What is the greatest sin of all? Thoughts on Tisha B Av and today

 

What is the greatest sin of all?

 Thoughts on Tisha B Av and today

Link to video discussion

 https://youtu.be/Gqp0yBmsyzQ

(text and translation from Sefaria.org, with some emendations)

Yoma 9b

 

מִקְדָּשׁ רִאשׁוֹן מִפְּנֵי מָה חָרַב — מִפְּנֵי שְׁלֹשָׁה דְּבָרִים שֶׁהָיוּ בּוֹ: עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה, וְגִלּוּי עֲרָיוֹת, וּשְׁפִיכוּת דָּמִים. עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה, דִּכְתִיב: ״כִּי קָצַר הַמַּצָּע מֵהִשְׂתָּרֵעַ״.

 

Due to what reason was the First Temple destroyed? It was destroyed due to the fact that there were three matters that existed in the First Temple: Idol worship, forbidden sexual relations, and bloodshed.

Idol worship, as it is written: “The bed is too short for stretching [mehistare’a], and the cover is too narrow for gathering” (Isaiah 28:20).

מַאי ״קָצַר הַמַּצָּע מֵהִשְׂתָּרֵעַ״? אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹנָתָן: קָצַר מַצָּע זֶה מֵהִשְׂתָּרֵר עָלָיו שְׁנֵי רֵעִים כְּאֶחָד.

[This is a play on words, intimating that the bed is too small for two competing lovers, God and the pagan idol, a reference to King Menasseh who introduced pagan idols into the Temple]

 

גִּלּוּי עֲרָיוֹת, דִּכְתִיב: ״וַיֹּאמֶר ה׳ יַעַן כִּי גָבְהוּ בְּנוֹת צִיּוֹן וַתֵּלַכְנָה נְטוּיוֹת גָּרוֹן וּמְשַׂקְּרוֹת עֵינָיִם הָלוֹךְ וְטָפוֹף תֵּלַכְנָה וּבְרַגְלֵיהֶן תְּעַכַּסְנָה״. ״יַעַן כִּי גָּבְהוּ בְּנוֹת צִיּוֹן״ — שֶׁהָיוּ מְהַלְּכוֹת אֲרוּכָּה בְּצַד קְצָרָה. ״וַתֵּלַכְנָה נְטוּיוֹת גָּרוֹן״ — שֶׁהָיוּ מְהַלְּכוֹת בְּקוֹמָה זְקוּפָה. ״וּמְשַׂקְּרוֹת עֵינַיִם״ — דַּהֲווֹ מָלְיָין כּוּחְלָא עֵינֵיהֶן. ״הָלוֹךְ וְטָפוֹף תֵּלַכְנָה״ — שֶׁהָיוּ מְהַלְּכוֹת עָקֵב בְּצַד גּוּדָל. ״וּבְרַגְלֵיהֶן תְּעַכַּסְנָה״ — אָמַר רַבִּי יִצְחָק: שֶׁהָיוּ מְבִיאוֹת מוֹר וַאֲפַרְסְמוֹן וּמַנִּיחוֹת בְּמִנְעֲלֵיהֶן, וּכְשֶׁמַּגִּיעוֹת אֵצֶל בַּחוּרֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל בּוֹעֲטוֹת וּמַתִּיזוֹת עֲלֵיהֶן, וּמַכְנִיסִין בָּהֶן יֵצֶר הָרָע כְּאֶרֶס בְּכָעוּס.

 

With regard to forbidden sexual relations, it is written: “The Lord says because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go and making a tinkling with their feet” (Isaiah 3:16).

[In short, blaming the women for enticing young men with their posture, winks, and perfumes.]

 

שְׁפִיכוּת דָּמִים, דִּכְתִיב: ״וְגַם דָּם נָקִי שָׁפַךְ מְנַשֶּׁה [הַרְבֵּה מְאֹד] עַד אֲשֶׁר מִלֵּא אֶת יְרוּשָׁלִַם פֶּה לָפֶה״.

 

With regard to bloodshed it is written: “Moreover, Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another” (II Kings 21:16). Baal and

 

[Menasseh, as king, reversed the reforms of his father, King Hezekiah, and restored the Baal and Ashera to the Temple, allied himself to Assyria, offered his own son to Moloch, and carried out purges against the Prophets, possibly including even Isaiah.

 

Here there, is no need for an expiation. Blame the men!  Talk about equal opportunity—two blame the men, one blames the women]

 

 

What was different about the 2^nd Temple?

 

אֲבָל מִקְדָּשׁ שֵׁנִי שֶׁהָיוּ עוֹסְקִין בְּתוֹרָה וּבְמִצְוֹת וּגְמִילוּת חֲסָדִים, מִפְּנֵי מָה חָרַב? מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהָיְתָה בּוֹ שִׂנְאַת חִנָּם. לְלַמֶּדְךָ שֶׁשְּׁקוּלָה שִׂנְאַת חִנָּם כְּנֶגֶד שָׁלֹשׁ עֲבֵירוֹת: עֲבוֹדָה זָרָה, גִּלּוּי עֲרָיוֹת, וּשְׁפִיכוּת דָּמִים.

 

However, considering that the people during the Second Temple period were engaged in Torah study, observance of mitzvot, and acts of kindness, and that they did not perform the sinful acts that were performed in the First Temple, why was the Second Temple destroyed? It was destroyed due to the fact that there was wanton hatred during that period. This comes to teach you that the sin of wanton hatred is equivalent to the three severe transgressions: Idol worship, forbidden sexual relations and bloodshed.

