Dear Hannah,
The most remarkable thing about the controversy over Canada's Holocaust memorial is that a Holocaust memorial is being built in Canada. It's almost as remarkable as if Germany had begun building memorials to America's extermination of the Indians, or the Italians had begun building memorials to the Japanese enslaving of Koreans. There is of course a controversy over the fact that the memorial failed to mention the Jews, but this (I think) is missing the point. Canada didn't make the Jews wear little badges and then throw them into death camps. Canada didn't gas Jews after blaming them for Communism or make their skin into lampshades. The Jewish Virtual Library states that out of the 31+ million people living in Canada the Jews represent little more than a percent. Yet the country that didn't kill the Jews and isn't comprised of Jews is building multi-million dollar monuments to Jews who then complain about the monuments.
The New York Times also happens to mention, within this story of extreme and almost incredible ungratefulness, that the President of the United States committed nearly the same atrocity earlier. In an address delivered on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, this president of the country that liberated the Jews from Auschwitz and played a critical role in the creation of Israel, neglected to specifically mention the Jews, which caused the whiniest Jews to say that he hates them. Fortunately for us he had a chance to apologize to his non-constituents four months later, in a time set aside for remembering the Jews again at our annual Holocaust remembrance ceremony. He was sure to get it right that time, which is fortunate because he might have been reported to the State Department's anti-Semitism monitoring office (I kid you not), which is no longer staffed. The recognition of this vacancy would have undoubtedly lead to more accusations of anti-Semitism -- an insult (alongside homophobia and Islamophobia and racism and sexism) more offensive to Western ears and more dangerous to your employment than being slutty, or avaricious, or lazy, or untrustworthy, or even just plain stupid. These days it's worse to assume a minority is a horrible person than to actually be a horrible person.
To say that Canada played no role in the Holocaust isn't entirely true, however. The Jewish Telegraph Agency, a reputable hundred-year-old Jewish organization which "reflects the wide spectrum of religious, political and cultural identity within the Jewish community," reports that the monument was originally the idea of an obnoxious student from Ottawa University, who noted that his country, which is neither Germany nor Germanic nor even anywhere close to Europe, did not have any monuments to the Holocaust. So they sought for a reason to build one, and they remembered a ship they (and Cuba and the US before them) had turned away in 1939 full of Jewish refugees. The Prime Minister then threw away his national sovereignty in a speech about never turning anyone away who needs help, and some Jews, who in this case apparently did not consider Jewish refugees like anyone else in desperate need, complained about that too.
People like to say that actions speak louder than words, but in the case of Canada we see almost the reverse. If there's anything to be learned here, it's that, when dealing with well-funded and habitually entitled minorities, it's better to save the money on the monument -- and just run your mouth for them specifically instead.
Your father,
-J
PS: In the Jews' defense, there are always two sides to every story, and thus far you have heard the side of a patriotic non-Jew; or as the Jews have so kindly labeled me, to make sure I and the rest of the non-Jewish world are not confused with any of them, a gentile. What I didn't mention in this essay is that the Holocaust wasn't the first time Jews had to wear badges, and anyone remotely acquainted with their history will know that in practically every country they've ever lived in, so far as I'm aware, there have been (in some cases multiple) holocausts.
The over-sensitivity seen above, a radical inability to see the Holocaust as anything other than their tragedy, despite the fact that eleven million people were murdered and the Jews were only six of them, is a survival instinct at this point desperately necessary to a people who live almost everywhere as a minority, and who everywhere they take Judaism seriously consider everyone else to be unclean. But if the people who call themselves the leaders of the Jewish community knew anything, they would know that the best way for a minority to win the protection of the majority is to make themselves loved and pitied, not to make themselves feared. The annual and interminable flow of Holocaust films are doing better than anything the Anti-Defamation League could ever have dreamed. I've cried for the Jews while watching Schindler's List and The Hiding Place. The bitching of the ADL only makes the Jews a nuisance. Black Lives Matter isn't gaining ground because the majority is afraid of them. They're winning because a large portion of white America has seen too many movies like The Help. These whites refuse to see black people as anything other than victims -- it is the whites who terrify the public into action.
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The most remarkable thing about the controversy over Canada's Holocaust memorial is that a Holocaust memorial is being built in Canada. It's almost as remarkable as if Germany had begun building memorials to America's extermination of the Indians, or the Italians had begun building memorials to the Japanese enslaving of Koreans. There is of course a controversy over the fact that the memorial failed to mention the Jews, but this (I think) is missing the point. Canada didn't make the Jews wear little badges and then throw them into death camps. Canada didn't gas Jews after blaming them for Communism or make their skin into lampshades. The Jewish Virtual Library states that out of the 31+ million people living in Canada the Jews represent little more than a percent. Yet the country that didn't kill the Jews and isn't comprised of Jews is building multi-million dollar monuments to Jews who then complain about the monuments.
