History repeats itself, and we cannot forget the mistakes that our democracies made - opinion

When the Torah describes the Jews in Egypt it uses a strange terminology, “Habayin Mitzra’imah,” “these are the names of the children of Israel, the newcomers on their way to Egypt.” Why does the Torah use that phrase when we all know that Joseph was already in Egypt for a long period and that he was the prime minister who actually saved the country from starvation?

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik answers: “If you are a Jew, you will always be judged as a newcomer who just arrived” – a text that suggests to bigots that these are troublemakers who want to ruin our country, so they are always referred to as Habayin Mitzrai’mah, the unwanted dissidents who have just arrived.

So it occurred when Albert Einstein, the world-renowned scientist who settled in America and assisted the United States with his genius that undeniably helped win World War II. After Hitler’s rise to power, Einstein conceded that pacifism was no longer realistic.

In August 1939, hearing that German physicists were racing to discover nuclear fission, he signed a letter to President Roosevelt warning that “the element uranium may be turned into an important energy in the immediate future – that is, a bomb.” 

The president responded by developing the bomb before Hitler could. This, of course, led to the Allied victory over Hitler’s Nazi Germany and the Japanese. But even that did not prevent antisemites from attacking him, claiming that he was a Jew trying to destroy America.

That is why, says Rabbi Soloveitchik, even Moses, the greatest of all prophets, who brought down the tablets from heaven, was assigned to take on the added responsibility of carrying out the bones of Joseph during the Exodus from Egypt. 

Why? To remind us that although Joseph was the man who saved the Egyptian economy from total collapse and disaster, Pharaoh and his cohorts rewarded Joseph by throwing his great, great grandchildren into the Nile – just as Hitler did during the Holocaust and Stalin afterward; and just as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran are doing to today’s Jews.

Cannot count on enemies to adhere to the rules of the game 

It is naive to assume that because you adhere to principles of democracy and morality, your enemies will do likewise. Who could have imagined that at leading American universities, administrators, professors, and students would stand with Hitler’s disciple – Hamas. 

What kind of universities do we have in the United States that enthusiastically demonstrate and support terrorist organizations whose raison d’etre is nothing less than the destruction of the Jewish people, Israel, and her defenders? 

Let us never forget the mistakes our democracies made following the footsteps of Neville Chamberlain and his intellectual supporters who failed to understand the real motives of Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich, which nearly ended human civilization.

May God bless all those who have suffered and those who have perished defending the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

As Simon Wiesenthal reminded us: “Freedom is not a gift from heaven; we must fight for it each and every day.”

The writer is founder and dean emeritus of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and co-chairman of the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem.