A season to renew commitment to tolerance

Editor’s Note: Voices is a weekly commentary by a panel of Maine columnists who explore issues affecting spirituality and religious life.

I am writing as we celebrate our weeklong Jewish holiday of Passover. Our first seder, an ordered meal and service, was with family in Boston. Our second seder was with students at the University of Maine in Orono – an evening sponsored by Hillel, a Jewish student organization.

Passover celebrates the arrival of spring and the freedom with which we are blessed. We remember our 300 years of slavery in Egypt about 3,500 years ago. We recall our bondage and our servitude. We eat bitter herbs as a reminder of the bitterness of slavery. We dip parsley into salt water – the parsley or green reminding us of spring, the salt water reminding us of the tears of slavery. We recall the 10 plagues which ultimately led to our being freed, yet we diminish from our cup of joy (our cup of wine) so as not to take any pleasure in the sufferings of others – even of our oppressors.

The seder meal is a wonderful opportunity to explore our own state of being. How are we still free? How are we still enslaved? Can we ever be free if anyone among us is enslaved? How can we be agents of freedom?

Soon after the conclusion of Passover (April 12 to 13) we remember the Holocaust by observing Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Memorial Day (April 18). This is the day we set aside to mourn the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II.

We celebrate Yom-HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, about a week later (April 26). On this day in 1948, Israel declared its independence after the United Nations acknowledged that Israel, the Jewish homeland, would be accepted as an independent country among the family of nations.

I have many concerns this Passover. Anti-Jewish sentiments are on the rise worldwide. Synagogues, Jewish schools and Jewish centers are being burned and bombed in Argentina, France, Turkey and Canada. A mere 60 years after the Holocaust, some people now feel safe to once again blame the Jew. Jews are, even after Vatican II, blamed for Jesus’ death. The false belief that the Jews are to blame for the death of Jesus is increasing significantly, even in the United States.

Israel, one of the most democratic countries in the world, a multicultural and multireligious country, is being compared to a Nazi nation. How distorted can one be? Israel’s laws protect the freedom of religion for all, and protect women’s rights. Yet many people and some nations feel that Israel is a racist nation and has no right to exist. Israel is constantly under attack both ideologically and physically.

Is Israel deserving of criticism? Of course. However, once that criticism becomes a demonization, then something is wrong. Other agendas are coming into play that must be examined.

Anti-Semitism is rearing its ugly head once again. The historical fact that the Holocaust occurred, killing 6 million Jews, is contested by historical revisionists, Holocaust deniers. Mel Gibson, director of the movie “The Passion of the Christ,” grew up with a father who is a Holocaust denier. Hutton Gibson stated in an interview on national radio last February that the Holocaust never happened, that there were no concentration camps, only “work camps,” and that Jews basically made the whole thing up. What is Mel Gibson’s responsibility, as an international figure, to comment on his father’s statements and writings? So far, he has said nothing.

Many people feel that had it not been for the Holocaust, the United Nations would not have recognized the right of Israel, of a Jewish homeland, to exist. The world saw too closely the horrors of its anti-Semitism in the Holocaust and acknowledged the need for Israel to serve as a home and refuge for Jews who might again suffer due to our religion, our beliefs and our practices. History often repeats itself. Now, only 60 years later, the effects of the Holocaust on the world’s consciousness is diminished. The demonization of Israel and the Jew is on the rise.

It is interesting that our Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) and our Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) are only a week apart. Our greatest horror precedes our greatest honor. The slaughter of 6 million Jews preceded the renewal of our Jewish homeland. For 2000 years we were a homeless people. Now we are free in our land of Israel. If only we would be accepted by our neighbors.

May this spring – this Passover and Easter – bring a renewal of acceptance, tolerance and kindness for all the peoples and nations of our world.

Rabbi Barry Krieger is the rabbinic facilitator for the Hillel organization at the University of Maine in Orono. The views expressed are his own. He can be reached at bkrieger56@aol.com.