Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on October 9, 2021

Ive felt it too, every time. Ive walked through places where Jews lived for hundreds or even thousands of years, people who share so many of the foundations of my own life the language and books I cherish, the ideas that nourish me, the rhythms of my weeks and years and I have felt the silence close in.

I dont mean the dead Jews silence, but my own. I know how I am supposed to feel: solemn, calmly contemplative, and perhaps also grateful to whoever so kindly restored this synagogue or renamed this street. I stifle my disquiet, telling myself it is merely sorrow, burying it so deep that I no longer recognize what it really is: rage.

That rage is real, and we ignore it at our peril. Its apparently in poor taste to point out why people like Mr. Simentov wind up as Last Jews to begin with: People decided they no longer wanted to live with those who werent exactly like themselves. Nostalgic stories about Last Jews mask a much larger and darker reality about societies that were once ethnic and religious mosaics, but are now home to almost no one but Arab Muslims, Lithuanian Catholics or Han Chinese. It costs little to wax nostalgic about departed Jews when one lives in a place where diversity, rather than being a living human challenge, is a fairy tale from the past. There is only one way to be.

What does it mean for a society to rid itself of other points of view? To reject those with different perspectives, different histories, different ways of being in the world? The example of Jewish history, of the many Last Jews in places around the globe, holds up a dark mirror to those of us living in much freer societies. The cynical use of bygone Jews to inspire us can verge on the absurd, but that absurdity isnt so far-off from our own lip service to diversity, where those who differ from us are wonderful, so long as they see things our way.

On paper, American diversity is impressive. But in reality, we often live siloed lives. How do we really treat those who arent just like us? The disgust is palpable, as anyone knows who has tried being Jewish on TikTok. Are we up to the challenge of maintaining a society that actually respects others?

I hope so, but Im not holding my breath. The Last Jew of Afghanistan is gone, and everyone is glad to be rid of him.

Dara Horn is the author, most recently, of People Love Dead Jews and the creator and host of the podcast Adventures With Dead Jews.

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Opinion | What Happens When the Last Jew Leaves Afghanistan - The New York Times

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