 

[Regarding the sins of the First Temple period:]

 

רְשָׁעִים הָיוּ, אֶלָּא שֶׁתָּלוּ בִּטְחוֹנָם בְּהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא. אֲתָאן לְמִקְדָּשׁ רִאשׁוֹן, דִּכְתִיב: ״רָאשֶׁיהָ בְּשׁוֹחַד יִשְׁפּוֹטוּ וְכֹהֲנֶיהָ בִּמְחִיר יוֹרוּ וּנְבִיאֶיהָ בְּכֶסֶף יִקְסוֹמוּ וְעַל ה׳ יִשָּׁעֵנוּ לֵאמֹר הֲלֹא ה׳ בְּקִרְבֵּנוּ לֹא תָבוֹא עָלֵינוּ רָעָה״. לְפִיכָךְ הֵבִיא עֲלֵיהֶן הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא שָׁלֹשׁ גְּזֵרוֹת כְּנֶגֶד שָׁלֹשׁ עֲבֵירוֹת שֶׁבְּיָדָם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״לָכֵן בִּגְלַלְכֶם צִיּוֹן שָׂדֶה תֵחָרֵשׁ וִירוּשָׁלִַים עִיִּין תִּהְיֶה וְהַר הַבַּיִת לְבָמוֹת יָעַר״.

 

The Gemara continues: They were wicked; however, they put their faith in the Holy One, Blessed be He. With that statement we have come to the First Temple era, about which it is written: “Her chiefs judge for bribes, her priests give rulings for a fee, and her prophets divine for pay; yet they rely on the Lord, saying: The Lord is in our midst, no tragedy will overtake us” (Micah 3:11…. Therefore, the Holy One, Blessed be He, brought upon them three decrees corresponding to their three wicked sins, as it is stated: “Therefore, due to you Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become heaps of ruins, and the Temple Mount will be a like a shrine in the woods” (Micah 3:12).

 

[In other words, it was their hypocrisy, hiding behind the faith that God would save them, no matter what, that ruined them.]

 

[What about hatred in the First Temple]

 

וּבְמִקְדָּשׁ רִאשׁוֹן לָא הֲוָה בֵּיהּ שִׂנְאַת חִנָּם? וְהָכְתִיב: ״מְגוּרֵי אֶל חֶרֶב הָיוּ אֶת עַמִּי לָכֵן סְפוֹק אֶל יָרֵךְ״, וְאָמַר רַבִּי (אֱלִיעֶזֶר): אֵלּוּ בְּנֵי אָדָם שֶׁאוֹכְלִין וְשׁוֹתִין זֶה עִם זֶה וְדוֹקְרִין זֶה אֶת זֶה בַּחֲרָבוֹת שֶׁבִּלְשׁוֹנָם.

 

The Gemara asks: And in the First Temple era was there really no baseless hatred? Isn’t it written: “Cry and wail, son of man, for this will befall my people, this will befall all the princes of Israel: They will be cast before the sword together with my people, therefore strike the thigh” (Ezekiel 21:17)? Rabbi Eliezer interpreted this verse and said: These are people who eat and drink with each other and stab each other with verbal barbs. Apparently, even those who were close were filled with hatred toward one another.

 

[ There was still a chance of survival of the Judeans even after the fall of Jerusalem. Gedaliah was appointed governor by the Babylonians and started the process of rebuilding the farm lands of Judea. He was assassinated by a man whose life he had spared, and as a result, the remnants of Judea fled to Egypt, finally, emptying the land]

 

 

[The crime of the leadership]

 

הַהִיא בִּנְשִׂיאֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הֲוַאי, דִּכְתִיב: ״זְעַק וְהֵילֵל בֶּן אָדָם כִּי הִיא הָיְתָה בְעַמִּי״, וְתַנְיָא: ״זְעַק וְהֵילֵל בֶּן אָדָם״, יָכוֹל לַכֹּל? תַּלְמוּד לוֹמַר: ״הִיא בְּכׇל נְשִׂיאֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל״.

 

The Gemara answers: That behavior was found only among the princes of Israel, as it is written: “Cry and wail, son of man, for this will befall my people”; and it was taught in a baraita: “Cry and wail, son of man, for this will befall my people”; one might have thought that this unsavory trait was common to all. Therefore, the verse states: “This will befall all the princes of Israel.” It was only the leaders of the nation who harbored baseless hatred for each other; the people of the nation as a whole did not hate one another.

 

[The hypocrisy of the people made the punishment worse the second time round:]

 

רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן וְרַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר דְּאָמְרִי תַּרְוַויְיהוּ: רִאשׁוֹנִים שֶׁנִּתְגַּלָּה עֲוֹנָם — נִתְגַּלָּה קִצָּם. אַחֲרוֹנִים שֶׁלֹּא נִתְגַּלָּה עֲוֹנָם — לֹא נִתְגַּלָּה קִצָּם.

§ It was Rabbi Yoḥanan and Rabbi Elazar who both said: In the case of the former, the people in the First Temple era, whose sin was exposed and no attempt was made to disguise their conduct, the end of their punishment was exposed, and the prophet informed them that they would return to their land in seventy years. In the case of the latter, the people in the Second Temple era, whose sin was not exposed; rather, they attempted to disguise their conduct, the end of their punishment was not exposed. [ In short, we will never know when the end of exile will come]

 

Who were really better? The people of the first, or of the second Temple?

 

אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: טוֹבָה צִפּוֹרְנָן שֶׁל רִאשׁוֹנִים, מִכְּרֵיסוֹ שֶׁל אַחֲרוֹנִים. אֲמַר לֵיהּ רֵישׁ לָקִישׁ: אַדְּרַבָּה אַחֲרוֹנִים עֲדִיפִי, אַף עַל גַּב דְּאִיכָּא שִׁעְבּוּד מַלְכִיּוֹת — קָא עָסְקִי בְּתוֹרָה. אֲמַר לֵיהּ: בִּירָה תּוֹכִיחַ, שֶׁחָזְרָה לָרִאשׁוֹנִים וְלֹא חָזְרָה לָאַחֲרוֹנִים.

 

Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The fingernails of the former[first Temple] are preferable to the belly of the latter[2^nd Temple]. Reish Lakish said to him: On the contrary, the latter were superior; even though there is subjugation by the kingdoms, they are engaged in Torah study. Rabbi Yoḥanan said to Reish Lakish: The Temple will prove that the former were superior, as it was restored to the former. The Second Temple was constructed after the destruction of the first. However, after the destruction of the Second Temple, it was not restored to the latter. Apparently, the former were superior to the latter.

