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January 11, 2009 | 9:58 pm

A Holocaust survivor worries about his ‘death sentence’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Si Frumkin survived the Holocaust—that’s him at a refugee camp in 1945—and fought to bring awareness to the plight of Soviet Jews. A well-known Republican Jew who I see at all the Christian Zionist events, Frumkin writes a twice-monthly newsletter called “Graffiti for Intellectuals.” I don’t often read “Graffiti,” but a column Frumkin wrote for the Children Of Jewish Holocaust Survivors Los Angeles listserv just caught my eye.

Frumkin is deeply concerned by the level of anti-Semitism that has been part and parcel of the protests against Israel’s war against Hamas. (The latest from the front lines.)I’m not sure what Frumkin thinks of Israel’s actions—I assume he strongly supports them—but it’s clear he’s bothered by the anti-Semitic rhetoric. And who wouldn’t be? Comparing Zionists to Nazis; calling for “Death to All Juice;” telling Jews to “go back to the oven”—those are fightin’ words, to say the least.

Referencing a few of the incidents I’ve written about, Frumkin writes:

It had never occurred to me that there might come a time when I and my family might be sentenced to death once again for the crime of being born Jewish. It never crossed my mind that the world would once again be hearing the shouts of “Kill the Jews” and “Jews to the ovens!” I realized that there were some who hated Jews but I was sure that this was a tiny, mindless, insignificant minority – surely smaller in numbers than those who believed the Earth was flat or that Elvis was alive.

I was wrong.

Hatred is with us again. The legions of haters are proudly waving their flags and flaunting their slogans around the globe. And just like the nazis of seventy years ago they are not bashful or apologetic in disseminating the ideology of mass murder. They are dedicated, enthusiastic, committed, and ready to die for their deadly doctrine. One of their religious leaders put it best: “We love death as much as the Jews and Christians love life!”

A less literate, young man at a New York demonstration was even more frightening by waving a misspelled placard that demanded, “Kill All Juice!” The photo brings a smile to most that see it on the internet but it isn’t funny. We know that he doesn’t want to kill orange juice – he wants to kill me, my children and grandchildren and all those other “juice”.

In Fort Lauderdale, on December 30, hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators protested the Israeli military operation in Gaza. Their hatred encompassed all Jews – “Go Back to the Ovens! You Need a Big Oven” and “Kill All Jews!” (this time spelled correctly), read their placards.

Pamphlets in Denmark demand, “Kill Israel’s People”, and on the reverse, less correctly, “Kill Jewish People Evry Where in Ther World”.  In Mumbai, a city with very few Jews, the Islamic terrorists went to the trouble to find a tiny, unmarked Chabad facility to slaughter the 6 Jews there. In Britain the police are unable to guarantee security for Jewish schools. In Amsterdam, in January, a crowd at a rally chanted “Hamas! Hamas! Jews to the Gas!” In Belgium, pro-Hamas demonstrators burned a public menorah and painted swastikas on Jewish-owned shops. In Berlin, the police chief warned Jews not to wear scull caps in public and avoid “acting Jewish”. In France, a burning car was rammed into a Toulouse synagogue. In southern Sweden a Molotov cocktail was thrown into a synagogue. And there is more, everywhere…

The hatred is not hiding. On the official Hamas website, on 12/31/08, there were calls for attacking Jews throughout the world, “…a Jewish adolescent boy in an Australian synagogue, a Jewish minister in the Georgian government, a Jewish businessman in the New York Stock Exchange, an illiterate Jew from Ethiopia…they all belong to the same gang and the same nation…” And Al-Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri demanded that Jews be attacked worldwide, “…everywhere you can reach them. Support your mujahedeen brothers and children against them.”

The British online forum “Ummah” asks, “Have we got a list of top Jews we can target? Can someone post names and addresses?” And, in response, “Saladin1970” gives a link to 100 top British Jews.

There are those who believe that this isn’t anti-Semitism – just anti-Zionism. Here is a quote from a great and wise man: “When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews. You are talking anti-Semitism” (Martin Luther King, 1968). 

I am worried.

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Unfortunately, Israel’s current actions have the potential of endangering all Jews. It’s difficult for many to separate legitimate anger from painting with a broad brush. Look at how Muslims/Arabs are demonized for the actions of a few.

Additionally, considering Israel’s penchant for collective punishment of Palestinians, some of the analogies ring true, however disquietig this is to some.

