EVERYTHING LOOKS THE SAME BUT NOTHING IS THE SAME
For part of the year, I am fortunate enough to live in Santa Barbara, California, a city 90% of whose population is White and Latino. Spanish is spoken here almost as much as English. People look happy; so many smiles as you pass them on the street. And why not? The air is clean, the ocean and mountains are beautiful, the sun is shining and the crops recently picked mostly by Latinos mean the produce is fresh for everyone. A sense of peace seems to envelop this place from the mountains, through the valleys and to the sea. It’s a slower pace of life, a welcome feature compared to America’s larger cities
However, though everything looks the same nothing is the same. There has been an astounding rupture. Suddenly, and overnight, Latinos in this community find themselves caught up in a web so eerily familiar to Jews throughout history.
They are afraid, sharing stories of roundups in the fields, in stores, in restaurants, in churches and any place where large numbers of Latinos congregate. There is a communal network of communication with regular alerts. There are thoughts of moving to Mexico or other countries of origin even though this is the only country many have ever known. Some are citizens, some have green cards, some peoples’ immigration status is in process and others have no legal status though they have worked here and paid taxes for decades. A friend, here legally, recently shared for times such as this that she, like others, have had plans for years to access hiding places, to escape the watchful eye of immigration authorities by staying in the homes of White persons. There is a deeply felt fear permeating the lives of Latinos who have lived here for generations. They have contributed tremendously to this city, this state and our entire country. And yet, even those here legally are fearful.
They are afraid, sharing stories of roundups in the fields, in stores, in restaurants, in churches and any place where large numbers of Latinos congregate. There is a communal network of communication with regular alerts. There are thoughts of moving to Mexico or other countries of origin even though this is the only country many have ever known. Some are citizens, some have green cards, some peoples’ immigration status is in process and others have no legal status though they have worked here and paid taxes for decades. A friend, here legally, recently shared for times such as this that she, like others, have had plans for years to access hiding places, to escape the watchful eye of immigration authorities by staying in the homes of White persons. There is a deeply felt fear permeating the lives of Latinos who have lived here for generations. They have contributed tremendously to this city, this state and our entire country. And yet, even those here legally are fearful.
The pace of change in the last month is felt throughout the United States, not just among Latinos. The change is dizzying and seems to affect everyone. Many are asking how to even make sense of the seemingly endless barrage of Executive Orders. They feel threatening, mean-spirited and unwavering. They are not benevolent, despite their stated justifications, as multitudes of people throughout the country find themselves unemployed, having nothing to do with merit, causing staggering ripple effects we can only imagine and are only starting to feel.
Every aspect of our lives is affected, including our privacy, safety and national security. Every program of assistance, the very safety nets upon which so many depend, are threatened in the name of efficiency; so vast are the changes possessing an expressed contempt for our established ethos of caring for others. It feels like another Sodom and Gomorrah in which a Midrash, (Pirke Eliezer 25; Bereshit Rabbah 49:6), identifies the newly prohibited crime of feeding the hungry as punishable by death lest the community experience a flood of immigrants needing care.
The freedoms and individual liberties we take for granted, the structures of a constitutional republic creating those freedoms and liberties, are now under attack. And isn’t this the point of such rapid radical aggressive behavior? Disorientation creates its own vulnerability. Who is safe? The President’s pardoning of J6 persons upends our sense of justice and legality. Do our laws now mean nothing? Does might make right?
As in other historical episodes such as this there is a perversion of truth, an upending of the values we hold so dear including Torah values such as kindness and decency. It is not for nothing that God commands us 36 times in Torah to be kind to the stranger because we were once strangers in a strange land. Empathy is not discretional; it is commanded. We are entreated and directed to remember how it feels and then act with empathy toward others.
We have clearly entered a new world order and though everything around us looks the same nothing is. One only need peer into the annals of history to understand it doesn’t take much time to dismantle a democracy while maintaining what appear to be the structures of democracy like a Congress or Parliament and a Judiciary. These are euphemistically called illiberal democracies but they are anything but any kind of democracy.
Every aspect of our lives is affected, including our privacy, safety and national security. Every program of assistance, the very safety nets upon which so many depend, are threatened in the name of efficiency; so vast are the changes possessing an expressed contempt for our established ethos of caring for others. It feels like another Sodom and Gomorrah in which a Midrash, (Pirke Eliezer 25; Bereshit Rabbah 49:6), identifies the newly prohibited crime of feeding the hungry as punishable by death lest the community experience a flood of immigrants needing care.
The freedoms and individual liberties we take for granted, the structures of a constitutional republic creating those freedoms and liberties, are now under attack. And isn’t this the point of such rapid radical aggressive behavior? Disorientation creates its own vulnerability. Who is safe? The President’s pardoning of J6 persons upends our sense of justice and legality. Do our laws now mean nothing? Does might make right?
As in other historical episodes such as this there is a perversion of truth, an upending of the values we hold so dear including Torah values such as kindness and decency. It is not for nothing that God commands us 36 times in Torah to be kind to the stranger because we were once strangers in a strange land. Empathy is not discretional; it is commanded. We are entreated and directed to remember how it feels and then act with empathy toward others.
We have clearly entered a new world order and though everything around us looks the same nothing is. One only need peer into the annals of history to understand it doesn’t take much time to dismantle a democracy while maintaining what appear to be the structures of democracy like a Congress or Parliament and a Judiciary. These are euphemistically called illiberal democracies but they are anything but any kind of democracy.
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Checks and balances, the very structures upon which our nation are based to prevent the threat of placing too much power in one person, are disintegrating before our eyes. Floating “jokes” about President Trump becoming our King and extending his presidency into a 3rd unconstitutional term are not jokes.
This is not only threatening to one minority; it is threatening to us all as history shows. When the newly evolving system targets one group in the name of correcting massive perceived illegalities it never stops there; there are always more scapegoats. Demagogues are quick to blame others as the reason for our woes. This politics of fear and hatred is likened to a virus infecting the minds of so many. Always, there is someone else to blame for our problems; it is never us. Often this happens in an environment of resurgent nationalism, economic issues and a backlash against immigrants. |
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Why do we ever think we are living in the most enlightened times and we are past all this? As William Faulkner wrote, The past is never dead. It’s not even past. Santayana seemed to agree when he said, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
When observers of these times look to history to help us inform the present, it does not mean that every episode is identical but the broad strokes may be. When Hitler disposed of the democratic Weimar Republic with dispatch and created a system we all know led to the Holocaust it does not mean that every authoritarian regime leads to another Holocaust. What it does mean is we need to recognize the commonalities—the resulting uprooting of many, the instilling of fear, the violence and threat of violence and the scapegoating of “the other.”
Of course if immigrants are not here legally, if they are guilty of crimes, they should be deported, and they often have been regardless of who has been in office. That is not what is happening here. The United States security is not under siege from undocumented migrants most of whom are not criminals, but often are doing work no one else wants to do.
When demagogues ascend to power and tell us what they plan on doing, we should listen. Never should their words be dismissed as history shows. Words like “vermin,” “infecting our blood,” and “internment camps” are not merely borrowed from the pages of Mein Kampf; they are applied to the present, making it easier to dehumanize and hate “the other” as an explanation for our troubles. It is a lazy integration of a worldview delivered in sound bites and it can be mesmerizing with tremendous resonance to millions.
No one demagogue becomes a danger unless his message succeeds in creating a movement of people and a list of grievances to explain followers’ disgruntled lives. The list of “injustices” are generalized and oversimplified. They are easy to grasp and there are enough crumbs of reality in them that seem to fit as easy explanations.
The movement possesses its own energy, its own momentum, much more powerful than any one individual. It needn’t be comprised of a majority of the people. After all, only 10% of Germans during the Hitler era belonged to the Nazi Party. The movement needs power and legitimacy solidifying its momentum and fueling its energy to deconstruct the prior structure of government. Even if its own goals are reached, the energy and incitement are not exhausted because the movement is insatiable for its next scapegoated “enemy.”
Trumpism in our day is this kind of despotic movement amplified not only by Donald Trump and his actions but by his very own Rasputin, in the form of Elon Musk throwing our nation into a constitutional crisis. Together this duo, along with their legions and the passivity of a paralyzed Congress, threaten our way of life and everything we hold dear as Americans and as Jews, values that converge in our constitutionally created nation. America, after all, was built upon an acknowledgement that people are entitled to the free exercise of their religion, freedom of the press and other protections afforded by our Bill of Rights. Indeed, we are entitled to all kinds of constitutional protections negating rule by the majority.
An ideology espoused by many in the MAGA world aspire to a resurgent White Christian Nationalist country, something we ourselves saw in this country especially during the rise of Naziism in Europe.
When observers of these times look to history to help us inform the present, it does not mean that every episode is identical but the broad strokes may be. When Hitler disposed of the democratic Weimar Republic with dispatch and created a system we all know led to the Holocaust it does not mean that every authoritarian regime leads to another Holocaust. What it does mean is we need to recognize the commonalities—the resulting uprooting of many, the instilling of fear, the violence and threat of violence and the scapegoating of “the other.”
Of course if immigrants are not here legally, if they are guilty of crimes, they should be deported, and they often have been regardless of who has been in office. That is not what is happening here. The United States security is not under siege from undocumented migrants most of whom are not criminals, but often are doing work no one else wants to do.
When demagogues ascend to power and tell us what they plan on doing, we should listen. Never should their words be dismissed as history shows. Words like “vermin,” “infecting our blood,” and “internment camps” are not merely borrowed from the pages of Mein Kampf; they are applied to the present, making it easier to dehumanize and hate “the other” as an explanation for our troubles. It is a lazy integration of a worldview delivered in sound bites and it can be mesmerizing with tremendous resonance to millions.
No one demagogue becomes a danger unless his message succeeds in creating a movement of people and a list of grievances to explain followers’ disgruntled lives. The list of “injustices” are generalized and oversimplified. They are easy to grasp and there are enough crumbs of reality in them that seem to fit as easy explanations.