 

[In short, even with engagement in Torah study, we are still paying the price==and that was said 2 centuries afterwards=we are 2 millenia afterwards]

 

שָׁאֲלוּ אֶת רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר: רִאשׁוֹנִים גְּדוֹלִים, אוֹ אַחֲרוֹנִים גְּדוֹלִים? אָמַר לָהֶם: תְּנוּ עֵינֵיכֶם בַּבִּירָה. אִיכָּא דְּאָמְרִי, אָמַר לָהֶם: עֵידֵיכֶם בִּירָה,

 

Similarly, the Sages asked Rabbi Elazar: Are the former greater or are the latter greater? He said to them: Look to the Temple and see if it has been restored, as it was to our predecessors. Some say the exchange was slightly different: He said to them: The Temple is your witness. The restoration of the Temple after the destruction of the First Temple, attests to the fact that the former generation was greater.

 

In short, the price of groundless hatred was much greater!

 

 

So what is the example that our sages give us?

 

A tale of  kamtza( a mere nothing, a locust) and bar kamzta( son of a mere nothing, son of a locust)

Gittin 55b

 

אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן, מַאי דִּכְתִיב: ״אַשְׁרֵי אָדָם מְפַחֵד תָּמִיד וּמַקְשֶׁה לִבּוֹ יִפּוֹל בְּרָעָה״? אַקַּמְצָא וּבַר קַמְצָא חֲרוּב יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, אַתַּרְנְגוֹלָא וְתַרְנְגוֹלְתָּא חֲרוּב טוּר מַלְכָּא, אַשָּׁקָא דְרִיסְפַּק חֲרוּב בֵּיתֵּר.

 

§ Apropos the war that led to the destruction of the Second Temple, the Gemara examines several aspects of the destruction of that Temple in greater detail: Rabbi Yoḥanan said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Happy is the man who fears always, but he who hardens his heart shall fall into mischief” (Proverbs 28:14)? Jerusalem was destroyed on account of Kamtza and bar Kamtza. The place known as the King’s Mountain was destroyed on account of a rooster and a hen. The city of Beitar was destroyed on account of a shaft from a chariot [rispak].

 

אַקַּמְצָא וּבַר קַמְצָא חֲרוּב יְרוּשָׁלַיִם – דְּהָהוּא גַּבְרָא דְּרָחֲמֵיהּ קַמְצָא, וּבְעֵל דְּבָבֵיהּ בַּר קַמְצָא. עֲבַד סְעוֹדְתָּא, אֲמַר לֵיהּ לְשַׁמָּעֵיהּ: זִיל אַיְיתִי לִי קַמְצָא. אֲזַל אַיְיתִי לֵיהּ בַּר קַמְצָא.

 

The Gemara explains: Jerusalem was destroyed on account of Kamtza and bar Kamtza. This is as there was a certain man whose friend was named Kamtza and whose enemy was named bar Kamtza. He once made a large feast and said to his servant: Go bring me my friend Kamtza. The servant went and mistakenly brought him his enemy bar Kamtza.

 

אֲתָא, אַשְׁכְּחֵיהּ דַּהֲוָה יָתֵיב. אֲמַר לֵיהּ: מִכְּדֵי הָהוּא גַּבְרָא בְּעֵל דְּבָבֵאּ דְּהָהוּא גַּבְרָא הוּא, מַאי בָּעֵית הָכָא? קוּם פּוֹק! אֲמַר לֵיהּ: הוֹאִיל וַאֲתַאי, שִׁבְקַן וְיָהֵיבְנָא לָךְ דְּמֵי מָה דְּאָכֵילְנָא וְשָׁתֵינָא.

 

The man who was hosting the feast came and found bar Kamtza sitting at the feast. The host said to bar Kamtza. That man is the enemy [ba’al devava] of that man, that is, you are my enemy. What then do you want here? Arise and leave. Bar Kamtza said to him: Since I have already come, let me stay and I will give you money for whatever I eat and drink. Just do not embarrass me by sending me out.

 

56a

 

אֲמַר לֵיהּ: לָא. אֲמַר לֵיהּ: יָהֵיבְנָא לָךְ דְּמֵי פַּלְגָא דִּסְעוֹדְתָּיךְ! אֲמַר לֵיהּ: לָא. אֲמַר לֵיהּ: יָהֵיבְנָא לָךְ דְּמֵי כּוּלַּהּ סְעוֹדְתָּיךְ! אֲמַר לֵיהּ: לָא. נַקְטֵיהּ בִּידֵיהּ וְאוֹקְמֵיהּ וְאַפְּקֵיהּ.

 

The host said to him: No, you must leave. Bar Kamtza said to him: I will give you money for half of the feast; just do not send me away. The host said to him: No, you must leave. Bar Kamtza then said to him: I will give you money for the entire feast; just let me stay. The host said to him: No, you must leave. Finally, the host took bar Kamtza by his hand, stood him up, and took him out.

 

אָמַר: הוֹאִיל וַהֲווֹ יָתְבִי רַבָּנַן וְלָא מַחוֹ בֵּיהּ, שְׁמַע מִינַּהּ קָא נִיחָא לְהוּ, אֵיזִיל אֵיכוֹל בְּהוּ קוּרְצָא בֵּי מַלְכָּא. אֲזַל אֲמַר לֵיהּ לְקֵיסָר: מְרַדוּ בָּךְ יְהוּדָאֵי! אֲמַר לֵיהּ: מִי יֵימַר? אֲמַר לֵיהּ: שַׁדַּר לְהוּ קוּרְבָּנָא, חָזֵית אִי מַקְרְבִין לֵיהּ.

 

After having been cast out from the feast, bar Kamtza said to himself: Since the Sages were sitting there and did not protest the actions of the host, although they saw how he humiliated me, learn from it that they were content with what he did. I will therefore go and inform [eikhul kurtza] against them to the king.

 

[ The failure of leadership to prevent public shaming led to the destruction , as well]

 

He went and said to the emperor: The Jews have rebelled against you. The emperor said to him: Who says that this is the case? Bar Kamtza said to him: Go and test them; send them an offering to be brought in honor of the government, and see whether they will sacrifice it.

