CROSSROADS OF HISTORY

CROSSROADS OF HISTORY

Boris Gulko

(translated by Alla Axelrod )

1. The Europeans and Jews.

Before the Catholic Christmas, in New York, in the main hall of the organization uniting the world, under many spotlights, in front of the cameras of the main television stations, the global historical event took place: representatives of all European Christian nations signed an official document accepting the demise of their civilization. These representatives gathered specifically to support the resolution of Muslim Egypt, condemning America for its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish people and its power. No European Christian country voted against the resolution. That is, they all renounced the history of their former religion, described in its Bible. In this story, 3,000 years ago, the Jewish king David, whose psalms all the Christians of the world sang in their churches while singing, made Jerusalem the capital of the state of the Jews and the center of their religion.

Europeans' abandon of Christianity didn’t happen just now. Elie Wiesel[O1]  wrote: "A clever Christian understands that Jewish people didn’t die in Auschwitz -- the whole Christianity died there." After the war, the Western world took a special care to hide this turning point in its history, creating a false myth of the Holocaust.

In this false myth, Nazi villains, led by Hitler, were fighting against peace-loving peoples and identified the Jews as their main victims. The real story is different. It is presented, for example, in William Perl's book “The Conspiracy of the Holocaust”, and is summarized in my essay "Jews and the World - Then and Now" (http://berkovich-zametki.com/2013/Zametki/Nomer1/BorGulko1.php) .

The Holocaust was staged as follows: before the Great War, Hitler decided to expel Jews from Germany. Similar exiles took place in European countries many times. They brought a lot of grief to the Jews and heavy losses to the expelling countries. As an example, the Jewish scientists, banished by the Nazis, produced an atomic bomb in America, not in Germany.

But the world decided to use Hitler’s Anti-Semitism as a convenient excuse for its own anti-Semitism. In Evian, France, on July 5 to 16, 1938, representatives of the civilized world at a specially convened international conference agreed not to admit Jewish refugees in their countries, no matter what danger threatened them. Neutral Switzerland suggested Germany would mark the German Jewish passports with the letter J (from the German “Jude” - a Jew), making sure not to let a Jew into their homes.

A special task fell to England. On July 20, 1939, the Minister for Colonies Malcolm MacDonald announced at the debate in the House of Commons that the squadron of torpedo destroyers with the support of five more boats would defend the shores of Palestine from the ships, carrying the Jews who were trying to reach Palestine. On the first day of the war, on September 1, 1939, the British ship Lorna opened fire on the small ship “Tiger Hill” with 1,417 refugees on board. The first victims of the British army killed in the Second World War were not Germans, but Jewish refugees: Dr. Robert Schneider from Czechoslovakia and a teenager Zvi Binder from Poland. The British Foreign Office has developed a number of diplomatic measures preventing Jews from fleeing their countries.          

The British King, traditionally, is not supposed to meddle in politics, but in this case, in February 1939, three months after Kristallnacht, [O2] the personal secretary of King George VI informed the Minister of Foreign Affairs: "The King hopes that Jewish refugees will not be allowed to leave the country of origin".

"Kristallnacht" changed Hitler's intentions. He believed that the Jewish pogrom would force the Christian countries to open their borders for Jewish refugees. Many Jews were released from Dachau[O3] . The government even issued some money for the journey to some who were able to emigrate.  But the world, in response to the "Kristallnacht", only tighter shut its doors to the Jews.

Finally, at the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942, Germany agreed to meet the wishes of the Christian world and adopted a program called "The Final solution of the Jewish question." In many countries, local authorities deported Jews to "extermination camps" without a special order from the Nazis. The raids in Paris, Amsterdam and other cities of the continent were conducted by the local police. Sometimes the Germans, occupying the country, stopped the beating of Jews by the local population. For example, it happened in Lithuania. Germany maintained its exclusive right to violence.

The Head Christian of Europe - the Roman Pope Pius XII, did not make any statements about the extermination of the Jews.

2. Jews and Greeks.        

I wouldn’t be a Jew if I didn’t say that we ourselves are to blame for what is happening. Of course, the Jews are guilty of such a terrible spiritual failure of Europe. And this guilt is an old one.

Having received the Torah from Mount Sinai 33 centuries ago, we had to spread monotheism among the peoples, to heal them from idolatry, to become a light of humanity. Of course, this task was very difficult. But one nation, with whom we had to communicate closely, was extraordinarily gifted, and as life had demonstrated, was ready for spiritual growth. They were the ancient Greeks. There was no people in history close to the Greeks in their genius and contribution to civilization.

The Greeks didn’t get acquainted with the enlightenment activity of the Jews because of Jewish missionary work, but because of the energy and money of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the Greek ruler of Egypt. In the first half of the 3rd century BC Ptolemy organized the translation of the Torah into Greek by 72 Jewish sages. It was called “The Septuagint”. He, as Josephus Flavius describes[O4] , provided the Jerusalem Temple with utensils for worship made from pure gold cast, designed according to his sketches.

But the Greeks did not take Judaism from the main directions of Judaism, but from the side messianic sect - the Nazarenes.  A direct transition to Judaism frightened the Greeks with a circumcision ritual, which, they thought, makes men impotent. Nazarenes promised the proselyte Greeks the full status of belonging to the chosen people as long as they believed in Jesus' Messiahship and in his resurrection from the dead.

