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Rabbi Carl M. Perkins
Cantor Gast�n Bogomolni
Fredie Kay, President

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Torah Scrolls

July 18, 2012                                          29 Tammuz 5772

 

Dear Friends,

 

Although it is the middle of July, and, perhaps like some of you, I am on vacation, my thoughts are elsewhere, and I write to you with a heavy heart. I have just learned of the awful attack on the Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria. In case you haven't heard, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device as he entered a bus containing Israeli tourists who had just arrived in the Bulgarian city of Burgas, killing at least seven and wounding at least thirty. (Click here for the New York Times account of this story.) With the exception of the Bulgarian tour leader, all of the victims were Israeli. As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu reminded us in his response to this tragedy, this is only the latest in a series of attacks on Israelis throughout the world, in places as far apart as Thailand, India and Kenya.

 

This attack brings to mind - probably intentionally, though that remains to be confirmed -- another heinous attack, which took place eighteen years ago. On this very same day, in 1994, a car packed with explosives blew up just outside the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing eighty-five and wounding hundreds. Although the perpetrators have not been apprehended, it has long been widely believed that Iranian intelligence operatives were behind the attack.

 

This is not the only anniversary that comes to mind. We are in a period known in Yiddish as the "drei vochen," i.e., the "three weeks" between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av, known as "Tish'a B'Av". According to tradition, on the 17th of Tammuz in the year 70 C.E., the walls of Jerusalem were breached, and three weeks later the city was destroyed and the Temple was set aflame on Tish'a B'Av. Each year, we fast on Tish'a B'Av not only to lament our loss of national sovereignty two thousand years ago, but also to recall our people's acute vulnerability since then. As we soberly recite on the eve of the Pesach Seder, "In every generation, there are those who rise up against us to destroy us."

 

So it seems. Long after the Bar Kochba rebellion was quashed in 132 CE (on Tish'a B'Av) and the city of Jerusalem was plowed over exactly one year later, other assaults on Jews took place on or around Tish'a B'Av. For example, the Jews were expelled from England on July 18, 1290 (the 2nd of Av), and they were expelled from Spain on July 31, 1492 (the eve of Tish'a B'Av).

 

And so it behooves us, particularly during this season of the year, to reflect on our many losses. Even before today's attack, many of us were contemplating one particular one. The 2012 Olympics are about to begin in England. Forty years ago, in the summer of 1972, the Olympics were held in Munich, Germany. It was supposed to be an opportunity for Germany to show a very different face from the one it had presented at the 1936 Games, which were presided over by Hitler. But that was not to be. Early one morning, terrorists from the Palestinian Black September group stole into the Olympic Village and burst into the apartments where the Israeli athletes were housed. They shot and killed two of them almost immediately, and took nine others hostage. After several rounds of negotiations, and after agreeing to release their hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian and other prisoners and safe passage out of Germany, the terrorists took the hostages to the airport, but there, a gunfight broke out, and the terrorists killed them all. 

 

Some of us may remember that terrible event. I can vividly recall listening to Jim McKay, the ABC sports commentator par excellence, reporting on the crisis, and his tearful, disbelieving account of its murderous denouement. (For those who want to recall the details of what happened, take a look at the Wikipedia article.)

 

A few weeks ago, a group petitioned the International Olympic Committee to hold a minute of silence in commemoration of the 1972 attack. The IOC refused. I myself have hesitated to attribute their stance to anti-Semitism, but others have been less restrained. In a recent piece that just appeared in Tablet, a former teacher of mine, Professor Deborah Lipstadt of Emory University in Atlanta, excoriates the IOC. You can access the article here.

 

This cluster of events should be a reminder to us: if we don't remember our tragedies, who will? I urge you to join us on Saturday evening, July 28, at 9:00 pm for Tish'a B'Av services. At that time, we will sit on the floor, read the book of Lamentations (Eicha) by the dim light of candles and flashlights and reflect on the many, many tragic events that we associate with this season. Please join us.

 

In the meantime, we pray that those who've been wounded in the attack in Bulgaria will receive speedy medical care and be restored to good health. And we pray that the souls of the innocent victims who lost their lives will remain bound up among the living. May their memories remain a blessing.

 

Rabbi Carl M. Perkins

 
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