Israel ad the Goshen of the Modern World

Israel as the Goshen of the Modern World

By Sherwin Pomerantz

The drive to Tel Aviv on Route 443 this morning was made longer by a 25 minute backup to get through the checkpoint just west of Modi’in.  While waiting in the queue I reached into the receptacle for my CDs and found a lecture by Rabbi Berel Wein, whose Destiny Foundation has provided Jewish learning to tens of thousands of people over the years.

The CD that was in my car dealt with the story of Israel’s sojourn in Egypt, covering the first 130 good years that were spent in Goshen under the protection of the Pharaoh and his viceroy, Joseph, followed by the 80 years of slavery before the Exodus itself.

The lecture was appropriate not only for the fact that this is exactly the story we are reading these weeks in the Torah portion but also for the insights of Rabbi Wein in the application of that story to our lives today.

The essence of his message was a simple one, albeit explained with many historical examples from that time until today.  Specifically, that ethnic minorities, when they represent a small percentage of the population and are relatively weak and faceless, generally are tolerated by the majority ethnic population.  But when those same minorities grow in number, when they reach a significant percentage of the population, and when that growth is coupled with professional success, money and power as well, oftentimes the majority population finds them annoying and even troublesome.  When this annoyance is coupled with economic stress the majority population then seeks a scapegoat and, of course, the minority population fills that role well.

Many examples were given in the lecture.  Rabbi Wein referred to the Dreyfus Affair in France which would never have occurred had Capt. Dreyfus been just an anonymous artillery officer in the French army.  But as a Jew with increasing power in the military, he became an irritant to those who were in the majority, and he was primed to be framed. 

A similar situation exists in Europe today with its Muslim population.  When Muslims made up 1-2% of the population of a country and were doing tasks nobody else wanted to do, the majority population looked the other way.  But once that population rose to 10%, and in some countries 20% of the population, and the children of the immigrants began to take jobs as lawyers, doctors and other professionals, all of a sudden there was concern and resentment built up among the majority population.

Sadly, Israel finds itself today as our ancestors found themselves in Goshen during the bad 80 years.  No, we are not slaves, but we have become to the rest of the world, that annoying minority living in a world with a majority population that finds us problematic.  When, prior to 1990, we were the underdogs, with a struggling economy and constantly battered by homicide bombers intent on destroying us, the western world was, more or less, with us.   But 30 years later we are a regional economic power with a GDP greater than all of our neighbors combined.  Militarily, we have the best equipped and best trained personnel in the region. 

Politically, our brethren world-wide are in positions of power whether it be in England (Jewish leader of the opposition party), New York & Chicago (both with Jewish mayors), the US Congress (with 11 Jewish senators and 22 Jewish representatives), US Government (holding both Secretary of the Treasury & Head of the Federal Reserve Board), as well as parliamentary officials in France, Brazil and the Ukraine.       

So we find ourselves, as a result of our success, on the cusp of the bad years in Goshen.  To some we are the cause of all the world’s problems while to others we are simply too powerful.  We know and recognize the subtleties in language when we hear them and know that the next comments will not be so subtle.

After all the great hero of American Jewry Franklin Roosevelt, said in a remark to Winston Churchill and other world leaders meeting in Casablanca in 1943, “It is understandable that Hitler persecuted the Jews, as there were too many Jewish doctors, lawyers and professors in Germany.”

Even former president Harry Truman, who was the first to recognize Israel on that fateful May day in 1948, was later interviewed for a biography by David Susskind who went to Independence, Missouri and spent a week meeting with the former president.   Each day he would go to Truman’s house and wait on the porch until the president came out and they would then go to a local coffee shop to talk.  On the last day of their meetings Susskind asked Truman why the maid never asked him in but always made him wait on the porch in the cold?  Truman responded “The house is owned by my wife Bess, and neither she nor her mother ever permits a Jew to cross the threshold.”  Even Truman’s former business partner, Eddie Jacobson, never visited the Trumans in their home.

But I do not accept the fact that this is our lot, to always remain beyond the pale, to constantly worry about what they will think and to be constantly concerned about a downward spiral of our status.   Not at all.  Our political leadership needs to understand that we need make no excuses for our success, no apologies for our influence and no compromise with our security.  Those are our three “no’s” and let’s hope that the people in whose hands our future rests are up to the task.  We dare not let Israel become the Goshen of the modern world.