JLH has translated Henryk Broder’s latest essay, and sends this explanatory note:
Since shortly after I started translating for GoV (ca. 2010), Henryk Broder has been my lodestar for how sensible Germans — Jewish and Gentile — think about things. This short essay shines a light on the split in Jewish communities in Germany (and perhaps in many other countries) between those who lean left and prefer to avoid confrontation, and those who — like Broder — say what many Germans, both Jewish and Gentile, do not want to hear.
The translated essay from Mr. Broder’s website Die Achse des Guten:
And the Discomfort Increases
by Henryk M. Broder
March 31, 2019When I first heard the name Meron Mendel I thought it was a figure from a novel by Sholem Aleichem or Isaac Bashevis Singer, like Herman Broder in Enemies — A Love Story. But no, Meron Mendel really exists. The education researcher, cyclist and director of the Anne Frank Educational Institute in Frankfurt has now outed himself on Twitter as the voice of the “Jewish Community.”
It is inconceivable what damage Jewish rightists like Weinthal & Broder[1] are doing to the battle against anti-Semitism. Discomfort at their defamations is increasing in the Jewish community.
Discomfort? Already, in a number of Jewish communities, Friday Shabbat services begin with a plea: “…and let Weinthal and Broder disappear in the floodwaters of the Red Sea!” That is more than discomfort. Nonetheless, I would like to know more. Which communities are they? And how is the discomfort expressed? Does the Cologne community wish to abjure my Bar Mitzvah? I have been thinking about joining the Berlin community, so that they can throw me out. Can I hope for herem,[2] as the first Jew since Spinoza? That would be too funny!
Now it must be allowed that perhaps Meron Mendel, like Nero, didn’t mean it exactly as he said it, or didn’t say what he meant. Just recently he warned against “removal of citizenship from captured German ISIS fighters.” A similar precedent had been the Nazis making broad use of this tool. In several waves, a total of over 39,000 persons — mostly Jews — were deprived of their citizenship.
This innocent and completely harmless analogy caused come discomfort among his followers. They accused him of equating the expatriation of Jews, including Albert Einstein, with the treatment of terrorists, who had voluntarily joined ISIS.
No, that wasn’t it. We know now, since Freud, that besides the Ego and the Superego, there is also an Id. And it sometimes takes its own path. To borrow from Fassbinder[3]: That’s how he thinks.
Mendel, you are a tembel[4].
P.S. Stupidity and goofiness do not always appear together; but usually do. On Sunday, Dr. Meron Mendel found himself having to explain again what he meant and/or didn’t mean. He tweeted:
I have never maintained that Jews are responsible for AS. Nevertheless, when anti-Semitism agents @BlumeEvolution must spend all their time defending Weinthal & Broder, it hinders their work.
In this case, AS does not stand for Alice Schwarzer or Axel Schulz, but anti-Semitism. Mendel the tembel is at pains to confirm that he never maintained Jews are responsible for AS. Really? The sentence: It is inconceivable what damage Jewish rightists like Weinthal & Broder are doing to the battle against anti-Semitism can definitely be understood in this context to mean: The massively overworked Mr. Blume could accomplish even more, if he didn’t have to spend all his time defending against the calumnies of Weinthal & and Broder. That is, Broder and Weinthal are hindering Mr. Blume in the complete development of his powers, because he is spending all his time defending Weinthal and Broder.
| 1. | Benjamin Weinthal, co-author with Broder of an article in The Jerusalem Post on “Managing Anti-Semitism in Germany”, wrote another article in the Wall Street Journal on “German Cultural Appeasement.” | |
| 2. | Old Testament term interpreted variously as a ban, sentence of extinction, etc. Cf. the Viking designation of an offender as a “wolf” — outside the protection of society. Note also the resemblance to Arabic haram. | |
| 3. | Rainer Maria Fassbinder, influential film producer and director. A quote in which he encapsulates the reflex thinking of the anti-Semite. | |
| 4. | Israeli street slang for idiot or moron. |
Photo credit: Steen.