 

[As the account goes, he has the Emperor send a calf for sacrifice, but Bar Kamtza sees to it that the calf has a cut that blemishes it and makes it unfit for sacrifice. The sages in the Temple realize that it was  a set up by Bar Kamtza, who would then report it to the Emperor. They are tempted to kill Bar Kamtza, but one sage prevails, out of fear of the repercussions] 

 

[Here is where the militants made it worse:]

 

הֲווֹ בְּהוּ הָנְהוּ בִּרְיוֹנֵי, אֲמַרוּ לְהוּ רַבָּנַן: נִיפּוֹק וְנַעֲבֵיד שְׁלָמָא בַּהֲדַיְיהוּ. לָא שַׁבְקִינְהוּ. אֲמַרוּ לְהוּ: נִיפּוֹק וְנַעֲבֵיד קְרָבָא בַּהֲדַיְיהוּ, אֲמַרוּ לְהוּ רַבָּנַן: לָא מִסְתַּיְּיעָא מִילְּתָא. קָמוּ קְלֹנְהוּ לְהָנְהוּ אַמְבָּרֵי דְּחִיטֵּי וּשְׂעָרֵי, וַהֲוָה כַּפְנָא.

 

There were certain zealots among the people of Jerusalem. The Sages said to them: Let us go out and make peace with the Romans. But the zealots did not allow them to do this. The zealots said to the Sages: Let us go out and engage in battle against the Romans. But the Sages said to them: You will not be successful. It would be better for you to wait until the siege is broken. In order to force the residents of the city to engage in battle, the zealots arose and burned down these storehouses [ambarei] of wheat and barley, and there was a general famine.

 

אַבָּא סִקְרָא – רֵישׁ בִּרְיוֹנֵי דִּירוּשָׁלַיִם, בַּר אֲחָתֵיהּ דְּרַבָּן יוֹחָנָן בֶּן זַכַּאי הֲוָה. שְׁלַח לֵיהּ: תָּא בְּצִינְעָא לְגַבַּאי. אֲתָא. אֲמַר לֵיהּ: עַד אֵימַת עָבְדִיתוּ הָכִי, וְקָטְלִיתוּ לֵיהּ לְעָלְמָא בְּכַפְנָא? אֲמַר לֵיהּ: מַאי אֶיעֱבֵיד, דְּאִי אָמֵינָא לְהוּ מִידֵּי קָטְלוּ לִי! אֲמַר לֵיהּ: חֲזִי לִי תַּקַּנְתָּא לְדִידִי דְּאֶיפּוֹק, אֶפְשָׁר דְּהָוֵי הַצָּלָה פּוּרְתָּא.

 

 [How did we then survive the greatest devastation possible, the loss of the Temple?

 

 

It would seem that even among the zealots, there were those who realized that their would be no saving Jerusalem]

 

§ The Gemara relates: Abba Sikkara [ The head of Sicarii] was the leader of the zealots [biryonei] of Jerusalem and the son of the sister of Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai. Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai sent a message to him: Come to me in secret. He came, and Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai said to him: Until when will you do this and kill everyone through starvation? Abba Sikkara said to him: What can I do, for if I say something to them they will kill me. Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai said to him: Show me a method so that I will be able to leave the city, and it is possible that through this there will be some small salvation.

 

אֲמַר לֵיהּ: נְקוֹט נַפְשָׁךְ בִּקְצִירֵי, וְלֵיתוֹ כּוּלֵּי עָלְמָא וְלִישַׁיְּילוּ בָּךְ, וְאַיְיתִי מִידֵּי סַרְיָא וְאַגְנִי גַּבָּךְ, וְלֵימְרוּ דְּנָח נַפְשָׁךְ. וְלִיעַיְּילוּ בָּךְ תַּלְמִידָךְ וְלָא לֵיעוּל בָּךְ אִינִישׁ אַחֲרִינָא, דְּלָא לַרְגְּשׁוּן בָּךְ דְּקַלִּיל אַתְּ, דְּאִינְהוּ יָדְעִי דְּחַיָּיא קַלִּיל מִמִּיתָא.

 

Abba Sikkara said to him: This is what you should do: Pretend to be sick, and have everyone come and ask about your welfare, so that word will spread about your ailing condition. Afterward bring something putrid and place it near you, so that people will say that you have died and are decomposing. And then, have your students enter to bring you to burial, and let no one else come in so that the zealots not notice that you are still light. As the zealots know that a living person is lighter than a dead person.

 

עָבֵיד הָכִי. נִכְנַס בּוֹ רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר מִצַּד אֶחָד, וְרַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ מִצַּד אַחֵר. כִּי מְטוֹ לְפִיתְחָא, בְּעוֹ לְמִדְקְרֵיהּ. אֲמַר לְהוּ: יֹאמְרוּ: רַבָּן דָּקְרוּ! בְּעוֹ לְמִדְחֲפֵיהּ. אֲמַר לְהוּ: יֹאמְרוּ: רַבָּן דָּחֲפוּ! פְּתַחוּ לֵיהּ בָּבָא, נְפַק.

 

Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai did this. Rabbi Eliezer entered from one side and Rabbi Yehoshua from the other side to take him out. When they arrived at the entrance of the city on the inside, the guards, who were of the faction of the zealots, wanted to pierce him with their swords in order to ascertain that he was actually dead, as was the common practice. Abba Sikkara said to them: The Romans will say that they pierce even their teacher. The guards then wanted at least to push him to see whether he was still alive, in which case he would cry out on account of the pushing. Abba Sikkara said to them: They will say that they push even their teacher. The guards then opened the gate and he was taken out.

