By Eitan Chitayat (Edited by Dr. Chaim Bernard)
Give me a yellow star. A dreary, cloth patch sewn in
the shape of a Star of David that every Jew was forced to wear in Nazi Germany
along with every country the Germans conquered; every country in Europe, some
even allied with Germany ; every culture looking to expose the hated Jew.
A yellow star worn by both my
parents, while you,
Europe, were standing by. That's
what I am to you: The guilty Jew. The filthy Jew. The stealing Jew. The disgusting
Jew. The less-than-human Jew. The Jew that can only do wrong – bomb innocent
Muslim children - for that is, of course, all we do, all we ever aspired to as
a nation, a race.
The yellow star was forced on
us. Rammed down our throats. It stood for dishonor and was associated with anti-Semitism
as you probably know. It was to be a badge of shame like
Hawthorne’s Scarlet letter. But 6 million
times worse.
Give me a yellow star. I want
to wear a yellow star above my left breast where six million of my brothers and
sisters were forced to don one. I want to walk around with a yellow star on
every solitary piece of clothing I own. On my Armani suit, my Nike sweatshirt,
Ralph Lauren sweater, my Champion hoodie, my Diesel jeans, my
South Beach
biker jacket. I’ll even wear it at the beach on my bare chest if I have to.
I want to walk down the streets
of
Paris near
Le Marais and be seen by you European anti-Semites. Outside the Great
Synagogue of Stockholm, the Torah Center in Brussels, the Anna Frank Memorial
in Amsterdam, the Holocaust Museum in Berlin, outside the Sigmund Freud House
in London.
I want all of you to see me
with it and hear you say, ‘Hey, here comes the Jew’, he’s not just like the rest
of us .
He’s just a dirty Jew.
A mass murderer.
He kills Muslim children and
then uses their blood for matzah, just like the rest of the Jews.
They carpet
bomb innocent people.
They are useless except for their knowledge, their Nobel prizes, and their success.
They kill children, those Jews.
Don’t you know? It’s
the Jews who own Hollywood, the media, the banks.
They’re the scum of the earth.
They steal.
Hitler was right.
Let’s go spray-paint swastikas on his
grandparents’ graves.
Let’s go beat him up.
Let’s kill him.
Let’s murder a
rabbi in
Miami
or Brussels.
That'll teach them--to exist.
I want that yellow star.
Europe, to me that yellow star is a symbol of almost
everything I stand for. It’s a symbol of surviving evil. It’s heritage and
knowledge. Tolerance and optimism. It’s strength and confidence in the face of
the weakness and insecurity of those not being taught well enough what their
mothers should have taught them.
That yellow star is education, resilience.
It’s right over wrong, and it is life. It is testament to all who tragically
died wearing it, so that their future surviving brothers and sisters know to
never be afraid of who they are again. To never be silent again, not apologize
for surviving. Thanks to them and indeed, for them, this yellow badge ceased
being a badge of shame a long time ago. It's my badge of honor. I survived your
indifference, your stupidity, your inhumaneness, your hatred, and your
ignorance.
For me, it’s a yellow F**k-You-Europe-Star.
It’s a star that blinds
out any other emblem that preaches hatred. It drowns out the form, shape and color
of swastikas, the black flags of
ISIS and Al
Qaeda, and the green of Hamas or the yellow of Hezbollah.
Before being herded off to the
gas chambers around 70 years ago, Jews wearing their yellow star were hearing
‘Kill the Jews’, ‘Heil Hitler’, ‘The only good Jew is a dead Jew’, ‘Stealing
Jew!’ – and all that before being ostracized from their communities, stripped
of their belongings, property, identities, humanity and eventually, their lives.
They were hearing words. It
happened in many other countries too. Like my father’s country. A country he
was expelled from for being a Jew. For being a dirty Jew. It. Always. Begins.
With. Words. The same kind of words we’re hearing now here on your social
media. On your streets. At demonstrations. In conversations. Words that have
nothing to do with
Israel.
Palestine.
Politics. The
Middle East or anything.
You might not be all too happy
with ISIS and Hamas, but if you aren’t trying to expose them for who and what
they are, then you’re not part of the solution but part of the problem. You know
nothing about your own history, nothing about the Islamic conquest of
Europe from the year 626 until this very day – the holy
Jihad.
The world’s abuzz right now
with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic words. Anti-Semitic words that Jews like
myself are used to. I’m talking to you, Dieudonné. Mel Gibson. Roger Waters.
And the rest of you ignorant Jew-haters. And I’m talking to you, Radical Islamic
leaders, standing behind your pulpits preaching lies and hate and division in
the name of Allah. And to you – innocent bystanders in
Europe.
I’m talking to you, supposedly liberal minded people – friends of mine, even –
who spend way too much time talking about Israel fighting for its existence in
a defensive war, “disproportionally” ( as if the bombing of Dresden, the killing
of Bin Laden, the invasion of Berlin by the Russian Army never happened) but
very little talking about hundreds of thousands being murdered in Syria. In
Iraq. About
people being murdered for being followers of any other religion save Islam.
Very little talking about ISIS taking over the middle east and putting heads on
spikes, shooting people in ditches by the thousands, beheading a journalist on
YouTube. Very little time talking about Syrians being gassed or a semi-literate
peasant turned Turkish Prime minister spewing the kind of virulent anti-Semitism
which ends with only one thing. And don’t forget 9/11,
London’s
7/7,
Spain’s
Madrid train bombings or
the Boston Marathon while you’re at it.
Take a good hard look at my
yellow star. Look at where it came from. Look what was done after we, the Jews,
were forced to wear it and then ask yourselves, are we doing the same to
others? Us Jews? Us Israelis? Are we Jews hellbent on exterminating people? Is
that really what we want? Or are others doing that which you think we’re doing
– others you refuse to be vocal about nor condemn with a simple post or click
of your Like button.
Here is what the German cleric
Pastor Martin Niemöller wrote: “First they burned their books and their
synagogues, and I didn't speak out. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't
speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one
left to speak out for me”. He wrote these lines in 1933 - too late – and he
referred to the Nazis. But these words ring equally true in view of over 10% of
the Muslim population in
France,
over 8% in
Germany, over 6%
in
England,
the neo-nazis in virtually every European country, or the Nazi Udo Voigt
holding a seat in the Civil Rights Commission of the European Parliament.
I, for one,
Europe,
am not going anywhere. Never again.Though some might wish it, NEVER AGAIN. For
anyone else reading this from afar who might agree with what I’m saying, Jews
and non-Jews alike, don’t feel sorry for me, my family, my friends. Don’t feel
sorry for us. We’re fine and we’re not afraid, and we're here to stay. Don’t be
afraid
Europe, because I’m not intending to be
a victim. None of us are. And I hope you aren’t either. My yellow star is
staring extremism in the face.
Am I cool with the yellow star? You’re damn
right I am, totally.
--Eitan Chitayat
# # #
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