To Forever Fight Against Evil
Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
March 6, 2010
Let me begin with a statement: Once upon a time I was arrested. – That got your attention. I was not convicted. I will explain this later.
Let me ask a question that I will also answer: How did the Holocaust begin?
I will answer the question first.
Surely there was a legacy of over 1,900 years of hatred, whether it was the struggle of Judaism and paganism, Judaism and idolatry, Judaism against the invaders of Assyria, Babylonia, Greece, Rome, whether it was the hatred of the church in rejection of its mother-faith and to usurp our place as "Israel." There was more than a two thousand year legacy of contest and hatred. Hating Jews didn't begin in the twentieth century.
Surely there were seminal people earlier in history that loosed the mob upon the Jews. There were bloody episodes of the Tower of York, massacres in the Rhine valley, of French communities, as the Crusaders marched through Europe to the Holy Land they killed Jews along the way. But never a Holocaust. How come this time?
It began in the mind of one diabolical, Satan, evil incarnate – in the mind of Adolf Hitler. Even if he read the words of others, listened to the hatred in others, he did it.
In the darkness of night, when I remember the course of modern Jewish history, when I remember the pictures, when I look at the books in the upper right hand corner of my library in the office all printed in Europe and I realize that the hands who held them, who studied them, who prayed from them – they and their descendants were all massacred and destroyed – forever – I ask one and only one question:
Why didn't someone kill Hitler in the very beginning, before it all began?
He wrote what he was going to do in Mein Kampf.
He said it loudly and boldly in gas lit arenas with tens of thousands of people.
There is no good answer.
By anyone.
I am not necessarily brave.
I have never served in the military.
I have never shot a gun.
I seek no fame.
I publish no books.
But in the fantasy that envelopes my horrible dreams of our people's fate, I have one wish:
To have lived then;
With a rifle or gun in my hand;
And killed him;
And killed the evil
And killed the Satan
And stop the evil from harming us, our people, and the world.
The Holocaust had the collusion of tens of thousands.
The Holocaust had the background of hatred of the Jews for more than two thousand years.
The Holocaust of the twentieth century began with one person.
Evil and evil forces can always begin with one person. Thus even one person cannot, can never be ignored. Silence is ignoring. Absence is acquiescing.
When we are absent, we enable evil. When we are silent, we are, in a way, accomplices to evil.
That is why I was at the Virginia Holocaust Museum and at VCU last Tuesday. Even if I didn't say a word, presence is speech. Presence fights evil. Presence elevates the right, the just. Presence of human beings invokes God's presence. Even if there is just one evil person present. Even if there is just one righteous person present to rebuff, refute the evil.
So last Tuesday night on the eleven o'clock news Mark Holmberg questioned the size of the response to the Westboro Baptist Church's demonstration. I needed to write him. This is what I wrote:
"Hatred will flourish in the darkness of silence. It will be defeated in the sunshine of public awareness and response. Hate groups don't wait for us for publicity. They use every possible electronic means. I am proud to have marched at the Holocaust Museum today. It raised the public voice which is the first line of public defense of decency and mutual respect."
Mark wrote back to me:
"I hear you, Rabbi. You strike a chord. My report the previous night pointed out what happens when hatred isn't challenged. But these guys…three wingnuts and kid? Where do we stop this kind of expensive response that only adds fuel to their fire? Two wingnuts and a kid? Just one wingnut? - Mark"
I wrote back:
"Dear Mark, In the continuing dialogue with you, it isn't just about this group. As a member of the Southern Poverty Law Center I receive an annual report of the number of hate groups out there, where they are located, how many members they are estimated to have, and what they are doing. In responding to this one group, as nuts, insane as they are, and believe me, watching them act like robots, just repeating the same lines time after time, vile venom that despoils the air that conducts their sound, we are doing many things at once. We are telling all hate groups that we are vigilant. We take nothing for granted. Diabolical evil can originate in only one human heart and spread like a virus to infect many. We are saying to all the good and decent people of so many differences, that we are one integrated community. With our theological, sociological, sexual differences, we are a society that is interwoven, the broadcloth of humanity. As a flag, we must wave proudly in the bright sunlight and in the darkest night. Only when we are brave, will this land be free. Thanks for the conversation."
In the early 1980's, when Soviet Jewry was not able to emigrate, to build momentum and public pressure, Rabbis of the greater New York area were organized into a mass demonstration where we sat down in the street near the Soviet Embassy in protest. I was there. I have the picture. We were arrested and brought by bus to a police precinct station. There we filled out arrest cards. While there were neither mug shots nor fingerprints taken of us, we proudly filled in these cards. We did think that all of this was completely arranged. It wasn't. We received notice to appear in court for our arraignment. We could have been sent to jail besides being fined. I will always remember the judge, after being informed why his courtroom was filled with Rabbis, got up and said that he dismissed the charges "in the interest of justice." That whole episode will always being most important to me.
After reading Elie Wiesel's "Jews of Silence" – we all thought before reading that he was writing about the Jews of the Soviet Union – he wasn't – he was writing about the Jews of the United States – I swore that I would never be one of them. No one in Jewish history will be able to look backward and point a finger at me and say:
Where were you?
Why didn't you…?
What were you doing when…?
I can't protest for everything all the time,
But for my people, for being a Jew,
But against evil, against diabolical evil against humanity,
I will be present.
I cannot be silent.
Who will stand up against evil?
Who will feel that righteousness is their core and must protect it?
Who will feel that the Jewish people is at the essence of their being, to be ready to
Have their ears assaulted by vile, venomous evil,
To be arrested
To put it all on the line
Who cares?
I do.