Comment by LanceThruster on 1/12/09 at 4:05 am

I wasn’t going to comment but Lance’s comment just burns me. There are NO reasons that justify endorsing such things as indiscriminate killing of Jews around the world. Israel is entirely justified in it’s actions in Gaza and if you or anyone else disagrees I would recommend you try living in Israel where even a trip to buy a quart of milk requires careful planning in case of missiles, suicide bombers or some other attack.

“Israel’s penchant for collective punishment of Palestinians”....Are you kidding? Have you looked at a map lately? Do you not realize that Israel is surrounded by people who would love to destroy it and everyone in it? How would you react if the flavor of the day was to brutally kill any and all LanceThrusters, their children, relatives, neighbors and acquaintances all around the world. Really, think about it.

When we see Hamas indoctrinating small children, some so young that they don’t walk yet, to hate Jews and infidels, training them from a young age to become suicide bombers instead of getting an education, raising yet another generation of killers for Islam. When this occurs I really wonder what level of intelligence and morality supports such an organization such as Hamas. These same people have the utter gall to compare Israel to the Nazis! I mean really, give your head a shake then stand in front of the mirror and slap the person you see.

Comment by Peter on 1/12/09 at 4:11 pm

My Jewish lawyer friend calls propaganda (Zionist or otherwise) “The 180 rule” whereby that which is asserted can be flipped 180 degrees for the truth.

Indiscriminate killing (of Gazans) - Check!
Surrounded by people who would love to destroy it and everyone in it? (Gaza ghetto) - Check!
Indoctrinating small children (Remember children signing missiles for Lebanon?)- Check!
Generation of killers (60 years of punishing the people whose land was stolen) - Check!
Comparisons of Israel claimed false (even many Israeli Jews compare Gaza to the Warsaw ghetto) - Check!
(afterall, Amadinejad, Saddam, Hamas…they’ve all been described as “bad as Hitler”).
Check out the site for former IDF coming clean of their actions in occupied territories - (http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/index_e.asp)

The bottom line is that being a memeber of a victim class previously does not entitle you to brutally victimize others.

Comment by LanceThruster on 1/12/09 at 6:21 pm

The United States will never, ever allow anyone to destroy Israel.  For those who hateful anti-semenic comments that were made by American citizens, they should be prosecuted to the fullest and possibly stripped of their citizenship.  I am disgusted at the behavior of some of these radicals that behaved this way on American soil!

Comment by sandra on 1/13/09 at 1:33 am

It is wrong to say that US interests match Israel’s to the point of condoning every agressive action they commit. Si Frumkin may worry about a supposedlypossible death sentence, but scores of innocent Palestinians (including hundreds of children) ARE being condemned to death (with execution being carried out in the most brutal fashion) as we speak.

Israel’s murderous actions do more to threaten Jews worldwide than anything else. They need to stop immediately.

Your wanting to punish, prosecute, and/or expel citizens who express an opinion contrary to your own is deluded at best and fascistic at worst.

Comment by LanceThruster on 1/13/09 at 4:06 pm

Dear LanceThruster…

I ask you one simple question. Would you prefer to live under an Israeli democracy or a Muslim theocracy? If you can truly say “yes” to the latter, then your hatred knows no bounds.

Comment by Ron Ruthfield on 1/14/09 at 2:07 am

False dichotomy, Ron.

What if I was a cab driver driving through an Orthodox neighborhood on the Sabbath (I might be stoned in outrage)?

What if I was a woman who would not move to the back of the bus when a Hasidic man insisted I should (I might be verbally or physically assaulted)?

Just because as an atheist I reject all organized religions doesn’t mean I cannot see when a people are being treated abominably. Dr. Finkelstein has traveled to Palestine before and says he is treated wonderfully. The terrible treatment he received in the region recently was from Israelis who would not let him enter either Israel or Palestine.

Yet he is a Jew who should be allowed to visit as per Israel’s own rules. Any Jew in the world is welcome in Israel it seems but the people who were actually run out of the towns and villages by Jews (they weren’t quite all Israelis when they did this) are not. The rockets fired at Sderot are being fired from where the people who used to live there are now forced to dwell.

Democracy to me means one person, one vote. Israel’s notion of a Jewish State cannot deal with that so I reject your assertion that Israel is a true Democracy. Many Jewish Israeli writers have said that it is a failed democracy. The court system also systematically deprives Arabs of rights as well. This smacks of an apartheid syatem and the collective punishment against Palestinians is unconscienable. This may indeed be Israel’s last gasp, but not for the reasons many might think.

Comment by LanceThruster on 1/14/09 at 2:31 am

LanceThruster…

1. Naturally, you did not answer my question but took the opportunity to once again condemn Israel.
2. I, too, am a secular humanist—not quite an atheist—who thinks very deeply about morality, rather than godliness.
3. If, indeed, Israel treats the Palestinians as you say, then please explain to me why 40% of the physicians at Hadassah Hospital are Arabs and why half the patients are Arabs? Also tell me why that almost every Arab citizen of Israel prefers to live in Israel and not with their “brothers and sisters.”
4. Your definition of democracy is quite shallow, not to mention uninspiring. Start with a Bill of Rights and go from there. One person, one vote is useless. And might I add there are now 11 Arabs serving as Members of the Israel Knesset out of the 120.
5. The Jewish writers you refer to probably don’t number more than three or four. And isn’t it great that they have the right to criticize their democracy? Try to condemn Hamas in Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon—or for that matter, any other Arab country—and you will find yourself decapitated and your body dragged through the streets, not to metion what will happen to your family. And that’s democracy in action? 
6. I do not know which Mr. Finkelstein you’re referring to, but if it’s Norman Finkelstein, the infamous self-hating Jew, then I know where you’re coming from. I can tell from your words you have never been to Israel, the West Bank or Gaza. But now you are an expert based on ignorance and your lack of respect of people who believe.
7. Are there Israelis who behave badly? You bet. But do they teach their children to strap on belts of dynamite do kill other children, women and civilians? Do they show cartoons on how to kill Palestinians?
8. My suggestion is to go into the books of history and find out from primary research, and perhaps a visit to the region, to really determine the facts on the ground. Your vision right now is not 20/20.

Comment by Ron Ruthfield on 1/14/09 at 2:56 am

Ron,

Are you taking on the role of prosecuter? Do you alone get to ask questions (and expect them to be answered?) There have been studies (done by J-Post) showing that Arab Israelis largely feel themselves as 2nd class citizens. I think I’d rather live in Turkey than in Israel (certainly if I was Arab/Muslim), and I’d rather fight for what’s right with the Gazans than side with the oppressors in Israel. Thank goodness there are voices for justice among the Jews in Israel, as well as Jews worldwide. They will show you the way if you just open your eyes and your heart.

You speak of Arab nations as the worst examples of limited personal freedoms, yet are content comparing Israel to them and declaring that they are a bit better. Yes, Israel has more freedom to dissent on the Palestinian issue than the press in the US, yet Arab voices within Israel dissenting are pegged as dual loyalists by Israeli hard-liners and there is talk of forcibly expelling them.

Learn your own G-D history, or better yet, consider supporting the state as a citizen rather than the US being obligated to bankroll their abuses. If you are Jewish, you would be free to move there, possibly into the home of an Arab who was run out theirs and does not have the right of return. How you can rationalize that shows your hypocrisy and lack of ethics.

