Saturday, August 18, 2007
Making Monsters at Beth Israel
Well, Winston, you missed one. Below is a screen shot showing an even more incriminating (and heartwrenching) photo from part one of their trip photo album and below that is the same photo alone. The child in the center foreground--clothed in red and wearing a white ball cap--is the same child who posed in front of the Israeli armored vehicle, apparently, pointing an imaginary gun. This time he is with an entire group of young children and they are posed in front of a group of armed Israeli soldiers. Weapons are visible on the right sides of the kneeling soldier and the soldier standing second from the left. Rifle shoulder straps are visible on at least three of the other soldiers.
This is what Rabbi Dobrusin and the other leaders at BIC think is appropriate for young children to do on their summer vacation. Here's part of what Dobrusin wrote about the trip:
Through it all, there was the sense that what we were seeing and what we were experiencing had not only a historical dimension but a spiritual dimension as well. ... And through it all, there were the kids. Our group included more than a dozen children who played and sang and hiked and swam their way through Israel, building a stronger connection with the land and laying the foundation for future high school or college trips to deepen their connection with Israel further.Nice little Jewish girls and boys aren't born as monsters, they are turned into monsters by their parents and rabbis, who inculcate in them Judaism's culture of death. Posing children in front of soldiers and their war machines is only part of this process of indoctrination--Jewish holidays such as Passover help make the deaths of others holy, justified, and, in the case of Purim, fun. Of course, not every Jewish child emerges from this process ready to slaughter or cheer on the slaughter of hundreds of people--as Israel did, indiscriminately, in Lebanon just last year--but far too many do.
See also: "Summer Camp Teaches U.S. Teens To Fight Israeli Style" by Chris Hedges on Alternet
Labels: Beth Israel, Israel, Jewish violence, Judaism
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