The New York Times also happens to mention, within this story of extreme and almost incredible ungratefulness, that the President of the United States committed nearly the same atrocity earlier. In an address delivered on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, this president of the country that liberated the Jews from Auschwitz and played a critical role in the creation of Israel, neglected to specifically mention the Jews, which caused the whiniest Jews to say that he hates them. Fortunately for us he had a chance to apologize to his non-constituents four months later, in a time set aside for remembering the Jews again at our annual Holocaust remembrance ceremony. He was sure to get it right that time, which is fortunate because he might have been reported to the State Department's anti-Semitism monitoring office (I kid you not), which is no longer staffed. The recognition of this vacancy would have undoubtedly lead to more accusations of anti-Semitism -- an insult (alongside homophobia and Islamophobia and racism and sexism) more offensive to Western ears and more dangerous to your employment than being slutty, or avaricious, or lazy, or untrustworthy, or even just plain stupid. These days it's worse to assume a minority is a horrible person than to actually be a horrible person.
To say that Canada played no role in the Holocaust isn't entirely true, however. The Jewish Telegraph Agency, a reputable hundred-year-old Jewish organization which "reflects the wide spectrum of religious, political and cultural identity within the Jewish community," reports that the monument was originally the idea of an obnoxious student from Ottawa University, who noted that his country, which is neither Germany nor Germanic nor even anywhere close to Europe, did not have any monuments to the Holocaust. So they sought for a reason to build one, and they remembered a ship they (and Cuba and the US before them) had turned away in 1939 full of Jewish refugees. The Prime Minister then threw away his national sovereignty in a speech about never turning anyone away who needs help, and some Jews, who in this case apparently did not consider Jewish refugees like anyone else in desperate need, complained about that too.
People like to say that actions speak louder than words, but in the case of Canada we see almost the reverse. If there's anything to be learned here, it's that, when dealing with well-funded and habitually entitled minorities, it's better to save the money on the monument -- and just run your mouth for them specifically instead.
Your father,
-J
PS: In the Jews' defense, there are always two sides to every story, and thus far you have heard the side of a patriotic non-Jew; or as the Jews have so kindly labeled me, to make sure I and the rest of the non-Jewish world are not confused with any of them, a gentile. What I didn't mention in this essay is that the Holocaust wasn't the first time Jews had to wear badges, and anyone remotely acquainted with their history will know that in practically every country they've ever lived in, so far as I'm aware, there have been (in some cases multiple) holocausts.
The over-sensitivity seen above, a radical inability to see the Holocaust as anything other than their tragedy, despite the fact that eleven million people were murdered and the Jews were only six of them, is a survival instinct at this point desperately necessary to a people who live almost everywhere as a minority, and who everywhere they take Judaism seriously consider everyone else to be unclean. But if the people who call themselves the leaders of the Jewish community knew anything, they would know that the best way for a minority to win the protection of the majority is to make themselves loved and pitied, not to make themselves feared. The annual and interminable flow of Holocaust films are doing better than anything the Anti-Defamation League could ever have dreamed. I've cried for the Jews while watching Schindler's List and The Hiding Place. The bitching of the ADL only makes the Jews a nuisance. Black Lives Matter isn't gaining ground because the majority is afraid of them. They're winning because a large portion of white America has seen too many movies like The Help. These whites refuse to see black people as anything other than victims -- it is the whites who terrify the public into action.
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Hey Jeremy,
ReplyDeleteAnother great article, thanks. I have scoured this blog for a while, but haven't come across your official profession. Do you make enough money to live off your writing? If not, how else do you make a living?
Believe it or not I do manual labor. I don't earn a penny from my writing, but some day I hope to.
DeleteI did have a sneaking suspicion that was the case. I've read you talking about back problems before... How do you plan on getting into writing as a career?
DeleteNo plan as of yet. I never know what I'm going to write or when I'm going to write it, so the idea of relying on my creative capacity for money is terrifying.
DeleteSo is never realizing one of your hopes, although it certainly isn't worth sacrificing a family for. In any case, as encouragement, I've read everything you've written since I came across your articles.
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right: I'd like to find a way to get this writing out there, but as of yet have a difficult time finding magazines to publish it. I'll start searching around again. Thanks for letting me know you've read all my work -- it's great to know someone is along with me for the ride.
Delete