5732-33 1971-73
The Wandering Jew
(The Story of the Jew in the Present Exile)
July 14, 1972
“These are the travels of the children of Israel by which
they went forth out of the land of Egypt…And they journeyed from Rameses and
they camped in Sukkot and they camped in Eitam…And they journeyed from Refidim
and camped in the Sinai Desert and they journeyed from Hazerot and they
journeyed from Hazerot and camped in Ritma and they journeyed from Ritma and
they camped in Rimon Paretz and they journeyed from Rimon Paretz and they
camped in Livna and they journeyed from Livna and they camped in Risa,,,”
(Numbers 33)
The wanderings of the Jews on their weary desert journey
home. The weary journey of the wandering
Jew through history. It is not relegated
merely to this one forty-year period of the Jewish epoch. It is repeated constantly. It is the story of the Jew in Exile never
knowing more than a transitory peace, never feeling more than a fleeting insecure
moment of security. It is a story
repeated endlessly, in every generation – not the least our own. It is tragic when the Jew is forced to
journey from one camp to another. It is
ludicrously pitiful when his wanderings assume the shape they do in the America
of our times.
Thus will future chroniclers write of the mad wanderings
of the American Jew.
These are the travels of the American children of Israel by
which they went forth from the land of Europe…And they journeyed from Poland
for Russia or Galicia or Lithuania or Hungary or Rumania
or Syria or Turkey and they camped on the Lower East Side. And
they camped in Williamsburg. And
they journeyed from Crown Heights and they camped in Boro Park. And they journeyed from Boro Park and
camped in Forest Hills. And they
journeyed from Forest Hills and camped in Nassau County. And they journeyed from Nassau County
and camped in Suffolk County. And
they journeyed from Suffolk County and were last seen clinging to the
lighthouse on Montauk Point for there were no more camps left…”
I am not ashamed to admit it. I do not understand the Jew. I am at a loss to understand a man who is so
clever in business; so keen in science and the professions; so intellectually
bright in debate – and so incredibly stupid when it comes to saving himself.
The wanderings of the American Jew are legendary. He moves into a new neighborhood and begins
his predictable – almost inevitable – flight just a few short years later to a
new neighborhood. His flight from fear
of crime, Blacks, falling property values and his decision to move into
precisely the same kind of a situation, which one must see a repetition
of the old one in the space of an absurdly short time and a time that grows
progressively shorter. He flees Brownsville
leaving behind all his property and Jewish institutions and moves where? To East Flatbush where he must
inevitably suffer the same fate. Burned
twice, he will proceed to throw himself into the flames yet again by moving to Staten
Island where a new yeshiva is being built after the old one collapsed under
the pressure of a changing neighborhood.
And he will not be in Staten Island six months before the specter
is upon him again and he will unconsciously wonder how much time it will take
to get to work in Manhattan from the wilds of New Jersey…
It is not a peculiarly American problem. It is indigenous to affluent and ‘healthy’
Jews in every “New Paradise” on earth. I
once met a Jew from Montreal. He was a
survivor of Auschwitz who had gone through the seven circles of Hell. In Montreal he had become very wealthy. Suddenly, the French separatist movement
threatened his economic future if not his physical safety. He told me he was thinking of moving. I looked at this survivor of the gentile hell
in Europe and the budding victim of its fury in Montreal and asked him where he
contemplated going:
“Toronto….” Was the answer.
And after that Vancouver, not doubt, and after that Australia. Any place but not the one logical, sane
place. Home, Eretz Yisroel.
We are indeed stricken with some form of madness. It is as if the words of the Prophet Isaiah
have risen to smite us with a vengeance:
“Hear ye indeed but understand not, and see ye indeed but
perceive not. Make the heart of this
people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes…” (Isaiah 6:9
–10).
This is the only explanation I can muster for the mad
refusal of the American Jews to understand that – in the end – there are no
neighborhoods which will be safe and secure for him and that no journey will
bring him to a final camp of security. There is no other explanation for
Auschwitz survivors convincing themselves that neighborhood Y will give them
greater safety than neighborhood X which in turn they thought would give them
safe haven from neighborhood Auschwitz.
There is no other explanation for the decision to build a multi-million
dollar yeshiva in Staten Island rather than in permanent Jerusalem. There is not other explanation for the moving
of kaftan, shrtreimal and Rebbe from Warsaw, Samz and Sigit to Boro Park, Crown
Heights and Williamsburg rather than Eretz Yisroel. We must surely be all stricken mad with the
rage of Heaven not to realize that the eternal wanderings of the Jew will not
stop for the Boston refugees in Brookline, for the Philadelphia refugees in
Elkins Park, for the Cleveland refugees in Shaker Heights, for the Chicago
refugees in Skokie, for the Detroit 0refugees in Oak Park and for the New York
refugees to Nassau, Suffolk, Monsey or Staten Island.
There comes a time when there are NO MORE CAMPS LEFT
EXCEPT THOSE OF TERROR. There comes
a time even the most blind, deaf and stubborn among us learn that there are
many camps but only one home. Generally
that time comes too late.
It is not yet too late however to lift the veil from our
eyes, the veil that grows not from lack of understanding but from REFUSAL
to understand – not from true blindness but from UNWILLINGNESS to
see. We are a generation that fulfills
the words of our rabbis in Ruth: “Woe into the generation that judges its
judges…” Indeed, woe unto a generation so lacking in men of greatness that
it wanders around lost, rudderless and uncomprehending. We are such a generation and I know that
never in the history of our people has such a massive community as the American
Jewish one is – been so utterly and completely devoid of one single man of
greatness. The Jews of the desert
wandered but had, at least, the consolation of a Moses who knew clearly where
he was taking them. The American Jewish wanderers do not have even that. I can only repeat what I have said so many
times: It is time to stop wandering
and go home.
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