Comment by LanceThruster on 1/15/09 at 1:47 am

Frankly, given a choice, I prefer the skinheads and other brutes who express their anti-Semitism openly. In such places, we know the enemy.
But please spare me the pieties and the righteous indignation of those “good people” protesting throughout America and Europe against Israel’s defensive operation in Gaza. True, thousands have taken up banners in support of Israel. At the same time, however, the streets of Europe (and even some in America) are in an uproar. These are the “humanitarians” like yourself - the good, the noble, the refined, who chant “peace.”
Now you’re up and about? Now you speak? Where were you when, throughout the years, thousands of jihadist bombs fell on Israel? The streets of Europe were empty and so were the streets of America. There were no pictures in the newspapers of grieving Jewish mothers and fathers. You called it “peace” as long as the Arabs were doing the killing and the Jews were doing the dying. All was well with the world.
Suddenly, as Israel answered back, you found your cause; and how self-righteous you are in your cause.
The best and the brightest of America and Europe are some of the ones protesting. You are educated. You probabaly attended fine schools. You care for the birds, the bees, the bears, the trees. You favor free speech and freedom of religion. Strange it is that the one and only place in the Middle East that shares your world-view is Israel, and it is Israel that you slander.
Israel is a Jewish State. Is that your problem? At the first hint of Jewish self-defense, how quickly you show your true colors.
I’ve seen the photos of candlelight vigils along the streets and boulevards of Europe, all of it; all these tears in the service of those terrorists whom you probably call your brothers. Indeed you are related to Hamas (and Fatah) as once before, a mere generation ago, you were related to Hitler’s stormtroopers. Your angelic faces are touching - and disgusting. Your hypocrisy is transparent and nauseating.
You speak of disproportion. You want proportion? Give Israel a population of 300 million residing in 22 countries, similar to the Arab Muslims who surround and ambush Israel - instead of five and a half million Jews in one single country. There’s plenty of “proportion” coming from you and you ilk which delights in presenting one side of the story and picks up where Der Sturmer left off. Now, with this type of “news”, we know how Europe was conditioned for a Holocaust. And now American likes you who won’t even put down his real name for fear of identity. No Jew is coming after you, LanceThruster, but a jihadist well might. And it will be your fault, along with some of your friends and family who might think the same way.
Already we see Nights of Broken Glass. Thank you, for reminding me why America was discovered just in time (and why Israel was redeemed many generations too late). You dare judge Israel the way Europe did and does? In their deportations, expulsions, forced conversions, inquisitions, pogroms. Neither Europe nor the United States nor any other country have moral authority over Israel or Jews within our own borders. You and people like you gave all that up from 1492 to 1942.
To those on the Left who sought peace, well, dear peace-lovers, peace brought this on. “Land for Peace” made this happen, as Land for Peace became Land for Jihad. “Painful Concessions” caused this war. “Goodwill Gestures” backfired. Want more “peace”? Give up the Golan Heights. Give up the entire West Bank. Give up Jerusalem. Imagine the “peace.” As for those “innocent civilians” in Gaza, they were given a choice and they chose Hamas. They chose this pestilence.
As for those “refugee camps” - why are they “refugee camps” when Israel handed over all that territory for a nation to be built in peace and security alongside Israel? Why are all Palestinians automatically refugees even after they’ve been given a home? The only true refugees are the thousands of Israelis who were driven from Gaza and still live in trailer parks. Israelis and American and European Jews—900,000 strong who were driven from their homes and property seized from Arab nations in the 20th century while Jews dwelled among them No tears for them in this world that still dreams of Auschwitz.
Auschwitz did not occur because Jews were vile people. But rather the vilest among the world nations chose to put the Jewish nation to rest once and for all.

Please do not answer this post, Mr., Ms. or Mrs. Lancethruster. You are a bigger bigot than you think and I choose not to read between the lines of hatred and anti-semitism. I know, I know. You’re not a anti-semitic, just anti-Zionist. Martin Luther King, Jr., did indeed, in his profound and humane way, clearly said that anti-Zionism is nothing but a different phrase for anti-semitism. You are one, LanceThruster, and you do not even recognize your own evil.

All the best.

Comment by Ron Ruthfield on 1/15/09 at 2:04 am

Ron,

Your attempt at snark is no better than the rest of your diatribe. My earlier response has been held for moderattion by akismet but it’s not as if you put forth anything more than bluff and bluster. You are the very essense of those who hide behind false accusations of bigotry. It’s certainly easier (for you) than thinking.

TTFN,

LT

Comment by LanceThruster on 1/15/09 at 7:12 pm

Nu, Lance. Still no girlfriend I see. What a shame. Dammed to an eternal mid-life crisis roaming the internet looking for Jews to screech at, while jerking off to naked pictures of Bea Arthur and Herve Villechaize. Where do you get those anyway? grin

Look everybody, here’s Lance’s Myspace page.(-:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=200952398

Facsinating. Its like a requiem for a loser. I have to say, I’ve never seen a flunkee’s life so thoroughly catalogued and itemized. Kudos.

51 and single eh? I saw your picture old man. Generally speaking, you seem presentable. Whatsa matter? Bad breathe? Turets? A piece of Brocolli sticking out of your neck? Heres a hint. Stop obsessing about yids, try showering more than once a week, brush those disgusting yellow choppers, and part your hair on the right side. Now I’m not guaranteeing anything you understand, but its gotta work out better than boring a prospective mate with tall tales of your on-line gallantry in the face of relentless “attacks” by sayanim and reciting puerile poetry in the vein of “Ode to My Mauser”.

Comment by Shoded Yam on 1/15/09 at 10:29 pm

Clearly it makes no sense to address either Ron or the Yam in anything but the 3rd person. Hate-speech and idiocy rather than even attempting to address anything in a manner resembling dialog. I’d ask Brad to deal with the personal attacks but he does not have moderator power at the moment and the other mod is long gone (the one who tried to make such a show of enforcing the “rules”. Sort of the same one-sidedness the Israel uses when “observing” internationa law).

My secular Jewish attorney friend calls it the “180 rule”; accuse others of your own crimes/failings. I call it projecting. Ron thinks of penis and immediately images of gay sex flood his mind. Yam hasn’t established that he does think but operates in the manner of a brownshirt. The forum is for readers of Brad’s blog and the JJ. I am both. Yam-er-Ron want to treat like their own little indoctrination camp. The weakness of their arguments are exposed by their puerile attacks.

Ron demands no one respond to him while Yam’s nattering doesn’t require any response as that is not his purpose.

Sadly, this mentality is exactly what the Gazans have to deal with; an air of superiority based on nothing but a delusional self-assessment.

They whine about collective punishment as they collective punish.
They whine about terrorism as they commit it.
They whine about injustice as they mete it out at will to any who might reject their lack of a sense of justice.

The sayan step up to the plate and fling their excretions as it seems they are incapable of much else.

And these are the champions of Zionism.

‘Nuff said.

Comment by LanceThruster on 1/15/09 at 10:59 pm

“...I’d ask Brad to deal with the personal attacks but he does not have moderator power at the moment and the other mod is long gone (the one who tried to make such a show of enforcing the “rules”

Don’t hold your breathe Lance. If Brad had wanted to, he would have “moderated” me. Apparently, he doesn’t want to. In addition to other things, Brad is in the business of running a sometimes provocative, sometimes emotional, award-winning blog. As evidenced by your melo-dramatics, I’m good at being provocative, while you’re good at…being emotional. So you can stop fantasizing about how much Brad likes you. All the fawning and genuflecting is giving me gas. grin

But lets get back to this myspace page of yours. Judging by the torrent of superaltives you spew forth in support of Sirius Satellite Radio, it would appear that you’re on the payroll. Not that I blame you. Finding activities to divert ones attention from a sexless life can be expensive and the salary of a university office drone only goes so far. I noticed you made a lifetime commitment to Sirius. Well its good practice. Maybe one day, you’ll do the same for a woman. I gotta tell ya though. If this is the sum-total of your existence, no wonder you don’t beleive in God.

Comment by Shoded Yam on 1/16/09 at 12:29 am

This is the bottom line: how many Jews in the US and Canada own weapons for their own self-defense? How many Jews belong to the NRA? How many Jews have ever fired a weapon? How many US Jews under 80 have ever been in the military? How many Jews carry pepper spray or mace or know how to use a taser (legal in most states)? Why did 85% of US Jews vote for the liberal, defeatist, naive, “engage” and “talk” Democrats, when there was an alternative? Why are we stuck in Roosevelt’s time, considering he didn’t bomb Auschwitz?  Why did 85% of California Jews vote No on prop 8, when our numbers are decreasing significantly each year and, besides, G-d had his own commandments (which we Jews presumably adhere to)? I recall a Reform rabbi locally who wrote a column about equal right (civil rights) denied a small percentage of the population. Equal rights..she meant to file tax returns and benefit from the lower tax rates for married couples. During the riots in 1992, there were about 13 LAPD guarding an entire area of the city, where many Jews lived. They were too occupied east and south protecting shopping centers I suppose. Jews in Israel reportedly have 200-400 nukes..and the Muslim/Arab world knows it. Jews in the USA have lattes and lavish bar mitsvahs. Rabbi Kahane was right, but 20 years pre-mature..he paid for his observations, strident at times admittedly. 63 years after 500,000 Jews perished in Auschwitz, in 6 weeks (that’s 12,000 week in shifts of 2,000 every 4 hours (the gas chambers held 2,000), movies are made about the Holocaust which win academy awards…yet another Holocaust is brewing and nothing is being done about it. Hitler and Arafat, Assad and Nasser are laughing in their graves, while we Jews promote Obama’s “talking” approach towards Iran, No. Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah. Si is right, but I don’t hear any remedy..just warnings. 1m USA Jews owning 2 million shotguns, will send the right message..to coin the old US phrase, “Don’t tread on me”. It’s that simple.
In this day and age, Jews walking to shul are attacked. In this day and age, Arab-Muslims and their supporters can wave PLO and Hezbollah flags outside Israeli embassies shouting “Kill the juice”. In this day and age, a major university can have anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish speakers speak before an audience with much the same language…yet nothing is done.

Isn’t it time that we Jews stop our crusading over the Sudanese problems or somehow saving the whales, and start focusing on our own shark enemy..swirling around us, ready to kill us!

Comment by Dav Lev on 3/23/09 at 5:41 pm

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