The idea of ​​the Messiah, although it is listed by RAMBAM[O5]  among the 13 principles of faith, is a painful point for Jews. Our sages forbade the calculation of the time of the coming of the Messiah, but they did it themselves - Rabbi Akiva, Rambam, and Ramban[O6] . The most famous candidate in the Messiah after Jesus was Shabtai Zvi. When he converted to Islam in 1666, a significant number of his disciples followed him. And now in Turkey and in Greece there is a sect of Denme - the descendants of Shabtai disciples. In general, Shabbatism remained a terrible embarrassment in the history of the Jews.

It's not that simple about Jesus' Messiahship either. According to the Gospels, he were to return soon after his resurrection and establish "the Kingdom of God on earth." A week passed, then a month. He didn’t appear.

Then the Christians created a theological theory based only on the miracle of the Jesus’ resurrection: "Jesus is risen, therefore our faith is true" - Orthodox priests, with whom I was in a short correspondence, wrote to me. But my question “what became of his resurrected human body (the soul, of course, is immortal)” cut our correspondence short. Jesus in the body must dwell somewhere on Earth. But 2000 years is an excessive period for the human body.

Alexander Blok, one of the most mystically inclined Russian poets, experienced the problem with this dogma of Christianity. Taking an epigraph from another mystic, Vladimir Soloviov: "And the heavy sleep of worldly consciousness You will shake off, yearning and loving," he wrote:

“I Foresee You. Year pass by - all in the guise of one, I foresee You.

The entire horizon is on fire, it is clear and unbearable,

And I wait in silence, - yearning and loving.

The whole horizon is on fire, and the appearance is close,

But it's scary to me: you change the appearance of You,

And the impudent excite suspicion,

Having replaced in the end the usual traits...”

Suspicion in connection with the prolonged absence of Jesus arose in Russia not only in Blok alone.  Chukovsky, another great poet of the period, described how Shalyapin[O7]  came to see Leo Tolstoy before Easter. The singer embraced the great writer "and pronounced the traditional formula:" Christ is risen, Lev Nikolaevich! "Tolstoy gave Shalyapin a kiss on his cheek, and then he said: "Christ has not risen, Feodor Ivanovich."

At the beginning of the 20th century, the overwhelming majority of the population of Russia, desperate to wait for Jesus, rejected Christianity along with Judeo-Christian ethics. This brought the country into a century of misfortune. For decades after the Holocaust, faith has also abandoned Christians of the rest of Europe. Now there are only 5-10% of the population visiting churches. The institute of the family collapsed in Europe, the birth rate has catastrophically fallen. The Europeans have lost the desire to procreate, and they invite to their countries many millions of representatives of hostile civilizations, who are quickly replacing the indigenous inhabitants.

Now the Jews are trying to save the remnants of the civilized world. At the end of the twentieth century, the Bnei Noah movement was created. They are Gentiles who  assumed the seven commandments of the sons of Noah and the main parts of Judaism, not exclusively addressed to Jews. Judaism involves differentiation of people - separate laws for men and women, for Cohens and for other descendants of Israel. Under the leadership of Rabbi Uri Scherki in Israel, Brit Olam was created - the World Noahid Center, which prepared a prayer book for Noahids; A remarkable site with courses of lectures interesting for both the Noahids and the Jews was created.

This movement already has tens of thousands of followers around the world. But will it have time to save the European civilization, who has the time and strength, I fear, to survive only for one or two generations?

3. Americans and the Jews

America has a different point of view, regarding Jerusalem, opposed to all European countries. This opposition has a long history. Even the first European settlers, who crossed the Atlantic in the 17th century to create a society in the New World based on the teachings of the TANAKH, called their movement American Zionism. The founding fathers of the United States created the ideology of the new society according to the lessons of ancient Judea, following the Hebrew Bible. This ideology since the time of Thomas Jefferson is commonly called Americanism. Harvard professor Samuel Huntington defined the American idea this way: "Two words ... do not appear in public documents and at ceremonies. These are the words "Jesus Christ".  The American public religion is Christianity without Christ." And the eminent American poet Robert Frost described the self-perception of the adept of Americanism, calling himself "the Christian of the Old Testament."

            Abraham Lincoln called the Americans "almost elected people", leaving the place of "elected" to his biblical possessor. He intended, after the Civil War, to prepare a campaign for the return of the Jews to their historical homeland.

With the theme of Americanism, you can get acquainted with my 2006 essay “Democracy and Religion”:   http://www.machanaim.org/history/gulko/demokratija.htm, written on the basis of the publications of the Yale professor David Gelenter.

The experience of developing democracy in the United States was useful to Israel, which was recreated 70 years ago. Europeans stressed their spiritual difference from these two states - none of their countries supported the right of America to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The Judeo-Christian civilization is leaving the Old World.

                                                                  Translated by Alla Axelrod  ©

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 [O1]Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel was a Romanian-born American Jewish writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor.

 [O2]Kristallnacht, literally, "Night of Crystal," is often referred to as the "Night of Broken Glass." The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place on November 9 and 10, 1938. This wave of violence took place throughout Germany, annexed Austria, and in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German troops.

 [O3]Dachau – German concentration camp near Munich.

 [O4]Titus Flavius Josephus (37 – c. 100),  historian and hagiographer, who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry.

 [O5]Rabbi Moses ben Maimon commonly known as Maimonides Moses Maimonides), and also refered  to as RAMBAM, Torah scholar of the Middle Ages, he   was also a preeminent astronomer and physician.

 [O6]Moses ben Nahman, commonly known as Nachmanides, and also referred to by the acronym Ramban and by the contemporary nickname Bonastruc ça Porta, was a leading medieval Jewish scholar, Sephardic rabbi,

 [O7]Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was a Russian opera singer. Possessing a deep and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses.