The ‘Coexist’ image that served as the Facebook header image for the late Mr Richard Lakin, who died of his wounds after being attacked by Arabs in Israel on October 13th 2015. Can there ever be a more poignant illustration of the futility of trying to coexist with those who want you dead?
The desire for peace is strong in Judaism. One of the key points of Jewish liturgy is singing or chanting a piece called ‘Oseh Shalom’. This is a plea for the Eternal One to bring peace to the Jewish people and peace to the whole of humanity. For thousands of years Jews have wished, prayed for and worked for peace, even when peace may have looked like a distant and unattainable dream. This week we were very sad to see the murder by Arab savages of a man, Richard Lakin Z”l, who had dedicated his life to the idea of peace, and fervently believed that Arab and Jew could coexist in peace in the Holy Land. He moved from the United States to Israel in 1984 and lived his belief that there could be peace between Arab and Jew. He wasn’t just an ‘armchair spouter’, he actually tried to put his beliefs into practise.
Is there any story more tragically ironic than that of a man who believed that Arab and Jew could live in peace, only to be martyred by some knife wielding Arab savage? If there is, I have not yet come across one. If there is any story that highlights the stark difference between a faith that ‘chooses life’, Judaism and a faith that chooses death, Islam, then this tragic tale must be one of those.
The Associated Press in reporting (original in italics and this blog’s comments in plain text) this terrible tragedy said:
“Richard Lakin, 76, died of wounds sustained on Oct. 13 when two Palestinian men boarded a bus in Jerusalem and began shooting and stabbing passengers. It was one of the bloodiest attacks in recent violence in which Palestinian attackers killed 11 Israelis. In that time, 55 Palestinians have been killed, including 35 identified by Israel as attackers and the rest in clashes with security forces.
It should be noted that although there is although more Arabs than Israelis have been killed, it is not the Israelis who have instigated this latest round of violence. This latest spate of attacks is, as usual, perpetrated and encouraged by Arabs. If people start violence they can expect to die, simple as that.
Lakin was originally from Newton, Massachusetts, and a longtime principal in Glastonbury, Connecticut. His Facebook page displayed an image of Israeli and Arab kids hugging under the word “coexist.”
The ‘coexist’ meme and its associated posters and stickers, have long been the butt of jokes from those of us who take a realistic view of the world, and especially the Muslim world, but now with the murder of Mr Lakin, we should view it for what it really is, which is an expression of extreme naivety.
Micah Avni said his father was a beloved educator and author of a book on teaching. He was an elementary school principal in the U.S. and taught English in mixed classes of Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem after moving to Israel in 1984.
Mr Lakin appeared to be one of those who believed that there is good in most people, tragically his trust was misplaced.
In the 1960s, Lakin was active in the civil rights movement in the U.S., marching with Martin Luther King and bringing students from Boston to the South for sit-ins, Avni said.
“He was a big believer in people and in peace and in being kind and he never hurt a soul in his life,” Avni said, adding that thousands of people from around the world have contacted him to express their shock and condolences after his father’s death.
My condolences also go out to the family, and as is customary, I wish them long life. This tragic and senseless death, to add to all the other senseless and tragic deaths caused by Arab savages, should be a wake up call for all those who believe that there can be peace with Arabs and other Muslims. I’d love to think there could be, but I’m realistic enough to know that wishing and praying for peace is not enough. For there to be true peace, the Arabs and other Muslims would have to stop hating, but since they’ve been hating others for 1400 years, I’m not stupid enough to believe that they are going to stop hating anytime soon.
Arab savages have caused the death of a good man, a man who believed in the inherent goodness of all of humanity, and for that belief he has paid the ultimate price.
This disgusting and unnecessary killing, along with all the other disgusting and unnecessary killings that have been carried out by Muslim savages in Israel recently, are yet more signs that Arabs and Muslims cannot be trusted. They cannot be trusted to keep the peace, to live in peace with their neighbours, to live in peace with those of differing beliefs and none, often they cannot even be trusted to live in peace with their fellow Muslims.
Appeals for ‘coexistence’ do not work with Muslims, there is really only one language that they understand, and that is force. I started this article with words of peace, but I will end it with words from the Talmud regarding self defence: ‘When someone comes to you with the intention of killing you, get up earlier and kill them first’. We see the intention of Muslims to kill non-Muslims every day and in almost every place. Therefore we need to make sure that we stop them from killing, even if it means arising from our comfortable slumber, and removing all those who wish harm to all civilised people. Jewish prayers say “Dissuade those who seek to harm us, and let not their plans prevail.”
You can’t coexist with those who want to kill you, and it is utter madness to try.
Baruch Dayan Ha’Emet for Mr Lakin and for all those whose lives have been cut short by Arab savages.
Links
Associated Press article
Oseh Shalom (version by Yossi Azulay) with lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJQNwvTyfG4
English translation
He who makes peace in his high places
He shall make peace upon us
And upon all of Israel
And say Amen
In the meantime in London – http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/wanstead_woodford_news/13754451._Refugees_are_welcome_here____Members_of_synagogue/
Make your own conclusion…
Such people as the members of Woodford Liberal Synagogue are what I call ‘Holy Fools’. They feel they are doing the ‘right thing’ but in reality end up doing the complete opposite. They are also making the grave mistake of comparing the Jewish emigration and immigration experience, which was driven by the need to flee genuine oppression and persecution, with the Islamic immigration experience which is often driven by much darker motives, such as conquest and the need to spread Islam. Jews fleeing from Tsarist or Hitlerian violence in the 20th century were just looking for a place of safety, not, as so many of these Islamic invaders who pose as ‘refugees’ are doing, which is searching for welfare payments, free healthcare, housing and an opportunity to promote their Islamic ideology. Those whose families have fled genuine oppression and violent anti-Semitism are of course more likely than others to have some inkling of what it is like to have to run for your life, it’s quite understandable as life and family experience can have an influence on how a person perceives the world and its problems. However, as laudable as that sentiment and desire to help the afflicted is, it shouldn’t blind people to the realities of life and politics and the reality is that many of those who are being classed as ‘refugees’ are nothing but ponces and jihadists, who unlike the refugee Jews, will bring bugger all that is positive to the life of the UK. The members of Woodford Liberal Synagogue although they are trying to be charitiable, have not engaged their brains when it comes to these pretend ‘refugees’, they should have had a bit of discrimination when it comes to the matter of ‘refugees’. ‘Discrimination’ is not a bad word, it simply means telling one thing from another such as right from wrong, green from blue and wood from metal.
Members of Woodford Liberal Synagogue are practising what late political and religiously right wing Rabbi Meir Kahane ZT”L and a man who was not everyone’s cup of tea it must be said, called: ‘The compassion of fools’.
It helps to be aware that Woodford Liberal is a constituent community of Britain’s Liberal Judaism movement that is one of the smallest in size in the UK. LJ is also one of the more Leftist of the Jewish communal movements and its political views are not representative of the Jewish community as a whole (voting patterns among Jews reflect roughly that of the general population). Many other Jews of my acquaintance abhor the way out Leftist thinking of Liberal Judaism and its Rabbinate.
If people want to help those displaced by war or natural disaster there are a multitude of ways to do that which help those in situ and do not involve the wholesale importation of cultures that are not compatible with free societies.
I am a member of WLS…that is, still a member. When joined, I thought that Liberal Judaism equaled liberal views on practicing Judaism as a religion. I never expected WLS to get actively involved in left-wing politics which I, putting it mildly, oppose. The statements that the government should be pressurized to take more and more moslem “refugees” are made not just from the bimah, but also in the press, even children are used in that propaganda.
I’ve seen all that before: I was born in the USSR, have lost half of my family to communist regime before my birth, and myself have been persecuted for my views which contradicted communist ideology. I escaped from the USSR before the communism collapsed, I regard myself a British patriot and would do my best so that the same fate does not befall Britain. So I find it very disturbing when such public statements are made on behalf of all members, myself including.
I am looking for a new spiritual home…perhaps anyone could recommend a friendly Reform/Conservative synagogue in the area which is not involved in socialist left-wing propaganda?…:-)
Woodford Liberal Synagogue…
Anything including the word “liberal” in its title should be
viewed with the utmost suspicion, especially in these times.
It’s that “none so blind” thing again.
What, if anything, goes on between their ears?
They used to be truly liberal as in allowing or accepting different levels of observance and interpretations of the Torah, now sadly, they or rather the Rabbinate at least, appear to be more Left than liberal.
This is exactly what I expected – liberal meaning progressive views on the Torah, Halacha, and Judaism practices. I would never expected a religious institution getting involved in leftie politics. As you say, I would now be very suspicious of anything marked “liberal”…
Nichole, That’s very much my position as well. I’m also appalled at seeing those Rabbis who try to hammer the square peg of Marxism and other flavours of Leftwingery, into the round hole of the Torah.
