Alternative Academia & Aliyah

Dr. Eugene Narrett has done it again:

Divest from Penn State [Israpundit]

...This is a call for TOTAL JEWISH DIVESTMENT AND DISINVESTMENT FROM ALL American institutions of so-called higher education and the re-channeling of money to founding academies (there are plenty of excellent teachers, the present writer is one) that will teach Jewish history, which is abundant and abundantly attested by many cultures, and will teach the conflicted origins of western culture and explain its long term decline and suicide.

This also is a call for American Jews to withdraw from the professions and seriously consider moving to the homeland of the Jewish people. Even one hundred thousand American Jews could turn around the suicidal path of subservience to America’s ruling elites that Israel has been trudging down toward its ruin. In any case, it is increasingly clear that America, once so great, led by its ‘opinion makers’ and reshufflers of the world has no place for Jews aware and proud of their heritage. ...

Today, I noticed that a woman I work with was reading Elie Wiesel's Night. I mentioned it and we got into a bit of a conversation about Holocaust survivors. She had seen one woman speak who, as a child, had been hidden on a farm. One day, a German soldier saw her roaming the farm and just turned around and walked away. "You know," she commented, "not to downplay what happened in any way, because that was horrible, but hearing stories like that really makes you wonder how many Germans really knew what they were getting into, or if they just went along with it, not realizing what was really going on." Mein Kampf was published in 1925. I think the German people knew what they were getting themselves into. Or, at least, they could have.

Never underestimate the power of an ignorant majority over an apathetic minority. Could 100,000 Jewish Americans rise up and turn the tide? Theoretically, yes. Realistically? HA! Classically speaking, despite all our Kosher laws, the Jews have been plagued by recurring bouts of "heads up their asses" syndrome that seem to break out during periods of increasing persecution. My grandfather still tells the story of seeing a German Rabbi speak at Simon Gratz High School in 1934, less than a year after Hitler seized power in Germany. The Rabbi warned that America had no clue what was coming, that his own people had no clue what was coming, it was going to be that bad. Did the masses of Jewish people, either here or in Germany, listen? No. There wasn't any kind of public/en masse outcry until it was too late.

Now, it's 1934 all over again. Are we, the second generation after Shoah, going to shove our heads up our collective ass? That is one tradition I, personally, would like to forego. We have a duty to HaShem, to our ancestors, to our peers, to our children, and to ourselves to confront the misery of Israel hatred while it's still 1934 and not 1939, or 1941, or April of 1945 once more.

Right now, we have the blogosphere on our side. But talk is not enough. Talk in the virtual world must be accompianied by action in the real world. We must speak out in public. We must participate in protests against anti-Israel factions, actions, and laws. We must organize ourselves and our efforts, that we may appear as a cohesive and powerful force aligned against our enemy. We cannot be the Jews of Sinai, roaming in circles, easily distracted by handmade golden gods. Instead, we must be the Jews of the Joshua generation, who proudly and forcibly went in to claim the Land, both physically and ideologically. We must establish these alternative academies along with viable political institutions through which our voices can and will be heard in the public sphere on a large scale. We must put thought into action before it is too late.

Israel: ourselves, our identity as a people, our land, our home, our sanctuary, the very physical evidence of our covenant with HaShem -- all of this is at stake. If it goes, the free world, comprised of Jews and gentiles, Israel and America, democracy and truth, goes along with it. The Islamist war with Israel is not a "Lesser Jihad" as some would argue, but the Jihad, the battle of all battles, the center of the Crisis. What we do as a nation directly impacts the victory of that American soldier in Iraq as much as the IDFer on the Gaza border, the peace of the goy on the street in Kansas as much as the Jew on the streets of Jerusalem. According to our Covenant with HaShem, which is forever, we have a duty to our G-d and to the world; we are the soldiers, this is our battle. Knowing all of this, are we going to willingly stand down, or will we be the first to rise up and fight?

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