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Harriet Berkal: The Bomb Scare at Shaarey Zedek Synagogue and The Current Wave of Antisemitism

by Harriet Berkal, June 18, 2024

Do you remember your first encounter with antisemitism?

I do, as it was chaotic and filled with panic and mayhem. I’d say I was around 4 or 5 years old at the time. My dad would take me to Shaarey Zedek synagogue with him every Saturday for the bar mitzvahs.

My real motivation secondary, to spending time with Louis Berkal, was the meal, post service.

This was the showcase of the best party sandwiches, deluxe tortes and breaded pickerel. My favourite was the banana layered ecstasy.

So immune to my surrounding as I indulged in a dessert my mom never made, I suddenly noticed Rabbi Aron, still in his black robe, heading to the stage in the reception hall. He grabs the microphone and says in a calm voice that we all must quickly and in an orderly manner exit the building immediately, as the shule received a bomb threat and the Jews inside were in imminent danger. I thought; What’s a BOMB ?? ? Fortunately back then in the early 60’s I had not a clue what all the commotion was.

My father grabbed me whilst finding me at the sweets table and started to carry me outside, where the police explosions division was waiting.

As I heard people screaming and guests clambering for the exit, I noticed several women grabbing their tortes. A bomb must have warranted such action / no ?

We are all gathered outside and depart while the police take matters into their own hands. It turns out there was no explosive, but the call was real. The REACTION was tangible. You could feel the fear in the air.

I reflect back on that incident 50 plus years ago, and it resonates now more than ever.

Five year olds in Israel and in Gaza both know what bombs, missiles, rockets, weapons etc. are. They know what safe rooms are and shelters. How tragic! It obliterates what should be innocent years.

My next encounter with antisemitism was when I attended Ramah Hebrew School. I was a patrol and it was the norm for us to be called dirty Jew, dirty kike, etc. getting nudged by the non Jewish kids from the school across the street. There were some fights that ensued after hours.

But most upsetting were my travels to Dachau Concentration Camp, at the age of 18, during a trip to Europe. I felt compelled to see the places where my brethren were tortured, dehumanized and slaughtered just because they were born Jewish. It made no difference if you were devout or not. The Nazis didn’t differentiate.

My beloved father had fled the pogroms so it felt like my duty to honour those who perished just for being Jewish.

On this expedition which was surreal, I touched the wooden bunks trying to imagine people stuffed together like sardines in a can. Many of them were diseased and were just trying to survive.

The shower room which is where they were gassed, appeared sterile, devoid of any warmth in its cement walls. If one closed one’s eyes you could hear the screams as no water arrived, only the stench of death.

Remember, these are women, young and old, children and babies and men being killed in the name of a pure Arian race. This is ethnic cleansing at its lowest.

The train tracks and area where they arrived dropping off families, was what many first saw after a tortuous ride, if you survived that.

What was even further shocking was how difficult it was to find the camps. The locals weren’t that cooperative, but we got there.

Beside the camp in 1977, was a plastic factory and a playground. Try wrapping your head around that visual. It’s the last place I’d expect to see a playground.

Fast forward to October 7, 2023. The unprovoked assault on innocent Israeli lives and the brutality of that massacre puts humanity into question.

Many feel it is payback as they feel Israel has oppressed the Gazans for decades. Gaza has been unoccupied since 2005.

So here we have the only democracy within the middle eastern region being attached. Hostages are taken and yes a war breaks out as Israel has the right to defend itself.

What is so perplexing is that after October 7, Israel becomes viewed as the “bad guy” in this dimension and there are global chants to free Palestine. From the river to the sea can be heard everyday by herds of the populace around the world justifying the slaughter and butchery of civilians in the kibbutzim plus the vile rape and killing of young people at the Nova music festival.

There is a resounding silence from all the women’s groups. Where is their outcry.

The increase in antisemitism is alarming. Some will not admit that being an anti Zionist can be equated with hating Jews.

They hide behind false statements and accusations that Jews aren’t indigenous to the region, that they are ethnic cleansers, and that Israel is an apartheid state. All of that is completely untrue.

Israel warns civilians before they attack telling them to move. What nation takes precautions like these to save human life.

The hatred indoctrinated in the Islamic world starts at an early age. Maybe even younger than age five when I witnessed a bomb threat.

We know Israelis, Muslims, Christians etc can and do live side by side as neighbors in Israel.

That is the template that proves peaceful cohabitation is possible between these various groups.

So what we are witnessing today is perplexing, it’s scary and alarming but it’s very real. It’s not an apparition. Democracy is on trial here and not just for Israel but for the west.

Never did I think I’d live to see how utterly backwards things have become.

As Rachel Polin Goldberg keeps saying as a message to Hersh her son held in captivity “ stay strong, survive. “


That is what each of us as Jews must do.

Am Israel Chai

 
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