 

כִּי מְטָא לְהָתָם, אֲמַר: שְׁלָמָא עֲלָךְ מַלְכָּא, שְׁלָמָא עֲלָךְ מַלְכָּא. אֲמַר לֵיהּ: מִיחַיְּיבַתְּ תְּרֵי (קְטָלָא) [קָטְלִי], חֲדָא דְּלָאו מַלְכָּא אֲנָא וְקָא קָרֵית לִי מַלְכָּא, וְתוּ אִי מַלְכָּא אֲנָא עַד הָאִידָּנָא אַמַּאי לָא אָתֵית לְגַבַּאי. אֲמַר לֵיהּ: דְּקָאָמְרַתְּ לָאו מַלְכָּא אֲנָא,

 

When Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai reached there, i.e., the Roman camp, he said: Greetings to you, the king; greetings to you, the king. Vespasian said to him: You are liable for two death penalties, one because I am not a king and yet you call me king, and furthermore, if I am a king, why didn’t you come to me until now? Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai said to him: As for what you said about yourself: I am not a king,

56b

אִיבְרָא מַלְכָּא אַתְּ; דְּאִי לָאו מַלְכָּא אַתְּ לָא מִימַּסְרָא יְרוּשָׁלַיִם בִּידָךְ, דִּכְתִיב: ״וְהַלְּבָנוֹן בְּאַדִּיר יִפּוֹל״ – וְאֵין ״אַדִּיר״ אֶלָּא מֶלֶךְ, דִּכְתִיב: ״וְהָיָה אַדִּירוֹ מִמֶּנּוּ וְגוֹ׳״; וְאֵין ״לְבָנוֹן״ אֶלָּא בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״הָהָר הַטּוֹב הַזֶּה וְהַלְּבָנוֹן״. וּדְקָאָמְרַתְּ: אִי מַלְכָּא אֲנָא, אַמַּאי לָא קָאָתֵית לְגַבַּאי עַד הָאִידָּנָא – בִּרְיוֹנֵי דְּאִית בַּן לָא שָׁבְקִינַן.

in truth, you are a king, if not now, then in the future. As if you are not a king, Jerusalem will not be handed over into your hand, as it is written: “And the Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one” (Isaiah 10:34). And “mighty one” means only a king, as it is written: “And their mighty one shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from the midst of them” (Jeremiah 30:21), indicating that “mighty one” parallels “ruler.” And “Lebanon” means only the Temple, as it is stated: “That good mountain and the Lebanon” (Deuteronomy 3:25). And as for what you said with your second comment: If I am a king why didn’t you come to me until now, there are zealots among us who did not allow us to do this.

 

אֲמַר לֵיהּ: אִילּוּ חָבִית שֶׁל דְּבַשׁ וּדְרָקוֹן כָּרוּךְ עָלֶיהָ, לֹא הָיוּ שׁוֹבְרִין אֶת הֶחָבִית בִּשְׁבִיל דְּרָקוֹן? אִישְׁתִּיק. קָרֵי עֲלֵיהּ רַב יוֹסֵף, וְאִיתֵּימָא רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא: ״מֵשִׁיב חֲכָמִים אָחוֹר וְדַעְתָּם יְסַכֵּל״, אִיבְּעִי לֵיהּ לְמֵימַר לֵיהּ: שָׁקְלִינַן צְבָתָא וְשָׁקְלִינַן לֵיהּ לִדְרָקוֹן וְקָטְלִינַן לֵיהּ, וְחָבִיתָא שָׁבְקִינַן לַהּ.

Understanding that Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai was prepared to ask him not to destroy the Temple, Vespasian said to him: If there is a barrel of honey and a snake [derakon] is wrapped around it, wouldn’t they break the barrel in order to kill the snake? In similar fashion, I am forced to destroy the city of Jerusalem in order to kill the zealots barricaded within it. Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai was silent and did not answer. In light of this, Rav Yosef later read the following verse about him, and some say that it was Rabbi Akiva who applied the verse to Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai: “I am the Lord…Who turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolish” (Isaiah 44:25). As Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai should have said the following to Vespasian in response: In such a case, we take tongs, remove the snake, and kill it, and in this way we leave the barrel intact. So too, you should kill the rebels and leave the city as it is.

 

אֲמַר לֵיהּ: מֵיזָל אָזֵילְנָא, וְאִינָשׁ אַחֲרִינָא מְשַׁדַּרְנָא; אֶלָּא בָּעֵי מִינַּאי מִידֵּי דְּאֶתֵּן לָךְ. אֲמַר לֵיהּ: תֵּן לִי יַבְנֶה וַחֲכָמֶיהָ, וְשׁוּשִׁילְתָּא דְּרַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל, וְאָסְווֹתָא דְּמַסַּיִין לֵיהּ לְרַבִּי צָדוֹק. קָרֵי עֲלֵיהּ רַב יוֹסֵף, וְאִיתֵּימָא רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא: ״מֵשִׁיב חֲכָמִים אָחוֹר וְדַעְתָּם יְסַכֵּל״, אִיבְּעִי לְמֵימַר לֵיהּ: לִשְׁבְּקִינְהוּ הָדָא זִימְנָא.

 

Vespasian then said to Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai: I will be going to Rome to accept my new position, and I will send someone else in my place to continue besieging the city and waging war against it. But before I leave, ask something of me that I can give you. Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai said to him: Give me Yavne and its Sages and do not destroy it, and spare the dynasty of Rabban Gamliel and do not kill them as if they were rebels, and lastly give me doctors to heal Rabbi Tzadok.

 

[At Yavenh, Rabbi Yochanan and his students instituted major enactments that kept the Jewish people together. Finalization of the accepted Books of the Bibke, the formalization of the Amidah prayer replacing sacrifice with a structure that would unify Jews around the world.]

 

We are concerned about Israel, in which one side can not speak a good word to the other side, in which top air force reserve pilots refuse to show up for reserves duty.

 

We are concerned for a US in which people can not speak a good word to each other without getting into a political bind.

 

I know, from my own sad experience of this congregations history, when board members uttered curses against each other, and all that I had started to do, in bringing life back into the community 30 years ago, popped like a balloon that has been stuck by pin.

 

I pray that wisdom and patience prevail!

 

 

The Russians Are Coming! Conclusion of American Jewish Heritage Series

 

Part 5 American Jewish Heritage

The Russians Are Coming!

 Discussion Part 1- July 1 Video:https://youtu.be/8mC7izfYP_s

Discussion Pat II- Jully 8 Video: https://youtu.be/JTPCx-kMQTU

Tongue in cheek- title”  The Russians Are Coming!"

You may remember the movie with Alan Arkin( who just passed away) & Theodore Bikel.

