On my father’s final trip to Budapest, he showed me the very place he thought he'd left Jewishness behind forever. He hadn't, and as I grapple with Gaza, I wish things were different.
“Imagine how it must feel to identify as a Jew in that situation,” I said. “I get why he’d want to keep his head down.”
This is really sad, to be honest. Weird how this is basically the feeling your Father had when he stepped out of the line. He didn't want to show that side of him. I know Israel's response in Gaza has been brutal, but I don't think people who have nothing to do with Israel's response should be feeling like they need to keep their head down.
Appreciate this, Thomas. And yet the fact remains that those people who have nothing to do with the response--other than being Jewish, which many Jews feel binds them to Israel whether they like it or not--DO feel like they have to keep their heads down. I'm less interested in the "shoulds," more interested in the "whys."
I am nominally Jewish, appalled in equal measure by Gaza, Hamas’s precipitating butchery and mounting, flagrant anti-semitism. Yours is one of the few essays on these intertwined horrors that I could bear to read. Thank you.
I’m married to a 1st gen American whose father is a Hungarian Jew. His father worked in those camps and my FIL didn’t know his own father for many years. Then at the age of 15, the family left during the Russian invasion at the end of the war in 1956. All I can say is it’s multi-leveled and complex to say the least. While my MIL was asked to convert, they never practiced anything Jewish growing up. Still hid.
And it’s true what you say, trauma never heals. It festers in different ways. If everyone’s trauma could be “seen” by the other I’d like to think humanity would be kinder. Each tribe of people are acting out their traumas in different ways as if infantile acts will heal them.
Being Jewish is complex and layered. And it’s not all that identifies a person, for it’s that and so much more. I’d rather stand on common ground with authenticity and fierce love than hate and violence any day.
The more I read your writing, the teensy-ist bit more I get a handle on you, but god damn Seth, what a complicated story you tell. Think I'll just read more of your insights and not even attempt to understand our relationship but open myself to just being near you occasionally and savoring our time together, which I do already.
“Imagine how it must feel to identify as a Jew in that situation,” I said. “I get why he’d want to keep his head down.”
This is really sad, to be honest. Weird how this is basically the feeling your Father had when he stepped out of the line. He didn't want to show that side of him. I know Israel's response in Gaza has been brutal, but I don't think people who have nothing to do with Israel's response should be feeling like they need to keep their head down.
Appreciate this, Thomas. And yet the fact remains that those people who have nothing to do with the response--other than being Jewish, which many Jews feel binds them to Israel whether they like it or not--DO feel like they have to keep their heads down. I'm less interested in the "shoulds," more interested in the "whys."
I am nominally Jewish, appalled in equal measure by Gaza, Hamas’s precipitating butchery and mounting, flagrant anti-semitism. Yours is one of the few essays on these intertwined horrors that I could bear to read. Thank you.
Appreciate that so much, Rona. I don't know any other way but to spill it all out. Thanks for reading.
I’m married to a 1st gen American whose father is a Hungarian Jew. His father worked in those camps and my FIL didn’t know his own father for many years. Then at the age of 15, the family left during the Russian invasion at the end of the war in 1956. All I can say is it’s multi-leveled and complex to say the least. While my MIL was asked to convert, they never practiced anything Jewish growing up. Still hid.
And it’s true what you say, trauma never heals. It festers in different ways. If everyone’s trauma could be “seen” by the other I’d like to think humanity would be kinder. Each tribe of people are acting out their traumas in different ways as if infantile acts will heal them.
Being Jewish is complex and layered. And it’s not all that identifies a person, for it’s that and so much more. I’d rather stand on common ground with authenticity and fierce love than hate and violence any day.
Appreciate this, deeply.
The more I read your writing, the teensy-ist bit more I get a handle on you, but god damn Seth, what a complicated story you tell. Think I'll just read more of your insights and not even attempt to understand our relationship but open myself to just being near you occasionally and savoring our time together, which I do already.
Thank you love; appreciate that so much....