For me, to be a modern progressive Jew means to be someone who believes that every one of the 613 commandments of Judaism should be studied carefully to see how, why and even in some cases, whether or not a particular commandment should be followed, in a world that is radically different both from the time of the Temple and from when the canonical books of Judaism were finalised into their current form. That doesn’t mean that biblical rules should be thrown away willy nilly, something that I hope to come to in a later article. But it does mean that how these rules are followed and what they mean changes sometimes subtly and sometimes drastically, as time goes by, and when knowledge increases and as societies change.
An example of having to take later knowledge into account is the Halacha (Jewish Law) around reproduction and reproductive technology. Whether Orthodox or non-Orthodox, Jewish halachists are often having to cope with stuff for which the canonical books and other writings have no direct answers and there are no previous Rabbinical interpretations.
Some repro-tech such as surrogacy have Biblical stories attached to them (Ishmael), but in other cases such as IVF, tri-DNA babies, in vitro selection to avoid gross disabilities etc etc there are few and in some cases no precedents of knowledge or debate to look back on (although I have been told that Rabbis were having ‘what if…’ discussions about babies concieved out of the womb hundreds of years before IVF became a reality). It’s my opinion that asking how to follow a commandment, even in highly modified or even symbolic form, has been the big Jewish question throughout the ages, especially in the Diaspora.
What progressive Jewish communities, and especially the Rabbinate of these communities, who should, it must be said, be setting a better example, as well as using a bit more nous, should not be doing is playing at naïve Lefty politics, as is apparently happening in Wanstead and Woodford.
What W and W, along with too many other progressive Rabbis and their communities are doing with this ‘refugees welcome’ rubbish is taking a stance that is not only out of step with the views of much of the UK, who’ve seen for themselves that these ‘refugees’ contain too large a proportion of ponces and jihadists, but is a policy that will ultimately endanger everyone, Jews, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, women, gay people etc etc. As a progressive, non-Orthodox Jew who has travelled politically from the Left to the Right, it enrages me to see Rabbis speak words pertaining to the inclusion of women and gay people with one breath, whilst pandering to Muslims, who would happily kill or enslave gays and women with the other. It enrages me even more to be forbidden to speak on the subject of Jihad and its dangers in a Shul, or to be ignored when I politely inform Rabbis that the Islamic group they are working with can fairly be described as ‘theocratic fascists’, as has happened to me. They have not realised that facilitating Islam in its oppressive majority form, endangers the very minorities that they as Rabbis purport to support. It’s an attitude and a political world view that has departed from the realms of reality.
My politics are very much to the Right of my own Rabbinate. I examine the Leftist positions of those Rabbis who are pushing this misguided ‘refugees welcome’ rubbish and the evidence really doesn’t come out on their side. They are making a purely emotionalist argument for allowing in these alleged ‘refugees’ and even though I can see and appreciate how and why these emotionalist arguments are made, that doesn’t mean that it is a correct argument. As I’ve said countless times on here; you can’t compare the Jewish emigration experience with the Islamic one. The first, the Jewish experience, was to find sanctuary and be grateful for it, the second Islamic experience is for conquest and despoilment. A huge difference. We’ve seen this happen in Germany, France, Sweden, the USA, and they are trying it in Australia. It is utter stupidity for Rabbis to be pushing such obviously false Leftwingery. The case in favour of letting in tens or hundreds of thousands of mostly Islamic third-worlders fails when the evidence about what they bring to host societies is examined. I could not in all conscience stand there with a ‘refugees welcome’ banner, knowing what I know about the character and calibre of many of these alleged ‘refugees’; I really could not. The Rabbis who are running this ‘refugees welcome’ guff either do not know or refuse to believe the truth about the make up and disgraceful conduct of too many of these alleged ‘refugees’.
I agree with you Nichole about the use of children as propaganda agents in this particular case. It’s wrong and should be called out. It also puts pressure on those parents with a more realistic attitude to the ‘refugee crisis’ (invasion crisis in reality). They find they are having to go along with this propaganda guff, so that their children don’t feel left out and they themselves are not targets by Lefties for opprobrium.
Part of the problem with Progressive Judaism in the UK is that there seems to be a bunch of influential very left wing rabbis in positions of authority who are calling the shots re this ‘refugees welcome’ stuff along with other leftwingery (Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner of Reform come to mind here along with Rabbi Rebecca Qassim Birk of the Liberals). They are well connected with the Lib/Left establishment in government circles and in the third sector and are ignoring both the problems and potential problems of the policies that they espouse. Sadly it is rare that those in the Rabbinate and other Left activists have to live with the consequences of their misguided ideas. Unfortunately some of us do have to live with, or have family who have to endure, the consequences of dangerous policies such as the importation and facilitation of Islamofascism.
