Words With The Weight Of History

By Mary Beth Schneider
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS — Even for this president, the one who claims he has the “best words,” these words were startling.

These words evoked decades of anti-Semitism that questioned the loyalty of Jews.

Rabbi Mike Harvey of Temple Israel in West Lafayette said there were two comments that sent a shiver of recognition through many: “One that we went to sleep to, and one that we woke up to.”

 

The first was Trump’s comments on Tuesday that Jews who support Democrats — and a majority do — were either stupid or disloyal.

They woke the next morning to Trump retweeting the comments by Wayne Allyn Root, a conspiracy theorist, that Israelis “love him like he’s the king of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming.”

In past delusions, Root has questioned Barack Obama’s American birth and religion said the Las Vegas mass shooting was coordinated by Muslims and that George Soros — a Jew and a wealthy supporter of Democrats — had paid the white nationalist who drove into a crowd in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing Heather Heyer.

“Those are two different, extremely problematic things,” Harvey said of the double-dose of Trump comments and tweets. “The first one is scary… To label a particular group of people as disloyal unless they vote along the party line is something that has been seen in Jewish history all too well. That language, not just in ancient history but in modern history as well, has been used to fuel genocides.”

“All this sort of rhetoric, they are not just words,” the rabbi told me. “They fuel hatred. They fuel violence. They help dehumanize certain groups of Americans.”

And Root’s fawning words that Trump savored? “The last time that someone was referred to as the ‘King of the Jews’ that message was written on Jesus’ cross when he was crucified. So that’s symbolic,” Harvey said. And as Jews do not believe there was a first coming of the Messiah, calling Trump the “second coming” for Israeli Jews “shows either an extreme disassociation from the views of Judaism or it is simply another implication that evangelical Christianity knows better and Jews, if they would just wake up, would understand. And that’s a very deep-rooted anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic trope.”

Harvey grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, without the fears children face today.

“Thirty years ago, anti-Semitism had not boiled to the surface in America,” he said. “Certainly there were under the surface anti-Semitic acts, anti-Semitic feelings and comments, that sort of thing. It was nothing like it is today.”

These days we see bigots marching in Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us” — and a president who says there were good people among them. We see a video of California high school boys raising their hands in a Nazi salute and singing a Nazi war song. We see a Carmel synagogue defaced with swastikas. And, worst of all, we see 11 people killed and six wounded at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Children who already have to fear to go to school now also have to fear being shot where they worship.

After the killings at Tree of Life synagogue, synagogues began discussing protective measures and active-shooter drills.

“We just voted this past week on our board to have a locked-door policy, meaning that the doors are 100 percent all the time locked. That is a new cultural change for us,” he said, adding that things such as shatterproof glass and a safe room where people can seek refuge are being planned.

Harvey said he tells children in his congregation that “every generation of Jews, of Jewry, encounters something like this… It’s simply part of our lives. It makes us stronger and more resilient and we’re still here. There’s no need to give up hope.”

Especially not in the face of what is the brightest light of hope in what seems like a dark epoch: They are not alone.

“We have seen incredible amounts of unity and support and interfaith understanding,” Harvey said. “We have so many allies, so many churches and mosques and organizations and government officials that are so supportive when things like Tree of Life happen.”

He tells the children that “despite the fact that there is so much vocal hatred, there is a great deal of support, a great deal of protection by our friends here. And to remember that the loudest voice isn’t always the strongest voice.”

Even if the loudest voice belongs to the president.

FOOTNOTE: Mary Beth Schneider is an editor at TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalists.

The City-County Observer posted this article without bias or editing.

MARGARET KOCH Selected As A City-County Observer “Outstanding Community Services Award” Winner For 2019

The City-County Observer is proud to announce that Margaret Koch has been selected a City-County Observer “Outstanding Community Services Award” winner for 2019.

Margaret is an extremely popular and very personable person that is extremely involved in every aspect of our community.

She was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and has her parents to thank for teaching her the importance of stewardship and working to make the world a better place.  She moved to Evansville in the spring of 2000 and worked as a registered nurse for Visiting Nurse Plus, HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital and most recently Deaconess Hospital.  She and her husband, Kevin, have two wonderful and busy daughters who are 11 and 9 years old.  They both attend St. Bens Catholic school. 

Due to the needs of her family, Margaret made the decision in 2013, to become a full-time house spouse and community volunteer.  

She is a Junior League of Evansville Sustainer, and it was with this amazing organization that she began honing her fundraising skills while working on several money-generating committees.  Since completing her seven-year stint with the Junior League, she has served on the boards of Ark Crisis Child Care Center and the Reitz Home Museum.  With both of these boards, she cultivated relationships within our community working to build partnerships with these wonderful organizations and our many individuals and corporate champions.  

Presently she serves on the stewardship committee and pastoral council at St. Ben’s Cathedral, and helps raise money for the Summer Social and Holiday Luncheon.  She also is very involved with St. Ben’s School Mardi Gras committee where she focuses on raising sponsorship dollars that go toward the ongoing upkeep of this outstanding school along with updating technology and educational tools. 

