Why?

You may be asking yourself “Why is he always talking about the Jews? He’s not even Jewish.”

You are right  - I’m not Jewish. I am Roman Catholic and even went to Catholic School from 1st-5th Grade.

I believe (and have been taught by my Mom) that whether anyone is personally attacking you or your beliefs or not you should always stand-up to help others.

When I was in 6th Grade in Germany one of my Teachers assigned each of us a Winter Holiday to do a presentation on. She gave me Chanukah.

While I was giving my presentation to the class she flipped-out and started yelling that Chanukah could not have a "CH" in it (only an "H.) She gave me an F and told me to redo it all (Note: I had never had an F before then.)

I went to my Mom's Office after School to complain (about my Grade.) My Mom's Friend and Co-Worker - who happened to be Jewish - told me she had a book at her house where Chanukah was spelt with a "CH" on the cover.

She gave it to me and I brought the book and the same poster board I had used for my first presentation to class and tried to redo the same presentation.

When the Teacher again complained about the "CH" I showed her the book and told her my Jewish Friend had given it to me.

The Teacher went off. She threw the book across the classroom and started yelling about how it didn't matter how Chanukah was spelt since it was a made-up holiday and shouldn't be celebrated.

She then went on about how the Jews were evil and against God's plan and were never to be trusted. She kept my F and threw me out of class.

I walked right to my Mom's Office and was very upset. I told her what happened and she got right on the phone with the Principal and when the School tried to cover things up my Mom got the Stars and Stripes Newspaper involved as well as our Members of Congress.

In the end (because of all the attention my Mom brought to this incident) the Teacher was found to be highly Anti-Semitic and made to go to the Dachau Concentration Camp the next school year - not as a Chaperone, but as a Student. My F was turned into an A (after another Teacher, the Principal, the Base Commander and my Mom heard me give my Chanukah presentation.)

I have to admit that when I was in 6th Grade I was more concerned with getting the F than anything else.

My Mom explained what happened and why it was wrong to be anti-Jewish and why I needed to focus on that part of the problem as it was the most important part and not the F part.

Every since then I have always spelt Chanukah with a "CH" to remind me of what I did and didn't do when confronted with Anti-Semitism.

It was also while living in Germany at this time that I really got involved with learning about the Holocaust (from my Mom and from School.)

 

 Living in Germany  - where the Grandmothers and Grandfathers walking the Streets around me could easily have been Mass Murderers in the 1940s.

We had even had a “Game” of going up to anyone over 60 and shout at them in English “What did you do during the War?” as well as visiting many of the Holocaust-Related places like Concentration Camps, etc. made Me become more aware of how horrible the Holocaust truly was. It became more personal rather than just reading about it in a book.

In High School I met several Holocaust Survivors  - going down to New York City to see them with my Mom.

After College I worked for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. I got to meet many Holocaust Survivors (including spending 4 minutes with the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Eli Wiesel where he even shook my hand and signed my copy of his book.)

While there I also got to see Original Documents and Artifacts from the Death Camps, the Jewish Victims and the German Murderers.

When I lived in Russia both times I saw first-hand Anti-Jewish Violence.

The first time I lived in Russia  I was just learning the language and so had my Girlfriend go with me to a Synagogue in Yaroslavl – the Synagogue had been bombed in the 1990s and so was cautious about allowing Outsiders in (especially my Russian Girlfriend – even as my Translator.)

I went back one more time that trip and when I was walking to the Trolleybus  to go home some Russians came up to me and started screaming at me, in Russian. I didn’t understand everything they were saying but kept hearing the Russian word “Жид” and the German Phrase “Juden Raus!”

I knew what they both meant: “Yid” and “Jews Out!”

They assumed that since they had seen me walk out of the Synagogue that I was Jewish. I told them – in my broken Russian – That I was American. That I was Catholic.

They understood American, but not Catholic so I blessed myself 3 times like Russian Orthodox Christians do and they understand and let me go.

When I lived there a 2nd time – by myself since I was fluent in Russian by then – and learned about the Anti-Jewish Pogroms and the History of the Russian Jews in Czarist Times, in Soviet Times and in Modern-Day Russia (and I was learning about it from Russian Jews many of whom told me of their personal experiences with Official Soviet and Russian Anti-Semitism as well as Attacks from Ordinary Russians against them.

Another Anti-Semitic Event I personally experienced was on a Russian Bus going from Saint Petersburg to the Peterhof Palace.

I saw a group of Russian Men and Boys yelling, screaming and hitting Orthodox Jews in their Black Religious Clothing.

My Mom always wanted to go to Israel and we nearly went together once, but she was placed in the ICU and so we had to cancel our trip.

 I was able to go to Israel in 2017 with my Sister and got to go to many wonderful places from the Bible (both the Old Testament and the New Testament) as well as to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Documentation Center and Museum in Jerusalem.

Sadly, I am not always proud of how I did or did not handle some of the things I mentioned above.

I am not proud that when I was in the 6th Grade I cared more about getting a “F” than about standing-up to my Teacher’s Anti-Semitism.

I am not proud that when I lived in Yaroslavl in 2002 and was confronted by Skinheads that I resorted to saying I wasn’t Jewish just so I could leave.

I am not proud that when I saw the Russians attacking the Orthodox Jews in Saint Petersburg I didn’t do more to stop the Tour Bus to help them.

I am proud that my Mother took the time to explain to me after each event what was wrong with how I reacted and what was wrong about the Anti-Semitic Incident itself (I had called and e-mailed my Mom back in the States after the Russian Incidents.)

She was a very religious Roman Catholic and believed in helping anyone she could regardless of their Religion or anything else. The second to last thing she said to me right before she passed in 2014 was “Do Good” which is what she had been telling me and showing me herself ever since I was little.

I am doing everything I can now to call out the Bigots, the Anti-Semites, the Jew-Haters, the Anti-Jewish Terrorists because what is happening in Israel, in Canada, in France, in the United Kingdom, in Germany, in Russia, in Poland, in Spain, in Egypt, in Lebanon, in Iran, in Colombia, in Australia, in the United States and in most of the rest of the World is wrong.

I will never fully understand what Anti-Semitism feels like since I am not Jewish, but I am doing my best to learn as much as I can about it and try to stop it wherever I can.

It is not an Israeli Problem.

It is not a Jewish Problem.

It is MY Problem!

It is OUR PROBLEM!