Deja Vu, All Over Again...

I get lots of unsolicited email. Some of it is serious; some is salacious; and some is just plain silly. Lately, though, I’ve received an increasing number of troubling messages advancing a similar argument. Typical was one I got today entitled, “All European Life Died in Auschwitz.” Purportedly written by a Spanish writer, and translated into English, it went like this:

“I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz. We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world. The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.

“And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride. They have turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime. Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

“And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition. We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for hoping for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs. What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.”

The first time I received such an email, I had to reread it to assure myself I hasn’t misread its intent. To my dismay, I found I hadn’t.

Let me be clear: I don’t abide sweeping, negative assertions made about any group of people. In a post 9/11 world, especially, it’s become far too easy to blame Europe’s problems on its Muslim population.

That’s not my only problem with the email, alas. As a Jew, I have other concerns:

First, I find the email’s statements disturbingly familiar. All you need to do is replace the word Muslim with Jew, and you could be reading the work product of Joseph Goebbels. The description of the “other” (in this case Muslims) as a host society’s tolerated “guests”, the offending, parasitic, race who now seek the “murder and destruction of their naïve hosts”… It all begins to sound awfully familiar. From such thoughts, it’s not a stretch to start talking about what we need to do with those who threaten our way of life.

Second, I recognize that the piece actually impugns Jews even when it seems to be heaping praise. How so? It describes Jews as the “chosen people” – charged language, to be sure – whose existence and experience in World War II created a sense of guilt so strong that it caused Europeans to need “to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism.” In other words, if we hadn’t been feeling so guilty about the fate of the Jews, it never would have occurred to us to be nice to the Muslims… See where trying to be nice gets you?

Last, I probably would have hit “delete” and not wasted my time reading such garbage, but for one fact: the email as sent to me by a Jewish friend. I think I know why; such emails borrow from the “self-congratulatory” genre, e.g. long lists of Nobel laureates we’ve produced, proportionately far in excess of what you might expect given our meager numbers. While there’s nothing wrong is being proud of our people’s accomplishments, such lists rarely circulate without a control group for comparison. Sometimes it’s “your grandparents were living in the caves of Northern Europe while mine were earning Nobel prizes…” but at other times, as here, it’s an even more invidious comparison: “my people are positive, life affirming folk, while yours are destructive, superstitious, death worshippers.” While this article’s authorship by a third party might lend it some kind of perspective, it can’t redeem it from its rightful genre: hate literature.

Rather than lament the Muslim presence in Europe (are we to assume that if we had burned Muslims instead of Jews during World War II, Europe would be better off?), whoever wrote “what a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe” had best take a less passive role in current affairs. Otherwise, we may well be reading his grandchildren lamenting the odious presence of yet another immigrant group. And for us here on the “home front”, we might well take notice at how easy it is to blame the “other” for one’s problems, to point a finger at the immigrant as the root of all evil. Beginning to sound familiar?

DBC

Michael J. Fox on Parkinson's, Stem Cell Research and His Reform Jewish Family

Michael J. Fox, upon receiving the Maurice N. Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award, spoke about his own journey with Parkinson’s disease, about creating his foundation, and about how it is so difficult to move scientific research from an idea toward a cure.

Words of wisdom from Mr. Fox:

On Parkinson’s disease: It’s a gift... in this case, it's the gift that keeps on taking.

This article was posted in the local paper in San Diego:

By Sandi Dolbee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER 2:42 p.m. December 14, 2007
SAN DIEGO – His body jerking and shaking from the toll of Parkinson's disease, actor Michael J. Fox said Friday he's excited by recent news that adult skin cells have been reprogrammed to act like embryonic stem cells – but lamented the energy and resources being put into this and other alternative approaches.

“The irony is that every big development in this area in the past few years has involved efforts to mimic embryonic stem cells,” Fox said to about 4,500 people gathered at the San Diego Convention Center for the biennial meeting of the Union for Reform Judaism

“With research that had gone into recreating what everyone agrees is the gold standard, who's to say how close we might be to new treatment now if we had been pressing forward with (embryonic) stem cells the whole time,” he said.

Fox, who received an award from the Jewish group for championing disease research, was given three standing ovations, and his comments were often punctuated with applause.

The still boyish-looking actor, known for roles on “Family Ties,” “Spin City” and “Back to the Future,” was diagnosed with Parkinson's, a progressive neurological disorder, in 1991 at age 30. In 2000, shortly after going public with his disease, Fox started the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. It has since raised $100 million.

Fox acknowledged that he's received much criticism from conservatives who oppose human embryonic stem cell research because the embryo is destroyed in the process.

In one highly publicized episode last year, Fox drew the ire of conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, who said Fox's visible shaking in a TV ad for a Democratic candidate was because he was “either off his medication or acting.”

The Reform movement, the country's largest and most liberal of the three main branches of Judaism, supports embryonic stem cell research.

Fox, who attends a Reform congregation in New York with his family, told Friday of helping his twin daughters with their Torah homework. The passage was about David, a boy who killed a giant named Goliath with a stone. People wanted to give him armor and a sword for the fight, but David refused.

“I think David understood something fundamental about the deepest ideals of repairing the world,” Fox said. “The armor, the weapons, the swords, they're just distraction – and distraction is not what wins the battle. You just need the truth.”

But truth, in the volatile debate over stem cells, depends upon who is asked.

Embryonic stem cells are touted by many scientists as crucial, because they have the ability to become virtually any cell in the body – and lead to potential cures. But opponents argue that destroying an embryo, like abortion, amounts to the taking of an unborn life.

Afterward, Fox was joined on the stage with Boston rabbi Elaine Zecher, who asked him what he feared the most.

His answer: fear itself.

“I just think that if you contemplate the worst-case scenario and it happens, you lose it twice.”