totalitarian.

People will conform for many reasons. Some will conform to fit in and be accepted by their community and peers. That is when conformity meets compromise. Others will conform simply by personal choice because they desire to make a change in their lifestyle that they deem necessary. There is yet another group of conformists; those who conform in fear for their lives as they are being forced by some sort of authority to do so. Fear is a powerful deterrent. When people conform out of fear, they usually do not realize that they are being conditioned for something bigger or for a later crisis. Are we being conditioned and if yes, for what? I understand that some people will think that I am over-reacting or seeing things that are not real. But please, bear with me!

There is a saying that goes like this:” Everybody called Noah a conspiracy theorist…until it started to rain!” Let me explain conditioning and conformism in a way that should clarify why I am very concerned about the current situation.

During the early stages of WW2, most of the world wouldn’t even believe that the Nazi war machine would be capable of such a carnage as the Holocaust. European Jews were slowly asked to comply with local authorities. “It is for your own safety!” They were told. So, as my paternal grandfather (who fought the great war of 1914-1918) did in Paris, Jews started to comply with the local authorities and slowly brought their radio sets to their police stations, not fully realizing that they were willingly disconnecting themselves from the world and the news.

Soon after that, my grandfather followed his people and brought his bicycle to the nearest police station, conforming to what was expected of him and the Jewish community “for their own safety”, again not fully realizing that their movement were being crippled as they all became forced pedestrians. The radios and bicycles were two of the many thin slices cut off the long salami of freedom. You cut enough thin slices one at a time and people don’t really notice until the salami is all gone. Pardon the analogy!

Then came the bolder moves. Jews had to have their ID cards stamped in red with the added name of “Sarah” for women and “Israel” for Men, as an easier way to identify them on the streets of Europe. But eventually, this was not enough. The authorities needed a way to identify Jews at a glance, so the 12th century French yellow circle known as “la rouelle”, previously used to identify Jews during the Middle Ages, was re-introduced. This time the color was the same, but the shape shifted. Enter the yellow star with the word “JEW” on it. But not to worry, it was for their own safety! My mother remembered having to take the last car on the subway as she was forced to display the infamous yellow patch that she had sewn on all her garments. I remember her telling me that at the risk of getting caught and possibly killed, she always worked hard at covering it up with a scarf.

Yet again, keeping Jews in their homes crippled and uninformed wasn’t enough, so we started to see the organizing of large, forced Jewish communities, contained behind walls. The Ghetto was reborn (it originally was created in Venice, Italy in 1516.) Jews became segregated in large numbers in various Eastern European ghettos in cities like Lodz and Warsaw. But it was for their own safety! Yeah right! Ghetto life was unhealthy, dangerous and infested with diseases. Death was running rampant.

But the answer to “the Jewish question” wouldn’t come until the Wannsee Conference when Hitler and his people decided to implement the Camps. First internment, then forced labor and eventually, the gas chambers and crematoriums. Was it still for our own safety? “Just bring in your radio sets”, they said. How did we get to the gas chambers from there? Conformism, compliance and blind obedience! But what does it have to do with 2020?
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that as the world is confining and conforming, we are being conditioned and prepared for the coming of the Antichrist and the New World Order. I have believed that this was coming since my early days as a believer in the mid-80s, but I didn’t think that I would live through its birth pangs.

I feel that it is important at this point to re-iterate the fact that as a Bible believing follower of Yeshua, I also am convinced that the event known as the Rapture (1 Thess. 4:15-16; 1 Cor. 15:52), will take place before the event known as the seven-year Great Tribulation and the 1,000-year long Millennial Kingdom (also known as the Messianic Kingdom.) This being said, there is no indication in the Bible that things will not become increasingly difficult and even violent before the events of the Great Tribulation. Current world events seem to indicate that.

What I see happening around the world in general, and in America in particular, is a conditioning of the people through fear. Covid-19 showed up and we were all told to stay put for 14 days. Don’t quote me wrong, I do believe in the real danger posed by the virus, but how it has been handled is cause for great concern The first shelter-in-place order was in California on March 16, 2020. The 14 days of confinement and social distancing have turned into 123 days SO FAR, with no sight of return to normal in sight. Each state has its own regulations, but for the most part, people are being forced to conform “for their own safety and the safety of others.”

First they asked us to stay home for two weeks for our own safety. Then we were asked to social distance for our own safety. Then we were told to wear masks in public places “for our own safety” to the point where some stores will refuse service if you do not wear a mask, not to mention the stink eye you get from people for not wearing one. Over 90% of people are wearing masks that offer zero protection from any kind of virus, let alone Covid-19. It is akin to throwing sand at a chain-link fence, most of it will go through. I see the masks as pure conditioning of the people.

So, when a vaccine is finally available, will you take it? what if the vaccine becomes the way you receive service from businesses, stores and restaurants? Remember, “it is for your own safety!” They closed the country, shut down the schools, churches, public gathering, and all this while instilling the fear of death and the fear of law-breaking in all good citizens. There is no sign of this changing at the very least until November 4th, but that’s a topic for another post.

We need to use common sense and be prudent. Social distancing is a good idea and washing hands has been a good thing since germs were discovered a very long time ago. Nothing new here! I am not certain that we can truly express our opinions and our freedom of choice anymore, but we must not be swayed in to thinking that this whole thing is for our own safety. It is much bigger than that. Not to mention the witch hunt against our current administration.

The Rapture and the Tribulation are real events. They will introduce a new player on the scene who is also spoken of in the Bible, that is the Antichrist. He too is very real and extremely dangerous, especially to the Jews but also to anyone who hasn’t placed their trust in Yeshua as their Messiah (Isaiah 52:13-53:12, John 3:16.) For believers today, we need to be reminded of Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

I only want to be conformed by the Holy Spirit to become more like Yeshua until I receive my eternal glorified body. In the meantime, my prayers for you and I is that we would use common sense and be bold about who we serve, who we bend the knee to and where we want to spend eternity.

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