The Sweetest Revenge

[Kellanved]

July 14 issue — When Shlomo Afanasev and his parents set out to make a new life for themselves late last year, they had choices. The country where they lived—Uzbekistan—was an economic basket case, and its 2,000-year-old Jewish community had all but disappeared.

IT WAS TIME TO GO to a place where they’d be welcomed as Jews, and where they’d have opportunities. They considered going to Israel. But like thousands of other Jews from the former Soviet Union, they decided instead to settle in Germany. “The political and economic situation in Israel is terrible,” says Afanasev, speaking over a kosher lunch in a Berlin yeshiva. “Here life is so much better.”
Jewish immigration and an increasingly vibrant cultural life have even fueled talk of a German-Jewish renaissance. “We never thought it could happen,” says Michael May, executive director of Berlin’s Jewish Community organization. “Jewish life is thriving here again 60 years after the Holocaust.” In perhaps the most delicate of ironies, Germany last year passed Israel as the leading destination for Jewish emigrants from the former Soviet Union: 19,262 admissions, compared with 18,878 for Israel.


http://www.msnbc.com/news/935247.asp


Edit: sorry; had two windows open and mixed them up.

[bemildred]

1. Chalk another success up for Sharon.

This really ought to be down in the I/P dungeon.

[LiberalLibra]

2. They had best be careful - history has a habit of repeating itself.....

....and if the German economy takes a town turn which it could do then someone gets blammed.

[DavidDvorkin]

3. This time around, it wouldn't be the Jews

Turks and other "guest workers" would be the likely targets.

But leaving that aside, the Nazi era and its horrors was an aberration in German history. If it happens again, it'll be more likely to happen in some other country. Maybe the U.S.



http://www.dvorkin.com

[Tinoire]

4. My fear also- the US

Which is one of the reasons I have been upset about the preoponderance of Jews among the neo-cons. I feel I'm watching the undiscussed reasons behind the Nazi persecutions and German rage unfolding all over again.

I didn't like the recent 'bombshell' about Truman's private letters and diaries because the excerpts given OUT of historical persepctive seemed specifically chosen to inflame people.

Bush wants his war of civilizations/religions and by God he will do whatever it takes to get it- too much money to be made and too many geo-political borders to re-arrange for him to pass this up.

Bad times ahead if we don't get all the PNAC supporters out and disassociate them from American Jews as a whole- no matter which party they're hiding in. The backlash could be terrible and I can't believe so few are paying attention to the writing on the wall.

Peace

PS: Fascinating writings. I am re-reading the one explaining why you are an atheist because people's religious development and torment has always fascinated me. It's unfortunate that God and faith in Him always pay for man's perversions and misapplication of His words. Most of High Priests of the religions are once again failing God and failing the people but what else is new? Peace

[Frances]

5. I've had the same fear

I am so glad that the next press secretary will not be Jewish. I think people like Lieberman didn't criticize Bush because they thought that if Iraq were Americanized, then Israel would be safer. I thought that there was not much chance the war would work out the way supporters of Israel wanted it to. Now that there are so many doubts about the wisdom of the war, I am afraid that the Jewish members of Bush's circle will be blamed.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. I spent a few weeks in Germany a few years ago

Three years, I think. I'm eager to go back. I had a wonderful time.

One odd experience. My wife and I and the German friend we were staying with were walking in a crowd in Muenster, during a humongous musical and arts festival, and I was semi-consciously listerning to a couple of peole behind us talking to each other in German. For a few seconds, I thought I was a small child again, lying in bed, listening to the grownups talking in Yiddish downstairs. That actually made me feel rather at home!


http://www.dvorkin.com