 From the 1880’s to 1920’s ,huge wave of migration, from Eastern Europe ( but from other parts of the Jewish world also). Would begin at the bottom of the barrel to shape America into the “American Century”- creating new categories of industry-film and media—new categories of culture-Tin Pan Alley-Vaudeville-to Broadway- to Berlin, Gershwin Bernstein- and leaders of American finance, advisors, Justices and Senators, shapers of the literary and Academic world

As I mentioned earlier, the new America started with 3000 Jews, and with the German wave, grew to 150,000 Jews.

 

In but a few decades, 2,400,000 moved to the US in this time period. What spurred it on?

 

At the end of the 18th century , three major European powers carved up the Kingdom of Poland. The very fortunate ones were in Silesia, the western part of Poland that came under Prussia, the future German empire ( Some parts had already been taken over a few decades earlier) . Next in luck were those in the realms under the Austro Hungarian empire which took over southeastern Poland, Galicia, also encompassed the Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, and the Balkans. Both regimes gradually extended civil rights to Jews.

The least fortunate would be the ones of Poland proper and the Ukraine as well as the Baltic states. They would come under the control of Tsarist Russia.

(Wikipedia)

Kievan and Muscovite Russia had relatively few Jews for centuries, but suddenly found itself with a gigantic Jewish population. It policies went back and forth from grudging tolerance to attempts at eradication. This would include drafting of Jewish youth, as young as 8 or 9 even, into the Russian army for 25 year service with the expectation that they would die off or at best assimilate to Russian orthodox Christianity. It affected an estimated 25,000 to 70,000 draftees and forced Jews to betray each other to make the required quota.

 

Also, restricting the right of Jews to settle beyond the “ Pale”,those territories that had just been swallowed up and a few regions to the east where they were grudgingly allowed to settled.

(Wikipedia)

 

 There was a period of liberalization for Russia in general under Tsar Alexander II, such as when the Russian serfs, essentially slaves, were granted their Emancipation, freedom, around the same time that slaves in the US were emancipated. However in 1881 tzar Alexander was assassinated by revolutionaries.

This led to a wave of repression and the need to find scapegoats. Jews were the perfect scapegoats. Thus one of the major policymakers of that period, Nikolas Pobedonostsev, pushed the idea,” one third of Jews die out, one third, move out, and one third dissolve into the masses.” Indeed, within 50 years, that is what had happened,!

There were increasingly oppressive moves against Jews, as well as the terrible three day pogrom against Jews in Kiev. The pogroms and other actions against Jews were carried out by reactionaries, but they were also encouraged by the revolutionaries, Narodnya Volya,in the illusion that it would spur the proletariat into open revolution. For Jews, there were three routes available: aligning with the revolutionaries in an attempt to create the worker’s paradise ( Trotsky, Ziniviev, Kaminev); the route of Jewish nationalism in the land of Israel, as in BILU and later, political and cultural Zionism; the route of Ellis Island ( and Argentina and South Africa as well). The later proved the most immediately doable.

Fortunately for our fellow Jews, and other immigrants, that period coincided with the growth of American industrial power. The new world power needed workers to fuel the factories and provide the goods that underpinned its sudden burst upon the world scene.

It may have been the Statute of Liberty and Emma Lazarus famous poem that gave a warm feeling of acceptance:

 "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

But it would be the new American capitalist system that made immigration a necessity, not a luxury. The Irish, English & German would be brought it, then the Italians, the Jews, the Poles, the Lebanese, Chinese and Japanese, somewhere over 35 million in those years! All competing to make it. Add to this, internal migration of African Americans to northern cities at this same time.

 

So who are the Jews that came to die goldene Medina, a country where it was told, the streets were paved with gold.

Because Eastern Europe, under the Tsars especially, had been cut off culturally from Western Europe, the enlightenment that had caught hold of Jews in western and central Europe was slow in getting into Eastern Europe. Thus the western ideals of a secular and practical education were just beginning to take effect in Eastern Europe. As a result, most of these immigrants had much poorer general background and education than the Jews that came before them, whether Sephardi or German. Their skills were limited, although they brought some experience as merchants and shopkeepers, as well as crafts, such as tailoring. They did have to their advantage to a great extent a traditional Jewish education which included literacy Yiddish literacy, some Hebrew literacy, and some skills in analytic reasoning that they may have picked up in cheder. That was already more than what other immigrants from Europe brought with them. All is relative.

The great rabbis, the educated elites , did not come to America. To them, it was a treife medina, not goldene ,but treife. They rightly feared that they would lose their souls in the transition. The few leading Rabbis of the Orthodox world that came here quickly turned around and headed back.

Indeed at the beginning, for many Jews the transition to America was devastating. It is never pleasant to be an immigrant even with the Statue of Liberty welcoming you.

Here are the words of a contemporary of that period , Marcus Ravage.

“ With every day that passed I became more and more overwhelmed at the degeneration of my fellow in his new home,.”

[Note: Photos of slum life in 19th and 20th century New York taken from video compliation https://youtu.be/Ye2npPwH8jg .The originals were taken by journalist Jacob Riis in his work, How the Other Half LIves,whch shocked the proper middle and upper classes and prompted them to institute services to alleviate these conditions.]

They were often lost souls , verlorene menschen, and thus a common slogan was playing on the words of the Talmud, “Akabiah ben Charlie said,” consider three things and you'll be able to exist in America. Forget who you are, wear your mask before those who know you, and do anything you can. “

They were so poor that the New York Times of a century ago could write, in shock, that these were not the fat, rich and jewel- bedecked people that Times readers expected and as they knew of the settled successful German Jews. They were so poor that a Jew in a tenement could have twice as high a chance of dying of tuberculosis as their fellow New Yorkers and tuberculosis was called the tailor's disease a specialty of the sweatshop workers.

 LONGEVITY OF JEWS.

JAMA , Volume XLIV (3) – Jan 21, 1905 ( Paresis- a psychosis associated with syphilis)

 

 

So here's the description of home life for the new immigrants in that period. A typical flat two room apartment on Allen street in New York held two parents, six children, 6 borders. in one case ,the father was a Cantor so the flat was also synagogue on Saturday mornings. During the week ,it was a workshop for the two dressmaker daughters and shoe repair shop for the cobbler who is one of the borders. As the border described it “the Cantor rehearses, the tram passes, by the Shoemaker bangs, ten brats run like goats, the wife putters in the kosher restaurant and at night we tried to sleep in the two rooms.”

