Despite thousands of years of persecution, we are still here and continue to make the world a better place. Am Yisrael Chai!
I didn’t know this, but I am a privileged white Jewish man. I also found out that I am a racist, it is in my genes I can’t help myself, and I need to repent and beg for forgiveness.
I have to admit this was startling. I didn’t’ think that I was born to any special privilege, but this cannot be wrong, can it? After all, I read this on the internet.
I believe the first thing I need to do is buy the book “white fragility” and study this for my “I am a terrible white, racist person to the core quiz. ”
When I read that #jewishprivilege was trending on the sewer they call twitter, I was not surprised. I have written that it was only a matter of time before the purveyors of hate, the left, the cancel culture, the communists, anarchists, and the terminally stupid would get around to blaming the Jews.
After much introspection as a person who is an MOT or member of the tribe, I have to admit that, indeed, I am privileged.
Feeling proud and ‘privileged’ (Shutterstock)
I belong to a small exclusive club of descendants of an ancient people who were first “privileged” to be slaves in Egypt. If I remember correctly, it was not the Egyptians who lead a civil war against themselves to free us; it was the one and only God – and Charlton Heston.
In all the history books, those pyramids do not have inscriptions or statues thanking the Jews for building them. Unlike recognition for Bugsy Siegel in Las Vegas, there are no museums in Egypt, no plaques, nothing to show we were the ones who made this tourist mecca.
Please correct me if I am wrong. Our slavery happened thousands of years ago, and as far as I know, there are no accusations of “Egyptian privilege” by any generation of Jews since the Exodus. We, as Jews, are still ‘punished’ every year by remembering our Exodus. We are forced to eat gefilte fish, which I believe is an ancient torture device. In some cases, we spend hours going through the same story year after year. This is required of us. Do the Egyptians have to do this? I don’t think so!
Jews have also been privileged to have had our homeland, and the Holy Temple in Jerusalem – our central house of worship – destroyed twice in our history, each time resulting in our people being dispersed throughout the world.
Jews killed Jesus, didn’t you know? It doesn’t matter that Jesus was Jewish or that the Romans did it.
During the Middle Ages, Jews had the privilege of being blamed for the plague.
Jews had the privilege of being accused of killing Christian children by hanging them upside down and removing their blood.
Jews had the privilege of being thrown out of every country we lived in because we wouldn’t convert to Christianity.
Jews had the privilege of being expelled from Spain.
Because Jews didn’t accept Mohammed’s proclamation that must convert or die, he slaughtered communities in Mecca and Medina.
Jews had the “privilege” of being permanent second-class citizens in any Arab-majority country where they resided.
The ‘Ultimate’ Privilege
The Jews of Russia and Eastern Europe also were privileged to have their towns overrun by Cossacks who raped, burned, and murdered entire villages of Jews.
Jews also had the ultimate privilege’ of having one-third of our entire people – Six Million – murdered by the Nazis.
Jews were massacred in entire towns in eastern Europe, like Babi Yar in Ukraine, where over 37000 women and children were lined up, shot and then pushed into pits of lime. That was a delightful privilege.
Hall of Names at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. (Wikipedia)
The successful, wealthier Jews had their possessions stolen from them. The theft included thriving businesses, real estate and priceless works of art.
The Germans must have felt that Jews were so privileged because they kept the Jews’ hair for pillows, their skin for soap, and their gold fillings for Jewelry.
So, after all of these exceptional privileges bestowed upon us, we Jews decided that perhaps such tremendous privilege was not so great. Hence, we fought to return to our biblical homeland, the land of milk and honey – the Land of Israel. We returned only to find a malarial swamp, no milk, and no honey – only misery. But we Jews made it an oasis, a magnet for prosperity, growth and civility in a region of tears.
The world responded by letting the Jews have the privilege of a small indefensible little piece of territory much more modest than was promised by God or by the British in the Balfour Declaration, thinking that these privileged Jews would not last more than a few weeks.
Since the Jews have returned to their rightful place, they have fought six wars, experienced tens of thousands of missiles fired at civilians, suffered terror attacks on pizza and coffee shops as well as boycotts and daily threats by rogue nations to destroy the tiny Jewish state.
One could understand if people who had endured so much abuse would turn their hatred outward towards those who perpetrated these crimes. Yet, the Jews did not do that.
Jews remain charitable. They continue to believe in peace and bring light to this blood-soaked earth. After 5000-plus years, we are still here!
We still endure racism, anti-Semitism, blood libels, oppression, and more. Yet as a people, we always give back to the world.
Therefore, I have come to the obvious conclusion: I feel PRIVILEGED to be a Jew.
Am Yisrael Chai! The Nation of Israel lives!
