Global intifada

How do we even respond to the concept of a global intifada?

The problem is that it’s not a concept; it’s a reality that has shaken each and every one of us to the core.

It was March 2019, and Shelly and I were on a 28-day trip that began in Sydney, Australia. We took a “Jewish tour” with an amazing guide, Darryl Sloshberg. Among the many places we visited was the Chabad at Bondi Beach.

A few days later we had lunch with Australian friends overlooking the beach. It was a beautiful day, the surf was up, the beach was crowded, and the ocean was overflowing with surfers.

We also spent a day with a young couple at whose wedding I officiated years earlier. Allison was a congregant. Rami was from Sydney, and since his grandmothers, who were Holocaust survivors, were getting older, they moved to Sydney.

Ali figured that they would be back in the U.S.A. in a few years, but when we got to Sydney, one of Rami’s grandmothers was still alive, Ali and Rami had two daughters, and were never coming back to the States.

Their kids went to the Hebrew day school a couple of blocks from their home, but they felt very safe in Australia, because unlike here in the States, guns were banned there.

I haven’t spoken to them or to Ali’s parents since the massacre at Bondi Beach, but I’m sure that they feel less safe now. I would.

Here’s my problem with that concept, as I’m sure that most of you reading this are screaming: GUN CONTROL!! GUN CONTROL!!

Only law-abiding citizens will be affected by gun control laws. The people who don’t care about the law certainly won’t abide by those laws no matter the consequences, but I need you to understand, unequivocally, that gun control will be as effective as the rhythm method was for birth control.

Disarming the law-abiding citizens in the United States of America takes me back to the disarmament of the German Jews, which began in 1933. Jews, of course, weren’t trustworthy, so we weren’t even allowed to own knives. Guns? Not even a chance, and there were many laws passed that prohibited the police from issuing a gun permit to a Jew. The Jews weren’t able to defend themselves, so whatever the police decided to do, would have to be met passively.

Even before October 7, antisemitism was growing around the world, and since that day of infamy, antisemitism has grown exponentially. The world’s oldest form of hatred is threatening the safety, security, and sense of belonging Jewish people deserve even more.

This hate isn’t being stoked only by extremist groups. Mainstream political leaders, popular celebrities, university faculty, and people in positions of power are furthering hate, both online and in-person. Directly and indirectly. Covertly and out in the open.

I remember the stories recounting the night that the Germans entered the Warsaw ghetto to murder all the Jews who remained there. That night the Jews used whatever weapons they had — and they didn’t have many — and they began firing at the Germans.

“Juden haben waffen!” “The Jews have weapons,” the Nazis screamed, “Juden haben waffen!”

Jews having weapons is becoming more common. Many Jewish gun clubs are springing up all over the United States, and as I wrote last January, “I know more than a half dozen Orthodox synagogues down South and in the Midwest where rabbis, and some congregants, carry concealed weapons to shul. … I know … rabbis and cantors up North who also carry concealed weapons to shul.” We need to stand up to this threat and stand up for Jewish people everywhere.”

I am a first-generation American whose parents lived under Nazi rule (mom in Baden Baden, Germany, and dad in Vienna), and who, B”H, (with both meanings in this case — with G-D’s help, and thank G-D) escaped the terror of the camps.

I grew up a liberal, fighting the good fight, and standing up for what I felt were injustices. I marched in protest, and there was plenty of hate spewed at us along those routes. I was a folk singer playing songs of protest in many of the clubs in Greenwich Village.

That having been said, I believe in the right to bear arms, and I know, unequivocally, that disarming us or limiting our ability to carry a firearm can be infinitely more dangerous to us than allowing us to carry a handgun.

I believe in more thorough background checks, I believe in a longer waiting period after those checks have been done, and I believe in certification classes on safety, on handling, and on proficiency with each handgun someone considers carrying. (New Jersey requires certified precision now.)

I believe that each one of us should learn gun safety — what do I do if I walk into a house and see a pistol on the table? — and if that’s all we learn, that’s a huge win.

I am a certified pistol instructor, and I will come to your synagogue, or church, to teach classes on gun safety at no cost. If people want to go to the next level and learn to use, handle, and shoot a firearm correctly, I will take them to a range and teach that as well. (I won’t get paid, but there will be a cost involved.)

Does learning how to use a gun correctly, and with practice becoming adept at firing it, help so that it never happens again? I don’t know, but I do know that knowledge is power, and the more we learn, the more we can see the trees as well as the forest. It probably won’t allay our fear, but it just might give those antisemites pause and stop them from attempting any action if they have the slightest inkling that you might be carrying a weapon.

The phrase NEVER AGAIN has been hammered into our brains and into our hearts. Let’s make sure that the antisemites of the world know that we will stand up, that “Juden Haben Waffen,” so that it NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN.

Remember that a rock in bad hands killed Abel, and a rock in good hands killed Goliath. It’s not about the rock!

Cantor/Rabbi Lenny Mandel, who left the wilds of Manhattan almost 50 years ago and lives in West Orange, has been the hazan at Congregation B’nai Israel in Emerson for the past quarter century.

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