The Mezzuzah's

 

My daughter Sarah went to Halifax on business. She was gone about a week. She lives in a high rise luxury building in Silver Sring, Maryland. They have 24 hour on site Security, cameras and a Concierge. 

When she left, this Mezzuzah, shown above, was hanging on her outside apartment door frame. Sue and I bought it for her when she moved out of our home and married. It has graced the outside door frame of every place she has lived for the last 19 years. Almost half her life. 

She came home to the photo shown below. It is  It is possible, but not very probable, that this was the work of an outsider. More than likely it was done by a custodian, or worse, by a neighbor in the building. Someone she sees each day.

I often wonder about the fate of the many Mezzuzahs which hung outside of my friends apartments when growing up in Brooklyn. My Father and my brother simply left ours when my Mom passed and my Dad moved out. 

I remember that as I left Apartment 2-H that last time, I only had a big scredriver with me and slid it under the edge of the Mezzuzah and pried it loose. I got married 2 years later to Sue, who is Christian, and hung it inside the house on our bedroom door frame. It has hung in that same spot in every home we have lived.

It was a small one, not very sturdily made, or even fancy. Several years ago my daughter bought me a new one,  much larger and more ornate. I took the older, smaller one, and placed the whole thing inside of the new one. And rehung it as one. Somehow that appealed to me. Maybe it represented a sign of continuity. The old one was a part of my life growing up. My Uncle Irving used to kiss his finger tips and then touch it each time he entered our apartment. They are shown, together in the next photo just before I rehung it here at our home on Stonecroft Lane.

No point to this; except that evil will always be around us. It takes many forms. And it is up to us all to report it when it happens, and move to stop it when we see it. And then replace the loss as best we can. It is both the most, and the least, that we can do.

The Night of Broken Glass

Growing up in Brooklyn, New York in the 1950’s and 1960’s was like growing up in the shadow of the Second World War. To know about the Holocaust is one thing, but to live amongst people who were affected by it; either by a friends family members, who were left behind in Europe and never made it through the war, or the many survivors; or refugees as they were known; who bore the blue inked numerical tattoo affixed to their wrists, was quite another. That tattoo identified them as survivors of the death camps, and these persons were revered, as they had looked death squarely in the eye and lived.

Today is the 75^th anniversary of Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass”. This photo shows the shock and fear on the faces of the little boy and his mother, prompting me to wonder if they were Jewish. Most likely they were not; as any sane person of Jewish heritage would have been indoors when this photo was taken after the first night of killing and burning had ended. But shock and fear know no ethnic boundaries, and these 2 people may just be reacting to the world having gone mad; seemingly in an instant; although the storm had been gathering since about 1933. Like Katrina in New Orleans, most people hoped the big storm would never arrive, changing everything.

The toll from the Night of Broken Glass was written up in terms of how many buildings destroyed, how many lives lost and the like. But all of those figures can never do justice to what was really lost in that night of Nazi fueled hatred. The 267 synagogues, stores, and homes destroyed that night at the direction of the Nazis, along with the vandalism of 7,500 Jewish businesses, and the killing of almost 100 Jewish people were just the tangible portion of the damage.

The events of November 9-10, 1938, while police and firemen stood by and watched; or turned a blind eye; signaled the selling of the German soul. And the judgment for that would be severe.

Kristallnacht marked the point of the Third Reich in which vulgar political rhetoric became vulgar acts of criminality. These acts would grow into the largest attempt ever made to annihilate any particular group of people. And that is the point of marking this grim anniversary. In our country today, we have so many hate groups, all engaged in violent and inhuman rhetoric. And that’s how it starts. With a bit of talk, leading people to become jaded in the face of veiled racism and prejudice.

And, what happens later, when it all spirals out of control? You wind up walking down a street scarred by once seemingly innocuous words; windows broken and holding your child’s hand in fear for the loss of everything you have ever known. Especially your own self-respect.

Boycott Products from India

Sometimes it is hard to understand the minds of other people. Rajesh Shah, in the city of Ahmedabad, north of Mumbai in India, has opened a store there named after Hitler, claiming that he never heard of the man until a few weeks ago. And then he opened his business. He has a whole story about why he chose that name, but, there can be no logical explanation behind this story other than a love of Adolph Hitler and a hatred for Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Catholics, and the list goes on and on. Doesn’t Rajesh Shah understand that according to Hitler he is inferior? Hitler loved the blonde haired-blue eyed set.

 

Look at Rajesh Shah, proudly holding the card bearing the name of a man who would have enslaved him. Hitler felt that dark skinned people were mentally deficient, and one has to wonder if Rajesh Shah is proof of that assertion. If that sounds harsh, well, you’ll just have to forgive me; I’m only a Jew. Please take note of the smiling Indian policeman standing at the upper left in the photo. If ignorance is bliss, this is the second most ignorant man in the world, behind Rajesh Shah, of course.

 

There is a disturbing trend worldwide towards a surge in Anti-Semitism lately. Take this wonderful photo of Hitler Wine in Italy from last week as an example. In complete violation of the law in Italy, which mirrors those in Germany, banning the glorification of Hitler’s name, as well as the use of the swastika, these morons have released a line of wine cleverly marketed as being commemorative. Yes, let‘s all drink some Hitler wine and don our Hitler clothing in honor of the biggest mass murderer in history.

Personally, I have called the Italian and Indian embassies to voice my concern. While the Italian Embassy seemed to take the issue seriously, the Indian Embassy was virtually unreachable except through a laborious process by e-mail. And even then, the message did not go through.

The best I can suggest; if this kind of thing upsets you; is to boycott all goods from these 2 nations until they decide to join the human race again.