Our Sages once said that, in the Future, the Jewish people would gaze upon the face of Evil and proclaim it, instead, to be that of Good. This moral confusion is exemplified by Michael Bar-Zohar's article extolling the conduct of Bulgaria during the Holocaust in saving 50,000 native Jews from the Nazis after having deported "... with the utmost cruelty ..." 12,000 foreign Jews then under its jurisdiction to the death camps, based upon a moral conviction which "... viewed these [foreign] Jews as belonging to the Germans ...". Praising, as a savior, the ravenous beast which has deigned to devour only some of its hapless victim's limbs is a societal form of the Stockholm Syndrome. Furthermore, what is the moral justification for limiting such praise to the leadership of Bulgaria? After all, during the Holocaust, Hitler himself, y'mach sh'mo (cursed be his name), saved the lives of at least two Jews -- one his family doctor and the other his former business partner. Isn't there some basis then to praise Hitler for this small kindness? Obviously, just as Hitler is not any less the Architect of the Holocaust, so is Bulgaria not any less a willing accomplice thereto. In fact, as Bar-Zohar's article clearly shows, just as Bulgaria was well able to protect its native Jews without any Nazi retribution, it surely would have been able to do the same for its foreign Jews had it but exerted the slightest effort toward that end.

The historical lesson to be re-learned yet again is that we dare not consign our fate to the whims of any gentile nation, be it Bulgaria or the United States. This lesson was first taught to our ancestors who, after entering Egypt as welcome guests of Pharaoh, gradually found themselves forced into abject slavery. It was later reinforced in Persia when King Ahasuerus (Artaxerxes) first invited his Jewish subjects to a great feast, then (at the instigation of his advisor Haman) impulsively ordered their mass murder, and finally, in a stunning reversal (orchestrated by his wife Esther), once again became the friend and benefactor of his Jewish subjects. Finally, it was more than evident during the past two millennia of our Exile, most especially during the Holocaust.

Now, as the Third Commonwealth of Israel contemplates placing its security -- and, consequently, the very future of the Jewish people -- into the outstretched hands of the nations, our leadership ignores this historical lesson at its -- and our -- peril.

© Mark Rosenblit

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