Class Year

2020

Document Type

Student Research Paper

Publication Date

2-2020

Department 1

Judaic Studies

Abstract

I was born in 2002 into a middle-class Jewish family, in a very Jewish town. The town was our Zion, our Mini-Israel, our bubble. It prided itself on being a sleepy town where any American can feel safe and comfortable. At the best of times, the town felt like a family; everyone knew your name and many children born in the town decided to live the rest of their adult lives there. It was a place where the support of Israel was of utmost importance. Although everyone prided themselves on the security, there was always this unease that our human rights could be taken away by those others that outnumbered us. After all, it only took two years from Hitler's rise to power to his passing of the Nuremberg laws. With this fear of history repeating itself, every Jew in the bubble, whether they be Reform or Orthodox, Ashkenazi or Sephardic, talked of the grandeur of the Israeli state. Because no matter how slim the odds may seem that the worst-case scenario could happen, any chance that it could happen again was unacceptable for the descendants of the victims of the Holocaust. [excerpt]

Comments

Third place winner of the 2020 Georges Lieber Essay Content on Resistance.

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