There were even such jaundiced stories in the Yiddish press as follows. A Lithuanian Jew marries a girl for her money. At 1:00 o'clock they are married. In the evening two roomkers, little rooms are rented. On the following day furniture is purchased and in the evening the couple already have three borders and three borderkes (female). On the third day the husband goes back to work and the wife runs off with one of the borders.”

We have to recognize that this funny story reflects the tragic reality. The American experience had a tremendously demoralizing effect on the new Jewish communities in those years -There was crime, wife desertion, juvenile delinquency, gangsterism, and yes even “loose women” on Allen St., Houston, or Delancey, plying their trade, even at the steps of the synagogue.

 As the Forwert, ( Forward) the Yiddish paper of note of the period would describe, in the windows of some shops you could see human flesh instead of shoes. There were so-called “dancing academies” advertised in the Yiddish papers and the muckraking journalists of the period were excited to find evidence of a white slave trade run by Jews.

Famous biography of the period: A House Is Not a Home  by “the Madame”,Polly Adler, 

Polly Adler's "house"―the brothel that gave this best-selling 1953 autobiography its title―was a major site of New York City underworld activity from the 1920s through the 1940s. Adler's notorious Lexington Avenue house of prostitution functioned as a sort of social club for New York's gangsters and a variety of other celebrities, including Robert Benchley and his friend Dorothy Parker. According to one New York tabloid, it made Adler's name "synonymous with sin."( Description on Goodreads.com)

 

 We know of course that there was also a Jewish mafia, with names like Joseph Klein or Charlie Jacobowitz , good Jewish names, later a Bugsy Siegel, a Meyer Lansky, founders of Murder, inc, which was an example of cooperation  across ethnic lines—Jews and Italians ( Note- I officiated at the funeral of the attorney  that served them as well as Al Capone. As a Rabbi, you get to meet many interesting characters, such as  the son of an early competitor of Al Capone, a figure in the Israeli Mafia, and the Russian( real Russian) Mafia.). The smart ones knew to get out of the business in time—like the father of a member of a previous congregation who tried to go head to head against Capone, realized it was a dead end game, and turned to legitimate ventures, building a successful scrap metal business.

[PS- it was  HTBE’s very own Edward G Robinson who played the Capone-like character, L’il Ceasar

]

Or- our very own John Factor, aka Jake the Barber, who was a master-mind finagler, the owner of the Stardust Casino in Vegas, who later on cleaned his reputation with a very big donation to JFK ( paying for the Bay of Pigs invasion), paid for the building that is now Neman Hall—and was also a generous developer of churches, gyms, and parks for LA’s impoverished black neighborhoods. (https://www.myfamilybusiness.org/familytrees/factor/johnjacobfactor_articles.htm)

 

Slum living breeds juvenile delinquency. Jews were no exception. In 1906 ,as much as 30% of all children in juvenile court were Jewish. As the Yiddish press phrased it, home life was unbearable and escaping such home life, the delinquent could enter more sophisticated crimes.

 Take an example from an Arnold Rothstein who fixed the 1919 World Series(  "transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business run like a corporation"-Leo Katcher The Big Corporation),^[ and Isaac Zucker who ran a Jewish arson ring. Jewish youth could attend an Academy for crooks run by mother Mandelbaum ,a school for burglary, safecracking blackmail ,and confidence schemes.

Most Jews were able to steer clear of this life of gangsterism and crime but the new American civilization took its toll certainly on their Jewishness, their Jewish traditions. My father told me of the legend that deep under Ellis Island lay hundreds and hundreds of tefillin that Jews threw overboard as they realized that this was a country where they no longer had to be bound literally by tefillin or figuratively by Jewish obligations. It is an exaggeration, but life in this new country did put an end to a lot of devotion that Jews had brought with them. Keep in mind these were not the ultra orthodox that came here, not the most observant, but certainly they had been brought up in Jewish tradition. 

 

The new world did its job on them. One of the great classics of this period was The Rise of David Levinsky by the founder of the Forward Yiddish newspaper, Abraham Kahan who described in great literary detail how a promising yeshiva student succumbed to the temptations of American life.

So how was it that the children and grandchildren of the “ Greenhorns” were able to climb out of their mud.

You do what Jews in time of poverty did- Luftgescheft—You made business out of air, out of whatever came to hand.

Here was a case that I knew of personally:

My father led a congregation one time in a small town in the heart of West Virginia. There was a Bar Mitzvah for a child that came  from a town even more isolated, an hour’s drive away. The grandfather came for the service and was astonished to find a familiar face on the Bimah- the President of the congregation. “ I remember him—I had him thrown in jail many years ago!”

The grandfather in this case had been the mayor, judge , and police of this small town, all wrapped in one. The President had come as a poor immigrant from Lithuania and had been peddling door to door—but it was illegal to do so in that small town without a license, Hence, the night in jail.

From peddling, this “greenhorn” had managed to start a scrap metal yard and by the time I was there, had become what Jews would say,” Comfortable”. So comfortable, that a major Jewish philanthropy sent it’s top operator, an old friend of my father’s, who had been the special advisor for Jewish affairs to the American military government over West Germany, to this isolated town to ask for a major donation to build a school in Israel.

 

 

You used your skills from the old world as a “shneider”, a tailor.

They did have a reading skill, even if in Yiddish , which enabled them to learn the new ways of life in America, via vehicles such as the very popular Yiddish newspaper, Der Vorwerts, edited by Abraham Cahan. Here, a “greenhorn” learned what it meant to become a “ yankee”.

The daily column, A Bintel Brif”, was a source of information to guide them in this new world.

Furthermore, as the slogan of the Forward stated: Arbeiter fun allen lender, vereinigten sich- Marx’s slogan, “Workers of all lands, unite”. It served as  the voice of poor workers organizing and gaining the upper hand against oppressive employers in the early years of unionization. In this, Jews , such as Samuel Gompers, led. He went from cigar maker to head of Cigar Maker’s Union to founder of AFL ( later to merge with CIO) ( by the way Union, yes, socialism, no, which remained true of American labor movements over the decades—American unions decided not to kill the goose that lay the golden egg, but to get a bigger piece of the egg).