Who does Moron Mendel believe he represents? The Frankfurt Jewish community? If so, did the local Jewish Board of Deputies there elect him as their chairman or spokesperson? I doubt it. If he equates the stripping of German citizenship from 39,000 Jews during the 1930’s with stripping ISIS volunteers of their Jewish citizenship, as he does, then he is a danger to himself and other German Jews. In my view Mr Broder should pay him no further attention.
Unfortunately, ignoring Mendel just isn’t an option. He heads an institution, the Anne Frank Educational Institute, that wields enormous influence due to the hallowed name of Anne Frank. It receives a lot of public funds for carrying out its “mission”, which as far as I can see is to promote Islamization of Germany (and Europe) by depicting Muslims as “the Jews of today” – subject to the same kind of persecution as suffered by the Jews under Nazi rule.
It’s frankly obscene and revolting. However, for Mendel and other Jews like him, who trade on their Jewish identity to provide cover for the ongoing massive demographic changeover, this is the easy route to a lucrative career and accolades and awards from all the “right people”.
I am a German Jew and I feel powerless to do something. Islam Inc. and its many subsidiaries (including the Anne Frank center) has the media and the state on its side. To speak out against them means to risk becoming the target of a campaign of personal destruction.
Don’t feel alone. The US Jewish community is also embarked on a massive suicide program to support unimpeded Muslim immigration.
“The US Jewish Community”… You speak as an expert on Jews, do you? Almost every individual American Jew of my acquaintance is neither leftist nor anywhere near left of center on pretty much any issue. Certainly not on freedom of speech, immigration, Islam and Jihad. Most American Jews [I know ] support our current president; those who don’t will still vote for him in 2020 rather than for any leftist. Because of: shared values and issues of freedom of speech and religion; disrespecting the flag and our history, euthanasia, abortion, forcing merchants to violate their own religious principles. All these are repugnant to Torah- observant Jews, and to most “traditional” Jews. The ones who “embarked on a massive suicide mission” are those who shed customs and practice trying to fit in, and those whose faith in our Creator was abandoned by their grandparents or by themselves. Most are products of TV culture and socialist propaganda in schools, and of the desperate need to be accepted. Some are well intentioned fools, others are self-serving and destructive. And then we have our small share (across the board) of simple garbage, as do you. But there is no monolithic “US Jewish Community”. As with any group, the ones who make the most noise are often the least representative of it.
Many of my fellow Jews unfortunately care a lot more about being card-carrying members of the left than they care about anything else. Sad.
This phenomenon is largely a non-religious diaspora mentality. It’s relatively rare in Israel, among Sephardim/Mizrahim and among the normally religious (the ultra-orthodox are a bag of their own). Many French Jews are clued up to an Israeli level, also.
This is creating increasing fiction between Israeli and Diaspora Jews, by the way. Over time, it looks like Israeli connections to places like Hungary might be stronger than Israeli connections to Diaspora Jews. Another funny thing I notice is that while some of these places may have an anti-semitic “tradition”, that doesn’t seem to have much bearing on those places being pro-Israel.
indeed ” a bag of their own”!
Check fotographs on google of the Williamsburg Satmar.
You will find young members in their traditional gear wrapped in the palestinian flag. How suicidal is that?
In truth, the Satmar Hasidic group is more like a cult than a real branch of Judaism. As a cult, they look only to what they see as benefits for their own cult and their leader. They have no loyalty to anyone or anything else.
One of the big issues with this cult is, they live together and vote as their leader tells them to. So, they generally take over the public school system and fashion it to their own needs, unconcerned with anyone else. This is actually one of the consequences of government-provided welfare including education: it’s not too difficult to capture and use the tax resources from people who have no personal interest in making sure it’s well-spent.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/former-satmar-hasidic-jew-now-tours-world-to-expose-sects-dark-underbelly/