by Sandra Kessler at lidblog.com
In 2017, the United Nations first declared an International Day of Remembrance for Victims and Survivors of Terrorism. This year, the day landed on August 21st, 2024. As I combed through the UN’s gallery of victims and survivors who have been chosen to represent this unfortunate group, one group’s representation was noticeably absent: Jews and Israelis who have suffered and survived attempts to wipe us off the face of the earth for more than 2,000 years.
Jews and Israel stand out as “Inconvenient Victims”. We are not the only ones in today’s world, but we lead the pack.
Not that we Jews should want to be thought of as “victims” in a zeitgeist in which victimhood is valorized above all else. Yes, we have been persecuted, murdered, pogromed, set on fire, gassed to death, sent up in smoke, and raped, hacked, and tortured through the ages. But much more important is that we keep surviving and thriving! We rend our garments, sit shiva, and then get up to get on with the business of living on our terms.
We shouldn’t forget our past suffering, but we must remember our past triumphs even more. The fact is that we have outlasted every dictator and empire that ever tried to destroy us. Most significantly, even as they tried to destroy us, we built, created, and moved civilization and ourselves forward.
What we don’t, certainly shouldn’t, do is to use our past suffering as our entry ticket into an upside-down worldview that pits “oppressor against oppressed.” To paraphrase Menachem Begin: We are no longer Jews on trembling knees! We have 3,000 years of civilization to our credit to be proud of despite what others say we are.
The West is currently experiencing a civilizational crisis. We are living in a “Grievance Culture” that tries to punish those who value success, strength, and personal responsibility. This Grievance Culture prefers dividing people into ever-smaller slivers of identity to blame everyone else for their victimization while tearing down our institutions instead of building something productive and lasting.