 This November 1, 1936, magazine section of The Forward illustrates its evolution from a Democratic Socialist publication to a Social Democratic supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal"

Then, too, it was our fellow German Jews, who had become so successful, who were embarrassed by their “Green” brothers and sisters. They could be an existential threat to this well-off segment of American society. That was generally the case for many other ethnic groups, where the ones who made it often left their less successful counterparts to wallow in their troubles.

 However, instead of hiding from them, they realized that the only way they could ever feel secure here, was for their “ landsmen” to move up the ladder as quickly as possible. Thus, they supported “ Settlement houses” to provide tools for advancement for the newcomers.

When I first came to the Jewish Theological Seminary as a new student, I was surprised to find the names of prominent donors whi helped it get started- all  German Reform Jews! They were among the strongest supporters of the new Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary, because they realized that well-educated, Americanized , Rabbis, speaking correct English, a scholar and a gentleman, from a traditional, not Reform  perspective, could serve to “ Americanize” these Jews as well.

Then, there was certainly, the still respected concept of learning for its own sake, so that the Yiddish speaker made sure that his children mastered English and the civilization of this new land. Thus, Jews soon flocked to higher education, such as to City College of New York:

“CCNY's …the 1920s and 1930s, when Jewish students took their place in the line of immigrant communities hungering for higher education. Known for its academic excellence as "the proletarian Harvard," and for its student radicalism as "the little Red schoolhouse," the college had a special meaning for an immigrant Jewish community that was largely denied access to the elite schools of the Protestant establishment. CCNY was a center of leftist intellectual ferment during the 1920s and 1930s, … recalled in the memoirs of Jewish intellectuals like Irving Howe and Alfred Kazin. Other notable alumni: jurist Felix Frankfurter, the financier Bernard Baruch, the medical researcher Jonas Salk, the actor Edward G. Robinson [HTBE President!], Mayor Edward Koch, and General Colin Powell.( He was a Yiddish speaker, after all) ( https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/education/colleges-us/city-university-new-york)

Jews easily stood out:

 A writer in a 1923 edition of the Nation ( a generally liberal-left publication ) put it bluntly: the upwardly mobile Jew “sends his children to college a generation or two sooner than other stocks, and as a result there are in fact more dirty Jews and tactless Jews in college than dirty and tactless Italians, Armenians, or Slovaks.”

 during the early 1900’s... According to one observer: “At every university and college that I have visited, I have heard ungrudging praise of the exceptional ability of the Jewish, especially of the Russian-Jewish, students.” …One comments begrudgingly: “History is full of examples where one race has displaced another by underliving and overworking.”

Francis Russell, came from an old-guard Protestant family and attended Boston Latin School, an elite public high school that sent its best students to Harvard. By 1920 it had become over half Jewish. Writes Russell:

My own background was middle-class, Protestant, non-competitive, like that of most Roxbury Latin boys…

In contrast, Jews:

worked far into each night, their lessons next morning were letter perfect, they took obvious pride in their academic success and talked about it. At the end of each year there were room prizes given for excellency in each subject, and they were openly after them. There was none of the Roxbury solidarity of pupils versus the master. If anyone reciting made a mistake that the master overlooked, twenty hands shot into the air to bring it to his attention.”

 https://www.commentary.org/articles/stephen-steinberg/how-jewish-quotas-began/

Jews fought to excel, and then fought to overcome the entrenched authorities in the major universities who feared the drive to excel.

That drive to excel expressed itself then, in every aspect of the new Jew in America. Rather than allow the mire of the slums and tenements to keep him down, he and she moved out and up with drive and forcefulness.

By the latter half of the 20^th century, the United States was the pre-eminent leader of the western world. By the end, with the fall of the Soviet system, it was the sole pre-eminent leader. This was known as the American Century. The Jew, in America, was uniquely positioned to be at the core of this new America.

The New Entertainment- From Vaudeville to Tin Pan Alley to Hollywood ( and Hollywood Temple Beth El)and radio and television.

The new music- Irving Berlin creating Christmas music, Gershwin creating a Black musical, Porgy and Bess ( with Jewish cantorial riffs in  it) and Rhaphsody in Blue

Full involvement in American government, Senators, Cabinet officials, the so-called” Jewish seat” on the Supreme Court.

Literature: the 20th century "Jewish American novels" by Saul Bellow, J. D. Salinger, Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, Chaim Potok, and Philip Roth. Jews were so dominant in Americas writings and publications that there were even charges of  a Jewish Literary Mafia.( The Literary Mafia, Jews, Publishing, and Postwar American Literature by Josh Lambert )

Academia: Jews became so prevalent at the leading Universities, that the horrid “numerus clausus” of the European Universities began to be implemented, until Jews proved to be too powerful, and the gates were forced open.

The waves of new Jews have kept on coming, refreshing and replacing the earlier waves. In the past ¾ of a century, we have had the second wave, of German Jewish intellectuals who dominated the sciences ( such as Oppenheimer, of the bomb and movie—of course Einstein—but also a successful movie actress who , on the side, developed a method of “ frequency hopping” that made American torpedoes” invisible” against enemy detection. It later became a basis for systems like Bluetooth and Wi-fi! ) psychology and social sciences( Viktor Frankl, Kurt Lewin, Ruth Westeheimer), and the intellectual foment of the 60’s ( Hannah Arendt, Herbert Marcuse) and the uppermost echelon of world affairs- Henry Kissinger. Then, we had the wave  of ultra-Orthodox , both Yeshiva and Chasidic Orthodox, who essentially pushed aside what was normative Orthodoxy, now modern Orthodox, and reinvigorated that wing of the Jewish community. We had the second wave of the Russian Jews, those of the former USSR, far more educated than the Jews that came a century before, and producing, among other things, a “Google”- ( yes, Sergey Brin.) Iranian Jews- also far better off to begin with than the earlier waves , who brought us such an entity as Qualcomm ( computer chips- a Nazarian). Israeli Jews, who brought us Power Rangers and new media moguls ( Chaim Saban) as well as every other building contractor in LA.

Now, the $ 64,000 question—is the American Jewish century winding down, as is the American century? That remains to be seen.