Rabbi Andrea’s Sermon16th November 2024 / 15th Cheshvan 5785

Bad News from Milan

There will not be a screening of a movie about the life of a Holocaust survivor, Mrs. Liliana Segre.

The owner of the cinema candidly admitted that he cancelled the screening because of fear of violent demonstrations.

This cancellation not only deprives the audience of a powerful story but also symbolizes the silencing of Holocaust survivors, a disturbing trend in our society.

Mrs. Segre is an activist and a public personality. She has been made an honorary senator for life for outstanding patriotic merit. She has been awarded many honorary degrees for her commitment to fighting racism and antisemitism.

Since last October, Mrs. Segre, a woman of immense courage, has been targeted by the so-called pro-Palestinians because she refused to label the situation in Gaza as 'genocide '.

And I am talking of systematic targeting: on social media, they constantly urge Mrs. Segre "to be consistent and condemn Israel"; they repeat and retweet that she is not worthy to sit in the Parliament (unless, of course, she "condemns Israel").

During the weekly anti-Israel demonstrations in Milan and in Rome, the protesters call her out (and not in a polite way) over and over.

Long story short, the Milan cinema's owner had a very good reason to cancel the screening, because of fear of a violent attack on the spectators or the building.

You don't want a Manchester Arena bombing in Milan.

Now, let this sink in. Pro-Palestinian activists demand, with violent means, that an elderly Jewish woman cut her ties with the largest Jewish community in the world, Israel.

It's absurd that because she is a Holocaust survivor, she is expected to 'condemn Israel'. In other words, Holocaust survivors are allowed to take the word in public only if they use their words to insult and offend Israel and to support the terrorists who want to erase the Jewish State (the place - by the way - where the majority of Holocaust survivors currently live).

It is a sad and infuriating story - the expectation from Holocaust survivors to condemn Israel, but it is prevalent in contemporary culture, and I think it is particularly troubling for us Reform Jews.

Reform and Progressive synagogues had struggled with the tension between universalism and particularism since the time of Emancipation when Jews in Western Europe received civil rights and ceased -on paper- to be second-class citizens.

In the sermons and public statements of Rabbis and thinkers in those days, there was a genuine, almost naïve enthusiasm for Emancipation, the progress of science, and universal freedom.

You really feel the expectation—not always reciprocated—to become citizens (of Germany, of Italy, of France) "of the Mosaic faith", to be like German, Italian, or French citizens of the Christian faith, with the same duties and, of course, the same rights.

For this goal, to be embraced by fellow citizens of different faiths, to be and to become equal, there was a price to pay: to give up any idea of Jewish "particularism" as it was called. And so, in Reform synagogues of those days, any sign of distinction between Jews and non-Jews was to be minimised or even cancelled.

In the synagogue of Asti, in Piedmont, for decades a vanguard of Reform, the men were invited to say the morning prayer without tefillin. All over Europe, Rabbis started wearing the same garments of Christian clergy and the tallit as if it were a priestly stole. In Germany and the USA, the amount of Hebrew in the service was minimised to welcome a passing Protestant visitor, perhaps a business partner.

The intellectual efforts to transform Judaism into a Western European religion—and to eliminate Jewish culture, dietary rules, and languages—were called "universalism." The basis of Judaism was now "universal values."

Historians call this era "Classical Reform Judaism". Wealthy American industrialists professing their "duty to (...) solve, on the basis of justice and righteousness, the problems presented by (...) the present organisation of society" [Pittsburgh Platform, 1885]. That was the Gilded Age, and the problems were the most corrupt political system ever, child labor, and obscene wealth disparity.

Those blatant contradictions are easy targets for jokes. And - apart from some pathetic attempts to revamp the whole business- it is now history.

Nonetheless, those Rabbis were undoubtedly correct in pointing out that Judaism is a universalistic religion, that we Jews believe that there are commandments to be followed by all humanity, including those who are not Jews.

The Torah contains commandments for us and only us, such as kashrut and—you know—that minor surgery on the male newborn. Still, there are commandments that every human being, regardless of his or her own faith, is expected to follow, such as not to kill, not to lie in public, not to steal, and to allow freedom of religion. And not commit genocide.

For us Reform Jews it is, therefore, harrowing and incredibly vile when anti-Semites accuse a Jewish Holocaust survivor of having betrayed those universalistic values, of using her Jewish identity as an excuse to shield her responsibility towards the rest of humanity.

If you follow the pro-Palestinians in their twisted reasonings, a real Jew, or a Jew who has really learnt the lesson of the Holocaust, must oppose Israel not only for what Israel does but for the crime to exist.

The existence of a Jewish State is, for these people, a betrayal of the "universalistic" lesson of the Holocaust. Because -like every State- it has national boundaries. They believe that after the Holocaust, every Jew -but especially the survivor- must become a poster person of politically progressive values, a living witness of the horror inspired by the existence of boundaries, by nationalism and by "particularism".

Hence, the chutzpa (for lack of a better word) to lecture us Jews about our sins of not being universalistic -a particularly insulting statement when aimed at us Reform Jews- or not "universalising the pain of the Holocaust".

Why are we Jews expected to "universalise the pain" while the Palestinians can continue to be tribal and particularistic? I will leave you to decide.

And so here we are. A Jewish elderly lady, a Holocaust survivor, refuses to become the poster person of those anti-Israel thugs who have damned Israel in the name of "universal human rights". Therefore, the same thugs challenge her in public, which is their right—but it is in Mrs. Segre's right not to reply. They also physically threaten, with violence, a Holocaust survivor and those who dare to show up to the screening of a movie about her life. And this is not acceptable. This is Stalinism. Instigating the mob against "the Zionists" and reducing Jews to silence. With violent threats.

The censorship imposed upon Liliana Segre is so persistent, so violent, that one wonders how many other Holocaust survivors, less publicly known, are intimidated and reduced to silence.

How many Holocaust survivors cannot find the strength to speak out against antisemitism and in defence of Israel and of the right of Jewish people to self-determination?

I have always said, and I believe, that the Holocaust is a unique tragedy. Not because of the numbers but because of the absolute lack of logic, even economic: diverting resources to exterminate Jews while Germany was losing the war is the most blatant example.

Therefore, I am opposed to any attempt to mix the biggest tragedy of the history of humanity with other catastrophes -colonialism, for example- and to make a salad of historical cases to prove that humanity is evil.

There is nothing more opposed to Judaism than believing that humanity is evil, and we carry some sort of original sin.

A Holocaust survivor is violently silenced because she refused to sing from the same political sheet as those who want to compare the biggest tragedy of human history to a war in the Middle East.

This must sound like an alarm bell for everyone.

And while we prepare to observe Holocaust Memorial Day next January, we must be vigilant and protect the memory of the biggest tragedy of human history from offensive comparisons and from any attempt to politicise it.

Comparisons between the military action of the State of Israel and the Holocaust are nothing new.

During the first war in Lebanon, the ideological atmosphere in Europe was not so different from the ideology of those who managed to silence Liliana Segre.

To them, the prime minister of Israel, Menachem Begin z"l replied (and sorry, I cannot make the Israeli accent properly), "I know what a Holocaust is". He really knew, having lost such a large part of his family in that tragedy.

We should learn from Menachem Begin. We really should.

The Holocaust is our history.

The enemies of Israel, the anti-Semites or anti-Zionists and every possible combination of the two, have no right to steal that page of our history.

This Holocaust Memorial Day, we must refuse to keep silent.