THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER WE MUST RISE FROM ITS ASHES

anytime, and the Internet, which reaches the remotest human dwellings, have allpositioned us at once opposite one another, unfiltered and unprotected. Thus we gainmaximum exposure to places and to the richness of people and cultures that until afew years ago were distant from the eye and mind. Hence we can face andauthenticate the elements of life known to us against those known to others. Whosaid that the god of Australian aborigines is less important than the god of the Saudisin Mecca, or the god of Jews in Brooklyn?So how do we build this new bridge? What are the tools for a betterunderstanding, dialogue and acceptance of those who are so different from us, sothat they really shake the foundations of our ingrained truths? The question really ishow to extract the good from the bad, or the honey from the dead lion, as inSamson’s fable. The twentieth century was the battleground of all man-made faiths:Communism against capitalism and both against Nazism, Fascists and Nazis againstWestern democracy. We had hot wars and cold wars, local and global, withoutcomes still unknown. All these led to mass killings and the eradication of greathuman cultures, with extensive destruction and ruin. Only toward the century’s enddid the world begin to stabilize. Where man-made super-theories crumble, individualstake their place with human rights and liberties. Democracy and its liberties are muchmore commonplace today than ever before. The waste and racism of the secondGreat War, the race supremacy theories and the obliteration of the human imagecreated fertile ground for democracy to sprout everywhere. Despite the belligerenceof religious villains of all faiths, this world is still better than all the past worlds. Inevery cultural domain where the torch of liberty shines breaks a titanic struggle; thenew guard fights the old and innovators and reformers battle conservatives who wishto preserve the old order. This is happening in Christianity, Judaism, and throughoutthe Islamic world. Today’s bursts of political violence often originate in the tensionthat exists between the old religious elements and the new democratic ones. It is allfor the better, as in our age freedom is stronger than oppression. This is also aconsequence of World War II and the Holocaust. There are more democracies, moreliberties and many more freedoms, rights, and a wealth of good ideas. True, we alsohave forces of darkness, perceived by us as satanic, strong and getting stronger. Butthey are not strong enough to really undermine world stability and peace. If anything,the retreat of democracy and liberties in the traditionally free major powers, such asthe United States and France, worries me much more than the slowly eroding