The movement possesses its own energy, its own momentum, much more powerful than any one individual. It needn’t be comprised of a majority of the people. After all, only 10% of Germans during the Hitler era belonged to the Nazi Party. The movement needs power and legitimacy solidifying its momentum and fueling its energy to deconstruct the prior structure of government. Even if its own goals are reached, the energy and incitement are not exhausted because the movement is insatiable for its next scapegoated “enemy.”
Trumpism in our day is this kind of despotic movement amplified not only by Donald Trump and his actions but by his very own Rasputin, in the form of Elon Musk throwing our nation into a constitutional crisis. Together this duo, along with their legions and the passivity of a paralyzed Congress, threaten our way of life and everything we hold dear as Americans and as Jews, values that converge in our constitutionally created nation. America, after all, was built upon an acknowledgement that people are entitled to the free exercise of their religion, freedom of the press and other protections afforded by our Bill of Rights. Indeed, we are entitled to all kinds of constitutional protections negating rule by the majority.
An ideology espoused by many in the MAGA world aspire to a resurgent White Christian Nationalist country, something we ourselves saw in this country especially during the rise of Naziism in Europe.
Elon Musk’s frenzied outstretched arm can only be described as the Nazi salute that is now being imitated by others in the MAGA world. A pure Aryan race was espoused by the Nazis and it failed but in its demise it took millions upon millions of lives with them.
So, where does that leave us?
It would be so easy to look the other way. After all, who among us disputes Trump’s support of Israel and the success of the Abraham Accords? But the Trump movement transcends policies that may benefit us because the underlying ideology is so corrosive of all of our rights as citizens and the principles and values supporting them.
As Jews we proudly proclaim “Never Again,” but what does that foundational understanding in a post Holocaust world really mean if we look the other way? It isn’t only that anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic acts are at an all-time high, which of course threatens our own security. The problem is much more pervasive as antipathy toward immigrants, the disabled and those who identify as LGBTQ is interwoven into the Trump movement. A politics which legitimizes exclusion is in direct opposition to the concept of “Never Again.” When one minority is demonized none of us is safe.
As Jews we proudly proclaim “Never Again,” but what does that foundational understanding in a post Holocaust world really mean if we look the other way? It isn’t only that anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic acts are at an all-time high, which of course threatens our own security. The problem is much more pervasive as antipathy toward immigrants, the disabled and those who identify as LGBTQ is interwoven into the Trump movement. A politics which legitimizes exclusion is in direct opposition to the concept of “Never Again.” When one minority is demonized none of us is safe.
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Above: Charlottesville 2017
We should be reminded of German pastor Martin Niemoller’s belief so eloquently expressed in his realization that German intellectuals and clergy were complicit in the Nazis’ persecution of millions of people.
First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist….Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.
Judaism is not only a system of laws and observances. It is an ethos of how to live in our world, how to be and how not to be, how we treat others. This ethos fervently calls upon us to give voice in opposition to the politics of exclusion and hatred of “the other.” History shows the sin of silence always leads to more hatred and more destruction. It is not for nothing that the centerpiece of our Holiness Code in Leviticus, (19:18), reminds us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, to treat others with dignity as we deserve to be treated. Judaism’s laws and observances are the structures that support this ethos. They created the moral underpinnings of Western civilization and provided the basis for our system of jurisprudence and our principles of justice and legality in America.
In the long arc of our history as Jews, it is America alone that has provided us with the greatest rights of liberty and justice. We are not Americans living at the fickle-favored behest of a benevolent king; rather, we are American citizens afforded the same rights as any other citizen. But when our constitutional republic is under attack, all of its citizens are under attack as well, including us. To ignore this is to ignore that everything may seem the same but nothing is, and that is certainly too high a price to pay for inattention to our new reality.
We should be reminded of German pastor Martin Niemoller’s belief so eloquently expressed in his realization that German intellectuals and clergy were complicit in the Nazis’ persecution of millions of people.
First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist….Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.
Judaism is not only a system of laws and observances. It is an ethos of how to live in our world, how to be and how not to be, how we treat others. This ethos fervently calls upon us to give voice in opposition to the politics of exclusion and hatred of “the other.” History shows the sin of silence always leads to more hatred and more destruction. It is not for nothing that the centerpiece of our Holiness Code in Leviticus, (19:18), reminds us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, to treat others with dignity as we deserve to be treated. Judaism’s laws and observances are the structures that support this ethos. They created the moral underpinnings of Western civilization and provided the basis for our system of jurisprudence and our principles of justice and legality in America.
In the long arc of our history as Jews, it is America alone that has provided us with the greatest rights of liberty and justice. We are not Americans living at the fickle-favored behest of a benevolent king; rather, we are American citizens afforded the same rights as any other citizen. But when our constitutional republic is under attack, all of its citizens are under attack as well, including us. To ignore this is to ignore that everything may seem the same but nothing is, and that is certainly too high a price to pay for inattention to our new reality.
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