As regards where to go in order to be a free thinking Jew and away from the excesses of the sort of Left wingery that you describe, then maybe it is time for like minded Jews to form their own communities, separate from, or less closely connected to, a synagogue or movement that has become a nest of idiotic left wingery. After all, moving to or forming a group that is more closely aligned to a group of people’s spiritual or political needs is the traditional Jewish way of doing things. If it was a good enough answer for Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs in the last century, then maybe it’s a good enough model for us to follow now.
The Torah in Parashat Mishpatim says that we should help our enemy if he has an overburdened donkey, both as I read it, for the ‘care for animals’ reason, and to try to make peace between two opponents, because more peace is good. However, it doesn’t tell me to patch up my enemy’s donkey, empty my pockets to support my enemy(who doesn’t want peace with me anyway) and provide my enemy with a sword with which to chop off my head. The first I would do, the second I would not because it’s the path of madness. It’s also madness to assist an enemy that will afflict the whole world merely in order to feel good about doing something good, which appears to be the case with some of these Lefties.
BTW have you seen any of Ben Shapiro’s stuff? If you are looking for Jews of the Right? If you haven’t, then I recommend it. Here he is commentating on why American Jews vote Leftist and there is an interesting observation that a lot of them care more for Leftism than Judaism.
Thank you! This is a brilliant account of exactly my sentiments put in perfect literary form! Shame Ben is in the US…I know there are plenty of right minded Jews here in London, I’ve met them on pro-Israel rallies, joined their groups on Facebook. I too would never stand with idiotic “refugees welcome” poster and find it very objectionable that is done on behalf of the members, myself including…
Received our Liberal Judaism rag today, the “refugees welcome” propaganda jumps from virtually every page…a case of mass madness. Our Rabbi goes on: ” If there were different parties dropping bombs in Woodford what would you do? You would leave and hope somebody would help”…No, I would not! Even though I am not a young able bodied man, like most of these “refugees” are, I would make sure that the most vulnerable ones – women, children, the elderly, the sick- leave, and stay behind to defend my land, so that there is a chance of those vulnerable victims to come back home and not be “strangers in strange land”! These males who are flooding in, are bloody cowards, to say the least. The one who is sanctified in the rag is a young Syrian male who tells his tea-jerking story how he had to leave his elderly mother in Egypt and continue travelling here by boat. The holy fools praise him as a hero. In fact, this is a coward who dumped his mother to get here for free handouts…Anyway, am going to bin the rag – a paper recycling collection is due tomorrow!
Here is another interesting video about “refugees” having fun attacking white people in France. The guy somehow had a gun – what if he didn’t?
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8a4_1446061998
I wonder if we could somehow organize a group to practice just Judaism -without left wing stink. Right wing is perfectly acceptable! In the meantime, are Conservative synagogues politically neutral in your experience? I miss my religious community prayers 🙁
Totally agree with you Nichole about the Lib Judaism rag. It would be tolerable if they balanced the ‘refugees welcome’ guff with other stuff that wasn’t Lefty drek, but they don’t. The LJ mag is just a bully pulpit for a small coterie of far Left activists who now seem to control the upper rabbinate of LJ. I despair when I think of what the general population’s opinion of Judaism is if their first or only encounter with any aspect of Judaism is a copy of ‘Liberal Judaism Today’ magazine in their local library. It must make British Jews seem to some non-Jews like an offshoot of the Socialist Workers Party, when the truth is very far from that. As I said before you can’t compare the Jewish emigration experience with that of Muslims because there are far too many differences.
As regards Conservative synagogues, there doesn’t seem to be any ‘conservative Judaism’ movement in the UK as it is an American movement that places itself halfway between Orthodox and American Reform (American Reform is the equivalent of the British LJ movement and is very far Left). About your best bet would be to look at the Masorti movement, that really is truly halfway between Reform and Orthodox. There seems to be a much greater variety of political and religious views in Masorti than in British Reform and British Lib Judaism. However, there are less Masorti shuls around than Reform, Liberal or Orthodox. Forming a Chavruta (study group) of like minded centre right or politically neutral Jews may also be a way to go.
Nichole. A couple of extra points. I saw the video, shocking isn’t it? At least some people in France are armed and can defend themselves against these fake ‘refugees’. In Britain we have no means of defence other than to rely on virtually useless police forces many of whom seem to have decided to have pandering to Islam as their primary policy. Seeing that video makes me realise that at least on a couple of issues, especially the right and need to bear arms for self defence against an aggressor, Rabbi Meir Kahane ZT”L was right.
A better use of the LJ Today Magazine would be for you to write a criticial piece on LJ Today for this blog and I’ll put it up as a guest post.