Jews’ anger at Ben Carson’s comments needs explaining

Why all the Jewish anger over Dr. Ben Carson’s comments on guns, Jews and the Holocaust?

Apparently, some, perhaps many, American Jews believe it would have been worthless, or, as Tom Tugend argued in the Jewish Journal, would have made things worse, for European Jews to have owned guns during the Holocaust. 

I do not share this view. But I respect the fact that good people might differ on this issue.

What I do not understand is the anger many American Jews have directed at Carson for saying that it would have been a good thing if Jews had guns during the Holocaust. Here is the Republican presidential hopeful’s statement: “The likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed.”

Carson was referring to the Jews of Europe, and while there are good arguments on both sides, it seems to me that common sense alone suggests widespread gun ownership among European Jews would have been a good thing.

Solely for the sake of argument, let’s imagine that one in four Polish Jews had a weapon. Given that 90 percent of Poland’s Jews were murdered, it seems odd at the very least to argue that widespread gun ownership among Poland’s Jews would have made things worse. 

What is worse than being shipped in horrific cattle cars, then tortured at a concentration or death camp and finally gassed? Likewise, what is a worse fate than digging a mass grave for yourself, your family and your community, being stripped naked and watching your loved ones shot to death or buried alive by one of the Nazi mobile killing units, the Einsatzgruppen?

Obviously, nothing is worse. So how could gun ownership among Poland’s Jews have made things worse? 

I certainly can imagine how it would have helped. If the Nazis and especially their local collaborators knew that they risked being shot as they entered any Jews’ apartments to take them away, the wheels of the Holocaust might have moved at a slightly slower pace.

Even if Jewish gun ownership had had no effect whatsoever on the Holocaust machinery of death, there is another argument — a powerful one — for Jews to have guns: dignity. Death was not the only horrific part of the Holocaust experience. Prolonged physical and emotional suffering and being stripped of all dignity were also major aspects of the Holocaust horror. 

Dying while shooting at Nazis would have obviated those other aspects of the Holocaust, sparing that Jew the terrors of the roundup, the cattle car, the tortures of the camps and the gas chamber. And the Jew would have had the dignity of being able to fight, which some did — against impossible odds — in every German-occupied country.

The Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising who kept diaries greatly lamented their lack of weapons — there were only a total of 10 guns when their revolt against the Nazis began. Were they wrong? Were they fooling themselves? Of course not. Yet, prominent Jews have attacked Carson for making anti-Semitic comments and for “blaming the victim.” 

Neither accusation makes sense. What does wishing that Europe’s Jews had been better equipped to fight have to do with blaming the Jews? And what could possibly be anti-Semitic about wishing that Europe’s Jews had been armed? After speaking for 40 minutes on my radio show with the Forward editor who wrote that, I still do not understand the accusation.

So, then, what gives? I think that many Jews are so opposed to gun ownership and so loathe the American gun lobby that
they transfer this loathing onto Carson for comments that seem to be pretty commonsensical. 

American Jews who believe that it would have been bad for European Jews to be armed might want to read a recent column by Rabbi Donniel Hartman, a well-known liberal and Modern Orthodox Jew who is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Israel:

“I hate my gun, but I am grateful for it too. … I have an inalienable right to live and to do what is necessary to defend myself, my family, and those around me from those who desire to murder us,” he writes. “I am grateful for my gun. I hate that I need it, but I am grateful for the fact that when I do, I have the ability to carry it. I hate the fact that the people I love are in danger, but I love the fact that neither I nor my people are helpless victims anymore. I love the gift of Israel, that if and when I need it, I do not merely have the right but the ability to protect myself. … I still live with hope and continue my life’s work to create a better future, but until that day comes, sadly and tragically, from time to time, I will carry my gun.”

I believe that Hartman is saying about Israel’s Jews today precisely what Carson said about German and other European Jews of the 1930s and 1940s. The difference is that Carson’s liberal American-Jewish critics can afford to be naive about the moral necessity of gun ownership. Liberal Israeli Jews cannot. 

Dennis Prager’s nationally syndicated radio talk show is heard in Los Angeles from 9 a.m. to noon on KRLA (AM 870). His latest project is the Internet-based Prager University (prageru.com).