“The words spoken by Donald Trump , like a burst feather pillow, are unrecoverable.”
Peretz Wolf-Prusan FACEBOOK .. with illustrations added by THE-Ave
Reflecting on last evening’s event between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, I now see November 8, our election day, not as the end of this political contest, but the beginning of a new challenge.
November 8 is the day before the 78th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the organized wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms that took place in Germany on November 9 and 10, 1938.
Years before Kristallnacht the Nazi weekly tabloid Der Stuermer put “The Jews are our Misfortune,” on every front page.
Trump Supporters Are Now Sending Death Threats to Jewish Journalists
Before Der Stuermer was published defeated WW1 German Generals created the myth that the German army had been “stabbed in the back” by politicians just as Germany was about to defeat the allies. Germans believing the ‘stabbed in the back’ myth often blamed Jews, the political left and weak politicians.
Then …
Now …
“Stabbed in the back,” becomes “November Criminals” in Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Hitler claimed that the “November Criminals” created a weak, democratic, pathetic Weimar Germany. He vowed to make Germany great again.
Fareed Zakaria wrote (August 18, 2016), “The rage that is fueling the Trump phenomenon is not just about stagnant wages. It is about a way of life under siege, and it risks producing a “politics of cultural despair.” That phrase was coined by Fritz Stern to describe Germany a century ago. The key to avoiding that fate is not a series of public policies — whether tariffs or tax credits — but enlightened politics, meaning leadership that does not prey on people’s fears and phobias.”
Rigged elections, widespread voter fraud, nasty women, criminal Mexicans, murderous Muslims and more. This is the politics of cultural despair and it does not end well, especially for Jews.
Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “Few are guilty, but all are responsible.” We have work to do.