THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER WE MUST RISE FROM ITS ASHES

everything changed dramatically and even the reform movement joined the Zionistideology and contributed to part of the national shell rather than the desiredopenness.Thus the Shoah changed the course for American Jews. From a path of enormouspotential toward becoming the rightful heirs of pre-war European, especially German,Jewish creativit y, t he Shoah narrowed the field of vision of American Jews. Anyonewho follows the statements and actions of American Jewish leaders and organizationstoday would be unable to find anything that resembles Morgenstern’s great spirit ofuniversalism.When the Jewish lobby in Washington, the Conference of Presidents of JewishOrganizations, and the other Jewish congresses and committees gather, only one issueis discussed: Israel. In the eyes of many Jews and nonJews alike, the JewishAmerican community is a one-issue community. I regret this dangerous erosion ofpurpose very much. I fear a world in which the only Jewish voice speaks only ofnationhood and nationalism. Such a world is bereft of the wisdom our father Jacobhad when he prepared himself for the decisive encounter with his brother Esau.Jacob was very much afraid, and justly so, of his redheaded brother who was amaster hunter. Jacob had stolen Esau’s birthright and robbed him of his father’sblessing. Esau vowed that after their father Isaac died, he would “take care” of hisdevious brother. Jacob, distressed, “divided the people with him . . . into two camps.He said, if Esau comes to one camp and strikes it, the other camp will survive.” Thisancient story became the cornerstone of thinking for many generations.This vision of “risk distribution” enabled the Jewish body to recuperate from blowswhile allowing the Jewish spirit to expand around the globe and to enrich it. It madeJewish contribution to the world possible, enabled adaptive thinking, and renewedJewish civilization, which has a permanent backup system: if destruction happens toone Jewish organ—community— the other will survive.For many years, three pillars supported the Jewish American structure from theoutside: the memory of the Shoah, the founding of the State of Israel, and thestruggle of the “Silent Jewry,” the Soviet Jews who were imprisoned behind the ironcurtain. As the years passed, two of these elements had weakened, but the Shoahelement remained intact. The third is gone now: Jews from the former Soviet Unionare completely free— thanks to American Jewry rather than to Israeli governments.