She also is a member of the Evansville Museum board, where she helps with the annual gala and serves on the art committee.  She has been a member of the Vanderburgh Community Foundation Alliance Women’s Fund for the past two years and more recently joined 100+ Women Who Care.  She feels privileged to be a part of both of these groups of strong, giving women.  

Her passions for animals, conservation, and FUN have been fulfilled with her role as a board member of the Evansville Zoological Society, which is the non-profit arm of Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Garden.  She perhaps a little too enthusiastically participated in a feasibility study and was subsequently asked to chair our zoo’s first-ever capital campaign in 2014.  She is so pleased with the outcome of the campaign so far when she and family enjoy the Engelbrecht Carousel and walk among the spectacular parakeets in the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Budgie Walkabout.  She invites you to visit the zoo and see these spectacular additions, thanks to the generosity of so many individual and corporate donors.  

Margaret thrives on helping others and strives to make the world a better place.  She is so proud of the progress happening throughout Evansville and feels honored to be a part of it.  

FOOTNOTE: This year’s awards luncheon will be held at Tropicana-Evansville Walnut rooms A and B on October 25, 2019. The registration begins at 11:30 am, the event officially starts at 12 noon.

COWBOY UP!

Gavel Gamut By Jim Redwine

Before October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 American boys knew who they admired and what they wanted to be, cowboys. From the days of Hoot Gibson and Tom Mix to Hopalong Cassidy and the Durango Kid until Gene Autry and Roy Rogers boys of all backgrounds dreamed the same dream. Then America watched as our global boogeyman leapfrogged over us and put us in fear of destruction from above. Cowboys’ six guns became obsolete and American boys, girls too, dreamed of being astronauts. John Glenn orbited the earth aboard a new fire-breathing steed and from 1957 until Clint Eastwood’s movie The Good, The Bad and The Ugly that came out in 1966 during the throes of the Viet Nam War American boys left cowboys in the dust. However, since this is America, a sense of emergency and panic can only be maintained a short while before we revert to our roots.

As a one-time American boy, I made the same progression. I fell back from my completely unrealistic dream of becoming a physicist to my only somewhat unrealistic, albeit subdued and hidden yearning, to be a cowboy. Returning to the days of Gene Autry was much easier than facing the reality that I will not be helping to settle Mars. However, the declining dreams of a young boy are themselves sometimes painful to reconstruct when one is separated from them by time. But the fates did recently allow me an opportunity to kind of revisit those thrilling days of yesteryear. I got to herd one cow.

Now, when I was playing cowboys and Indians with the neighborhood boys in Pawhuska, Osage County, Oklahoma in the 1950’s several of my friends were, in fact, real Indians and several of them were, in fact, the sons of real cowboys. Of course, since we boys had not yet had the advantage of adult myopia we were unaffected by the niceties of who was supposed to be what. We all were whatever the scenario we thought up called for. Alas, we grew up, sort of.

However, let me return to my recent opportunity to turn back the clock to the dreams of grade school days. When Peg and I bought a cabin in rural Osage County a few months ago we not only found a new home but also a new friend who was the prior owner and a real cowboy. How lucky was that? Anyway, Johnny runs some cattle on our place and those cattle are like the rest of us; they do not always stay put. Occasionally a cow will find its way out onto the public road. Such was the case yesterday. So, as my brother and I were heading to Bartlesville about 20 miles from our cabin to run errands for Peg, we encountered a large black cow with a white face happily munching on the right-of-way bluestem grass. I saw my chance to live that five-year-old boy’s dreams.

I jumped out of my pickup and approached that cow with a confidence that can only come from ignorance. As I got closer and closer to the bovine behemoth, instead of her fearing me as I anticipated she took the attitude of a large animal upset by someone interrupting her dinner. Having neither horse nor rope nor the ability to use either had I had them I retreated and called for backup on my cell phone.

“Johnny, it’s Jim. One of your cows is out.”

“Jim, I’m in Oklahoma City.”

“Johnny, what the devil do you want me to do?”

“Why, nothing Jim, unless you want to. I’ll be back in The Osage in a few hours and I’ll deal with it. This is cowboy work.”

Well, Johnny is obviously a true psychologist as that last statement cut deep into my boyhood psyche. I just clicked off my phone and girded my loins up about me as I ran towards Miss Bossie and waved my arms. Apparently, she was so amused she decided to amble back into her pasture and I shut the gate behind her.

Now I know some of you Gentle Readers are probably thinking this event may not be quite as impressive as The Lone Ranger cleaning out a nest of rustlers. But to me, it’s just a matter of degree. They both qualify for cowboy status. My dreams have finally come true. I’m going to buy a hat and boots and find a drugstore where I can prop my boots up on the bar rail, tip my hat back and sip sarsaparilla.

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