This past Friday night, as we celebrated the Sabbath here in Arizona, I did, as I always do on Facebook – posted a factoid about fellow notable members of my faith and extended a greeting of peace and love to all, regardless of their beliefs. Peace and love…those two words never meant so much nor were so sorely needed as they are now for the people of Ukraine.
Here in the U.S., many Americans bristle when, after a school shooting or other increasingly common act of violence, politicians say they will “pray for us.” We bristle because we want more than prayers – we want action. As we all know, actions do speak louder than words.
But I am not a military strategist, nor do I know the nuances of détente or how to deconstruct the road to war or pave the road to peace. Sometimes, we must leave it to the so-called experts.
There is a not-so-remembered case in our history of not getting involved. I’m not talking just about the world turning a deaf ear at times during the Holocaust or the centuries of oppression in Armenia, Spain etc. and certainly here in the United States.
I’m talking about March 13, 1964, when a young bartender named Kitty Genovese was murdered in the courtyard of her Queens, New York apartment building while neighbors watched from the windows and heard her screams as she was stabbed to death. That was a major learning point as we saw how some would rather not get involved, nor try to stop it or call the police.
My message to the people of Ukraine: “The world is watching and we are getting involved in your fight for freedom and for survival.” As I mentioned, I’m not versed in the politics of war nor what action would lead to another action, perhaps deadlier or for the better. Again, we are putting trust in those who give the impression that they know better – at least, we hope they do.
But the people of Ukraine are putting trust in themselves and their neighbors have opened up their arms and hearts in remarkable ways we never thought possible. Is it guilt over past transgressions or is it a new generation that refuses to let the sins of their fathers (and mothers) fall upon them? I don’t know the answer, but we do see the effort and the embrace.
I mentioned the Sabbath for two reasons. The first is that my post was the prayer from ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ based on stories by Sholom Aleichem about his life in the Pale of Settlement. In Ukraine.
The second reason is that I found out I am a child of Ukraine – Lviv to be exact, with a cousin tracing the family back to the city as early as 1810. So for me, and to paraphrase a popular film character, “it’s not business, it’s personal.”
In an episode of the classic American TV series “The Twilight Zone,” titled ‘Deaths Head Revisited’, a former guard relives his hell in a concentration camp. The epilogue by creator Rod Serling sees a doctor uttering the words: “Dachau : Why does it still stand” I borrow liberally from Mr. Serling and substitute today’s Ukraine for the horrors of World War II.
There is an answer to the doctor’s question. All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Mariupols, Kharkivs, Buchas, Kiyankas, Kyivs and Khersons.
What is left must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the world into a graveyard. Into it, they shoveled all their reason, logic and knowledge, and worst of all, their conscience.
And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to dwell on and remember, not only in the Twilight zone but wherever men walk God’s Earth.
Peace!
