Israel at War: Week 110
Nearly every month of the year has a sad day in Jewish history. October 7 certainly stands at the top of the list of painful memories in Jewish history and experience, being called Israel’s Day of Infamy. November has at least two painful dates for the Jewish people, they are less than a week apart. On November 9-10, 1938 the Nazis unleashed a nationwide attack known as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) or the November Pogrom. They attacked 1,400 synagogues, Jewish owned businesses, and homes. Thousands of Jewish people were murdered, injured, and 26,000 were captured and imprisoned in concentration camps. Following the attack, the Nazis enacted several anti-Jewish laws and the Jews were ordered to pay an ‘atonement payment’ of a billion Reichsmarks.
November 15 marks the memory of sealing the Warsaw Ghetto in Warsaw, Poland. On November 15, 1940 the Nazis walled up the ghetto housing about 400,000 Jews. Covering about 1.3 square miles, the enclosure had a wall 10’ high which led to “extreme overcrowding, starvation (as the average daily ration in the ghetto was 186 calories per day) and rampant disease.”
With historic memories like these and more, it is no wonder that increasing antisemitism worldwide creates both uncertainty and fear among the Jewish people. Yet it also creates a resolve, a determination that nothing will prevent them from declaring their Jewish faith and identity. In fact, it elicits a cry of “Am Yisrael Chai!”, “The People of Israel Live!” Indeed, as God said to Abram, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you” (Genesis 12:3). Let the nations be warned, when you attack the Jewish people, you attack the ‘Apple of God’s eye’ (Zechariah 2:8). He has promised that “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the LORD” Deuteronomy 32:35). You will find yourself fighting GOD!
